Chef in the Apocalypse

Since reaching this Foundation Establishment stage, Jayce felt as if his body had changed qualitatively. While his muscles had not grown in mass or size, he could distinctly feel that his strength had grown by at least double.

Out of habit, Jayce opened his status window looking at the numbers he was so attached to in the past.

Name:

Jayce

Title:

N/A

Class:

Executive Chef

Subclass:

N/A

Level:

67

EXP:

5200/5200

Health

5920/5920

Mana:

0/2640

Strength:

182 (+106)

Dexterity:

232 (+98)

Intelligence:

182 (+85)

Vitality:

232 (+117)

Luck:

206

Stat Points:

104

"Heh. As expected, still no changes..." He muttered with a wry smile.

Despite growing significantly stronger, the system still showed the same stats he had for the past 6 months. Inwardly he had already discarded his status window as useless.

"I wonder if my stats will carry over if the system were to disappear?"

He wouldn’t be too depressed if it didn’t, however there was a hint of reluctance in his eyes as it hovered over the Luck stat. Back when he had the VIP15 skill, his Luck had played a large part in increasing his strength in the short term.

Not only that, Luck had probably saved him more times than he was conscious of. Therefore when it came to this, Jayce felt a tad regretful.

"If I assume the system will disappear eventually, then I may as well make the most of it." Jayce exclaimed.

His wry smile turned into a grin of satisfaction as the numbers in front of him increased by a lot.

Luck: 310

"Hehe, it pays to be lucky right?"

No matter what, looking at such an exaggerated number in his Luck attribute made him quite happy. Jayce almost had an urge to enter a casino and test it out. Unfortunately, there was no such thing in the new world.

Jayce spent the next few hours alone in meditation, absorbing the Qi within the air into his body. While this method was a lot slower, it was much easier for his Dantian to digest and purify this energy than using Mana stones.

Therefore he had made sure to implement meditation into his routine, no matter what his schedule was like. Only through diligent cultivation could he pave the way for humanity.

The time for the gathering of the representatives was fast approaching, so Jayce concluded his meditation and walked down the stairs to the lobby, only to be met with over 100 people patiently waiting for him.

"I assume you have all made up your mind?" He asked, addressing the group with a small smile on his face.

He moved his gaze over the group and saw some familiar faces. Agni, Tai and Cloud, there was even Voidwalker and Blood Reaper who he had met earlier that day.

Everyone either nodded or affirmed in one way or another, allowing Jayce to let out a sigh of relief. Thankfully there was no one here to sew discord within the ranks.

"One moment." Jayce said, raising a hand apologetically.

He moved to one of the rooms on the ground floor and retrieved a white board upon wheels and dragged it out for everyone to see. One of its four wheels seemed to be broken, causing a squeaky noise to echo throughout the lobby.

’Just what is this guy doing...’

The sight was a little comical. 100 of humanities strongest and most influential players who could change the wind and summon the rains standing in front of a young man with a shoddy whiteboard behind him.

The embarrassing scene wasn’t lost on Jayce who felt that such a serious thing like this Oath to join the Human Alliance would be written upon a shoddy whiteboard.

Unfortunately, paper was scarce in the new world and the copiers no longer worked. If he wanted to do handouts he would have to scribe every one of the pieces of paper himself.

"Ahem. You will read out this Oath together, with your left hand on your heart and right hand held up. Once you have completed the Oath, I will consider you as part of the Alliance."

Jayce demonstrated the pose, motioning the others to do the same. Once everyone was in position, he began reciting the words upon the whiteboard and soon enough the other 100 people joined in.

In the spirit of kinship and humanity, I pledge as a member within the Human Alliance:

I vow to use my strength and abilities for the betterment and protection of humanity.

I shall not betray my fellow humans for personal gain, nor shall I employ my powers for evil.

I understand that betrayal carries the penalty of becoming an enemy of humanity, hunted by all within the Alliance.

This oath I take willingly, binding myself to the cause of a united and resilient humanity.

Once the words on the board were recited, everyone turned to Jayce. It wasn’t until they read the contents of the Oath that they fully understood that this was not some ploy in order to put them under his rule.

This was a pledge of loyalty to humanity and humanity alone, this much was obvious. A few people who felt they were given no choice, suddenly felt a lot better about their decision.

"Excellent!" Jayce exclaimed, feeling a load off his shoulders. While the Oath was not foolproof he didn’t have much choice in the matter. He did not have the power to affect peoples free will.

However, it was in everyone’s best interest to join the Human Alliance and protect Earth. If the invaders were to succeed, everything would be destroyed.

"We have some armbands to hand out. You and your members will need to wear them in order to continue to take part in the Summit." Jayce said, heading back into the room he had just come out of.

This was something that he had come up with to differentiate those who had taken the Oath and those who had not. Anyone who was not wearing an armband would be escorted out of Bastion.