In a fragment of the city of Monvec, the border between Giant Tree Forest Plateau and Six-Coloured Desert Plain regions, a base was still abuzz with activity as the afternoon sun slowly traveled across the sky.

After Rose took stock of the supplies that O’Brien had left for them to give away, Lea and Jules were at the forefront in trying to distribute them equally among the large group, though it was intimidating at first glance.

“Families with at least one child, weak, sick, or elderly adults, and no men, please line up over here!” Lea shouted outwards before repeating herself.

It took a while before the crowd understood what was happening and began to respond. Realizing food was being given away, the chosen groups were excited while the others were displeased. Some sneakily attempted to mix into the crowd, taking random children and clinging to the elderly.

“Bring your families with you to receive the supplies,” Roya coldly ordered, seeing the shifty individuals.

“That’s not fair! We’re hungry, too. We barely have enough to eat,” Someone clamored.

“Yeah, it's dangerous outside. We might have been able to handle a zombie apocalypse, but this is way too much,” a man added indignantly. “How do you expect us to gather supplies, especially since you guys took them all!”

“Yeah you have more than enough, he exchanged so much just now, but you must have more stowed away with magic. Give us some! It’s the least you could do after blocking us from the chance to search for food ourselves.”

O’Brien scoffed inwardly. Even if he hadn’t taken the rest of the food, it was unlikely that this lot would have gone exploring. Perhaps they had only even seen one or two stores he had been to and nothing more. Many people were content with sitting on their assess in the early days, expecting the government to eventually save them.

Those with half a brain would realize even the government was fractured almost beyond repair in the apocalypse. Disasters didn’t discriminate; soldiers and politicians were affected as well.

“Yes, but we have limited food to give away for free. So, the more helpless groups should take priority. It doesn’t mean you may not get any; we’re only putting them first,” Lea attempted to reason with the greedy crowd. She underestimated these childish grown adults who were acting like children. “You wouldn’t watch as these old women and children starve, right?”

She felt that although it wasn't a lot, it was something that should help alleviate the situation a bit. Her soft soothing voice and subdued posture in attempting to convince them was like blood attracting sharks, her show of weakness excited the wolves who had been checked very little by society.

“Hey, I’m sick, too! I have a back problem from working in construction for decades and being abused by the system!” A middle-aged man wearing an orange work helmet yelled as saliva escaped his chapped and smoke-discolored lips. “I have it hard as well, and all I’m asking is for a little food! Some slices of bread and a few cans are all. You can afford it. Why are you so stingy when you have more than enough?!”

The crowd gave birth to many men like the old construction worker, shrill old women, thick aunts with bucket-like girths, and school children adept in the ways of seeking self-benefits. The wolves emerged from the woods and attacked the poor and helpless Rose and Lea attempting to make a difference.

Jules of course was pissed to see them rudely spoken to, but her biting nature couldn’t match the spoiled drunkards and aunts who took advantage of others without the slightest bit of shame.

Compared to the stubbornness and unreasonableness practiced by these experts, she was just too young and naïve.

The discussion—or one-sided attack as it was shaping up to be—showed signs of continuing even after an hour.

Meanwhile, the two visiting Card Masters had been greedily eyeing the beautiful Lea for a while now but were unable to speak to her while she was engaged with the crowd. They were not enamored so much by Lea’s delicate beauty and curvaceous figure. No, she had another feature that tickled their fancies even more than base attraction could ever do.

Yes, she could heal. She was a magic doctor who didn’t need tools or medicine to heal injuries!

How could they as leaders and fighters not recognize the strategic importance of such a personage? Her value was immeasurable! She was worth a dozen well-equipped doctors just on her own! Even if it meant being at odds with the wolf owner O’Brien, they were willing to try and poach this wondrous doctor in the end times.

Flying to her rescue, the two men stood between the women and the crowd.

