CHAPTER 72: THE SURVIVAL RATE OF COCKROACHES.

Hades’s hands had found a place on his head once again. Secretary Ceasar was now President Ceasar! Another of his wife’s predictions had come true.

"Are you seeing this shit?" he asked her.

Sunshine held in a laugh. Not only was she seeing it but she had predicted it. "His presidency will not last. His first mistake was...or is keeping the real president alive. Finch will be rescued by loyal soldiers and announce his return when he gets to safety.

Suddenly, the country will have two presidents. But presidents that cannot protect the people or save them are useless, so they are both going to be presidents in name only.

As superhumans carve out territories in the country, it will cease to be a country altogether and we will be identified by which base we come from."

Hades still shook his head. He could not believe that the country he had known was over, just like that. The life they all knew had ended.

"Do you think Moon and Cassius will survive?" He asked her.

Sunshine shrugged. "Those two are cockroaches, I have a feeling that they will somehow survive."

They were like villains in every movie. Somehow, they always beat all odds and only died at the end. Even then, sometimes, they resurrected.

"My mother asked me about Aunt Fifi and the others." He brought up his relatives that had defected from the family, following bankruptcy rumors. "She is worried about them, despite all that happened."

"More cockroaches that don’t need mentioning. Your mother should be worrying about herself and her children and grandchildren." Sunshine took his hand, pulling him away from the living room. "Come on, let’s have breakfast. What will happen will happen. It is of no use imagining it."

After breakfast, she went to work while he distracted the children by reading to them. Only Ariel was not in need of a distraction as he was logging supplies.

In the space, a phone rung just as she arrived. She had new items to fix, and all were robot dog legs!!

"Oh, come on." She muttered. It was getting a little tiring being the robot dog leg fixer. "At least send some dogs with injured arms."

[The system has detected that the host is unhappy with the order. Should it be rejected?]

"No." She answered sullenly. She still wanted points and merit coins. When she moved away from the beginner level, she would start rejecting them.

She did not begin with the robot dog legs and instead started with the metallic bee. It was a palm sized metallic bee whose titanium wings were twisted. They also had scorch marks like they had been burned by something.

"System, information about the bee."

[Type 1-Pollinator Drone. It is a product of Agroflora company, and it can be found on many planets. Its main purpose is to pollinate natural and synthetic flora across galaxies.

The damage is to the wings and thorax. Communication antennae offline, must be fixed.]

Before fixing it, she decided to watch its final moments before injury. The bee had lost communication and accidentally tried to pollinate an airship engine which emitted a floral scent.

As it was burned, it emitted static sounds which sounded like crying and that was how it had been discovered and sent to her.

"You poor thing." She whispered. "Don’t you worry Sting; I will fix you right up."

Sting was not the name of the bee, but she liked to name the creatures she fixed.

For a small creature, its repair took seven hours.

Sunshine patched the wings slowly and rewired the system. It came to life, buzzing like a real bee. Its wings hummed as they fluttered to life and the bee slowly flew up. It hovered in front of her for a second and performed a loop. And then, it disappeared.

"At least say goodbye." Sunshine shouted in the space. "Oh, what’s the use." She muttered.

[Congratulations host on a perfect fix. 500 points awarded]

Sunshine’s eyes lit up. Five hundred was the most she had earned so far. Her eyes searched for payment. She had been paid two hundred three gems.

She would save them for shopping when she started traveling to other worlds. As for merit coins, she had been awarded fifty of them. The seven hours of work had been worth it.

She came out of the space to take a break before starting on the robot dog legs. It was 5:06 p.m. The meteor rain had stopped falling but the sky was still red. Rain was falling now, not the normal rain but also not acid rain just yet.

Sunshine did not recall this rain falling in the previous apocalypse. At the time, everyone had been hiding, too afraid of anything that was falling from the sky. People only came out of their cocoons the day that followed and only after the news announced that the government had confirmed the meteors would not fall anymore.

In this life, she got to witness something new, rain that was not truly rain. It did not look like water for water would slide off the pink bubble without being swallowed.

This liquid was being popped just as the meteors had done. It was viscous, deep yellow droplets. She could not smell or touch it. But she wondered if there was something special about it.

"Err--Suni, are you there?" Nimo’s voice came through a walkie-talkie.

"I am here." Sunshine replied.

"I just wanted to know your thoughts on sending out a bomb defusing robot with a pot in its arms to collect some of this yellow rain." Nimo responded.

"Negative. The wall has analysis sensors that send back reports to me. I am going to check them out first and see what it says." She answered.

"Okay. Nimo out."

Sunshine took an elevator down, smiling or waving at the people she met along the way. She went to the secret sector, into the secret room. Hades was inside, apparently looking for the same information she was.

This room was their private command center from where they could control the wall remotely and the entire base as well.

"Are you here about the weird rain?" he asked her.

She approached him and leaned forward over his shoulder to look at what he had found.

"The wall says its citrus drizzle, a combination of meteor dust and actual rain." He shared.

Sunshine was curious about. "System does Citrus drizzle have any uses?"

[It is an ingredient in glowing paint.

When stored in glass lanterns, it emits a glow that provides light.

Recommended to be stored and used in repairs when necessary.]

After getting the answer, she decided to pop the bubble momentarily. One hour would be enough to collect this citrus drizzle and then they could blow bubbles again.

She got her walkie-talkie and said, "Nimo, use a nano..." Suddenly she rethought her decision. If she shared how to pop the bubble over the radio, who would guarantee that nobody else would overhear them and do it in future for personal or stupid reasons?

"Nimo, it’s a go on that idea, collect as much as you can. I have some use for the water. But make sure that nobody drinks the water. I repeat, nobody should drink the water."

"Well.....your warning is a little late." Nimo’s tense voice answered.