The son of the conglomerate was still alive and obnoxiously well.

“Why did you kill these people?” she shouted at the top of her lungs.

“Why else? They’re trying to jump inside my ride, of course, I’m going to shoot them,” said the son of the conglomerate in a nonchalant manner. As if taking a life was the norm for him.

Maria was seething in rage. The injustice she saw was pushing her rational mind over the edge. Even the sake of survival was pushed aside.

She was about to grab her gun but a hand grabbed her wrist. She turned and saw Jason shaking his head side to side.

“Don’t,” Jason whispered.

“But,” she wanted to refute.

“The airstrike,” those words made Maria realized the reality.

Gritting her teeth, she pushed the urge of killing that son of a bitch deep inside her heart.

“Chop, chop, Det.Lopez. I don’t have all day,” the son of the conglomerate hopped aboard the helicopter as he waited for Maria.

“I need to bring my people with me,” said Maria.

She brought over Gina, Eugene and Eugene’s parents. The son of conglomerate barely glanced at them. He saw Gina and Eugene and he wasn’t disappointed. Again his tongue licked his moist lip.

“Sure, whatever. The old people can go to my sister’s helicopter. While you three can come here and have a little chat with me,” the son of the conglomerate scooch over as he tapped the empty seat beside him.

The son of the conglomerate was pushing Maria’s nerves to the maximum. His obnoxious acts simply irritated her.

“Ow,” Maria felt pain on her wrist. She noticed Jason’s grip tightened.

She traced back to Jason’s face and saw him at his limits. He too was enraged by the attitude of this man. Something rekindled inside her heart. Maria wasn’t the only one annoyed by the action of the son of the conglomerate.

“Hey,” she called out to Jason.

He glanced at her. Out of sudden, her face drew closer to Jason, catching him off guard. He felt something caressing over his lips, a sense of nostalgia swept him over. He didn’t deny the bold approach as he responded in the same manner.

Eugene and Gina gasped in surprise. While the son of the conglomerate who saw this farce was clicking his tongue annoyed by what he saw. The sister who saw it from the other helicopter laughed at his brother. She knew that the act they just did was slapping her brother's pride right across the face. She definitely didn’t mind seeing her brother raging around since his so-called future woman had been stolen.

Jason and Maria shared a bit of time ignoring the looks on other people's faces. Their lips parted away as they shared a gaze. A gaze filled with longing.

“That’s for leaving me,” said Maria as she chuckled.

A dumbfounded look flashed across Jason’s face.

Wait, what does she mean by that?

“What do you-” he was about to ask her but someone interfered.

“Get on. We’re wasting time here,” the son of the conglomerate was impatient.

He didn’t want to see those two being lovey-dovey again. Although he wasn’t that attracted to Maria but him already declaring Maria as his own within his own train of thought already put Jason on his chopping block.

“Come on, let’s get on first.”

Maria grabbed Jason’s hand and dragged him to the helicopter. The rest followed them from behind. The other people who were waiting at the staircase looked at them in envy. Out of desperation, a few people rushed over towards the helicopters. They knew the only way out of this city was through these helicopters. If not, only death awaits them. The men in black opened fire as they saw the incoming unwanted visitors.

“Stop!” Maria turned and was about to stop them from shooting. But Jason held her by the waist, holding her off.

“Don’t Maria, keep it in,” he tried to talk some sense into her.

She turned her head down resting upon Jason’s shoulder. She couldn’t bear to see it happened. Her justice fill heart was at a junction. Her morality was questioning herself, was it worth it? Her life for the rest of theirs. Soon, they were a few feet away from the helicopter.

“Maria, get inside,” said Jason. But seeing Maria still affected by the meaningless killing, he held her face with both of his hands.

“It's going to be fine, let's get out of the city,” he said.

Maria nodded in response. Jason wiped her wet eyes from breaking into tears. She turned around and took a seat inside the helicopter. Jason was about to sit beside her but a hand blocked his path. It was one of the men in black.

