The war hadn't ended, so it was still affecting life in the city. And not just city life—life in the countryside was affected too.
That meant her comfortable life here was at risk.
In her previous life, Paige had saved humanity, and that's why she had the right to enjoy retirement in this life. She would never allow anyone to ruin her happy life.
When Paige arrived, the battle was on a break.
People were helping each other bandage wounds.
Only the seriously injured were carried away for treatment. The lightly injured just wrapped themselves up quickly and stayed at their posts.
No one knew when the fighting would start again, so they had to stay alert at all times.
In broad daylight, Paige didn't dare to get too close. She was only at level one now and couldn't manipulate the air around her.
Otherwise, she could've used her mental power to change the refraction of light around her and make herself invisible to the eye.
Human sight works through light coming from or bouncing off objects, entering the eye through the cornea, passing through the pupil, and focusing on the retina.
The retina forms the image, and the brain processes it through the nerves.
Paige could trick people's eyes from the very first step. As long as they didn't touch her, no one would notice her presence.
This ability made her unstoppable among zombies.
If she hadn't accidentally been scratched by a zombie that day, she wouldn't have been discovered by the zombie king with its sharp sense of smell.
Still, that only showed how strong the zombie king was. Her stealth skill had never failed before.
Well, she died for a reason. If that zombie had grown stronger, the world might've been in even worse shape later.
After taking a look at the condition of the military camp, Paige had a rough idea of the situation. She didn't plan to stay and watch more. She turned around and went home.
Then she went for a walk around the town.
The streets were cleaner than before. Someone must have tidied up.
The grain store wasn't open. Not just the grain store—many stores related to basic needs were closed.
Only a few small restaurants were still open.
People on the streets looked rushed and worried, but life had to go on. If they didn't go out, they'd starve at home.
Paige was curious and approached one of the restaurants. People said the food there was really good. It had been closed the last time, but now she wanted to try it.
"Go go go, where did this beggar come from? If you want to beg, go to the back kitchen. This isn't a place for you," the waiter said as he stepped forward to drive her away.
Paige looked at herself. She was fine—she bathed every day, definitely cleaner than most people.
But her clothes were a mess, patched up here and there. Calling them clothes was generous—it was just scraps of fabric sewn together.
They had done this on purpose. Show less wealth, the poorer you look, the safer you are.
Paige started digging through the junk pile in her space. After searching for a while, she finally found something.
"Hey, you beggar, can't you understand what I'm saying? If you want to beg, go to the back. The front door is for paying customers," the waiter said angrily when she didn't move.
She was standing right at the door—how could other customers get in?
"Oh dear, miss, I'm so sorry. I didn't recognize you. Please come in, please. Let me prepare a private room for you to make up for it."
The waiter had seen the small piece of gold in her hand and instantly changed his attitude.
In this world, money was everything. Even if a beggar had money, they were still a customer. You don't turn away paying guests.
Paige snorted, put the gold back in her pocket, and followed the waiter inside.
She was exhausted. The junk pile only had large gold pieces, and it took her forever to find a small one that wouldn't attract too much attention.
Uziel always said not to show off wealth.
And with how she was dressed, not even carrying a bag, pulling out a big chunk of gold would definitely raise suspicion.
"Bring one of each of your restaurant's signature dishes," Paige said boldly while sitting in the private room.
"Customer, we have more than ten signature dishes. That one piece of gold won't be enough," the waiter said a bit awkwardly.
In the past, it would've been enough.
But now it was a special time. Everyone was stuck inside and couldn't go out, so it was hard to buy supplies.
Only big and powerful families like the owner's could keep a restaurant running.
But the prices now were definitely not the same as before.
In the end times, Paige knew food was very expensive.
And Paige had never actually eaten in a restaurant before. In her mind, things in the city were always very expensive.
So at the moment, she didn't think anything was wrong. She believed high prices were normal.
She then took out a gold ingot and placed it on the table, asking, "Is this enough?"
"Enough, enough, I'll go get everything ready for you right away." The waiter immediately gave a big smile.
Then he reached out, ready to take the gold ingot.
"What are you doing?" Paige picked up the gold ingot and asked.
"Customer, there's a new rule. We have to take payment before we serve food. You see…" The waiter looked at the gold ingot in her hand.
"Fine, take it. Don't forget to give me change," Paige said as she tossed the gold ingot to the waiter.
She remembered when Uziel treated her to meat buns last time, he only had five fabi on him.
So this time, if she brought back some money, they'd definitely be happy.
Soon, the waiter gave Paige over six hundred fabi in change, smiling and saying the dishes would be ready soon.
Paige happily looked at the large amount of fabi, stuffed it into her clothes, and planned to give it to Winn and Uziel when she got back.
Such a small piece of gold could be exchanged for so much money. What a good deal.
Now she could finally support the family.
As Paige's man, how could he worry about money? He shouldn't have to.
At this time, fabi was still quite valuable. Just over one hundred fabi could buy a whole cow.
But Paige didn't know that this one meal cost more than several cows.
With more than ten dishes, there was no way Paige could finish them all.
The restaurant kindly gave her two food containers and packed up all the leftovers for her.
"Your food tastes great, and your service is good. I'll come again next time," Paige said happily after eating.
Then she took out some money, picked out a five-fabi note, and gave it to the waiter. "This is for you."
In her eyes, that was just the price of a few buns.
"Thank you, customer, thank you. Come again anytime," the waiter said, eyes shining as he looked at Paige.
He only earned a little over ten fabi a month. This customer just tipped him five fabi.
If she came a few more times, he'd be rich.
If it weren't for the job including meals, with today's rising prices, his salary wouldn't even be enough to feed himself.
Paige carried the food containers and went to a quiet place where she put them into her space. Then she continued wandering around the streets.
There wasn't any more food to buy, but there were still lots of other small things.