Playboy Cultivator in the Apocalypse-Chapter 197 The Beginning

"Surely there are things for you to do, right?" Evalyn asked, walking up to the emperor.

He sat on a fold-out poolside chair on the patio of the second mansion overlooking Immortal Skye. It was 7 pm, and work operations were over, but plenty of sunlight remained in the summer sky.

"Pray tell, Evalyn." Kaze smiled relaxedly, "What exactly is there to do?"

"What needs to be done?" The blonde asked, giving him a venom-laced smile dripping with sarcasm, "While I'll admit that I'm not as politically savvy as you, it's the apocalypse.

Surely, there are things to do. Rebuilding, reinforcing, creating supply chains, and the like."

"A government is unnecessary for people with our power." He replied lazily, overlooking the campus, "Rulers create them so they don't have to do everything.

We have soldiers to fight, trades workers to build, and normal members to obtain supplies. So you needn't stress yourself out thinking you'll do everything yourself."

Evalyn turned, panned her gaze around the campus, and returned with a vicious smile. "You mean the people partying right now?"

Three hundred people were standing around the lake that Kaze had refilled with water the day before, grilling frozen meats that would soon spoil.

Countless men and women splashed around the lake with carefree faces.

While everyone was under immense stress, common use of the tranquility technique and a desire to release steam made partying shockingly easy.

Others played horseshoes and cornhole, many sunbathed, and another five hundred sat nearby cultivating. Countless more were at the amphitheater at clubs or practicing at the training grounds.

Over a thousand people were outside, with most remaining partying inside. Only those performing essential, time-sensitive duties or extra jobs for Skye and reputation points were working.

"Precisely." Kaze said charmingly, confirming the people partying were the people that were preparing for the apocalypse.

The blonde's eyes glazed over, and she stared at him blankly, trying to find words. She knew better at that point than to question him blindly.

"Are you implying that preparations are already finished?" Evalyn asked.

"Cor~rect." He replied, turning to her with smiling green eyes, "The work for today is complete. We have eaten, are hydrated, and are stronger and more prepared than the day before.

Instead of squandering morale and resources on preparing that which we don't need, we're letting people recharge. The economy will take care of the rest."

"It's that simple, huh?" She smiled half-sarcastically, "Do enough to get by and then utilize capitalism to solve all our problems?"

"It seems you've correctly grasped the nature of our current policy." Kaze smiled relaxedly, making her eyebrow twitch, "Now that you have, will you accept our current policy and join me?"

He flashed her a charming smile that made her exasperated expression crumble.

Evalyn couldn't help but smile, hearing his confidence and seeing his characteristic charm. He had yet to fail their budding country, and she was begrudgingly in love with the features he was expressing. "Sure, I'll—"

"Mr. Lexicon, Ms. Skye, my team has informed me that our guests have arrived." General Michaels said, walking onto the patio with a blue dress shirt on, free of the medals he took pride in the week before.

The blonde's eyes widened, and her stomach dropped, mortified by the news. However, her one-sidely polyamorous lover didn't feel the same way.

"Excellent." Kaze clapped, standing up from his chair, turning to the man, "Take me to them."

Evalyn's jaw dropped to the floor, stunned by what she had just heard. "You can't be serious; you're going as you are?" f𝐫ee𝘄ℯ𝚋no𝐯𝐞l.c𝘰m

The emperor looked down and found his bare chest, chiseled like a Greek statue, with colorful flower swim trunks and sandals. "Is there a problem with that?"

She shook her head, looking around aimlessly with her mouth open. "Are you serious!? You're not serious, are you?"

"Must you question your ears when you hear something that doesn't suit your desires?" Kaze scoffed, rolling his eyes, "I am serious.

While you respect our guests—I do not. I also refuse to stride through the ranks of my calm and healing people wearing a suit, stressing them out to maintain needless appearances."

Evalyn thought about his statement. There was a lot of value in treating the visit as inconsequential, as the meeting would critically impact countless immortals and spark panic. "I'll suppress any further desire to chastise you."

"Good enough." He smiled in satisfaction, "Now if you'll lead the way, Mr. Michaels."

