What an annoying day, first I had to look after some strangers and they even began to show some hostility only because I wasn’t acting like their babysitter. Not only that, when we returned, I got questioned about the survivors' wounds. It was a pain in the ass, but they were right. I shouldn’t try to train them if they want to be protected, then that’s fine. Instead of getting experience while fighting the small fries, they should gain experience against the big guns, or die in the process.

‘Why was I even trying to train a bunch of strangers? Whether they live or die, nothing will change for me.’

Instead of thinking about that kind of thing, I began to prepare myself to hunt some monsters. Since I already broke sensorial limit nineteen times, only a new and fast type of monster would be able to ambush me at night. But even of something like that appears, nothing will change. A new challenge like that would be appreciated because it would give me a lot of evolution coins and also would train me.

Since it was still early, everyone was in the lobby. Sabrina was telling in details to Harry and Rose what happened in the entire day, and Sarah was healing the survivors. Sandra seemed to be thinking seriously about something, and to my surprise, Claire and the kids blocked my way to the exit.

“Ethan,” Claire said with a serious expression on her face. “I have a favor to ask.”

“I politely refuse.”

It was probably something troublesome; I don’t have time to waste with them. Since more and more survivors were dying every day. I didn’t mind about lending a hand to the survivors on the hotel once in a while. But I would never do that every single day.

“I want to you to help me to look after the kids tomorrow,” Claire said, ignoring my words. “We are going to test their weapons tomorrow.”

“If you have a favor to ask, then say I need your help and don’t say I want your help.”

Seriously, every single one of them is a pain the ass. But the topic interested me a little, thanks to that, I noticed that every kid was carrying a half-meter long mini-helicopter. I thought those are just toys, but it seemed to be their weapons. I noticed it thanks to the cannon and the arrows under the mini-helicopters.

“So you followed my idea, huh. I thought an adult like you wouldn’t follow the suggestion of a brat like me.”

“Yeah, I didn’t want to follow your idea because I knew that you say this,” Claire said while trying to keep calm. “But, the ideas I had were too expensive to create. While I could create those with only 500 evolution coins.”

Those were cheaper than I thought, but the kids would be able to use them even without being survivors? Could they even use MP? I guess they could since I also created the arrows before I killed the first rat, and now they want to see them in action. The kids looked at me with a lot of expectation in their eyes, they wanted to leave the hotel, and they also wanted to help us. So that was only natural.

“Well, it’s only for a day, then it’s all right. I’ll help you guys.”

The kids began to jump and celebrate, poor kids; they are so naïve. If I were in their position, I would gladly spend all my day in the safety of the hotel. But I needed the evolution coins. Besides, that place was too damn boring. Not only that, without anything to keep my mind busy. I would only remember the fact that my family left me in this area, and also would remember the criminals' faces.

“You are wrong,” Claire declared with her mischievous smile. “We will need your help every two days if those weapons prove to be useful.”

I was speechless, but soon I recovered, there’s no way that I would that. I already have my problems and aims; I can’t waste so much time helping others.

“You have no choice,” Claire declared, smiling.” It is for the greater good; besides, you are the only one with the necessary skills for the job. Obviously, I’m going too, but I can’t keep an eye on the kids and at our surroundings at the same time.”

“Greater good my ass, and of course I have a choice. No one can make me follow your orders.”

“Mind your language in front of the kids,” Claire said. “Of course, I can’t make you follow my orders. But you have to follow the council’s commands.”

“Council? What council?”

“While you were playing around with monsters, “Claire said, smiling again. “We decided to form a council, to organize the survivors’ jobs, supplies, look for other survivors, and train the new ones. Harry, Rose, Sarah, Sandra, and I are the members of the council.”

Playing around with monsters… her words annoyed me, but I decided to keep calm, she was just messing with me.

“That’s very funny, the council you created was formed by all the adults around.”

“It doesn’t matter if it’s funny or not,” Claire said. “For now, since you are a spoiled brat, you’ll have a day off every three days. Your function in this survivor’s camp will be to help me to protect the kids when they leave the hotel and to protect the other survivors when they are hunting.”

Those guys… they had decided my functions without even consulting me. When I looked at them, I noticed that they were also looking at me, but as fast as they could, they turned their heads to the other side. But Sandra didn’t; it seemed that she and Claire were the only ones who weren’t fazed by my angry stare.

However, they had a point; for both functions, I was the most obvious choice. But I also knew that they were doing that to keep an eye on me. In a way, it was pointless to help them, but it was also necessary. A single person wouldn’t be able to change anything, but many people could do it. Besides, if I refused their ‘orders,’ I would be what Claire said, a spoiled brat who only cares about himself.

“If that is the case, then I want to hear those orders directly from the mouth of the members of the council.”

“Unfortunately,” Claire said while looking at Harry’s group doing absolutely nothing. “They are busy at the moment. Anyway, those are your orders. We’ll leave one hour after sunrise; you are free to do whatever you want until then. Don’t be late.”

