CHAPTER 42: IS THE LESSER EVIL STILL EVIL?

Valentina spent the whole morning thinking about Kaito’s message, but in the end, she couldn’t trust or believe that man... He was someone evil, just like her father, Kenji, and that kind of revenge would never please her. On the contrary, killing the Vice Mayor only took away her chance to interrogate the man. Personal feelings aside, what did Kaito want from her?

They were past the point of being friends and were declared public enemies. What did he want with this message? To prove that her father was innocent? And what about the other crimes he had committed? The worst part was that Kaito had also become a criminal, just like his father, and he deserved everything she did to him... She remembered to this day when she saw in some of her father’s documents that not only were her mother’s killers still active in the city, but Kenji’s son Kaito was their new leader...

It was on that day that she decided to pursue a career in the police force and bring justice not only for her mother, but for everyone who was harmed by these criminals...

Before Valentina could sink deeper into her thoughts, another police officer interrupted her again:

"Captain, the commissioner just arrived at the police station, Detective Bennett is also with him!"

"Quickly let them in!"

"Daughter, are you okay?" Luis said in a tired voice as he hugged his daughter.

"Yes, Dad, how did you get here without a vehicle?"

Before she could say anything else, she saw the Vice Mayor’s head on the table and was startled. "That’s... What happened?"

As Luis Morales approached the box and the head, and read Kaito’s message, the system sent several alerts to Valentina, while Detective Bennett approached smiling:

"I have some vehicles that still work. I went to your house this morning and found your father there... It’s good to see you’re okay, Captain..."

"Bennett, you’ve been asking for leave all week. I thought you were one of the ones who got sick..."

"Well..." Before Bennet could explain anything else, Valentina finally looked at the system messages...

[The number of survivors with future knowledge of the apocalypse has decreased by 1! Only 14 left!]

[The number of survivors with future knowledge of the apocalypse has decreased by 1! Only 13 left!]

[You have found Detective Bennett, one of the 13 survivors who know about the future of the apocalypse!]

[The Sentinel Field’s range has been doubled!]

New optional quest:

-Find and protect the other 12 survivors who know about the future of the apocalypse!

***

And it was thanks to Bennett that Valentina discovered a lot of information about the apocalypse... Bennet told her everything, leaving nothing out, and she continued doing what she could to help various survivors around the city while preparing for the coming winter...

She also managed to become a level 3 mutant, but she still hadn’t gotten any skills since those skills cost 2 or even 4 special tickets... Despite surviving the attack of the flying man, all she got was 1 ticket that wasn’t enough for anything... Since the level 3 store also had the same punishment of double prices...

Therefore, Valentina could only admire from afar the skills they had inside the store; there were also many skills that strengthened and improved their Sentinel Field, making her have incredible abilities...

After finding out about the Vice Mayor, Luis Morales spent a few days in the police’s physical archive, and began to believe the information that Kaito had given them, this is because he discovered that the Vice Mayor was an important politician at the time, with strong ties to organized crime, these clues helped to understand a little more about the whole conspiracy that occurred at that time... But Valentina and he left that aside, as they both had the same values and would never seek justice with their own hands. Besides, all the main culprits were either dead or had already disappeared...

Kaito’s messages never stopped; he sent messages every day, and even pictures of his many luxuries... Constantly teasing Valentina, and even trying to recruit her officers with good food, comfortable beds, and a well-heated house...

It was because Kaito attempted to recruit her men, that Valentina took to the streets with 12 of her best officers to fight and exterminate a zombie horde, in a desperate attempt to finally collect the points needed to buy the generator that would keep her group warm, in the city of Aethoria that was getting colder with each passing day...

***

Unlike Valentina, Kaito’s life was peaceful and fun as if he had never been happier in his life... For the most part, he just ate, slept, trained, or spent quality time with his harem of lovers and girlfriends, who now knew of each other’s existence, but due to the apocalypse ended up accepting the whole situation...

Just like Valentina, Kaito also received additional missions after the apocalypse began, one of which was called Pest Extermination...

Kaito had to eliminate at least 100 mutant rats in the sewers of Aethoria every day, and he would easily earn 50 Vanguard Points... The rats also gave additional points for each kill. So he easily had a lot of points. The best part was that he never set foot in the city’s sewers... This was because, unlike Valentina, he had his Vanguard Drones, which were sent to deal with any low-level threats.

