When Phobos thought about people like Fred it wasn’t like he couldn’t understand where they were coming from. They were working in a dead-end job constantly feeling oppressed by their superiors and society, feeling like they have no freedom at all. Maybe some of them are living in a financial dept adding another shackle to them.

So when society collapses they feel like they have become “free”. Not realizing that change in the overall situation doesn’t necessarily mean change in themselves or their status. Some have this misconception however because they begin to have access to a previously unavailable resource, that being females even if they are highly unwilling.

Then they mistakenly calculate this access to females as their new social status. Although somewhat true it was not as nearly as potent as when society was around. In the past when females desired males it reflected the status of the man and his competency but that didn’t mean this status disappeared if women weren’t around. The availability of willing women was only a small result and indicator of status rather than the main factor.

Although in the short run when the apocalypse happens forcefully acquiring that status symbol does represent your power in the group but there is a high chance the bigger the group becomes the less available women would become for such people. If they are not on the top of the group the less they will become valued and their life would become a hundred times more miserable than when society was around.

It would be even worse if in the near future some form of law or social stigma was reenacted. After all, only a mentally abnormal few would view a rapist who tormented dozens of women as a high-status person. That being if it was public information. If it was behind the scenes and hidden from the public an assaulter could hide behind a powerful social position. There were a lot of such people in the previous society.

Of course, there may be a few competent men that would benefit from the restructuring of society such as now. However, they are way less likely to abuse women because if they show that competency there would be no shortage of willing women to be with them. All the points were made for men but that is not to say the same does not apply for women but their tendency to sexually abuse others was generally lower.

After a few hours of improving the basement, Phobos felt that it was enough for the day. The staircase had already taken shape and he was making the basement. While improving he didn’t have to place much attention on the project but he had to move around and keep contact with the place he wanted to improve. His ability had a radius of about one meter from the point of contact. For now, this was his only limiting factor of just staying in the middle of the room and improving the whole thing.

So if someone were to watch Phobos as he was improving the basement he would see a barefoot man reading a book with one hand and sliding his other hand on the wall. The man was slowly walking and where his hand gilded though and where he stepped the walls and floor were constantly retreating making the space in the basement vaster.

In reality, Phobos was improving the wall and floor so that it was stronger and what he was using as the material was the dirt and stones behind the newly formed wall so it looked like it was retreating but in reality it was just becoming more compact.

Phobos walked up the stairs that were already finished and exited the basement. There were no lights installed yet but his vision had improved to such an extent that only the residual light coming from above through the staircase was enough.

Phobos went to the main area of the restaurant and saw that everybody was there. Most of the women were arranging the appliances that were gathered from the mall and other places but Hera who was usually the most active had left her directing role to Diana and was in one corner of the hall exercising.

Phobos went closer and observed her for a few minutes and could only marvel at what she was doing. Although he felt that his ability was a bit special Hera’s was magical as well. She was going through simple flexibility exercises and if you look with no knowledge of what really is happening it would just feel like she was doing standard stretching.

It could be said that these positions were useless for Hera because the constant boost provided from her word Perfect was improving every possible thing which of course included flexibility. She however had found a way to stop the enhancements which were improving her physical abilities and made exercising “harder” but left on the enhancements which improved her growth potential.

In practice what she was doing was “lowering” the exercise difficulty by two times and still gaining twice the results. Phobos who was on the side found it a bit amusing because through the link he could feel that Hera felt that it was harder to limit her ability than to do the exercise.

While observing he found another special thing while Hera was exercising. When Hera did any movement there was a natural correction provided by her Perfect ability. She had something like an instinct ingrained in her that was telling her what was the perfect posture when doing the exercise.

This didn’t apply to just the exercise but to everything. When she was aiming at the mutants this morning she constantly knew how to make the perfect shot. Even while just walking there she naturally felt what was the perfect way to do it. That didn’t mean that she was controlled by this instinct. If she were to be, she would be nothing more than a “Perfect” robot.

However, Hera was perfectly capable of imperfect actions and decisions. Even if she felt that some action would lead to a more perfect result she can choose to ignore it in favor of the overall picture. The most simple example being the fight in the mall.

With Hera’s ability, she could have taken care of all the mutants with ease when following her perfect instinct and hitting perfect shots every time and taking the most efficient method to reload.

