We entered the Guild building which also doubled as a bar and it seems like there's way fewer people here than there were the last ti.
Tyle, the bartender with the Alv features was still there and it looks like he was just chilling at the counter right now.
"Hmm… Never thought I would see a bar this empty on this station," Amber mused.
"Maybe it's still early?" Ries suggested.
"Pfft, there's no such thing as too early for drinks out here."
I went towards the bar and his ears perked up when he noticed us.
"Welco to… Oh wait… It's you!"
I pointed at myself.
He nodded, "Yeah! You're the one who started all this!"
"I'm guessing you're talking about the sudden increase in demand for organic food?" I asked, approaching the bar.
He ca over and sighed, "You have no idea… Do you know what happened after you left?"
"Tell ."
He nodded towards the girls behind , "You girls want a drink first? Not like there's anybody else holding up or even looking to get anything I have in stock anyway."
And to emphasise his point, he nodded at the nearly empty bar around him.
There were only like three or four other people who weren't guards inside the bar and all of them were already inebriated at their own seats.
I took a seat at the bar which prompted the others to do the sa as well.
"So, first things first… What can I get for you?"
I raised my eyebrow at him, "You want us to buy sothing?"
"I am running a bar aren't I?"
"Well… Isn't there a job that was posted by the station master that is asking rcs to investigate this?"
"I'm not obligated to help in this, am I? And I only talk to custors, you see."
I rolled my eyes but it's not like I particularly mind it anyway.
"I'll just get your house beer. Serve them whatever they want, it's on ."
He grinned, "Coming right up. What can I get the rest of you ladies?"
All of them ordered the sa thing as and Tyle took out several mugs and started filling them up with beer.
He then placed them in front of each of us before stepping in front of to start polishing a glass, "So what do you want to know?"
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I took a sip of the beer, "Like you said, what happened after we left?"
"I think you can guess right? Everyone who tasted your food wants to eat it again but you're no longer here. So there's a bunch of people who want to try cooking the food themselves and went to buy organic food to try making it for themselves."
"They were trying to cook as well?"
He nodded, "That's right. You can imagine how that went, right?"
I blinked, "Not really? How did that go?"
"Obviously none of them could make anything on the level that you did and they all failed miserably."
"Ok… Then what happened after that?"
He scratched his cheek, "Well… Obviously most of them didn't give up so they started buying up more to try and experint on achieving the sa result as you did but most were just wasted efforts. That started up driving the prices and so other businesses got wind of this and guess what they did?"
Amber spoke up, "They tried to make a business out of it, obviously."
Tyle nodded, "They started advertising that they could make the best organic food on the station to get people to go there."
"And I'm guessing they don't live up to the expectations?" I mused.
"Of course they don't. And then that's when things start getting violent."
I blinked at him, "How did that go from people trying to cook organic food to becoming violent? Actually hold on… How violent are we talking about here?"
He set down the glass that he had been polishing and let out a sigh, "It was just normal at first. Well… Normal for this station I an. So beatings, a few threats and maybe even a shooting or two after they realised they were scamd by these businesses… But the ire was always directed at the businesses that scamd them instead of anyone else. Then just recently, they started to also attack others out in the streets for seemingly no reason at all."
Ok… I'm going to just ignore the fact that he just said that people shooting and killing others here is considered 'normal'.
"So do we know why there was a sudden change?" I asked.
He shrugged, "That's what had us wondering as well. I admit that I also tried to do it as well but I didn't go in that direction."
"What do you an by that?"
"Well, you didn't use organic food during that ti you made that food right? So I've pretty much just been experinting with synthfood instead of using organic food for my experints. Those people didn't even know you made it with synthfood so they thought it was made using organic food and concentrated on it."
"And how did it go? Your experints, I an."
He grimaced, "Well… The fact that this place is empty kind of tells you how it went, doesn't it? Do you know the last ti this place was this empty?"
I shrugged.
"The last ti was when this place was built and that was several years ago. This place has never been this empty ever since then."
I scratched my head, "How do you screw up the synthfood though?"
He gave a look, "You want to try it and tell what I did wrong with it? It's not like I can figure out the problem on my own anyway."
"I guess I can give it a try later… But for now, I would like to know more information about this thing."
Tyle shrugged, "I don't know what else to tell you though. I wasn't really going around asking questions about it."
I turned to Mara and raised an eyebrow at her as a silent question on what she thought about this. She paused for a mont before nodding slightly.
I guess it'll be ok to share so of the information with him just to see what he knows, more specifically if he knew about the drugs that were mixed with the organic food.
"Do you know that the people who are being violent have been found to have ingested White Powder?" I asked.
He raised an eyebrow, "White Powder? Isn't that normal? I know there was an influx of it because apparently the Rattlers got their hands on a good stash of it sohow. So there's a number of people who started taking them because the price dropped a little."
I almost thought that this might be the case when Amber spoke up, "The people were all looking for organic food though. If they are addicted to White Powder and knew about it, they would be asking for more White Powder to tide over their withdrawal instead of asking for organic food."
Tyle turned to her with a frown, "You're not telling … That there's soone selling organic food that has been laced with White Powder, are you?"
"That's exactly what we're suggesting. I'm asking if you know anything about it and whether there might be soone who could have done this?"
"Soone who would lace the food with White Powder? I don't think… Wait…"
He paused and his brows furrowed to think.
He then went over to the end of the bar before he picked up his personal terminal to bring it back to , tapping on the screen to show a map of the station.
He tapped his finger on one of the stores in particular, "This place… It's a gambling den that recently got really popular because they started serving organic food as well. In fact, they were even selling it at a lower price than the market rate which made not only the common people visit there, but even so of the richer clientele as well. I won't lie, it might just be my bias against them because they also have a bar and thus they're stealing my custors too… But if I had to point fingers, I would suspect it's them."
Lea turned to , "This is weird though… If this place is the one serving the drugged food, they would just return there to get the food again right? Yet they are going around searching for it instead like they believe it's organic food in general that they need to find, not a specific place serving it."
Tyle shrugged, "I did hear about a case or two of people being violent inside there as well but it could just be a coincidence. Besides, that's the only information I got about this so I can't help you more than that I'm afraid."
I nodded, "Fine, we can start there and see whether there's any other leads. Thanks for the help."
I knocked back the glass to finish the rest of my beer before standing up.
"Hey, what about my synthfood?" He protested.
"After we're done here~" I waved back, leaving the place with my girls.
Ti to look for that gambling den.
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