At first, she thought she would be sent to the dungeon immediately with the other captives. If that were the case, it would have been easy to rescue them and wreak havoc in their hideout.
But now, she wondered if the Young Master Coltons always treated captives this way, making them feel safe before exploiting them. If so, he was truly evil, giving them hope only to crush it with his own hands. ’A sick bastard,’ she thought.
"By the way, stop calling me Young Master Coltons. It sounds so distant. Just call me Alex," he said, leaning forward on the table, his deep eyes staring at her with clear possessiveness.
"Host, you are clearly disgusted with this man. Why are you pretending to be weak and staying here when you could just start killing them? The answer to everything is killing them all, don’t you agree?" 008 said, his disdain for the man standing before Kisha evident. 008 despised lunatics like Alex, especially those who treated human life as worthless.
"Do you think I don’t want to?" Kisha replied through gritted teeth. She had already hidden her hands under the table, clenching them into fists so tightly that her knuckles turned white from the strain.
"Well, I can hear your brain screaming ’Kill’ repeatedly," 008 said with such vigor, as if delivering good news rather than inciting brutality. "So, what’s stopping you?"
"I promised Reeve I’d help him find his friend, who was captured by the Coltons, and save him," Kisha sighed inwardly in frustration. "My hands itch to kill all these animals, especially the man in front of me. But if I massacred them all and failed to find the captives, Reeve would be broken beyond repair.
He would blame his own weakness and never grow strong, wasting his talent and gift." Kisha explained solemnly. She had been in his shoes before and knew how destructive it was to one’s mental health.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Reeve would be consumed by regret and possibly lose his sanity. His fragile spirit reminded Kisha of herself when she first lived through the apocalypse and witnessed her family’s repeated deaths. She had constantly sought ways to save them, only to face the same devastating cycle over and over again.
Somehow, she saw her past self in Reeve. With weak resolve and easily broken, he would need rigorous training to grow stronger, both mentally and physically. However, such transformation would demand considerable time and patience—resources Kisha wasn’t sure she could fully provide. For now, she resolved to do what she could and entrusted Sparrow and Vulture with his training.
Now that Reeve and the others were her responsibility, Kisha was determined to support them to the best of her ability.
"Since you’ve reached level 2, why not scan this whole place and find the dungeon for me?" Kisha instructed 008, who immediately complied, springing into action.
"Now that you mention it, host, after my upgrade, I can now perform more comprehensive scans of the surroundings—not just radar-like detection, but also identifying traps along the way. My capabilities have significantly expanded. So, you’ve entrusted the job to the right person..." 008 paused, then added, "Well, technically, I’m not a person but a system.
So yes, you’ve entrusted the job to the right system." With that, 008 retreated into the recesses of Kisha’s mind to perform its task.
As Kisha waited for 008 to finish searching for the dungeon, she maintained her facade with the Young Master, suppressing her revulsion while facing him.
Not long after, the awaited meal arrived—a lavish spread of cooked frozen seafood and meat, prepared as a luxurious feast just for the two of them. Kisha noticed the server’s longing and hunger as he looked over the spread, almost drooling. Clearly, he must have been enduring a diet of dry rations and unpalatable biscuits for some time.
Alex generously invited Kisha to begin eating, serving her the delicious food he had chosen. Kisha accepted graciously, not making a fuss and pretending to be thankful, all the while urging 008 to hurry. She also mobilized the scarlet bees to assist 008 in scouting the area and tracking the movements of people within the hideout, hoping to pinpoint the location of the dungeon.
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