Fuck me.

Cursing, Lucien slowly turned around.

Aiden narrowed his eyes seeing an unfamiliar face, and for some unknown reason, decided to let Clara continue and see the situation unfold.

His appearance doesn’t match anyone in our building—

That was the first thought that occurred to him, but at the same instant, his eyes happened to land on the figure standing beside him, which made his eyes widen in surprise.

Evelyn?

She stood right beside the white-haired guy, her hands clutching the hem of his clothes in nervousness as she found everyone staring at her and Lucien after Clara had stopped them.

"What is it?’’ Lucien asked, with a calm look on his face, seemingly unbothered by the bloodshed that had taken place moments ago.

"Who are you?"

"Only a few days away, and I am that easy to forget?" He questioned her with a smirk, trying to find her actual face hidden beneath the mask she wore every day.

"You—" Her eyes shone in recognition and fury at the same time, and just as she was about to use her powers, Aiden stopped her.

He approached Lucien, silently scrutinized him for a few seconds, which, to the others, felt more suffocating than being locked in a small room devoid of ventilation and windows, before finally speaking.

"You can go, Lucien." His words startled everyone, including Clara.

Before she could even try to object to his decision, she was shut down with a cold, lifeless side glance from him.

How did he awaken?

Aiden has easily figured out his awakening by connecting the dots as his focus shifted to the corpse near him.

If awakening could mutate humans enough for them to become partially inhuman, then Lucien’s abrupt change easily made sense.

So Aiden had decided to use his talent, and sure enough, he perceived the movement of the same powerful energy coursing through his veins which was responsible for the awakening, and the same was the case for Evelyn.

But the question that gnawed at him was how they had awakened.

Nevertheless, his talent allowed him to sense that Lucien’s power was dangerously close to his own.

Fighting him now, even with everyone’s help — would result in too many casualties that could potentially disrupt his plans.

Not to mention his injuries and Clara’s lack of ability to fight currently could force him to reveal far more than he should.

"Alright, listen up."

His words immediately attracted everyone’s attention.

Confusion still lingered in their eyes after realizing that the white-haired man was the same person that used to survive solely through part-time jobs.

Only after making sure he had everyone’s attention did Aiden continue.

"Everyone will get a makeshift fishing rod to use, and all of you will fish for at least ten hours a day. Catch and store every fish you can, and make sure not to die. Good luck." 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

With that, he instructed Clara on handling the people and the remaining awakeners lying unconscious on the ground from the half-vampire’s screams.

Meanwhile, Lucien and Evelyn had already ascended half of the floors and were continuing on their way when suddenly, a sound made both of them pause.

Clank.

"Did something fall from your pocket?" She asked confusedly.

"Hmm? Probably, but it shouldn’t be anything important." He wasn’t going to search for som random item when his mind was already preoccupied with things he needed to work on and prepare himself as quickly as possible.

All of my important stuff is in the inventory anyway.

With that thought, the duo resumed moving and Evelyn only relaxed after entering the apartment and locking the door.

"Sigh, I was too scared."

She still remembered the number of people that were downstairs, if all of them had attacked at Aiden’s command, she wasn’t sure if she could have escaped unscathed.

Whereas Lucien had already summoned the gacha wheel and spun it at once.

---

[Congratulations! You have obtained a common-tier reward—

●Lowest grade Protective Talisman x1.]

---

Immediately, an influx of information entered his brain.

Only when it subsided did he focus on the contents of the information, and what he found made his heart skip a beat.

A Talisman?

It was a spiritual item that had a huge amount of spiritual power ingrained in it by a cultivator to use in times of emergency, either in the form of offense or defense.

For him, the Talisman wasn’t an offensive one, but he still didn’t show the slightest disappointment as he had received it in a common-tier pull.

"Let’s try it out."

Muttering, he moved to the center of the room and sat down cross-legged.

Evelyn glanced at him with curiosity and decided to sit down on the sofa and observe him silently.

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and started to chant some incantations that she couldn’t understand before pulling out a strange golden talisman covered in ancient runes.

Crimson symbols written in an obscure language covered its surface.

He kept chanting the incantation while injecting his own spiritual energy into the talisman in a slow, deliberate manner through his fingertips.

But what even he didn’t expect was for the talisman to absorb almost all of his energy in only a matter of seconds.

Fortunately, it was enough.

The red-colored symbols faded away from the talisman before reappeaing across the apartment walls.

Then the process was followed by the remaining blank piece of paper being struck on the ground immediately and being absorbed into the floor.

Phew, it worked.

He heaved a sigh in relief when suddenly, a protective barrier was formed along the walls of his house before embedding inside them.

"Now it’s time to expand my own influence."

His gaze sharpened, and determination surged through him as he recalled Aiden’s piercing gaze that felt as if it could see right through him.