The sales operations commenced immediately as the products and their distributors were spread across the slums. The employees of Trinity Housings were fully equipped with protective enchanted items in the form of protective vests with a few runes glowing along their edges. They each 'secretly' tucked magiguns in their pockets, ready to be drawn out at any time.
VMMM…
The truck halted at the edge of the inner city, marked by the pointed absence of magigrid terminals that existed for ease of maintenance. The roads had already begun to wither, growing more sparse as sand filled in the checkered gaps in their magitar, due to the absence of maintenance.
The housing around them was smaller, lesser, and similarly ill-maintained as the poorer residents, even if not poor enough to fall into the slums, couldn't be bothered with trying to maintain the thin cracks that had emerged in the walls of the buildings or the paint that had long faded with the intense precipitation that the Democratic Republic of Elendir was subject to.
STEP
Dlint stepped out of the van with two more men, each similarly equipped and prepped as they were. He gazed at the sky with a knowing expression, his eyes sharpening with seriousness at the dark sheet of clouds that had enveloped the skies.
RUMBLE…
Thunder crackled ominously, increasing the sense of urgency they felt and mounting pressure on them. However, the dry, calm winds gave them some measure of confidence that they weren't about to run into the storm just yet.
And for good reason, for the Sun was just a few hours away from reaching its zenith in the sky at noon. And yet, despite having already made its way through much of the sky, the clouds were dense enough to greatly shield Colohen City from its influence.
Such was the intensity of the monsoons in Elendir.
CLACK
They opened up the transport truck, carefully taking out seven haven units one by one from within the truck, before shutting the door and signaling to the truck drivers that they were ready to go.
VMMM…
The trucks left as the three men got to work on unfurling the wheels of the haven units and manually chaining them to each other for manual transportation. Ordinarily, moving a whopping seven housing units by hand was nothing short of impossible; the haven units were truly light enough for two men to move seven of them by hand without too much difficulty.
This was because each haven unit was remarkably light.
It had to be, if it was being sold at merely 999 leenars while also still having any profit margin, even if small. Despite the magical materials being nearly a hundred times more expensive than the materials used in the little unsafe huts that plagued the slums, they were also a hundred times less in quantity.
They put up elementary signs that very clearly conveyed what they wanted to:
[For sale: 999—\]
"Alright, let's begin," Dlint remarked with a determined tone. "The target slum district begins just a block down."
The two men nodded as they walked across either side of the line of haven units, pulling them into the slums while being extremely careful with their surroundings and environment. Their hands conspicuously lingered in their pockets to signify that they had guns that served as a deterrent. The manner in which they conducted themselves made it abundantly clear that anybody who tried to pull anything funny would have to face a lot of danger and concern.
"…I still don't understand why we didn't just get the truck into the slums and directly sell them to the people of the slums," one man muttered with a dissatisfied expression. "It would be so much more convenient."
"Boss was concerned about a tire slashing, leaving the truck stranded," Dlint replied in a calm tone. "You know it happens. Especially for a target as juicy as a storage truck. The boss wants to avoid any mishaps at this crucial stage of the business so that nothing can go wrong."
The two men simply heaved a soft sigh, understanding the point all too well.
"Well, we're here. Time to begin."
STEP
The infrastructure and environment had smoothly changed by a truly significant degree by the time they had entered the slums. The road had entirely disappeared, eroded away to leave behind only a path of mud and sand.
Simultaneously, the quality of infrastructure had nose-dived by the time they set foot in the slums. Gone were robust multi-storeyed buildings with sophisticated architecture based on modern civil magineering technology. In their place were shabby and decrepit huts and old shacks that extended as far as the eye could see.
The air grew fetid and putrid in its odor, emerging from the ill-maintained sewage system, causing open-air drainage channels to pollute the air with a grotesque waft of dirty air. Plumes of smoke emerged from the vast slum-scape that occupied their field of vision, while a general tint of smoke accentuated the odor of the air of the slums.
In the monsoons, especially, fires were the only source of heat in the slums. It was also their only source of light and their only means to cook food, causing many small streams of smoke to pollute the quality of the air.
Of course, the inner city was hardly shielded by this pollution effect, but it was particularly pronounced to their olfactory receptors, having spent any amount of time in the inner city, where the air was just cleaner.
The people of the slums peeked through their windows as they spotted the various haven units being dragged by the three employees of Trinity Housings. Their eyes lit up with recognition as their attention landed on the seven haven units.
They recognized the strange micro-homes as the same ones that had allowed that one strange newcomer to completely remain dry and unbothered while the rest of them were drenched and needed to spend an hour removing the flooded water in their little huts and shacks.
