The Villain's Little Cat

As the three of them took turns to guard, they forced Kyle to sleep first because it was already late. This place might not the best for them to stay, but it was still a place they could live in.

“How much is the oxygen level in this room?” Kyle asked when Jake was trying to persuade him to sleep. He had just thought about this when he started to pay attention to his surroundings.

Not being able to do anything allowed him to think many things.

From his personal feelings, wellbeing, to his situation. It was then he realized that they were technically several meters under the ground. Without proper ventilation, they wouldn’t be able to survive down here for a long period of time.

Jake was stunned. “I don’t think I know... Let me try to check around if there’s any oxygen level or something like that in this room.”

Kyle nodded.

Dylan also stood up and began to walk around. Finally, they found the panel they wanted from the small box beside the door. There was a detailed status of this room including the oxygen level.

“This room is connected to the ventilation outside and then connected to the ventilation at the floors above...” Jake paused and then turned to look at Kyle. “Does it mean giant mutated ants could actually enter through the ventilation?”

.....

“It’s small.” Dylan frowned.

“No matter how small it is, not giant mutated ants are at the size of terrible giants. Some of them are smaller and might be able to use the ventilation to enter the lower room.” Jake felt that if that was the case, there might be a lot of giant mutated ants behind this door.

So far, none of the giant mutated ants had entered this room because it was just an empty room. But now that they were inside, there was no telling whether these giant mutated ants would try to break in.

Should the giant mutated ants come in, they would have to fight bitterly in defensive formation. After all, they couldn’t just leave Lotte and Little Kitty alone. They also had no way to escape from here.

“We’re like trapped rats here.” Jake sighed in defeat. He slumped on the ground and sighed.

Even though he felt that his ability was growing stronger, it was still far cry from being able to overwhelm these giant mutated ants outside. There was no doubt that the sheer number of these giant mutated ants would put huge pressure on their shoulder.

By now, Jake was not even sure how they would be able to survive should the giant mutated ants break in.

“Wait.” Dylan glanced at Kyle.

“We’ll stay here until they wake up.” Kyle passed a glance at Kate and hoped from the bottom of his heart that she will wake up and be well. Even if she wanted to sneak away some snack on her own, he will let her do that and pretended knowing nothing.

Right now, he just hoped that his little cat would be able to wake up.

“Alright. There should be a way to break through the layer of defense of these giant mutated ants later with their help.” Jake tried to stay positive.

He himself was also worried about Lotte. No matter what, she’s his girlfriend and also the person he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. Seeing her in this situation, he felt heartache.

“Sleep, I first.”

“Ok.”

Jake looked at Dylan and then glanced Kyle.

Under the persuasion of his two friends, Kyle eventually slept. Even though it was only a few hours due to his restless mind, it was still rest nevertheless. When he woke up, the situation inside that small room remained the same.

He looked above him and wondered why the electricity in this building was not cut off yet. It was as if there was still someone who or something that supported the electricity in this floor.

Why did the giant mutated ants not reach this area?

Was it simply because the place was empty.

‘What floor is this?’

Kyle stood up and walked to the panel beside the door. He fiddled with it for a while before he got the information about this room. Storage room at the right wing of 7th floor.

The weapons he came for was on the eight floor, right below this floor. They entered that tunnel from the fourth floor, which meant that they missed the sixth and fifth floor right above them.

There might be more giant mutated ants above them that were trying to break through the layer of defense from these wall to enter the seventh floor. Peace might not last for a long time in such situation.

“Mhm.”

Hearing the faint female voice, Kyle turned around and saw Lotte was stirred awake. Jake, who also couldn’t sleep for long, instantly paid close attention to Lotte.

“Lotte, Lotte, can you hear me?”

“What is it, Jake?” Lotte furrowed her eyebrows and responded in somewhat hoarse voice. “Huh?”

“Let me take your water bottle first.” Jake quickly take Lotte’s water bottle and handed it to her.

At this time, Lotte struggled to sit up and slowly drank the water in small sips. She looked at Jake, Dylan, and then at Kyle in succession. Her head tilted slightly. “For some reason, I feel that the three of you are very strong.”

“How’s your ability?” Kyle asked.

Lotte raised her hand and a seed in her hand grew at a very fast speed visible to the naked eye. She smiled faintly. “I’m officially rank 4 now.”

“That’s great!” Jake was excited. “Wait, how about your wind element?”

“I didn’t take that one because I’m afraid that my body can’t take it if I take two at the same time.” Lotte looked at Jake helplessly. She then took out the white gem but didn’t immediately take it. “I’ll take it after eating first.”

“There are still some dry ration. I’ll take it for you.”

“How’s Little Kitty?” Lotte asked. As a woman, she had the poorest resistance towards cute creatures. And Little Kitty was exactly a little cat that could easily make her fall in love with her and naturally Lotte felt upset when she saw Little Kitty in that situation.

“She’s still sleeping.”

“Poor Little Kitty.” Lotte was a bit anxious and then stretched her hand, pouring her wood element towards Little Kitty. Just like before, she could sense that the little cat was like a bottomless pool that kept on sucking her wood element.

After she was done, Lotte felt at loss. “She literally sucked all the energy I poured. Does the wood element so useless now?”

“Do you have crystals to recover your energy?” Jake returned with two pieces of bread in his hand. They only carried dry ration on their bag because the rest was in Kate’s storage space. After all, it would be impossible for them to bring other kind of food that easily spoil.

“Yeah.” Lotte took the bread and then took a crystal to recover her strength. It was just that she didn’t expect that Kate was technically absorbing the energy around her so quickly just like a sponge.

If she was given some energy, she will definitely absorb it.

Kyle walked forward and crouched down to pick Kate up. He put his hand on her small furry head and noticed that the temperature had cooled down slightly. It was no longer as bad as it used to be.

“She’s getting better. Your wood element should work quite well.”

“But she’s not waking up.” Lotte was upset. And after she had finished absorbing these crystals, she found out that she hadn’t recovered her entire strength. Those at rank 4 required more crystals if they wanted to recover their strength as fast as possible.

“Take the white gem first.”

“Fine.”

Lotte took a deep breath. The wood element was very warm, but wind element was different. As Lotte took the gem, she could feel as if there was a storm rampaging in her body, threatening to knock down everyone on its path.

She had to soothe the energy, turning it into slow and smooth current that would not hurt her.

“Now she’s in full concentration again.” Jake sighed deeply. He hoped that there wouldn’t be any accident this time.

Kyle glanced at the ceiling above them. “Jake reinforce the ceiling.”

“Ok.”

Raising his hand, Jake was stunned when he found that on the floor above them, there was actually such a big hole with a lot of giant mutated ants gathering. They were busy stomping, biting, eating, and moving around on the hole, trying to create a path downward.

Chills raised on Jake’s back as he hastened his progress, repairing the floor as much as possible.

But he found out that it was so difficult. These giant mutated ants were technically bitting towards these metals even at the cost of their lives and broken body. The giant mutated ants that couldn’t eat anymore were killed by their comrades and then they continued to bite the metals to make the path downward.