However, even if she found the perfect opportunity to shoot every time she left most of them because the whole mall fight was meant to train Anna, Megan and Alice to be able to survive in a life and death situation.

In reality, Hera was artificially creating a dangerous situation. After all, if they were to fight mutants one on one they would feel safe with Hera next to them because they have seen her take care of multiple mutants already.

However, if Hera was to place them in a situation where the girls would feel it was fatal even if Hera knew it was not, that would be perfect for their survival training. The situation in the mall was perfect for that because everyone would logically think that a swarm of dangerous creatures was lethal.

Sadly Phobos showed up and when he was there Anna, Megan and Alice couldn’t feel the mortal danger Hera was expecting because they had the knowledge that he was very powerful and with him, on the sidelines, they would be fine.

In normal circumstances, Hera wouldn’t want to use such a way to prepare for danger but for now, this was the most correct choice. If it was at normal times she would try to instill skills in them and maybe make a few dry runs on how to utilize those skills but at this moment the most beneficial thing to learn was how to cope with the stress of a moral situation even if you don’t really have the necessary skills.

At least remaining calm enough to function was needed and Hera was trying to expose them to the illusion of such danger so that if they are alone at some point they would be able to struggle for their lives to the best of their abilities.

At the same time, she was trying to teach them skills needed for their survival such as shooting but these can’t be learned in a day. Sadly they didn’t have the luxury to learn leisurely and safely as the danger was ever-present. So squeezing every last drop of their underdeveloped skills despite the stress of a dangerous situation was all the more valuable.

Hera didn’t think that they coped badly in the mall but she would have to expose them to more “dangerous” situations so they can acclimate their minds to be able to face even the most desperate of circumstances.

Anna, Megan and Alice were in the back installing the newly obtained washing machine none the wiser. Although there wasn’t a need for it for now as they had acquired loads of new clothes from the shops on the strip however at some point, they would have to reuse clothes so it was nice to have.

Phobos looking at the stacked appliances which were still in boxes felt that the electricity generated through the solar panels would be nowhere near enough to power all of them. So when he thought of that he started the simulation in his mind to improve the solar panels. His goal is to double the efficiency of the solar panels. Then they would barely be able to keep up. It would be nice to find more solar panels as well but that was up to luck.

Phobos took a seat on one of the tables and looked at what Eve was doing. She was exercising her ability as well but she looked a lot tamer than Hera. In reality, however, she was a lot more dangerous at the moment that is why she took a seat at the most corner table of the restaurant.

She looked like she was just watching the palm of her hand but she was trying to control her power in the range of her palm. Eve didn’t need to train her ability so that it was more deadly because it was plenty dangerous already. Phobos couldn’t think of a way to counter her ability at all. He felt that if he was touched by it he would disintegrate and morph like the table she tested on. His only defense against it would be to stay far away from Eve so she can’t use it on him.

That is why she was mainly focusing her attention on the control of her ability. The better she could control it the more cost-effective she could make it. So that she could use it more consistently.

She was also trying to differentiate the disintegration and the distortion of her Chaos ability but the word it represented was making control all the more difficult. Eve felt that maybe trying to control Chaos in the first place was the wrong direction.

She stopped for a few minutes to think about it and started again this time not trying to deliberately control it but to follow her instincts and let the Chaos roam however it wanted. It wasn’t contained to her palm but crazily swirled around her whole arm.

However, at the same time, it was quite tame and even when she placed her palm on the table it didn’t react because Eve didn’t want it to. In the same token when Eve started to want to distort the table the Chaos swirling around her arm reacted and followed Eve’s wishes.

A few drops of cold sweat fell off Phobos's brow when he saw Eve dropping control of her ability and it started going crazy but then he saw that she had gained even bigger mastery over it he relaxed. For Phobos, at the moment Eve’s ability going berserk may be his biggest worry because he can’t do anything against it.

He could try to prepare for almost anything else but such an ability that didn’t conform to the physical laws was hard to guard against. Phobos was well aware that he can’t control everything in life but he still tried to be prepared if something was a possibility.

The most basic example was that he kept an umbrella in his car because he knew he couldn’t control the weather. Another example was that he left a few of his assets totally under his control so that even if everything except the world economy goes wrong he would be fine for the rest of his life.

