After dealing with the mutts in the basement, Aiden headed back into the Medicare center. However, he didn’t have the face to go inside just yet and found himself leaning against the walls outside.

"This should not have happened," he murmured.

He had punished James because he put her in danger. He turned Bret and Cole into mutts because they harmed Lily. Even though he did all that, shouldn’t he also punish himself?

After all, if he hadn’t blindly opened his doors to everyone, Bret and Cole wouldn’t have lived in the building and couldn’t have harmed Lily.

"A punishment for myself, huh?"

[Host, it wasn’t your fault entirely. If you go by that logic, you should also punish Alisha for not ensuring Lily’s safety by locking the doors.]

"..."

For the first time in a long while, the system’s words of kindness had hit him. It was thanks to that Aiden could see through the smoke of self-doubt that had surrounded him.

Instead of punishing himself, he brought out the pseudo-system interface and began typing.

Thanks to the fake system, he could alter the tenancy agreements, and he would only have to inform the tenants about it. They wouldn’t have to sign again, like they had to previously, whenever he made any changes.

+++

[Notice from Landlord]

Effective immediately, any physical altercation between tenants will result in immediate expulsion from the premises. This applies regardless of the reason, the parties involved, or the outcome.

+++

After reading it, he sent it to everyone in the building. He hadn’t previously added this rule, as he needed tenants to deal with one another. Like how the Enforcers and Wolves worked to execute his will.

It didn’t occur to him that he could just make special groups like the enforcers free from the restriction. At least as long as they were acting on his behalf.

"Hm... maybe I should make another force to try to talk things out instead."

[Excellent choice, Host!]

Aiden hummed in response. While the Enforcers could handle the mess themselves, Aiden didn’t want to lose any more tenants if possible.

He had already gone from 124 tenants to 119. If things went unchecked, he might lose more tenants than he was gaining.

"I need to get to five hundred tenants for the next upgrade," he mumbled to himself. "At this rate, it would take me months, if not years, to get there."

Aiden needed a new recruitment strategy, as going from survivor camp to camp to ’persuade’ them was both taxing and resource-consuming.

"Well, the grievance force comes first," he said, going through the list of tenants.

The grievance force was just what it sounded like. A force made to ensure no dispute between tenants turned into a fistfight. Aiden would make it so everyone knew the might of the force without them having to lift any weapons.

Their job was to talk things through if possible. If not, then the Enforcers would step in to clean house.

Naturally, it wasn’t like the tenants could actually fight, but the grievance force’s presence would make them think they had a place to sort out issues since they could no longer fight amongst themselves.

He assigned the unit on the ninth floor that had been sitting empty since its previous occupant got relocated, gave them a budget of twenty caps a day each, and sent the appointment notifications to the six tenants he had already decided on.

"As for their leader... Milarel would be a good fit for it," he said.

Since the people from the slums already knew Milarel and respected her like Karina, she was the obvious choice. Thinking of Milarel also reminded him to check her messages.

"Wait, in two days?" Aiden asked, raising an eyebrow, reading her last text. "That heroine couldn’t last more than three days of sleepless torture?"

Although Joan was moving earlier than expected, Aiden wasn’t worried about it. Jewell had had enough time to study the side effects of the injector, as for the rest, he could make his observations during the battle.

"That takes care of things," he said, pushing himself off the wall. "Let’s get things sorted with Jewell and pay Lina a visit too."

Jewell was at his desk when Aiden stepped back into the medicare center, writing something.

"Ah, sir!" he exclaimed, getting up to greet Aiden. "You should have called for me—"

"It’s fine. I wasn’t doing anything either way," Aiden cut him off, waving his hand dismissively. "So, about..."

"She’s resting," he said before Aiden could ask. "The wound itself wasn’t as bad as it looked. Head wounds bleed a lot, regardless of severity."

He continued, "My ability healed it up quickly, but I still bandaged it so there won’t be any scarring. However..."

"Don’t pull this on me. Just tell me what it is and what you can do to fix it."

"Don’t worry, sir. I was talking about her eye. There was some impact trauma to the orbital area," he said. "When I examined her, I noticed some reduced function in that eye. It was mild, but present."

