Chapter 39: CleanUp Crew I

Damon and the group took the private elevator straight down to floor twenty-seven. Mildred was in the lead, followed by Harvey, then Nick, who’s technically stronger than the rest of the team, followed by Hazel and Sage, and finally Damon and Kora stood back; Damon cautiously watching his surroundings, and Kora watching Leo on Damon’s shoulders.

They had to set their luggage down at the elevator entrance as they confirmed the status of this floor. First, and most likely, the floor had already been cleared by Brad and the senior twin, or they had skipped this one entirely; either way, they needed to confirm for themselves; that is the only way they could ensure their safety. If the floor had been cleared, good for them; if it hadn’t, they could still do the clear and might gain some origin crystals.

The corridor was vacant, but three doors of the four on this floor had a gaping hole through them next to where the lock should be, while the last one was locked. So it was a good indication that those two had come through here.

Mildred and Harvey did a quick check of the apartments one after another. Apartment 27A had nothing inside; no corpses and no dead mutants. Apartment 27B had three dead mutants inside who looked burnt to a crisp, with their skulls bashed in. Apartment 27C had one dead mutant in similar fashion, and three corpses of regulars.

The last apartment door was locked, and after a triple knock, a shaky manly voice responded from inside—

"Whose... whose there?. What do you two want now ?. You said I have a week, right?"

The man’s words were confusing, so Mildred had to clarify that she didn’t know what he was on about.

After almost a minute of pause and tense hesitation, the door slowly opened, and a bald man with a heavy physique peeked through the gap in the door to nervously stare into the corridor, seeing everyone there. Though flustered by the intimidating lineup, a look of relief appeared on the heavy man’s face as she asked—

"Are you guys the forming team from the residents’ chat group?"

Everyone quickly understood what he was referring to, then Harvy clarified that they were a solo team just doing their part; there was no need to go into much detail. The man, whose name was Desmond, had with him inside his apartment three of his children, as well as his wife.

None of them had mutated.

It was a miracle that left everyone gobsmacked. The understanding was that when the mutation began to spread, one or two out of two was the general conversion ratio. Seeing this lucky man still have his entire family together was as much a breath of fresh air as it was a source of jealousy for some of them gathered who had lost their loved ones and friends.

The man further explained that a while ago, two young men had knocked on his door and threatened to break it all down if they didn’t open. After they did, the two men came inside and took a head count of everyone in the apartment and told him he had to pay rent in Origin crystals each week going forward. One crystal per head for everyone present in the apartment, or they would be forced to vacate.

"Fucking Brad." Sage cursed as they stood in the corridor; it was clear who had given them such a condition. The heavy had locked back his door after explaining it all to the group and asking for help. But Harvey explained to him the reality: the reality that he would have to start hunting these mutants by himself, or it wouldn’t matter that they all escaped the mutation, since they would all just starve.

The man didn’t look happy to hear this, and wearing a dejected look, he closed back his door. Damon wondered how long such a person would last, with all those mouths to feed.

Still, their work wasn’t done on the twenty-seventh floor; not even close. Brad had tactlessly abandoned all the corpses without bothering to send them down the chute. This would slowly pollute the entire building, so the group was left with no choice but to begin cleanup.

After everything the group had been exposed to during the carnage in the penthouse, most of them had grown a strong stomach, though still clearly queasy, while Nick was puking repeatedly at the sight of these corpses as they disposed of them through the chutes one after the other. Damon didn’t find it strange that he had no reaction to seeing such mutilated and mutated corpses. Unlike others, his relationship with emotions, or reactions to external stimuli, had always been different. Though for the first time, he noticed Kora, who had her head buried in her console, frown at the sight before refusing to look in that direction. Of course, Harvey and Mildred didn’t let Damon lift a finger, and Sage didn’t seem happy about that and was murmuring his disagreement under his breath. For some reason, he never targeted Kora, who also wasn’t helping at all.

The cleanup crew, which consisted of Harvey, Mildred, Hazel, and Nick, worked for more than ten minutes to dispose of all the corpses down the chutes, and when they were done, they immediately went down to the twenty-sixth floor. There they met a similar scene: undisposed corpses and one survivor. They learnt Brad had also informed them of the tenancy and protection fees.

As they did on the last floor, they also cleared out the corpses on this one, before proceeding lower to the twenty-fifth floor. Still, they met the same thing, and everyone had become frustrated by the minute. They had become like the cleanup crew, cleaning up after Brad’s rampage; still, it was good that all these floors had become safe and secure.

When they reached the twenty-fourth floor, however, just as predicted, Brad and his henchmen, one of the twins, Jackson, were sitting in the corridor of the twenty-fifth floor. They were tired and resting, and also waiting to recover their consumed mentality stats, just as Harvey had predicted. But they weren’t alone; there were two others with them now; Brad appeared to be forming a crew of his own.

The ding of the elevator caught all of their attention as the four turned their gaze to Damon and his crew. Brad’s lips stretched into a grin as his eyes locked onto the three backpacks that the group was holding.

"I see you have made the wise decision, hehe"