Dmitri, Rex, and Adrian stood in front of Hans inside the Commander's Office. Hans renamed it to conveniently remind everyone where he was staying.
Three gold bars sat silently in front of Hans's desk, shining lustrously and luring the Commander to grab them for conversion.
Engraved at the top of the gold bar's flat surface was a logo of a bird's silhouette and its feathers swirling inside a circle.
Below it were words and numbers such as "1 KILO" and "FINE GOLD", and symbols he wasn't very familiar.
"This is...?" Hans gulped and looked at his two scouts.
"Commander, we have found interesting things from that manager. These gold bars are part of them." Adrian spoke, a faint smile forming under the mask.
"Interesting things?" Hans raised his eyes, intrigue welling inside him. "Tell me about it."
To him, that manager had always been suspicious—allegations supported by the newly rescued maintenance workers.
Dmitri and Adrian retrieved stacks of document that were taken from the office building. They contained information about agreements, contracts, even people including Hans himself.
The latter frowned as he skimmed through each content. The information about the residents, security guards, and other employees were too specific.
He even... retrieved my diploma? The manager dared to call this background checking?!
Hans felt that the manager was no different from those secret agencies. The thought that someone had stalked his information without consent chilled him.
As a web programmer, he knew how insidious the Internet was—the methods involved in stalking information out of people using simple data.
Thank goodness the apocalypse... Oh, what am I even thinking about?!
"This manager sure acts suspiciously. Caches of weapons, a hidden bunker for safety, food supplies all piled up." Hans contemplated, "Coincidence or not, his actions must be investigated."
He would take that manager anything but a fool. The cunningness of a businessman, and their greedy nature to exploit and squeeze anything from their clients or customers through nonsense and word plays.
This was the world too familiar to Hans.
"You've found him inside his office. Could he have wanted to enter the bunker perhaps? Then the meteors exploded, giving him no time. No, there was that strange smell too."
Countless possibilities rang into Hans's mind.
"Hmm... you also suggest me to relocate into that area, right?"
"Yes, Commander. The place is secured and located underground. Defending it will be easy. Attacking it would prove to be hard." Dmitri added, "We also understand that the Commander wants us to fix the electricity problem about the building first."
"I understand your concern for the relocation, but we can put that on hold for now." Hans gestured Dmitri to stop.
"I will not stay in this area for long. That place can be given to the survivors instead," he thought about it carefully.
"We will follow the Commander's arrangements." Adrian and Dmitri nodded.
Hans grabbed a gold bar from the desk and weighed it carefully. Though he tried his best not to grin, Adrian and Dmitri still noticed the subtle movements on his face.
System, how much is this gold bar worth?
Hans ordered the system to not convert the gold bar for now. He wanted to check and feel it out first.
"Commander, this gold bar weighs about 1 kilogram, and is equivalent to 1000 Gold resources." The system replied.
1000 Gold! Hans's eyes was filled with streams of money symbols. Three of them... Isn't that three thousand Gold?!
System, convert it all!
The gold bar on his hand flickered before it slowly disintegrated into golden digital particles that flowed into Hans's temple. The two gold bars on the table followed, prompting a curious expression between Dmitri and Adrian.
[ Gold: 150 (+3000) -> 3150 ]
Hans immediately use the 3000 Gold to train six more army soldiers and an attack dog for Adrian.
[ Gold: 3150 (-2400, -600) -> 150 ]
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Troops: 30 Conscripts, 10 (+6) Army Soldier(s), 1 (+1) Attack Dog(s), 2 Scout(s)
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Eight more Army Soldiers. Four more scouts and dogs. Hans held his emotions from bursting out and took a deep breath.
"You two have done a good work. I shall reward you later, but for now, what else do you have for me about the office building?"
Dmitri pushed a small blueprint into Hans's hands. The latter took it and inspected the layout carefully.
"It feels incomplete," he remarked, "These should be the rooms you've entered, and these are... other rooms and a pathway that extends further?"
He scratched his head, trying to make a sense out of the blueprint.
"I don't understand much about this, maybe another person will," he murmured, rolling the blueprint back to its form. "Okay, what else?"
Adrian pushed a small brown notebook towards Hans, the cover looking dull and empty.
