First Post Apocalypse World and First Recruitment

Hector P.O.V.

Vrrr “Hmm?” I watch attentively the green tattoo on my arm vibrating for a moment, then a pop-up screen appears for a millisecond

But there’s nothing but gibberish there…

“This…” is interesting. My Power reacts with the Cheat. That was from my Omniversal Travel power…

Is it because the two are similar? Should I start looking for similar powers now?

But beyond that screen full of random letters, everything seems normal… I know my power can grow, hopefully, so maybe it wants to absorb similar things to grow faster…

Okay, let’s put the thought in the back of my mind for now. Powers like those are rare.

We are talking about space and time powers here. In the interdimensional rank!

I don’t think even the Infinity Stones are that good. Searching for things that can “feed” my power with my actual strength is not feasible.

And it is just a hunch.

Yeah, let’s continue strengthening myself. So that when I have answers, I can act.

Putting everything that I own inside my inventory, I prepare to go to the other world.

Normally you would think that a space of a cubic meter is not much, but damn… It’s bigger than I thought. I think I saw a YouTube video of a guy showing how big the blocks in Minecraft would be and having my mind blown.

My duffel bag fits with a lot of space to spare inside my new Inventory, and this is with the food that I prepared for the Post-apocalyptic world.

“Let’s go.” Only keeping my Katana and a pistol in my waist, I use this… Dimensional Bracelet and go to the other universe.

Bzzzz Vush 

“It’s not as quiet and comfortable as my own power…” I comment after having to balance myself so as not to fall on my face.

I obviously bring my attention to the maximum after landing in this unfamiliar place. With my hand on the hilt of my katana, I observe everything around me fast before jumping and lying on the top of a nearby building.

“Yep… Post Apocalypse, alright.” I nod with a morbid sense of fascination while looking around.

The whole place is dark despite being a big city, it’s a little strange, you know? Normally one would associate a city like this with lights, so seeing one so dark, like a forest… It’s creepy as fuck.

Stormy clouds that I can bet that are not rain… Not normal rain, I guess.

Dilapidated buildings, and vines(mutated) growing in some places.

And monsters… Ugly monsters walking around, sometimes killing each other, sometimes just chilling… Yep, this is exactly like a forest of concrete and steel. Humanity died here, and its remains fertilized this unholy food chain.

I lost myself for some time watching those mutants, like… They are the first monsters that I’ve seen in my life! I was prepared, but I can’t help but be a little fascinated.

Some really look like mutated animals, one can easily guess from which animal they come from. Others? No clue… Look at that blob of flesh and tentacles… Uh… That abyssal fish with long legs makes more sense.

But now is not the time to study the biology of monsters that defy nature, I need to find my guide.

In canon, Jiang Chen was helped greatly by a woman from this post-apocalyptic world. Without her, he would be nothing.

I am not as useless as Jiang Chen, and I have my personal strength to rely on, but I will not refuse the help of a resident from this world who can be employed using food as a salary. 

And she was pretty loyal and even had a good character, despite being a survivor here. Wouldn’t this be one of the uses of my meta-knowledge? To know who is good and who is not reliable?

Unless I go to an AU, I don’t think I can be betrayed because I will never trust people with dubious characters.

Because technology is pretty advanced here, I need an identity or at least something equivalent so that I can use everything offered to the fullest. I don’t think I can even enter one of the cities without a wrist device, I remember being needed.

She has one. I know because she gave it to Jiang Chen, and now it will be mine.

But the problem is… where is she?

Jiang Chen finds her in the mansion that gave the name to the Novel… But which mansion?

“From that direction, it must high class area…” I say noticing the few skyscrapers in a certain area of the city. “It’s close… Jiang Chen would not be able to go far with his capabilities. So she must be close to this spawn point.”

Unfortunately, I don’t have plot armor or the protagonist's luck to have fated encounters, so I can only brute force through it. That’s why I increase my power, after all.

I go inside the mansions, one by one, skipping some that are open or infested with mutants. “The Mansion” was pretty safe initially, so I can use the process of elimination to filter some mansions and spare time to find the right one.

