"On sale, huh." Ares looked up at the giant, wide lettering with numbers in and above the fifties that meant absolutely nothing, He wouldn''t be surprised if this shop was doing that thing where they just pretended everything was on sale even though the price changes were negligible at best, if they''d even changed at all, as Ares was willing to bet his left nut such a tactic wasn''t illegal. The Federation really did place the ball in the court of the businesses, and not the consumer, with the expectation that people would tone their scummy practices down when competition forced them to because others were offering a better product without all the hoopla. To some degree this had worked out but, for certain businesses that were simply too large, they could shrug off whatever losses they suffered as a result of being caught doing stuff like this. They probably made more in the short span people fell for it than they did over the long period where people tried to stay away from their business afterwards. They might even replace the old customers with new ones who were none-the-wiser so such things were a common sight. Ares didn''t much care if he was being scammed or not, though, because he was one of the people who had enough money to just not care. Having over four hundred high grade for a shop like this, humongous though it was, was very clearly overkill. Even still, he wouldn''t pay an exorbitant fee for anything he didn''t think was worth it. He was being a bit freer with his money but he wasn''t going to just chuck it all away and they would have to actually offer him something worth buying if they wanted his hard-earned stardust!


    As for the shop itself... Well it was basically just a warship converted into a multistorey building that had even been expanded upon to be more vertically imposing. The lower layers were for ordinary folk to go about their daily needs and do some grocery shopping, maybe buy some clothes, etc... The higher up you went, though, the more expensive stuff became and it was to the point that even Ares wouldn''t dare step foot on the top floor as there were priceless antiques that would put him so far in debt if he broke any of them that he would be creating Shock Beads for this company for the next hundred years! Given his propensity to go boom boom ballistic on people, if he got into an argument on that floor specifically, he might even destroy multiple and, at that point, Ares would have to flee Sheryashka and take on a new name to avoid the debt collectors.


    Ares, funnily enough, did have another name and identity planned out for whenever he might need it as going undercover as a cultivator was something that could be a rather important skill to know at times. If you pissed anyone off, or just wanted to get around without being spotted instantly due to your status, then changing up your look and name was a great way to take the heat off. Up in Vraizon, Ares would be a little concerned about the Legions and so he was going to use an alias whenever he was on a planet populated with them or even just generally during his travels to remain undetected. If they wanted to track him down for whatever reason then they could do it the hard way! This was part of why he wasn''t making it known to others what his alias would be so they could be completely forthright with the legions and tell them to get lost because they really had no idea where their sect master had fucked off to. He had more than just one idea for various disguises but that was all for the future and he was only joking about the antique breaking thing. They wouldn''t dare hunt him down because he would just kill them and come back for seconds to drive home the point that Ares was not to be trifle with. Also, if anyone picked a fight with him up there then it was their fault to begin with! Ares wasn''t the kinda guy to start wailing on some random person for no good reason!... Unless your name was Aejaz, in which case he''d done that twice already... Though, arguably, that was for a good reason!


    Ares strolled inside, and made sure to keep an eye out for Aejaz who was more so interested in a ''100% off sale'', while taking stock of... Well, the store''s stock! They really did seem to dip their toes in just about every market as, though it was some distance away from the entrance, Ares could see a tech department store from here. This would probably be the most expensive area in this store on this floor, in particular, and it almost didn''t belong here. Realistically, this should have been a floor or two up from here for the richer folk to indulge in but it was novel and new enough to the civilians doing their shopping that it could catch their eye and have them interested on the off chance they come across a wind-fall. People who came into money unexpectedly were typically big spendthrifts so showcasing to them neat luxuries they could afford if they got a promotion, won an event, or got gifted some money by a bored noble was all a good way to get them hooked beforehand. It would fester in the back of their mind.


    Technology was mostly uncommon for the people in Sheryashka but those that had it knew how addictive it could be so even just a hint of an extract of various games, films, conveniences like phones, or other such devices would leave a taste on people''s mouths that left them wanting more. The real despicable thing here, though, was that the Federation businesses, the big ones anyway, were aware of the deal they had with Neo Gear to manufacture technology on a large scale for the sake of Sheryashka at large. They were still amping up the prices for these things now despite knowing they would become cheaper later, due to their mass production, by a significant margin. The buyer''s remorse for people who were sold this product now, only to see it on the shelves for not even half the price in a few years, would feel betrayed! Not that it would matter by then as the sale would have been made far too long ago to raise a fuss. This was the type of evil things that got these businesses to be this big in the first place as manipulating customers who weren''t in the know, and didn''t have the right connections, could be extremely easy depending on your information network. It was like stocks if you had a cheat sheet for the immediate future, of course these businesses were always going to come out on top! ''The house always wins''. Of course such underhanded methods were everywhere as places like this were rotten to the core so Ares was going to have to double and triple check everything he wanted to purchase here no matter how big or small!


