Apocalypse Villainess? Nah, I'm Nice

It took Claire Chapman over an hour to get a clear picture of the superpowers possessed by all of May Joyce’s subordinates.

The woman might not know how to lead, but her memory was excellent. She could clearly describe what each person excelled at.

Claire Chapman listened, secretly amazed.

’This team isn’t exactly first-rate, but it has a surprising number of Superpower Users with unique abilities. The Invisibility Superpower and the Assimilation Ability, for instance. If utilized properly, these people could be incredibly useful. The only drawback is their weak overall combat strength. That’s fine for ordinary missions, but in a place like The Foundry, teeming with Zombies, it’s a fatal flaw.’

’However, if our two teams work together, the situation will completely change!’

He knew his own team inside and out.

Aside from the three who specialized in the Spiritual System and were a bit more restrained, the rest were basically all focused on brute force. Especially after Zephyr Mercer’s extreme training regimen, those guys had a tendency to go berserk the moment a fight started!

’Putting everything else aside, their combat effectiveness is definitely top-notch!’

’From this perspective, it’s very possible for our two sides to cooperate and take The Foundry sooner rather than later.’

As he thought this, his smile toward May Joyce grew even warmer.

Having been away from his father, fending for himself for some time now, Claire Chapman was no longer the pretty boy who could pass for a woman just by keeping his mouth shut. His hair was cropped short, tight against his scalp, and his skin had tanned several shades darker. His face now held a visible, world-weary air, and when he put on a stern expression, an intimidating sense of authority.

Leading the Hunting Party and facing all sorts of hardships had forced him to mature quickly. Now, he was a mature and incredibly charismatic man.

Especially when he smiled...

May Joyce watched him, mesmerized. Her heart was hammering so hard she felt it would leap out of her throat; she had to press a hand firmly against her chest to keep it in.

She felt an impulse, a feeling that she would do anything for him, if only he would smile at her like that more often.

Spurred on by this feeling, she blurted out without a second thought, "Besides all that, I can also draw a map of the layout inside The Foundry!"

!!!

Claire Chapman stared at her in shock. A moment later, he moved like the wind, swiftly placing paper and a pen in front of her. "It sounds incredible, but I believe you! Draw it. The more detailed, the better!"

’He believes me!’ Joy flooded May Joyce’s mind. The advice from one of her subordinates—not to draw the map so easily, to be sure to demand more conditions from him—was completely forgotten. She picked up the pen and began to draw on the rough paper with the speed of a practiced sketch artist. SCRITCH, SCRATCH, SCRITCH.

The map May Joyce drew was actually quite crude.

Though drawing was her second-greatest talent after dressing herself up, this map wasn’t her own creation. She had gotten it from someone else. On it, every building was simply a rectangle, with no aesthetic appeal whatsoever.

But to Claire Chapman, the locations of those rectangles and the labels written inside them were all that mattered.

Since it wasn’t a complex drawing, May Joyce finished in just over ten minutes. She delightedly handed the map to Claire Chapman and, as expected, was met with a string of compliments, so much so that she had to feign a little modesty. But then, a moment later, she worried he might not see her value and quickly added, "It may be ugly, but rest assured, all the labels are perfectly accurate. I have an excellent memory. I can recall any map or text I’ve seen without a single error! It’s a shame the Space Ability User who had the original map died. Otherwise, if you could compare them, I guarantee you’d be amazed!"

’I’m already surprised enough...’ Claire Chapman thought with a smile. "There’s no need," he said aloud. "I believe you have an excellent memory." ’It’s the map’s origin I’m not so sure about,’ he thought. ’Still, judging by the marked location of the blast furnace, it matches the actual site perfectly. Even if there are some inaccuracies, they can’t be too significant. All in all, this is still an extremely valuable reference. With this, I’ll have enough time to draw up a more detailed battle plan.’

This was a truly unexpected, wonderful surprise. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Claire Chapman was very satisfied. He had gained a great deal tonight.

May Joyce was also very satisfied, because she felt that the man she’d fallen for at first sight seemed to feel the same way about her. It wasn’t until Claire Chapman walked her out of the tent and a blast of cold wind hit her that she remembered she’d completely forgotten to use the map as leverage for more benefits.

’Oh, well. Forget it,’ she thought to herself. ’Lucian already said we’d split any supplies fifty-fifty. If I can bring our fifty percent back to Southreach, that’ll be enough to make Big Brother happy. He’ll definitely give me a good reward. But... our team’s Space Ability User is dead. How am I going to transport all that stuff back? I need to talk to the others and figure something out!’ Her thoughts shifting to this new worry, May Joyce paused for a second before hurrying off toward her own tent.