"Wow!" Meng Longwei exclaimed as he saw the huge mansion.
Zhang Yuqi didn't say a word. She unbuckled the sleeping Cinna's seatbelt and carried him inside the mansion gently. Longwei followed after his new caretaker.
"Sister Yuqi, your home is very big and fancy!"
Zhang Yuqi looked at the excited young teenager and slightly smiled. What an innocent youth... Her pretense of an innocence youth couldn't be compared to the real kind.
"Mm, since there's a lot of rooms here, decide on whichever one you want. Besides Cinna's baby blue room and the master room, every other room is ok. Get some rest too."
"Thank you sister Yuqi!" Meng Longwei ran upstairs to look for a room he preferred. He ended up choosing the room that had a glass wall that let him see the outside gardens. The room was painted in a warm light yellow and had wooden flooring. There was a bathroom connected to it that was purely sculpted from marble. The hot tub was very appealing to Longwei.
When it was dinner time, the whole house was lit up and a tempting fragrance of the food made its way out of the kitchen. Smelling this, the previously napping Longwei woke up and made his way downstairs.
"Sister Yuqi, the noodles look good." Longwei was still half asleep and tottering around.
"Mm, thanks. Eat up. After that, just go back to sleep. You have to get plenty of rest to take care of your body properly. We'll rest the next 6 days, but after that, I'll take you out to hunt mutants and zombies."
Zhang Yuqi wanted to train her first subordinate so that he could properly defend himself and fight the monsters.
On the first day, Zhang Yuqi and Longwei went shopping. The supermarket situations had calmed down and were going on normally, just with fewer supplies for the food section. They relaxed, got to know each other, and bought clothes that were suitable for combat. They bought a sniper for Longwei since he could sense his surroundings and enemies easily with his telekinesis/telepathy power.
On the second day, Zhang Yuqi taught Longwei basic martial arts. Longwei quickly picked it up since an SEM's body and intelligence was definitely some levels higher than a normal person's.
On the third day, Longwei was taught how to shoot properly and sense targets and shoot accurately. He practiced his martial arts and shooting skills till midnight.
On the fourth day, Longwei was given time to practice the skills he learned and a short test was conducted. Zhang Yuqi gave him a "meh" score and told him to practice harder.
On the fifth day, Zhang Yuqi gave a lesson about the mind SEMs. Longwei learned that as he leveled up, he could gain stronger powers, such as teleportation. He was forced to practice his mind powers until he passed out.
On the sixth day, Zhang Yuqi and Longwei just stayed at home. Longwei practiced for the nervewracking hunt of the next day and was too nervous to sleep. He had a case of insomnia. Zhang Yuqi was sleeping nicely till Cinna cried during the night. It turned out that Cinna's eyes had turned into cat's eyes. They were colored greyish blue and golden brown. It seemed that Cinna had awakened his SEM ability. Zhang Yuqi sighed. This hadn't happened before and she wasn't sure if he was a SEM in her past life. Now, it was confirmed to be true. Awake, Zhang Yuqi coaxed Cinna into sleeping and talked the night away with Darling.
At present time, it was 6 in the morning and they were having breakfast. Meng Longwei was nodding his head while dozing off and eventually splashed his head into the cereal bowl. The milk splashed and he instantly awoke due to the coldness. Zhang Yuqi was a little better but still had a tired and dull look in her eyes. Only Cinna was enthusiastic, giggling as he lightly pounded his chubby fists on his toddler table.
"Longwei, let's go during the afternoon. It's going to be darker and harder to hunt, but it'll add more experience. Let's just rest till it turns 12..." Zhang Yuqi muttered as she dozed off.
Longwei nodded-well, he might have just been dozing his head off- and fell asleep again, this time, not on the cereal bowl... well, his face was still covered in milk...
The huge grandfather clock near the stairs rang loudly precisely at 12. The sound was so huge that the three sleeping humans jumped up immediately. Cinna had fallen asleep drooling on his toddler table after he got bored. Zhang Yuqi had a mark on her face from sleeping on her arms and Meng Longwei found his face sticky and smelled sour milk.
They all washed up, for Cinna, he had his diapers changed. Zhang Yuqi and Longwei got in their battle uniforms and got on the armored car.
The trio greeted the guards at the gate and went out to a farther city. When they went far enough, Zhang Yuqi stored the car away and grabbed the two kids, slicing through the air with her SEM power.
