Chapter 63: Being Tailed

Damon’s group, now consisting of nine members, had their new speedster addition having to continue riding in the trunk because of the limited space in the SUV, though this time, she could move around freely.

Their journey towards Damon’s vacation home from their last stop at the gas station continued, but as Sage drove the vehicle, Harvey couldn’t help but notice a car had been following them from a distance since they left the gas station.

"Master Damon. I think we are being tailed."

"What?..... Who are they ?" Tessa exclaimed from the middle row. For some reason, her thoughts came to Brad. She had a seething fear that he wouldn’t let her go so easily, even though they were now in an entirely different city.

"Not sure yet, but they’ve been following us since the last gas station we stopped at."

"Should we maybe stop and confront them ?" Hazel suggested.

"No, that will be a bad idea. We have no information on these people- who they are or what they are capable of; we’ll be going in blind unnecessarily."

"Let’s wait and see if we can find out anything; stay alert and ready to combat fellow survivors pr even awakeners at any moment should they choose to attack," Damon said calmly; somehow his calm was infectious, and the anxiousness of the group died down.

"How long till we reach the estate?"

"I believe in the evening at the latest."

With that, the group continued to drive on the way to the estate, clearing out wandering mutants that appeared; and, as expected, the mutant count in the city of Dempture was much lower than in Redmont; and they would even drive for long stretches without coming up on any mutants.

The black van continued to tail them from the back, keeping a wide margin of distance between them. Occasionally, the van would stop when there were mutants in the way, and some roughly dressed men would come down; two of them holding electric batons and the other two, regular blunt weapons. Then they would proceed to fight these mutants until killing them.

Watching them from the front, Damon’s group realized that most of the people in that van have more combat experience than Damon’s group, except for Harvey, Mildred and Hazel. And the fact that they had electric batons confirms it. There had been no esper ability displayed, but any or all of them might be combat class awakened, and they didn’t know how many of them were left in that van after the four thuggish looking fellows came out.

With the way they were patiently tailing Damon’s group, it was possible they would be making their move in the night. This was very convenient for Damon because by then, all the preparations he had in mind would be complete.

Inside the black van, six men with scary-looking expressions observed, almost impatiently, as they tailed Damon’s SUV up ahead.

"Why do we have to wait until it’s night before attacking them?" One spoke, menacingly drawing his tongue on his small blade. He was very slender and malnourished-looking, with one missing eye.

"Don’t be too hasty, butcher. Remember the bitch with them that’s really fast?. The boss really wants her. So we gotta get them when they have let their guard down and are resting for the night."

"But what if they just continue driving through the night and someone else just takes over the driving?"

"Then we just wait until they find a place to settle in. After all, these folks are new in town, probably ran here for safety like all them other folks. But little do they know... hehehehe." The middle-aged man in the front passenger seat, wearing a cowboy hat and outfit, said as he snickered.

"Oh... what if we bring that bitch in and she refuses to work for the boss?"

"What are you worrying about, Cricket... you seem to have forgotten the boss’s girl’s skill."

"Oh... that’s right...that’s how we got this fool who’s driving here."

"Yeah. Hahahaha."

Driving the black van was a young man with a wide smile on his face. Even though the people inside the vehicle were saying such negative things about him, he didn’t look affected at all.

"He looks like a fool. Kekekeke," one of the thugs from the back said as he pushed his finger into the young man’s cheek, and there was still no adverse reaction.

"Hey, quit that. Let the tool drive."

Damon and the group drove through the countryside city of Daempture for several hours, stopping by various gas stations that still had any gas to fill up; and by the time evening came, they were so much closer to their destination, and damon’s skill had also been refreshed.

[124,000 oc]

Without thinking much about it, Damon spent two thousand origin crystals to reset Harvey’s rifle as he wondered what the difference was between this and buying a new one. But when he checked the details of Harvey’s rifle that had been reset, he understood.

[T-0 CP319 Tactical Rifle]

[Functionality: Deals Close- to medium-range damage to threats under T-1 ]

[Fire Rounds: 2000/2000]

[Durability: 20/20]

[Cost: 2000 oc]

The weapon had clearly become more formidable, but just as Damon was getting excited, he noticed that the cost of resetting this rifle had suddenly doubled, meaning that, should Harvey exhaust the rounds or durability, he would have to pay twice the amount. Maybe some new benefit would accompany it..... But this was certainly not something that could be done by anyone other than Damon.

Harvey received his rifle in satisfaction, but Damon wasn’t done; he directly purchased yet another rifle. This one he handed over to Tristan since he claimed to have some marksman experience, and Damon also wondered if his class skill weapon enhancement would work well with the rifle.

The rest of the crystals the group had managed to sustain were used to purchase some provisions, with Damon sending the rest of his one hundred and twenty thousand origin crystals into his skill.

Night had descended, and the SUV was on a lonely path leading up a mountainous zone that housed Damon’s vacation home. Behind them, the van followed from a distance. But what they didn’t know was that Damon group was more than prepared for them.