10 hours later, when the Erald do city arrived and stopped right next to Onyx City, the city was still pitch black and the do’s simulation remained turned off. Dennis, who had fallen asleep sitting up and leaning against the sofa in the living room, began to wake up and opened his eyes. He blinked several tis and then looked over at Daisy, who was sleeping sitting up in his arms. He also saw Jason and Kimberly sleeping huddled together at the edge of his sofa, also sitting up and seemingly still asleep. He checked his digital watch; it was already seven in the morning, though it remained completely dark.
"Huaaaah,"
Dennis stretched and loosened up his body, then he gently shook Daisy to wake her.
"Honey... honey, wake up, it’s morning," Dennis said slowly and softly.
"Ugh... huh... um... good morning, honey," Daisy replied, having just woken up and opened her eyes.
Daisy sat up and moved away from Dennis while rubbing her eyes. Then she turned to look at Dennis and imdiately gave him a kiss on the cheek. They then noticed Jason and Kimberly starting to wake up and tossing off their blankets. Dennis stood up and walked to the bedroom, heading into the ensuite bathroom to brush his teeth while carrying a flashlight; Daisy followed right behind him.
"What ti did we promise to et Gary?" Daisy asked as she grabbed her toothbrush and put toothpaste on it.
"10 o’clock at the school," Dennis answered while brushing his teeth.
"Oh... that ans there’s still ti for breakfast. We’ll cook sothing after this," Daisy replied.
"Yep, exactly," Dennis replied.
After finishing with their teeth, they stepped out of the bathroom and left the bedroom. They saw Jason already getting ready, coming out of the front bathroom, while Kimberly looked like she was still gathering her soul since she had clearly just woken up. Once Jason and Kimberly were ready, Dennis and Jason began preparing their weapons and the protective uniforms they would wear for their patrol.
anwhile, Daisy and Kimberly cooked in the kitchen to make breakfast. When it was finished, they all sat at the dining table to enjoy their al. Suddenly, "Blam," the sound of an explosion echoed outside near their apartnt building, followed by the faint sound of screaming in the distance. Dennis, Daisy, Jason, and Kimberly all turned to look at the window.
"Sounds like soone’s already started clearing out the crawlers," Jason muttered.
"Yeah, we overslept and didn’t wake up until seven," Kimberly replied.
"It’s fine, we don’t start our patrol until 10 anyway. Besides, the ones fighting right now are probably hunters who do this for a living, not students like us," Dennis said.
"Yep, exactly. Just relax," Daisy added.
"We have to collect crawler body parts for research to get paid, right?" Kimberly asked.
"Yeah, you rember what they taught us in school... like with the spider chaleons, we take the eyes; for bug crawlers, we take the tails, and so on," Daisy answered.
"Of course I rember. That’s all money right there," Kimberly replied enthusiastically.
"When it cos to money, Kim is always number one," Daisy teased.
"Oh, whatever. I think about other things besides money—like the apartnt heater, for instance," Kimberly said, glancing at Jason.
"You really won’t let it go, will you? We’re finding a repairman today," Jason snapped back.
"Let’s eat. After this, we’ll head out and scout around for a bit while we make our way to the school," Dennis suggested while cutting into his eggs.
After finishing their al, everyone imdiately put on their protective uniforms. Dennis equipped both of his iron gauntlets, Daisy sheathed her katana, Jason slung his sniper bag over his shoulder, and Kimberly secured both of her carbines to her back.
Then, they left the apartnt and headed downstairs. Even as they reached the lobby, they encountered several bug crawlers, which they killed instantly without blinking. When they stepped outside, they saw cracked and broken streets, with trash cans along the sidewalk overturned and their contents spilled out in a ssy heap.
Everything seed deserted, though the sounds of explosions, gunfire, the screeches of crawlers, and the screams of people echoed in the distance. They made their way toward the school on foot while remaining on high alert. As they passed their apartnt complex, they saw two dinsional rifts standing open, though no monsters had erged yet; Dennis imdiately closed one, and Daisy closed the other.
They continued walking, but suddenly a scorpion worm—a creature shaped like a giant earthworm with a scorpion’s tail—burst out from underground, tearing through the asphalt to block their path.