“Hm…”That one looks familiar… Surrounded by tall walls, very quiet and well maintained because no zombie can enter… And boring enough so that no scavenger will search for anything.

I think I found the one.

With a big leap, helped by my telekinesis, I jump across two streets and land on the top of the Mansion.

“It’s big, but logically she should be on the top or ground floor.” She arrived here very weak, so… Or she entered and instantly collapsed, or she entered and searched for food everywhere, found nothing, and stopped on the top floor to save energy.

I jump down to the balcony and enter a big room that must be the master suite and… there she is, lying on the big bed that was probably not stolen because it’s too big, or I don’t know… Maybe those beds are obsolete and people sleep in pods.

I approach the unconscious woman, ignoring how weird it is, and the first thing I check is if she is alive. It would be a loss if she is dead… Well, I would at least loot her things, so it would not be that big of a loss.

Her big chest is slowly moving up and down, so she is alive… Talking about the chest, the second thing I observe is that she is hot.

I’m not a super pervert, just a moderate one, so I can admire the female form. 

She has the body of a hot gym girl. Lying on her side, I have a nice view of her thick thighs and huge ass, and I already talked about her big breasts. Double Ds…

“Indeed the main love interest.” I scoff. Protagonists are so lucky. It’s almost make me hate them…

Time to wake her up, taking a bottle of water from my new inventory, hehe~ Awesome~, I have an inventory now.

I gently grab her shoulder and hold her in a sitting position. Her eyes flutter a little and she trembles weakly.

This is her survivor instinct, even weak as heck, she is still a light sleeper.

“Drink, it’s water.” I approach the bottle to her mouth, but she keeps it closed. “...” Is this the moment where I put the water in my mouth and kiss her to make her swallow?

Nah… “Drink, woman!” I turn the bottle and pour it in her mouth forcefully, obviously wasting a lot of it, but I just need her to notice that is simply normal water.

“Guh, gark!” She chokes for a moment but eventually, she starts gulping down greedily. It feels good, right? Good, cool, and pure water… Drink bitch, drink! It’s good for you! Hydrate yourself, woman! Ahem Sorry.

“There you go… Calm down now, the water will not go anywhere. Don’t choke.” At this point, she is already holding the bottle with her two hands in an iron grip, maybe afraid that I will take it from her.

It’s a little pitiful.

“Here, eat a chocolate bar too.” Sugar is good, it gives you energy. It will jumpstart her brain too, I bet she doesn’t have much sugar regularly so it will be like a drug-

“Nom! Nom! Nhac!”

“Damn, woman! My fingers!” Are all people around here rabid animals? She has the face of a model but acts like a barbarian. She was almost eating the plastic and when she discovered that she couldn’t, she started licking it.

“Back to life?” I ask, moving a little away from her… I can’t deny that feeling her soft but firm body was nice, but I’m not that horny.

Click.

I sigh while looking at the barrel of her gun a few centimeters away from my eyes. “Don’t.” I say tiredly 

“Who are you?” She asks cautiously

“Put your gun down, I don’t like being threatened, and I don’t want to kill you, or subdue you…” I look at her seriously “I saved your life. We started so well, do you really want to put the left foot first?”

“...”

“...”

She stares at me while I look back, completely calm. She doesn’t know that I’m holding her trigger in place telekinetically. And I can also see her future movements if she tries to shoot…

I will kill her.

Fuck if she is the female lead and a good potential partner and guide. I’m not gonna forgive her just because I read about her and know that she is surprisingly nice despite her hard exterior.

“You have 3 seconds to put your gun down… Then you will lose the biggest opportunity of your life… And you life.” I continue 

“...” Her eyes narrowed and she pushed her gu forward a little “I’m the one with a gun here.”

“Three…”

“Just answer my question first… who are you?”

“Two…” I ignore her

“Do you really think you can kill me in this situation?” She asks, but my eyes and expression continue to be calm.

“One…”

click She puts the gun down and locks it.

“...”

“Good choice.” I say and stand up.

I watch her eyes widen while her face moves up to accompany my movement.