Together with his Vanguard Field, his drones daily eliminated any non-human threats that entered his "Hunting Ground", the name given by his men to the perimeter of the hotel where they were all staying...

The only problem was that the ammunition used in the drones, which were improved by the system and the store’s weapon reinforcement, still had a very bad effect on level 2 zombies. Therefore, Kaito left these targets for himself or his men to deal with. Another disadvantage of this ability was that it used his space energy core full time, as well as the stolen suit, leaving the hotel to be powered by generators, which meant that fuel still needed to be collected daily to power it...

Setting up a base in the hotel on the first day also gave Kaito a level 3 crystal, and he finally advanced to become a level 3 mutant...

The level 3 shop was something that made Kaito even more excited, not only did it have many abilities related to his new power, but also abilities that further enhanced his Vanguard Field, giving it many new uses...

But just like Valentina, Kaito didn’t have any missions that gave him the so-called Special Tickets...

Until one day a mission came up, Kaito despised the mission very much and even wanted to refuse it, but the ticket as a reward was the one thing he couldn’t refuse under any circumstances...

[Emergency Mission: High-Level Threat!]

-A powerful mutant is flying through the Skies of the capital, protecting the group of police officers on 27th Avenue.

Reward: 1 Special Ticket

Kaito reread the information and understood what he needed to do...

***

On the balcony of the largest building that had a full view of 27th Avenue, Kaito jumped from the ground and reached the 30th floor in an instant, while a propulsive energy burned in the back and feet of his suit...

Up there, on the balcony of the building, he found an old acquaintance using a sniper rifle to observe the street and cover the police officers who were fighting against the horde... Bennett was startled by the arrival of the man dressed in an extremely modern battle suit and still crackling with energy due to the use of his motion booster.

"What do you want, Kaito?" Bennett said, returning to his duty of observing the Captain and the other men of the department.

"If I say I came to help, would you believe me?"

"Hee, no way!"

"Why did you turn down my offer, Bennett? You’ve always been one of the men on my payroll..."

"I have no interest in working for you anymore, and besides, staying by your side could cost me dearly again..."

Kaito looked at Bennet with calculating eyes and asked, "I heard that all the cars the police are using came from you... It’s quite a coincidence that you have the necessary cars, isn’t it?"

"You have a lot of cars, generators, drones, and now you even show off an item stolen from our arsenal that somehow still works, what a coincidence, huh?..."

"Haha, okay, you’re right... But if you want to know more about this, you can come to my hotel and talk to me, I’m interested in any information you have too... Now, you need to evacuate your men in less than 1 minute from 27th Avenue, send them all to the sewers... Or don’t blame me if they die to whatever’s coming from the sky..."

Bennett put down the sniper and started using binoculars to observe the skies, and when he finally saw a floating figure coming towards the policemen it was too late, he noticed in the flying man a familiar power that he had only seen in his memories of the future, but he didn’t remember the name of that power...

The thrown blade reached absurd speed and went straight for Valentina, who fearlessly raised her shield and used it not only to defend herself, but to reflect the power to the mysterious man...

A type of light green armor broke as the Valentina’s counterattack hit the man in the sky, and at that moment, Kaito, who was next to Bennet, pulled out a sniper rifle twice as big as Bennett’s own, and his entire suit and weapon shone with a transparent blue light before a loud bang almost left Bennett deaf.

"BANG!"

Bennet didn’t have time to observe whether the shot hit the man or not; he saw Kaito jump out of the building, running away, and shouting one last time for them to go to the sewers...

He took a deep breath and shouted into the radio to Valentina:

"VALENTINA, TAKE THE MEN TO THE SEWERS FAST!!!"

After shouting, Bennett also ran, abandoning his equipment and sniper rifle, running down the stairs as fast as his level 2 mutant strength allowed him and hiding in the basement of the building for several hours, still afraid of the human figure in the sky, before finally confirming that he was gone...

After that incident, a few days passed, and Valentina finally obtained enough points to obtain her precious generator. And Kaito finally obtained the first ability of his newly discovered Universal Force...

At the same time, snow began to fall in the capital of Jyera, marking the beginning of a long and difficult winter. With the arrival of the snow, three visitors also arrived in Aethoria... Two were state-of-the-art androids, sent to Jyera to serve and protect the Observer, and the last was one of Vice Admiral Thulliver’s subordinates, known for having the Universal Force of concealment...