They recognized the haven unit from all the times they had seen it being dragged around their locality in the past week.
"Would any of you like a haven unit for only 999 leenars?"
Dlint's voice was loud and his words were clear, just as Cæ had instructed him to ensure it was. Even though he was speaking to a small family that resided in a partially collapsed hut, in reality, his message was meant to be directed towards all the people in the block and in their environment.
Because the buildings are smaller, the density of buildings and thus people was much higher than in the inner city. A man emerged from the hut with a skeptical expression while the woman beside him appeared to be more receptive to Dlint's claims.
They both wore scrappy and dirty clothes with stitched patches and blotches of mud. Their faces were noticeably gaunt as dark bags prominently sat beneath their eyes. Their bodies were thin, with unnaturally bony limbs painting a clear picture of malnourishment.
Their children emerged from behind them, peaking at Dlint and the other men with curiosity sparkling in their eyes. An expression of an innocent fascination emerged on their faces as they extricated themselves from behind their parents, studying the strange, small home-like structures.
"'Haven?'" the man frowned with a raised eyebrow as he stroked his messy beard lightly. "What the hell even is this?"
His partner, however, recognized it instantly. "This is the thing I was telling you about yesterday! You remember? The one that man carried around and lived in."
The man frowned with even deeper confusion and skepticism. "The box? This thing? You're telling me people can live in this thing?"
She nodded vigorously. "Jamin told me how the man spent an entire day inside the box and was completely fine and dry while everybody else was wet and busy getting water outside of their home."
"An entire day?!" the man exclaimed as his dark brown eyes widened with shock. "You would suffocate to death!"
"That won't happen, sir," Dlint clarified. "It uses mana-active substances. It allows air to pass through the walls enough to ensure that you won't ever suffocate even if you spend the rest of your life in it."
The man's expression scrunched up with a hint of surprise. "Magic…? In the slums? But… you said it's only 999 leenars."
"Yes," Dlint clarified. "You won't need to spend any extra money on the haven product after it's purchased."
This boggled them even more, to the point that they would not have believed him in any other circumstances.
"It must be true, given that they say that the man could spend a week perched on top of the neighborhood peak," the woman remarked with a stunned realization. "This… does it keep people dry?"
Dlint nodded. "Yes, and there is no risk of it collapsing on you, as you can see."
He lifted one Haven unit with one hand with almost no strain. "It's quite light and can be anchored and burrowed to the ground, is not suffocating, and is actually much more comfortable than salvaged mattresses from the trash dumps that come from the inner cities."
It wasn't even uncommon for the people of the slums to get what they needed by scavenging from designated trash dumps in the inner cities in certain abandoned districts of the slums, devoid of human habitat, due to how toxic these landfills often were.
"Dry…" the man muttered as his expression softened. "Can a flimsy roof that thin really be considered protection?"
Dlint nodded. "If you are able to damage with your physicality, we will give away one to you for free."
This was another tactic that Cæ had come up with to get potential customers to engage with the product, increasing their likelihood of making a purchase.
The man, feeling challenged, tried to do just that.
CLANK
He winced in pain as a rock flew out of his hand, but his eyes lit up with a hint of surprise at how sturdy the product was.
The quality of materials used and the workmanship were high.
It wasn't something that an older man far from his peak physique could even come close to scratching.
It conveyed the solidity of the otherwise flimsy-looking box to not just the small family gathered but also the others who watched from their huts.
"Hah," the man snorted, shaking his head. "It's not bad, but we don't need it. Scram."
"Wait," his wife turned around to glance at him with a pointed gaze. "…Shouldn't we get one for Sura and Miria?"
The two children playing with the haven units turned towards her and their father with an excited expression.
"You were going to get Mont or some other worker in our locality to fix that hole in our ceiling to keep the water out, right?" She pointed to their damaged little hole in the corner of their little hut. "Wouldn't it be better to get this for our children instead?"
The man scoffed with disbelief. "It's 999 for a box!"
She furrowed her eyebrows, folding her arms with a defiant expression. "And how much would you pay those loafers to fix that hole? Or how many days of full-day labor would it take for you to fix it yourself?"
The man winced, huffing lightly.
She had a point.
"Those bloody vultures charged me 1100 for the last time it broke down." He grunted. "Why I oughta…"
His voice trailed off in a bitter tone as his gaze returned to the haven units before him.
"…999 for one, hm?"
Dlint nodded patiently. "Correct."
The man heaved a sigh.
"We'll take one."
"…As you wish, sir." Dlint smiled.
And just like that, Trinity Housing conducted its first-ever sale in the slums.