Chapter 1550: Backstory
Ning sold his first batch of Dust, earning 400 thousand Jiubels in a single transaction. He left the place with Jay, separating from him sometime later.
He made sure he wasn’t followed and finally returned to his place. Once home, he checked his account and saw nearly 20 times more Jiubels in his account than what he had until now.
This was an impressive earning, one that could easily make him the richest man here if he was of that mind.
However, since his main task was something else, he had other plans with the Dust he was making.
‘Now, if I just meet Cenn,’ Ning thought. But that wouldn’t be where it ended. From what he learned, these people were just the distributors. There was a different supplier out there who wouldn’t show his face until he knew it was safe to do so.
Ning had to get that group for Dust to finally stop being made. He spent the night making some more plans before finally going to bed.
The next morning, he went to meet Katie again, having breakfast with her.
He didn’t explain to her what he was doing exactly, but he did tell her that he had managed to get in.
“How did you do it?” she asked.
“I’ll tell you once everything is over,” he said. “How are you holding up with the drug?”
“Good enough,” Katie answered. “I still feel horrible. I sometimes put my hand forward, thinking I can create air. But then, reality settles in. I’m not suicidal anymore, so that’s good, but finding what worth I could be to the cities is still not something I can think about.”
“The city will know your worth soon enough,” Ning said. “It doesn’t matter that you have lost your powers. There are still a lot of things that need a person to look after. You can gain training in those things.”
“Like what?” she asked.
“See how people who have never touched Spark are living. There are so many things they do, that you can do too,” Ning said.
“But people who can use Spark can do it better.”
“Can they cook better?” Ning asked. “Can they design new things to be sold? Are they good at management? What about just helping out old people in general? They can’t do that.”
Katie smiled a little. “I suppose you aren’t wrong,” she said. “But it’s still hard to think that I can be of much use.”
Ning sighed. “Have you talked to your superior yet?” he asked.
“I haven’t,” she said. “I’m waiting for the message to call me in.”
“Go and talk to them today. Don’t wait for a call. Demand to learn what you will be doing going forward. The best way to keep your mind occupied is to do some work. Even as a Cadet, you will be doing a lot, I promise you.”
Katie nodded. “I… I will do that then,” she said. “Thank you for the advice.”
Ning smiled. “Anyway, I gotta go. I’ll return later, and when I do, I hope to see you with a job you can go to starting tomorrow.”
Katie smiled. “I won’t disappoint you.”
Ning left Katie’s house, going to the cafe again. He found Jay waiting for him on one side of the cafe, and quickly called Ning over as soon as he arrived.
“This is the person I told you about,” Jay said to the person sitting next to him.
Ning looked at the man and it was a short, bald man with a resting angry face. “You must be Cenn,” he said, reaching for a handshake.
The man was surprised. “How do you know my name?” he asked.
“Jay here talked about you yesterday. I assumed you would be the same Cenn and turns out I was right,” Ning said. He sat down on the empty chair and quickly called over one of the staff for a cup of tea.
“I heard you are quite the individual,” the man said. “You can create Dust out of nothing.”
“Not out of nothing. That is impossible. I can create Dust out of something. I just need some matter and a bit of Spark to do so,” Ning said.
“How did you learn how to make Dust?” Cenn asked.
“I trained for it,” Ning said simply.
The two men looked at Ning with a weird look on their faces. “You learned for it?” one of them asked.
“Yes,” Ning said.
“Why?”
Ning sighed. “Do you know how much a Cadet earns?” he asked. He looked at both of them for an answer.
“700 Jiubels a week,” Ning answered, seeing as though they were not going to talk. “700 Jiubels a week, about 3000 Jiubels a month. Spend some of it on Spark, a bit here, a bit there, and you’re left with maybe 1000 Jiubels by the end of it.”
“I was in the Military for 8 months, and I only managed to gather a total of 12000 Jiubels at most. I was frustrated and angry. I worked so hard, just as hard as those Officers and Chief Officers, and I barely got a fraction of what they got.”
The two didn’t say anything.
“Mind you, this was back when I was trying to gain my powers and didn’t yet have it,” Ning said. “So I got depressed. And I fell into the habit of doing Dust.”
“You did Dust?” Jay asked.
“I did,” Ning said. “I wanted to get away from my own sadness, so I did Dust. Doing Dust helped me enjoy the little time I had free to myself. At some point, I did it so much that one day, I accidentally did Spark instead of Dust, and realized I now had power.”
“But, I was looking for Dust back then, so I desperately wanted some more of it, and as if my wish was granted, the vial on my hand turned into Dust.”
“I was so surprised when it happened. I thought I was hallucinating. However, when I tried it the next day, I realized I could do it. I did it again and again, and by the end of it, I had managed to learn how to create Dust using my power.”
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