I’m tall and muscular. Not a Hulk, but I have a body that any natural gym bro would envy. So she is obviously understanding that I’m not a balloon of hot air. Instead of risking and trying to kill me, it’s better to at least hear me out first.

“Okay, then… We can start again.” She says while still holding her gun.

“... don’t you have anything to say before?” I ask in a calm voice

“Hm? Are you asking my name? It’s Sun Jiao…” She raises an eyebrow at me.

“No… You pointed your gun at your savior…” I stare at her “Apologize.”

“What?” Her eyes widen again

“Apologize.” I’m not a Japanese Main Character who would take threats to his life smiling, and easily forgetting and forgiving.

I can understand from where she came from, this is a dog-eat-dog world, after all. So I will be magnanimous and forgive her if she apologizes.

“You want me to apologize?”

“Am I stuttering?” One of the things I noticed is that she is speaking English, a bastard version that I can still understand at least. Maybe in this future, everyone knows English, and is the common language.

And I spent a lot of time learning Mandarin… Tsk.

“I did nothing wrong!” She raises her voice a little.

“Did I really stuttered? I already said what you did… You pointed a gun at your savior.” I continue calmly like I’m talking with a child.

“I was acting completely normal!”

“It doesn’t matter if this dangerous world made you skittish. You pointed your gun at me…”

“Ah, grow up! Did you never have a gun pointed at you before? You can’t kill or hold a grudge over everyone that does that! it’s simply being cautious.” She huffs and crosses her arms under her breasts. Nice breasts, by the way.

“The things that I can do are beyond your imagination. I don’t need to play by the ‘social’ rules of your shitty society.” I say a little more seriously now “Apologize.”

“Or what?” She gives me a challenging glare.

“I will go away.” I say simply “You are right that I’m not that petty to kill you, especially after you lower your weapon on your volition after I asked, but I will refuse to interact with you. So I will simply go away.” After I steal some things from her, obviously.

“Are you a kid?” She asks genuinely confused

“Why? Because I’m holding you accountable for your shitty behavior?”I roll my eyes “A child would have better manners than you, they would apologize when I said, at least.”

“Fuck you.”

“Last chance… Apologize.” I look at her seriously.

“Ugh…” She squirms under my gaze. Maybe weighing the pros and cons.

This is also a little test.

The only thing she would be losing, it would be her pride. Allegedly… You don’t lose your face if you apologize when you are really wrong.

On the other hand, I always showed myself to be someone with principles in this shitty world, a rare sight. 

With some resources and physical strength.

There are a lot of advantages to ally yourself with me, if you can’t even admit your mistake, then I will be the one that doesn’t want to have anything with you.

I’m the one doing her a favor! I owe her nothing!

“Ugh… fine!! My mistake, I’m sorry…” She started strong but her voice got lower at the end, she even avoided eye contact… And blushed? 

“Pfft, haha! Is it really that hard to keep human decency and courtesy alive?” I joke. Now we can start again.

But my words made her look at me intensely “You are not from around here, right? You must be from very… very far away.”

“...” I give her a look before smirking “Heh, I you are smarter than you look. It will not be a loss to take you along.”

“What do you mean ‘smarter than I look’?” She shouts angrily “Hey! Where are you going? Do you have more water?”

I started leaving this room, I wanted some chairs to have a serious talk “Let’s find a nice place to sit… I have a proposal to you.”

………………………………….

“Work for me.” It’s what I say while putting another bottle of water on the table and sliding to her, that is sitting in front of me.

“What?” She asks, her eyes never leaving the bottle. When I took my fingers from the cap she snatched the bottle with such speed that one would think that she was dehydrated- Oh, wait.

“I don’t think I stuttered… Do you have a problem with your hearing?” I ask with genuine concern.

“Shut up! I’m perfectly fine!” She snaps at me after drinking only a gulp from the bottle. She acts like a barbarian but she knows restraint to save the water for later. “You are the one saying weird things.”

“What is weird about hiring you? Or do you work only on your own?”