“Settle down now, settle down now,” Jean attempted to placate the crowd, but not everyone had eyes and could tell who he was. He was in a foreign area after all. The mob, drunk on their ‘rights to free speech’ and ‘government assistance’ were still trying to squeeze out some benefits from Rose and Lea. How could they care about anything else?

“What’s your problem buddy? Trying to get the food for yourself?”

“Move it, Slenderman!”

Disgruntled voices attacked these newfound targets putting themselves in the line of fire without bias.

Jean scoffed in anger. That O’Brien fellow was another story since he was the same as them, but these mere mortals dared to bark at him?!

He had to teach them who was superior here.

Did they not recognize current affairs?

Did they think the world was the same as before?

As the insults intensified and Guido laughed at him in the background, Jean chuckled maliciously and decided not to use his men to beat the crowd back as he initially intended. No, he would instead do them the honor of acting personally.

“Foolish wretches,” he growled. “You don’t realize just how much the world has changed, do you?!” His thin frame glowed with a verdant green light. With a wave of his hand, vines sprouted up from beneath the thick basement floor like a patch of forest wilderness. The vines were thick, tough, and elastic. They coiled around men and women like snakes, squeezing them tightly.

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The members of the mob out of range scattered in fear, seeing the vines up close.

“W-what the hell?!”

“Where did those come from?”

“Wait, that guy is the same as those girls. He has superpowers!”

For a while, the crowd had forgotten that the gentlewomen offering food were wielders of superpowers and could threaten them if they wanted to. But now this thin man was glaring at them, beating back the crowds, injuring women and children alike with whip strikes and boa-like squeezes. It was then that they understood what brutality was.

The bugs and worms were not the only danger in the new world.

It had been two weeks without word from the government. Their city had been displaced and carried off somewhere. Maybe it was even another world! The government…couldn’t save them.

If Jean were to kill one of them by accident, they would have no one to report to, and they certainly couldn’t go up against one with superpowers.

The space between the crowd and the philanthropic women widened by the second as they backed away in fear.

O’Brien looked on in wonder, thinking, ‘That’s a domain-type skill… Not even a spell, but a domain-type control skill. The lucky bastard.’

Even he couldn’t help but be a little envious. He cheated to get what he currently had, but these fellows just had such good things fall into their lap without effort. Although the Blessed Ones typically had some very good cards, Jean was lucky even among them.

Domain cards were very problematic in group battles. They could easily influence victory if there was no way to handle their domain. Of course, the man would have to become a lot stronger—at least becoming a Grandmaster—to truly use the domain.

Successfully suppressing the crowd, Jean wore a friendly smile as he attempted to speak to Lea, but he was already beaten to it by Guido.

“Ah, madam, it's good to be charitable,” the man spoke with a wide grin, “but for these lot, you have to show them the stick before the carrot, otherwise they think their numbers mean something, and that society still holds strong to protect them.”

“Ah —”

Before Lea could reply, Rose interrupted, handing over the distribution to the others. “It was unnecessary to hurt them to prove your point.” She turned her sky-blue gaze to Jean.

Jean cursed under his breath. He wanted to be their hero, goddamnit. Now they were glaring at him like he was some kind of monster.

“These are just mere mortals lacking powers,” he began, trying to appeal to rose-red Blessed One. “We can do with them as we please. Without our presence, they would be mere feed for the monsters. They should be thinking about how to be useful instead of insulting their benefactors. Without the military or any high-powered weapons with ferocious monsters, we’re the ones at the forefront, risking our lives to fight against these monsters while they run and hide and leech off our efforts.”

Jean carefully chose his words as he had yet to see Rose’s abilities, but his intuition told him she wasn’t one to mess with. However, even these careful words were sharp in Rose’s ears.

“What…?” She stared at him with disbelieving eyes. “How can you talk about your fellow humans like that?”

O’Brien smirked upon hearing this. Society and the modern world had become hard to live in for many, struggling day to day to make ends meet, those shunned by the system and the rats running the race. Given a chance where society had collapsed, going back to its primal state, many were relieved, feeling a heavy weight had been removed from their chests.

