“I didn’t do anything to you,” I said.

“Yes, I can clearly see that,” she slowly touched her lips as if it was the first time for her to feel them. Then she crossed her arms in front of her chest, slowly squeezing the two small bulges there without any shyness at all.

“You…” I wanted to curse and shout but couldn’t. Her smile and then laugh that followed made me decide to drop this matter as a whole.

“Anyway, let’s speak again about what we were talking about before…” I paused when I recalled that moment. Karoline’s presence came as a surprise to me.

She seemed to grow anxious after hearing the sounds of the clash between me and this chick. What bad luck!

“Are you planning to change the subject and let me forget about what you did?” she shook her head before adding, “babe, I won’t leave your side no matter what.”

“Don’t babe me!” I instantly bellowed back and she only chuckled, seemingly enjoying this awkward situation with me.

And she laughed.

“Anyway, I wanted to tell you that I already have a plan that will change our chances in such a situation,” I said, totally ignoring her teasing and annoying comments.

I always felt freed whenever I sent that jumper far away. Yet at this moment I knew I had one more person I’d pray to send away like that jumper to enjoy my peace of mind.

“A plan? From someone who never knew anything about what was really happening to us here?” she snorted and said in mockery but I wasn’t fazed with what she said.

“It doesn’t matter what I know and what I don’t,” I calmly said with confidence, “in any situation, our weaknesses will always be the deciding factor of victory and defeat.”

“And you can solve our weaknesses by yourself?” she lightly laughed, “tell me Hye, do you know how to solve the problem of our race’s obvious physical weakness? Our lack of support and good preparation before the apocalypse?”

“This isn’t the main problem,” I shook my head and she snorted in return.

“Yes, these aren’t problems at all,” she said in mockery, “fighting against other races with the strength and experience difference isn’t a problem at all… Yes, I believe you, truly I am.”

“It’s not the main issue we have,” I didn’t change my mind by her words.

“I really wanted to know what really is the main problem aside from these,” she said in a challenging tone.

“We have one big problem that needs to be solved… The lack of communication,” I said, “you must have watched my broadcast before, the one where I explained a few things and tried to spread what I saw as must to know basic intel about the apocalypse to all humans.”

She froze for a few seconds, thinking deeply about what I said. Despite the fact that she acted shamelessly and in such an annoying manner, she acted seriously when I said my piece.

“So you are saying that you have a way to solve this problem?” she asked before adding, “and you plan to use this as a main way to teach humans, leading them from far away and trying to make up for our disadvantages here?”

“That’s my plan,” I said.

“It’s a good plan indeed,” she nodded, “but you need to gather lots of outstanding humans to be able to really make a difference.”

Her face became more serious as she added:

“But we already lack such calibre of people. And that will force us back to the main problems I just mentioned.”

“Who said I’ll only use humans to solve this problem?” I said with a smile that wasn’t like one.

I knew all along that in such a stage of the apocalypse, humans didn’t have any outstanding figures. Of course there were many good people fighting and even leading others to survive and fight back, but I needed people special like myself, the jumper, and this chick here.

People like my team members weren’t enough. They lacked lots in many fields. Just thinking about how they reacted back when I was fighting that illusionist archlord and how the jumper did was enough proof of how far they were from the standard I was looking for.

And this chick here seemed to share with me what I was thinking about.

“You are planning to use other races? Come on! Who in their right minds would go out of the already set plan to crush us, betray their races and come to help us?”

I looked at her without answering. If I thought about this point in such a way then I wouldn’t have done anything at all.

I already worked against other races, planting a deep wedge between their forces. Right now I was toying with the Selvators and Berserkers. At some point I’d keep one closer to me than the other.

That would help to make them more dependable on me over the course of the apocalypse. They wouldn’t accept helping humans without having something worthy in return to gain from me for this.

That was my role, the one I played so far in such a good way till now. I had already forced the two races to train my humans in camps, trying to deliver their experience to them.

This wouldn’t be compared to the long years of preparations these races had since their young ages for this apocalypse. But at least it would serve to shorten such a gap.

It was a big move in my opinion. Even someone like this chick here couldn’t think about doing this. She thought this step was an impossible feat, not someone I already did a long time ago!

And this was only the first step. When I’d finish establishing the broadcast station, I’d start phase two of my plan.

I would try to force teaching humans scattered all around me using the elites of these two races. One race was enough actually, but having two was just a bonus I’d never reject.

“Do you have a way to do that?!!” She looked at me in shock, and I just kept my silence towards this point.

“The main issue isn’t about doing this or not, but about if we can really establish a general communication system between humans,” I seriously said, “after all this feat is far more impossible than convincing other races to help us.”

