Chef in the Apocalypse

Jayce stood up, looking at everyone who had now finished their meals with a warm smile on his face. "Now that we’ve all filled our stomachs, why don’t we have a good chat?"

After tasting the amazing food and seeing the notification pop up in front of them, almost everyone was experiencing some level of shock. They merely nodded like pecking chickens, unable to respond in any other way.

"Very good. First of all, I’d like to introduce myself." Jayce said, his voice calm and friendly. "My name is Jayce, and these are my faction members. Colin, Zane, Jackie, Amber, Ben, Heath, Macie and Lianna." He gestured behind him, calling out their names in order of their proximity to him.

He continued "The rest of my faction are back at our home, called Bastion. We currently have almost 3000 residents." At these words there were a few exclamations and whispers, clearly intimidated by the number.

"Rest assured, we’ve merely come here to extend an olive branch. After all, we’re all humans." Jayce reiterated, his warm smile doing a great job of calming some of the weaker players in the vicinity.

He looked expectantly at Agni and Shadow respectively, as if awaiting their responses. After looking at each other briefly, Shadow stood up, appreciating the extra vitality that was coursing through his body after the impromptu meal.

He bowed respectfully before saying in a polite tone, "My name is Tai, but most call me Shadow due to my class and... occupation." Tai paused on the final word and proceeded to raise his head, gesturing to the people in similar attire to himself. "These are my faction members, Shadow Garden and we don’t have a fixed residence."

Jayce nodded, satisfied with the introduction. His gaze traveled to Agni who looked to be a little uncomfortable. In truth, he was gobsmacked at the amount of respect that Shadow had shown towards the chef, even revealing his true name which he himself had never known before despite their agreement.

Agni had reached out to Shadow and organized to ambush Jayce and his party on this field, planning to kidnap him and extract information. Judging by the information Jayce had given to him about the Dungeon, he believed that the chef had insider information from Rubick due to his position within the supporters.

Yet despite this partnership, Shadow had always treated him as a mere associate, never hiding his disdain or arrogant attitude. This was why he was so shocked at the sudden change of character from the wily assassin, who seemed to be an obedient kitten in front of this man.

He cleared his throat, trying to recover his bearings. "I am Agni, and these are the faction members of my Dante’s Inferno. We currently reside north of Delhi, near the Dungeon." It was short and sweet, but it held the necessary information, receiving a nod of approval from Jayce.

"Good. Now that we’re acquainted with one another, I wanted to bring up something." Jayce said calmly, however his eyes seem to carry a fierce determination.

Everyone seemed to feel the atmosphere thicken, causing their breaths to get caught up in their throats. They gulped, awaiting the next words out of his mouth.

"How would you feel about entering into an alliance with us?" His words cut through the tension, receiving a few confused looks in response.

Agni himself was questioning his ears, wondering if he had been hearing things. ’An alliance?’ he thought inwardly, not making any sense of the situation. It was clear that Jayce and his party were immensely strong, not to mention they had almost 3000 people back home.

Not only did they have great individual strength, it seemed they also had a huge numerical advantage as well. This begged the question, if he already had so much strength at his disposal, for what reason would he want to enter into an alliance with them?

Agni’s thoughts instantly went to the dungeon which he had been farming periodically for the past 6 months. His face flickered for a moment, ’This bastard wants to steal all of my drops from the dungeon.’ he thought, feeling a sense of helplessness creep into his bones.

If Jayce wanted to steal his items and even take over the dungeon under the guise of an "alliance", there was really nothing he would be able to do. ’f*ck’ he cursed inwardly, lamenting his lack of strength.

Jayce saw the flickering emotions on Agni’s face and let out a dry chuckle, "Don’t worry, I won’t be asking anything of you that I wouldn’t be willing to do myself." He could tell what the sly bastard was thinking just by the look on his face.

Being called out, Agni’s face drooped for a moment before responding, "Then would you mind explaining what you mean by an alliance?" 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

"It’s simple really. My goal is to create one big alliance around the world... The Human Alliance." Jayce responded without much fanfare, his tone at odds with the gravity of his suggestion.

"The Human Alliance?" Both Tai and Agni said these words aloud, their faces each showing different emotions. However they both arrived at the same conclusion, the idea was too nonsensical. Even if they had access to the same travel technology they had before the Apocalypse descended, the world was too big to manage in one alliance.

"I’m sorry Jayce, I just don’t see how it would be possible to create an alliance with everyone around the world. I’m sure you have great intentions, but it’s impossible." Tai was actually the one who spoke up first, sharing his opinion on the matter.

Jayce merely smiled, looking towards Agni with expectation, awaiting his response. Agni frowned, his thoughts were similar to Tai’s, feeling as if it was a useless affair. Yet the calm and composed demeanor of the chef made him feel uncomfortable, as if the conversation was going exactly as he expected.

He finally responded, shaking off the uneasy feeling. "Look, unless you had a way of traveling freely across the globe, I don’t see how you could possibly complete such a lofty goal."

Jayce’s smile widened, as if he were expecting this exact argument. He raised two empty fingers in the air casually, before motes of light suddenly appeared around his fingers as if he were summoning an item from his inventory.

A sheet appeared in between his fingers depicting a complicated magic circle on its surface. "Yes, moving freely around the globe. Would teleportation fit that description?"