Unaccustomed to being close to someone enough to be held, Aria stabilized her body and moved away from the stranger's embrace before throwing over a word of thanks.

Aria: "Thank you."

The first thing that Aria thought was that the man was tall, coming in at 6'1". He was dressed in a dark pair of slacks and a black long sleeved shirt, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His chest and shoulders were wide, his body slim and tight under the fabric.

Very nice. Aria was a little happy inside to see such a yummy looking eye candy unexpectedly. Her mind hoped his face would be as handsome as his body as her eyes swept up to his face.

He was more handsome than she'd expected. His face was beautifully handsome with a sharp jawline, his lips soft and his nose straight and high. His eyebrows dark and thick framing cold dark eyes. The man has a beautiful otherworldly aura, like he is untouched by the normal hardships of daily life and relationships.

Still, a handsome man.

Tsk. Too bad good looking people are not good to have around during the ZA. Once society collapses, morals and ethics soon fly out the windows once the land becomes lawless. Good looking people were either easily gobbled up by those more powerful who covet their looks, use their looks for personal gains of wealth and power, or if they are powerful then would be the main subject for others fighting over them.

But it's well known that good looking people during the ZA are all troublesome.

Aria's quickly threw away the momentary automatic yearning she had to possess beautiful things and quickly got her mind back to reality and assessed the situation.

The bathroom is now blocked with the crowd of females screaming in fear. Everyone was running away from the group of 'bad guys' who were almost upon them. The crowd became more chaotic as they jostled everyone around them. Aria was knocked once again onto the man and his group, her body squeezed to his side. Even though she doesn't feel much pain since her body has been enhanced with the system cleanse and the gold ability, she is still annoyed by being touched.

The man's group consisted of 3 other people, 2 strong looking men and a shorter thinner young man standing on the other side. Each strong looking man immediately positioned himself in front and back of the more handsome man. They both glanced down at Aria and were about to forcefully move her away from their boss when they were stopped by him and urged to deal with the more urgent situation ahead.

A dozen figures clad in matching dark attire and dark helmets that covered their whole face appeared in front of the group. Since Aria didn't know what was going on, she didn't want to take the chance of taking out any weapons which would alarm the surrounding people.

One person from the group immediately threw a small disc right in front of Aria's group and pressed a button. A flash went off and everyone within the 10 feet radius of that disc was momentarily stunned and fell down to the ground including Aria.

Aria's body was still pressed to the large male's side when the flash happened. The male's arm naturally held onto Aria by his side as they fell, his eyes widened in worry at the fact that he was leaning towards her during the fall which will result in the majority of his weight on her.

But nothing could be done and they both fell down, his body partially on top of hers. To outsiders, the angle of their body looked like he was protecting her of danger.

Aria: ...

Aria: What the f* was that?! Did they just tased me?

Aria became angry at the thought that these a*holes just showed up and tased her out of nowhere!

—-

Kal Zhang looked down at the female under his body. Her face was partially covered by the mask she's wearing but he could still see her thick eyelashes peeking through the silky and shiny black hair scattered around. Her eyebrows were slightly furrowed in pain which might be his fault since the majority of his weight is on her.

Kal is not a person who likes to be close to anyone, especially females. Due to his attractive looks, bees and butterflies tend to flock to him. It annoyed him to no end when he was younger. When his father remarried a woman who was 21 when he was 15, the young stepmother couldn't resist making moves on Kal, trying to seduce him repeatedly. Touching him while walking past him, bumping into him while barely wearing anything, and finally trying to trap him inside his bathroom with her so she can tear his clothes apart.

He was a strong and tall young man even at that time so he successfully escaped from her clutches. He immediately rented an apartment nearby school under the guise of needing a quiet environment to study. He also hired people to keep an eye on the stepmother, suspicious that once he's gone, she would find another target for her infidelity. It proved to be true.

When she went to Kal's school to find him after he moved out, she encountered a classmate of his, Sean Lin, who she quickly groomed for a short 3 months before starting an affair with him. Multiple video footages and evidence were compiled and packaged to Kal's father. The Senior Zhang immediately divorced his young bride without leaving her a penny.

She's smart enough to hook an older rich man but completely left her guard down once she got him. Kal truly does not understand the logic of that.

After that, Kal has always had an aversion to any attractive female who tries to catch his eyes. For over a decade, he has a small team that prevents any female from getting close to him by doing a deep background search on them then collecting evidence of their conniving ways to hand over a copy to them if they pushed him too far.

When he was younger he would give them chances, choosing girlfriends who look innocent and have gentle demeanor. But he found out those fragile flowers are the most poisonous. Now he doesn't care for any females to be close to him. They all have secrets and are too troublesome. Now he only feels indifferent to their looks and apathetic to their words and actions.

But this warm soft body suddenly underneath him is making his body respond unconsciously. It's been years since he had a woman in his embrace. Her head was so close to his that he could feel the delicate strands of hair tickling his face. Her scent wafted into his nose bringing a clean floral smell from her shampoo.

He breathed in the feminine scent deeply before his body was rudely lifted by rough hands away from her.

——

Male 1: "Quickly, grab them! Leave the two big guys. They should just be bodyguards and don't know anything."

Male 2: "How about the female, sir? She was sheltered under them when they fell."

Male 1: "Female? I haven't heard anything about a female... just take her too. Hurry, we have 5 minutes!"

The group of "bad guys" grabbed the bodies of Kal, Kal's assistant Judes, and Aria from the floor and carried them out of the airport while continuously shooting the discs at the security personnel.

S4: Aria, the disc they shot out earlier shocked your body for 5 minutes so you can't move and also temporarily disconnected your mind from the space button.

S3: This type of weapon was never recorded during the ZA so the technology must be experimental or limited.

Art: Can we take this machine? The space button disconnection is not an issue for you but rendering your body's movements is a big no-no. I suggest taking it now since once it's stored in a space button, we won't be able to get another chance to get our hands on it again.

Aria: Little Eros, go invisible and grab that machine now!

Eros did as instructed. The man holding the weapon was about to take another shot at the airport security personnel at the door but was shocked to see the weapon disappeared in front of his eyes.

He only had a get to utter a surprise sound before he was shot in the neck and fell down. Not seeing the weapon in the dying man's hands, one of his teammates immediately shot him in the head and they all rushed to the waiting van at the curb.

Eros took everything on the body at Aria's command leaving a body wearing only a pair of slacks and shirt. The teammates of the dead man did not notice this anomaly since they were too busy making their getaway.

The three kidnapped victims were thrown into the back and their hands and legs were tied up before pushing the three together against the wall.

Aria again was pushed against Kal's side, her soft body pressed up against his larger and harder frame.

Great. She only appreciated his good looks for one second, why are they repeatedly pushed against one another???