Binding Allies II
Damien brows furrowed when he heard Quinn ask the question. "We haven't been able to figure that out yet, we don't know what their purpose but I'm grateful to them for taking us out of that horde."
Quinn nodded agreeing, he was about to speak when he heard Damien speaking "besides I was waiting for the right time to bring it up. Looks like now as good of a time to bring it up anyways."
Quinn let out a low chuckle. "Well, that explains a lot. Guess we're in the same boat."
Damien looked back at Alexia, his eyes narrowing. "But that still doesn't explain how you know all this. Or why I can't hear your thoughts"
Quinn stiffened. "You've been listening to my thoughts?" he asked, appalled.
Damien raised his hands in defense. "No! I blocked you out. Your head's a mess, and I didn't want to deal with that"
"Gee, thanks," Quinn muttered, crossing his arms.
Alexia exhaled. "It's complicated. The system is what's been guiding me, helping me survive. It also blocks out telepaths like Damien from getting into my head."
Damien frowned. "System, as in the type my brother reads on Mangas and light novels?"
Quinn looked towards Alexia for confirmation, his brows furrowed.
"Yes that type, believe me I was also confused and in disbelief, but I've come to terms with it" Alexia said.
Quinn nodded along, that's true "It's the apocalypse, there's stranger stuff out there."
Alexia breathed, shocked at how they both came to terms with it really quickly, "the system is also how I can help you evolve your abilities," Alexia continued. "But it comes with a price: loyalty. If you betray me, I'll have the power to destroy you."
The room fell silent as her words sunk in.
"What exactly do you mean by loayalty?" Damien asked feeling that it wasn't that simple.
"According to the system, it'll bind you both to me and then we'll become allies so that's basically it, you know the existence of the system, and because you'll both be bounded to me, any slight behavior that indicates betrayal then umm i have the power to probably erase your existence" Alexia finishes in one breath.
"So probably meaning you're not sure of the system's meaning of you being able to destroy us?" Quinn asked.
"Yes!"
"Fair enough, it's the end of the world, betrayal equals death" Quinn said.
Damien nodded slowly. "Alright. I'll trust you on this. But if you're hiding anything else...."
"I'm not, if system says anything else I'll let you know, there's also the matter of those infected evolving"
They nodded their head.
"So, you both agree to bind?" Alexia asked.
"Yes," they said at the same time
[Binding Ritual Initiated...]
A faint glow surrounded Quinn and Damien before fading. Both men looked at ech other, then back at Alexia.
"What just happened?" Quinn asked, flexing his hands.
"That was the binding ritual being done" Alexia answered.
[Binding Ritual Completed.]
[Congratulations, host on completing the first step into surviving the apocalypse.]""First step?!" Alexia thought.
"What were the other stuffs I did?" she was about to ask when the system interrupted her
[The host has completed tutorial stage, now entering the first stage.]
[Stage 1/4]
[Quest: Find Allies: 2/unknown.]
[Reward: Unknown.]
Alexia looked at the panels that materialized in front of her, her eyes going directly the part which says tutorial stage and first stage. She was about to flip off but then she remembered when she bound herself to the system, it did mention tutorial, since she didn't understand what was going on and she was sure the system wouldn't answer her if she raised the question since it could read her thoughts and had decided to go mum.
Alexia turned towards both guys looking at her as if she'd grown double heads, "What?" she questioned to which they both turned their head away.
Since they weren't saying anything, she decided to bring up the matter of the evolving infected.
She turned towards Quinn "How did you know that the infected were evolving, you had mentioned it to your superior earlier"
"The shadows told me, it usually whispers stuff in my ear, earlier when we left the outpost it constantly whispered the fact that they're evolving and that they might be led by someone" Quinn answered meanwhile Damien looked kind of lost but decided to keep mum and listen to what they were saying.
" Basically, the system confirmed that they're evolving, that's why I was asked to look for allies" Alexia said.
Damien who was listening finally understood what was going on, "So you both are saying those infected out there are evolving and worse still someone might be controlling them?" he asked his face a mixture of shock and disbelief.
"Unfortunately, that's true, the creatures being led by something or someone is mere speculations on my part" Alexia said because she herself wasn't sure if they were being led by something.
"We'll find out eventually, if this is all some sort of behind-the-scenes schemes or if it's part of the natural order of the planet" Quinn said, clearly not bothered by the fact that they might be bigger schemes hidden in the dark.
"If it ends up being something to do with behind-the-scenes scheme, we'll figure it out, till then we'll kill those infected as they come, evolved or not" Quinn finished.
[Good mentality.]
Alexia was shocked by the fact that the system commented, and it wasn't in it usual cold voice but in a neutral voice.
"System said you have a good mentality" Alexia told Quinn, in which he responded by giving her a boyish grin, which she ignored.
Alexia had to admit that the system was right about Quinn's mentality and if she decided to worry about if something might be going on in the dark she'd lose her morale and wouldn't get work done.
She agreed with Quinn
That night, she laid on the bed in one of the rooms in the apartment, thinking about the decision she made earlier, she felt that it was right, she didn't know why or how she just felt it clicked right.
She decided that whatever it was that happened later be it the infected or something else, she'll face it without worrying about anything, after all the system was with her.