Mira said “Amazing. You’re all superior” and she cursed Jade in her mind for not giving her the chance to be one. They smiled and the one that came out first said “How did you get here? We haven’t seen you before” Mira answered with a smile and said “I just passed through the undead horde. They were really nice to me you know, they even offered me tea and biscuits and wished me well on my journey”

Some of them chuckled at her reply. She continued “You don’t believe me? How sad, don’t tell me you’ve been waiting on this island all this while in fear of such a nice horde? You didn’t even get to know them before judging them by their looks” the chuckles intensified and she concluded “I snuck through their territory, it was very hard”

She removed her helmet; their human reaction had appeased her suspicion. The boys gawked for a second before regaining their selves; they hadn’t expected her to be so beautiful under the helmet. Mira smiled and said “Is there an Ife among you?”

A girl raised her hand up and Mira said “Your dad sent me to check on you, since you’re alright I can go back” Ife hurriedly asked “Where is he? What happened to him?” Mira answered “He’s good. He’s at the sanctuary, a human settlement on the mainland. He works at a factory”

The boy who came forward first asked “Has the mainland been reclaimed from the monsters?” Mira asked “What’s your name?” he replied “I’m Gbenga” and then the others introduced themselves and Mira answered his question “The small part of mainland that I live in hasn’t been completely reclaimed but we’re getting there”

The group smiled and the Gbenga said “We would love to leave this place. The monsters have gotten very powerful and intelligent; we can’t handle them anymore especially the Rank 7 hordes, they’re impossible to attack without losses. If you could help us we would really appreciate it”

Mira smiled, rubbed her hands together and said “Sure but only if you can pay, I’m sure you have en-code right?” A girl who had been at the back of the group and showed no reaction to Mira from the start of their negotiation to the end, Bella said “How much do you charge?”

Mira saw from the group dynamic that she was the strategist; no one opposed to her handling the negotiations. Mira replied “3 million en-codes, each”. Bella answered “I’m sure Ife’s father paid you to get us, he wouldn’t just ask you to check up on his daughter in such a dangerous place”

Mira replied “Bosun thinks you’re” she pointed at the group “all dead. So he only wants closure. He paid me 1,000 en-codes to find out your situation, which is far too little, if you ask me, for a rescue mission from the most dangerous place in Lagos”

Mira felt sad for their ignorance and explained “This place is so dangerous that no one would have considered even if he paid tens of millions of en-code. In order words, this mission is an impossible one. I asking you for 3 million en-codes per person is a mercy. Prove me wrong, have you seen any new person come to the island?”

Bella thought about it and said “Ok we’ll pay you but we don’t have 3 million unattributed en-codes on us now, can we pay later?” Mira smiled and said “Sure!” Bella couldn’t put her finger on it but she knew Mira was scamming them in some way.

Bella said “So how do we get out? The horde you just bypassed has a very strong security” Mira wagged her index finger and said “You all have to agree to the contract individually before we start planning” as she looked at them individually.

She brought out her radio phone and started recording while each member voiced their agreement to her terms. She then said “Good! The plan is simple, we destroy the horde”

Bella looked at her with suspicion and said “Do you know how many Rank 5 monsters are there? The boss monster is a Rank 6 closing in on Rank 7. We’re too small for such an operation” Mira chuckled and said “They’re not that many anymore. I killed most of them already, the problem is that the undead are very alert and they’re now on the defensive so I’ll need you guys to fight the Rank 5s while I kill the Rank 6”

They all looked at her in shock thinking ‘But she’s just a Rank 5!’ Mira laughed at their confusion and said “You guys don’t know much so I’ll explain. The beautiful looking weapons you see here are not just decorations, they can do stuff like this” she said and she performed a small aura slash.

They all looked amazed, and Bella who was reading Mira’s emotions like a book noticed she was telling the truth but kept her surprise hidden; she still wanted to know more. She said “So you can perform long range attacks. All of us can do the same. It doesn’t explain how you could kill enough of them”. Mira’s smile widened and she said “I can sneak pass the undead while you can’t, simply because I’m awesome” and she pumped her biceps in a comical way.

Mira continued “There are about 22 of them remaining. I don’t have weapons to offer but we have all the time to come up with a plan”. The group distanced themselves a bit to have a private discussion and after a while they came back and Mira said with a bright smile “Your plan is genius!”

They all looked at her in doubt and shock; they had gone far away and spoken far too silently for even a High Human with a superior sense to hear they couldn’t accept that she could just eavesdrop on them whenever she wanted.

Mira had never stopped focusing since the beginning of their discussions and when they went to have a meeting she focused her senses on their location. A superior sense High Human might have great senses but it would work against them in this situation as the stimuli from all around would have drowned what the group was secretly discussing which would only be worsened by the enhanced sense but for Mira she could just focus on them, eliminating the surrounding disturbances which would made it harder to hide things from her in such a situation.

Mira chuckled seeing their doubt and said “Luring the monsters into a fight with each other is a beautiful idea”. All the doubt was cleared and replaced by shock, especially for Bella who could read Mira and had noticed she was telling the truth about the undead numbers, she was shocked that she didn’t have the upper hand when it came to acquiring information.