Phobos has two options at the moment. The first one was that he could let this semi-intelligent mutant go with the possibility of it killing people in the future. The second was killing it despite his moral code and saving the worries of this mutant doing something bad in the future. Phobos was thinking of which choice was less destructive, it may be obvious to some people but it wasn’t so simple.

If he were to let the mutant go it may kill some people maybe even a hundred people but there was only a chance of this happening. Phobos didn’t know the mind and future actions of the mutant so this was the worst-case scenario.

If Phobos was to kill the mutant he would be breaking his principles and if he were to do that for every little thing at some point he wouldn’t tolerate a being against his world view being in his vicinity. Especially with his growth in power, it is expected that his influence would exponentially increase in the future which meant higher destructive potential.

The second development might seem like the worst case as well but Phobos knew himself. If he were to start making decisions without accounting for the ethical implications and only base them on his likes and dislikes, he would become a tyrant in no time.

Theoretically, he had a third option of expelling the mutant from the human settlement area but most people wouldn’t choose that. It was more economical just to kill the mutant. Phobos however decided to do just so immediately after he thought of that option.

It was a hassle and didn’t guarantee that this mutant wouldn’t kill any humans in the future but it would limit that possibility. He wouldn’t have to break his beliefs as well and this was more important to him.

Although Phobos thought of a lot of things in his head but since he looked at the mutant only a few seconds had passed. Now he was thinking of how to capture the mutant without hurting it too much. Even if it had a bit of intelligence it was unlikely that it would peacefully go with him.

Phobos took a water hose that he had placed on the cart and left his sword on it. He wouldn’t be using it so it was better to leave it so that it didn’t hinder his movement. Phobos was thinking of using the hose to tie up the mutant so that it couldn’t struggle and would transfer it to outside the city.

It was a bit whimsical doing this but Phobos would rather compromise his leisure than compromise his mind. His peace of mind is more important than his peace of body. If he can put a little more effort into something which in turn would help him sleep easier at night he would try to do it.

Phobos stepped closer to the mutant and it in response tried to make itself bigger and scare Phobos away. The more he looked at it the more it looked like an ape. As it was transformed from a human it was like a hairless ape but the tough skin it had was preventing it from looking strange.

As Phobos was coming closer and closer to the mutant all of a sudden it jumped from the shelf trying to attack him. This could be read as aggressive tendencies and could warrant the elimination of the mutant but Phobos knew that it was a normal reaction of a creature fearing for its safety. Even tolerating him coming so close was commendable.

Phobos took a step back and made the mutant miss him by a few centimeters. When it landed, It immediately tried to smash Phobos head with its right paw. Phobos seeing it strike calmly held up his hand and stopped its long arm that was flying like a whip right towards his face.

When the strike connected Phobos had to take a step back because he underestimated the mutant's power. Its pure strength was comparable to Phobos. He wasn’t that worried however as when his speed, eyesight, reactions, and reflexes were combined with his strength it outclassed the ape-like mutant.

There were a lot of other improvements in Phobos that were influencing his overall strength but these were the most relevant in this case. He was trying to take the mutant unharmed but the problem was that he didn’t have much knowledge in grappling. When the fight started his improvement ability reacted automatically and started working on that aspect utilizing the simulated reality in his mind.

That meant that he was improving fast but until he was perfectly capable of taking the mutant unharmed he had to stop a barrage of attack the mutant was throwing his way. It would have been smarter to just improve his grappling ability before the fight started but seeing how small the mutant was he didn’t think it would have been such a problem.

The ape-like mutant was constantly trying to wail on Phobos with all its strength but every shot was read and blocked before it even reached full momentum. Phobos knew why he was having a hard time. It was way easier for him to totally incapacitate and kill a mutant than to capture it alive and unharmed.

Especially it would be easy with his sword skills that he sometimes improved when he was bored. Sometimes when he improved a skill it felt like he was playing a virtual reality game in his mind. Sadly improving items wasn’t that fun.

Especially items that had no technical difficulty like the basement. At least in a complex item, he learns and is engaged in the task but if he were to once again have to concentrate to make hundreds of bullets which was a very repetitive task with no stimulation he would rather disappoint the expectations of the group.

