Chapter 170: Chapter 107: Minding the Shop

Leanne Walsh was dead, and a huge weight was lifted from Paige Summers’s mind.

With her death, the restrictions placed on Bloodfall by the Superpower User Administration were naturally lifted.

The Hunting Party could finally accept missions!

However, no one was actually dissatisfied with being unable to accept missions and hunt outside the city during this period. After all, Paige Summers had been hiring them for private tasks. Everyone who helped received substantial compensation, more than enough to make up for the lost time.

If possible, many of them still hoped to live a life free from bloodshed.

Furthermore, because she dared to stand up to the people from District 2, they admired her all the more.

From their conversations, Paige Summers could easily tell that they were very dissatisfied with the current situation in the city.

They didn’t object to dividing residential areas based on Superpower Rank, but every era inevitably has its privileged class. Take people like Kevin Howell, for instance. His Superpower Rank wasn’t high, yet just because he was someone’s illegitimate son, he could even keep a mistress in District 2.

In Paige Summers’s previous life, this kind of privilege might not have provoked such intense emotions.

But things were different now.

Most of these lower-ranking Superpower Users relied on hunting outside the city or completing missions just to survive. Every one of them was doing bloody, life-threatening work. And yet, some people could get things they couldn’t obtain even by risking their lives... without doing a single thing.

Who would willingly accept a situation like that?

So when Paige Summers orchestrated events, using Kevin Howell’s fiancée to make him kill his own mistress—all while he remained completely oblivious to the mastermind behind it all—they all felt a vicarious, cathartic thrill from fooling him.

So once everything was over, they cheerfully went off to find suitable missions for Bloodfall.

Paige Summers, however, couldn’t be so relaxed.

The sudden appearance of Shawn Monroe and Nora Lowell had unsettled her.

Even though she knew her destiny would no longer follow the original story’s plot, she couldn’t help but feel a strong, subconscious aversion to those two.

Combined with the bad blood between her and Nora Lowell, she thought it over and decided she had to seize the initiative.

She went to Jovitas again.

This time, however, she opted not for a one-time information purchase, but for a recurring delivery service.

She wanted to maintain contact so she could keep tabs on their movements whenever necessary.

The cost was naturally higher. Factoring in the two previous information purchases, her original plan to not touch her Crystal Cores was not only out the window, but she was also starting to feel the pinch.

Her Credit Points were also nearly depleted from renting and investing in the shop.

Making money immediately became her top priority.

Fortunately, her custom weapon business was a great success.

Paige Summers had put Rachel Forrest in charge of customer service at the shop, and Rachel had already taken five pre-orders with detailed specifications and requirements.

Seeing these orders, Paige Summers steeled her resolve. ’This time, I’m really going to have to hole up and work!’

She found great pleasure in crafting weapons.

Though she preferred having free rein with her creations.

But figuring out how to craft the most powerful weapon possible while working within the client’s detailed requirements and physical stats was an interesting challenge in its own right.

During this time, aside from giving Levi Young some Rainbow Water, she refused all interruptions.

Before she knew it, half a month had passed. By the time she finished boxing up the five completed weapons and emerged from her workshop, two weeks had gone by.

Based on the materials consumed and the difficulty of the work, the five weapons were priced from five hundred thousand to two million Credit Points each.

For most Superpower Users, prices like these were a luxury.

To put it in perspective, a single hunting mission outside the city paid only about ten thousand Credit Points.

And with the high cost of basic necessities like food in Central City, the pressure of survival was immense if you had a family to support, let alone saving up such a huge sum!

Of course, anyone who dared to order a custom weapon had to have some resources to begin with.

Considering how valuable the materials were, no one complained about the price.

And when the clients saw their weapons, the praise was nearly unanimous; they were extremely satisfied.

As a result, Paige Summers had netted nearly five million Credit Points.

However, she had a new headache: after completing these weapons, her materials were nearly depleted.

Marcus Monroe’s payment had been substantial, including a number of weapons, but she had used up a lot lately. So, upon emerging from her workshop, her first major decision—besides having Rachel Forrest deliver the weapons to the clients—was to temporarily accept only orders where clients provided their own materials. Furthermore, after mournfully observing in her personal storage space that her bags of Crystal Cores were now mostly empty, she issued a new directive: prioritize clients who were willing to pay with Crystal Coores!

There were other matters to decide as well. Since Claire Chapman and Jensen Archer were out of the city on a hunt, everything fell on her shoulders.

However, the weapon shop needed people, so the Forrest Siblings hadn’t gone on this hunt.

Paige Summers noticed that Rachel Forrest seemed quite happy to stay in the city, and she thought that was for the best. The shop needed reliable people to watch over it, and she and Leo Forrest were the best candidates for the job.

As for the Hunting Party, she would talk to Claire Chapman about it later. If any of the temporarily recruited Superpower Users proved suitable, they might as well keep them on.

All in all, matters at the shop were relatively easy to manage.

Other matters, however, were not so simple.

"Sister Paige," Rachel Forrest said, her tone growing more familiar and then conspiratorial. "There’s a lady who’s been coming around looking for you. When she couldn’t find you at your place, she started dropping by the shop. She even introduced us to a few clients. But they’re asking for a large quantity, so I didn’t dare make a decision without you. I’ve been waiting for you to get back!"

Paige Summers didn’t have to think twice; she knew it had to be Wendy Lowell.

She had figured the woman wouldn’t give up so easily.

In truth, Paige Summers didn’t dislike Wendy Lowell as a person. Regardless of the past, at least now, the woman clearly harbored immense love for her daughter.

The problem was, Paige Summers wasn’t her daughter, and she couldn’t fake a deep, mother-daughter affection.

Besides, her identity as a widow of the Reid Family was too troublesome.

Sheldon Reid’s condescending, almost charitable attitude was still fresh in her mind, and the memory alone made Paige seethe. ’Change my surname? I wish he’d just get lost and stay as far away as possible!’

After considering for a moment, she took the order forms Rachel Forrest was holding out.

"Let me take a look at these first."

Paige Summers didn’t know the identity of the people Wendy Lowell had introduced, but she could glean a lot from the order forms—for example, whether they were commissioning a weapon as a favor to Wendy or because they genuinely needed one.

She weeded out the bulk orders. ’This isn’t an assembly line!’

She weeded out the unreasonably high offers. ’They’re obviously just trying to curry favor with Wendy Lowell.’

Orders with no special requirements were also weeded out for the same reason. ’If they just want a standard weapon, the commercial district is full of them. They can just buy one there!’

After sifting through the pile, she was left with one last order form, and her hand froze.

The client had filled the form with dense, detailed notes, all about the requirements for the weapon they wanted. After Paige Summers read it carefully, she was overcome with a complex mix of feelings.

The weapon the client requested was extremely peculiar.

And what’s more, certain aspects of it happened to align perfectly with research she had done in her previous life.