Ren examined the black walkie-talkie-like device, pressed the button, and watched a red light flicker on in Olivia's hand. "Mic testing, mic testing—is anyone there, over?"
"Agent Olivia reporting, over," Olivia played along with Ren's antics, a small smile breaking through.
Looking at the childish behavior from both Ren and Olivia, Slade felt a shock at their unexpected playfulness. He mentally made a note to avoid associating with these two in the future.
"Why did I even invite her to team up with me? Did someone eat up my brain?" Slade thought bitterly.
"Okay, you both can leave if you want," Ren said casually. "However, I must warn you that you're in a wild area where all species and beasts are mixed up. Returning to your city alone might turn into a suicide mission."
"So, do you want protection to get back to the city?" Ren added. Slade and Olivia paused to consider this—they'd just barely survived their ordeal and had no appetite for more danger so soon.
Seeing they weren't fully warming to the idea of him accompanying them all the way, Ren continued reasonably, "I'll give you the meat from any monsters I hunt. In exchange, I just want the pots and cooking items you took out—if you have any camping gear, that would be good too. So, what do you think?"
Olivia opened her mouth to say no, but Slade cut in before her: "Okay, you can keep it. Let's go." He felt Olivia's wronged stare boring into him, as if accusing, "Who are you to decide for my items?" Slade ignored it completely.
Actually, he'd been hesitant at first, but Ren's clear conditions relieved him a bit—it suggested no deep hidden motives. He would have felt far more conflicted if Ren hadn't asked for anything in return.
Plus, the meat would prove invaluable for earning more points for spins and purchases. He quickly explained all this to Olivia through private messages on their apocalypse roulette window's message board.
Ren noticed Olivia shift from angered one moment to merely upset the next, as if realizing something. He suspected they were communicating somehow—maybe via another tool like the communicator.
"Exactly how did they get a tool like that? Do they have some kind of system?" He wanted to ask outright but held back to avoid raising suspicions.
Olivia finally said okay to leaving the items behind, even adding her pouches of spices. With one last reluctant glance at her gear, she turned and headed outside. Ren and Slade followed right behind her.
Once outside, both Olivia and Slade checked the map together. When Dolores had appeared earlier, they'd been too panicked to note her color or dot representation, and Ren hadn't shown up on it at all. Staring at the map and then at Ren—who had now covered his head again—they felt perplexed.
"Can we still rely on this map?" That was their first uneasy thought. But seeing other beasts appearing accurately in the explored areas brought some relief. Spotting City 01's location, they pointed out the general direction, and the group set off on a straight path.
The shortest path between two points is a straight line—that's what Ren stated confidently, and they followed him without question, since he was stronger than anyone they'd encountered so far.
Blazing through unexplored paths not only opened up new areas on the map but also boosted their overall exploration percentage. Olivia and Slade couldn't help thinking how great it would be to have someone like Ren helping them survive the entire apocalypse until year's end.
The journey back proved uneventful for Slade and Olivia. Ren would vanish periodically, only to return with a fresh dead beast handed over to them. They'd purchased storage rings specifically to hold the accumulating meat.
The storage in their apocalypse roulette and store only held items won from the roulette or bought from the store itself—hence the rings' necessity.
Ren also pieced together that they likely had some kind of storage device tied to whatever system they possessed for surviving the apocalypse. Choosing not to snoop further into the matter, the group eventually reached the area near City 01's walls.
Ren halted a bit farther out, still somewhat traumatized from his last visit to City 05. "This is where we part ways. If you have any requests, reach out," he said, pointing to the communicator. "And hand over any more useful items you have."
With that, Ren turned around and vanished from Olivia and Slade's vision—or so they thought. Unbeknownst to them, he remained standing there, camouflaged via his suit's ability.
Ren had hoped to squeeze something more out of them, but Slade proved too cautious, and Olivia shifted her demeanor instantly, feigning an expression like she'd stolen something valuable. The two glanced around warily, slowly stepped away from each other, then separately slipped out of cover toward City 01's golden warding wall and reentered the city.
Ren watched this unfold with a baffled expression like "What just happened?" before shaking his head and starting his way back to the cave.