"The manager's diary, Commander. Perhaps his little secrets are hidden within. I suggested that only you should open it. You have had your interactions with the manager was what I reasoned them to."
The paper leaves were filled with sticky bookmarks of various colors. Hans perused their arrangements and realized that there was pattern to them.
He opened the first page and read through the contents.
"I, Gordon Malrick, has never been a good person in my life..."
Hans scoffed, at least you understood yourself, you piece of shit.
The first few pages were about the manager's obvious facade of self-pitying and realizations. Hans was uninterested about someone's nonsense self-reflection, so he skipped the next few pages.
At that moment, he turned over a page with a green sticky bookmark at the top left edge.
"August 16, 2010. The construction of the bunker has started. The guy said it would take a few months without the goddamn noise. I had no choice, he said, so I gave him more money, and the fool changed his mind into one month, no more."
Hans stopped, "The apartment complex was built around November 2010. The manager planned things a little earlier..."
He continued, eyes sticking to the somewhat almost incomprehensible text. If not for his years of dealing with unreadable written text, he would be spending time understanding the diary's contents.
"February 20, 2011. The underground base has been completed. I feel safer now with this. Poor residents, most of them don't know about it. Might as well squeeze a bit more to enlarge this space. Their money could prove well to improve my security, hehehe."
"June 16, 2011. Some idiot guard slipped and was caught by a resident sneaking in the middle of the night. Had to kill that poor bastard. I still remember how his parents begged for me to take him in. Tsk!"
"August 1x, 2011. Had to spend some gold bars for those weapons. That dealer better give me something good!"
"December 4, 2011. Something good at the auction came by today, but I didn't have enough money and that bitch stole it from me! If I ever see her again, I will tear her apart, limb to limb! The weapons arrived, but it's not enough!"
"January 2, 2012. New year has passed, and the upper circle is mumbling about a great change in Aurelia. The Crescent Federation is up to something lately, wars and conspiracies. Grefort's underground is boiling with something too. What a messy world this is. Good thing I have my bunker ready."
"January 20, 2012. I got some body pill from the auction, said that it would make me healthier and better. Damn it, my diabetes is at its worst stage. That pill better have worked! My body feels strange lately."
"..."
Hans flipped to the next page, finding it empty. He flipped a few more but was met with the same blankness as the rest.
"This manager... that pill... great change..." he mumbled, a weird and crazy idea forming on his mind. "No, that can't be. It's impossible. This is all just a coincidence."
His eyes caught on a weapons contract agreement and grabbed it, wrinkling the paper with his trembling fingers.
"An order of high caliber rifles and pistols. What was the manager planning?"
Hans felt that the diary's contents were lacking. Whether it was the manager's forgetfulness or something else, the information he had wasn't enough to confirm his suspicions.
"Jaggos Arms Shop."
An infamous weapons dealer accused by many for collaborating with rebels and rival countries. For Hans, such accusations were mere drama play, pointing fingers while leaving everyone else untouched.
The weapons dealer's services were aplenty. From components, bullets, small arms, assault rifles, heavy guns, and even a few tanks. They even offered after sale services such as maintenance, returns, and warranties.
Their performance was top notch and so open that the Crescent Federation recommended the company once, accidentally. If not their agent's quick response, the incident would have blown larger than the Tsar Bomba.
This weapon dealer won't handle individuals like the manager. Were they going bankrupt, or lost customer trust?
"Keep these documents. They're a lot. I cannot finish them today" Hands pushed the documents and diary away from him. "Also, your report isn't only this, right?"
"Yes." Dmitri handed another stack of papers to Hans. It was the report about the survivors and their basic information—name, age, profession.
"They came from the gas diner not far away. Accounts of starving and freezing forced them to approach us." Dmitri recounted the survivors' experience, his voice bland as ever.
"I bet they're here to leech off of us, Commander." Adrian said otherwise, sniggering about the survivor group's naivety, "They should be taken to work, else they will think we're providing charity."
"I second Adrian's words, Commander." Dmitri glanced sideway, approving of Adrian's timely words.
"I will review their information. Gather those five leaders here, together with Evan. Time to get knowing these survivors."