Money Procurement 2

"Thanks, boss. Here's a tip." I thanked the taxi driver and handed over a total of 220 LMD; the extra 20 was a tip.

"Thank you." The taxi driver, who had fluffy wolf ears upon closer inspection, thanked me and swiftly left.

Leaving that aside, I turned my attention to the dense and decrepit slums of Lungmen. The difference was night and day compared to the inner city of Lungmen.

"Such a glorious city hides such a dark secret," Zhongli murmured as he observed the surroundings.

"No, it's not hidden, seeing how easy it was to get here," I replied.

As we walked around the slums, the scene of rotten corpses made Rimuru and Jinwoo gag a few times. I didn't blame them; the smell was somehow worse than sewer goo.

"Let's quickly find our target and leave this place," Rimuru said as he frowned at our surroundings. This was the deepest part of the slum, so we got the worst of it.

I didn't know why I felt so surprised when having somewhat normal human interactions with the group. I guess my expectations for interactions were lowered by a certain rude system.

I hope the system can't read minds.

"So, who will be our target?" Jinwoo asked.

"Alright, our target is… How about a leader Sarkaz mercenary? The bounty reward is- 750K LMD!!" I checked my phone with my eyeballs popping out at the top bounty.

The reward money was triple what I had on hand right now! If we capture this guy alive, then the quest will be completed in no time!

"If the price is so high, it must mean this mercenary is highly dangerous." Zhongli reasoned, bringing me back to reality.

"True, but this is still too tempting. Let's stick together and patrol the slums for now. Hopefully, we can catch this big fish. If not, then we can always try for easier targets." I replied as I put my phone away.

First, we tried asking some locals. However, after we mentioned the LGD, we were kicked from the district with all sorts of things thrown at us. I guess the LGD wasn't particularly popular.

As we continued our search around the slums, which was strangely empty, we happened to chance upon a group of weirdly dressed individuals armed with swords and crossbows.

"Hey, let's ask those guys in the white uniform. They might be slum patrol or something like that." Rimuru said as he pointed at the group of armed men in full white.

We nodded and approached the armed men, who were gathered in a circle discussing something. It felt a bit off, but people in uniform are usually good, right?

"Hey! Could you help us with something?" I shouted from a distance, catching the attention of the group. Sadly, instead of a standard reply, I was greeted with crossbows and swords pointed at my head. These people weren't very friendly.

"Woah there, calm down!" I tried to de-escalate, raising both of my arms to show that I wasn't a threat.

"Who are you?" One of the men who wielded a blade asked.

"We just want to ask if you've seen this guy," I said, pulling out my phone and pointing at a photo of a tall horned man in all black.

"Answer my question." The man harshly shouted, waving his blade towards me.

Were government officials usually this rude? Or rather, are they even government workers?

"I'm… uh, a bounty hunter?" I nervously replied. Amnesia is being a bitch again.

"Are you an infected?" Another one of the men asked, increasingly aggravated. Perhaps I should've replied with my name and a normal-sounding job title.

Also, they have so many damn questions. What is this, a game show? Actually, interrogation would be a more fitting word. I'm starting to think that this interaction is a minor mistake.

"Infected with what?" Rimuru asked, tilting his head as I was about to ask the same thing.

"Are you an idiot? You must be one of the non-infected, always ignorant of our suffering. It is our job as a Reunion to purge privileged people like you!" A blade Reunion member shouted, prompting the other Reunion members to charge at us. This is one of those times my Sankta privilege card harms me instead of helping me, isn't it?

Anyways, it's confirmed they weren't government workers; they were just a group of racists, or rather, classists?

"Shit, quickly duck! Incoming arrows!" I turned around and shouted as the Reunion crossbowmen began to rain arrows. I quickly rolled into a nearby alleyway. Don't say it.

I quickly looked around for the other group chat members. Zhongli was tanking the arrows with a weird holographic rock shield. Rimuru, on the other hand, was in his slime form and… Eating the arrows? What the fuck.

