Jade woke up in the evening of the next day, he teleported north again. While searching for monster hordes he found some people running away from about 40 undead, while he was up on a building.
This was a unique situation since when he was travelling he had never seen a single person talk less of a settlement even when he half-heartedly searched for them.
There were about 8 men running from the undead, the men wore military armor and held new gen weapons, the undead were Rank 2 as they had silver eye balls and ran as fast as an Olympic sprinter, what was shocking was that the men were running just as fast.
Jade thought ‘They must have used their en-code to become so fast. IP what’s they’re Rank’ the IP responded ‘You are looking at 8 Rank 2 High Humans’. Jade was puzzled ‘Did you say high humans? What’s that?’ the IP responded ‘Information on the High Human race has not been acquired’.
Jade said ‘Change my information and make me a Rank 2 High Human’ the IP responded ‘done’. Jade wore a helmet that covered his face and removed his monster gear; he took out a plasma cannon from his bracelet and started firing at the undead.
The undead’s formation was broken up when they suddenly came under fire. They all looked toward the source of the blasts, toward Jade, before they could make the decision to head toward Jade or not the high humans started attacking them. With Jade’s timely support the men were successful in eliminating the undead.
Jade went to meet them and before he could say anything a member of their group said “Thank you very much, if you didn’t help us we would have died” while extending his hand for a handshake.
Jade shook his hand and said “Where are you guys from?” the man looked puzzled and asked Jade “You are not from Banu city?” Jade nodded. The man said “Sorry, I didn’t even introduce myself. My name is Danjuma and these guys are my group members” he said while pointing to the rest of the group, they all introduced themselves and thanked Jade.
Danjuma continued “We are from Banu city, where are you from? And what should we call you?” Jade answered “I’m from around here, I’ve been hiding in an office alone and killing undead to evolve, I didn’t know there was a city around here, I was just exploring and my name is Jade”.
Danjuma smiled and said “You must be very skilled to survive on your own then, we can lead you to the city, and it’s far more comfortable living there than staying on your own” Jade nodded and said “Let’s go then”.
Jade followed Danjuma to Banu city, the city was an underground area. In 2056 due to the high population-land ratio of many countries underground homes were built and even underground cities existed. Banu city seemed to be one of them. The entrance was well hidden and guarded.
Danjuma, his group and Jade walked into the city, with Danjuma’s group carrying the undead corpses in a huge carriage that they had retrieved from where they ran from, after he saved them.
Danjuma brought Jade to an office where he wrote down his name while the staff took note of his Rank, they didn’t even bother to check his face. After this was done the staff held Danjuma’s palm and transfer the en-code payment for finding a Rank 2 high human to him.
Jade had never seen en-code being transferred and he had no idea it could be transferred, but he had seen the list of recruits and the en-code awarded for recruiting them on the wall outside the office and he had asked his IP if exchanging en-code was possible and the IP confirmed that it was, so he guessed that the staff wasn’t just giving Danjuma a weird handshake.
Jade asked Danjuma “Did that man just give you en-code?” Danjuma smiled and answered “Yes he did, you can also get encode in exchange the corpses of the undead. We’ll give you 50% of the en-code as appreciation for saving us” Jade thanked Danjuma for his clemency and they headed toward another building.
Danjuma exchanged the corpses for en-code and gave Jade the promised en-code. The IP said ‘A Rank 2 High Human is offering you 7,299 en-code, do accept it?’ Jade said ‘I do’ and regretted it immediately ‘I mean affirmative, accept… augh! Just give me the damn thing!’ Jade said and the IP responded ‘Transfer completed’.
Jade receive the paltry amount and Danjuma said “Now that that’s done, let’s have some fun. We know the best place for you to enjoy your en-codes” Danjuma said as he led Jade deeper into the city. The city had electricity which told Jade that the city was in control of the nuclear power station.
Jade was taken to a club he paid the entrance fee and entered the building, it was like a regular club, as though the apocalypse hadn’t happened. Danjuma said “Buy what you want your drinks are on me” Jade drank, danced and partied with Danjuma and his group.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
The club mostly had Rank 2s and the rare Rank 3s. They were all High Human except for some staff and girls that were human. Jade thought ‘They don’t seem to prioritize killing monsters very much since they are still mostly Rank 2s’.
Jade’s assertion was way off as the city highly favored those who killed monsters and undead. The reason for the low rank was because the High Human race wasn’t as powerful as his race.
When they were done dancing they escorted Jade to a different section of the club. They were in a lobby and a staff member gave each of them a pamphlet. On the pamphlet were pictures of beautiful girls in exposing clothing and their prices in en-code beside them.
Jade felt out of place, unlike Danjuma’s group he hadn’t gotten drunk no matter how much he drank and they drank a lot. He also was not tired as he had already slept and most of all he wasn’t horny.
Jade found his lack of horniness weird, he asked his IP ‘IP why don’t I feel horny? I’m still human, so I shouldn’t just be seeing girls as just pieces of meat’ the IP responded ‘Primordial Humans take on average 87 years before they reach puberty. Your reproductive organs were not prioritized when you evolved so they are still at the stage of a 27 year old Primordial Human.
