Corpse Core
The girls woke up and tiptoed to the bathroom fearing that Kai will show up and ask them to vacate the villa.
After a while they noticed that he may not be home anymore. After they had breakfast they saw the girl from yesterday coming out of the in suite in the ground floor and held their breath seeing her state. The hair is flying everywhere as if she didn't have a bath.
"Hello." Xiao Yue smiled at the scary girl. The girl just nodded at her. That is when they saw her puffy eyes. It seems she was crying the entire night.
They looked at each other and decided not to pry into the girl's business. After all, Huo Gin looks like an 18 to 19 year old young lady from a noble family. She might take offense and they will be thrown out of the villa with certainty at that time.
The new nanny made breakfast according to each girl's requirement with great skill. Every time they tried to engage into a casual conversation with her she never responds making them feel like she is either shy or rude, but as the visitors here, they are not complaining since the maid is very diligent and her attitude doesn't seem to fluctuate like that of normal people.
"Can you convince Kai to let us stay here indefinitely?" Paige asked Huo Gin with a nervous tone. "He is never a round and if you are going to be staying here, you will want company right?" she continued when Gin didn't say anything in response, she just stared at the empty air with a gloomy expression.
"Please, you are a girl. You know how unsafe the outside can be these days." Paige thought since she couldn't convince Kai, maybe she can talk to the future wife. It is obvious the couple doesn't get along and being from a rich family she knows people are often forced to marry because of the business.
"You're from a rich family right? How can you be without servants? My sister and I have been doing our own hair since we were young. We will make a great pair of servants for a young bride such as yourself." Paige pushed but she must have finally irritated the other girl because she slapped the kitchen counter hard and gritted her teeth in anger. Paige thought it must be her words about being able to do hair.
"I will never! marry that man." Huo Gin said with absolute hatred in her eyes. She had a gift but ever since Kai did whatever he did to her that time she hasn't felt her power.
"Okay. That works out even better for you." Paige is not deterred by the other girl's fierce attitude. "I have history with Kai. If you let me stay here, I will make sure he doesn't bother you, if you know what I mean." She said suggestively.
"If it was up to you whether you marry or not, you would have left the villa by now. Which brings me to conclude that even though you hate him you can not go against your family. I can be a distraction." Paige said.
Gin looked at the girl with interest. Now that she is without power her family will throw her out like garbage and they can not go back on the engagement especially for a useless girl. She will have to stay here and 'serve' her husband who took everything from her.
She clenched her fists in anger. She really wants to kill that man. But this is her fault as well, she had been over confident to attack someone who is clearly not easy to deal with the first chance she got.
"How do I know I can trust you?" She asked Page, she can not be expected to sleep with Kai when she is still full of hate for him like this, in fact, she wants this man to stay as far away from her as possible. But introducing a mistress is not ideal, Kai may just kill this girl and cripple her even further to do to her as he wish.
"It is simple, I will do what you tell me to do." Paige is smart, she knows Kai doesn't value their past 'exchange' or he wouldn't have asked her to go. Her only chance is to be this woman's maid and slave.
"Good. You will work for me from now on. First, lets put those skills of yours to the test." She stood up and went back to her room. Paige and her sister looked at each other in happiness and followed her.
.....
A distance away from the base, kai and his group are driving on the road, he is currently using one of his robots as a driver to see if there will be able to be an effective butler. The results is beyond their imagination, the robots can scan and calculate the surrounding obstacles whether the truck can safely avoid them given the quality and speed of the truck.
Kai is thrilled at the results because his robots are even more useful in times of unrest where a calm state of mind is in high demand. What can be better than a machine when it comes to cold calculations and rationalization during a tense situation?
Kai occasionally goes into the space to sleep when they take breaks because he will get to sleep more hours when sleeping in the space and still get to wake up and do some work. Recently he is working on optimizing the overall functionality of the bracelet.
It can now teleport a 15kg Item in a distance approximate to halfway across the world...theoretically.
The game can be put up as long as they work out the monetary system. Kai is planning on building a bank. Payments will be made by sending the payment to the bank using the teleportation function of the bracelet.
The idea is that when someone wants to play the game and wants to increase their credits, they have to scan the money and send it to the bank, this way, they upgrade their profile immediately.
Kai came out to find a confrontation between his soldiers and a group of survivors blocking the road. The outside world doesn't get sunny especially with the snow still falling occasionally.
In the mornings it is mostly foggy so these people whose faces are obscure only showing the outline of their bodies seems like a group of ghosts.
"You guys have this covered right?" He asked Tan Fan who nodded affirmatively. Kai went back to put the finishing touches on this new smart bracelet. The design is smaller than the previous one and looks more like those plastic watches with small digital screens.
However, after turning it on, a large screen will appear in front of the wearers face depending on the measures of the watch for his/ her height. It is very advance compared to the previous version even in terms of the clear picture of the screen.
After finishing, he turned to the systems recording of the remaining materials. It seems he needs to ensure that he passes by the place that has the plentiful plastic materials for his synthetic robot parts. Previously Kai had designed a crude method of refining plastic but if he can take the machines from a factory it will reduce the workload by half.
There happens to be a glass factory and a plastic place near it. Kai noted down these places. He can not run out of materials for making his chips as well. It seems he will have to separate from the group even earlier than he thought.
Coming out he took June with him. The people opposite his men are now shooting guns. Or is it a single gun? The soldiers sent two robots to sneak behind the group and disarm them while reporting to them how many of them are there.
Kai interjected. "The robots can scan from this distance and also take out the ones with weapons so that we can go." He saw the hesitation in the eyes of these people. Soldiers, he forgets.
