It's Not Easy Making Money in the Apocalypse

"If you were so bold with your mother and sister, you would have obtained wealth long before now."

"If you don't want to be punished, I suggest you take that back immediately," I responded coldly.

"You… s-sorry… hmph!" Cecelia went silent and I could hear a beep as she disconnected with my Bluetooth.

This was what she did when she was angry at me. It was the equivalent of no longer listening. I ignored her though, as I had my stuff to worry about.

"We've managed to recruit another girl." One of my new cronies declared. "We're up to three now."

"We're going to need to expand our space soon." The one who had formerly been their leader stated. "We've only secured two rooms, and we got three sluts."

"We'll alternate them." I declared. "Two girls, one gets to rest. Even if a guy wants her, if there isn't a room available, they'll have to wait."

"That'll piss off some of the tweakers."

"If they cause too much trouble, shoot out their kneecap," I responded.

The man gulped but still nodded. "Yes, sir."

At that moment, another crony burst into the room. "Boss!"

"Do you have no respect?" The leader turned on him and snapped angrily.

"A-apologies." He bowed his head. "However, some people are challenging our space. You said you wanted to be informed when this happened."

I exchanged a look with the leader, we nodded and then got up from our seats. We were in a tent outside in the courtyard, not too far away from where this group had originally set up their camp. We were distinctly in front of one of the side buildings. It was one of the more derelict and fancy of the R&D complex and likely played a role as being a utility building in its prime. That did mean it had functioning water, although that water was slightly irradiated.

To bandits, even irradiated water was a blessing. They would happily use it to bathe and drink. For someone in the profession of selling their body, being able to clean with fresh water put them leagues above the other women. Of course, they wouldn't worry about rads. By the time those started to seriously deform their body, their lives would likely be over anyway. It was a brutal world where most weren't expected to live past thirty.

We entered the building and immediately headed for two rooms not much bigger than utility closets. This is because the rooms likely were utility closets. One room had once been used for storage, while the other had housed some kind of machinery. Over the years, these parts had been stripped away and sold for scraps, and the only reason I could guess their function was the faded marks on the walls and floors that could be seen through the years of grime. There was a small group of men on one side and a woman behind two of my men on the other.

"What is the meaning of this?" I demanded.

The leader of the men facing my group turned to me. "You wanted to rent out this place for a day. Your day is up. It's time you scram!"

"I said I wanted to rent this place by the day." I corrected. "I gave you payment for three days."

"Well, the cost has gone up, hasn't it?" He grinned.

"How so?" I frowned.

He moved forward, causing the woman and the men near her to tense, but he stepped by her and shoved the door open that she had previously been inside. The other room was still closed and appeared to be in use. The door swung open to show a fairly bare-bones room with a mattress on the floor. The only redeeming quality was that it had clean-appearing sheets on it, although that was only relative to everything else. These sheets had already earned several wet stains I'd rather not focus on.

"Look how neat and clean the rooms are now!" He declared. "And we even have mattresses and sheets. That's premium real estate."

I frowned. "We're the ones who cleaned up the rooms and added mattresses."

The raiders had thought it was crazy that I went to the effort to get mattresses. When I made them sweep out and do a quick wash of the floor, they nearly rioted. The sheets were actually from my world and were the only thing clean. I had several packs of fitted sheets as part of my emergency supplies. If I ended up having to stay overnight and sleep on one of those filthy, partially decayed mattresses. The least I could do was toss a waterproof sheet over it. Yet, I saw a use for them here and pulled some of them out.

"Well, that's what you claim. All I see is a room that's being underrented. If you want to continue to use them you'll need to pay fifteen crystals a day per room, and I don't take no Cocks."

That was one of the things I realized shortly after arriving. The point system that had been established at the door was only honored by a handful of trade posts that were open at random and inconvenient times. The majority of trade between members still used crystals, and they'd laugh at you if you attempted to give them the points, otherwise known as Cocks.

"15 crystals! That's three times the price we negotiated!" The leader cried out.

"And that's why you have gone one full day before I bothered ya!" He declared, laughing before his expression grew serious. "Of course, if you'd like to cause some trouble, perhaps I should go to my brothers."