“No, no… But you suddenly saying that, after that whole… Ugh. You’re tiring.” She starts but sighs

“I guess from your point of view things are progressing strangely, so allow me to explain.” I start, taking a can of peaches from under the table, like I took from my cloak, and start opening it.

“What is this?” She gets close, to smell the fruits as I open the sealed can.

“Conserved peaches… here, taste some. Or all.” I push the can to her, taking one to show that is not poisoned.

“...” Suspiciously she takes one and “Hmmm~ So good~” Damn, she is blushing again. People here really have it rough with food, huh?

Huhu~, things will be easier than I thought. 

I watch her destroy the peach with a calm smile, there’s something soothing about watching someone enjoying food. Maybe that is how grandmas feel, or Sanji…

“It’s about this…” I point at the almost empty can in her hands after she slows down seeing that only a few remain “I’m looking for trade food for many things that I can find around this area.” I explain.

“So you really are from far away, huh? This thing here is a luxurious item, no one would offer like that…” She looks at me from up and down.

My clothes also don’t say “survivor”...  “traveler” maybe, but not a survivor. They are comfortable and resistant but they are not roughed up after enduring the trials of this post-apocalyptic world. They are pretty new.

“You guessed it right, and consider the peaches a down payment, there’s a lot more from where it come from… If you accept to work for me.” I smile like a businessman, or at least I try.

“Hmm, and what would this work entail?” She asks, leaning back “Sleeping with you?” She smirks.

It’s probably a tactic to throw me out of the loop and gauge my reaction to the mention of sex.

“Not interested.” I say immediately and calmly “I want you mostly as a guide, to tell me what you know and answer my questions.”

“Guide?”

“Yeah, I’m new around here, so… I will be honest. When you're gonna explain something, ignore that I have common sense and explain like I’m a kid discovering the world.” No need to act like I know more.

She narrows her eyes at me.

“The payment will be… a lot of things.” I say, unsure… like, I don’t have a number.

“This is very vague… Trying to pull my leg?”

“No, it’s just that I don’t know how rich I will be, but I can assure you that you will not get hungry, you will have better weapons, and I can protect you too. I’m pretty strong.” I say as a matter of fact.

The terms are so good, that I sound almost naive. But is okay, I don’t have the ambition of hoarding wealth. I just want the knowledge and tech from this world.

She is the one that will benefit the most.

“The time of the contract will be one year… After one year, I will go away, it doesn’t matter if our relationship is bad or good, I will go away… And you can inherit everything I build here.” I say

“What?”

“Seriously, check your hearing… But let me explain…” I joke, make her glare at me “My objective is to acquire pieces of technology… Hm, call me a collector, this will make things easy to understand. I want a lot of things, from toys to weapons. I want blueprints, I want knowledge… I also plan to use this very mansion as a base, we will reinforce it and everything. The thing is, I will not be able to carry everything with me, so you will receive what stays… Big weapons, sleeping chambers, robots, vehicles, even a good amount of food.” I lay down my plan in a very honest way “All this after one year. Take it or leave.”

“...” She looks at me for a long time “Are you really serious?”

“This is getting tiring…” I remove 5 cans of food and 5 water bottles and put them on the table “Do you think I’m kidding? This much can at least buy your services for enough time to see how serious I am, right? Answer… are you in or not?”

“Obvious I am in!” She immediately says, swiping the things on the table with her arm.

“...” Maybe I should have just waved my “money” at her first.

But I need to make things clear, and I know nothing about this world, no use putting on an act.

“Then welcome on board…” I extend my hand at her, to formalize the contract. 

She takes my hand, and then I grip it tightly, my voice getting deep “You threatened me once, so I will threaten you too… Or maybe is more like a warning.” 

She tries to squeeze my hand too, she is strong, but I’m more… Good to know.

“Don’t betray me, Sun Jiao. We are in a rare relationship where our interests align and doesn’t conflict with each other…I have no ill intent against you… Don’t change that.” Then I release her hand. “Sorry for that.” I apologize like the civilized gentleman that I am.

She opens and closes her fingers while looking at them before turning to me “You’re the boss.”

