Trash in the Apocalypse

Chapter 280: Mid-day Banquet, Part 1

Jun explained what happened in his spiritual realm. Everything about Yetu and the soul corruption that tried to devour his soul. Everyone became shocked by what they learned. According to Jun's narration, the carriers were just transmitting corruption to those they bit. That means people could still die by just getting their souls thoroughly corrupted.

As for mutated animals, they only mutated because they ate corrupted meat. The corrupted meat was in a state of inactive corruption and doesn't have a will unlike when its host was alive.

Jun made sure that everyone meditates and check whether their souls were high in corruption. Fortunately, the three weren't.

After teaching how to control spiritual energy to his group, Jun guided them on how to cleanse their spiritual realm. Although they weren't in trouble due to the low-tier corruption that they receive when they get bitten, the corruption still piled up and covered a small portion of their souls.

Scared and surprised, the three hurriedly purified their soul through spiritual energy. Unfortunately, they didn't have as much spiritual energy as Jun. Spiritual energy was gathered through meditation. Although its figures cannot be seen, the individual could "sense" how much spiritual energy they have.

Yetu was the system that everyone was familiar with. He's dealing with people who fell out of favor with him, and from what Jun knows, there were many people like him.

Aside from that, Jun had no more information about Yetu. What was his goal, why is he doing these things... not one bit was known, except for the few slip-ups from his recent conversation.

Now that his mind was clearer, he also remembered what happened in the cave when the vampire leader glided towards him slowly, and yet no one could react..

Considering that Yetu was the one who gifted Jun the unique skill Time Perse, it wasn't impossible for Yetu to use the same or a better version of the skill. It could be a higher version of Time Perse, which temporarily stops time for a few seconds inside a selected area, or it was the basic Time Perse, and the four of them were just to mesmerized to respond with the vampire leaders gliding. 

Jun leans on the latter. If Yetu was able to use the higher-grade Time Perse, he could have killed him instead of entering his spiritual realm.

While thinking of the various possibilities, something terrifying dawned upon Jun. If Yetu was really the system, how vast was his energy pool to be able to supply everyone with the system? There were billions of people on Earth, even if he only gave a quarter of that number, it would only mean that Yetu was too strong and unfathomable!

In the end, he chose to ignore the matter. No matter how strong Yetu was, something was preventing him from acting directly. He could only resort to indirect methods to deal with his enemies.

Jun informed Dan about the problem in the dungeon. "There are vampires inside. We don't know if they are part of the dungeon, but please be careful about future dungeon clearing. There's a hollow room at the ceiling of the wide cavern on the central cave system. It's empty and only used as the vampire's food storage."

The old man wasn't sure how to react to the situation. He could only thank Jun for the information he has given them and guide them back to their jeepney.

Back at Angono...

Thanks to the private chat function of the smartwatch, Marvin was able to send Jun the details of the party.

The Fiery Dragon stopped at the municipal plaza to drop Jun off, before driving away to the horizon. Edward was too excited to see his girlfriend once more. Adrian and Sheila didn't teleport back to Binangonan and accompanied Edward on the way back.

Jun looked around and noticed that survivors were looking at him like he was an animal at the zoo. The women whispered at each other with excitement and glee while the men admired him for his accomplishments and his legendary achievements.

Clearing towns of monsters and finding a way to feed everyone. It was an achievement that would raise anyone to the highest pedestal one could achieve during these dying times.

The Portal Patrols simultaneously greeted Jun. They were a specialized group tasked to guard the portal at all times. Someone familiar smiled at him and stepped forward.

It was Cain.

Cain took Jun on a walk on the plaza's sidewalk. He became Marvin's trusted aide after learning some secret informations from Jun on the day Rene Galicia created death sworn contracts for Zeke and Kylle.

Among the crowd, Jun saw two figures he was familiar with. Ralph, the dog owner, and Benjie, a survivor who had an unusual crowd-control skill.

The plaza was stocked with barricades of wooden spike traps to regulate the movement of the carriers that appear from the wild portal.

