Defensive Gardening (2)

Breakfast was a cold affair.

The black wolf Fen had grabbed its food and left without paying attention to anyone.

Jordan alternated between crying into her food and staring blankly into the air with a pleading expression.

Alexei focused entirely on staring at Cyril as his damp hair slowly dried while refusing to acknowledge Jordan's existence.

And Cyril read a book about growing plants while listening to bizarre news reports on the radio and ignoring the two of them.

- Breaking news: several strange weather conditions have been spotted around the city. Piers 1-95 are currently covered in fog that is spreading at an outstanding rate. It is recommended….

- A red rain cloud has been spotted moving along the northeast side beyond the river, contaminating the water and dissolving structures. All residents are advised to…..

- A large group of unknown beasts has been spotted coming out of manholes and flooding the streets. Residents be advised…..

As he listened to the constant warnings coming from the different radio stations, Cyril turned to Alexei in irritation.

"Is this the problem? Would it kill you to use your words?"

"Didn't I say don't go anywhere? Were those not words?" Alexei replied in a blunt tone.

Cyril: ಠ_ಠ

Alexei: (˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶)

As they two of them stared at each other, Cyril clicked his tongue and looked away.

"…why so many issues at the same time?"

Alexei glanced at Jordan before shaking his head, "Later."

"Anything I can do?"

"Defensive Prep."

"Will it be enough?"

"I'll make it enough."

Alexei muttered before standing up.

"Brat, are you ready to leave?"

"I-I'm not done eating." Jordan stuttered as she held out an almost full plate.

"30 seconds to finish your food." Alexei coldly replied.

"That's too little time! And I'm- I'm still hungry! Actually, my stomach hurts owwwwwww. I need to use the bathroom."

Alexei didn't even bother listening. It was clear that she was stalling for time.

His black chains quickly wrapped around the girl from head to toe, leaving only her face free. Then he grabbed the prepacked backpack Cyril had already prepared for her, filled with a travel blanket and pillow, extra clothes, and food.

"No! Let me go! I don't wanna." Jordan began struggling as she tried to free herself, but no matter what she did, she couldn't move. Even the magic she had been secretly practicing in the bathroom didn't work.

"Stop struggling, or I'm going to throw you from the highest building in the city and see if you can really fly. Want to give it a go?"

Contrary to his gentle tone when speaking to Cyril, a voice as cold as the chains that surrounded her entered her ears.

Jordan immediately stopped struggling as tears began to fall down her face.

"Alexei. That's a kid." Cyril called warningly.

"So?"

"Be nice."

"No. Stay here. I'll be back with help, so defensively prep if you can and…" Alexei paused for a moment before holding out his wrist. "Let me reserve my room—the self-contained room for one month."

"Not a year? We can do it later."

"I can't spare the coins, and…an annoying person is coming, so I want to take care of it now so I don't kill them and stain your place with blood when I lose my temper later."

At Alexei's words, Jordan immediately became silent, all sniffling and tears disappearing, while Cyril rolled his eyes before getting the guest book.

"Here."

Cyril held out the guest book for Alexei to sign, charging him 9000 credits for the newly built room.

Once Alexei signed it with an annoyed expression, tapping the black band on his wrist against it, he quickly left with Jordan after grabbing his briefcase.

Cyril followed him outside, glancing at the beautiful sunny day and fluffy white clouds floating in the clear blue skies.

It was the perfect day when those things being talked about on the radio couldn't happen. And if he were to judge by what Alexei was saying, it would be worse.

As he was making plans in his head.

[🔔 Ding! 🔔]

[Intern Remote Orientation Task 5: Collect over 1000 Life Credit Points From Guests is complete!]

[🎉👏👏👏👏👏🎉WOW🎉👏👏👏👏👏🎉]

[Reward: 1 Employee Store Point + 1 Waystation Multi-Tool.]

A tiny silver multi-tool pocket knife on a keychain appeared in Cyril's hand, and as he unfolded it, a list of options appeared in front of his vision.

[

Favorites: 1:? 2:? 3:? 4:? 5:?

1. Fork.

2. Dessert Fork.

3. Butter Knife.

……..

206: Rake.

207: Shovel

208: Pail

209: Hoe

……………..

]

It was quite an extensive list of items, from eating utensils to gardening tools and fishing rods.

After selecting the shovel, it took a whole five minutes for the little pocket knife to change shape into a shovel that reached his elbow when he stood straight.

And when he selected Chef Knife, another five minutes passed.

