Then he will ask for payment and leave.

They will pay him and wave and be very very happy.

He waves back. Such polite people, didn't even collectively try to shoot him with their totally understandable automated fiend defenses.

It should be approximately morning by now! Are there any markets? Any technology around that he might possibly be able to buy with his new money?

He's not sure how expensive drugs are here. He hopes he has enough for some things, and he supposes he can always trade for more if he needs it.

It turns out things are actually very cheap in Zanarkand, generally. The words "post scarcity" might come to mind: people work on developing things and doing art and keeping society running and most menial jobs are automated.

Oh, that's neat! Sort of. Extremely jarring with how the rest of the place is.

He'd like some technology, please, probably. What do they have, anything interesting?

They don't exactly have a list of what needs or wants someone who isn't from a basically post-scarce machina city/country might have.

… Do they have anything on display, though? He's not super sure what tech level they're from and he's assuming they don't have weapons, but do they have general purpose computing or perhaps defenses of some kind or – even phones, like, they lacked, totally, long-distance communication. Walkie-talkies more like, since, lack of cell towers, but still.

...of course they have weapons, what kind of barbarians does he think they are?

They have computers of a sort, perhaps not as advanced as those Theo is used to, but they also have pretty good AI. And yes, they have phones, what in Zanarkand are cell phone towers and why would you need them to call people?

Cell phone towers are used for if your phones have to be able to function over rather long distances, but they apparently don't have these here. The pretty good AI sounds interesting, and he's curious what the range is on the phones if they have tested that, and also– never mind, he was sort of assuming weird things, can he buy weapons or does he need some sort of permit?

Just what kind of—whatever. Yes, he does need a permit. And their phones work pretty well from anywhere in Zanarkand to anywhere else.

He's assuming that's to mean they haven't probed the actual boundaries, they've just ensured they work well enough for their purposes. Which works, that's fine.

Okay, well, he'd like a couple of phones – maybe a few if they're not too bulky – and a computer with the good AI if he can get all that with his money. Then if they could direct him to where he could get a permit or information for what he needs for a permit, that'd be wonderful.

Phones are pretty and small and thin and Aesthetic and available. He is going to need to be more specific about what kind of AI he wants, it's not like they've cracked general intelligence yet. As for the permit, he needs to go to this building and file a request.

He doesn't know what sorts of AI there is available. Any that are good at predicting attack patterns or projectile movements or… something?

Kinda to the first, yes to the second.

Does he need a weapon license for one of those, then, or can he just get one anyway?

He does not need a licence for that, no. But he does not have enough money for it anyway.

… So is there any chance any of them happen to want gold or gems or something? Jewelry?

Can he make them into pretty things?

He can in fact make various things of jewelry, yes, or he can 'carve' or 'sculpt' the gems or gold or whatever into pretty things, but he's not super artistically inclined so if they could, like, suggest pretty things that they'd want to buy that would be appreciated?

Well they need to be original pretty things, if they're like the pretty things other people make then people can just buy them off other people.

So they continue to not be materially scarce, okay, got it.

Anyone know about things like drugs where there might be supply and demand? Not recreational ones, please – valid choices like selling to hospitals, that sort of thing. He can make things if he can picture them. Not technology. If people have blueprints and want buildings – he's assuming not, since there's no construction – or if people want him to help them sculpt something with more ease or something like that, he can do that?

...what's wrong with recreational drugs?

He's personally not a fan of them. In societies less– material-scarcity than this, they often result in people getting addicted and/or abusing them. He'd rather use that as a fallback if they're really sure there are no other things, and he's pretty sure there are other things he could do, seeing as how he was able to help the hospital.

People are very confused about this 'addicted' or 'abusing' thing, like, how is that anyone's problem, how is it any different than video games...? And yeah there are other things but like drugs in general aren't super easy to make so he could make them and that'd be cool.

… He'd like to know more about what drugs they have and what side effects there are before he decides to make them, and he's still not super happy about doing it.

He might go talk to some sort of authority in the city to check this information.