The spike traps formation was loose since it only intends to stall for time while the Portal Patrols kill their targets. The formation has been corrected numerous times to suit the enemies that appear from the wild portal.

If only regular and tough carriers appear, the spike traps would stall for time and allow the Portal Patrol to kill them. If a Destroyer or Hunter arrives, the traps wouldn't get destroyed since most Evolved Carriers just push the spike traps to the side or just quickly run around the traps. No matter the result, the elite group would take care of them and the traps would still be in good shape.

Jun kept everyone's hard work in mind and headed towards the gymnasium.

Marvin appeared at the entrance breathing roughly. A smile appeared on his face upon seeing Jun. "You're back so quick... I should have expected that, but I somehow forgot that my Boss works efficiently. Come in, come in! Let's go inside."

"I only invited a small group of people for this event. The Castro family, the Montano family, the Galicia family, and Mister Aries' family. Aries Nicor helped us tame more wild animals to cooperate with us. Currently, we have dozens of animals on the back of the municipal building. We have thirty mutated doves, twenty mutated dogs, fifteen mutated cats, and a parrot."

"With that many mutated animals under him, aren't you worried he would seize your position?" Jun asked jokingly.

Aries Nicor's matters were already reported to Jun the last time they met. The old veterinarian already signed a contract with Rene to not induce or provoke the animals to cause trouble to Black Haven. It was a simple request and the old man could understand why they were worried. 

Marvin laughed sheepishly. "To be honest, the thought crossed my mind once, however, I remembered you value loyalty more than talents. Also, Mister Aries could only talk to them, he can't force them to do his biddings. That's why we only made a contract that forbids him from suggesting evil deeds."

Jun nodded contentedly.

As they got further from the front door, they heard the door swung open once again.

"You're really here! Hey, rascal. Don't you think that you've been providing less attention to this town? As survivors that willingly defend your territory, shouldn't we get some type of benefits?"

Jun and Marvin turned back only to see a group of girls having their arms crossed at the gymnasium's entrance. 

They were Dream Fairy's team who Jun worked together with to assassinate Marcus, the swindler.

Reena was still the tomboyish surgeon that she was. The blunt attitude she had never changed after weeks of not seeing each other.

Jun smiled cheerfully. "You already said it yourself. You guys worked willingly, so why are you expecting to be rewarded?"

Reena rebutted. "Working willingly doesn't mean that you don't have to reward them! If you continue doing this, you would lose volunteers!"

"Are they volunteers? Jun asked Marvin. 

Marvin was the town manager. He had the power to hire people and had the financial support to do it. "They aren't. I tried to hire them, but Miss Reena kept rejecting my proposal. She was saying that I could just consider their help as payback to you for helping Miss Lourdes get revenge."

"I never said that!" Reena exclaimed while blushing.

"There, there~ Calm down, Reena. I think Mister Jun would allow us to enter the party." Lolita patted Reena, who was much older than her.

"So you guys just wanted free food... why didn't you just say that immediately? Let's go inside."

"No! We're not just here for the food. We're here for the meat! The meat!" Reena continued shamelessly.

"So vulgar..." Jun muttered then jogged away. Marvin, who understood the joke, hurriedly followed him.

Reena continued blushing and only stared at Jun's receding back.

She clicked her tongue while thinking, "If you told me that you were a leader of the strongest group in the region, I wouldn't have treated you so badly. Now, it's even too late for me to get close to you. Haa..."

"Let's go inside. Do you think he still had rat meat with him? Wild bats only had small chunks of meat on them. It gets tiring even if we cook them in different styles!" Mellissa commented, salivating at the dish that she had long forgotten.

Seeing her friends act so childish, Lourdes, the oldest member of the Dream Team, assumed control. "Everyone calm down. As Elite Patrols, we can't have the hired survivors see us like this. Go inside, start walking. Reena, watch your language. There are other people inside, we can't have you embarrassing our group, okay?"

"Yes~" Lolita answered since Reena kept quiet while getting pushed from behind.