"Kraaaah,"
The worm opened its thorn-filled mouth, dripping with sli, and let out a shriek toward the four of them. Instantly, all four unleashed their energy and moved in, except for Jason, who imdiately fired several energy rounds. Dennis tackled the body of the worm as it reared up with its saliva dripping, and Daisy instantly sliced off its scorpion tail. Then, Dennis slamd the worm to the ground and, with a quick movent, pinned its head until it couldn’t move.
Kimberly stood right in front of the monster’s maw and imdiately unloaded both of her carbines into its mouth until the creature exploded and blew apart, resulting in a rain of yellow blood, sli, and chunks of flesh all around them.
Then Daisy picked up the severed scorpion tail to serve as proof they had defeated the scorpion worm, planning to sell it later since its needle and skin could be crafted into weapons. Afterward, she took a towel from her bag and began wiping her face, moving over to stand beside Kimberly.
"Ugh... and I just showered," Kimberly muttered, annoyed.
"Sa... dirty again," Daisy replied, looking at her clothes.
"Forget it, today was always going to be a ssy one," Jason replied, stepping forward with his sniper rifle in hand.
"Let’s go... keep moving," Dennis said.
They continued their walk toward the school while wiping themselves off, and then Dennis opened his interface screen. It turned out he didn’t get any EXP points from that last monster because neither he nor Daisy had delivered the killing blow. He had only gained points from the single bug crawler he killed in the apartnt lobby.
"Hmm... even so, it looks like I’ll be racking up enough points today to level up a lot," Dennis muttered in his head.
[That is correct, Master. According to my analysis, in the center of Erald City, there are approximately 80 open dinsional rifts and about two thousand three hundred twenty-five monsters roaming around, ready to be killed.]
"Wow... that’s quite a lot. Good, good. Ti to grind and level up," Dennis muttered in his head, his heart pounding with excitent.
Daisy, walking beside Dennis, saw him smiling to himself. She handed her towel to him, and he took it to wipe the monster blood off his face.
"You seem excited. I’m happy to see you like this," Daisy said with a smile.
"Yeah, I am. Last year I just holed up at ho alone. You went out last year, didn’t you?" Dennis replied.
"That’s right. I joined the hunt last year to make so money," Daisy replied.
"Sorry... back then, I was still pretty useless," Dennis muttered, turning to look at Daisy.
"It’s okay, honey. No need to bring it up again. You’re great now and you’ll be great from here on out. I love you," Daisy said, encouraging him, fearing he might slip back into his old self.
"Thank you, honey. You’re great too, and I’m lucky to have a wife like you," Dennis replied, putting his arm around her.
They kept walking and finally reached the school gates, heading inside the fence. Inside, Gary, Olivia, Ivan, Sasha, Hyunjin, Minji, Brad, and Akira were already standing by with their respective weapons, and everyone looked like a ss, covered in crawler parts. Behind them, a large, crowded group of students could be seen joining the hunt, cleaning up the city and guarding their school. When Hyunjin turned and spotted Dennis, Daisy, Jason, and Kimberly, he called out.
"Haha... you guys look like a total disaster," Hyunjin shouted, pointing at them as they approached.
"Yep... so do you, haha," Dennis shot back, pointing at Hyunjin with a grin.
Finally, Dennis, Daisy, Jason, and Kimberly joined the team and their friends, lining up and getting ready to patrol according to their grade levels. Steve, also wearing protective gear and carrying a weapon, stood directly in front of everyone and called them to stand at ease. Looking at the 10th-grade line on the right, Dennis could see Mario, Viola, Franky, and Fiona participating in the patrol. To the left, Ivan, Sasha, Hyunjin, Minji, Brad, and Akira were lined up at the front of the 12th-grade group as their leaders.
anwhile, Gary, Olivia, himself, Daisy, Jason, and Kimberly stood at the front of the 11th-grade line as its leaders. Steve gave a brief briefing and divided the patrol territories for the three grades so they wouldn’t overlap.
"Does everyone understand?" Steve shouted.
"We understand, sir," all the students replied.
"Now we head out. Everyone, move out!" Steve yelled.
"Yes, sir," the students answered back.
Row after row filed out to imdiately begin patrolling the territories determined and assigned during the briefing, with Steve acting as the leader for the 10th-grade line. Dennis walked at the front alongside Daisy, Gary, Olivia, Jason, and Kimberly. Even though he was a ss, he could feel a sensation he had never experienced before in his life—working together for a common cause and being part of the leadership team—and it made his heart pound.
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