Link finished gathering the stuff they would bring. He also included a few items they may need like working gloves, safety glasses, and two leather aprons.
"I'm done, I will move it to the front then close the door. Are you guys done throwing them away?"
"Yeah, Mishca hurl them out of the wall to the street. And it seems my trait also enhances my vision so I stand as a look out instead of helping him with the dirty work. We ought to explore this Trait thing as there is no description that comes with it."
Link divided the stuff they needed to carry into three so whenever the need to run comes, they won't get pulled down by the weight on them.
"I will stand at the front, as my sight is better than you two now."
After both Alex and Link gave their okay, they began moving. This time it only took them around five minutes to get back. It is twice as fast as they previously thread on.
As Alex sees his wife, he waves his hand in their direction. Signalling the girl who holds the doors handles to open the door for them. Alex did not know the girl's name, so he just smiled back at her when he got inside.
When the three of them get inside, Link motions her to close and lock the door. The glass door won't break if you throw rocks at it or even kicks it, but that is in the normal circumstances. The midget monster probably won't be able to break in but what if another bigger and stronger monster shows up? They will be at its mercy. OR belly.
"Please wait here for a moment, I will call Daria." Link left his stuff and went straight inside and saw Daria staring at her palms, motionlessly. "Daria, could you turn on the external security door?" He touched her shoulder as it seemed she did not hear him at all.
Startle, Daria yelps and stands up from the couch looking at the source that frighten her.
"Huh?! You're back? You look kinda horrible."
Her yelps alert the other tenants, and some have a horrified look on their faces. It is evident that everyone in the room is on edge. It bothered Link that the people in the room weren't even aware of their surrounding in the situations they're in. He gathered them up so that they could look out for each other.
If any monster were to shows up with them acting like this, they would become the snacks for those monsters. Perhaps they would only notice it when the monster screeches declaring its presence.
"Yeah, we're back. Could you turn on the external security door? I'll talk when the door totally locks."
Daria pulls out her phone and activates it using her authority.
Approximately two minutes later, the group who was standing guard at the front door entered the room and brought the bag Link left in the doorway.
Link walks up to his niece and asks "Did you also get the ability, dear?"
"Ability?"
"You know, superpowers like those tales your teachers tell you at school."
"I don't know?" she replied with her head tilted to the side.
"Okay, so did you finish your snacks?"
"Not yet, I still have three in my backpack. I will eat them later."
Seeing Lia immerse herself in her Animal Encyclopedia book, Link left her to her own devices.
"Gather up, I assume you all also received that Trait and stuff. Before we delve into that further, I would like for us to at least know each other's name. First of all, my name is Link and that is my niece, Lucia."
"I guess I'll go next, even though you know me. I'm Daria Anetta and I've worked here for around three years. I also got weird power a couple of minutes ago but you guys seem to also get it. Okay, I'll stop here."
"Um... I'm Maggie, a full-time housewife and my baby here is Daril, my husband work as a doctor at Connie Hospital. Erm, is that all? My trait is Fortifier. I think I can fortify items and stuff."
"I'm Kaluža, you can call me Lulu. I work in a theatre in the west district with my five other friends. The other three girls are out at a party so it's just us three right now. My Trait is Dancer, and I don't know how much it can do. Hopefully, it's not just dancing like a normal dance."
"Katriona here. My Trait here is Light Feet. I suppose it will make me run faster. Aside from that, if the amenities get cut off, we won't have any running water and the food we have in our apartment won't last us very long. I come from a big family, so I have the know-how of food management slash scarcity of it. My point is, how will we secure food for ourselves? Are we going into community route or one for them self route?"
Katiriona's words doused everyone in the room with cold water, forcing them awake. At least for those who still don't understand the predicament they're in. No human would survive without water or food. Link's previous suggestion slaps the back of their heads when they remembered it. At that moment, they hurriedly pulls out their phone and began ordering stuff they may need.
Link gazed at four women who began busying themselves with their phone. His eyes stayed on Daria for a couple of seconds. He remembered that she had already ordered hers when she saw Link order a bunch of stuff online.
" Excellent point Ms. Katriona. From a survival point of view, it's better if we're together. With numbers we could do a lot of things faster and more efficiently. And don't forget our problem is not JUST against nature but also against monsters too. I may be survival expert and teach those who want to learn the art of survival but it was mostly against nature not monsters. So if we want to survive longer, we should be working together."
"I vote for working together." Said Link with his hand raised stopping others from thinking further and induce them to make a decision fast. He knows he won't be able to protect his niece if he parts ways with the group here and two of his friends he trusts haven't arrived yet. In a way, forcing them to make a favourable decision for him is a must.
Seeing Link make his decision almost instantly prompted others to give their voice hurriedly. All of the people in the room decided to work cooperatively together as a group. Well, they may know instinctively that they won't be able to survive on their own.
"Daria, why are you joining those girls ordering their essentials?"
"Three out of the eleven drone deliveries has failed, so the store refunded my purchases. I thought I should've ordered more and from outside the city too. You know, what if there is a flying type monster and they might attack or ate the drone..."
"Or the store has been taken down before they were able to send the drone out... As the store no longer functions, it automatically refunds your purchase."
Link pulls out his phone and checks his orders. Seven out of forty-four have failed, and twelve have been successfully delivered, then stored on the rooftop temporary storage house. He wants to check if the area where the drone fails are the same as Daria's. However, he needs to wait till everyone introduces themselves and shares their skill or trait they've got.
"We will talk about that and every important issue later after we finish this one, preferably fast." Link cited.
"I- `ahem` I'm Kiana. My trait is Extreme Perception. I haven't used it yet, but I have become more sensitive to everything around me."
"I'm Betty; my trait is Caretaker. I also don't know what it does, and I think I could be considered a novice hunter as Alex already took me dozens of times to hunt when it's hunting season."
"Alex, my trait is Hunter. Based on what I have discovered so far, it enhances my ability related to hunting skills. Mischa do a simple one."
"I know, did you take me for blabbering type of guy? I'm Mischa the trait is basically an enhance version of what this guy has." He points at Alex using his chin.
"The Fuck Man!"
"Something is coming..." Kiana's words makes them stop their bickering and everyone turned quiet.
Link saw a figure standing outside the glass door in an anti-riot costume, complete with all anti-riot gear from the transparent shield to a side-handled baton or tonfa. The person pushes the door open and all the eyes on the room turn dead-straight at him. He slowly walks to the group and says, "How late am I?"
"A week late! The world is fucked! Where have you been kid? We were planning to check on you in case you get gnawed by monsters. Now introduce yourself and your ability. We have a pending discussion that we need to settle quickly."
'I didn't know they were that close. It's like a scolding one's gives to their younger sibling.' Link reminisced about his past with his late sister who used to scolds him for his shenanigans.
"I know! I was asleep when you sent that message, but I got woken up by that announcement like thing. Then I sent a drone out to see if the world gone apocalyptic or got invaded by an alien or something and turns out... We are indeed invaded by aliens and prehistoric dinosaurs."
"What do you mean by that? Elaborate on what you saw. Wait, no. Introduce yourself first then we'll move into that topic and Daria will tell you about the other later."
"Oh-kay. The name is Abraham. You can call me Ab, I'm not really fond of that name so you can call me whatever. The trait I got is Arms Dealer. It basically allows me to be able to use any weapon and be able to modify any weapons or arms. Ah, I can use them, but I think it is just above the novice level. I haven't had the time to experiment with it yet."
After everyone finished introducing themselves, Link began to describe what he had encountered and what he had battled outside with Alex and Mischa to the people in the room.