Going to the next day, Zack was woken up by the sounds of shooting outside.
"Ugh, what the hell is that," Zack asked. "It's seven in the morning..."
"Nathan's training with the NPC again," Ada answered as she was scrolling through the channels on the television. "He's been doing this from around 4 am."
Olivia also looked stressed. She had eye bags under red, bloodshot eyes.
"Did you even get any sleep, Olivia?" Zack asked.
"No..." She softly answered.
Damn, Nathan's pretty determined about this, huh.
Zack went outside. Upon exiting, he saw Charles and Jack spectating Nathan's spar with the NPC. Nathan had numerous bruises on his body, and his clothing was covered in dirt.
"Oh. Hey, mate." Jack greeted.
"Hey, did you guys not sleep either?"
"Yeah, I was too interested in watching Nathan, but so far he's just been getting knocked down," Charles responded. "Besides, my body is so strong that I don't need as much sleep as normal people!"
"Yeah, I'm similar too," Jack said. "Back at the village I used to live in, we were trained to go without sleeping for long periods."
"Village--" Before Zack could ask but was interrupted by the sounds of gunfire.
Nathan tried shooting the NPC, but he deflected them with his hand and dashed up to him. Nathan tried to attack but was too slow and got punched in the face, causing him to roll across the ground.
"C'mon, you've been at this for hours. Let's take a break now." The NPC said.
"No, just...a little...more," Nathan said as he ran at the NPC. He attempted to strike him with his fists, but he dodged them all and countered with a sudden punch to Nathan's gut. With a sudden onset of coughing, Nathan fell to his knees.
"Alright, Nathan, that's enough now. Go to the doctor so she can heal you." He said before walking off.
Ugh...
Zack came up to Nathan.
"Need help?" Zack asked as he put Nathan's arm around his shoulders.
"Ugh...I can...walk on my...own." Nathan protested, but Zack didn't let him go.
"C'mon on, what type of friend would I be if I let you go?"
"Tch, are you an idiot...you aren't my friend..." Nathan muttered.
"Yeah yeah."
Zack, followed by Jack and Charles, brought Nathan inside.
"Wow Nathan, you look terrible, haha!" Ada mocked.
Tsk, so annoying.
"Jack, could you open the door to the bottom floor?" Zack asked, and Jack agreed.
"Huh...you guys knew how to open it?" Nathan asked.
"Yeah, unlike you, we were conscious and saw the NPC opening it."
Jack proceeded to slide a part of the floor which revealed an underground bunker. Zack and Nathan made their way down the bunker. They descended to the room where Nathan had woken up after being saved by the NPC.
The setting was that of a hospital room. There was a bed, various medical equipment, and cupboards holding medicinal supplies. The doctor seemed to be restocking a container with medicine tablets when they entered.
"Uh, hello." Zack awkwardly greeted.
"Oh my!" The doctor exclaimed upon seeing Nathan.
With her strange green light of healing, she quickly repaired Nathan's body.
"Jeez, that's the third time in less than twenty-four hours I've had to heal you." She said in a concerned manner. "You need to stop being so reckless."
"If I'm not reckless...then I have no chance of surviving." Nathan replied.
Gotta get strong enough to get revenge on the developer.
With a sigh, the doctor shook her head. "Well, you're all healed up now."
"Thank you," Nathan said before immediately leaving.
"Nathan is one hard guy, isn't he?" The doctor asked.
"He'll come around," Zack responded.
After Nathan and Zack returned, the party members were all in the same spot.
"It's been a while since we've heard from the developer, huh, guys," Ada asked. "We should communicate on what our next move would be."
"Yeah, it's slightly more dangerous now that Jack and Nathan ran into super soldiers," Zack added.
"Yeah, we should--"
"We should wait it out," Nathan interjected, getting everyone's attention.
"Wait it out? But why?" Olivia asked.
"Well, you said that you had an entire gang mobilized for some dirty work, right?" Nathan recalled. "Then, while they're causing mischief, that'll distract the law enforcement. We just gotta hide for a bit, maybe a couple of days, then continue to attack again."
Hearing this, Ada looked a bit annoyed but she kept her usual smile.
"I think it's better if we keep up the attacks so the law will have a tougher time with so many threats." Ada countered.
"Yeah, well, that's a stupid idea." Nathan bluntly stated. "We have no idea what the military's strategies are, but from what we've seen...especially me, the threat of being attacked by super soldiers is genuine. I'm not going to get killed because of our 'leader' making stupid decisions."
Zack and Olivia gasped, with Olivia's expression becoming increasingly fearful.
"You know, Nathan...you say some rather...hurtful things," Ada said, her smile becoming less apparent. "Believe me, I am aware of the super soldiers, you just have to tru--"
"Trust you? Why should I?" Nathan cut her off again. "Didn't you get arrested for being a cult leader who threw away her followers without the slightest care? So why can't you use your presumably loyal gang as dispensable people to distract them while we hide? Or is it that you are planning something..."
Those words made everyone glance at Ada with a bit of suspicion. Olivia was breaking out in a sweat as Nathan was verbally tackling her.
"Wait, Nathan. Calm down, man." Zack said in an attempt to diffuse the situation.
"Nah, let me finish." Nathan denied. "Ada, everyone's been pretty helpful here. Charles and Jack doing their usual things, me raiding those police stations...hell, even Zack was useful when he blew up those two super soldiers at the hotel."
"Hey!" Zack exclaimed.
"But you, the leader. All smiles and always writing in that little damn book of yours."
I've had experience with unnecessarily friendly individuals...they always betray you in the end.
"You've been nothing but useless."
"Nathan, that's enough--"
The TV suddenly switched on. Immediately to the news, garnering everyone's attention.
"Good morning, I am Ashley bringing you the news. It seems the state is finally intensifying their efforts to deal with the disaster that they've caused, even though it had to take half the country to become a warzone before they realized normal military units aren't enough."
"Huh?" Nathan said in a concerned tone.
"In a few days from now, numerous military officials will be meeting with the president to discuss the full release of the super soldiers and a full-scale evacuation of civilians."
"Haha!" Nathan laughed upon hearing that. "Looks like we're kinda screwed anyway"
Ada had kept her head down after Nathan had called her useless. Her head was not down to hide any shame, it was the opposite. It was to hide the intense rage that she was feeling.
I will kill you for this, Nathan!