265 Town Relations

Luke decided to stay in town after learning that everyone was accepted here. Matt willed himself to refrain from troubling the young miss any longer and joined Jun's group, under Edward's wing.

Afterward, the group visited famous landmarks while touring around the seven barangays.

Uugong Park, a park known for its breathtaking view of the rice fields, while different birds can be seen flying around. Together with its majestic waterfalls, the place became a hot summer spot for families in the past.

Uugong means echo, because of the strong current of the falls it makes a loud echo or sound. People from the town usually wash their clothes there, even water carabaos also takes a dip during the hot summer months.

Duckling Society Park, many people in Morong likes to go here early morning, to do some jogging, and chatting. Even in the apocalypse, nothing changed and people can still be seen around.

This was the best place for Jun to spread rumors about the city up north.

Jun would openly chat with the secretary about her views on the matter. Could it be true? Would she be going? 

This created the illusion that he was someone who knew nothing and also interested in going north. 

However, he couldn't keep asking her about the same thing every other barangay, so the Elites had to act their part. 

Everyone would would talk about this to "themselves" while in a public setting, and only stop when they are on the road to the next barangay.

It was already afternoon when they finished touring the whole town. They toured the place in a clockwise manner, which allowed them to arrive perfectly at the town hall without missing or double backing to a barangay.

They also searched the whole barangay where Edward used to live, but couldn't really find anyone. Except for the hope that they packed their things up and headed north, there were no leads available to be found.

"Did you like the tour?" the secretary asked after everyone got out of the 

Jun didn't answer and just handed a pack of biscuits before turning to the group. It's not much, and Jun just want to compensate for the fuel used.

The secretary had other thoughts in mind though. Her cheeks were blushing and there were butterflies in her stomach.

"Edward, prepare the jeepney. I'll be heading inside to say goodbye. I'll be back quickly, it won't take long."

"Please follow me."

The secretary excitedly brought Jun to Matteo's office. She knocked twice and announced Jun's presence.

"Wait..." Matteo's voice sounded inside together with shuffling of footsteps, "You may enter."

After hearing the confirmation. the secretary gestured on the door. "Please."

Jun doesn't care whatever plans Matteo had in mind. The only thing important for him was the town's manpower and possible future tributes to him.

As Jun entered, Matteo's trusted aides formed two lines and were bowing at him. In front of the table was the executive chair which used to be Matteo's seat.

Jun sat down and crossed his legs, then everyone not needed inside left the room.

With him and Matteo the only people left inside, Jun initiated the conversation.

"Prepare these materials, make sure to have them ready by tomorrow. I already met some people leaving, so I'll just consider your plan as successful. Continue the act to drive the leeches away. I'll come around noon to settle everything about the cooperation."

Matteo took the piece of paper and read the items that Jun required. The faction halls required items were written on the piece of paper. 

"I'll get everything ready. However, we don't have enough gold. Also, will you bring food tomorrow?"

Jun frowned. "You can get gold from killing mobs in the dungeon. Have you guys never entered the dungeon church and the cemetery?"

"We don't. We can't find food there so we never entered those places." Matteo answered truthfully.

"Then what happened at the town siege? How did you guys survive? According to my observation, you guys were lacking in weaponry. Most of the weapons you guys have were sticks and anything you can grab your hands on."

They could still with regular carriers but how about evolved carriers? It's impossible to kill a Destroyer unless you know that its weakness was its eyes.

Did they hack him to death with accumulated damage? That's possible but too many people would die!

Matteo felt Jun's puzzlement, and yet he doesn't know how to answer. He himself was confused to Jun's question.

"If you mean the sudden release of monsters from their dungeons, then we could take care of them. It's just a bunch of zombies from the cemetery anyway. Well, the priest lecturers were troublesome to deal with since they sometimes teach everyone at once. If we get surrounded, we can't escape and had to study until we pass out."

That's terrible!

"Well, they drop good stuff, so we attacked them the next day. Unfortunately, they only dropped gold and became angry, ganging up on anyone who enters. After that, we just left them alone. Do you think it will happen again? If it will, I have to plan our defense." Matteo said.

"Wait, that's all?"

"I don't really understand, but yes, that's all that comes in mind."

"What about waves after waves of monsters?"