For some, the hate for the old system and the ones enforcing it was greater than the joy from the system being shattered.

Others simply enjoyed the new world and used what they could to get ahead.

It was clear Jean was the latter.

“They are humans, too!” Jules butted in, her anger flaring up. Was it a requirement that these superhuman men be so cold-hearted? “They deserve to live as much as anyone else. We’re all in a difficult situation. They shouldn’t be treated less than human!”

Jean burst into laughter.

“Really? When they don’t even have to guts to fight or try to survive? they huddle down here and watch the others do the work. They don’t deserve shit. Natural selection has already begun. Only the useful and the fighters will survive!” He scoffed.

“You’re the ones bringing the selection,” she hissed back.

Jean shook his head. “You’ve seen them, haven’t you? With those monstrous bugs and the worms that have recently appeared, even the land we’re familiar with is no more. If we were to rate the difficulty of this scenario amongst apocalypses, it would definitely be the top, worth several zombie apocalypses. Will you die for these useless peons? I strongly believe we with powers have been selected to be the last humans, and we can only evolve from there.”

Jules opened her mouth to reject but felt she couldn’t find the words. There was some sense in what he was saying although it was harsh. Lea and Rose also had crumpled expressions.

Jean struck while the iron was hot. “We lead fighters ready to make a change and lead the way in this new god-forsaken world. They have families they fight for. They deserve some extra food as much as the next guy, don’t you think? Why don’t you share some with us since you’re feeling so generous?”

For a moment, Rose felt her world collapsing around are with so many people's interests presented before them. Who should they favor? Who should be forsaken?

She turned to O’Brien for help, but he was now looking over his new cards and paying them little attention, leaving them to their devices. They wanted to do this, didn’t they?

Guido let out a fake cough. “Although I also think they’re a waste of time, trying to help them is not going to hurt. If my base had someone with healing abilities present, I have room and feeding to babysit and train these freeloaders into fighters.” Guido quickly ran ahead once more causing Jean to grit his teeth.

This fat motherfucker!

He still wanted to butter her up a bit and play on her guilt and charitable nature before going in for the kill, but here Guido was not only skipping steps but repeatedly harvesting the fruits of his labor!

Lea paused as she gave a family a bag of food and supplies, realizing these God’s Favored were interested in her abilities. She looked over to Rose in response.

Seeing this, Jean pushed his malice to the backburner and took the opportunity first. “Your friends can come along if they want. We need all the help we can get.”

At this, O’Brien lifted his head and looked in their direction. He watched the display and almost wondered if he should say something. He didn’t actually need the other three, so as long Rose wasn’t leaving, he was fine with whatever.

The two men were watching him from the corner of their eyes. Seeing his lack of response to their poaching, they were overjoyed. They intended to be subtle at first, but since he didn’t care that changed the entire game!

Jean was a bit hesitant, studying the head of white hair as he nonchalantly looked at his card collection. ‘Is he stupid? I know it works to our advantage, but would he let a healer and superpower users slip through his grasp so easily? Is he that confident they won’t leave him?’

“We’re…” Rose began.

“Not interested,” Roya sharply finished, her dark eyes fixed on the thin man’s narrow gaze. Jules nodded in agreement, her arms securely folded across her chest.

These two were obviously bad eggs.

While they weren’t completely wrong about this group of survivors, they were in the grey now, but probably hid a lot of black elsewhere or would darken to black in the coming days.

O'Brien was also no selfless martyr, but somehow he wasn’t like those two.

Of course, the two God’s Favored were not about to give up so easily and began negotiations.

Despite saying nothing for hours now, O’Brien’s presence was still the strongest in the room and the two men couldn’t ignore him even if he was doing nothing. They couldn’t wrap their heads around his thinking.

Little did they know, neither could the women accompanying him.