    Aejaz was veering off towards the book section as he''d run out of stories to read back home and so this was as good a chance as any to stock up on some as well as find something to keep him busy during the trip. As he rarely left Red Sun for just about any reason, he was stuck with the same old bookshop that basically never updated their shelves or got any of the newer books added to their stock. Sometimes, if Aejaz was lucky, he''d find a travelling salesman or something that had what he was looking for but the book front had been really running dry as of late and he was in the mood to get more trashy crap to pass the time with. After that he''d probably go look at stuff like playing cards or dice so that he could continue to rob people of their stardust in ''legitimate'' head to heads. Sure, stealing from people who were unaware was great and all but sometimes he really just wanted to look his victim dead in the eye and smile as he openly took everything from them... He had a bit of ugly side, this one did! Other than that, maybe he''d shop around for some new clothes, perfume, or skin care stuff as was typical of him. His Hans contracts had earned him a decent enough chunk of stardust, especially when factoring in the ten high grade Ares gave him earlier, to splurge a little. He wouldn''t spend it all but he would at least treat himself while searching for gifts for his partners.


    As for Ares, there was nothing really he himself wanted so he would just keep an eye out on the various isles as he walked around. If he saw something that caught his interest then he''d take a closer gander but, until then, his main focus was on buying gifts! The first, and most obvious one, was bubble wrap for Appa. It was its favourite toy and Ares had to make sure to stock up on the stuff so that it didn''t run out any time soon. That was something that could be bought back in Red Sun, though, so Ares didn''t count it as a real gift, just a pleasant surprise. Ares was thinking he might try and sneakily wrap the shade up in the bubble wrap, like it was a kind of blanket, while it was asleep if he could manage it without waking Appa up! So back to the real gift... What to get happiness incarnate? The very embodiment of ''I need nothing because smiling is free''...


    Honestly, Ares was struggling with this one. He could maybe just buy some standard toys and see what went down well with Appa but it already had bubble wrap and Huggles, the teddy, so it sort of felt like a waste. Food was a no go because, even though Ares could store it with the Blade, Appa couldn''t eat it unless Ares made it into a Snappa. At that point, Appa would much rather just have toffee apple anyway instead of whatever he brought back so that wasn''t a good choice either... Ideally, he would find some kind of treasure on the higher floors that allowed Appa to temporarily become human but that was a serious shot in the dark and Ares couldn''t imagine such a specific treasure would be so conveniently for sale... The only thing Ares could think to do was leave Appa''s gift for now and give it some more thought during his trip. He still had a return journey on the Federation after he was done with his adventures and, though it would be much quieter and quicker than this one, without the Firestarters causing trouble and with the various convenient gadgets taking effect, he could still pop by to this shop and pick something up then. Ares felt bad for not being able to pick out a gift but he didn''t want to half ass it and just pick out any old surprise so he figured this was for the best for now.


    Thus, Ares was now focussed on the sister wives. Everyone else in the house was closer to Aejaz than to Ares so his brother could get them presents instead! Ares wasn''t a charity!... Though he was more than ready to waste money buying a gag ''gift'' for Rud just to see his reaction. In the end, Ares wouldn''t go on to buy the old sod some anti-depressants, but he definitely gave it a lot of thought during his shopping trip! Anyway, first up, the easier of the wives, Enyo. You''d think sex stuff would be more of a gift for Ares himself than for Enyo but it really wasn''t. She liked that kinda stuff and had spent a LOT of time at Bea''s ogling the goods as of late. Ares didn''t even know of half the crap she''d bought from there recently but it was no doubt piling up and ready to be piled on when Ares was least suspecting it. Anyway, getting her something along those lines would make her happy so, even though Ares felt weird buying it as a gift, he ventured to the racier sections of the shop by his lonesome. It''s not like this was the weirdest thing he''d done on the Federation thus far! Compared to dangling off the front of a boat while upside down, and washing his hair in the ocean, this was nothing!


