Global Awakening: Apocalypse Ender's Chronicle

After training, Sandra rested for some time before she hit the bazaar. Indeed, this place doesn’t feel like some sort of post-apocalyptic market but a lively bazaar, with even a Bard performing on a small stage while collecting donations.

There was also a sprawl of tents and stalls where traders hawked everything like bullets, furniture, food, weapons, shields, and other trinkets.

Sandra then looked around for a while and recognized a few people. Of course, though she knew many of the residents here, she wasn’t really that close to all of them. There was only a small group of people that she had befriended over the past few months.

”Hmm? Is that a new shop?” Sandra muttered as she recalled that there was indeed a new caravan that had arrived. It seemed that she would actually enjoy today’s bazaar.

But as she got closer, she recognized the name of the shop.

’Hess’s Iron Den? It’s not new then… Did she change her tent?’ Sandra thought.

Hess’s Iron Den was the name of the stall… To be exact, the stall was a little more than a reinforced metal cart and it was quite unusual. After all, it was a larger tent before.

Behind it stood the person who owned the shop. Hess was actually a woman whose arms were thicker than most men’s thighs. She already had gray hair tied back in a braid. She didn’t look up as Sandra approached, too busy polishing a set of silver daggers.

”What happened to your previous tent? Right… Please, give me the good stuff,” Sandra said while leaning against the cart. ”AP rounds, incendiary if you’ve got ’em.”

Hess chuckled after hearing this... ”I need an upgrade in my shop too… Anyway, you always ask for the expensive things first. I like that…” She then reached under the counter and slid forward a box of AP rounds with their casings enhanced by Upgrade Stones. Just got these in… I’m sure you’ll like them. They’ve been tested against Armored Giants.”

Sandra picked one up, testing its weight. ”How many for a full crate?”

”For you? Just 180 Zombies Cores… However, if you have those Spirit Stones. This will just cost you 50 Spirit Stones. And don’t even try to haggle—I saw you pocketing those extra mags last week.”

Sandra grinned, unrepentant about what she did…

After all, she realized that she had overpaid before by more than 300 Zombie Cores. It was their first transaction, and she made sure to take those back through other means.

”Fine. Throw in a shoulder belt, and we’ll call it even.”

Hess rolled her eyes but tossed her a reinforced strap lined with bullet loops. ”You’re lucky I like you.”

As Sandra counted out the Spirit Stones, a deep voice came from behind her.

”Hess. You still stocking those Power Cores?”

Sandra then turned to see Tundra, the Bomber. His hands—always gloved—rested on his belt, where a dozen small, spherical devices hung. They were definitely bombs and not just some sort of trinkets.

Hess smirked. ”I always have them. But remember that they’re all rejects… Be careful.”

Indeed, Hess was actually selling Power Cores, but all of them were unusable as they needed to be repaired. After all, instead of powering up your devices, they might explode instead with the damaged Power Cores in her possession.

However, it was different for Tundra since it was actually helping him make stronger explosions with those damaged or broken Power Cores, and the reason was quite obvious.

Tundra nodded as he watched Hess take out the crate filled with broken or damaged Power Cores…

”Perfect.” After seeing this, he finally turned to Sandra.

”Heard you’ve been practicing upside-down shots. Show-off.”

Tundra said as he had actually seen Sandra tumbling around in the air while shooting targets... It was definitely impressive, and he couldn’t help but envy her a bit. Flying was such an overpowered ability in his opinion.

Sandra, on the other hand, just laughed at it.

”I just want to be more useful… We don’t have much aerial defense after all.” Sandra said as she left the stall.

It was still quite early, so Sandra decided to continue looking around since she knew that this peace wouldn’t really last that long.

She knew that sooner or later, Zombie Waves, Vampires, or other enemies could arrive.

After some time, Sandra finally found the area where the new Merchants had placed their stalls… They were all quite common shops for fruits, herbs, and other things, except for a few…

One of them was Jin’s Blessed Items.