“No, no, not you. You’ll be hoping with my sister,” the son of conglomerate spoke and his intention was clear.

“No, he’s coming with us,” Maria didn’t agree to this.

“Maria, it’s fine. It’s only for a little while,” Jason calmed Maria down.

For a moment, he thought back of how he was disgusted by this woman. Someone who once cheated on him. But that lost emotion was coming back at him, was he this stupid to fall for someone like her again? Or was it the sentence that she last spoke made him thought otherwise. He held her hand for a while and let it go much to both side's reluctance.

“I’m not leaving my parents,” Eugene didn’t agree with the seating arrangement.

The son of the conglomerate gave her some leeway and waved off with a gesture of his hand. Both parent and daughter hugged in joy. Being separated was the worst-case scenario for them.

“If your sister is here with us right now, we would have been a whole family,” said Eugene’s father.

Their search for their younger daughter came to naught. They couldn’t find her and within these pressing times, searching for her would be impossible.

“Don’t worry dad, Eunice is a fighter. She’ll survive through this,” Eugene tried to soothe the hearts of her parents. Although she herself didn’t know whether that was possible or not.

“am I paying you to wait? Get a move on it,” the son of the conglomerate shouted at the soldier driving the chopper.

To be frank, if it wasn’t for his superior orders he wouldn’t do this kind of job. Being told what to do by a snobbish rich brat was tarnishing his pride. Yet what the soldier could do. He followed orders like usual. The chopper flew off the rooftop as they took their flight first. Meanwhile, Eugene and her parents took a seat at the last chopper strapping up their belt buckles waiting for lift-off.

Jason was about to sit beside Eugene but his instinct was yelling at him. He ducked down and a gunshot rang in the air.

“No,” Eugene shouted seeing the man in black taking a shot at Jason.

Maria who was a few feet up above the rooftop turned her head downwards after hearing a gunshot. She saw Jason being shot and she shouted from above, “No!”

Jason was brimming with anger. Someone took a cheap shot at him and he won’t play nice. He grabbed the horn sword tucked behind his back and unleashed a wild swing at the one behind him.

“Argh,” the man in black staggered in his steps before his whole body fell into two. He didn’t know what just sliced him. But it didn’t stop there. The men in black who sat inside the chopper aimed their guns and shot at Jason.

Shit.

Out of desperation, Jason leaped up to the sky and twirled his body around. But these men were professional as they easily adjusted their aim. Eugene who was at first frightened by the first gunshot calmed herself down and took the initiative. She tried to disturb the man in black that sat beside her from shooting.

But she was helpless. The back of the gun struck her at the head knocking her out cold. Jason, on the other hand, dropped on the floor as pain wracked his entire body. He knew his attempt in dodging a bullet at this short range was impossible. The helicopter started to lift off as the men in black didn’t stop shooting at Jason. Bleeding from the gunshot wounds Jason ran as he tried to take cover.

All points to energy.

“Ugh,” he fell on his knees as a few more shots made their way to his body.

If it wasn’t for his energy guard on cooldown, he wouldn’t have been in this situation. He would have slaughtered them all like cattle. Bright green light enveloped his entire body as he managed to found cover behind a stone statue.

Minor Heal+ level up to level 4

His skill leveled up but he wasn’t in the mood to enjoy it. He should have seen this coming, being backstabbed by a degenerate. Jason ducked down as they kept shooting at him even after lifting off. Soon the helicopters were out of reach. Jason emerged from behind the stone statue and stared at the sight of his path to salvation leaving him through the air. Jason stared at the first helicopter as he saw Maria yelling out something that he couldn’t hear. They were people trying to restrain her and it made Jason’s blood boil like magma.

He thought about using Wind Cutter but that would endanger the lives of Maria and Gina. But then out of nowhere, a loud explosion deafened the air.

BOOM.

Eugene’s helicopter was blown into pieces.