Thankfully that didn’t have to happen because of his new automatic improvement mode. If he were to do something repetitive he would just leave the work to it.

With the constant attack, Phobos was getting better at blocking and dodging them. After a few intense minutes, Phobos was confident enough to start. In one of the many strikes, Phobos timed it perfectly and caught the arm of the mutant. He pulled it towards him so that the mutant lost balance, got behind it and from there it was easy.

Phobos made the mutant fall to the ground while still controlling its one arm. Then he took control of its second arm and used the hose to tie them up behind its back. The mutant was constantly struggling but there wasn’t much it could do. Phobos was dissipating its power before it could fully initiate a riot.

Phobos made a few loops on the hands because he was worried that the power of the mutant could snap the hose. He repeated the same with the feet and then tied the feet and arms together behind its back.

The range of motion of the mutant was limited to the minimum. Phobos wasn’t satisfied however so he measured his strength perfectly and struck the back of the mutant's skull so that he could shock its brain and make it fall unconscious.

He could have led with that and tied the mutant afterward but the calculations for a blow that would make the creature unconscious without being lethal with opposite acting forces i.e. the mutant trying to strike at Phobos was a bit complicated. When dealing with the amount of force Phobos and the mutant were displaying every little difference could lead to a lethal blow.

And having no data on its durability was another matter. Phobos analyzed the bearing threshold of the mutant with his ability before striking. He didn’t have the leisure to analyze it while fighting.

Having the mutant unconscious and tied Phobos placed it on the cart. He had gathered most of the essential things for starting a garden of which in reality he only needed the seeds so he left the store and headed towards the cars.

He passed by the slaughtered mutants and went out of the mall. He started loading the garden supplies on the muscle car which took up the trunk space and the whole backside of the car.

Just as he was about to put the mutant on the front seat Hera and the women walked out. Seeing her walking towards him he stopped his movement.

“Hey, boss. We finished. Most of it is electronics that would need your help so when you are free please do tell me. What’s with the mutant?” After asking she looked weirdly at the mutant. “Are we going to experiment with it?”

“Although it is a bit special and has experimental value you know I don’t like that.” Phobos shook his head and dispelled her thoughts. “This is a mutant that has shown some intelligence and I don’t want to kill without a reason. I’m taking it out of the human living space so it is hard for it to give me one.”

“Again with this boss. Why do you have to give everything the benefit of the doubt? It is way more practical to just end it even if there is the slightest possibility of it harming us. This is just a waste of time and valuable energy spent on the ethical concerns that you know have to impact on a larger scale. You should know this best boss.”

Hera was a bit confounded. She knew that Phobos was well aware that this creature living or dying didn’t make any difference in the world. More so they may be thousands of intelligent mutants dying any minute.

“Hera, you still don’t understand. You value practicality most of all while I value my own psyche and mind the most. It doesn’t matter what happens with anything when I am not there but once I am in the picture I would like to travel a road of no regrets. It doesn’t matter if this mutant dies immediately after I leave it out of the city but it matters that I have thought of the consequences of leaving it in the city and of the moral implications if I were to kill it outright.”

Phobos saw that Hera had changed a bit after him clearing her mind. Before she would have just said “Yes, boss” and help him carry the mutant in the car. However this time she questioned his decision but still took the mutant and placed it in the front seat of the car. Phobos smiled at this and he felt that it was a good change.

“Whatever makes you comfortable, boss. I will take the girls back to the restaurant. Be safe driving around.”

Hera closed the door of the car and went to unload what they had found in the mall. Phobos saw that it was mostly appliances like washing machines and dryers but there were some smaller items that he couldn’t make out.

Phobos wasn’t that keen to find out however as he would soon be improving it and would naturally know what it was when he did so. Looking at the mutant that was placed in the passenger seat he stopped and thought for a few seconds then he got in the car.

He drove quietly the whole way. The mutant didn’t wake up and there were no interruptions while driving. The only inconvenience was the cars left in the middle of the road which he had to circumvent.

Phobos reached the edge of the city in half an hour and when he approached a heavily forested area he stopped driving. The trees seemed bigger but Phobos couldn’t really tell. He got out of the car, took the mutant out as well and after tying it he placed it in the forest.

