Leke offered to escort her to the SSC. On the way she asked him “How do they find the location of monsters?” she could already guess it was by scouting but she wanted to start a conversation.

Leke replied “The sanctuary has many scouts that search for the area around for monsters; this information is sold to those who want to exterminate the monsters.

The kind of information you can get isn’t limited by Rank but everyone is advised not to eat more than they can chew. There are other information vendors but they can be untrustworthy as they usually give expired or false information just to sell so I don’t advice going to them”

Samira thought for a while and asked out of curiosity “Why are you escorting me? You could have just described the location for me; you came to the restaurant with your friends, right? Is it ok to just leave them?”

Leke got cold sweats, he was very happy that he had gotten into a conversation with a beautiful and high Rank woman that drew looks, he even made her laugh. He wanted to extend his time with her as much as possible but he couldn’t say that.

“Um, I just thought it would be better this way” Leke said but he immediately cursed himself ‘Shit! Couldn’t I have come up with a better excuse?’ but unlike his tense demeanor Samira was completely laid back. She asked again “How has the end of the world been for you?”

Leke’s expression became sullen as he replied “It’s been horrible. I lost so many friends, haven’t been able to contact my family only God know what happened to them. I was a successful business man before it happened, I never had to fight to get by, but all of a sudden my life turned upside down. Now I have to kill undead to live a normal life, it sucks, it really does, all the hard work I put into my business has gone to nothing”

Samira felt sad for Leke, ‘the apocalypse had only helped me, considering it gave people like Jade the strength to free me, I am thankful for it, but on the flipside other people were probably ruined because of it’ she thought and patted Leke on his shoulder and said “I’m sorry for asking such a painful question. Cheer up! At least it provides meat that tastes better than any meat we had before” with a smile.

Leke looked at her in surprise and said “You eat undead meat? You know that you’re basically eating a person right? Even if the person has become something else, it doesn’t change the fact that you’re eating human meat. It’s already bad enough that we’re desecrating their bodies by turning them into weapons”.

Samira was surprised ‘I meant monster meat but now that I think about it, Jade is the only one that can hunt monsters regularly, so for other people the meat that is readily available is undead meat! But what’s wrong with undead meat anyway?’

She quickly explained “No, no, no, I meant monster meat not undead meat. Does undead meat taste good too?” Leke looked at her in disdain but concealed it while saying “You must be very rich and lucky to be able to eat monster meat, since they’re so rarely killed. I heard they are very nutritious and accelerate and sustain stat growth”

Samira contemplated for a while, looked up and said “It is very much so, but now that I think about it, shouldn’t undead meat be the same? I know they were human before and all that, but we still make weapons out of them, so what’s wrong with eating it if it helps growth.

One could just look at them as humanoid monsters now, and besides we’re no more just human the same way they are not human anymore, isn’t it just sentimentality that is making us avoid it, won’t that just impede our progress?”

When she looked back down at Leke she could see his clear unfiltered disgust. He stopped walking, pointed to the building on the left side of the road and said “that’s the building” and walked away.

Samira said to his turned back “Thank you!” and proceeded into the building. She thought ‘There must be a divide between higher rankers considering there are people who consider eating undead despicable or maybe it just him’.

The inside of the building had a reception area with about 15 receptionists with lines of people in front of them, and a lounge with couches and tables in the same room as the reception.

Samira went to join a line and said to the person in front of her “Excuse me” the woman turned to look at Samira and Samira continued “Is this the line for monster coordinates and such?” the woman nodded and faced her front. She didn’t even bother to check her Rank.

Samira stayed in line for a while before someone, a girl about her age, approached her, she wore a dress made of fabric; a pink shirt, a black jacket and a pair of jeans, which was weird considering that wearing such was equivalent to wearing paper for High Humans.

The girl was light skinned and was about 5 foot and 2 inches in height. She had a pretty face and a slim body.

She said “Hi” Samira turned to her, smiled and said “Hi”. The girl said “Don’t you know this line is for Rank 2s and below?” Samira replied “I didn’t know, I’m new to the sanctuary”

The girls eyes widened and she said “Come with me”.