The next morning, Kain woke up to a tiny fist hitting him in the mouth.

Luckily, the bed was big enough that he would have been pushed off. He stared at the strange postures and wondered if this was how they always slept.

Dominic was sprawled out, starfish. He was the one who hit Kain in the mouth.

Ashton was sleeping with his butt high in the air, one hand stretched out and the other curled under him.

Avery was constantly moving. He remembered she fell asleep in Amelia’s arms, but now her leg was propped on her stomach with one leg under her, and her two arms were stretched out on either side.

He wanted to complain, but the warmth in his heart told him that complaining would be hypocritical. He can be petty but never a hypocrite.

Quietly, he got out of bed. Today, he wanted to be a rice weevil.

All the crying from yesterday made him realize he needed to spend more time with the children.

He freshened up, ready to deal with breakfast, when he heard the radio crackle to life.

"Marcus," Kain’s cold voice came through clearly.

"Kain," he sounded winded. "Mind if I join Nightfall?"

The question caught Kain off guard. For a week now, he hadn’t heard anything from Marcus, and when he did, it sounded like he had gone jogging.

"Oh, and why do you suddenly want to join?"

"Do you need to know?" Marcus asked flatly.

He let out a sinister chuckle. "When a person I’ve only spoken to once suddenly wants to join my wonderful organization, I have questions. What about your young master Nightingale?"

"Don’t mention him to me," Marcus growled.

Kain pulled up a seat, ready to listen, "Sounds like a good story, do tell," he drawled.

"The short version is the kid drugged me. Don’t ask me where he got it. He drugged me and called a few neighbours over to fuck me."

Kain chortled before catching himself. "Sorry, go on."

Marcus made no mention of Kain’s laugh and continued. "Unfortunately, they chose the wrong person. One machete had two men down. Drug was strong, too strong. Let’s just say, a hole’s a hole."

"Did you kill him?"

"He’s not dead yet. He is bleeding...profusely."

Kain hummed, "If you can get here, I’ll take you in."

He disconnected and went back to making food for his family.

Marcus, on the other hand, was looking at the blood staining the walls and floor. Lucius was, as he told Kain, bleeding profusely. He had stabbed him in the neck.

Lucius coughed up blood, his mouth opened and closed, but the only thing to come out was more gurgling. Marcus saw the look in his eyes, the fear, the pleading.

Marcus didn’t feel an ounce of regret. He sat on the blood-covered sofa and looked in the direction of Kain’s base.

There was one thing he hadn’t told Kain. While he was fighting the effects of the drug, his body started to gather a strange energy. He had no idea what it was; he only knew that by the time he was done with Lucius, he felt better than ever.

He felt he could kill an ox.

He wasn’t interested in taking control of Kain’s forces. He only thought that such a strange energy should be kept to himself.

Little did he know he would be found out sooner than he expected.

On Kain’s side, they were sitting and having breakfast. Halfway through, Veronica and Jake knocked on the door.

"Matthew is dead," they both reported

That’s...new.

"How did he die?"

"In his sleep," Veronica replied.

Kain guffawed; the sound of Amelia coughing came from inside the room.

"In his sleep from what? Too much sex? Claire caused his heart to overload?"

"We aren’t sure; we haven’t gone down to investigate yet. But we thought, because he was an Awakened, you might want to know."

"Let’s go," Amelia called from inside. "We can bring the kids with us. They can see how the building operates and see their father at work."

"I didn’t realize it was ’bring your kids to a crime scene day’," Kain replied sarcastically.

"Ask them," Amelia replied.

He didn’t need to ask. The laser beams of hope shooting from their eyes were threatening to kill him.

"Okay," Kain said, defeated. "Everybody, get ready, we’re going on a family trip to the lower floors."

ding

The system made its presence known.

[It is determined that the host is going on a family trip.]

’Elementary, my dear system elementary.’ It’s definitely not like I just said it out loud a second ago.

The system continued.

[Host has activated the mission: Field Trip]

[Please spend the next 24 hours with your children.]

[Reward: One piece of future knowledge.]

--------

[A comrade has fallen. Host, take the children to Floor One to take a look.]

[Find the reason for your fallen comrades’ death.]

[Reward: Mutant vegetable seeds]

When Kain saw the two tasks, he wasn’t sure how to feel. Taking the children to solve a murder is weird.

Why did he say it was a murder? Because why else would the system ask him to find the cause of death? 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

If the reason was natural, Kain didn’t think it would be necessary for him to confirm anything.

The mutant seeds, as a reward, tell me one thing. The normal seeds he had chosen before would never grow. He had bought so many. He didn’t know what to do with them now.

Maybe he could try growing them in the nurturing station.

Regardless of his thoughts, Kain and Amelia got the children ready and followed Jake and Veronica down to Floor One.

When he saw them looking around, he realized the children hadn’t been anywhere other than Floor Five for quite a while.

One Floor One, there were now work benches and bone tools. Most people had gone to Floors Two and Three.

"Change the rations for Floors One and Two. Three meals a day plus snacks," he whispered to Jake.

These two floors were doing quite a lot of work. It was only fair to give them the proper nutrition.