"Yes, I will pay without fail," Manu said.
"Then I also have a condition. You need to hand over your ID card, and you need to pay 100 rupees to get it back. If you are okay with it, I will take you to the other side," the man said.
"What? 100 rupees? You are scamming us because it is our first time," Srini said.
"Okay, we will do it," Manu said.
Then Srini called Manu to the other side.
"What are you doing? We don't even have a single rupee. You are promising him 100 rupees, and he is keeping our ID card till then," Srini asked.
"Do we have any other way?" Manu asked.
"And I will believe in you. Show your talent," Manu added.
Then Srini smiled and said, "Don't worry, I will do it."
They both went and sat on the boat.
"And I also need your locket which is on your neck," the man said while looking at Manu.
"What! ... Come, Manu, let's leave. We will ask someone else to take us to the other side," Srini said.
"My only belonging which barely reminds me of my mother's face... but to get to the other side, I need to do this," Manu thought and said, "Okay."
"It is the only thing which—" Srini was saying, but Manu interrupted, "Don't worry, I will get it back."
Then the boat started moving.
The other side was a place that held the remains of past cities and towns where humans once lived before the invasion of the Black Guards. It was also a resource-rich place for the present people to earn a living. If you were able to find something in high demand, you could become rich. But to get those things, you had to risk facing evolved animals. These evolved animals were the same ones that once lived on Earth, but after the alien invasion, they had become highly dangerous. Their bodies had changed, and even normal herbivorous animals became aggressive at the sight of humans. Anyone who entered their territory would surely be killed.
Slowly, Manu and Srini began to see land through the fog. Before reaching it, the man stopped the boat.
"Now take out your ID and the locket," the man said.
"What? We haven't reached the land yet, and you are already asking for them?" Srini said.
"What if you both run away after getting off the boat?" the man asked.
"Okay, take them. But you must not lose the locket. If you do, I will make sure you never ask anybody for anything again," Manu said with a serious face.
Then they both handed over their ID and the locket, and the boat started moving again.
"More than half of the people who go without a group will die, do you know that?" the man said.
"What if we come back?" Srini asked.