"This seems a bit strange, considering we're two old men, Jix."

"What did you expect? That I'd run alongside you every day? No, no. This is better. I'm practically 80 years old, I can't exert myself that much."

Dante had Jix strapped to his back, secured by a harness that made it easier for him to stay in place. The old man didn't mind; both his arms rested over Dante's shoulders as he looked ahead, keeping his head slightly distanced.

It was Jix’s idea to help with resource gathering. The first mission assigned was for Dante to organize supplies as quickly as possible. Marcus and Clara had heard from Simone that he would be wandering the city in the coming days, moving between buildings.

What he hadn't expected was for Jix to make a list of objects and supplies for him to retrieve. The list was engraved in his mind, making the process easier for Vick. The AI had resource-tracking capabilities, but Dante still didn't know how to improve its efficiency in that area.

So, early in the morning, he set out with Jix on his back like a backpack. With Vick providing sonar recognition for nearly fifty meters, Dante propelled himself using the air jets in his feet and hands, navigating the streets at high speed.

"You never told me you could do this." The wind slammed against Jix's face, preventing him from leaning too far forward. "When did you learn?"

"Many years ago, with my father."

He advanced through the street until the building he had started from disappeared from view. For the first three hours, Dante stopped at isolated locations. Entering stores and bars, he moved cautiously, scanning his surroundings. Dirty shelves, shattered floors. Muddy footprints—both human and inhuman—led up the stairs to the second and third floors.

Vick marked three yellow indicators. Dante headed to the back rooms, opening a bathroom door halfway. It caught on something solid. Peering inside, he saw the lifeless body of a woman sprawled on the floor.

"Judging by her skin tone, she's been here for quite a while," Jix said, looking over Dante's shoulder. "She's holding something valuable."

Dante stepped in and closed the door, prying the backpack from the woman's arms. She clutched it tightly. Once he had it, he unzipped it.

"Clothes."

Jix suggested taking it back. And so he did. Dante left the store with the bag strapped to his harness. As soon as he took two steps down the street, more yellow markers appeared. He immediately started toward them, launching himself forward.

Within a few hours, he had gathered four bottles, six heavy blankets, and over twenty cans of food. Vick continued to highlight more than ten points around the area with additional supplies, but Dante lacked a large enough backpack to carry everything at once.

"The goal is to show them we can do more," Jix explained, unfazed by the amount collected. "Let’s head back."

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One of the blankets was used as a makeshift sack. Dante held it, feeling its light weight, and propelled himself forward. His feet provided momentum, and his hands controlled the trajectory, shifting left and right. Buildings blurred past as he ascended slightly to avoid crashing into abandoned cars.

As he neared the main building, he spotted some residents pulling cars closer to the entrance, reinforcing broken walls with heavy metal. Upon landing, he noticed Clerk working on one of the vehicles. He touched the metal frame, which spread and seamlessly sealed the gaps in the walls.

It was an almost perfect fusion. The process was slow but astonishing. Dante hadn’t expected Clerk’s ability to be so formidable in reconstruction.

"Clara wants him in charge of rebuilding the building. Too bad his Cosmic Energy is so low," Jix said, resting his arms on Dante’s shoulders. "He’d need at least three more helpers to finish by the end of the month."

"There’s another way." Dante remembered when Dalia had him transfer his Energy to Crish. The Raft had been rebuilt incredibly fast. Was Energy transference uncommon here too?

Dante wasn’t sure how much the others around him knew. Render had taught him everything about the power that could change lives. Cosmic Energy had always represented sheer magnitude, even to the most ignorant in his village.

Yet in Kappz, this knowledge seemed scarce. Was teaching them the right move? Some things weren’t necessarily meant to be shared.

"Don’t overthink it," Jix said. "People need to understand their limits. Right now, you have a more important mission."

Dante ascended to the rooftop, standing apart from Clara and Marcus. They had set up a table at the center with chairs, discussing something. A map was spread out, and alongside them sat Simone and two other men.

He didn’t recognize them immediately, but seeing their familiarity with Marcus and Clara, he didn’t question it.

"We have only three cleared blocks for resources," Clara said, pointing at a spot on the map. "This gives us access to other buildings. Our first goal is to remodel the main building to support our current population and the additional dozens that may arrive. I don’t want to hold back. We have all the resources at our fingertips."

"I agree," one of the men said, smiling at Clara. "If we have the manpower, we can start building bridges to connect the Building Islands. Does the name work?"

Marcus and the other man nodded.

"Mr. Blayk will oversee the project," Clara continued, pointing at the smiling man.

Dante noticed how much he smiled at Clara. Too many teeth in too small a mouth.

"Marcus and Traul will handle resource inventory," Clara went on. "Simone and I will take care of organization. Dante and Jix will handle daily resource gathering. We’re not emphasizing collection too much because we know winter is coming and things will get harder. We’ll need some kind of support. I’ll set up a meeting with Luma to see how we can trade food for water."

Dante placed the blanket on a side table, drawing everyone’s attention. He opened it, sorting the canned food into one pile, blankets into another, medicines and syringes together, bottles separately, and finally the clothes.

The remark he overheard about supplies being the last priority was a bit frustrating. Not because they were unimportant, but because Clara seemed to want them to be his last concern.

As he descended, he heard Marcus call out, but ignored him, heading back into the streets.

Jix glanced back. The marksman remained at the building while Dante used his boosters to surge forward. Midway down the street, the old man spoke.

"You seem a little frustrated with how things are being handled."

"I'm not frustrated. They need to focus on their own missions. How much time do we have before winter?"

Jix didn’t answer, but Vick’s voice echoed in his head.

"Based on current weather patterns, we have only three weeks before the first snowflake falls. Perhaps less."

Dante was already in the middle of the street when he accelerated.

"Let’s pick up the pace. Jix, hold on."

The old man barely shifted.

"I'm quite comfortable here. Go on however you like."

The jets flared, propelling Dante further than before, covering more than five hundred meters in mere minutes. Vick's alerts chimed every second, marking yellow indicators at various locations—houses, stores, small wrecked outposts, inside cars, a train embedded in a building, even atop skyscrapers.

There was a world waiting to be uncovered. A world that could save his own.