Claire ignored my glare and left… whatever, I just have to do that during the day anyway. I could hunt monsters at night and rest while I keep an eye on them. Without wasting time, I left the hotel to hunt. Soon I would break the sensorial limit for the twentieth time, and I was curious to see if I would receive another skill. But unfortunately, that didn’t happen that night because I didn’t find any evolved monster.

When the morning came, I returned to the hotel. And at the appointed time, Claire and the kids were still eating their breakfast. Claire was even taking her sweet time, slowly eating some apples. But I just ignored her pathetic attempt to make me angry, and I waited for them.

At the time we left the hotel, Harry’s group was also leaving, but they went in the opposite direction to look for survivors. I didn’t saw them, but it seemed that they managed to bring three survivors yesterday. Because they were still malnourished, Sandra would stay in the hotel to look after them and keep an eye on the place.

After a few hours, I fully understood my status as the kids’ watchdog. I only had to give them the direction where they could find mutant rats, and I had to keep an eye on the mutant cats. But even so, I didn’t manage to kill a single monster, all because Claire would readily kill them from a distance of more than one hundred meters with a single shot. Not only that, she always grinned at me after those shots. It looked like we were competing or something. Like I care about such things. However, I had to admit, her experience as a top-tier archery athlete and her breaking her physical limit and sensorial limit several turned times her into a monster. She was still using her first bow, and even though she never used, she always carried around Martin’s crossbow on her back.

But the field test had been a success; the kids’ weapons/toys were able to kill mutant rats with just two shots. Their accuracy was almost perfect, but while looking at the kids' controllers, I noticed the aim in the screen moving around without being controlled. It looked like it was searching for enemies… an auto-aiming function. And that thing only cost 500 evolution coins?

However, there were a few downsides. Every minute the controller would consume one MP of the kids, not only that, if the helicopters were more than one hundred meters away from the kids, the MP spent would increase. Also, every mini-helicopter could only carry fifteen arrows. Thanks to all of those downsides, we had to stop more than a few times on that day. But at least they managed to reach the halfway point to break the limits for the first time. A group of ten kids killed 250 mutant rats without even suffering a single wound. That day had been a success for them.

Since her job was to only look after the kids if she couldn’t see any monsters around, Claire on the way back was being quite talkative. I guess that was a necessary trait to be a good teacher.

“So,” Claire said while keeping the kids walking side-by-side.” What has been bothering you?”

“Mind your own business.”

I was too busy, keep an eye on every direction to waste time with a pointless conversation. Besides, there was no way that I would talk about what bothers me or not to a person who I barely knew. Maybe I was a pathetic and dumb guy, but even that had limits.

“You know,” Claire said, showing a relaxed expression.” You shouldn’t worry too much about small things. They are alive, right? That should be enough for you. Maybe you are still here because something happened to the statue they found, or they are facing another problem.”

So annoying… for her, it looked like I didn’t think about that possibility. I thought about many possibilities. But none of those were a good enough reason for me. Forget it, thinking about that would only make me upset and make me lose my focus. It was better just ignore her.

That said, even though I lost many hours without getting a single evolution coin. I wasn’t feeling that annoyed, Claire showing off and her taunts were undoubtedly annoying. But at least, I did something meaningful that day; I helped the kids to give their first step in amidst the chaos. One day, they would be capable of surviving by themselves, and on that day, I’ll feel proud because I helped them to reach that strength.

When we arrived at the hotel, we found Harry’s group and four new faces. Another group of skinny people, but at least all of them had a weapon.

“No broken bones today,” Sandra said while frowning. “For someone of your age, it seems that you have a soft spot for kids.”

“Shut… whatever.”

Even though her comments were annoying, I had to respect the elders. So I changed my words before I could complete my sentence. Thanks to that, I heard some people laughing.

“By the look of the kids,” Harry said impressed. It seems that the field test was successful, am I right?”

“Yeah,” Claire said, smiling.” Thanks to them, the population of mutant rats in the city decreased by 250.”

“That’s better than I thought,” Harry said. “My idea of auto-aiming paid off, right?”

So that was his idea, even though he doesn’t look, Harry is pretty creative.

“That’s good to know,” Rose said while she was making other plans in her head. “That means that we can use this method with those who didn’t kill a single monster yet. Although, we will have to invest a lot of evolution coins on them.”

“Miss Claire,” Frank said with his eyes sparkling. “Since we did well today, why don’t we go tomorrow too?”

“No,” Claire answered with a serious expression on her face. “Tomorrow, all of you will study all day.”

Oh, boy… the hell broke loose in the city, and those kids still had to study? And I thought that they had been leisurely living in the hotel. It seems Claire had been forcing them to study. In a sense, it was admirable, but it also looked like a waste of time.

Since my job was over; I decided to sleep a little. That would be better because tomorrow would be the twentieth day, and rested I would be able to hunt more monsters and receive more rewards.

“See you in two days, Ethan,” Claire said, showing her small and mischievous smile.” Don’t be late, or the council will punish you.”

That woman… she seriously pisses me off.