Chapter 40 02.0040: "Cat Lady Thief"

"There's really nothing we can do about it. It's a pity."

Horatio let out a long breath and took out a thousand-dollar bill given to him by Farida from his pocket. This was also the largest denomination of Gothic currency.

Gothic Coin is the currency issued by the Gothic Star Zone. Its production process uses a large amount of promethium by-products. It feels like a soft polymer product when you pinch it. It is waterproof, moisture-proof and corrosion-resistant. Just wipe off the dirt and it will be as good as new.

But this also means that once a Gothic coin is damaged, it cannot be repaired by conventional means. Any Gothic coin with any cracks is suspected of being a counterfeit and is not recognized by the market.

Due to the important commercial position of Abyss Port, merchant ship owners traveling the starry sea must carry Gothic coins for emergency use. Therefore, Gothic coins have become another important currency in the empire's economic and trade system after "Throne Coins" and "Sky Eagle Coins".

Any moderately prosperous part of the world provides settlement and exchange services for these three currencies.

Horatio was used to mobile payments in ancient Terra, but it felt a little strange that he had to use banknotes again in the 41st millennium.

When Horatio pressed the brand new thousand-dollar bill on the table and pushed it toward the girl, she couldn't help but take a deep breath.

"Oh my God, sir, how could you carry such a large amount of banknotes on you?"

"Ah? What's wrong?"

"You usually only carry such a large denomination of Gothic coins to buy luxury goods in supermarkets in Shangchao. If someone sees you here, your money will be stolen in an instant!"

"Thanks for the reminder. I'll keep an eye on it." Horatio said gratefully.

[Oh my god, people from the upper nest actually come to this place. I thought people in Vegas were all doing their own things.] The girl took the money in surprise and immediately went off the stage, looking around, worried about being seen.

"I don't have that much cash to give you. Please wait a moment while I go in and get the money."

"Ok."

Horatio turned his back and leaned against the bar, drinking his drink and watching the man and the baker driving the truck moving the goods.

"Okay, thank you for your hard work today." The chef in a vest wiped the sweat from his forehead and handed the ordered money to the baker.

A middle-aged woman sitting in the passenger seat of the truck was knitting cross-stitch. Through the window, one could see a number of framed finished products placed in the back, which looked like goods for sale.

Sitting in the back seat was a quiet girl about ten years old. She was wearing a floral dress that was drab but clean, and compared to her mother's clothes, it was rare that it had no patches.

She looked around curiously with her big watery blue-brown eyes, and soon saw Horatio looking at her.

Seeing the young man looking at him, the girl showed an innocent smile on her face and waved to Horatio with the innocence unique to children.

Horatio chuckled and waved back at her.

[The child is the hope of human civilization and has rare heterochromatic eyes. What a lovely little flower.]
But Horatio didn't look for too long, his eyes soon fell on a ball of paper under the car.

That was the money the baker had just collected. Not long after he put it into his pocket, it fell out of his trouser leg. It must be because a hole was worn out in his trouser pocket.

I saw the baker, who had delivered the goods, got into the car and was about to drive away.

Horatio shouted to the baker.

Then he raised his hand and pointed to the ground.

The baker heard the noise and looked over. At first he thought the young man wanted to buy some bread, but when he looked in the direction he pointed, something was wrong! It turned out that the money had fallen. He quickly got off the car and picked up the money as quickly as possible.

He took out a sealed bag of white bread from the car and walked towards Horatio.

"Thank you so much, young man. It's because of your reminder that the child would have no money for medicine otherwise." The baker thanked sincerely, "I don't have anything better to offer. Please accept this bag of white bread."

The baker looked apologetic. The young man looked respectable from his attire, and it seemed a bit cheap to just give him a bag of white bread as a thank you.

But Horatio knew that bread made with pure wheat flour without adding corpse starch was a food that most people in the Middle Nest, even the bakers themselves, would not eat.

As the galactic war escalated, all kinds of flour were placed under military control, with more than 60% of production being supplied first to the imperial army and nobility.

Before Horatio was imprisoned, wheat flour was almost bound to the Upper Nest and was a food that people in the Middle and Lower Nests could not afford. Even the cook bought black bread mixed with some oatmeal.

