July 06, 2032 - 22:30.

  Boat 5km away from Crescent Bay Port, Oregon.

  After the sudden confession that he was Gen Zero and that he didn’t awaken from the amplification formula was a huge shock. It made the Furies go quiet.

  Seohwa observed Junkie as he fixed some passports.

  She stood up and asked, “Need help?”

  “Ya know how to do it?”

  “Before umm, coming to the LAB, my brother and I had to make some money… We weren't in an orphanage for many years until we were found out and sent to one at the age of 8.”

  “Huh. Colour me impressed. Go on then.” Junkie watched Seohwa fake the passports with practised ease as she paused at the new name, “Selene Green?”

  “Yep.” Junkie hummed as he continued to work.

  She then glanced at the others and her jaw dropped.

  Yulie White…

  Jake Yellow…

  Helen Orange…

  Matt Brown…

  Tom Black…

  Seohwa’s mouth twitched at his absurd naming sense, “Seriously? Our hair colours for our surnames?”

  “What? Don’t like it?” Junkie pouted at her judgemental stare.

  “Of course not! We’ll get caught! People will find it suspicious that a group of six kids’ surnames are practically their hair colours!”

  “…Then ya write some fake names and see if ya do any better.” Junkie crossed his arms as he stood up, “I’m gonna go stand at the front and see if there is an opening to land the boat.”

  Seohwa sighed as she looked at the Furies, “You heard him.”

  “Honestly, Max Brown sounds foreign to me so I’m good.” Minggu shrugged as he was healing Hwayeon.

  “Yeah but we can’t hide our ethnicities as Koreans so the authorities might consider it weird.” Taeseok yawned while scratching his belly.

  Yerin looked at the fake names Junkie gave and suggested, “The first names sound good to me, why not just add our personal surnames to each? So I would be Yulie Baek.”

  “Then that would mean I’m Tom Kang?” Taeseok stretched as he sat comfortable in the boat.

  “Helen Yoon for me then.” Hwayeon chuckled.

  Seohwa sighed, “So, Min—Mantis is Matt Seo, Monkey is…” She glanced at the snoring Jiho, “Jake Han and I would be Selene Tang.”

  “That’s decided then.” Seohwa smirked as she fixed the names.

  ***

  Minggu rubbed his shoulders sore from healing his team as he still had Yerin to do.

  “I’m fine.” Yerin stopped him, “You did too much. You need to rest.”

  “Don’t give me that crap.” Minggu frowned. “It’s my job to heal and protect my team.”

  Yerin rebutted, “You lost too much energy. And while I’m at it, you were reckless back then. You’re a healer. You’re vital to the team.”

  “And you aren’t? You think your little act of sacrificing yourself was a noble thing? I would never think that. None of us here would. So shut up and let me work.”

  Yerin had her eyes widened as she watched the frustrated and worried Minggu.

  Badump.

  Junkie, who was eavesdropping from the front of the boat, chuckled, impressed by them, “Not bad, kiddos.”

  July 07, 2032 - 03:00.

  Junkie slowly sneaked the boat in the port as the Furies got off.

  Junkie looked around and saw a rundown van as he broke the window of the driver seat.

  “Wai… that’s stealing!" Minggu whispered.

  “Oh relax, lad. Most of the cars here are stolen.” Junkie rolled his eyes, “Get in, brats.”

  The Furies went in the back as he started the van and drove away.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  Junkie grunted, “Now then, let’s have some music… ya’ll are Korean so maybe some kpop might ease your worries~”

  Kpop soon started to play as Junkie sang along well. Like really well.

  Everyone rolled their eyes at him, realising he just likes kpop.

  What surprised them the most was Yerin singing along, “You know your stuff, old man!”

  “Ya know this, lass?”

  “Duh!”

  The two began to sing as the rest were baffled at the odd duet of the two during the drive.

  After a few hours of the two dueting, Jiho used a small lightning discharge and broke the radio.

  “Buffoon, what have you done?!” Yerin glared at him as Jiho stuck his tongue out.

