Hearing what this stranger said, the 2 guards in casual clothes turned to scrutinize him without much expression on their faces.
They recognized that he was a stranger at a glance, people who lived so close to the dangerous Sahara were different from those in other parts of the world in different ways due to the extreme environment.
{Gold glasses, a gold chain, and a gold wristwatch}- Luxuriously dressed like a terrorist…, {An expression of anticipation and slight fear}- the curiosity universal of all tourists.
{No weapon protrusions in his body, a flat bag with no heavy weapons either}- A naïve tourist looking for some thriller adventure.
{A burly physique but a naïve face}- A lewd tourist training in gyms to get a good physique to attract beautiful girls.
Check! They gave a thump up in their minds.
As they observed him, Clark reciprocated. {The special mechanical hijab}- Dressed like those who frequent the Sahara…, {Expensive Sub-machine exotic guns}- A proper deep expedition company.
{Normal guards but with the vibe only exuded by veterans who already dipped their hands in blood and battle}- A fairly experienced company.
Check! He casually gave a thump up in his mind also, while grudgingly giving one to the greedy taxi driver.
“Yes, sir”. The 2 guards finally answered in a reserved manner and separated, opening up a path big enough for him to pass through.
Clark acted in the manner that was universal of every tourist- curious and always excited. With pretentiously confident footsteps, he walked inside the company with an exaggerated swagger in his steps.
Inside the company was 3 buildings. One of them was enormous, being the main building where most of the activities in the company were done.
The other 2 smaller buildings were the temporary resting lounge of the tourists who came to hire them for deep expeditions inside the Sahara.
Clark would have simply decided to go alone, but that would have been a little suspicious as even soldiers prefer using the locals as the guide due to their familiarity with the desert and its dangers.
Expeditions were one of the main thriving businesses in this city, and lots of companies were already specially made to make things easier for tourists.
Without wasting time, Clark asked the first person that he saw for directions and he was directed towards the biggest building in the company territory.
Getting there, after he laid down his plan for going for a tourism expedition, the beautiful lady who sat at a counter there showed him inside towards another lady who was inside the building.
Clark tried to observe and secretly admire the enormous building. This was normal of some tourists, and he now wanted to act that way.
Amid his secret observation and admiration, he arrived at the lady’s desk.
She gently brushed her brown hair behind her before raising her head on seeing the shadow. Seeing the handsome man before her, a bright smile lit up her face as she introduced sweetly.
“Welcome to the Sand Dune Expedition company, how may I help you?”
“Here comes the hard part”. Clark felt like crying but he steeled his heart to do it, he was not about to let any suspicion fall on him.
He gently placed his hands on the lady’s desk, leaned over slightly before winking at her. “Yeah, I’m here for an expedition adventure beautiful lady”.
“Oh!” She exclaimed in a cringey exaggerated manner, placing her delicate hands to her mouth as she giggled softly.
“Then you came to the right place, pretty boy”.
“Here, take and fill this form”. She handed a form over to him before winking back at him.
Quickly going through the form, Clark was already prepared to be extorted of his money but he was still dumbfounded by what he saw.
[1,150,000 Nirmirian credits for going, 500,000 Nirmirian credits for the sights that would be visited, and 1,000,000 Nirmirian credits for coming back.]
[Total: 2,650,000 Nirmirian credits only.]
“…”
Clark’s eyes nearly bulged and pulled out in shock when he saw the extortionate prices. 1,150,000 Nirmirian credits faintly translated to about 980 thousand to a million Spartan credits.
This meant that for the full expedition, he needed to pay over 2 million Spartan credits for it. Right now, he felt like throwing a punch through this beautiful lady’s face but he held himself back.
From his research before coming, he already knew that all the ladies here were beautiful and would deliberately seduce male tourists to extort them of their money, both for the company and an additional commission for themselves.
This was the same for female tourists, they had male CEO-type handsome attendants who would attend to these tourists.
Turning his head back, he saw the lady smiling back at him in a suggestive flirtatious manner. He hid the irritation and urge to punch her smiling face in his heart before forcing a smile.
“That’s ok by me”.
He leaned closer, and instead of grabbing other inappropriate places like other tourists did he simply grabbed her cheeks and pinched hard.
The lady’s face flushed as her expression became dumbfounded, with a little pain showing. While forcing a smile, she carefully removed her face from his strong grip before explaining things to him amid gently rubbing her aching cheeks.
“Pretty man, 20 tourists are needed for each expedition journey, and right now we only have 8 registered including you”.
“Please, I implore you to wait a minimum of 2 days for the number to be filled”. Her eyes sparkled as she pleaded.
Clark already knew of this so he didn’t make a fuss about it. “Sure”.
As he replied, his hands went forward to pinch her cheeks again but with experience this time, the lady laughed and swiftly dodged his hands.
“There you go, pretty man”.
“Why not pretty boy again?” While lampooning in his mind, Clark laughed, took his bag, and went out of the building after paying the required money.
He felt his heart ache, but he knew that this was necessary.
He could have paid for only going, but that would have easily blown his cover that he was here for something else so he simply bit the bullet and paid in full.
Unlike what was expected of most rich tourists, he didn’t leave to spend the 2 days in any expensive hotel. Shamelessly, he walked towards one of the other 2 buildings in the company.
He showed his registration card and easily got access inside.
Seeing that he already left completely, the female attendant finally had time to rub her aching cheeks properly. She had an expression of grievance, anger, and surprise on her face.
“What type of spoiled brat is it this time?” She grumbled.