However, he realized that he can’t be ready for everything as with the world level EMP even the world economy was destroyed, more so society as a whole crumbled. In theory, he had made preparation even for this with the fully self-sustainable, off-the-grid mansion he had built but of course, the apocalypse would start when he was a thousand kilometers away.

So the only thing he could do if Eve's ability was to go berserk would be to calmly watch with the foreknowable that it would happen. He would be able to somewhat control his emotions as the Chaos devoured everything as he was mentally prepared for it to happen. Of course, Phobos did, as they say, he hoped for the best and prepared for the worst.

However, looking at the table being distorted following Eve’s motions put Phobos a bit at ease. He was all for her exploring her ability as best she could and trying to figure it out. If she were to suppress herself and restrain the use of the ability he would be more worried.

Nobody knew much about the abilities people have awakened but Phobos felt that if she suppressed her ability if someday it was to lose control she wouldn't have the facility to prevent it as the ability would be foreign for her. She would be in the dark as to how to best utilize it and minimize the damage.

Even if it was dangerous to temper with her ability at the moment it was a lot better to do it now when it hadn’t grown much than to leave it to grow to a level when it becomes really destructive. And Phobos was sure that it would reach such levels.

He could feel that their abilities were becoming stronger by the day. Even when he was disconnected from the free energy of the world. Even if he were to not access the energy from the connection with the girls it would still grow. If he were to only eat for survival purposes it would still grow.

When the “EMP” hit although it brought a lot of death, destruction and misery, to a few it brought a big gift. Although a bit human-centric Phobos felt that this “gift” was the main goal. This was brought upon by an instinctive feeling that was echoing in his whole being. It was almost like a message being sent to him when he awakened his ability.

Phobos didn’t know how to feel about this. Although it was nice that he had gained an interesting ability and he had mentality grown a bit but he wasn’t sure if it was worth it. Even if he were to exclude the suffering brought about this change on a world scale and only focus on himself he still wondered the same.

Phobos believed or at least hoped that most normal people would question it as well even if they were the lucky ones that gained abilities. However, that hope was extinguished a bit when he thought about how much destruction and suffering the human race had brought about upon itself and dubbed it “the price of progress”.

After all the appliances were allocated in places suitable for them all the women went to the kitchen and started preparing meals. Phobos didn’t join them because he felt it was superfluous but mostly because he was feeling lazy. Although there was a bit of change in his temperament but that didn’t change him to the core.

The two most distinct impressions Phobos left on males were unfeeling and lazy. The unfeeling part was wrongly interpreting his calmness which was indeed a bit abnormal but the laziness was right on the spot. Although he tried being a bit proactive but everything being done for him most of his life had bred a personality that was hard to muster the will to do things that weren’t actively entertaining for him.

Women were not included in those impressions because the two most common judgments of Phobos left on them were beautiful and handsome. If they were to have more contact with him and escape the most surface view they would sense those two as well. However, in their concept, they would be distorted a bit.

The unfeeling that men felt women would read as emotionally strong and the laziness they interpreted as authoritative, him expecting the work to be done without his input. There can be a lot of adjectives women use to describe him. Domineering, self-assured, self-confident, imposing, dominating. It didn’t matter what they decided, they were blinded by his physical features and just chose the adjective that was most attractive to them and applied it to Phobos.

Even women that were entirely under self-control if they were attracted to males then they had some bias towards Phobos. There were a few cases of women mostly attracted to other women who found Phobos irresistible.

This didn’t matter much as most women are sensible creatures and things wouldn’t progress much further than a more favorable impression of Phobos however this is where Eve usually entered the picture. When she saw a bit of desire in the eyes of women she deemed worthy to sleep with Phobos she would go to them with an offer of companionship for a night.

Eve didn’t have a set strategy, she read the women and tried to steer them towards a favorable outcome. In most cases she didn’t have to push much, she only made sure that they were comfortable with two things. First that it was mostly a one-night affair and second that there would be a written form of consent that would protect both parties.

Eve liked to share Phobos’s greatness with the most women possible but she was careful not to bring legal troubles in the future. She wouldn’t have to worry about this anymore but she felt that she would miss it a bit. Although she had to burn her brain quite a bit to make most of them agree but there was fun in doing so. However now she had a new challenge that was convincing the most women possible to sign the contract Diana brought about.