Trash in the Apocalypse

"To be honest, nothing has really changed. I'm just assigned to babysit more people and had more subordinates to order around. Aside from that, I have no other powers and can't even affect the decision-making process of the higher-ups." Meritorious 

Paolo Canlas continued giving orders for volunteers to loot the dead bodies. He didn't like chopping already dead people into pieces, so he strictly told everyone to manually loot them. 

Edward watched everything while comparing little bits from the past. "You either become the snake's head or the phoenix's tail. You always need to make a choice and that was your choice."

"Yeah, back in Binangonan, no one would dare order me around, only he could do that. "

The two remained silent until the unconscious dog on Edward's arm started to squirm. It still remained unconscious and is only starting to show signs of waking up.

"I was informed that someone caught the dog, and it didn't surprise me when I saw it was you. With your power, you could easily subdue anyone if you wanted to. The military is having a hard time adjusting to close-quarter combat and still relies on firearms when things get heated up. Since you don't need the protection of a pure dog, it would be a blessing for the government if you could sell us that dog."

Edward stared at the battlefield kilometers ahead of them. Instead of answering the question, he decided to pose his own question. "How does the military deal with evolved carriers?"

"Does answering affect whether you'll trade the dog?"

"Not really." Edward shrugged.

Paolo Canlas stared at Edward for a few seconds, before saying, "Anti-material rifles. We only have a few of them, and every shot fired was a bullet wasted.

"We will run out of all kinds of bullets in the future and production is still a faraway dream.

"We don't have the proper experts, and relearning everything will take some time. Even if we managed to train some people, we have to gather all the equipment and materials in order to make a stable supply chain while maximizing labor."

"I can trade the dog but I have several conditions. I want you to be the owner of the dog, no one else gets to bring it around. Feed it proper food instead of carrier meat. Monster meats are good choices as long as they are not corrupted. Also, I want help in searching with my family.

"Jun already asked someone from the government to search, but I haven't received any results. I can't wait for long and I want it done fast. They might be suffering right now, while I live here peacefully."

"Last but not least, if you can't tame the dog during my stay here, I'll be taking it back to Black Haven."

Paolo Canlas finally smiled after having not smiled for a long time. It wasn't because he finally convinced Edward to trade, but simply due to the reason why Edward wants to trade.

He was looking for his family!

With this knowledge, he could use it to try and persuade Edward to switch sides. If they could find his family and treat them well before handing them back, Edward's view of the government might change. If he successfully convinced a powerful person to join the military ranks, he could easily be promoted to a much valuable position!

"I want to agree immediately, but please let me consult some higher-ups first. I don't see any problems with most of your conditions, but having a pure dog belong solely to me would be hard to stomach by some military officers."

"If it helps, tell them I won't trade unless you own the dog."

Paolo Canlas was shocked and slowly nodded his head. "I'll keep that in mind. While waiting for the results, why don't you stay in one of our tents? It will take at least half an hour before the fighting finishes and getting some rest is probably something you need."

Edward wanted to refuse since he planned to continue searching the area, but Matt answered before he could decline.

"We'll gladly take your offer. He really needs some rest."

Edward turned slightly surprised and stared in confusion at Matt.

Seeing the confusion in his eyes, Matt simply said. "Get some sleep. You haven't slept for 46 hours. You don't want your family to worry about you when they see you, right? Or is that what you want?"

Paolo Canlas saw Edward giving up resistance and called the soldiers that escorted the two earlier. "Take them to my tent. You don't need to put them under surveillance. Make sure they have everything they need and let them feel like they're at their own home."

After giving his orders, Paolo Canlas bade farewell and made his way to the frontlines, summoning a bicycle from a gachaball. 

Edward got surprised, seeing Paolo Canlas use a product of Black Haven. 

"What's with that face? It's useful so I bought one. I was once a VIP so I'm privileged to limited items, you know?" Paolo Canlas shook his head and pedaled forward.

—

—

At the operation tent found in the frontline, several generals gathered in the room. A few generals were here for strategizing, logistics, and leading the army. 

Once Paolo Canlas finished narrating the previous events and the conditions to trade for the dog, he sunk back to his chair and waited for the result. 

