Chapter 4 Planning

Tristan retreated with a surging headache to do the task assigned to him as fast as he could with the limited time they had.

As soon as he is out of the room, Duke jumps into the conversation. "Care to explain the entirety of the omitted information you got? How did you chance upon this knowledge before it occurred? And why did you come to me?"

Even though Duke has a good impression of Kisha, he still needs to be vigilant because a lot of people want to drag him down from his position and they will use any kinds of method just to achieve their goal. 

Kisha understands this the most, Duke often talks about his venture in the business world whenever they are out on a mission in her previous life, so she understands him like the back of her hand. " This is not the first time I have experienced this." She dropped the bomb without warning and it caught Duke off guard but his face still showed calm and indifferent expression as if they were talking about the weather.

He has been trying to decipher everything she had said from the beginning til now but it's just hard to comprehend because no one would even jump to the conclusion that she had died and come back to life to re-experience the apocalypse, will they?

"You're probably wondering what am I even trying to say." Kisha chuckled as she tucked the few loose strands of her long curly black hair into her ear. "I have died and came back to life a day before the apocalypse." She stares right back at him as she reiterates the words.

No matter how steady a person Duke was, that information still struck his brain cells and made him daze for a while until he slowly processed the information and accepted the possibility of it being true. Because if everything she says ends up happening tomorrow including her awakened superpowers, then more likely than not, her being reborn after death is also true. 

He slowly took a breath as he evaluated her every action, he narrowed his eyes and asked. "Why did you decide to share this information with me and not the government? This could save millions of lives." 

Other than Duke, everyone else would just treat her as a lunatic who preaches the end of the world like the crazy people who shout in the central square that the end of the world is near. She would just waste her time doing so and she did try that before and the passersby just laughed at her crazy antics.

"Might be, but how many of them would believe me? If I showed what I can do, I might even be dragged by the government and be locked down." She drank a mouthful of water to wet her throat. "You, on the other hand, are different. As long as there's conclusive evidence, you'll listen and will not bet your people's lives to a possible danger."

Although his enemies call him ruthless and coldblooded. But in truth, he is a good person, he is protective of his own and a good leader. This is also the reason why she started hanging out with him in her previous life, they are each other's confidant, and if anyone needs help they don't need to ask questions as they have absolute trust in each other, only if she did not make that mistake. He wouldn't have to die. Remembering the sad past, Kisha's body slightly trembled and her eyes clouded in pain, but she quickly adjusted her emotions. All these minor changes were captured by Duke's decerning eyes, even if he did not know her, he could feel the trust she had in him which somehow made him happy.

Kisha shared her knowledge with Duke about the virus that will spread tomorrow. The said virus is one that laid dormant in the ice territory up north. It was kept by towering ice walls that buried the Greenlands when the ice age hit the earth. This ice age saved the remaining life on earth but it still took thousands to millions of years for the life to slowly prosper again. But now, because of climate change, the heat slowly dissolves the ice walls over time, and there have been more earthquakes that resulted in the virus escaping its confinement. 

This was discovered by a dedicated scientist five years post-apocalypse. Only a quarter of humanity will be lucky enough to awaken a superpower, another quarter will remain normal, and a small minority will be asymptomatic where they look like a normal human but their bodily fluids can turn normal humans into zombies. And the rest will become a mindless human-eating monster.

Superhumans will be categorized into regulars and irregulars and their powers after awakening will start from Level 0. Regulars are the known powers like elementals which are more common but they will still be classified from low, middle to high class. The low class is the support type, the middle class is the defensive-attack type that has appropriate damage or defense, while the high class has destructive attacks and indestructible defenses. The best example of high-class elemental power is lightning users. Lightning users can attack and defend at the same time that's why it was the most revered ability but also as rare as irregulars. Irregulars have no known pattern of ability and Kisha can be identified as an irregular for possessing the system. 

As smart as Duke, he has already figured out almost everything without Kisha mentioning it. So he already decided what he had to do to make sure he was well prepared. "Based on your explanation, your space ability is a support type. Is that the reason why you died so many times in your last life?" 

"Pfft" 008 was trying his best not to burst out laughing after hearing Duke's honest question.

Kisha on the other hand felt her face heat up for the first time after so long due to her embarrassment. It was because her system was really useful and almost omnipotent but because of her timid, naive, and overtrusting nature that was engraved down to her bones that she had to die at almost every turn.

There was a saying "Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything." It's also because she had always tried to save everyone that she ended up sacrificing herself and back then she did not understand that she couldn't save every human just because she had her system. A person who's trying to become a hero will end up sacrificing either their loved ones or themselves which she had understood by now.

"Ehem. I'll tell you some other time. We don't have much time to begin with." Duke noticed her deflecting his question so he understood that her experience would either be embarrassing or a utter humiliation to her ability.

He did not try to probe her about her ability because his instinct told him that she would not keep it from him for long and that he could trust her. 

Duke contemplated for ten minutes, trying to formulate a plan in his head for his next step, and took out City A's map that they use for strategic planning for all their ventures. He encircled three spots outside the city. " If most people will turn into those monsters you mentioned, then Cities will not be safe for creating a base, we will be besieged sooner or later. We need a place that can be self-sustaining, easy to defend but hard to besiege." 

They look at the three locations at the same time after weighing the pros and cons both pointed in a valley surrounded by the mounted cliff that only has one entrance.

Duke looked at Kisha with appreciation and smiled happily, he realized that he and Kisha had the same way of thinking that did not differ from the other.

The three locations are farmland near the river, a warehouse on the outskirts, and Duke's hidden base where he trains his private guards. The warehouse, although located on the outskirts, is still a little closer to the city, the farmland could be a self-sustaining base however, even though Kisha has never heard of a zombie swimming in the water but there are mutant animals, they could sneak in from the river to their base and it was equally dangerous even if they set up a prevention safety measures. 

She stared at the map again and was hit by a realization. "Do you think, we can both develop the two locations as our food production line and our main base?" Kisha asked after thinking about it again.

If they could think of a prevention safety measure that is almost perfect or maybe with the help of her system this could be her best option, there's no saying because, in the hidden base, they could be attacked by mutant plants from the mountain or mutant rats or snakes. Nowhere is safe but she has enough points now.