"She’ll be fine, right?"

"Of course," Jewell nodded confidently. "I performed a separate procedure with my ability to transplant a donor eye instead."

Aiden didn’t need to ask who this donor was. He had already seen a spare eye in James’s torture chamber during his visit.

"At least that fucker was good for something," Aiden scoffed, crossing his arms.

Knowing that Lily was fine lifted a weight from his shoulder that he didn’t even know existed.

"You can go in and see her," Jewell said after Aiden remained quiet for a moment. "She’s resting, but she’s stable. It would probably do her good to—"

"No," Aiden said. "Let her rest a bit more. Just... keep me updated on her condition, and if you need more corpses, just have one of the enforcers fetch it for you."

"Will do, sir," Jewell nodded, grateful that Aiden was providing him with resources to further his knowledge regarding his new abilities.

Aiden got up to leave, then stopped at the door, leaning against the frame.

"And about that injector, you can begin actual trials now."

"...sir?"

Jewell was surprised by Aiden’s sudden change of plans. He still had more research to do, besides, even a week wasn’t enough time to learn about the compound’s individual effect on the human body.

"You’ve had enough time to test it," Aiden just shrugged dismissively. "Besides, don’t you think it would be more fun to see how the drugs react in real time?"

Not waiting for Jewell’s reply, Aiden left his office. Honestly, he didn’t have to wait for him to say anything.

After all, any sane person wouldn’t do the shit he had been doing to James. Only one twisted monster in disguise would actively do it, even if they were ’forced’.

Now that he had made things clear with Jewell, he would start a vaccination drive to get as many people injected as possible. It would also diversify the testing pool for him to perfect the injector further.

Meanwhile, Aiden headed to the workshop. He had barely taken two steps inside when something buzzed past his head.

The jolt of electricity flew by him, hitting the corridor wall on the other side and leaving a scorched mark.

[Auto repair in progress...]

Aiden kept staring at the wall until the mark disappeared. Only then did he turn towards a guilty-looking Lina.

She wore a thick rubber glove that reached her elbow, and in her other hand was some kind of modified device still sparking at the tip. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

"What the hell are you doing?" Aiden asked, staring at the device in her hand.

Lina flinched at her words and threw the device aside and ran to him, making a squeaky noise as she did. She wasn’t just using rubber gloves, but even had rubber boots on.

They looked like metal, but she had changed their properties to make them behave like rubber.

"I—I can explain! It w-wasn’t meant for you, I s-swear! I was testing the new discharge c-capacitor for the stun module. The feedback loop wasn’t s-supposed to fire like that, but the m-moment I triggered it the power spiked and..."

She rambled on, gesturing helplessly with both hands. "I d-didn’t expect the esteemed s-sir to walk in right at that s-second!"

Aiden stared at her for a moment, then sighed and pointed at the thing she just threw away.

"So, what exactly is it?" he asked.

Lina’s downcast mood disappeared as soon as she heard his question.

"Ah, t-that! Since I had s-some free time after finishing the latest batch of c-corrosion bombs, I thought I’d try making an e-electro bomb."

She began rambling once again, "It would be r-really useful for crowd c-control or dealing with groups without w-wasting too much ammo. But... it isn’t working p-properly yet. The p-power dispersion is uneven, and the c-capacitor keeps overcharging, and—"

"Hold it," Aiden cut her off, pointing at the so-called bomb. "Is that thing supposed to be smoking?"

Lina’s eyes widened as she finally noticed the thin trail of smoke rising from the device.

"Um... it isn’t supposed to be doing that—whoa!"

Aiden didn’t waste another second there. He grabbed her hand and charged out of the workshop. They had just made it through the doorway when a loud explosion erupted behind them, rattling the entire floor.

Even the metal door of the workshop flew off its hinges and got buried into the same wall where the lightning bolt had struck.

"...it’s a bomb, alright," Aiden mumbled, looking at Lina in confusion.

"T-That... wasn’t supposed to happen either..."

"...thought so," he replied, shaking his head.