"...This is a repeated message–"

Andrea’s teasing smile was wiped off cleanly as she heard the announcement over the radio.

Rhea blinked, her mouth parting open.

"Is this what I think it is...?" She mumbled, more to herself than anyone in particular.

Fredrinn was casual as always, while for Jacob... his face was unreadable.

One would assume that he would be happy after hearing an announcement about a safe zone, but he wasn’t.

"How can we confirm that it is actually from the army or just some random survivors who are making big claims to lure in the awakeners and people?" Jacob pointed out, curbing Leon’s excitement significantly.

"Uhm... by going there?" Leon mumbled quietly.

"Going there?" Jacob repeated in a light, humorous tone. "Going there, right! What an ingenious plan, my guy!" he slapped Leon on the back a couple of times.

The slap hurt, but Jacob’s light tone made it difficult to predict whether he was mad or actually amused.

"Th-Thank you, boss." Leon stuttered in response, flinching at each heavy slap that landed on his back, but he endured them, thinking it was just Jacob’s way of praising him.

"So, I like your plan a lot. How about you lead the way out of here, hmm? I am appointing you as the leader. Create a map from our location to the Ohio base and then lead the group there. We shall go and check the safe zone ourselves." Jacob said with a grin.

Colour drained off Leon’s face as he stared at Jacob in horror.

"M-Me? How can I do that, boss! Surely you’re jesting. I can’t lead the people all the way to Ohio..."

"Huh? You can’t?" Jacob tilted his head, "Considering how easy you made it sound, I thought you can do it without any effort. Clearly I had overestimated your capabilities."

Leon smartly chose to remain silent, coughing as he lowered his head.

"It’s easy to say that I can take you all to a place miles away in this fucking apocalypse, but it’s not. Do you even know the state of the outside world?

The moment danger started to grow, we all escaped here with our tails tucked between our legs. Is it even safe outside anymore? Is the radio broadcast even trustworthy? Can you find a better place than here that’s equally or more safe?" Jacob placed both his hands on the table with enough force that the wood creaked under pressure.

"Calm down, Jacob." Andrea said quietly from the side.

"I am calm, Andrea." Jacob replied, "I just have a lot on my mind. I guess I will go have some rest, you all have fun."

Andrea nodded to his words as he turned to look at Fredrinn, "Also, are you up for a small neighbourhood check tomorrow morning, bro?"

Fredrinn, who was silent throughout the entire fiasco, hummed softly at Jacob’s question.

"Neighbourhood check as in?"

"Like going out of the shelter and maybe find more awakeners like us? More the merrier, no? In addition, I am quite curious to see what these levels are. I am only level 5 at the moment, what would happen if I level up more?"

’Levelling...?’

[ <LUST> ensures host that he doesn’t need to worry about levels. ]

’I don’t need your ensurance, what even are the levels that he’s talking about?’

[ <LUST> remarks that it does not believe in free help. ]

’Talking about free help when you’re literally bound to me and helping me by giving me quests. Just be supportive, yeah?’

[ <LUST> laughs. It ensures host that nothing is free and host is too weak to worry about it. ]

’...’ Fredrinn stared at the hologram blankly before nodding to Jacob.

"Morning stroll sounds fine to me."

"Great." Jacob grinned, shaking Fredrinn’s hand once again before placing his hand across Leon’s shoulder and taking him and his radio alongside.

Now once again, Rhea, Andrea and Fredrinn were left at the table.

As for the beanpole and chubby, they had disappeared somewhere in the between when no one was paying them attention.

’So what do you want in exchange for your humble information, you bastard?’ Fredrinn asked in his mind.

[ <LUST> requests host to entertain it or pay with 100 LP. ]

’Entertain as in?’

[ <LUST> wishes to see something lewd. ]

’Holding hands is lewd as well, that works?’

[ <LUST> proclaims that holding hands is only lewd for virgin kids or hopelessly romantics. If host holds hand with Rhea it may work, but not for Andrea. ]

’Makes sense.’ Fredrinn rolled his eyes, looking down at the phone that originally belonged to Richard.

The time was shown on the lockscreen, which was 7:32 PM.

It was neither a good time to sleep nor a good time to go out. Eating would’ve sounded fine, but they had already eaten enough.

So what else could Fredrinn even interest the women with?

Luckily, he didn’t need to.

He had said and did enough actions earlier to prompt Andrea to speak.

"Congratulations on defeating Charlie, huh. You don’t look like it, but you must be quite strong." Andrea said with a small smile, her short yet busty body slowly leaning closer as her voice dipped into a slightly lower yet sexier octave.

"Should I really be worried about you, Freddy?" She whispered, "I can’t ask for protection from anyone around here..."

Fredrinn grinned widely.

Every muscle in his body was urging him to grab her pouting lips and kiss her right then and there, but he controlled himself with all his might.

Andrea stared into his eyes, her eyelashes fluttering beautifully as she made no move to widen the gap between them.

Hell, she even shortened the gap slightly by moving closer, his scent hitting her nose like a truck while Fredrinn’s hormones raged at the slight peek of Andrea’s cleavage from his higher angle.

Even the shy Rhea could only watch with flushed cheeks as the sexual tension between the two was going off the charts.

Somewhere in her mind she felt annoyed about the ongoing development, but the annoyance was currently buried under the supreme embarrassment.

"Are you just going to keep making me wait?" Andrea grumbled as she stared at Fredrinn’s slight smile, infuriating her.

"Yeah." Fredrinn whispered, but before he could tease her further, he felt a soft pair of lips kissing him shut.