“This much?!” she seemed to not realise how hard it was, “can’t we just try and use the system over and establish this system?”

“It can’t be done this way,” I shook my head, “I already tried many solutions but I couldn’t find any solution but one.”

“Then there is a solution already,” she sighed, “how come you say this is an impossible feat?”

“Because it’s a very, very long quest,” I slowly said before adding my own guesses, “and I bet this quest is just related to the big war going between our universe and that hostile one.”

“What?!!!” she jumped while shouting in shock, “you can’t be serious!”

“I can’t say this for sure, but I have my own doubts,” I said before adding, “so we need lots and lots of people, and not only anyone.”

“We need armies of elites,” she said with wide opened eyes, “and even if we got them, we wouldn’t be able to survive there! I heard rumours about how brutal these wars are! I just hope you are wrong, really.”

“Me too,” I shrugged, “but we have to prepare for the worst. Anyway, from now on you are going to serve under me.”

“What the f*ck?!!!” she bellowed in rage before adding in explosive words, “you are nothing! How come a loser like you can be my boss? I serve no one! And you better serve under me.”

“Bull**,” I shortly laughed, “you are the one who lost against that bastard, not only once but ninety-nine times.”

“It’s your claims, nothing backing it up.”

“My energy that came from you is enough proof.”

“Then that proves I’m superior than you,” she nodded to herself as if she was agreeing on this nonsense, “after all without me you won’t exist, without my powers you won’t be here.”

“You really have thick skin and an iron cladded face! One who lost ninety-nine times has such ambitions to rule over me… Humph!”

“You…”

“Let me tell you this as a sincere advice,” I turned up my face, putting on that businessman face that I used to show to Fang or Wryly, “we met at this point of time when I’m desperate to find special people like yourself. But if you missed this chance, bidded your time long enough for me to find the special people I need, then you won’t have this kind of offer again.”

“An offer to be a slave to you?” she said it in a way that made me want to punch her in the face.

“I’m not a slave merchant! I’m asking you to fight under my banner and follow my orders.”

“It’s a slave deal, forget it I won’t sell this body for you like this.”

This chick… she waved her long hair using both her arms before releasing it again. Did she think I was after her body? Come on! Be serious please!

“I have a better offer then,” she said, “why not work together? No strings attached between the two of us.”

“What if I have to go into a brutal war and you don’t show up?” I said one of the many scenarios that popped up in my mind, “or when time came to go for that insane quest and participate in that big war between the two universes, you suddenly backed down and refused to go?”

“Then we can make a contract between each other,” she seemed to be prepared for my objections, “by it I’m obliged to help you in any big wars and fights, ones that can affect the fate of our humankind. In return to that, I retain all the rights to do whatever I want at other times based on my interest.”

Frankly it wasn’t a bad deal. But I had to show a little refusal in front of her. After bargaining for half an hour, I finally gave in and declared my agreement.

When I revised the contract, I found that her name was Hilary. I signed it before it turned into wisps of light.

“Now you are free to do whatever you want,” I tiredly waved my hand to let her vanish from my sight. However, unlike what I expected, she showed a strange gaze as she started looking around.

“It’s such a fine piece of war chariot you have here,” she said and without any permission, she started to roam and examine each corner of my chariot.

I looked at her before deciding to let her do whatever she wanted. After all, my chariot was acting like a mobile home for everyone in my team. And now she was on my team.

“Come,” before she would go to the lower floors, I stopped her as I added, “let’s add each other as friends. It’s easier to keep in touch this way.”

“Cool,” the look of question on her face turned into a smile of content before we added each other as friends. After I did that, it was time to look for that foolish jumper.

That dude sucked in the single mission I gave to him. I just gave him one mission, and he failed terribly in it. And that led into a cascade of events, leading to the bitter end of turning my sweetie against me.

The only thing that calmed me a little was the deal I made with Hilary. At least I got what I wanted at the end. I still needed to speak with her in detail about her future plans, her current forces, and how she intended to fight in this version of apocalypse.

Of course I wouldn’t accept half assed solutions from her. I had big dreams and currently my forces were astonishingly strong against any enemy no matter what.

But I also realised that I was standing in front of a turning point in my path. My entire advantage would be jeopardised if I didn’t make the right decisions from now on.

I only gained such an advantage because it was the early stages of the apocalypse. The other races still didn’t get strong enough, and didn’t bring in their entire forces.

But when the worlds would merge together, and after a few quests from now, this advantage of mine would be greatly threatened.

Why? You might ask and I’d give you one simple answer; cultivation!