Then he got back in the car and headed towards the restaurant. Phobos thought about what Hera said and evaluated if it was worth it going out of his way to leave the mutant there. After thinking it through a few times he didn’t think there was anything wrong with it.

Phobos had noticed even though Eve, Hera and he have comparable intelligence each one uses it a different way. Hera was focused on practicality, acquiring knowledge and utilizing that knowledge.

Eve was a lot more people-oriented. She was good at reading and directing people. Finding and recruiting talents was what she excelled at. Phobos hadn’t thought about what his use of his intelligence entailed because he was quite sure he was just wasting it.

However, now that he thought about it a bit while driving he felt that he may have just used it in a different direction than both of them. Since he was young he had been focused on ethical dilemmas and his own peace of mind.

The closest definition for Phobos would be something like a philosopher however his strong dislike for deliberate learning limited him a bit in that regard. His dislike for learning most likely came from his early encounter with it but didn’t entirely know why.

However, he did like to go to the park to look at the people walking around and thinking of ethical conundrum then trying to find an answer to it. Phobos wasn’t conscious of this aspect of himself before he just felt that he liked going to parks and people watching with no other meaning.

So if Phobos had to define the use of his own intelligence he would say that it was centered on his spirituality and being in tune with oneself. He would never say that out loud because it sounded incredibly pretentious but that was what he was basically doing. Trying to live life with the least possible regrets in it.

When he finished his thought he saw that he was in front of the restaurant. He had unconsciously driven all the way back. Phobos got out of the car and entered inside where Diana was eating.

“Hello, sir. Welcome back.” Diana stood up and bowed a bit to welcome Phobos. “I apologize for my transgression this morning. I don’t know what came over me. I just couldn’t control myself.”

Phobos looked at Diana who had overcorrected a bit and had returned to a formal address towards him. He did have a bit of intention of a small punishment when he took her to the point of delirium this morning but didn’t foresee her returning her conduct to before they were intimate.

He was about to tell her to act more unreserved around him but he stopped himself. When he thought of the nature of the contract they had signed he felt this may be more appropriate. Phobos wanted her to choose how she acted around him and didn’t mean to force her to do anything.

He didn’t know how serious she took the contract but just in case he felt that he should be careful with his words. Although he felt that he was always careful with his words now he would have to double his efforts. If she were to take the contract as gospel a single careless sentence from him could have huge consequences.

Phobos didn’t think that the situation was that serious but there was nothing wrong with being careful. He felt that being careful with your words was a very nice character to have. If being aware that his words may be potent helps him be more careful with them then that was fine.

“Nevermind. When you finish eating there are some things in the car which you can transport in here.” Phobos waved at her to indicate he didn’t mind and then pointed towards the car. “ I shall be going to the room continuing my project. If there is any need for me you can find me there.”

Phobos passed by Diana and continued inside. Before going into that room he went around the restaurant and found a few books. While he left his ability to improve the staircase he wanted to occupy the rest of his mind with something and as there is no network connection this was the next best thing.

He could call one of the girls to entertain him but the lost hand of labor for the base wasn’t worth it. In the first place, he didn’t view the girls as entertainment objects so the thought never even crossed his mind.

Phobos started upgrading the staircase and the simulated world in his subconscious took over. His intelligence declined a bit but it was enough to read the books. He couldn’t wait until society got together enough to make entertainment once again.

Now that he didn’t even have computers much less the internet he marveled at how before they had endless amounts of entertainment in all kinds of forms. Even the books that were in the internet space were a lot more numerous than the ones that were printed.

Of course, it wasn’t so bad at the moment. It was not like he had consumed every single book he could find in a 100km radius and was starving for one leisure moment. The pure fact that he was even thinking of entertainment was an indicator that the basic needs of water, food, shelter and safety were quite well covered.

Most likely nobody else had even the remote luxury he was living in at the moment. That is not to say there weren’t some people exploiting the chaos and having a lot more “free” lifestyle than they had before.

Fred from Don’s group was one such individual. He felt that this was the best time of his life. Although he had to suck up to Don, the number of women he received in return was more than he had even dreamed about when society was intact.