"This…..is a bit useless, no?"

It would be quicker to just retrieve what he wanted from the bag he always carried.

Completely unimpressed, he double-clicked the Shovel selection to mark it as his favorite.

"Select 1."

At the command, the knife in his hand instantly transformed into a shovel.

Much more useful. And there were still four favorite slots remaining.

Pleased at the discovery, he quickly selected the remaining favorites as a Chef Knife, Axe, Saw, and Scythe before converting it back into a small keychain form and hooking it to his pants.

As he stood there considering whether to spend or save the Employee Store Point….

A new task popped up.

[🔔Ding!🔔]

[Intern Remote Orientation Task 6: 🛡️Defend Your Waystation 2/3🛡️]

[ Description: Congratulations! You have somehow done your due diligence as a member of H.E.L.P Apocalypse Co's Life Preservation Team, having satisfied the basic prerequisites of providing Food, Water, and Shelter at a price to a guest. ]

[🎉👏👏👏👏👏🎉WOW🎉👏👏👏👏👏🎉]

[Since you now have a fully functioning Waystation, it is now time to prove your worth. Defend your waystation and ensure your sanctuary spark isn’t stolen, destroyed, or absorbed by others. ]

[If you have 'Guests,' make sure to keep them alive for a bonus. If a Guest perishes, points will be deducted.]

[Current Guest: 1/1]

[Time until attack: 23:46:13 hours]

[Reward: Dungeon Locations on Map + 10 Employee Store Points.]

[Guest Reward: 10 Employee Store Points Per Guest]

[Guest Penalty: -300 Employee Store Points Per Guest]

[Penalty: 💀Permanent Termination of Employment 💀]

Cyril: ಠ_ಠ

Are you kidding me?

The moment he read the quest details, Cyril immediately wanted to strangle everything involving this trashy company.

The content was bad enough, but the penalties were even worse. And…did the company have anything to do with the sudden issues that seemed to be breaking out simultaneously?

Cyril's pale face became even paler, and he only had one thought.

"I want to refuse the task."

Please, let me refuse.

[Refusal is impossible. Good bye]

A clear text of refusal that quickly disappeared.

"Oi!"

"Hey, chat person?"

"I'd like to speak to HR?"

Regardless of how much he tried to call it back, he never received a response.

Biting his lips in anger, Cyril went down to the sanctuary spark. Right now, he needed points to buy what he could from the Employee Store.

Unfortunately, the feather was completely uncooperative, completely refusing when he tried to take back the atm machine.

"Give me the machine. I need the coins."

Little Oasis: ❌🙅‍❌

"I don't have time to argue with you. Give it to me, I need those points. This is a serious issue."

Little Oasis: ❌🙅‍❌🙅‍❌🙅‍❌🙅‍❌🙅‍❌

The little feather wrapped its wooden planks completely around the machine, making a completely seamless wooden ball.

Cyril: ಠ_ಠ

Cyril: (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

"You think I'm playing around with you? I said give it back." Completely angered, one hand immediately grabbed the wooden ball while the other grabbed the newly acquired keychain.

"Select 2."

As a perfectly balanced chef knife appeared in his hand, Cyril immediately stabbed it into the wooden ball, using all of his strength to pry it open.

As his left hand began throbbing, Cyril easily transitioned to pinning the ball beneath his knee, putting his entire weight into cracking the seed ball open.

"Open up right now! This is not a joke! Give me those points."

Crrrrrrraaacckkkkkkk.

Due to the sheer force being applied to it, the wooden ball began to crack.

As the sanctuary spark began to feel a sense of crisis, it immediately focused all of its strength on the object containing the energy it had been carefully trying to absorb, quickly sucking in everything without leaving anything behind.

It was originally trying to take only a little while carefully making a space like the one it had observed, but since its newfound energy source was being taken away, it decided to greedily absorb it all since it was owed a tip anyway.

Its owner could quickly get more at any time.

Satisfied with its reasoning, the sanctuary spark put all its strength into absorbing all of the energy.

By the time Cyril successfully broke through the wooden ball, the Atm machine was chucked at full strength at his head, and when he checked the balance, a large vein immediately popped up on his forehead.

Life Energy Coins: 0

It was the worst possible news.

Little Oasis:✧～(ゝᴗ ∂ )♡

When he sensed the sanctuary spark's happiness as it bounced the wooden ball on his head, Cyril just closed his eyes and began counting to 100.

If he didn't, he felt as if he would explode.