As the only other normal person, Jinwoo was also in the alleyway with me.

I quickly pulled out my gun and aimed it at the Reunion members.

*bang* *bang* bang*

I missed a few shots at first, but after instinctually adjusting to the recoil, I managed to knock out a Reunion crossbowman with my surprisingly effective rubber bullets.

I turned to Rimuru, who had just finished his dinner, transforming back into a human and shooting black lightning at the charging reunion members, knocking a few out. Zhongli also pulled out his polearm and launched the spear at a nearby Reunion member, severely wounding him.

After half of the Reunion members were defeated, they swiftly retreated, leaving behind their comrades. Luckily, nobody was injured.

"Well shit, I certainly didn't expect that. This should hopefully count as self-defence," I wryly chuckled. There were more troublesome things in this world than expected. I could use some stress-relieving.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't do anything to help," Jinwoo sighed after we gathered back up from the fight. It made sense that he couldn't contribute since we decimated them in seconds.

"It's fine! You can be emotional support," Rimuru replied, trying to cheer Jinwoo up. Unfortunately, it had the opposite effect.

"Strength isn't always the decisive factor. You may have a talent that can come in handy in the future. Value yourself more." Zhongli wisely said, rubbing his chin. Was this guy an old sage hiding behind a youthful appearance? Well, whatever it is, he seemed to somewhat heal Jinwoo.

"Thank you." Jinwoo meekly scratched the back of his head as he took Zhongi's advice to heart.

"It's afternoon now. Perhaps we should head out for some food." I noted after checking my watch.

"How about we walk back? Saves us money, and we can search for bounty targets on the way as well." Jinwoo suggested. Good idea, we haven't even caught wind of a single bounty target yet. Perhaps we might strike gold on the way.

"Alright, that sounds like a plan!" Rimuru added as he excitedly waltzed away. However, it didn't even take a second before he came to a stop and turned around with a tint of embarrassment, "Clukay, do you know the way back?"

"I can use a navigation app, but the slums have no signal." I waved my phone with some disappointment.

"If we walk in a general direction, we'll eventually reach somewhere with signal," Zhongli said as he began to walk down the road.

"Let's go," Zhongli urged after he realised we were just staring at him and not moving.

Without a better option, we reluctantly followed Zhongli and hoped that we could reach a place with a signal by the end of the night.

"Hmm~ hey, Clukay. If you don't mind me asking, when did you lose your memory?" Rimuru asked as we walked towards the better-looking parts of the slum.

"In an alleyway yesterday," I replied as I pulled out my phone to check my contact list.

"Really?!" Rimuru exclaimed with a shocked expression. The other two also had their eyebrows raised in surprise.

I nodded as confirmation and switched from my contact list to my photo gallery. The phone's contact list had a few numbers that may be useful to contact in the future, but the gallery lacked any useful photos since all of them were food-related. Was I a glutton before losing my memories?

*BOOM*

Just as I was about to utter another sigh, a loud explosion in the distance followed by the collapse of a building almost made me drop my phone. That would've been quite a bill since it looked brand new.

"What the fuck?!" I shouted, looking at the massive pile of dust a few blocks down towards where we were headed.

"Solidify!" Zhongli shouted, summoning a transparent shield of rocks orbiting him.

I also pulled out my assault rifle and prepared for combat.

"I think it would be a brilliant idea to just… walk around that. I hope we can avoid more trouble than needed." I said.

*BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM*

"True, but this might be a good lead to a bounty," Zhongli muttered as several more explosions sounded in the background.

"Perhaps, but-" Just as I was about to rebuke Zhongli, Rimuru interrupted with a shout, "Wait! Those trucks in the explosion are marked with LGD!"

I didn't know how he could see it from that far away, but this newfound fact gave me an idea. This might be worth the risk if we could reap something from the LGD.

Plus, anyone attacking the LGD must have a good bounty on their heads.