  “Ya got a temper, lad.” Junkie chuckled, “Thankfully, I always bring a spare radio.” He got out a small radio from his pocket.

  “You’re the best, old man!” Yerin smiled.

  “UGH!” Everyone groaned.

  Taeseok got another chip packet from his jacket and realised this was his last one, “Ah. Can we stop and get some chips?”

  “That’s stupid, oppa.” Yerin rolled her eyes.

  Taeseok crunched on a chip as he glared, “It isn’t, unlike your stupid singing.”

  “What?! Say that disrespect again! To Twice-sunbae-nims too! Apologise!” Yerin yelled as they began to pull each other's hair.

  Jiho, who watched on the side, sighed, “What are you? Kids?”

  “You don’t get to say that!” Taeseok and Yerin both stopped as they pulled Jiho into the fight.

  Junkie laughed as he glanced at Seohwa who was in the passenger seat, “Is this normal?”

  “Yer—Crane and Monkey usually fight. But Bear usually gets moody when it comes to his snacks, hence the current chaos.” Seohwa replied.

  Junkie hummed contemplatively as he saw a gas station, “Perfect! A gas station! We can buy your chips there, lad. And stretch our bones while we at it.”

  At the abandoned gas station, he refilled the tank as Taeseok grabbed a whole ton of snacks.

  Yerin asked Junkie, “Is this abandoned?”

  “Yep.”

  Jiho yawned as he stretched, “Should I wake up Tigress and Mantis?”

  “No, let them rest.” Seohwa shook her head.

  Seohwa then looked at the vast desert as she asked, “So where are we?”

  “We, lass, are somewhere on Route 50. We’ll be heading somewhere in the middle of the Utah to Nevada line. It's a desert all across.” Junkie chuckled, “Now, gas is full, I’mma take a piss.” Junkie whistled to the bathroom as Yerin and Seohwa shuddered at his bold and vulgar speech.

  “So realistically, it’ll take about 2 days.” Yerin calculated.

  “Isn’t that great?” Jiho deflated as he squinted at the blazing sun, “I never remember the sun being this hot.”

  “No, I get it.” Yerin fanned herself with her hand as she used her ice powers.

  “No fair! Share some ice!” Jiho begged.

  Yerin crossed her arms and smirked arrogantly, “Call me Noona.”

  “…” Jiho for once put down his pride, “Noona! No, Noonim! You’re the best Noonim!”

  “Mwahahaha!” Yerin laughed like a villainess as she shared some of her ice powers to Jiho. She then turned to Seohwa, “Need some, Seohw—ah?”

  Seohwa was under a rock shelter she made as she used the wind to cool her off.

  “Guess you don’t need it.” Yerin chuckled.

  When Junkie returned, they continued their journey in the stifling van.

  ***

  2 days later. July 08, 2032 - 10:30

  The van abruptly stopped as everyone jolted forward, “AH!”

  “Almost missed it! We’re here! Ya brats can get out.” Junkie chuckled as he looked back and saw them groaning, “What’s with y’all?”

  Everyone felt aggrieved at his cluelessness of breaking hard all of a sudden but still got off.

  When they looked around, they saw only the vast desert.

  “Junkie, we’re in the middle of nowhere! Are you senile?!” Jiho growled.

  Junkie laughed, “Am I now? Or just brilliant?” Junkie stepped off the road and walked to the desert. The Furies followed him and as they did, Junkie disappeared.

  Seohwa gasped, “An illusion?”

  “That’s right!” Junkie cackled as he showed his right hand with a thumbs up but his body was still mostly gone, “Don’t just stand there! Come in!”

  Seohwa breathed in, bravely stepping forward as she closed her eyes. When she opened her eyes again, what appeared before her eyes was a wide farmland that had crops growing on the left and a training hall and garage on the right. In the centre was a two story house as her mouth was agape, “This…”

  “I’m an illusionist. Hiding this whole thing is pretty easy.” Junkie patted his chest proud.

  The Furies came in one after another as they all had the same bewildered expression when they came in.

