As Lucas walked beside Carol, he couldn’t help but sneak glances at her because of how hot she was.

Her body was literally perfect, with thickness at all the right places.

’Look at that ass’

He would purposely fall behind just to get a good look at it.

He was never really interested in this sort of thing and was always too busy chasing his dreams, but after getting to see Stacy naked it was as if a switch had flipped inside his head.

’I just wish I could touch it’

He shook himself back to reality.

’This is not the time and the place to be thinking about things like that, but now that I think about it why did she hold me like that when I was blacked out?’

He forced the thoughts out of his head and began to concentrate. They were currently heading out to find that monster and from what Carol told him, using his skill at this point would be putting his life at risk.

He had to believe since he already passed out once.

’That means I have to prepare myself’

"System, how many points do I have now?" 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

[You currently have 8 Karma Points]

"Invest all in Innate Karma,"

He had ignored it before because he didn’t know the use.

[Done]

There was no other message so it meant that the stat hadn’t leveled up. He knew he needed a few extra points so he could level it up but that wasn’t going to stop him.

"I already told you, you don’t have to worry about that because it wouldn’t make a difference," Carol said without turning back, "it would take time to replenish your lost energy,"

"But I want to be able to help in case of any trouble," Lucas replied.

"You can’t help me," she said without any consideration, "You are still too week,"

Lucas felt a small invisible arrow go through his chest.

"What if something happens to you, I might end up being the one to protect you,"

"Protect me? If anything happens to me then you’d already be dead for sure," she let out a small chuckle.

"Thats... probably true," he sighed.

Thick concrete corridors stretched in every direction, broken only by heavy steel doors marked with warning signs. The air smelled faintly of machine oil and dust.

Overhead lights cast a pale glow across the empty hallways. Somewhere in the distance, a ventilation fan rattled to life for a few seconds before falling silent again.

Every footstep echoed off the concrete walls, making the abandoned plant feel far larger than it really was.

"Shouldn’t we be hurrying?" Lucas asked.

"Those two can take off themselves, why are you even worried about them after they abandoned you?" she looked at him from the side of her eyes.

"Isn’t that the right thing to do?"

"Is that what you think?" She scowled with a chuckle "Then maybe you really shouldn’t be out here,"

She shifted her gaze from left to right.

"We haven’t seen any more bodies since the ones at the entrance. That means a number of the workers here might still be alive."

"My hunch that the ’Engineers’ in the Rank Mission title might actually be referring to the workers in this power plant was correct. Do you guys see that?"

There was nothing there, but Lucas could tell she was talking to the people watching her stream.

"Okay, guys, we’re going to continue the search after a short break," Carol said brightly. She leaned slightly toward the camera with a practiced smile.

"Thanks for the gifts, everyone. I’ll be back shortly."

She turned off the stream and let out a long exhale.

When she looked up, she found Lucas staring at her.

"What?"

"Nothing... It’s just hard to imagine you saying all those things in front of everybody watching."

He was referring to her cold remarks about hurrying to save Gavin and Elena. Normally it was easy to understand, but announcing it like that to the world would definitely affect the public opinion about her.

"Why not? There’s no need to hide the truth." She barely spared him a glance.

"Then why are you helping me?"

"Because unlike them, you don’t know the risks of being out here," she replied almost instantly.

She paused before adding,

"And I don’t think I’ll be doing you this favor ever again. I said that last time, but this time I really mean it."

Lucas chuckled weakly.

"Sure."

"And if you think any of those people online give a fuck about you, then you’re awfully mistaken." she added.

Lucas already knew that, but hearing someone say it out loud made him think about it.

"Ahhhh!"

A scream echoed through the facility.

Both of them froze.

Then they exchanged a glance and immediately broke into a sprint towards the sound.

Carol didn’t make it obvious, but she deliberately kept her pace slow enough that Lucas could keep up.

Even during a moment like this, he could tell she was going out of her way to keep him safe.

Which only made him wonder why she was treating him differently from everyone else.

They arrived at a massive generator room with towering ceilings and enough open space to fit several houses.

Lucas immediately spotted Gavin lying unconscious near one of the walls.

He looked even worse than before.

Blood covered most of his face, and his clothes were ripped almost beyond recognition.

On the opposite side of the room, the Burrowing Spider held Elena by the throat, suspending her several feet above the ground.

Lucas instinctively stepped forward.

Carol grabbed his wrist.

"No. Stay here."

Somehow he knew it was the same monster from before.

Even if it wasn’t, he was certain he could control it too... at least to some extent.

But Carol was right.

His innate Karma was still dangerously low, and using his ability again could easily put his life at risk.

"Well, aren’t you going to do something?" he asked in a hushed voice.

"Just wait."

The monster suddenly glanced in their direction.

Carol reacted immediately, shoving Lucas behind the wall and ducking down beside him.

They held their breath.

Seconds crawled by.

The sounds of scraping legs echoed through the room.

Neither of them dared move.

After nearly a minute, the noise finally began to fade.

Carol carefully peeked around the corner.

Just in time to see the monster seize Gavin and head towards a hole in the floor.

A moment later, it vanished into the darkness below with both Gavin and Elena.