Trash in the Apocalypse

Chapter 189: Suspicions

Marvin finally learned how to circulate energy after the first failure. He clenched his fist and couldn't help but giggle like an idiot. He canceled his transformation then felt excited while his ears blushed because of Lolita's soft touch.

"Thank you, Boss Jun. Thank you, Miss Alvaro!"

"You can stop calling me that, Lolita would do. Our age gap isn't that far after all." Lolita smiled, then stood up. "I'm done here, right? Okay, I'm going back to sleep. Bye~"

Marvin smirked foolishly as he watched her walked away.

Jun ignored the lovestruck gaze Marvin had and said, "Then I'll give you a list of skills that you can learn and choose what you think suits your style best. There's not many to choose around, so you don't have to force yourself to learn them all. Oh, by the way, what level are you now?"

"I'm level 6. Why?"

"I think there's a limit to the number of skills that we could learn. Except for pre-generated skills, every level, you can increase skill limit by 1. My friend is already researching the matter, and I'm just waiting for results."

"Can we learn too?"

Jun and Marvin turned their head and followed the voice's direction. Lolita hasn't gone out of the door and is watching the two of them with curiosity.

She added, "We've already exchanged information with you, so trading more should be fine, right?"

Jun frowned at her assertiveness but smiled in the end. He has a few questions he wants to be answered, and this is the best chance that he could take.

Jun nodded his head while pointing to her previous seat, "Sure, please sit down."

"Thanks, wait a minute."

Lolita ran out of the room and barged in loudly in the next room. Several seconds later, three sleepy heads wearing pajama's followed an excited Lolita.

"She's 24? Wow, she looks way younger than that."

That was the first thing Lolita heard after entering the room. Marvin had this surprised expression all over his face while Jun was bobbing his head that says, 'I'm telling the truth.'

"Are you two gossiping about me?" Lolita questioned with both arms on her waist.

Marvin quickly distanced himself from Jun and waved both hands in front of him. "No, we're not." afterward, he bowed then added, "I'm sorry."

Lolita narrowed her eyes and glanced at the two alternately.

"Just kidding." she stuck her tongue out, then sat on the floor beside Marvin. Her followers dazedly followed her and sat next to her.

Reena, who was the last to enter the room, sat furthest to Lolita and ended up next to Jun. She squirmed in her place and avoided turning her head to Jun's direction.

"Let's not waste time, and I'll start," Jun said. "There's a lot of skills you could learn and your imaginations the limit. The only thing that's stopping you is the skill limit and your energy control..." Jun explained everything they need to know before going to his question.

"Now, I want to know your skill. I know that your the 'brain,' and I want to know what you can do and how you use the skill. I've already paid in advance, so I expect to receive what I paid for."

Marvin suddenly felt that the atmosphere in the room took a 180-degree turn. The jolly and friendly air vanished, replaced by displeasure.

Reena, who was avoiding Jun's gaze since earlier, was now glaring at him. Lolita couldn't do anything and only chuckled listlessly.

"So, this ends like this, hah." Lolita combed the back of her head and played with her hair. "Sure, I'll answer it. I guess it couldn't be helped at all. You already said it the first time; you're a curious man."

Jun made a slight nod and smiled as he anticipated her answer.

"Do you also want to know how I earned it?"

"If you don't mind."

"Okay then, I'll just add it as a freebie." Lolita took a deep sigh before staring at Jun, then continued. "I was sleeping at my office desk when the apocalypse started. In my dream, people were killing and eating each other. A few of those people noticed me and jumped on me. Of course, I defended myself, so when I blocked them, they started biting my arms. I couldn't fight back as if my arms and legs were tied by something invisible. It was like I'm supposed to die there."

"I didn't give up, though. The only thing I can move was my head, and I used it. I started biting their necks until they stopped moving. After those two stopped moving, I woke up in my office. I cried when I realized that it was just a nightmare until I heard shrieks and shouts in the hallway. I survived by not going out of my office. The notification about the skill also solidified my will not to go out."

Lolita smiled wryly after finishing her story. Her friends gazed at her with concern. Although they have heard the story, having listened to it the second time still makes them worried. The psychological trauma must be severe, especially when she got locked alone in her office for a long time.

Marvin quietly gulped as he stared at Lolita.

Jun asked. "You received the skill immediately?" 

"Yeah, why? You also received an enhancement, right? What part are you?"

Jun ignored her question and pondered what could be the difference between them. He received his Time Perse skill after he fought the D1 at the plaza square. But unlike her, he didn't do anything special and was at the brink of death at the time.

There are multiple ways to receive a blessing? Jun stopped thinking and pushed it aside. He'll let Evo handle things like these.

Jun continued asking what he was curious about.

"Your skill name, function, and activation?"

"The skill I got is called Dream Come True. It will trap the target inside a dream and show them what they are currently thinking. As for its activation, I just have to point a place and activate the skill. An eye symbol would appear on the ground, and anyone nearby would be affected."

"How close do you have to be to activate the skill? For example, if you want to place a symbol on the parking lot, can you do it from here? How many can you place at a time, and how large is the radius effect?"

"You have so many questions, are you a detective?" Reena asked Jun sarcastically while rolling her eyes.

"Hahaha, I'll take that as a compliment. People die when I don't do serious background checks." Jun stated with a smile.

Reena frowned at him, then turned away. Mellissa and Lourdes treated his words as jokes and only smiled wryly.

Marvin, who knew Jun's background, nodded in understanding. A leader who doesn't know the people around him could die without even knowing the reason.

Lolita felt that Jun's words had some substance to them and answered truthfully.

"I can't do that. I can only cast the skill around me, about 2-meters? Its cooldown is 10-seconds, and the effect radius is 5-meters. I mostly use the skill to escape and help people escape from rotters."

"Then, did you receive a side quest related to me?" Jun curiously asked since he received the side quest, Absorb the Brain.

Lolita narrowed her eyes and replied, "I did not?"

Jun became confused since he thought she was running away from him because of that quest.

In the end, he smiled and was satisfied with her answers, so he gave them the list of the skills he could teach them.

Most of the women chose to learn Sprint, and Reinforce then reserved the other skill slots for later on. Even if they learned other survival skills, it couldn't help them much since they weren't battle oriented.

Meanwhile, Marvin was an assault-type survivor and chose to learn everything that he could use. He picked Sprint, Reinforce, Empower, and Enhanced Sight to further solidify his skill build.

In the middle of the night, Jun tried contacting Yetu again and again to no avail. He had questions in his mind that he wants answers for.

Why did he receive the sidequest while she didn't?

Was this special treatment? If it is, then why? 

Who is Yetu? Why is he helping him become stronger faster?

Why does he want me to absorb her?

If he absorbs the brain, then he received double blessings? (Eye and Brain)

A system that isn't fair to everyone, gives random and nonsensical quests and likes killing people.

With so many questions in mind and Yetu nowhere to be found, he started to become suspicious of the system.

Jun sat on the bed and started meditating.

Marvin, who was sleeping on the couch, shivered. He got up and saw Jun sitting on the bed.

He clicked his tongue and took the couch's cushion, and headed out of the room.