At this moment, the display cases around the palace, which had originally been shrouded in black mist, began to change. To the left of the typewriter, the black fog over one of the cases finally dissipated, revealing... a vending machine inside.

Jason Carter stared in shock for a while, thinking to himself, what is this thing even for? It was his first time seeing one—there weren’t even things like this outside these days.

But he understood the words on the vending machine: Coin Slot.

There weren’t any other options, just a place to insert coins, so there was nothing else to consider—just put the coin in.

With a clang, the coin engraved with a heart dropped into the machine. The machine rumbled to life, and then a small bottle, no bigger than his palm, rolled out.

Jason Carter picked it up and saw that there was only one character on the bottle: 药 (medicine).

“Come on, at least tell me what this is supposed to treat?” Jason Carter muttered, stunned for a moment. When he opened his eyes and focused, the medicine bottle appeared in his hand; with another thought, it disappeared again.

This scene left Brian Cooper dumbfounded. “Bro, are you doing magic?”

Jason Carter ignored him and decisively tore off the cloth he’d been using to bandage his wound, revealing the already infected injury underneath.

The area around the wound had been bruised for a long time, and tissue fluid kept oozing out. Jason Carter knew very well that if he didn’t treat it in time, fever and festering would be inevitable.

Seeing this, Brian Cooper immediately got up to leave, but Jason Carter grabbed him. “Where are you going?”

“I’m going to buy you medicine,” Brian Cooper said stubbornly.

“No need,” Jason Carter picked up the medicine bottle, scooped out a little ointment with his index finger, and carefully applied it to his wound. The bottle wasn’t big and was quite shallow—probably only enough for three doses.

After applying it, Jason Carter felt a bit of regret. The bottle only had the word “medicine” on it—what if it was poison...

But what he was worried about didn’t happen. As soon as the ointment touched the wound, the burning pain disappeared instantly.

The anti-inflammatory medicine Miss Emily had given him was saved. Jason Carter roughly estimated that if this ointment was used as an anti-inflammatory, regular anti-inflammatory medicine would need to be taken for three days, but this ointment worked instantly. One anti-inflammatory pill cost 200, so the value of this ointment... rounding up, it was worth a hundred million!

Suddenly, Jason Carter turned to Brian Cooper and asked firmly, “Help me think—what can I do to quickly get someone’s gratitude?!”

Chapter 12: A Grateful Heart, Thankful for You

Jason Carter was seriously discussing with Brian Cooper about how to quickly earn gratitude. He was a very “simple” person, so when he realized how valuable a sincere thank you could be, he understood that he needed that gratitude...

Although Brian Cooper felt that Jason Carter was using the word “simple” in the wrong way.

“Bro, I think you could go out and do good deeds,” Brian Cooper said. “Isn’t that the most direct way to get sincere thanks? Like giving food to the hungry, or water to the thirsty.”

Jason Carter glared at him. “Do I look like that kind of person? If I give them my food and water, what am I supposed to eat and drink? What about you?!”

Brian Cooper said in anguish, “Then bro, just stop thinking about getting sincere thanks all the time!”

“No,” Jason Carter rejected Brian Cooper’s suggestion. “There must be another way!”

Long ago, Jason Carter knew that this era held no kindness for humanity—or rather, it was hard for people to truly be kind to each other.

There used to be a beggar in the town, and a kind-hearted girl would bring him food every day.

But after the girl got married, she stopped.

The beggar went to her house and asked, “Why don’t you bring me food anymore?” He ended up being chased out—the girl’s husband wasn’t so kind.

Everyone thought that was the end of it. Some people in town even went to mock the beggar, waiting to see when he’d starve to death. But that night, the beggar snuck into the girl’s house and killed both her and her husband.

Jason Carter always felt there was some profound lesson in this, but he was young at the time and only vaguely understood that you had to be careful at night...

...

The next morning, the street was noisy. Jason Carter got up, pulled aside the curtain, and saw the band’s group heading out of town, accompanied by a familiar face.

That person was an old hunter from the town, very skilled. He looked quite happy walking beside the band’s staff, as if he’d finally gotten the chance to meet someone important from the barrier.

In fact, many people in town had made their fortunes this way. It seemed that if a noble from the refuge barrier let even a little slip through their fingers, it could make someone rich.

So-called “riches” meant opening a general store like William Martinez.

Jason Carter had once asked William Martinez why he always tried so hard to curry favor with people from the refuge barrier whenever they came out—after all, not everyone from the barrier was a big shot, right?