There was a moment of silence after these words, and then Marcus noticed something about Wong.
'Wait, why did she look so nervous? Did I do something out of character? Come to think of it, I have never called her out to talk before, however, I felt the need to, and wouldn't it be a bad thing if I don't??'
Marcus was starting to feel weird about this emotion he was feeling recently.
'When I heard she paid the bills, I felt the need to talk to her and share my thoughts, and most of all, to thank her, something I have never done before, at least not until I met Mei Ling'
'Or is there something she is plotting?'
Another thought resurfaced, from Marcus's view, it wasn't an uncommon thing for someone to do some good deed just for the sake of their twisted goal or personal gain, it was either there was something she would get from it 'Or is she some saint? Well, I don't think saints exist in this world.
For a moment, Marcus' mind wandered toward Mei Ling.
After a long moment of silence, with neither side able to utter a word, and of course with all the thoughts going on in Marcus's mind, he had no idea what Elena was thinking and he reasoned this was an unnecessary silence so he felt the need to break it.
"Ah em!! Elena, are you listening?"
'Huh? This is bad! Her face is all red, she looks like she wants to oversteam!'
'Am I that cringe?!!!'
"Huh, it is okay if you don't want to speak with me, I'm sorry but I will need to refund you back, and most of all, I want to thank you, can I get your account details?"
"Umm...
'S-She spoke up, for the first time since I knew her!'
"Can I have your number? T-thank th-thank you for this d-date, I mean meeting, it would be nice of you if I have your number"
'I thought I heard something out of place, perhaps I misheard'
'For a vice-captain of Dragonslayer Ops, isn't she too modest, and what is with her super meek voice? Or am I overthinking it?
'Well, it doesn't matter, she clearly wants to forward her account details through message'
After that, they both exchanged contact, and just then Marcus received a call.
"Good Evening Sir, Is this Mr Zhao?"
The voice at the other end sounded professional as if one was talking to a customer support.
"Yes"
Marcus had figured out that it was from the strike squad he applied to, and then he started feeling nervous after all, this was his first official raid.
"Can you meet up at the meeting point as stated in the application form? We have less than twenty minutes to start the raid"
"Ok Sir, no problem"
Marcus had already applied and joined a team, the grade of the area was high-tier S-grade and there were Seven D-rank, ten C-rank, and two B-rank Awakened in the team.
To form a strike squad, a minimum of ten members is needed, however, this particular group was already comprised of nineteen members and was still finding one more member.
Even if the area was a low grade and it was at this point that Marcus applied, although rankless, it was just to fill the headcount the group wanted.
And Marcus didn't know if it was to clear any possible risk and raise the chance of the raid success, but he did know that that might not be the true case, after all in this world, it wasn't an uncommon thing for the powerful to use the weak corpse as a step to greater heights, which means there is a possibility of meat shield plot in this raid.
'Like seriously, just look at the number of members, however, the unit commander looks modest'
One of the two B-rank awakened was Huang Ming, a prominent young mistress from the Huang clan's main family, she was the unit commander.
The other was a retired awakened from the government Awakened League.
'Wait, is he really retired or just quit? Judging from his look, this Awakened would just be around his late twenties to early thirties, who the hell retired at such an age, he fell into the trap of the Huang clan money lure, after all, there have been many cases of a clan who have formed Awakened independent association luring Awakened from government Awakened league through a ridiculous amount of money
Marcus stood and went back to the others, leaving Elena with her strange expression and behavior, at least in Marcus's view, he was unable to understand what was wrong with her after they exchanged contact.
"Marc, it has been a long time, I don't know what happened but don't you think she has missed your presence?"
Nurse Lou patted Marcus' shoulder.
"At least that is what I think.
Even if she can't see nor hear you, I believe she can feel your presence even in her endless sleep"
Marcus nodded and went into the room with Mei Ling.
"I'm sorry about this, Marcus, I hope she wakes up soon"
"Yeah, same"
Marcus held the hand that refused to move, caressing it, "I hope"
[Ding!]
[New Quest!]
The system notification stunned Marcus even though he thought he had gotten used to it.
He viewed the notification and Lo and behold, it was a quest.
"Another quest apart from the one I received earlier? This is surprising"
"Marcus?"
Mei Ling turned to Marcus with a puzzled expression and then he realized he had spoken out unintentionally.
'Oops...'
[Target has entered a state of endless sleep, and it seemed she wouldn't be waking up any time soon, at least not until fifty more years when death comes to claim her soul, craft a rare consumable to cure this illness!]
[Quest Objective: Craft Gene Elixir with necessary materials]
[Crafting materials:
[Two pints of Holy Water]
[Crystallized blood of Supreme Ape Lord]
[A twig from Speech Tree]
[Rewards: 1500 XP]
[Item rewards: Consumable—Deified purple blood ×2]