Feeling Bianka flinch, Siegfried said nothing, but silently raised his hand and gently rested it on her shoulder.
Given his height, he only had to lift his hand slightly to reach her shoulder, so it didn't look intentional, more like a casual gesture.
But in reality, to any onlooker, it appeared as though Siegfried was holding Bianka protectively close, which, ironically, made people look at her even more.
After all, Siegfried's shock of white hair was well-known in this city. Who didn't know there was a Kaslana in town?
The vast majority of people in the City of Sighs had come here out of necessity. They had no great ambitions, only the desire to live, the plea to wake up in their beds each morning.
So they detested chaos and loathed crime. But this was, after all, the City of Sighs. Even after the large-scale "disinfection" and the near-total replacement of its population, it remained a paradise for criminals.
Contraband was everywhere, along with various drugs that promised a life of hedonistic oblivion... This place was like a gold mine; you could find anything here except water.
Including certain internationally regulated tactical weapons.
"One small nuclear bomb! Only five tons of purified water! Only five tons of purified water!"
"Future City model mechanical limbs! Starting at three bottles of purified water!"
"Carbonated drinks! Unopened Homu sodas! One bottle of water for four!"
They had apparently arrived at a shopping street. The wide road was lined with all sorts of crude stalls. People of all kinds sat or stood on either side.
They either shouted at the top of their lungs, hawking their wares to every passerby, or set up a looping loudspeaker to frantically attract customers.
The sand bandits and the truck had already split off from Siegfried and Bianka. They had to deliver the cargo and report on the situation outside. Since Siegfried was injured, he let them go while he went home to rest.
Another day of successfully dodging a boring report!
Siegfried once again marveled at his own intelligence, which he considered on par with a certain blue-haired, bed-headed individual from Future City who would only rest his hands on the table, fingers interlaced, and roll his eyes at him.
To Bianka, this place was somewhat similar to the shops on the tenth underground level of the Fire MOTHs, but the people here were far more raucous.
The sounds of hawking and haggling overlapped, putting a strain on Bianka's superhuman hearing.
She shrank closer, looking like a sheltered little princess experiencing such a wild scene for the first time, clinging to the one person she could trust.
In her arms, Stan just licked the fur on his paws with some irritation. His pupils, constantly shifting between slender slits and almond shapes, scanned every person who passed them with equal disdain.
Should I make a move? Kill all these humans? No, the boss hasn't moved yet, so I definitely can't. No matter how unbearable it is, I have to endure it for the boss.
Thinking this, Stan couldn't help but look at his boss with admiration.
As expected of the boss he had chosen. To remain so calm amongst so many humans, and even put on such a performance... Humans called this acting, right?
To maintain such a seamless disguise in the face of so many temptations, and even use it to feign a look of worry and fear!
Stan had seen this look before. The only human he had encountered since his birth had shown this exact expression upon seeing his true form. He had just been born then, his internal programming not yet fully loaded, so he had watched the entire process of that human's fear turning into flight.
The boss's acting was simply flawless!
"Hiss... These people really dare to sell anything..." Siegfried's head snapped around the moment he heard "small nuclear bomb." Just one glance, and a pained sound escaped his lips.
Was that thing, casually displayed on the stall, the real deal?! Which city exploration team had dug up this old antique from the previous era?
The guy selling the nuke was a character, too. Just leaving it out in the middle of a crowd, even prodding it from time to time. Was he not afraid of it going off?
Well, he probably shouldn't be. Detonating these things was quite difficult. It wasn't like the guerilla-friendly principles of certain Shenzhou military factories: "Long cannon can fire, short cannon can fire, no cannon can light a fire and it'll fire, no cannon and no fire can be thrown on the ground and it'll explode."
Siegfried shuddered, forcing himself to look away.
He couldn't look anymore. If he did, he'd be tempted. This was a mission; he hadn't brought any money, and his water canteen had been lost in the fight.
"Water thief!" Just then, a mournful cry came from ahead. The crowd stirred, quickly pushing to the sides, clearing a wide path down the once-congested road.
The commotion here was not something to be taken lightly. If you stood in the way, you really could be cut down without a second thought!
In an instant, the only ones left in the road were a burly man carrying a barrel of water, half of his body made of mechanical limbs, and a young woman who had thrown caution and dignity to the wind, desperately clinging to his leg.
Seeing that he was exposed, the burly man grew anxious and tried to leave, but after two steps, he found the appendage on his leg was too heavy. And she was clinging to his real leg, not the mechanical one.
"Let go!" he growled, looking down.
The young woman looked up, her face a mask of defiance. "No!"
"I didn't steal your water!" Veins bulged on the man's forehead. The crowd's attention shifted to a young man sitting nearby, his face pale as if he were suffering from some terminal illness, looking like he might cough up blood into a handkerchief at any second.
"That's still bullying!" the young woman insisted, her grip on the man's pant leg unyielding.
"You—!" The burly man almost fainted from frustration. He truly hadn't expected to find a do-gooding blockhead in a place like this.
Who taught her to be like this?!
The next moment, a vicious expression appeared on the man's face. His mechanical hand flipped over, and a shining dagger replaced his original palm, appearing before the crowd.
The young woman's eyes widened. "Even if you stab a hole in me, I won't let..."
The dagger suddenly popped open, transforming into a multitude of blades like a Swiss army knife.
The young woman's voice faltered, then turned into a quiet mumble. "Even... even if you turn me into a hornet's nest, I..."
"Bzzzz—"
The blades began to spin, becoming a menacing circular saw.
The girl: "..."
"Hiss, can we talk this over?" The blue-ponytail girl offered the burly man a somewhat awkward smile. "If not, I can sing a song as an apology?"