Return (End)

With Uncle George's help, both Arnold and Benjamin were able to go through customs without any problems. Arnold did not had to pay the entrance fee, while Benjamin paid $50. Uncle George simply took out a small payment machine and flashed it against Benjamin's wrist. After Benjamin's authorization and signature on the machine, the transaction would directly go through.

After they entered the premises, Benjamin was forced to say goodbye to Arnold since he needed to report to the military barracks on the surface level. He asked Arnold, "Mr. Eli, I don't know how I could ever repay you! If you ever need help, please contact me! I live in Level 4. That's right! Where do you live?"

"I live on the surface level." I replied directly.

Benjamin gave a look of surprise. "What?! How could someone as talented as you be a surface dweller?"

Arnold furrowed his brows. "It's none of your business." He said bluntly.

"Ah. Sorry. I did not mean that." Benjamin scratched his head in embarassment. "What I meant was since you live in the surface, you won't be able to contact me. Do you have a phone number?"

Arnold shook his head.

"Then how do I contact you?" Benjamin asked, seemingly frustrated.

"If you ever want to find me or leave a message. Go to Mr. Lao's Traditional Medicine Shop, and tell them you want a guilinggao with sugar, not honey. They would know what to do." Arnold replied.

Benjamin made a slow nod. "Guilinggao... no honey. Got it! Well, I need to go report to my superiors now! I'll definitely come back as soon as possible to repay you!" He waved as he ran towards the barracks.

Arnold walked through the streets. At first, the main street was wide open, with vibrant shops on either side. However, when he continued further, there were no more shops, and the whole place seemed abandoned. There were garbage all around and a putrid smell was hanging in the air. Since there were no concrete buildings, people have to make do with makeshift tents. After zigzagging through the tents, he finally found a tent that was pink in color. The tent's surface area was actually even smaller than the other tents, making it hard for a person to live within, much less three.

Arnold flipped the opening of the tent and headed in to find a middle-aged woman and a boy sleeping next to her, squeezing as tightly as he could to make room. When Arnold went in, the woman immediately opened his eyes. "Welcome back, Arnie." She said softly in a welcoming tone.

Arnold's eyes softened. He knelt to the ground and took out the stuff that he brought back. He immediately opened the box holding the gene medicine and took out a syringe.

"Mother. I found a few gene medicine for you. Can you please hold out your hand?" He asked gently.

"What are you thinking? You shouldn't spend all of your money on this medicine! You and Luke need it much more than I do!" She whispered.

Arnold's eyes darkened. He reached out for his mother's hands and reached for her upper arm. His mother was too weak to resist. "I found these in the wilderness, Mom, I did not even use a dime on it. Besides, even if I did, I've already bought it, you can't return it now."

Mom shook her head in discouragement. "Luke needs to get new textbooks for next school year. He also need new stationery. Do you have enough money for that?" She asked in a worrisome tone.

Arnold injected the gene therapy medicine into his mother's arm. Then, he said softly, "Don't worry, Mom. I will take care of it. Now let's go to sleep first. We can talk about this tomorrow morning."

Without hearing Mom's reply, Arnold laid down beside Luke and hugged his mother, with Luke in the middle. He closed his eyes and after awhile, went into a deep sleep.

*

At the lowest level of the base, a young man was being assaulted by a middle-aged man. "I thought you said this would take care of it! Do you know how many favors and money I spent on this?! And you still could not manage to kill a crippled brat!" He shouted in anger. The middle-aged man slapped the boy right across the cheek, causing the boy to fall down to the ground.

"Uncle.... I'm sorry... I didn't know what happened! It seemed there was another person protecting him. That's why he was unable to die. Do you think him alone could survive?" The boy touched his cheek and winced in pain.

"These are all excuses! If you planned better, we would have the entire Young Family fortune by now! You better fix this, or else I will disown you!" The uncle gave his son a hard kick in the gut, making him yelp in pain. Then, he stormed off, heading who knows where.

The son painfully stood up and commanded a servant, who was shivering in the corner, and yelled, "Bring me the mission report made by Benjamin Young. I need it immediately!"

"Yes, young master!" The servent shouted and immediately scurried away.

After around 15 minutes, the servant came back in with a file. Inside the file were the report that was filed by Benjamin Young a few minutes ago. The young master shooed the servant away and began reading the mission report. After reading the whole report, he muttered in seething anger, "Eli Wright. So all that I have planned were wrecked by you. You'll pay for this!"

The young master found a photo of the so-called Eli Wright, taken from a security camera on the surface level, and burned the boy's face into his mind.

"I spent millions of dollars buying that Level 3 refined zombie core and placed it within Benjamin's caravan just for him to die. Then, I asked father to prematurely trigger a zombie wave. Now that I've done so much, I can't back down now. Both Benjamin Young and Eli Wright must die. I just need to figure out how to do it..." The boy started planning insidiously behind closed doors within the deepest level of the home base.

*

Benjamin returned home to find his father sitting on the sofa of the living room. As this 2000-square feel house was bought by his father, he had no right to tell him to leave.

"It seemed you returned alive." He said with a deep tone.

"Yes, Father." Benjamin lowered his head in nervousness.

"It seemed you were saved by a person, do you know which family is behind him?" His father asked.

Benjamin widened his eyes, "No! Eli is a surface dweller, he doesn't have any family behind-"

"Do you think that someone with his abilities would be without backing? From reading your reading report, one can deduce that this kid is at least have a Level 8 Foundation Establishment. Do you know what that means?" Father explained, seemingly annoyed.

Benjamin shook his head in shame.

"One would never be able to get such a high establishment without any genetic modification. And with the cost of genetic modification being sky high, only several people would be able to afford this treatment. That is, the 7 clans and the 49 families." Father shook his head in disapproval, completely disappointed in his son's stupidity.

"But..But... He clearly told me..." Benjamin muttered.

"Do you think anything he said was true. Do you even know if Eli Wright is his real name? What do you know about him?" Father's voice started to get slightly heated.

"I-I-" Benjamin stammered.

"Don't say anything anymore. You'll just embarass yourself. Well, now that this Eli kid had showed up to earn your compassion, you should stay close to him to see just what he wants from you. Meanwhile, I'll go find out who sabotaged your entire team." Father said.

"Someone sabotaged my team?" Benjamin widened his eyes in surprise.

Father had an urge to facepalm. "Do you really think a Level 3 zombie will appear in a Low Danger Zone? If someone did not do something, that would never happen." He sighed and walked towards Benjamin. Benjamin lowered his head in shame.

Father patted his shoulder and said, "For the next few months, you're staying here to do more training. We can't have you go out just for you to be ambushed again, can we. Also, you should remember this well. You are the heir apparent of the Young clan. Everyone is looking at you with knives and daggers. I can do my best to protect you, but you must learn how to protect yourself as well." After giving his advice, Benjamin's father left.

Benjamin took a deep sigh. He was sad that he was this stupid, causing his father to always be disappointed in him. If he were someone like Eli, wouldn't he be able to get father's praises now? Benjamin went to the bathroom to take a bath and calm down. Then, he got a call from his best friend.

Benjamin tapped on the tragus of his ear to answer the call, "Hey!" He exclaimed in excitement.