They arrived at a city that was heavily infested with Zombies. It was a safe city that had gotten infected when a high-ranking officer was bitten and tried to hide it. He infected his family members and soon the whole city was infected. There would be some survivors left, but it would not be a hopeful situation.
Zhang Yuqi planned to find some zombies and test out her skills of pumping out the bloodline. But first, she had to find a perfectly intact zombie with only a bite or scratch on it.
"Sister Yuqi, where should we go first?" Longwei saw the huge mass of zombies at the entrance of the gates and felt a little disturbed.
"We'll go to the most back part of this dead safe city. There should still be some survivors there. We'll try to save as many people as we can, but the space in our car is too small. We only have two seats left. Three if you hold onto Cinna."
"Will there be many survivors?"
"There should be. They probably rounded up to one safe building. But who knows if a zombie snuck in? Let's just check a little part of the city for today. Our main goal is to hunt, not save. And if it's a person who wants to harm us in any way, we won't save and will kill, got it?"
"Ok." Longwei had clearly made his resolve. He didn't want to kill but knew that he would have to eventually if he wanted to live.
"Kill. Only then can you kill." Zhang Yuqi mentioned this quote from a really cool book that the author liked. (It's called 'Sovereign of Judgment')
"Huh? What does that mean?" Longwei was confused. Shouldn't it be 'Kill. Only then can you live'?
"It means that you should kill to get used to it. Then you can kill properly, letting you live."
'Isn't that a twisted logic!?' Longwei just wanted to follow this beautiful big sister but realized that it was going to be a long journey.
Seeing Longwei in silence, Zhang Yuqi snorted and began to drive faster.
Soon, they were at the part of the city where the biggest auditorium was. They hadn't seen any survivors yet and were kind of wondering where they all were. Darling was telepathically searching for some, but they seemed to all have died. The other auditoriums were filled with the infected. There were too many zombies, so Zhang Yuqi couldn't focus on pumping out the bloodlines. Besides, the zombies were in a bad state. Some even had their guts falling out. She couldn't revive people who would immediately die, that would be a waste of time.
So in the end, the whole place became a training field for Meng Longwei.
Anyways, back to the story. Zhang Yuqi, Longwei, and the adorable Cinna made their way to the huge auditorium.
"Ugh, it smells bad." Zhang Yuqi grimaced and put a thin handkerchief lightly on Cinna's nose to block the smell for him.
"Really? I can't smell at all... I suffer from Anosmia."
"Oh? Isn't that really rare? Then, can you taste properly?" Zhang Yuqi was intrigued. The sense of smell was 70% of taste.
"I can taste, but I don't know what it's like for a regular person, so I don't know how to describe it."
"Hm, ok. That just means you'll eat anything. You aren't a picky eater, right? Then, I'll just give you lots of food to eat."
"Eh~ Oh, oh!"
"What is it?"
"Sister Yuqi, what about coming up with a name for ourselves? We can form a team name and then form titles for ourselves!"
Zhang Yuqi decided to go along with his whims and accepted his proposal.
"Yea! I'll be Control King! What about you?"
Zhang Yuqi was taken aback. The Control King was known widely for being number one with very strong mental powers. The name sounded cheesy, but it was true that he was a King amongst all mental ability users.
Zhang Yuqi smiled. It seems that she has picked up a good subordinate.
"Mm, I'll think of a mercenary troop name for us. You think of a pretty title for me."
Getting this request, Longwei thought deeply over the title for Zhang Yuqi.
"Ah! I got it! What about Bloody Angel? Or Dark Queen? Or Enchantress? Or Crimson Savior? Ice Queen? Or Phoenix Empress? Eh, I can't think of any more, just choose one."
Zhang Yuqi thought that Longwei's naming sense wasn't so good, but liked the last title. Phoenix Empress. A mythical creature who rose again and was revered. This time, she would relive her life properly and become powerful. Powerful enough to protect her son, the landlady, and her future subordinates.
"I like Phoenix Empress. What's up with all the other ones?"
Longwei scratched the back of his head.
"Ah... Sister Yuqi, you're a stunning beauty but really scary in combat. Besides, you saved my life. You are an angel, queen, goddess, savior, and empress to me." Longwei said this in a very solemn and royal tone.
"Hmph, might as well call me Boss."
"Ok, Boss. Then you aren't using your other title, 'Phoenix Empress' now, right?"
Zhang Yuqi just flicked him on the forehead and sighed. What a short-lived glory!
That was how the most feared SEM in the country, "Boss" was titled.