Chapter 157: 'The Captain’s Big Purchase”

Chapter 157 “The Captain’s Big Purchase”

Duncan was telling the truth — after saying goodbye to Shirley, he actually went to the store near the crossroad to buy Nina a bike.

At the same time, he also managed to tick off a task he’s been putting off for a while due to various reasons: opening a bank account for himself.

Inside the Pland city bank, Duncan was waiting for the clerk at the front desk to prepare the last form for him. The waiting process was boring of course, so he humored himself by paying attention to the surroundings instead.

Perhaps it was because it was a work day, and not many upper and lower city citizens needed to handle business with the bank in general. The small lobby, which was not large in itself, seemed quite deserted, with three of the five service windows idling. The staff in black uniforms were busy chatting behind those unoccupied windows, and the bright electric light shone on the glass counter gave off a lazy and comfortable haloing effect.

Following the light, Duncan’s gaze moved upward and saw long casting pipes protruding out from the counters. They went straight to the ceiling like tiny pillars and extended somewhere to the halls behind the front. He didn’t know what their uses were, but the low rhythmic click from beneath the floor indicated a mechanical device was likely running the whole operation underground.

“After confirming everything is correct, sign with your name and seal at the end. The handling fee is six solas and five pesos.” The clerk confirmed the last item and handed the form back to Duncan while pointing to the last line.

Duncan took the paper and quickly skimmed through the content. He’s no expert in the banking world so it didn’t take long for the muddled lawyer talk to confuse him. After a short and painful read, he signed his name and handed the form back with the fee attached.

The clerk took the form and glanced at it casually. Then putting it into a large punching machine next to herself, she stuffed the document into a metal cylinder she had prepared before throwing it into the pipes.

The sound of metal colliding, the closing of the pipe connections, the hiss of steam pressurization, and the sound of objects sliding rapidly through the tubes promptly reached Duncan’s ears. One of the bent pipes even shook slightly at a bending corner when it slid off to some far-off place.

“Wait a bit,” said the clerk behind the counter casually, “if the steam pipe doesn’t break down today and the machine on the other side happens to be in good condition, you’ll get the receipt in half an hour. But if the blinker next to the pipe lights up, you’ll have to come back tomorrow.”

The man inwardly thought the process was incredible. It may not be very efficient in his eye, but for this world, this could already be called advanced technology due to the limitations they had to work with in the deep sea age. Besides, what’s so bad about waiting? He could eavesdrop on the conversation of the employees, who were chitchatting about various topics not discussed on the streets.

“I heard the Truth Academy is in contact with the head office. Words going around that they’re going to install a new machine to increase the processing efficiency of the head office several times over...” A younger female clerk says.

“That’s called a large sorting machine—the city-state bank in Moco has long been using it. There are a few smaller ones on the side of the tax office and the Institute of Mathematics, but I heard there’s an even bigger one in the main storm cathedral. It’s supposedly very good at sorting the documents inside the archive,” the older clerk sitting across from Duncan mentions to her peers after the topic was brought up. “If you ask me, the sorting machine in the head office should’ve been replaced ages ago. It’s always breaking down and slow.”

“Well, that’s not up to us to decide,” another clerk from an idle service window joined in, “that thing is expensive and bulky. Just counting the steam cores used to support the punching boxes is enough to fill the entire hall here...”

After a moment, he nodded lightly: “Indeed, everything in this world can be polluted except for subspace.”

He then left the bank.

According to the plan, he still has a big purchase to make today – in addition to buying Nina a bicycle, he also has a lot of things on his purchase list that could scare Nina into a mess.

The income from the dagger sold to Mr. Morris, plus the bonus for reporting cultists, added up to a number that’s capable of supporting a family of three in the lower city for two to three years. Since most of the money had not been touched yet, Duncan felt it was time to put them to work.

So for the next half day, Duncan almost swept through every market and shop near the crossroad...

At about four o’clock in the afternoon, in the shadow of an alley near the crossroad, Duncan dropped the luggage with a dunt sound before issuing a long, heaving breath. He’s very satisfied with the mountain of things he bought.

Flour, vegetables, seeds, spices, fresh meats, pickled ingredients, various dried mushrooms, drinks, and cheese~

Edible, normal, cheese that’s younger than him.

In addition, there were even a whole bunch of pots and pans and a lot of things that Duncan thought might be useful.

After transporting these things to the ship, the living environment of the Vanished would surely take a drastic change for the better.

At the very least, the kitchen could produce edible food.

Duncan nodded gleefully and called out: “Ai!”

The sound of fluttering swiftly came from a nearby building, followed by Ai landing firmly on his shoulder.

In the next second, this dove glanced at the things on the ground and exclaimed: “Are you messing with me!”

Before her words could stop ringing in the air, the bird had tilted her head and dropped dead towards the ground. Although Duncan hadn’t said what he intended to do, it’s clear as day to the witty creature.

Duncan just smiled and grabbed the free-falling dove in mid-air: “It’s okay. If once is not enough, you can go for several trips back and forth....”