preparation 5

Seeing how delighted Mary was from him merely just fingering her, Darren began to feel scammed. After all, after his rebirth, all the women he intended to place in his harem were all too eager to join, making him doubt his life. He was supposed to be the hunter in this rebirth, but now he only felt like prey. Not that he was complaining, but after his rebirth, he realized there were practically three women who were coveting his body, which made him feel like a piece of meat. As he was thinking, he remembered there were two more women he intended to be in his harem. Hopefully, they would not treat him like a piece of meat—not that he was against that idea. He just wanted to feel like a hunter for once.

Coming back to his senses, Darren, while fingering Mary, said, "Let's stop here and do something serious." Just as Mary heard this, she was shaken and began to apologize, thinking she had overstepped her bounds and offended Darren with her bold actions. Seeing the worry in Mary's eyes, Darren smiled reassuringly, held his forehead to Mary's forehead, and comforted her softly. "I am not saying I don't like you. I just want us to finish everything quickly so that we can get to the other part. After all, you are already mine."

Seeing her calm down a little, and in order to reassure her further, Darren took out the servant collar and said to Mary, "Wearing this will make me acknowledge you as my woman." Seeing the collar, Mary, without questions, placed it around her neck. After which, Darren received a notification:

[Ding! New servant registered with supplementary servant collar. If host likes to upgrade to a main collar, host has to have sex to activate the collar.]

Seeing this notification, Darren understood why each person provided two collars every time he confirmed a relationship.

After Mary initially thought the collar was just novel and had no other use, she still believed that her act of wearing it signified her determination to be his woman. Seeing Mary put it on, Darren was satisfied. He then used his primary control over the collar to activate its hide function, which transformed the collar into a tattoo on her neck—a beautifully adorned collar design. Feeling her neck slightly restrict and then loosen, Mary checked and realized her collar was gone. At first, she was surprised, then panicked.

Noticing the fear in her eyes, Darren quickly explained everything, calming her down. Once Mary had composed herself, she gave him a kiss, stood up, and helped Darren seriously select a safe house type. The time for completion was not a problem for Darren, as he had a lot of money. He was willing to pay significantly to expedite the building process, especially since he only had a month left and was determined to finish early.

After informing Mary about this, she contemplated whether it could be done. For Darren, the problem wasn't the materials needed but the size of his villa.

After a while, she answered, "Then we have to hire a lot of temporary workers to fully finish in time." Hearing this, Darren nodded to show his approval. Looking into the brochures, Darren finally made a decision to go with the full package installation. After all, he planned on living a comfortable life in the apocalypse, not living like a street rat. Therefore, he was willing to pay a lot for that type of security.

Seeing that Darren had made up his mind, Mary called in the various experts from the company to introduce their state-of-the-art technology, which impressed Darren very much. From micro cameras and resistant materials to proper ventilation, air filtration, water purification machines, and all the other apocalypse doomsday bunker functions that bordered on black technology, Darren was amazed. Compared to conventional security tools, some technologies were so advanced that Darren had not even heard of their existence. For example, a sonic attack device placed in the hall would go off and disorient intruders if they were caught trespassing. Staying in it for too long could even lead to a blackout.

Seeing all these innovations eased the slight unease at the back of Darren's mind that had lingered the past two days since his dream. After his security was assured, and after making a deposit for the work, both Mary and Darren made their way out of the office. Mary had already handed the project to her secretary to be scheduled for the next day. It then occurred to Darren that he would have to get a hotel to stay at. Thinking this, he directly invited Mary out to dinner. As they left the ninth floor and made their way to the lobby, Mary placed an arm around Darren's and acted like a little woman who wanted to be pampered. When the elevator opened and Darren and Mary entered to leave, the entire ninth floor was in an uproar. The "terminator man-killer" was willingly holding the arm of a man, and what made it even more incredulous was the fact that she was acting like a little woman in front of Mr. Darren.

"To be honest, I always thought the boss was a lesbian or something," said one employee.

"Huh, you're joking? I thought she was asexual. I once saw her break the arm of a woman who tried to take advantage of her," another employee chimed in.

"I think her sexuality is a turn-on and -off. After all, she only seems to recognize Mr. Darren," added another, causing a few employees to laugh, finding the statement quite humorous.

A few others, quieting down from laughing, sighed and said, "You know, if it were Mr. Darren, I'd also be willing to change my principles for him." This statement gained unanimous approval from the female employees, while the men in the room were quietly envious. After all, although Mary was very rude to them on weekdays and often came across as arrogant, what man didn't wish to be the one to conquer and explore Mary's softer side?

As the office buzzed with gossip, Darren and Mary made their way to the garage to pick up their car and leave. As Darren got close to the car, he noticed a sneaky figure lurking around it.