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

The other man lowered his head like he had already lost, swallowing his frustration and anger. Although these were all Cock and Balls, the people in the courtyards were the lowest of the low. Most of the initiates formed groups, and the only ones who managed to secure side buildings were those with ties to the higher-ranking members. Three buildings were off-limits to anyone lower than acolyte, but the auxiliary buildings were up for grabs.

That meant that any initiate who happened to have acolyte buddies had more pull, and every acolyte seemed to have ten or twenty initiates under them. Of course, the lieutenants then proceeded to control ten or twenty acolytes, which was the source of their power in the Cock and Ball's structure. These initiates included a brother of two of the acolytes, thus netting them quite a lot of power, enough to completely monopolize this building. Given the state of the building, they had been happy to rent out two rooms, but it looked like after seeing us clean it up and use it for a practical purpose, they became jealous of our fortune.

I quickly did the math in my head. I currently had three girls. We ran about two customers an hour. They finished far faster than that, but I insisted on giving the women proper breaks to clean. It was arguable whether they did so. Most just took the opportunity to hit more drugs, but I still tried to leave things fair. A normal girl was five crystals for a quickie. My girls charged ten. They weren't being hit up as frequently as the other girls who had lines out their tents, but a cleaner girl and a mattress were all it took. That meant we made about twenty an hour, or practically two hundred crystals a day. Thirty crystals a day wasn't too much for those rooms, but I knew that the price gouging wouldn't stop there.

If we paid this guy today, then he'd come tomorrow and ask for an even greater amount. There was no limit to greed, especially in a wasteland.

"That won't be necessary," I responded, causing my people to lower their heads while he broke into a grin.

The men I had recruited had no attachments to the acolytes. They were the unpopular dredges left over. That's why they had fallen to shaking down new initiates before they had a chance to get into a group. This sort of unbalance they had been facing since joining the bandit clan, but they were all even more scared to leave and face the wasteland full of mutants and other raiders.

"I'm glad we could come to an understanding." He grinned. "Now, pay up."

"You misunderstand," I responded. "It won't be necessary for you to go get your brothers. I have no intention of paying you more."

My words caused all of my people to look up in shock, and the man's face to turn dark. "You dare!"

I let out a sigh and walked over to the closed door, knocking on it. A moment later, the door swung open. A tall man was standing there wearing nothing but a hockey mask. Behind him, a naked woman was holding him, looking like someone disordered as he had just tossed her off of him and opened the door.

"What the fuck do you want?" he snapped.

"B-brother?" The men challenging us turned white, and the leader's eyes popped out of his head.

"I apologize, sir. I know I offered you all the time you desired, but it appears like the proprietors of this building have requested we vacate the premise. Your session will need to be cut short-"

"Wh-what is my friend here saying?" The man shouted, throwing his arm around me. "It's a misunderstanding. A misunderstanding! There are no issues here."

"Then why the fuck are you wasting my time?" He snapped, glaring threateningly at both of us.

"I apologize, sir. It seems like we had a misunderstanding." I bowed my head. "Missy! It seems like Peony is getting tired. Please help."

The girl who had been holding the line jumped, and then nodded, moving to the door. "I'll take your place, Peony."

Peony looked slightly relieved. I could see various bruises on her from his treatment. I'd need to give her some RegenX later. The naked man looked between the two women, his expression darkening.

"You misunderstand." I smiled. "You are to… assist. Make sure that our honored guest no longer receives any more… interruptions."

Her eyes widened, but then she nodded. "Y-yes… sir."

He looked between the two girls again. This time, his look was wolfish with desire. Peony looked a little depressed, but also thankful she wouldn't need to face it alone. The more energetic Missy pushed him back into the room with a sultry expression on her face, the door closing behind the three of them.

I could only sigh. It looked like we were going to lose two girls for the remainder of the day. That would cut down profits. At least, we had overcome our previous dilemma.

"Are there any other concerns?" I asked the man who had previously been harassing us.

He jumped. "N-no… none at all."

He left, still shaken up. If he had upset the acolyte and lost his protection, their group would collapse quickly. He quickly left with his men to avoid any more problems.

"Boss, what do we do next?" my head crony asked.

"I have a shopping list," I responded. "It's time we expand."