No sooner had the three people been dumped on Floor One than the system appeared.

[All unauthorized personnel have been quarantined on their respective floors.]

[Sanctuary Reinforcement has been initiated.]

[Task completed within 15 minutes.]

[New task available.]

[Mindless ones have appeared in the building.]

[Your child, Ashton, has been looking forward to a new experiment. Since learning about the Awakened, he has become interested in their inner workings.]

[Capture a mindless one for Ashton’s experiments.]

[Task time limit: 15 minutes]

[Reward: Tier 2 nurturing station unlocked]

The mission information was shared with Amelia. When she saw it, a complicated look flashed across her face.

Kain saw it and understood immediately. It was the same complication he felt when Ashton told him he wanted the dog.

He thought about whether there might be any children among the people outside. He wanted them to get close to children their own age and develop like a regular child.

"Don’t think about it," he sighed, stroking her hair.

She looked up at him with worry in her eyes. The air around them hummed. Warmth spread between them.

"Hey!" a discordant voice broke the moment. "Why did you bring us down here?"

It was Matthew. He had been beaten, but he didn’t dare step forward to continue fighting. Instead, he used the one thing he believed they could do nothing about, his mouth.

Amelia and Kain turned him, fury simmered between them. Amelia stepped forward, but Kain was rational. They had something to do.

"This is where the three of you will be living from now on," he didn’t elaborate.

He walked away, heading to the security gate.

As soon as they stepped outside the comfort of their home. A muggy heat slapped them. The air outside could not be considered pleasant.

Only now did Kain understand that the system had been regulating their air. The reason they hadn’t smelled anything was because of the ’system-lock’.

Giving the system a thumbs-up, he quickly took out a mask and gave it to Amelia.

They wasted no time in heading downstairs. The system hadn’t stated where the mindless one was, so they needed to find it quickly.

Kain knew what a mindless one was. The system had already told him. He hadn’t expected there would be one in the building.

Then again, he had been keeping to himself since the very beginning.

When they appeared on the floor with the survivors, they found there were more than thirteen people. Kain had turned his five floors into penthouses, but other floor still kept their original plan of multiple apartments.

Shuffling among them, he didn’t bother to look around. He had already decided to help earlier. That situation hasn’t changed. It was only that he was seeing the scope of his help.

He looked around for signs of Source Energy. At Level 3, he could now identify things contaminated with it.

The search took more than ten minutes. Along the way, they were stopped by multiple people. One notable being the scholarly man. He was surprised and was soft-hearted enough to feel embarrassed that they had seen the state of the lower floors.

Only after Kain frequently told him that he would still consider giving the food did he make way.

Three floors down, that’s when Kain knew he had found what he was looking for.

The other two floors were filled with people. In this heat, there was no reason for them to live so closely together.

Entering this hall, he was greeted by three figures. The first two were human. The last was an animal.

The light in the hallways made the figures more visible. Had it been dark, their features would have caused shivers down a normal person’s spine.

Without giving them time to process, the three figures charged towards them.

"Take the cat," Kain shouted, tossing her a machete from the storage.

"That’s not a cat, that’s a tiger," Amelia yelled. Nonetheless, she stormed towards the cat.

One of the human figures moved with a stomp and shuffle. One leg was longer than the other limbs, and it dragged along the ground. Half of the person’s face was swollen, making it unrecognizable.

But none of them stopped their swift movements.

The other person was top-heavy. The top half of their body was swollen like a balloon, while the bottom looked shriveled.

As for the cat-tiger, the front paws were large. Half its body appeared to be that of a tiger, while the other was that of a cat.

Only, it was too long to be a regular cat’s backside.

All of these indicated transformations gone wrong.

With five minutes left to spare, they had no time to talk, and the Mindless didn’t give them the option.

The three released different, clicking, and screeching sounds while charging.

The one with the deformed leg moved with speed that belied its form; his hand swung towards Kain. He sidestepped, kicking outwards while releasing a punch to the other that looked like an ice cream cone.

Both fell after being hit. Kain hissed as he felt the pain travel through his arms. He hadn’t expected their bodies to be so hard.

It was much tougher than the punching bag Avery had him hit.

It didn’t take long for them to get back on their feet and charge towards him. Realizing his hands wouldn’t cause much damage, he opted for a blade.

He weaved between the two people, cutting vital areas. Their painful screams came, but they didn’t stop moving.

The long-legged figure swung his elongated leg, causing him to dodge to the side. The ’ice-cream cone’ flung himself forward.

With a leg to his back and a large figure to the front, Kain dropped to the floor. The elongated leg swung and slammed into the large figure.

The force of the kick flung the large figure away, giving. Kain took the chance to stand and plunge the knife into the elongated leg’s neck, severing its head from its body.

After making quick work of one, he moved on to the other.

Its big body lumbered over, attempting to crash into Kain. Without the disturbance of the one with the elongated leg, Kain swung the blade, cleaving the large body into two.

Its top half bent backward, hot blood spraying. The intestines spilled onto the floor.

The heavy scent of blood and iron filled the air. Kain’s breathing was heavy. The fight was short, but he exerted energy because of how tough their bodies were.

Even his final strike was a matter of pure adrenaline.

He looked over at Amelia.