  At the two-story house, Junkie dropped off his weapons on the couch as he got himself some water, “First things first, ya six should choose a room each. Y’all will be growing in those rooms, how ya decorate is up to ya but keep it clean.”

  Jiho quickly went up as he screamed in excitement as he jumped on the soft bed, “I dibs the double bed!”

  “Buffoon, everyone does.” Yerin rolled her eyes as she pictured her room and how she was going to decorate it. She began writing her ideas on some paper she found on her desk.

  Hwayeon looked around her room as she lay on the bed, exhausted. Her ceiling had a broken fan as she frowned. She got her tools in her pocket and began to fix it.

  In Minggu’s room, he hummed as he looked at the pet rat in a cage curiously, “Hello… it seems we’ll be roommates.”

  Taeseok looked around and found some R-18+ magazines as he frowned, “Junkie! I found some of your magazines!”

  Junkie chuckled, “Hahaha, wait… magazines?” Junkie paused before storming up and taking the R-18+ magazines from Taeseok, “Don’t look at them! Ya still a young’un!”

  “…” Taeseok smirked and crossed his arms, “Then buy me chips when I ask for it and we’ll call it even.”

  “Ya got a deal.” Junkie whispered as he shook his hand. When he went out, he saw Seohwa disappointedly looking at him, shaking her head before leaving.

  “…”

  “I can explain!” Junkie screamed.

  ***

  The layout of Level 2 was a crooked 7:

  The stairs were in the central landing and directly opposite it was the Level 2 bathroom. The girls lined up horizontally right of the stairs: Hwayeon being the closest to the stairs, then Yerin, then Seohwa. The boys stack vertically left of the stairs: Taeseok being the closest to the stairs, then Minggu, then Jiho. And lastly, Junkie sits alone at the bottom end of the boys corridors away from the stairs.

  ***

  Junkie was cooking some stew as Hwayeon, who smelled the food, came down and looked at the pot full of meat and miss-matched vegetables and frowned, “What’s this?”

  Junkie flinched at her disapproving stare, “It’s stew!” He chuckled, trying to hide the fact he was unused to cooking.

  Hwayeon didn’t say anything as she said, “Let me do it.”

  “Really? Ain’t ya a legend?” Junkie patted her back as he went to the couch whistling.

  Once the actually decent stew came out, the Furies came to sit down as they were about to eat but Junkie stopped them, “Stop for a bit… Let’s say grace.”

  Everyone tilted their heads as Seohwa asked, “What’s that?”

  “Ya telling me ya ne’er said grace before?”

  They all nodded. He sighed, “It’s to give thanks for the meal. It’s not everyday mercenaries will have the pleasures of food, so ya start thanking for any blessing of food that comes yar lap. Oh and it’s not just mercenaries, people who don’t have much food say it and some religions as well. It’s a gesture of appreciation.”

  “How… Do we do that?” Seohwa asked.

  “Let’s start by holding hands.” Junkie reached his hands out as Jiho and Yerin held his hands. Everyone began to hold hands as Junkie started, “We gather today in prayer as one unit and one family through new friends. We thank all our predecessors that came before us… Our fellow teachers, mentors, and parents… For their sacrifices and hopes…”

  The Furies closed their eyes as they listened. They suddenly thought of Rhino, Hawk, Goldie, Stretch and Dr 5. Hwayeon and Minggu began to sniffle. Taeseok lowered his head with red eyes. Jiho and Yerin bit their lips as Seohwa looked at the starry night outside the window.

  “…so that we, the people of the present, can continue to live and gather for this blessing. Amen.”

  Junkie paused as he let the kids have their moment, “Eat up. Gather yar strength and live.”

  They all began to eat as Seohwa helped Junkie pack up the dishes, “Thank you for saying grace before dinner. It’s a really good sign of appreciation.”

  Junkie smiled softly as he patted her head, “Good that you know… but starting tomorrow, y’all have your first day of training as mercenaries.”

  “Yes, si—I mean Junkie.” Seohwa chuckled.