Even in daylight, the city still felt strange to him. From the front seat, Neo watched the streets slide past outside the window while Richards drove with that same loose ease that never quite fit the man in his head.
Somewhere along the way, Neo asked about the price of a phone, then about the sword, and the answers only widened the distance between this place and Zone 0. Four hundred Creds for a decent phone. Two thousand for a common Soul Relic. Soul Cores could go for far more depending on rank and rarity. Neo said little after that. The numbers had already done enough, and by the time the car turned into a commercial district, one thought had settled in his mind with ugly clarity: if things this expensive existed within reach, he was not going to spend the rest of his life staring up at them from below.
Richards parked in front of a large mall and led him straight into a phone store. The process moved quickly. He spoke to the clerk, chose something decent without wasting time, paid for it, added his own number, and handed the device over.
"There," he said. "Now if you need something, call me."
"Don't get lost."
Richards left after that, disappearing into the crowd with the ease of someone who belonged in places like this.
Neo stayed where he was for a moment, the phone still in his hand.
People passed around him without paying attention. Conversations overlapped. Lights reflected off the polished floor. It should not have felt like such a different world. It did anyway.
Then he slipped the phone away, remembered the shop Richards had told him about, and started walking.
The deeper he went into the mall, the clearer the thought became.
Compared to where he came from, this place may as well have belonged to another world.
The shop was on the upper floor, set deeper into a quieter section of the mall where the stores looked less interested in pulling people inside and more interested in making sure the right kind of customer entered in the first place.
Neo noticed that before he even stepped through the door.
The place looked official in a way that was hard to miss. There was security near the entrance. The counters were spaced out with enough room between them that no one had to lean over another customer's business. The staff wore dark uniforms and spoke in low voices.
A few people were already waiting in line. One had a case in his hands. Another was holding a cloth-wrapped bundle. Someone farther ahead had what looked like part of a weapon laid out on the counter while an employee examined it through a thin lens.
Neo slowed only enough to take it in, then joined the line.
This was the kind of place that would remember faces. That alone made him dislike it a little.
Still, if Richards trusted it, then it was probably the best option for now.
He stayed quiet, scanning the room once more from habit than curiosity.
And then he saw him.
Snot.
He was standing farther ahead in the queue, one hand in his pocket, the other holding a small box while rocking lightly on his heels as if waiting in place was already too much effort for him. Even here, in a store full of careful voices and expensive transactions, he somehow looked like the least fitting thing in the room.
Neo had just enough time to register that before Snot turned his head, spotted him, and lit up like he had found a long-lost brother in the middle of a battlefield.
"Neo!"
The shout cut across the whole store.
Several people looked over at once.
Neo felt the irritation hit immediately. Neo checked the room on instinct, catching the brief attention he never wanted in places like this. One of the employees glanced up from the counter. A woman near the back turned her head. Even the guard at the entrance looked over.
Snot, oblivious to all of it, raised his hand and grinned. "Over here!"
Neo moved toward him right away, more to stop him from saying anything else than because he actually wanted to.
When he reached him, his voice came out low. "Did you really have to yell?"
Snot blinked. "I saw you."
"I noticed."
Snot looked at him, clearly not seeing the problem, then shrugged. "What? It's not like I told the whole store your life story."
He lowered his voice even further. "Then don't make it a habit."
Snot held his gaze for a second before letting out a quiet laugh. "You really hate attention that much?"
"Yes."
The answer came so fast that Snot looked even more amused.
The line moved forward a little, and Snot stepped with it, still glancing back at Neo like he had just found something unexpectedly funny.
Neo, on the other hand, was still irritated.
He had come here to sell a relic, get in, and leave.
Instead, the first person he ran into was the loudest one from the entire group.