The day had come to an end, but he had already gained over 5 stat points in total. He imagined that after staying here for a while, he would be ready to face Midwak again.
The workers were to stay on-site in the factory. There was a dorm building that was built onto the side of the factory, and it could only be accessed from the inside. There were even strict guards standing on the outside.
Before they were allowed to enter the dorms, everyone was searched to see if they had anything else on them other than their personal belongings. Then they were finally let into their rooms.
The rooms were shared by six people. There were mattresses laid out on the floor with all the basic necessities, and then there were toilets at the end of the hallway, including the showers. In each of the rooms, there was one cooking area that they were all to share, but no place to eat other than the floor.
The older men immediately started cooking, and the smell wafted into Gary's nose, making his stomach rumble loudly.
"It looks like someone is hungry," Earny said. "Did you forget to bring some food?"
"I worked harder than I thought," Gary answered. Although the rocks gave him strength and a rise in energy, they still weren't a replacement for real food.
"I'll share some of mine with you," Earny said.
"Hey, hey, are you sure you're going to be okay?" another man said. "You have your own family to pay for as well. You can't keep helping out strangers."
"It's okay. I have a son who is probably only a little younger than them," Earny said, and everyone had a look on their face as if they had heard this story before. "We know how much you love your son, Earny, which is why we're telling you that you should eat as well."
Earny was busy cooking away, and it looked like he was making some type of noodles. Both Elijah and Gary were at the back of the room, staying out of the way, as it looked like they had it sorted and under control.
"You better pay that man back tenfold for giving you some of his food," Elijah said.
"What do you mean?" Gary replied.
"Can't you tell by their conversations? They're giving you part of what little they have," Elijah explained. "This isn't like other cities where maybe you can order food and it will get delivered to you. Next to no one can offer that here.
"So they have to buy and cook all the ingredients themselves, but even then, working in this factory, most likely the pay they get will only be enough to cover one person. But as you heard, they all have families, so the money they get goes to raising others. Which is why they barely have enough food for themselves. Did you not wonder why, when they work so hard in this type of job, their body frames are so small, unlike yours?
“This is life for the average person in a Tier-4. I don’t know what you're doing here, but the one thing I want you to be is thankful for those who help you out.”
Elijah had given up on finding out who Gary was. It seemed like in this city, he was a nobody, so perhaps he was just trying to see what a Tier-4 city was like.
The food was set out on the table, and the old man from his large bowl had poured the noodles into two separate bowls, making his size extremely small. When Gary looked at his bowl, Earny had clearly given him even more than he had, and Elijah's words were starting to hit him somewhat.
“Earny,” Gary said, looking at the bowl of soup with his head down. “Why, when you guys don’t have much food, why are you giving me some? We've only known each other for one day?”
Earny smiled as he looked at everyone else at the table.
“Isn't it natural to help each other out? We are all in the same situation, and we should at least be able to eat together. For me, because you are here, I will treat you no less than like family, so how could I let a family member go hungry on the first day?”
Gary's heart sank at the old man's kindness, but he didn’t want to show it as he pulled his face away and gulped down the lump that was in his throat.
“Well said, Earny! We won’t let you go hungry either!”
The other men eating their meals each went ahead and put part of their food in Earny's, Gary's, and Elijah's bowls, filling them up as they ate a little less for themselves that day.
Gary ate the meal as slowly as he had ever done before. It hadn't filled his stomach, but for some reason, it felt very fulfilling.
After eating the meal, joking and laughing, listening to others telling stories, and Earny talking about his son all night, it was time to go to bed. They were exhausted from working all day, meanwhile, Gary was still up next to Elijah in the corner.
ραΠdαsΝοvεl.cοm He was on his phone. He wanted to check if Austin was okay, and he had a few texts from others as well during the meal.
[Hey, I heard you lost or broke your phone, you idiot. So here's my number, it's Kai. Contact me if you need anything, and update me on the situation if it gets a bit hairy.]
Thankfully, although Gary didn’t know their numbers, they all still had his, so now he could at least contact Austin and Kai when needed.
“Hey, Elijah,” Gary whispered. “Do you think this place could change?”
“What do you mean? Anything can change. It's just that people have to take action rather than just saying things,” Elijah commented.
“Well, do you think these guys, do you think this city could change to the point where they no longer have to worry about food?” Gary asked.
Elijah nearly laughed out loud hearing that.
“I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were thinking like that. This city, and the people inside it, have been abandoned by everyone. The White Rose has other matters and cares more about the bigger cities where the bigwigs are. They won't get involved in this.
“The local government here, they might as well not exist as everything is controlled by the gangs. So, who is going to help them? The people, will they rise and try to revolt? The gangs who have the power and those behind them will just knock them back down.
“Do you think they don’t have the food to feed the people? Do you know how much money is being made from these minerals we are mining? The reason why they do this is because they want to keep them alive but not strong enough for them to fight back. So who’s going to help them, another gang? They will just do the same.”
From the few conversations Gary had with Elijah, he could tell that he was a smart person, which is why he had asked him that question, and from it, he had gotten the answer he needed.
He had already thought about doing this before, as the crystals would be beneficial to their group, but now that he could help out a bunch of people as well, that would just be a bonus.
Gary started to write away on his phone, sending out a message.
[Kai, I need your help. I wanted to know if we have enough funds to buy a factory in this city I’m in.]
*****
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