Chapter 413 - 294: Strange Dreams
"Who’s that?"
"He must be... Miss Summers’ father, right?"
"Yeah, look how close they are!"
...
Hearing the quiet chatter around her, Paige Summers let out a chuckle. She looked at Marcus Monroe, who had also heard and whose face had successfully darkened. She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck and whispered in his ear.
"Welcome back! Don’t be mad. Why don’t we go back to our room to talk?"
"Okay."
Marcus Monroe shot a glare at a snickering Claire Chapman before carrying Paige out of the factory area as if no one else was there.
But just as they entered the residential area, someone came chasing after them.
He was completely covered in a black cloak, including his head and face.
At first, Paige didn’t pay him any mind. It was only when she realized he was heading straight for them that she peered over curiously.
The cloaked figure paused for a moment under her gaze but then blocked their path with even greater speed.
Marcus stopped, clicking his tongue in annoyance.
Paige’s eyes fell upon the cloaked figure, and she felt a strange sense of familiarity.
The cloak was ridiculously wide, billowing around his body. He kept his head half-lowered, the large hood obscuring his eyes and brows. Still, she felt she should know him.
"You are..."
The figure didn’t respond or move. Paige didn’t get angry; she patted Marcus’s arm, signaling for him to put her down.
Marcus rolled his eyes but did as she asked.
Paige walked forward. The man seemed to know what she was about to do and lowered his head accordingly. The hood was pulled back...
Suddenly, Paige cried out in shock and delight, "Ben!"
"It really is you!"
"This is great! This is great!"
Paige joyfully grabbed his arm, shouting and laughing.
She thought he was still in Central City. She had been incredibly worried before she left, but she couldn’t find him anywhere at the time. It was helpless! She had only managed to put her mind at ease by reminding herself that he was so strong he probably wouldn’t get into trouble.
She never expected him to come to the base!
Ben looked at her and forcefully pulled at his stiff facial muscles, forcing the corners of his mouth into a slight curve.
It was small, but Paige still saw it.
Just as Levi Young had said before, the current Ben’s appearance had moved past the temporary regression from his slumber and was becoming more and more human!
Even more so than before.
Although he couldn’t make a wide range of expressions like a human, he had gained a bit of control—enough to at least convey that he was also very happy.
Furthermore, his eyes were much more expressive.
Just now, as he looked at Paige, his eyes revealed discernible joy, relief, and a hint of confusion.
Paige understood. She pursed her lips. "Are you wondering why I look like this...? Well, it’s a long story. I..."
Before she could finish, someone had already lost his patience.
Marcus came up behind her and simply scooped her up again.
With a cold, displeased face, he said to Ben, "Go find Sean Raines for now. I still have things to talk to her about."
With that, he walked around him and continued forward.
Paige wanted to laugh but also felt a bit helpless. She turned and waved at Ben, signaling that she’d find him later, before turning back to settle comfortably in Marcus’s arms.
Marcus glanced down at her, the corners of his lips curling up slightly.
’Hmph! A mere pet wants to steal her from me? In his dreams!’
Paige’s residence was similar to Rhonda Rhodes’s—a separate courtyard. However, her yard wasn’t filled with strange and bizarre plants; instead, it was planted with medicinal herbs.
These were herbs that Levi Young needed. Paige had recultivated them in her space, harvested the seeds, and replanted them.
Marcus followed the small path in the middle into the house, and the two finally sat down peacefully on the sofa.
He held Paige, refusing to let her sit on her own.
Ever since she left him in Norgate, he had dreamt every night of their past together. The dreams stopped after they got back together, but for some reason—perhaps because this separation was longer—they had started again...
He was always dreaming of her.
Fortunately, they weren’t frequent enough to disrupt his rest and make him irritable.
This time, however, he wasn’t in the dreams himself.
The environment in the dreams was also unfamiliar.
That house, that furniture... no matter how he looked at it, it was a scene from before the apocalypse began.
And Paige was different, too.
In the dream, he knew the girl who was slowly growing up was her, but he could never see her face clearly. It was as if a layer of mist shrouded it, completely hiding her features.
He also saw an old man.
When she was just a little girl, she followed the old man to learn Artifact Making, her small hands barely able to grip the knife.
She identified various types of wood, and then metals.
From her hands, more and more weapons began to be created...
She grew up, little by little, just like that.
These dreams were actually quite mundane, nothing particularly special.
But Marcus felt uneasy.
Paige was twenty-two years old at most.
When the apocalypse broke out, she should have just been born. So, how could she have been in an environment like that?
As for the old man, he subconsciously felt it wasn’t the late old master of the Summers Family... So, who was he?
Or perhaps, were these dreams real, or just fabrications his mind conjured up because he missed her too much?
All sorts of questions lingered in his mind, making Marcus exceptionally unwilling to let her go. It seemed only by holding her this tightly could he lessen some of his anxiety.
"Did something happen?"
