Chapter 6: First signs of trouble

Eve's face turned sour after listening to Ellin's words. 'What's with him and being so nice to me all the time! How am I supposed to react? How am I supposed to repay him? He doesn't even ask about all my strangeness, even if he is clearly curious!'

"I am really sorry that I didn't tell you earlier!" Ellin misunderstood Eve's dark look and his expression became remorseful. "I was afraid that you may drop me outside if you learnt that there are people after my head... Well, I know that doesn't excuse me, but at least it gives something to sympathise with, eh?" He forced out a smile.

Eve threw a glare at him. "Don't make assumptions like that. Do I look like someone who'd do that?"

Ellin blinked in surprise and looked to the side. "Uh, actually... You look really like someone who is on top of the world compared to us, mortals. Someone who is so far up, that they don't need to look under their feet anymore..."

That sounded nice, but Eve felt like there was something fishy about the way Ellin told it. She narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "And what's that supposed to mean?"

"You are a goddess, a goddess!" Ellin flailed his hands. "What else could it mean? Please, don't look at me with that angry glare!"

Eve narrowed her eyes further, but gave up a moment later. "Fine. Tell me about the people who tried to kill you."

"They are a team of scavengers I joined recently. I thought they were alright people, but when we were on our way back from our last expedition, our leader..." Ellin's hands clenched into fists. "He just stabbed me in the foot without warning and threw me out of our car right into a horde of zombies! I don't even know why he did it! I only know that all others were on it, because no one was even surprised. I ran from zombies for a while, but they soon pushed me into the corner... And the rest you know."

While Ellin spoke, Eve finished her beans and put the empty can into a trash bin. Now her full attention was on Ellin. "So, what are you planning to do about it?"

Ellin smiled with no joy in it. He shrugged. "I don't know. Even if I told someone about what he did, it's only my word against theirs! Sadly, nowadays, law and justice have become a joke. Though, weren't they a joke since long ago?" Ellin shook his head bitterly. "Our leader is level three, so the Chief values him much more than someone like me. I could try asking him about his reasons, but that just sounds like looking for trouble!"

Eve scratched her chin. "If your leader didn't show any animosity towards you, could it be that someone else made him do it?" she made a guess. "Would he try to harm you in the base?"

"The fighting inside of the base isn't prohibited, but killing is." Ellin frowned in thought. "But if it's someone from the top, they could just make you disappear instead. Eh, I guess that if that's really like that, then I was doomed from the start..."

"Don't give up now." Eve pursed her lips. "I plan to explore the base tomorrow, and I'd like you to show me around. I really hope that this place is better than it looks..."

That night, Eve kept exploring the changes in her core's code. They spanned for what felt like an endless wall of text. When the nanites were created, a full team of researchers worked for years on creating this program. Eve knew she would need much more time than one night to read all the changes that upgrading to level two brought to her.

She was brought out of her reading without warning. When Eve opened her bleary eyes, she saw Ellin pulling his hand away from her.

"Sorry to wake you up, Eve, but it's almost breakfast time in the canteen. I thought you'd like some actual fresh food! Oh, and someone from administration came by to tell that you should come to the main building to settle your accommodations."

Eve slowly sat up and stretched her limbs with a yawn. Then she shook her head to get rid of the last traces of sleep. "Alright."

In the morning, the base looked much more active. Many people were moving about, and Eve noticed their stares on herself. She didn't like them. 'I feel like a piece of meat...'

"Don't mind them yet," Ellin said after noticing Eve's unease. "They would stare less when they get used to your face. Most of them won't dare approach you anyway, since you can certainly kick their level zero asses!"

Thankfully, they made their way to the canteen quickly enough. Following everybody else, Ellin and Eve followed the line and took trays with food from the dispensing window. To Eve's surprise, the content of her and Ellin's trays was different.

A worker gave her a bean porridge, a bun, and a cup of compote. Ellin only had porridge, a bun, and a cup of water.

"That's because you are level two and I'm only level one," Ellin said before Eve could ask the question. "The Chief says that it's only natural that the people with higher value to the base should get more from it."

The two of them sat in a free spot in the canteen's corner. Looking around, Eve could see that all other people got different amounts of food too. Some had additional buns or vegetables, and some only had the porridge. She frowned. "And you disagree with that, Ellin?"

"It's not much different from how our world was before, isn't it? If I said differently, wouldn't I be a communist?" He chuckled. "My opinion doesn't matter anyway, since I can't do anything about it."

Eve nodded and continued to eat in silence. Suddenly, a tall and muscular man came up to their table. He slammed his hands down with enough force that some of Eve and Ellin's drinks spilled out of their cups.

"Ellin, you bastard! How dare you to show your face there after stealing from us?"

Ellin raised his head towards the man with a cold frown. "So after what you did, you actually came there to accuse me like that, Jayce? Did you bother to fabricate some proof, at least, or are you going to straight up beat me up?"

Eve could feel Jayce's strong presence. It was noticeably more powerful than Ellin's. His muscles were also much more prominent; contrary to Jayce, Ellin had a slim figure that would better fit a model than a fighter. In the fight between the two of them, a winner was obvious.

"I don't need proof to deal with you. It had been approved already, anyway." Jayce sneered and pulled Ellin up from his seat by his collar. "Or did you think that this level two chick is going to save you? Ha!"

Ellin grit his teeth, but before he could do anything, Eve decided it was her time to interfere. She raised narrowed eyes at Jayce. "Level two? Who is level two there?"

After that, she activated her terrifying aura, focusing it only on Jayce. His knees trembled; his grip on Ellin's collar weakened. In this moment, he felt as if behind this woman bewitching green eyes was hiding a merciless beast that he shouldn't have provoked.

"Y-you..." Jayce let Ellin go completely and made a step back. Under the constant pressure from Eve's aura, he was unable to gather himself together and could only keep retreating.

"Scram."

After that one word from Eve, Jayce dropped all his dignity and scurried away. Only when he left the canteen, Eve turned her aura off.

Ellin sat back in his seat and shook his head in dismay. "And I must thank you again, Eve. If you keep piling debts on me like that, I would need several lives to repay them all!" He chuckled.

"It was for free." Eve pursed her lips. "Was this man the leader of your team?"

Ellin nodded and frowned. "He mentioned that his actions were approved... I am afraid that it came from someone on the very top. If that's someone with level six or five, even you can have problems if they decide to attack you..."

Eve glanced to the sides. After seeing no one in the hearing distance, she leaned towards Ellin. "I'd have problems even if Jayce attacked me. I am really only level two. The aura you felt is my superpower," she said in a low voice.

Ellin recoiled in shock. "What? Oh..." For a few seconds he simply opened and closed his mouth without a word. "And you still stayed around me? Jayce won't dare to approach you now, but if he passes the word to someone stronger, you will be in real danger!"

Eve straightened her back and looked at Ellin coldly. "I'm not planning to seek death just yet, and I didn't offend anyone that powerful. Either way, I don't plan to stay in this place for long."

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