"Wave of monsters? The cemetery?"

Jun gasped in shock.

How was that possible? Why was it so different? Did something go wrong?

Wait...

Does this mean this town doesn't have a lord? I've also been on the lookout but no groups caught my attention while taking the tour.

If that's really the case, then taking control of this town would become much easier!

Here I was acting tough, strutting around to attract attention, but it appears I didn't have to do so.

Jun started to reflect on himself. "What have I been doing since this afternoon? Haa..."

Matteo didn't know whether to answer the question and kept his mouth shut. 

"Forget it," Jun said then opened the faction storage. He grabbed a whole piece of cooked Giant Rat and placed it on the table.

"I'm sure Mike wouldn't mind." Jun thought positively and even chose to act kind by serving the dish on a plate. "I'll take care of the gold. Have everything ready by tomorrow."

Matteo stared at the fragrant scent of whole piece meat in front of him. Still, he managed to compose himself and answer, "Yes!" 

—

After arriving back at Black Haven, Edward's first business was to chat with Jamie, then go back out to clean his Fiery Dragon. The jeepney still runs on gasoline since Evo and Edward don't have much free time.

Also, if Edward wants the jeepney to run by energy, he needs to find an engine that runs by electricity for Evo to do his job. Evo can only edit the engine if it was an electric car. That way, he could turn the engine to use energy instead of electricity.

Just like appliances and devices. Most of these things use electricity and he only edited the way they work, to accept energy as a source.

The whole of Black Haven gathered at the dinner table. It was such a rare thing that everyone became surprised. Even Old John took some time off from smithing to bond with everyone.

Tatang Robin was called over together with his friend. The Elite unit was also invited to join the dinner. There's even a new addition to the group, Edward's first underling—the blind man, Matt.

Aside from the hired staff that stays at the next building, everyone who had close ties with Black Haven was here.

Two long tables were added to the kitchen for the event. Mike also prepared a couple more dishes and even made refreshments for everyone.

To Jun's surprise, he gained another point in energy after drinking the refreshment. He then realized that it was the energy drink made from the energy fruit. Also, it dawned upon him that it wasn't a one-time energy increase and became happy. If he had Mike make this every day and drink this, he could gain a bunch of free energy! The drink could also greatly affect those who have no chance of buying an energy stone or an energy fruit.

The celebration went on and everyone finished eating. Jun stopped everyone from leaving and decided to announce his current plans. They were his new family and he wants them to know his current direction.

"Currently, Binangonan has enough food to sustain ourselves. However, we couldn't say the same in the future. We have two towns under our control; they are Angono and Morong. Angono suffered a lot and barely reached a thousand survivors. It was a much-developed town and had more people in it, which caused more carriers and faster death rates. That made them stronger and more innovative. I already have someone who manages the town over there, and we just need better communication."

"Morong is a new addition. We just finished cooperation talks earlier and they willingly accepted to work for Black Haven. The town had a favorable position which allowed for more survivors to survive. The problem? They're struggling to feed themselves. Since each barangay had survivor groups, they can't mindlessly loot another place. They have to rely on nature by hunting animals and gathering wild vegetables in the wild."

"Does anyone notice the problem? We would run out of food if we help them, and yet we can't turn a blind eye. Now, we found a solution that can help us. Wild dungeons. Dungeons were freed from the barriers that were stopping the monsters to roam these lands. It's unfortunate that town portals have to be destroyed for a wild dungeon to appear, but we could also consider it a blessing depending on the type of dungeon."

"In Cardona, we suspect the wild dungeon had fishes as monsters. Just like the increasing numbers of bats in Angono, there's an explosive increase in fishes in Cardona. With that as the base, we can assume that we'll have plenty of fishes in the future. The hard part about this is we need to fight them underwater, we need to watch our breaths and fight at the same time."

Everyone can see that Jun was troubled about the issue. Only a small number of people in the room understand how tough it is fighting underwater. Although they could move fast thanks to Waterstride, the inability to breathe underwater was a big problem.

Just as everyone was pondering, the two young girls started laughing.

Chloe and Judy giggled endlessly. 

"Why don't you just fish them? We have Uncle Gilbert, right? He probably knows how to fish." Chloe said, while her friend Judy mimed sending out a fishing rod to the water.