Chapter 88: Hoarding Is a Punishable Offence
While the girls resumed their training, Aiden used [Supervision] to check on the progress with the traps.
They installed a fence...?
Honestly, it was a shoddy wooden fence. But that wasn’t the point. The fence was unnecessary. Then again, at least it provided a bit of protection to the guard towers that were outside the barrier’s protection.
As for the traps, the girls and men had worked together to make simple spike traps. Neither the fence nor the traps would work against someone like Joan, but the traps weren’t for her either way.
Milarel had already informed Aiden about the little gang Joan had taken over. But he wasn’t worried about them. The enforcers and wolves can deal with them. Instead, he was more interested in the members he had seen at the convenience store.
From what little intel Milarel could get about them, they had been gone for too long. The eunuchs were hopeful for their return so they could avenge their dignity. But with each passing day, that hope was dwindling.
If they are gone for too long, I might lose interest in them.
Whether that was a good thing or not was debatable.
Just as he was about to leave, a sudden scream brought his attention to the other side of the road. Upon teleporting there, Aiden noticed a man writhing on the ground while clutching his right arm.
At a glance, his hand looked like it had been burned, but there was no fire around.
"Lina! What the hell was that?" Glenn screamed, holding a girl by her upper arm.
The scrawny girl looked terrified, her wide eyes were fixed on the man on the ground. A few people grabbed the guy and carried him to the medicare center to get his acid wounds treated.
"I-I didn’t know... I told h-him to be careful—" the girl stammered in shock.
"I don’t care about it!" Glenn yelled, clearly angry at the young girl. "Where did you even get that thing—?"
Before the wolf could keep yelling, Aiden sent him a voice note.
[Bring the girl over.]
Glenn immediately fell quiet. Aiden was unpredictable. That was one reason why Glenn wanted to handle things before Aiden learned about the incident.
However, he failed. Now that Aiden knew about her, there was no saying what he wanted from her. After all, they all remembered what happened to Caleb for far less, and Lina had actually injured another tenant, even if it was an accident.
Within minutes, Glenn and Lina found themselves in the meeting room on the top floor. Lina had always wanted to visit the place, but she hadn’t thought it would be under such circumstances.
As they stepped inside, they saw Aiden chatting with Daniel Cho, the other doctor at the medicare center.
"The skin has burned out by acid," Daniel explained the man’s injuries. "We can only clean the wound and control the spread of the burn. Repairing skin tissues or grafting a new skin is entirely impossible with the resources we have at the moment."
"Alright, do what you can," Aiden nodded, handing Daniel the report back.
Daniel nodded and left. After learning how injured the guy was, Glenn knew Lina was in deep trouble. Shaking his head, Glenn knocked on the door.
"Come in," Aiden said, turning to face them. "Would you mind telling me what happened down there?"
"It was an—" Glenn started, only to stop when Aiden looked at him.
"You can leave."
"Yes, sir!" Glenn nodded and left.
Once he was gone, Aiden repeated his question to the girl.
"Lina, was it?"
"Y-Yes, s-sir!"
Seeing her being all nervous, Aiden gestured for her to take a seat and gave her some water. The girl took a quick sip and placed it back down as if she was scared to drink too much. Aiden didn’t pay any mind to it and waited for the girl to explain.
From her side, the acid ’bomb’ was something she wanted to incorporate in the traps. She asked Glenn about it, and he agreed before leaving to check other traps.
The guy who got burned, wanting to earn brownie points, tried to take the credit along with the ’bomb’. That’s when the gentle membrane containing the acid burst, and the man got burned.
As for why the girl had something like that, the answer was simple.
"So, you’re an Evolver?" Aiden asked.
"Y-Yes. I’m an alchemist and a smithswoman."
System...
[Host, you were looking for combat professionals while selecting enforcers. Hence, the dweller token prioritized people with decent attributes—]
Cut the crap. Tell me how many other evolvers are hiding under my nose.
[...a couple of them.]
Aiden sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.
I’ll deal with you later.
[...]
Aiden then turned his attention toward the girl, taking a moment to look her up and down. The system wasn’t lying entirely. The girl indeed looked pale and weak.
Something is off with her.
While most people from the slum looked weak, they at least had a certain glow to their skin. Lina, on the other hand, still looked like she was living in the slums.
Not to mention, the way she had saved free water was also suspicious. It was as if she were afraid of consuming resources.
"Do you have any family here?" he asked.
"Y-Yes sir! I have a mother and her boyfriend—"
"What are their names?"
"Rebecca Shea and Milo Brar..."
Aiden used [Supervision] to check on them, and sure enough, unlike Lina, the two looked much better. The guy had even gained some weight. In the living room, a lot of supplies had been piled up.
So that’s why she was saving the water.
Aiden had no interest in their family drama. However, he didn’t look kindly upon the freeloaders.
Not only were they hoarding things, but they weren’t working either. Instead, they made the girl work overtime just to use the caps she earned to hoard more supplies.
Isn’t this a problem?
The vending machines were designed so that no one needed to hoard anything. However, if someone started hoarding, the supplies would dwindle, and everyone would start doing the same.
Some might even try to take the items and sell them outside for a quick buck. Perhaps Lina’s family was planning to do the same.
But we can’t have that here.
Aiden quickly designed a mission and told the enforcers to take the supplies away from Lina’s unit. At the same time, he also demoted Rebecca and Milo to drifters and ensured they knew exactly why that happened.
Not only are they hoarding supplies, but they aren’t even helping others lay traps. They are in desperate need of discipline.