“Good…” I know that this could make our relationship take some steps back, but those steps are necessary. “First, I want you to take me to a place where I can exchange some food from the currency. And explain to me the currency.”

“You really don’t know a thing? And now is night, we can’t move… Zombies and other mutants get especially active at night.” She says

“Good to know… And that’s the kind of thing that I want you to explain to me all the time. In detail!” I point out “Like I’m your protegé or apprentice.”

“I see… “ She says slowly. 

“We can go tomorrow then, meanwhile tell me about the region and do you have an extra of those things on your wrist?” I ask, knowing that she has one, the one destined for the protagonist.

“The EP wrist device?” She says while raising her hand to show it.

It’s incredibly thin like one of those “smart fit” watches that people use to run and check their steps and heartbeat.

“Yes, I don’t have one.” I know that is important, it basically carries everything that you need in this world. Your ID, bank account, vaccines…

“For real? How did you survive till now?” She asks shocked.

“I will not answer that. Now, do you have one to give to me? Consider it an investment.”

“You are lucky, I have one that I got from a dead guy. It’s all reset so is like is new.” She takes one from a pocket in her small bag.

“Thank you.” It’s not me who is lucky, it was Jiang Chen.

Obviously that he would meet one of the few people around here who has decency and a conscience, and she would happen to have some extra essentials that he needs… Hmpf.

“Good, this will not delay us… I hope you have at least some credits to pay for the things we need till we can exchange the food.”

“I have enough credits to pay for the entrance… Liuding Town is the best place around here, but the Sixth Street is closer and will have everything we need.” She answers. “But is a little dangerous…” She adds to warn me.

“Danger will not be a problem…” I say and after putting the EP thing on my wrist, I check the options… There’s one that shows my “Status”.

I’m curious, I can’t lie…

________________

User Name: Hector

Muscle Strength: *&¨%

Bone Strength: @$%

Reflex: $#%

Brain Cell Strength: 60

Radiation Level: 5 (Safe)

Irregular Status: None

________________

Hmm, more useless than I thought… And here I was thinking that I would gain a Status Window.

On the other hand, Sun Jiao appears to be a lot more surprised than me.

“WHATTAHECK? Are you some sort of monster? Or are you a rich child that received top-grade genetic injections since the womb??” She shouts, slamming her hands on the table while looking at the holo-screen.

“Is that impressive?”

“Of course, this EP that I gave you should be able to read at least till 150 of status… If you are above that…” She gulps “I never met anyone as strong as you. I got my fair share of genetic injections with a lot of effort and paying a heavy price, but I only have a third of your strength.”

She then raises her wrist to show her status.

________________

User Name: Sun Jiao

Muscle Strength: 44

Bone Strength: 61

Reflex: 40

Brain Cell Strength: 13

Note: Level C Repair Vaccine, T-virus Vaccine…

________________

Oh, it seems the Hercules Method is really something.

From our little altercation before, I can gauge her strength… And from what I saw on the manhua, she is just a little short of Captain America.

Too bad for her, even I, the weakest Hercules Method user, it’s a monster that can leap above houses, tank bullets and rip off car doors.

“Pfft… 13 Brain Cell Strength? So you are a dummy…” I laugh.

“Shut up!!” She shouts angrily. Her control emotional is very poor. “The vaccines to increase Brain Cell Strength are super expensive! And this status doesn’t mean that you are smart… Just that you have a better memory and think fast.”

“I see, I never thought myself super intelligent anyway.” I know that I’m above average, and I think the Hercules Method boosted my mind a little.

I ask myself which number would show if I consumed an NZT pill, probably another “error” status… I will need a better EP.

“And between 10 and 20 is average…” She huffs and pouts, almost cutely.

I see… So I’m only 3 times smarter than the average human? I don’t if is good or bad… People are kinda dumb, you know?

“Anyway, now you know that I’m not a burden.” I smile.

“Hmpf, much better this way.” 

“Let’s rest, we are moving to this Sixth Street first thing in the morning…” I say in the best commanding tone that I can muster.

I’m a little excited… Post Apocalyptic worlds are a man romance!

……………………………………………………