    The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    As for what he was going to buy her, his eyes were glue to one thing and one thing only. He was adopting very much a ''when in Rome'' sort of outlook here and figured a sexy swimsuit would suit his and her needs and tastes very well. He had been wondering what type up until now, Brazilian, monokini, something classier... But the second he saw this his heart jumped for joy but something was very wrong here. He was feeling off in the head, like he was getting unusually aroused at the thought of Enyo in this thing. Sure that was normal to an extent but he was almost losing his mind here! This was a serious issue because he was moving towards the thing to buy it without any hesitation as his excitement downstairs was single-handedly propelling himself forwards. It''s not that Ares was coping with his inability to control himself, he genuinely knew he had it in him to do so, it was that this behaviour was unsettling him as it reminded him of the time back in Baja forest when he dug out his own optical nerves. His body was on autopilot like some kind of horny zombie and it was embarrassing as all hell!


    "Echo."


    Ares lightly cast the old classic art on himself and that seemed to awake him from his stupor as the pain was a good counteraction to what he was in the middle of doing. The swimsuit in question was downright dirty as it was an extreme micro slingshot that might as well have not even existed considering the amount it covered... Or more like didn''t, really. It was a skimpy red and utterly derogatory but that was actually precisely why he wanted it, he''d treated Enyo like a queen long enough and he wanted to change the dynamic up a bit. She''d look splendid in this, and really ignite a fuse in Ares, but that was beside the point, he should have been able to handle the imagery! Yes it was exciting but to the degree he had a full on erection and was mindlessly zoning out? He''d seen the woman naked in the flesh and he hadn''t been so caught up in his pervasions!


    There was definitely something amiss here so Ares scouted out the lady-wear section, which honestly just made him look even more out of place, but he did eventually find the culprit! Incense! And no just any, either, it was a type of incense that brought on a sense of arousal just like an aphrodisiac. It was potent and mind numbing which lead to dulled decision making and encouraging outrageous spending. Had Ares not snapped out of it, he would have gone on a spending spree because of this thing driving the steering wheel in his pants! The worst part is that, normally, this would be a highly illegal sales tactic but, due to a shifty workaround, it was not only legal but also something they were outright flaunting in everyone''s face! The incense was sat proudly in the centre of this area but the catch was that it had a price tag underneath it! It was ''technically'' a product, and one relevant to the department as it was good at inciting lust, so nobody could complain about it being here... Provided you ignored the blatantly ridiculous and unaffordable price! 100 high grade! Like hell anyone on this floor could afford to buy it! And then that meant it was here to stay, to keep ''legally'' infatuating people with idealistic images of their significant others as it drove them to make purchase after purchase! What an terrible company this was... They knew full well nobody was ever buying that damn incense so it was free to keep working its magic twenty four seven... No wonder so few people were around this place, it was a death-trap for wallets everywhere! Screw this noise! Ares went back to the degenerate swimsuit, which would suit his degenerate wife perfectly and make her look like a bimbo-ish slut when she wore it, and took it with him while leaving as fast as he could from this place! The quality of the clothes here was great but man was the general ambience and sales tactics not it! If Ares, a pretty powerful cultivator, almost fell for this then what chance did a normal person have?! Granted it might have had a more potent effect due to Enyo''s beauty being otherworldly but even still...


    Ares decided not to think about it as he ventured over to the perfume section as he was looking for some aphrodisiacs fro Enyo. She liked them, they could heal her and maybe even improve her cultivation, and she was in the market for them but Bea didn''t have any at this moment in time. It would be a new tool in her arsenal, to toy with Ares with, but hey ho, emphasis on ho, it was what she wanted. Ares had no idea what sort of smell she would appreciate so he just picked a few different ones to get a variety and scarpered quick before he could fall prey to whatever schemes were lurking in the shadows! Ares had never felt so driven to get his shopping over and done with this quickly before! On that note, he almost ran straight past something that was a perfect gift for Bellona. He already had one idea for a gift but that didn''t mean he couldn''t get them more than one. If he wasn''t buying for everyone in the house then multiple gifts per person was in the cards and Ares had already even picked up some skincare stuff for Enyo who was starting to get really into that world. It was like she was fascinated with seeing how beautiful she could make herself look as a sort of challenge. Now, was that all to lure Ares into the bed? Abso-friggin-lutely. But, again, this was becoming a hobby of hers and Ares was more interested in facilitating it precisely because she found it fun than because he did too. It''s not like he was buying this stuff for Blo Blo as she''d probably just stick it in a corner somewhere and forget about it not even a day later.