"Give it to your daughter. She is still young and needs to grow."

Horatio raised his hand to decline.

"Sir, although I am not well educated, I still understand the principle of repaying kindness. Please accept it." "Really, I have enough food." Horatio declined.

[I'm going to enter the Loyalty Academy tomorrow, so I don't need any more.] This was what Horatio really thought, but he didn't want to scare the baker, so he kept it to himself.

As the two were pushing each other, Horatio felt someone touch him.

[!] Horatio's eyes suddenly opened and he subconsciously reached for his pocket.

[Thief!]
Horatio nimbly grabbed the gray robe that passed by him.

The thin figure hidden by the gray and black smock was startled, and he did not expect that the young man in front of him would be so perceptive.

"Look out, boy!" the baker yelled.

Half of his young, frightened face was revealed under the gray robe, and the knife in his hand, which he used to cut open his pocket, instinctively cut towards Horatio's hand that was holding him.

Before the sharp knife cut the back of his hand, Horatio had to let go, and the thief took the opportunity to escape in a panic, moving quickly.

But Horatio was not an ordinary man. He pounced forward swiftly, grabbed the little hand holding the knife with one hand, and pinned the other person to the ground in an instant.

"I caught you, give me back my money! You little thief!" Horatio took the delicate knife from the girl's hand and pressed her to the ground.

"Gah!" The thief made a sound that was not like a human.

Her resistance was quite fierce and her nails were very sharp. Her random scratching made Horatio unable to dodge and left a shallow cut on his cheek.

But with his rich experience in grappling, he quickly subdued the skinny thief and pressed him down with his knees.

Horatio pulled off the other's gray robe, revealing his true face, and he was stunned for a moment.

Because this guy is not a purebred human.

The being pinned beneath him was a female half-cat hybrid, her pupils transformed into narrow vertical slits due to stress.

This creature is a sub-human species, and it is said that the cat-people of the past were really just a kind of upright giant cat in humanoid form, just like Bastetto in the Egyptian mythology of Ancient Terra.

But after being recognized and becoming legal demi-humans of the empire, there are always "warriors" among humans who dare to be the first to take the plunge.

The result is that after generations of interbreeding, the Empire now has populations of half-cats, such as the one Horatio is standing before him.

Apart from her ears and tail, and a few cat-people features, she looked like an ordinary human girl, not much different from herself in appearance - this was also the assimilation policy encouraged by the Empire.

But the terrified growl, the pupils shrunk into slits, and the burning pain on his face made Horatio quickly realize that sub-humans are sub-humans after all. If a human being was devastated by life and became so thin, he would never have the strength to hurt himself.

Seeing that the half-cat girl was still scratching around, Horatio twisted her arm with his backhand.

"Ah! Ouch—it hurts!" The half-cat girl finally uttered a human cry.

"Can you be more obedient?" Horatio loosened his knee that was pressing down on the girl.

"Woo--" The half-cat girl's face was pressed to the ground, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes.

"Officer, this is it!" The slightly plump baker called the Nest City bailiff breathlessly, and the chef's daughter also rushed over.

Seeing this, Horatio moved away from the girl.

A group of marshals surrounded the half-cat girl, leaving her with no way to escape.

Facing the stick, the girl sat up and looked around in panic.

It was also at this moment that Horatio saw her face clearly through the light shining on her face.

Her eyes were larger than humans' and very clear and bright, reflecting light like a pair of dazzling twin stars in the dark sky.

But other than that, the cat girl's face was gray, her cheeks were thin and sunken, and her cheekbones were prominent, just like any Downnesider struggling on the border between life and death.

Her hair, or rather fur, was dry and sparse, like the hay in late autumn. Perhaps it had once been lush and smooth, but now it couldn't even cover the tips of the two ears on top of her head.

Her body was in a horrible state, and it couldn't even hold up the robe that barely covered her body. Judging from the feeling during the fight just now, Horatio even suspected that there was only a pile of dry bones that had not been completely eaten under this patchwork robe made of raw materials from nowhere.

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(End of this chapter)