Paige sensitively detected that something was off about him and couldn’t help but ask.
Marcus took a breath and finally loosened his grip slightly, allowing her to face him and speak.
"No."
After a pause, he changed the subject. "The herb gathering trip went smoothly. We got everything we needed."
Paige smiled. "Mm, that’s good! By the way, how did you run into Ben?"
"Him..." Marcus pursed his lips in disgust. "He’s hopelessly stupid. He actually got himself captured. Luckily, he ran into us, and we rescued him."
Paige’s expression changed.
"Who captured him?"
"They were too fast. Besides, he wasn’t in good shape at the time, so we couldn’t catch them."
Paige pressed her lips together tightly and didn’t ask any more questions.
Marcus could see her mood had soured, and he felt a stifling frustration in his chest.
He didn’t like Ben.
He especially hated how he stuck to Paige all day.
If Paige wasn’t currently unable to conveniently use her superpower, if she didn’t truly need someone to protect her, and if that stupid Zombie’s strength wasn’t at least passable, he definitely wouldn’t have brought him back!
But having brought him back, it was still frustrating!
He buried his head in the crook of her shoulder and said sullenly, "You used your superpower again, didn’t you?"
"Huh?" Paige came back to her senses. "Yeah, when I went to Southreach..." She temporarily set aside the thought of who had captured Ben and began to tell him in detail what had happened in Southreach.
As Marcus listened, his expression also grew grim.
"I didn’t expect the Joyce Family to have something like this going on. Leo Joyce... Hmph..."
He sneered.
Paige sensed that he was definitely holding a grudge against the man. She blinked and couldn’t help asking, "Have you dealt with him before?"
"A few times."
"What’s his superpower? What’s his rank?" ’He’s probably a higher rank than me, since I can’t see through him.’
Marcus thought for a moment. "He was probably Eighth Rank when I left, so it seems he’s promoted since then. His superpower should be a Fire Ability."
"Oh."
Paige relaxed a little. If it was a Natural System superpower, that was actually okay. The scariest ones were those strange, unpredictable superpowers that were hard to guard against. Of course, a Fire Ability promoted to such a high level would be tough to deal with, but it wasn’t like there was no way to counter it!
Marcus naturally guessed her thoughts, but he said with conviction, "Based on what you’ve said, he won’t act against the base, at least not for now. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have let Claire Chapman come back."
"You also think he let Claire Chapman go on purpose?"
"Of course. Leo Joyce is no idiot. If he had really wanted to capture Claire Chapman in the city, he would have sealed it off much more tightly."
Paige let out a sigh of relief. "That’s good." The base had, after all, just been established; it wasn’t on the same level as Southreach at all. Even with High-level Superpower Users like them around, facing thousands of Superpower Users would be a huge headache.
A glint flashed in Marcus’s eyes.
"For the time being, you just focus on staying at the base. I’ll go keep an eye on things in Southreach."
Hearing him say that, Paige was instantly relieved.
This was especially true when his old subordinates, like Mason Hayes and the others, saw Marcus. These grown men, who were normally either aloof and cold or boisterous and rowdy, were now weeping, snot and tears streaming down their faces. To put it crudely, they looked like they’d just found their long-lost mothers...
Although Paige was struck speechless by her own sneaky and inappropriate metaphor, it only strengthened her conviction that Marcus’s greatest skill wasn’t actually his superpower, but his incredible ability to train his subordinates.
For example, the people from the Dead City, Mason Hayes and his group, and the people from Jovitas.
Anyone he had ever led seemed to become "deeply devoted" and "utterly reluctant to part" with him...
’Could this be the legendary "aura of a conqueror"?’
Paige thought, almost bursting into laughter.
’Hmm, but since everyone else was either wiping away tears or sighing with emotion, it really wasn’t appropriate.’ She held it in.
Anyway, since Marcus was going to keep an eye on Southreach, Paige was a hundred percent at ease.
To investigate the situation in Southreach sooner, Marcus prepared to leave after staying at the base for less than two days.
Mason Hayes and the others were like they’d been shot up with adrenaline, desperately volunteering themselves to go with him.
Marcus only picked about ten people and refused to take any more.
The rest were somewhat disappointed.
However, knowing he wouldn’t be leaving for good for a while was some consolation.
On the day Marcus left, Paige was leading a group to begin the first smelting.
Marcus didn’t disturb her.
Ever since he started having those dreams, he had become aware of Paige’s devotion to the matter of Artifact Making.
If a person starts doing something nonstop from such a young age, then regardless of whether they like it or not, that thing becomes an inseparable part of their life.
What’s more, Paige’s dream was to develop and glorify the Summers Family’s Artifact Making.
He stood at the entrance, not departing immediately.
Smelting a furnace of steel took about half an hour. He waited until he heard a wave of cheers erupt before he let out a slight sigh of relief. He turned to his team members, who had been nudging each other and winking, and said, "Let’s go."