Monkey Attack

The girls first stopped by the middle-end department stores that showcased some clothing piece that was stylish and were made with an acceptable quality of the material. Even though this group of girls is rich, they have often spent time shopping outside.

This lead them to realize that the high-end brand store usually sold things that were too outlandish and only looked acceptable on models. On everyone else, these crazy pieces would look like rainbow vomit or trash bags.

That's why they often visited stores that middle-class people spent their money at. Since these stores catered to a large group of people, the clothes they had were in better taste.

"Even though we have money, why would we spend it on something unappealing." was their motto.

They wouldn't spend their parent's cash on things that they wouldn't ever wear, it was better to make smart decisions rather than fail while trying to show off.

Just because they had money didn't mean they should spend it on whatever.

"Ah, I'm tired... let's take a break," complained Daly(Darlene). She huffed and then sat on a bench. The rest of the girls did not feel any fatigue and looked at Dally with a caring gaze.

She was making quite the cute expression as there were drops of sweat gliding down her forehead and cheek. Along with her exasperation and pitiful, eyes, it made the girls want to bully her.(specifically Karina and Cynthia).

"How about we get some snacks from the food court," suggested Lilly.

If anyone would bring up food, it would be her. Everyone agreed as they had been browsing through stores for the past hour.

They need to refresh their moods as they would be heading to the high-end shops later on.

As they were headed to the food court, some bodyguards came up to the girls and took loads of bags from them. They would randomly show up from the shadows to empty the girl's hands.

Why would they hold the bags full of clothes if they can pay someone else to?

"Should we go for fast food or a restaurant?" asked Karina as she wasn't sure what everyone wanted. She however hopped for some restaurant food she had spent the morning training her abilities.

Even though it had caused her to have cravings for high-calorie food, she felt that feeding fast food to her body was just self-torture.

"Fast food."

"Fast food."

"Fast food."

"Restaurant."

When it comes to the choice of what they wanted to eat, most of them are decisive and didn't need to think. The first three were the choices of Natsumi, Daly, and Lilly. Cynthia choose the latter as eating healthy is important for her to build up a strong body. She needed to get very toned before the use of the other serum that she had just bought.

As soon as they arrived at the food court, they had to split up as restaurants were on one side while other places such as fast-food chains or snack shops or on the other end. People who want to eat a variety of things could only suffer.

For the first time, Karina and Cynthia were left alone. They walked side by side and avoided eye contact.

'I should talk to her, right? She is Lilly's friend. Getting along with them might not be too hard.' Cynthia wasn't sure how to chat with Karina. They had a negligible amount of interaction.

Unlike Lilly who was open and willing to engage with Cynthia first, Karina was just as cold as her unless she was teasing Daly.

As she was debating on how she should approach Karina, the beautiful girl had her own thoughts to manage.

'I shouldn't have instigated those idiots to harass Cynthia. How should I apologize?' Karina, who had never thought about apologizing to anyone except family wasn't sure how she would make up for her actions.

If one goes back to where the bullies were discussing their next move, they had mentioned that Karina was the one that informed them of the rift that existed between the sisters. This is indeed the truth.

Karina at that time saw how Lilly and Cynthia avoided each other. She saw how the sisters were not getting along at all. Karina found this odd as she had observed Cynthia.

Her conclusion from this was that Cynthia was just like her. Someone who shows a cold exterior but is warm and accepting to those she feels close to.

Lilly had also expressed that she did want to get along with her older sister but they had trouble finding common ground. Since she wanted to fulfill the wishes of her dear friend she decided to make a drastic decision.

She instigated the group of bullies to pressure Cynthia and hopped she would approach Lilly with this problem when she could no longer keep up. This would allow them an opportunity to cooperate and become closer.

"Uhh..." x2

Both of the girls opened their mouths at once as they had decided upon their initial words but had a hard time spitting them out.

Their gazes filled with an array of emotions met and they saw the awkwardness in each other. This caused them to turn their heads away from each once again.

'What was that?! She was actually trying to talk to me herself. I should have just stayed quiet.' Cynthia berated herself for not having much patience. She just interrupted Karina and wondered if she was not happy with that.

'Ahhh!! I should have waited. I could have found a way to apologize as we mingled.' Karina berated herself as well she could have just let Cynthia talk. She would have found some opportunity to bring up the topic of her indirect harassment.

She hoped that Cynthia wasn't unhappy with her and would continue on with what they were saying. She forgot that Cynthia had similar personality aspects to hers.

As the since between them grew, the two got closer to their choice of restaurant and realized that the other person was somewhat like them. They had realized they would get nowhere if they kept on waiting for the other one.

Right before they stopped at the front of a fancy restaurant that specialized in steak, they had decided on what to say once again.

"We are not going to get anywhere like this. I'll go first." x2

The two girls finished their sentence and then started each other in the eyes once again. If this was the original Cynthia, she wouldn't have taken the initiative but due to her business experience, she was able to force herself to do so.

Karina had also decided to do the same as he was staying under her parents part-time as they didn't want her to not be able to manage her inheritance when she was an adult.

They scanned each other facial expressions that had lost a decent chunk of their coldness and had hints of nervousness.

"Rock! Paper! Scissors!" they said in sync. Cynthia put out scissors while Karina put out rock. Neither put out paper as they didn't like something that felt was unusable as a weapon on a normal basis.