After looking around, Sandra realized that it was actually a talisman stall. There were strings of paper charms fluttering in the breeze as she passed by.

Behind the counter was a man who was probably Jin, the owner of the shop. This person had too many rings on his fingers and a habit of clasping his hands every few seconds.

Anyway, Sandra looked at the list of talismans here.

’I thought only Miss Aya could make these things… So others could actually do them as well.’ Sandra thought as she realized that Aya’s talismans might be a lot better considering the fact that the paper and ink on her works were clearer and also, heavier.

Sandra picked up a Wind-Step Talisman. It wasn’t something Aya would sell, so it caught her interest.

The paper felt cool under her fingertips and seemed to be a legitimate product.

”What does it do? How long does this one last?”

Jin jumped slightly, as if surprised she’d spoken.

”T-Ten minutes of enhanced agility, ma’am.”

She arched a brow. ”Ten? Does it have side effects? Also, do you have something that could last longer?”

”Ah! W-Well, this is already the newer version! More refined! Less chance of, uh, spontaneous leg cramps!”

Sandra gave him a flat look.

However, she was curious about this item. After all, once her flight time was over, she had to possess a movement technique to escape quickly while on foot.

She had Three-Meter Jump Skill and Armored Dash, but those two were instantaneous abilities and couldn’t be used repeatedly in battle since they had about 30 seconds of cooldown.

She also had tokens that Shane had given her to use Phantasm Rush but she only had five of those. She doesn’t even want to use it for practice.

”I’ll take three. And throw in that luck charm for free.” Sandra said as she was already used to haggling. As a matter of fact, she knew now that all these sellers would put a higher price almost all the time since they were also expecting hagglers every time.

In any case, before Jin could protest, she’d already pocketed the tiny red charm from the counter. It was only worth 7 Zombie Cores while the three Wind-Step Talismans were 35 Zombie Cores each. They were definitely quite expensive.

Jin sighed.

”You’re worse than Tieria.” He softly said.

Speaking of which—

”Did someone say my name?”

Tieria said as he arrived. His mechanical left then focused on Sandra and nodded. The sniper’s rifle was slung across his back, and there was also a stack of papers in his hand.

Sandra gently nodded at him as she knew him a bit.

”I was just thinking when will you come…” Jin said as he looked at the papers that Tieria brought.

”Liar.” Tieria said as he placed the papers on the counter. ”It’s all high-quality talisman and traded it with Miss Aya… I’m paid now, alright?”

”Y-yes… Thank you, Sir Tieria…” Jin said as he immediately grabbed the Talisman Paper.

Tieria was about to leave when something caught his eye. He then plucked a Hawkeye Talisman from the display. ”This one. How much?”

Jin swallowed. ”F-Five Spirit Stones? It lasts for three hours. That’s the last one I have.”

Tieria dropped the exact amount onto the counter without another word. As he turned to leave, Sandra called after him…

”I heard from Miss Silva… the elf… that you took out a Lurker Zombie at 800 meters a couple of days ago. You’re amazing…”

However, Tieria didn’t stop walking. ”It’s 900. And it was two.”

As soon as Tieria left, Sandra exhaled as she couldn’t help but praise herself for not sounding so nervous just now.

’I can do it if I try…’ She thought to herself.

After some time, Sandra felt tired looking around the marketplace as she found a lot of decent clothes she wanted to wear.

However, although she had a lot of things she wanted to buy, she knew that it wouldn’t be good for her, as she needed to save up her money for more useful things.

After escaping the bazaar, Sandra finally found herself looking at the new Gold Star Café, which was a place that served the rarest commodity in the apocalypse: real coffee.

Sandra pushed inside as the rich aroma of coffee welcomed her....

Unfortunately, at the counter, Bart the Master Brewer was arguing with a supplier over a sack of dark beans.

”I don’t care if it’s ’hard to find’—this batch tastes like burnt tires!”