"I am taking June for a fly. We will probably meet back in the base. Remember to store everything of significance into the space rings and only let them see a few things. I gave you each 5 fast runners and 5 large trucks so you can use maybe a line up of six fully loaded trucks to deceive them into thinking that is the only stock we have. We should have a building for the hospital when you come back." Kai instructed and hopped on June before the two of they flew off.
He took three hours and several collusion with flying zombie birds and mutated crows but he made it to the glass factory. Kai is not planning to just take only the remaining glass but he wants everything, the machines and the stock.
He released 200 robots to clean the zombies in the area first. Phil opened a window showing the location of all the zombies in the area. Kai felt like he is in a game and he has to eliminate the red figures.
"Red figures that can eat your actual flesh because this is the real world." Phil said.
"Yes yes...so grumpy." Kai grumbled.
"Because if you die so do I."
"Are you alive?" Kai jabbed.
"I exist."
"Right."
Kai took out a laser gun, they are not too noisy and he will not need to change the magazine every 9 shot. Kai joined his men and shot at the upcoming small army of zombies.
It could be because these two are the largest factories in the country. It turns out Kai is a shitty shooter without his spirit power guiding his bullets. He decided to use this time to polish his skills while Philip documents his improvements.
The gates were open when they arrived but Kai had them closed to prevent more zombies from entering. Kai and the others (robots) separated into groups of ten to focus on cleaning the place and uprooting the factories except for Kai who went off on his own to polish his skills.
Philip told Kai something interesting. The zombies have been around for a while now but this is the first time Kai came a cross a somewhat intelligent zombie.
It stood a distance away and didn't approach. It's eyes staring straight at him as if it can smell his tantalizing foundation establishment blood. Kai could swear he saw those rotten nostrils flare.
He instinctively pulled his rune weapon and took a stance. The zombie felt his change and roared in what seems to be rage. It started transforming the side arms into sharp scythe. Kai and even Phil let out a terrified "Ahh" at the same time while he looked for a quick retreat.
"Sir, he is a superpower user with what looks like metal power. He can change any part of his body into metal." Phil explained.
"I have deduced as much. Any weakness I can exploit?"
"The only way to kill it is through the head, right in the middle. I'll mark the exact place." Suddenly in Kai's eyes, there is a red dot where the zombie would be killed if he is shot there. "A bullseye! Cool.." Kai chuckled.
"Now use your spirit power to guide the bullets and shoot him dead. the zombie is a close combat fighter so it speedily ran towards him looking to cut him into fun size pieces. The disadvantage of the zombie's metal body is the slow speed while Kai has a lightning body.
He used the time it rushed towards him to aim and shoot at the red dot but no matter how many times he shot, the bullets bounced and fell off. "You call that a weakness?!" Kai shouted at Phil.
"Believe it."
"I will have to engage him in close combat." Kai grumbled taking out a long knife that slowly enlarged into a small sword. That's when he got an idea that he is holding a flying sword and unlike most mental weapons the metal zombie can not control this one since it is marked with his own power and breath because it is an artifact.
just as the zombie is nearing range, Kai charged his sword with electricity from his body and it flew at blinding speed but the zombie tilted its head to the side. The sword whooshed and took an ear wit it.
The zombie didn't even flinch. "It doesn't feel pain, good to know." Kai said creating more distance between them and bringing the sword back from behind the zombie guiding it using his spirit power. Kai increased the peed to ensure the sword is able to penetrate the thick skin of the metal powered zombie.
The zombie kept rushing forward, to distract it so it doesn't see the blade coming. Kai is struggling to balance his concentration between guiding the blade and avoiding the long sharp scythe headed for his head.
He decided to slash the knife horizontally to at least cut something if he misses. When the zombie is about to gut Kai and sever his head from the neck it happens to be the same time Kai's blade is about to cut the zombie's neck as well.
If Kai doges the coming strike he will have to start afresh and adjust the angle and by then, the zombie would have noticed something wrong. Kai used his arms trusting the refined armor of his uniform to defend against the sharp blades coming for him.
This is a gamble of the highest order with his head on the line. The two weapons landed at the same time and a resounding metal clanking cry sounded for miles.
Kai looked at the zombie with horror. It's head on the ground but it's sharp arms are still hacking at his as he passively defends with his arms, luckily the armor held its own against the scythe.
The most disturbing is the occasional black blood that would spray his face and clothes every now and then by the headless stature of the zombie. "Sir, maybe find a way to get to the weak spot."
Kai thought about it and then decided to take the head and ran away using the fast speed of his lightning body.
"May I ask a question?" Phil suddenly said.
"I know that tone. What stupid thing did I do now?" Kai halted but the zombie is stumbling his way.
"Lightning is essentially fire right?"
"Yes." Kai felt like an idiot. Why didn't he use his power instead of engaging with it in close combat like an idiot?
"Real gold is not afraid of fire, not metal." Phil said making Kai chuckle. He charged the power into his hands and then directed it to the slippery metal head with rotten outer skin in his hands.
It didn't take long for the head to melt. The stench of rotten blood and metal assaulted Kai making him wince.
"Indeed. Not metal." Kai said as a shiny crystal with metal color landed on his hand. Proof the zombie is dead.
"The zombie's power came from this small crystal." Phil informed.
"Help me find more of these crystals." Kai instructed Phil.
"Before or after we complete the mission we came here for?" Phil's many objectives in his coding includes helping Kai stay focused. He has a habit of having scattered interest.
Phil's words jolted him back to his senses. He found out the at his army had already cleaned up many zombies so he let out another group to use their scanning function to check and collect zombie cores.
Another group will uproot the factory machines. Kai prepared a location inside his space to make a plastic and glass factory.
One is to ensure he never run out of the materials to build more robot body parts and the other is for the future business. Kai is planning on making beer as soon as the wheat grass matures.
.....