With this, the one who would initiate the discussion would be Karina. She didn't want to win but subconsciously, she wasn't someone who wanted to lose either.

Once that was settled, the two girls entered the restaurant and a waiter took them to an empty table for two.

This restaurant was high end and the people dining inside were wearing professional clothes such as suits. The girls had caught the customer's eyes as soon as they entered as the girls were not only rare beauties but they looked out of place.

Thye wore more normal clothes but somehow these simple outfits of theirs only worked to amplify their ice princess-like demeanor.

The waiters didn't judge their customers by first sight as they could recognize that the quality of these clothes was not lacking and there was subtle branding on some of them. Designer brands don't always advertise their logo on every clothing piece.

The truly rich didn't like having brand names visible all over their clothes as they felt like a walking advertisement. This is why branding was sometimes subtle.

As experienced servers, they had figured out the way to distinguish between common brands and expensive ones.

The other customers also realized this after a little scrutiny. They went back to their own food as they had didn't have an issue dining around those of the same class.

"I'll take three Molojina Steaks, a Darsin Salad, and a turkey steak burger." Cynthia gave her order very naturally as she was used to eating in high-end places. This surprised Karina as she was sure that Cynthia had an average life before she came here around two weeks ago.

She had questions for this girl but kept them bottled as she had more important matters to discuss.

"I'll take 5 Molojina steaks, a Darsin burger, and a medium platter of fries." Karina also gave her an order. The two had burgers and fries in their orders but this was acceptable since it really wasn't fast food.

The burgers were made to order and the patties were produced by hand, in-house. They were also accompanied by nutrient-rich toppings that cut out the small amounts of oil used to grill the burgers.

Silence once again descended the table as Cynthia waited for Karina to keep their tacit agreement and engage in conversation first.

But before the promise could be met, they were interrupted by blaring alarms.

BEEEP! BEEEP! BEEEP!

The sound of alarms poured out from the pre-installed speaker system in the mall. This was something that was required ever since society was reconstructed to cope with GATES.

"THIS IS A DUNGEON BREAK! PLEASE EVACUATE! STAY AWAY FROM THE EAST!"

"THIS IS A DUNGEON BREAK! PLEASE EVACUATE! STAY AWAY FROM THE EAST!"

"THIS IS A DUNGEON BREAK! PLEASE EVACUATE! STAY AWAY FROM THE EAST!"

This string of messages was prevalent all over the mall and the buildings near it. There were hidden speakers that were also installed on the streets that let people know where the danger was coming from.

"We will catch up with the other outside," Cynthia said as the two left their seats in the hurry and rushed out the door like the other patrons.

The staff also exited but they had their own staff exit in the back so they didn't conflict with the customers.

As soon as they stepped out, the view of people panicking and running away like headless chickens entered the sight of the two girls. Unlike the normal folk, Cynthia and Karina were calm as a frozen lake.

They were not only equipped with powers of their own but they also expected their bodyguards with powers to come out from the shadows and escort them from the premises.

They stood there, waiting for a minute before signs of panic started to appear on their faces. The bodyguards had not shown up.

The girls looked at each other and nodded in silent agreement that there was something that had gone wrong. They could no longer wait and started to Irish towards the main exists.

As they rushed past the endless hordes of people, this was a popular mall after all and it is the weekend, they ould see people bonding whatever they had bought just so they could run faster.

What value were things that couldn't keep them alive? They could just buy them again when things are better.

SHATTER!!!

The sound of glass breaking was heard as everyone present looked at the main exit that was built using glass for aesthetic purposes.

Over a dozen, giant apes with dense, blue fur, with a height of over 9 feet tall had broken through the glass, and some crushed significant portions of the walls.

The sight of these unnatural monstrosities was enough to send people to despair. What made it worse was that the apes had a sinister smile, showing their tusks, sharpened fangs, and flawless set of white teeth.

The people in front of the crowd pissed their pants as they turned around in absolute horror. The sea of people was not late to react either as they hurried the other way.

Unknowingly, the way they had turned towards was east, the exact place they were warned not to go.

As expected, glass, concrete, and items from shops all blew out in front of them as another group of towering apes had broken through. The citizens were sweating buckets as some children and even adults had started to tear up.

They had lost hope and accepted the idea that they might be dying today. What had they done to deserve this? All they had done was come to have fun on the weekend with friends and family.

Cynthia and Karina could also feel the energy of negativity flowing through the people that were surrounded by. These emotions of regret, despair, hopelessness, and just pure hatred for these monsters that escaped the GATES have felt the two girls as they fought to maintain their sanity.

(Author's Note: I have decided on a release schedule. It will be twice a week on Thursday nights and Saturday nights. There will be around 10 chapters a week, split between the two days.

This is based on EST (Eastern Standard Time). I might be a couple of hours off sometimes as life is unexpected and quite chaotic.

Please understand that it is quite hard to write a chapter that's 2000+ words consistently and doing so without dropping the quality. I strive to maintain an interesting story without constant fillers.

I continuously push forward the plot so my brain juices do tend to dry up and I go looking for inspiration. So I hope you can forgive me If I do mess up once in a while.

Let's hope for the best and give a warm welcome to all the new readers who have joined us in recent days. Do leave a comment to show your presence and keep me motivated.

P.S.: I wouldn't mind some power stones either since it helps this story with exposure.)