The ex-general nodded and led the two out of the door.

Once they got outside, the emperor was flooded by countless people.

"Hey, Emperor!"

"Would you like to join us?"

"The new lake's better than before!"

"Would you like to try our brisket?

"The water's amazing! You should take a dip if you get a moment!"

Kaze smiled at each and thanked them with charm and charisma.

Evalyn also got flooded by comments and greetings. However, no one approached her, and the greetings replaced friendliness with formality.

"Greetings, General Skye."

"Hello, General."

"Hi, Ice General Skye."

She met each with a genuine yet small smile and light nod, indicating she noticed them. Beyond that, she didn't interact.

General Michaels also got greeted, albeit exclusively by the ex-soldiers.

The three passed through the throngs of swimsuit-wearing Immortals, enjoying themselves in the rapidly cooling sky, moving to the south side wall.

Speculation took root as their destination became clear, but Kaze's relaxed demeanor eased everyone's minds.

Everyone felt invincible with the emperor present, so even light fear transposed to excitement.

"Greetings, Leader Lexicon, General Skye, General Michaels." A brunette soldier saluted.

The ex-general's eyes widened, cringing while looking at his leaders, afraid the soldier would get in trouble for using his past title.

"Greetings, soldier." Kaze replied without question, flashing a kind smile, "We're passing through."

"Right away!" The soldier replied, pressing a button and opening the gate far enough for the three to pass through.

Outside the walls, they walked to the edge of the road leading down Immortal Skye.

What was a landslide of thousands of bodies atop jagged tree stumps two days before was now a perfectly clear-cut area without bodies or blood.

Crux and Kiera used wind techniques to push the bodies in piles, and Kaze used fire to create pyres to cremate them. Then he removed the dry blood with a blood technique.

The following day, he had thousands of Immortals practice their slash techniques on the tree stumps to make the trees, cut by chaotic wind slashes, uniform. It was multitasking.

As a result of their efforts, they could see miles to the car on the humvee on the mountain's base, moving up to their position.

Six people in the vehicle were moving up the mountain with anxious expressions.

However, when they saw Kaze Lexicon, wearing flowery swim trucks with a slight tan, their expressions shifted in aggressive perplexion.

He smiled in amusement, watching their facial expressions from a mile away as they sped up, moving to the mountain's top.

Once they arrived, the soldiers got out of the truck.

Their leader was a gorgeous redhead with her hair in a ponytail, classic green eyes, and black tactical wear.

Her appearance was a perfect blend between Allison, the stylist with voluminous red hair and large assets, and the more proportionate Sage.

Like the former, she had wavier hair and a large bust, breaking past C's.

However, like Sage, she was refined, professionally dressed, albeit for a soldier, and wore her hair in a ponytail.

Unlike both, she was no-nonsense, locking eyes with Evalyn, wearing the same serious expression.

There was a brunette and four men with brown hair that stood alongside her, each with holstered pistols that looked unused.

"Welcome to Immortal Skye." Kaze said grandly, looking at her, "My name is Kaze Lexicon, the leader of this charming country. This is Evalyn Skye, the co-leader.

I'm sure you know how Edison Michaels is."

The redhead turned to the ex-general with a complex expression. She wanted to call the man a traitor, but she also knew that he had done the right thing—for multiple reasons.

"My name is Lieutenant Colonel Riley Lycan." Riley said professionally, looking him in the eye, "We're here to discuss Immortal Skye's guests at Lainwright."

His eyes sharpened at her tone and expression, which seemed severe, yet lacking warning.

It was the type of expression that set consequences and warnings as implicit and reminded someone of them without claiming responsibility or wrongdoing.

"Of course." Kaze smiled, replying with the same expression. It made her soldiers tense up immediately, but she seemed unmoved. "Come this way; there is much to discuss."

The group nodded and followed him through the gates. As soon as they got inside, their eyes widened in shock and disbelief.

"You have to be joking me." Riley said coldly, staring at the thousand people in sight, casually grilling meats and swimming with carefree expressions.

The offensive sight was a blistering slap in the face to their pain and suffering.