You should also know beforehand that when copulating with a human there is a very high chance your offspring being a hybrid Primordial Human popularly known as Giants’
Jade took in all this information and thought ‘Wait! Are you saying that I have to go through puberty again?! This is messed up; I’ll have to wait 60 years before I can fuck again?! Just kill me’ he thought in depression ‘Anyways, I’m not stupid enough to spend en-code, which can make me stronger, on sex’. Jade looked away from his pamphlet and his eyes met the eyes of Danjuma.
“Do you not know who to pick? I advise you pick this one” Danjuma said as he pointed toward a girl on the pamphlet. Jade looked at where he was pointing, his fingers were on the picture of a girl, 19 years old, that cost 15,000 en-codes per hour.
Jade thought ‘Is he crazy?! He expects me to spend 15,000 en-codes on sex?! How ugly does he think I am? I can get any girl I want for free with my great looks, you idiot!’ but when he looked back at Danjuma’s confident expression, he gave in.
‘Damn! Peer pressure is very powerful; this stupid High Human race must specialize in peer pressure instead of combat’ Jade thought.
…
Samira went to her room after some hours of dancing, her life hadn’t changed much even after the apocalypse.
There was a new customer that she had never seen sitting on the bed, she sat down beside him and said “Hi, my name is Samira, what should I call you?”
Jade said “My name is Jade. I know it may be weird but can we just talk, I’m not horny tonight. I did this because my friends made me”. Samira looked at Jade as she struggled to hold her emotions in; Jade’s action reminded her of Malik.
She said "Are you sure? You paid a lot of En-code to hire me; do you want to just waste it on a talk?" She wanted to forget Malik for now, she didn't want to remember the pain she felt when she saw him suffer and die now.
Jade noticed her information from the IP [Rank 0 Human] He thought ‘That’s weird’.
Jade said "It's ok, talking about En-code, how are you still human? If you've been getting 15,000 En-codes for an hour you should have become some sort of super high human"
Samira sighed and said "All our En-code goes to the mayor. He provides safety and sustenance for us and we give him the En-code our customers pay us" Jade's eyes widened and he said "Impossible, you should at least get a salary, a cut or something"
Samira shook her head. Jade said "Then why don't you just quit, if you hunted Rank 1 and 2 undead you should be able to get enough En-code to evolve. You're pretty so people will still pay to sleep with you even if you don't work here, that is, if you’re too afraid to hunt"
Samira shook her head again and said "We are not allowed to work for anyone else, including ourselves, because the mayor owns us, we have tried to free ourselves but..." Samira's eyes watered "... It didn't work and he made us suffer for it"
Jade was completely confused and seeing his confusion Samira explained to him. She told him about the things she had gone through; how she was bought, how she became a sex slave, when she met Malik, how he had changed the way she viewed the world and herself, what Malik had planned, how they had failed, what Abhad had done to them when he found out.
As she told the story Jade’s expression changed from curiosity, interest, shock and finally to sadness.
At the end of the story Jade was already crying, Samira continued "When the apocalypse happened, Abhad and his gang took to the streets and protected this place; he attacked the monster in the nuclear power station and repaired it a month ago".
Jade wiped his tears, put on a serious look and said "Why are you still alive?" Samira looked at him in confusion. He rephrased "Why haven't you killed yourself? I'm sure you could have, what are you living for?". Samira thought for a moment and said “Because I don’t want to die in bondage, I still wish to be free, I don’t want Malik’s pain to be in vain”.
…Jade was quiet for a while, then he smiled sinisterly and said “is that all? Don’t you want to get revenge? Don’t you want to see Abhad suffer? Don’t you want all those men who tortured Malik to die?” Samira covered her face and started crying and said “Please don’t make me hope, I’m already used to my suffering, I’ll get out one day”.
But Jade still continued “DON’T YOU WANT TO MAKE YOU VOICE HEARD LOUD? WILL YOU JUST STAY DOWN UNTIL ABHAD LETS YOU GO? WILL YOU REMAIN HIS GOOD GIRL FOREVER? FREEDOM WON’T EVER COME, UNTIL YOU ARE FREE IN YOUR SOUL SAMIRA! DON’T YOU WANT ALL THOSE PEOPLE, WHO THOUGHT YOU WERE FOOLISH TO SEEK FREEDOM; DON’T YOU WANT THEM TO REGRET? DON’T YOU WANT TO SEE THE PAIN AND SUFFERING, DESPAIR AND HOPELESSNESS ECHED INTO THEIR EYES? DON’T YOU WANT TO ROAR AND FEEL TRUE JOY? SAMIRA, DO YOU WANT TO BE FREE?!” Samira weakly responded amidst her tears “yes”.
“YEEEESSSS!!!” Jade screamed “I NEED… I NEED… I NEED TO LIVE IN THE WORLD YOU HAVE ENVISIONED! I NEED TO LIVE IN THE REALITY OF YOUR DREAMS! I WILL MAKE YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE!!!” Jade panted for a while, regained his composure and said with a gentle smile “Let’s start the therapy then”.