"You really do love coats…"
After accompanying Kafka and the others on a massive shopping spree, Su Ran was genuinely shocked by Kafka's obsession with collecting coats.
Whether it was Serval or the Tsaritsa, both of them only bought a few new outfits.
And even then, they exercised quite a bit of restraint.
It almost felt like they were intentionally trying to save Su Ran money.
He had also bought Clara plenty of clothes.
But Kafka's fixation on collecting coats truly lived up to the rumors.
She barely bought any normal clothing.
Yet by now, she had already purchased over twenty coats.
"What's wrong? Feeling heartbroken over the spending?"
Kafka smiled faintly.
This entire shopping trip had been paid for with Su Ran's money, after all.
And the coats she bought definitely weren't cheap.
"It's not even my money. What's there to feel bad about?"
His phone had been conveniently "borrowed" from one of Herta's puppets.
Even the account linked to it belonged to Herta.
So from beginning to end, he hadn't spent a single credit of his own.
Why would he feel guilty?
Spending someone else's money carried zero psychological burden for him.
Especially when that someone was Herta.
Herta's money really was easy to spend~
"It's not yours? Then is it Asta's?"
Kafka knew very well just how absurdly rich Asta was.
If it were her footing the bill, then it made perfect sense why Su Ran didn't care about the spending at all.
"It's Herta's."
"What's the difference between Herta's money and Asta's money?"
"There is one difference."
"The bill gets sent to Herta, not Asta."
All the credits spent were deducted directly from Herta's account.
And once the savings account ran dry, it simply charged the credit account instead.
By the time Herta woke up, she'd probably discover she had suddenly accumulated over a million credits' worth of expenses.
Though according to universal time standards—
She had likely already seen the nonstop stream of spending notifications on her phone by now.
However, because Asta always handled cleanup duty in the end, Herta probably didn't bother checking the bills too carefully.
And in fact—
That was exactly the case.
After glancing through the messages once or twice and realizing there were too many, Herta simply muted the notifications entirely.
After all, it was only a trivial amount of money.
If he wanted to spend it, then let him spend it.
It wasn't like she lacked funds.
At this point, Su Ran's total spending still didn't even compare to one of Herta's ordinary online shopping sessions.
There were simply more transactions.
"You and Herta really are close."
Even Kafka found this situation ridiculous.
Herta was a Genius famous throughout the cosmos.
And her arrogant personality was equally infamous.
Yet somehow, this famously prideful Genius was allowing another Genius to recklessly spend her money.
That in itself was absurd.
Before this, no one had ever heard of Herta spending money on another person.
Su Ran was the first exception.
"Of course. I'm carrying her hard. She should be grateful."
The Xianzhou had no shortage of clothing stores.
Unfortunately, most of them specialized in local Xianzhou styles.
Foreign fashion was relatively rare.
And among everyone Su Ran brought along—
Only he himself possessed features resembling a Xianzhou native.
As a result, he was often mistaken for one.
More frequently, though—
The moment he stepped into a shop, the employees or owners would warmly rush over to greet him.
Although the Xianzhou had temporarily cut off communication with the outside world—
Its internal network still functioned normally.
So recognizing someone like Su Ran wasn't difficult at all.
Here, virtually no one wanted to give up immortality.
Nor did anyone wish to succumb to mara.
As a result, Su Ran eventually had no choice but to create a perception-altering device for himself.
One that caused people with obvious ulterior motives to unconsciously ignore his appearance.
As for the side effects…
They were naturally quite obvious.
The attitudes of those Xianzhou natives instantly cooled down.
They immediately started treating the group like ordinary outworlders instead.
Though basic politeness remained—
Their enthusiasm had clearly become far more perfunctory.
"You really are popular on the Xianzhou."
Kafka teased him lightly.
Xianzhou natives had always been rather hostile toward outsiders.
Because most outworlders came here seeking the Xianzhou's gift of immortality.
Naturally, the locals found it difficult to feel warmly toward them.
"If you could cure mara, you'd be treated like an honored guest too."
Although the Xianzhou maintained plenty of dealings with the IPC—
They certainly weren't controlled by the IPC.
If someone truly possessed a method to cure mara, then even if that person were an IPC criminal—
As long as they didn't cross the Xianzhou Alliance's bottom line, the Alliance would still gladly show goodwill.
They might even go out of their way to fulfill reasonable requests.
"I'll pass."
"I'm just a Stellaron Hunter. I don't possess abilities that grand."
"All I really know how to do is fight and kill."
Mara had plagued the Xianzhou for thousands of years.
How could a mere Stellaron Hunter possibly cure it?
"Can someone with a bounty of 10.8 billion credits really still be considered ordinary just because they're good at killing?"
Serval had seen the amount Su Ran spent during this trip.
Over a million credits.
That was absolutely not a small sum.
The clothes she personally bought hadn't cost much at all.
But Kafka could casually buy a single coat worth more than the combined expenses of everyone else.
And yet—
Compared to her bounty, that million credits was still over ten thousand times smaller.
If that kind of money were brought back to Belobog—
Who knew how many improvements it could fund?
If not for the fact she couldn't beat Kafka—
And because Kafka seemed to have a pretty decent relationship with Su Ran—
Serval genuinely might have tried capturing this terrifying wanted criminal and cashing in the bounty to help develop Belobog.
"Mhm. I'd still say it's fairly ordinary."
Was a bounty of 10.8 billion really that much?
Kafka glanced toward Su Ran.
In the IPC's eyes, Elio's value was already considered effectively priceless.
And Su Ran was even more valuable than that.
Compared to them—
Her own 10.8 billion bounty truly wasn't worth mentioning.
After all, the amount Asta alone had already spent on Su Ran was no small figure.
How could the IPC possibly care about a mere 10.8 billion credits?
To the true big shots of the universe—
That was merely pocket change.
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