"You are bringing her along?"
"I have my own legs, in case you didn't notice."
Zarek didn't even have a chance to reply before Priya stepped in, a flash of annoyance on her face.
Inside, Zarek chuckled. He didn't even have to speak to Priya—she knew how to act even without him saying much of anything. Though, it helped that she probably would have responded like this anyway.
The fatter of the two was a bit surprised before he laughed.
"A little firecracker, I see. Apologies, apologies."
Priya was even more annoyed by this comment, but she just took Zarek's arm, nestling it into her chest as she gave them a glare.
The man chuckled awkwardly and then led the way.
"Please, follow me. Like I said, the timing on this is a bit important, so we'll be setting out quite soon."
"Sounds a bit unorganized," Priya muttered.
"Well, it can't be helped. We aren't soldiers. Most of us are just citizens who awakened decent enough Talents. Speaking of which, we'll need to write yours down."
"No, you won't," Zarek said with a smile.
"This—"
"What are your names again?" Zarek asked as though he couldn't see their stat screens.
"My name is Jean," the fatter of the two said.
"Salman."
"Mm. Nice to meet you, Jean and Salman. But I don't have any plans on explaining my Talent to you all. My girl won't be doing so either. If that's unacceptable to you, we can just go elsewhere."
The two looked toward one another.
By this point, they had already reached the first floor. But rather than being at the entry foyer, Jean had used a key to open the back door of the elevator, revealing a worker's lobby that was usually restricted to the public.
It wasn't too much of a surprise that the elevators still worked. After all, this high-rise didn't have a Godsfall Tear right on the top of it. But as the Godsfall in the city began to increase in concentration, until more advancements were made, they would probably lose these luxuries for a while.
The moment they appeared, several gazes landed on them, many wearing mismatched equipment from treasures they had been lucky enough to pick up.
Compared to Zarek and Priya, who were still wearing quite normal clothes, they actually seemed more prepared by comparison.
Priya was wearing a pair of form-fitting jeans and a long-sleeved grey shirt. It looked quite tight on her, but Zarek was approving of her choice for more reasons than just how good she looked.
Her gun was easily accessible and a clear deterrent to others, with it being in plain sight like this. Plus, those jeans might have looked like jeans, but the material was very stretchy. If one thought she would be stiff or inflexible, they would be in for a rude awakening—if a bullet didn't drive through their foreheads first.
As for him, he just wore a pair of sweats and a white T-shirt. He had strapped his pair of machetes onto his back. As for his own Desert Eagle, it wasn't easily spotted at all, tucked into the front of his pants by its holster.
Even so, Zarek didn't laugh at these people, as funny as some of them looked. In the apocalypse… these were the smart people.
'Hm?'
Zarek raised an eyebrow. For the first time, he felt a little resistance when scanning someone. It seemed that some Scouting Skill counters had begun to appear.
Unfortunately, the counter was too weak in this regard.
Name: [Gabe Oliver]
Role: [N/A]
Core Stats:
[Strength: F+]
[Dexterity: E-]
[Intelligence: E-]
[Endurance: F+]
[Charisma: E]
Talents:
[Special Counter: F+]
[Abilities: Repulsion]
[Your senses toward Godsfall and its effects on you are very sensitive. Feel it out and reflect them, resisting those that seek to pull you under their influence or do harm to you]
[Unawakened]
[Unawakened]
'Oh… So it's not a Skill… It also mentioned Godsfall directly instead of saying energy somewhat vaguely…'
Zarek looked at the young man who was now staring back at him. Clearly, his Talent had allowed him to feel Zarek's probe, and he could only frown as he also realized he couldn't do anything to stop a C-Class Master Scouting Skill right now.
As for Zarek, he didn't seem to care that the young man had noticed. It was a risk he had been willing to take. While he could take advantage of the fact most couldn't stop his scouting, he would use it to the fullest extent.
But this was unexpectedly huge.
For context, even Priya's SSS- Growth Melaloon Talent only used the word energy and not Godsfall. This was part of the reason why the word Godsfall had taken so long to become part of the common lexicon.
Those that had Godsfall directly mentioned in their descriptions were often known as the Cursed, labeled not much differently from the Turned.
They tended to live extremely tragic lives, and they were also examples of those sturdy pillars in time that Rebirthers often represented.
Zarek didn't expect to find one here like this. That should mean that it would be a very long time before Gabe's curse flared up.
'Useful. Very useful.'
A curse flare-up was like an anchor point in time. These anchors couldn't be changed no matter what, but that didn't mean that they couldn't be used.
There were other useful anchor points as well. But this was definitely among the most useful.
Zarek smiled. "Sorry, sorry. I didn't expect anyone to sense it. That's my bad."
Gabe was taken aback by Zarek's candidness, but then, noticing that he was just a kid, a bit of the oddity was peeled back. While Gabe was young as well, he was already in his twenties. Compared to the 18-year-old Zarek, he felt like he was still looking at a child.
"Your stats are pretty crazy, though. Seems like this isn't as much of a clown show as I thought it would be."
When Zarek said this, the gazes on him became several times more intent. Even Jean and Salman couldn't help but frown.
Before anyone else could say much, though, there was another click of a door and a man dressed in a pressed suit entered.
Zarek recognized him immediately. He was the CFO of GFI, Zade Occam.