Everyone in the Orphans, along with Kang and Xiao Yun, gathered around the dinner table. It was a long rectangular one that could seat up to thirty people.
Aside from Lena, there were about twenty members. Kotori and Pedro, her two lieutenants, each led five members for their patrol teams. The rest must be the "odd jobs" crew Lena had mentioned earlier.
Kang had already been introduced to everyone during breakfast, but now Lena introduced him again in his new role as the one who would teach them martial arts. The news was met with enthusiasm. After all, most of them had seen or at least heard about Kang's terrifying combat skills.
"Is there any rule or forbidden thing we can't do, Instructor Kang?" Lena asked with a teasing tone, drawing everyone's attention to him.
"Well, for normal practitioners, our dojo is quite lax about rules," Kang said with a shrug. "As long as you don't use what you learn to harass innocent people, that's good enough."
Not everyone could become a core disciple of the Hidden Tiger Dojo. Only those who passed the moral test after a period of observation would be accepted as initiates. And only after successfully awakening their Qi would they be recognized as core disciples. In that sense, after Xiao Yun's grandfather died, there hadn't been a single core disciple left—at least, not until Kang appeared.
"However," Kang continued, "once I decide you're qualified to become initiates, and you choose to become one, you'll have to stricly follow our doctrine. Just a reminder~"
The Orphans members exchanged glances, a mixture of curiosity and excitement on their faces. Somehow, that sounded pretty damn cool.
Kang turned his attention back to the meal. It was surprisingly varied, with both vegetables and meat on the table. Considering that nutrisoy was the staple food down here, he didn't think organic ingredients of this quality even existed for slummers.
When Kang brought up the question, Lena explained that the ingredients were indeed organic, freshly sourced from the farms and pastures outside the District walls. Workers in those areas often received fresh produce as part of their benefits, and some of them chose to sell it on the black market to earn a few extra creds from the slummers.
On top of that, those farms frequently hired slummers as day laborers whenever extra hands were needed. There was even a kind of job fair where slummers gathered, hoping to be picked for temporary work in the outer zones. Members of the Orphans often went there too to find short-term jobs.
Kang had to admit, it sounded better than many places he'd known in his time. At least here, people could work and feed themselves. He'd seen far worse conditions before.
"Speaking of which, isn't it a little dark in here?" Kang asked, motioning at the dim LED lights above. He preferred to eat under bright light.
No one answered right away. Instead, they exchanged awkward looks.
"Sorry about that," Lena said with a sigh. "I forgot to tell you, we don't actually have electricity."
"What do you mean no electricity?" Kang was dumbfounded. This was supposed to be the future, how could there still be such a thing as no electricity? Was that even allowed?
"You see," Lena gave a bitter smile, "there are power grids here, even in the inner zones. You can pay for electricity with creds. But up on this temple hill? There's no access to the grid."
"Why not?"
Kang frowned. Even temples in his time hadn't been this outdated.
"Actually," Lena said, "this temple used to have a really advanced power system — a self-sustaining one that ran on solar energy."
"Wow, that's great. Then why..."
Kang stopped mid-sentence as realization hit him.
"I see..."
"Yup." Lena nodded. "That's the problem. It all became useless once we lost real sunlight."
Now that the City layer was stacked nearly a hundred meters above them, the Slum was practically sealed inside a massive box with only artificial daylight. Goodbye, solar power.
"So we have no option, aside from the grid for power?" Kang asked.
"Not really," Kotori spoke up.
The Orphans members had been mostly quiet until now, probably because of Kang's presence, so Kotori must have jumped in to lighten the mood a bit.
"The Institute doesn't use the grid either," she said. "They say they won't trust any power source that isn't under their control. So they power their headquarters with a solakris generator."
"Solakris?" Kang raised an eyebrow. Another new term for him.
"Solar Crystal, aka solakris." Kotori explained. "It's the best power source around that stores solar energy and can be recharged once depleted. Compact, stable, powerful, completely safe, and way more cost-effective than paying the government for their electricity."
"Let me guess, they aren't cheap?" Kang rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"It's not a matter of price," Lena said. "You can't buy one even if you have the creds! They're considered strategic resources up in the City. You can actually count the number of solakris down here on two hands."
"How did the Institute get theirs then?"
"By taking part in an extremely dangerous deal. No one knows exactly what happened, only that they lost nearly half their gang in that mess."
Lena said in a low tone. Before that incident, she had actually been thinking about how to get her own hands on a solakris too.
"In other words, we won't have power here without a solakris?"
Kang summarized their situation. Both Lena and Kotori nodded.
"Well, that could be inconvenient…" Kang sighed.
"Solakris... we used to have one, back in our dojo."
The unexpected revelation came from Xiao Yun, making every eye in the room turn toward her.
"It was a gift from one of Grandfather's acquaintances," she said. "Only a violet solakris, the lowest rank among them, but Grandfather told me it could power our entire dojo for a week if needed."
Her expression grew distant.
"We never actually used it though, it was more like a decoration piece. And later, when we started having financial trouble… we sold it."
The others looked at her in surprise. For most of them, solakris had always been something out of reach, something they'd only heard about.
"There are different ranks of solakris?" Kotori asked, her eyes lighting up with curiosity.
"Seven in total, from what I heard," Xiao Yun replied. "From lowest to highest — violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red."
"Oh, the colors of the rainbow?" Lena asked, leaning forward with interest.
"What do they look like? They must be really beautiful, right?" Another member asked eagerly.
"It was a small octahedron-shaped crystal, about five centimeters tall," Xiao Yun said, trying to describe. "Kind of like a large amethyst gem, I guess."
The group listened in awe, picturing the glowing crystal.
Except for Kang, who had gone quiet with an unreadable expression on his face.
The dinner continued with everyone chatting about the solakris and speculating on what kind of dangerous deal the Institute had made to get one. Kang still looked as if he was deep in thought the whole time.
-----
When everyone was leaving after the meal, Kang discreetly called out to Lena.
"Come to my room!"
Lena's face immediately turned red. To be honest, she had kind of expected this when she deliberately arranged for Kang to live alone in a separate house far away from the other members. Still, did he really have to be this hasty? Guess that's what they call the irresistible power of the forbidden fruit. Once you've tasted it, you can never go back...
Many thoughts ran amok inside Lena's head as she followed Kang... until she saw him approach Xiao Yun and say the same thing, motioning for both of them to come.
Xiao Yun looked shocked, glancing at Lena with wary eyes, only to meet Lena's questioning gaze. The two girls followed Kang silently, not sure what to say about the situation.
When the three of them reached Kang's room, he quickly shut the door and locked it.
"Um... senior brother... I don't think I should be here?"
Xiao Yun said weakly, glancing at Lena.
"What the frag are you thinking, you perv..." Lena started to explode.
"Wait!" Kang said sharply, rummaging through his backpack.
The two girls exchanged a look, realizing they might have misunderstood something. The atmosphere was painfully awkward until Kang turned to them with an exquisite black box in his hand, decorated with an intricate seal on top.
He pressed his thumb against the seal. After a few seconds, it faded away with a click and the box opened to reveal its contents. Inside were three small octahedron-shaped crystals, each about five centimeters tall. They rested neatly in their slots between black velvet linings—one green, one blue, and one golden yellow.
"Correct me if I'm wrong," Kang asked calmly, "but these look awfully like solakris, don't they?"