    Bellona was perfectly content with her normal skin care routine of ''do nothing''. cultivators really didn''t have to put in much, if any, effort so she was always good to go on that front compared to people like Enyo and Aejaz. Getting back on track, the section that Ares nearly skipped over entirely was a ''model'' section and it was a fair bit pricier than the other departments on this floor. There were various replicas of famous places, people, and objects throughout Sheryashka''s history and, though Bellona usually couldn''t care less about stuff like this, there was one that she might actually really appreciate. It would be a bit expensive, and so was her other gift funnily enough, but since when was Ares one to cheap out on his wives?! As such, he went to go talk to a nearby clerk and gave them his temporary address aboard the Federation to have a miniature car model delivered at a later date. It seemed like some famous guy from days gone by actually owned a vehicle in this domain! What a rare sight!


    It was a vintage classic, the make of which Ares didn''t know (because his knowledge of cars was near non-existent), but it was a long and decently chunky car. The bonnet was roughly V-shaped and slightly higher up than the bumpers which looked like chubby, curved cheeks. There were about six conical lights on the front that would presumably click as they turned on to vaguely illuminate the road ahead with what little light they were capable of providing. It was a classy vehicle as there was no roof, an extremely thin, rimmed window, and two red leather seats. The smooth, glossy black paint job tied it all together and it looked like the sort of vehicle that would be leading a political cavalcade with an important figure sat comfortably in the passenger seat, waving to the onlooking crowd. It was certainly stylish and even Ares, with no sense of taste for vehicles really, could tell that it was a beauty. The scale was roughly such that the entire model was about half an arms length long and a palm length high so it was respectably sized but not so massive that there would be nowhere to put it. Ares knew deep in his gut that Bellona would love and cherish this thing so he couldn''t help but buy it even though this wasn''t the main gift he was getting her... Actually, really, this had just turned into the main gift if anything! Ah well, she could be happy with her two gifts and prefer whichever one struck her fancy the most, as long as she liked them that was what mattered... The only issue here was that now Ares was concerned he wasn''t spending nearly as much on Enyo but had to banish that thought because that was a death spiral! He would keep accidentally raising the price until he was broke at that rate! Enyo was a simple woman to buy stuff for and she wouldn''t care about the price discrepancy! Ares could just take her out for a meal or something, and devote some time to her, as well and she''d be content so no more thinking about price tags!


    And so, Ares headed over to the tech department to pick up the final gift. A tv and film player set for Bellona to watch some of the bargain bucket films they had for sale here on. He''d been intent on picking something along these lines up for her at some point anyway so, despite having to pay a bit extra to get it quicker here and now, Ares wanted to do it. Sure he was spending a fair bit here, and would maybe come out of this place with only about 350 high grades remaining (meaning he''d spent upwards of 60-70 on the stuff he''d picked out so far), but this was a rare occasion and he really wanted to treat his wives to a surprise once he returned. He could be careful with his money afterwards but not today! Today he would throw caution, and his money, to the wind for a good cause! Seriously, what kind of cultivator would Ares be if he couldn''t earn more money anyway!? With his skillset it should be a breeze! Plus there were still more issues to resolve on the Federation and so his income here wasn''t quite over just yet! Besides, when it came down to it, he was in a fantastic mood for getting such a brilliant haul of perfectly fitting stuff. He couldn''t have asked for better gifts to be sitting about in this shop!... Well, something for Appa would have been swell but that was different because he didn''t even know where to start. There was truly a lot for sale here so the issue wasn''t the shop, although thinking back on the incense trap this place definitely did have other issues, Ares was the real problem. What kind of shmuck father was he that he didn''t know what present to get his daughter?! It was a hard choice, to be fair, but one he still needed to make regardless! Anyway, when all was said and done, Ares had gotten good mileage out of this place so he figured, just in case, he would round up Aejaz and go check on the other shop as well... Of course, walking straight into ''enemy'' territory after having just visited their warring rival was not a particularly great idea...