Jacob was silenced.

He instinctively knew by Fredrinn’s confidence that he was going to win, but Jacob never expected that the gap would be so wide.

He wasn’t ashamed to admit that even if he tried to go against Charlie, he won’t win as cleanly as Fredrinn.

With a smile on his face, Jacob dropped the plan of challenging Fredrinn to an arm wrestling match as he offered him a handshake.

"You indeed are strong, huh?" He chuckled.

And all in all, Jacob was pleased that everything worked out in his favour.

He hadn’t forgotten about the requirement list for stealing Fredrinn’s ability, after all.

Becoming a best friend and a good wing man were two of the requirements written there in bold.

"Just a little." Fredrinn shook the hand before looking opposite to the table at Charlie.

"You still need more practice, young man." He said flatly, making Charlie freeze and look up at him.

Charlie didn’t want to listen to a man who looked so weak and slim, but that same man had defeated him with ease, so he felt compelled to listen.

"What do you mean?"

"How long can you run at your top speed without rest?" Fredrinn replied with a question of his own.

"I don’t know. Maybe 5-10 minutes?"

"Nope. You will start to slow down at 3." Fredrinn shook his head. "You have impressive strength, but very low flexibility, elasticity and stamina. Work on those."

Charlie took a moment to register Fredrinn’s words, but seeing the serious yet calm look in the man’s eyes, Charlie simply nodded.

"Alright."

Saying that, he didn’t bother to talk to anyone else as he picked his butt off the seat and walked back towards the door which he was posted to guard.

After Charlie was gone, Rhea was finally about to relax and grab her space back, but then Jacob slid onto the seat beside her.

Still, she did take some more space but not as much as she really wanted to.

"You keep surprising us, huh?" Jacob said casually as he fixed his cowboy hat, "First was fake identity and then strength. What’s next?"

Fredrinn chuckled, "Both weren’t intentional. Fake identity was because of my circumstances, and strength, well," He glanced at Andrea who fluttered her eyelashes and looked at him innocently.

She was just about a moment away from giving a cheesy ’I’m just a girl’ line.

"Haha." Jacob laughed at Andrea’s antics, slightly used to them as he glanced back at Fredrinn.

"So, what’s your goal, really? What do you intend to achieve?"

"Me? I just want to... find my family, man." Fredrinn said slowly in a calm tone, but Andrea could understand the pain behind his words.

To others it sounded like a simple worry about the loved ones, but that wasn’t as simple as that for Fredrinn.

For him, he didn’t even remember who his parents were, what they looked like and where they were.

That was his goal, just remembering about his past that was cruelly snatched away from him. Or at least that’s how Andrea perceived it.

"Family, huh?" Jacob shook his head with a light chuckle, "I don’t know whether I should be glad that I don’t have that burden or be sad that I don’t have that burden."

Before Fredrinn could ask about it, Jacob continued himself.

"My dad left me and my mom when I was like 3 years old, and then my mom got remarried and dropped me at an orphanage since she was still young and didn’t want any ’emotional baggage’ with herself. After that I just lived a normal orphan life, I guess?"

Rhea and Andrea had already heard the sad story before, so they didn’t speak anything while Fredrinn sighed.

"I guess your goal can be to go back to the orphanage to check up on them instead? Since they are like your foster parents?"

"Not really. The orphanage was actually just a cover for child trafficking, to be honest. They used males as labour in some toxic factories while the girls were sent to some ships or island or something? I am not sure, but I managed to escape and that’s what matters, no?"

Rhea and Andrea adopted a poker face that was completely in sync.

The more they interacted with Jacob the more they realized how easily he could drop such tragedies with a flat expression on his face.

Even Fredrinn himself was at a loss for words.

But just then, a light sound of footsteps approached them at a rapid speed.

The runner clearly had no sense of balance as Fredrinn saw the man slip at least twice during the journey while holding a small box-like object in his hands.

He appeared to be beaming in excitement, shouting "Boss! Boss!" over and over again as he ran.

"Calm down, Leon. Didn’t I tell you to relax a little?"

"Fuck relaxation!" Leon replied in a high pitched voice that sounded slightly feminine but no one except Fredrinn seemed to judge about that.

"Hear this, boss!" Leon lightly kept the plastic and metal box on the table that had two antennas coming out at the top and a surface with tons of holes.

Fredrinn could swear that he had seen the object before but he couldn’t remember.

"It’s a radio." Andrea pretended to comment casually while giving Fredrinn a side glance with a small smile.

"It’s not the radio that matters, but what it’s saying!"

Leon began to tinker with the dials on the radio, rotating them slowly as the air was filled with incomprehensible static.

"Super Konic Tiger Pills!!! One tablet before action and non-stop reaction! If the formula doesn’t work, money refund guarantee! Call now at–"

Jacob stared at Leon speechlessly, "You know, I don’t really have any performance issues... And also, why the fuck are these kinds of ads still airing? God damn. Porn ads have a stronger network than the police."

"NO! Not this, boss! THIS!"

"This is a repeated message from the Army! We have reclaimed a large piece of land in Ohio and it has been confirmed that it is free of any zombies. Every survivor and especially the awakeners are invited to join the shelter and help with the defense! The humanity shall win!

...This is a repeated message–"