The most senior general in the tent slammed his fist on the table. His name literally meant a hero, Bayani Guillermo. The lines of wrinkles on his forehead signifies how long he has been working for the military, while the dark circles under his eyes were proof of his dedication to working in the front line.

"Do you even need to come here for something as simple as that?! You should have detained him and took the pure breed from him! It's as easy as that!"

Paolo Canlas lowered his head. "I don't have the power to do that. According to the reports, he could freely wield energy and make them materialize in solid form. Besides, if we touch him, we also have to fight the power behind him."

"Are you implying that we can't win?" General Bayani glared at him, then spat mockingly, "Coward!"

"Anyone dies as long as they get shot through their head! We can easily send hundreds of snipers around Black Haven and easily kill them all if we ever wanted!"

The tent became silent due to his wrathful voice until a calm soothing voice resounded. 

"And you think I will agree to that?"

President Duforte watched the meeting from the side and glared at the General. 

The reason for not being seated along the table was to give other Generals more seating space. If more Generals could brainstorm and plan the strategy, the safer the citizens' journey would become. As someone who graduated from law school, he always leaves the important matter to the experts since he doesn't know much about fighting.

General Bayani bit his lower lip and trembled as he calmed down. "I apologize for being unable to control my temper. I hope everyone understands that leading battles in the frontline brings out unnecessary aggressiveness from anyone."

Henderson Perez, one of the leading Generals known for his tactical genius spoke. "Still, we can't do everything that he wants. He probably expects that we won't give in to everything and is ready to compromise on some of his conditions.

"Since he was adamant that you must own the dog, then we can only agree that you will own the dog. However, the military will call you occasionally whenever needed.

"Regarding its diet, we can't promise anything since we aren't well off. In a few days, we would be practically starving. We don't have enough time to care whether the dog's food was corrupted or not. 

"As for the request for searching for his family, we can delay for a few weeks since there are lots of people here and we don't have enough manpower. If he asks about citizen registration, you could just say that not everyone has registered with us. New people come every day and take their time to register as citizens due to long queues. During the few weeks of his stay, try your best to recruit him. For this to succeed, everyone must act civilized and not do anything stupid."

General Bayani clenched his hand, not daring to look up. He could feel several heated gazes coming his way.

"That's my take on it. If anyone has a better idea, then feel free to add up or change anything."

No one spoke and the matter was easily finished. 

Just before Paolo Canlas left the tent, General Bayani stood up and suggested something.

Everyone agreed and they sent Paolo on his way.

—

—

Back at Commanding Officer Paolo Canlas' tent...

Edward slept like a log on the foldable bed. Despite the foam being uncomfortable, he immediately fell asleep the moment his body lay on the bed.

Normally, he doesn't need to take much sleep, but due to habits and mental fatigue, he succumbed to sleep.

Matt Rojan remained seated at the entrance of the tent. Anyone who wants to enter inside has to go through him. This will keep people with evil intentions away while being able to train.

While waiting for the results, he didn't simply idle and actually trained with energy control. It was the only thing he does every day and every night. The higher his control of energy, the more agile he could be when moving around. 

Currently, he already managed to stop using a full circle of visual aura and successfully switched to a much efficient visual aura. He only uses a constant one-meter radius visual aura to see his immediate surrounding, combined with a ten-meter long and one-foot wide visual aura. With his current level of control, he was able to make a visual radar which he can fully control. 

He uses the long sensor to scout and investigates his surrounding while the short vision for moving around, making sure he doesn't trip on something. His blindness was practically cured and he could see better than ever.

It doesn't matter if it's crowded, he could see everyone that the long sensor passes through. It was like shining a flashlight on a dark forest and having a top view. 

His current layout has the optimal consumption and he can keep it for twenty-four hours. He can even use other skills while doing so and doesn't fear running out of energy since he only needs 40 energy points to use his own version of the visual aura.

Higher control doesn't only mean more skills can be activated at the same time. Excellent control over energy ensures energy loss would be kept to the minimum when it leaves the body. This is also the reason why the skill cost was so low while having great utility.

Being blind actually helped him gain higher control over energy since he had to rely on it to see!