"What was that?" Evelyn asked, unable to hide her surprise.

Lucien opened his eyes, and nodding, explained to her what a talisman was and how it worked.

"So you can craft those things by yourself?" Naturally, as she didn’t know about the existence of the system, that was what she would assume.

He didn’t offer any explanation for her words, and instead, changed the topic.

"Do you know Ellie?" His question made Evelyn pause for a second before she gave a reply.

"Yes. Have you met her?"

Ellie was one of the younger kids that she used to teach before, and by coincidence, she lived in their building.

Though she hadn’t met her after the apocalypse started, his words made the worry that she had for the children she used to play with resurface once again. Hence, she asked with eyes full of hope.

"Yeah, and you can probably meet her soon." He opened his phone and chatted with Andrew once again.

I didn’t see him when everything happened.

But he couldn’t be sure as there were a lot of people and he was standing on the staircase the whole time to avoid prying eyes, which he obviously couldn’t.

---

Meanwhile, Andrew, father of Emily and the leader of a small group of people that refused to follow Aiden and his men, was currently smoking a cigar on the balcony of his flat. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

"Aunty, Snowy hasn’t eaten food for quite some time. Can’t we give some of the food to her?" Ellie asked the woman who had been taking care of her the past few days.

Mary sighed at her words, and with a glance towards Andrew and Mark, shook her head.

"Sorry, dear. But we need to think about our own needs too. We barely have enough food for us, and that too is thanks to the kid we met last time."

Her reply left Ellie dejected, and she lowered her head while hugging her knees without saying anything.

Mary wanted to say something to cheer her up, but she knew how much Ellie loved that ferret. It was the last thing she had that was given to her by her mother who had passed away long ago before the world turned upside down.

Taking a long draw from his cigarette, Andrew turned towards Mark.

"Has he contacted us again?" It was probably the thirteenth time he had asked the same question since morning, and despite knowing the answer, he still kept at it.

Mark was about to say no when a sudden chime echoed from his phone.

Both of them glanced at each other for a second before Mark hastily proceeded to check his phone.

And seeing it was Lucien who had sent the message, he nodded heavily towards Andrew.

"It’s him."

Andrew threw away the last cigarette he had left and started to converse with Lucien without wasting any time.

---

[Dead_Weight]: Are you guys alright?"

---

Lucien had sent the message considering he needed them to work under him, so sounding a little caring wouldn’t hurt.

"This kid... " Andrew revealed a faint, bitter smile as he read the message.

Who would be alright in times like these?

They had already gathered two more people under their wing, which depleted their resources even faster.

Although they had finally started to realise not to gather too big a group, it was already a little too late as they barely had two days of rations remaining.

He dismissed the thought and gave a reply with a straightforward question asking if he had some work.

Yet the reply caught him completely off-guard.

---

[Dead_Weight]: Come to the twenty-second floor, the room in front of me is empty, you can stay there.

Food will be provided by me if you can provide some help in exchange.

---

The words sounded as if he was giving them food as a thanks for the help they could provide, but in reality, it was nothing more than putting them to labor.

Nonetheless, even that was far better than starving to death.

Therefore, he quickly agreed.

Elsewhere, when the whole conversation was happening and had attracted everyone’s attention in Andrew’s flat, the ferret had already left the apartment as its nose sensed something peculiar and interesting.

It moved quietly through the stairs before finally arriving near the source of the strange sensation.

In the dim hallway, it didn’t emit any light, yet the little reflected light was enough for the ferret to notice the transparent orb-like crystal with streams of colorful energies flowing within it.

"Chrr...?" Curious, it nudged the crystal lightly with its paw.

The streams of energy flowing within the crystal shifted faintly the moment its paw touched it.

The ferret froze.

Its nose twitched rapidly as an unfamiliar warmth started to slowly spread through its body.

The creature lowered its head before cautiously sniffing the transparent orb.

A strange instinct urged it closer and almost unconsciously, the ferret opened its mouth and bit down on the crystal.

At once, a violent stream of energy burst inside its body.

It collapsed onto the floor as its small body began to twitch uncontrollably, its claws trying to dig into the floor as if trying to hold itself.

The same colorful streams of energy that had been flowing inside the crystal started to spread beneath its fur before strands of silver began to spread across its body.

Amidst all of this, only its light breathing echoed through the darkness.

"It’s been so long man, can’t we just force open a random door?"

A short-statured man with a slight beard strode forward as his voice cut through the silence.

"It’s not even a day and you already want to do it again? If you hadn’t killed the last girl just because she had bitten you, there would be no need for this much complaining." The other guy who looked to be in his mid-twenties with unremarkable facial features spoke from behind.

As they were chatting, they failed to notice the ferret that was lying just ahead of them.

Just as the short-statured man’s foot was about to step over it, the ferret vanished without leaving a trace.

In the next instant, a tear cut open through the space itself right above their heads.

Before they could even realize something had gone wrong, two dark paws with long claws extended from it and grabbed them inside before the tear sealed itself back.

The next moment, Snow, the ferret reappeared on the ground while licking its paws.

It looked around for a moment before returning to where it lived.