Reboot: Mechanic

Mary was fascinated by the latest model of the FTAV. She was heaping in joy, walking around the vehicle in a circle, almost as if she was inspecting it like a buyer in a car dealership. 

Meanwhile, Shi Tian finally got off the Iron Sentinel after getting some of their equipment from the back.

"Just what are you doing, Mary?" He then asked her, clearly dumbfounded by her action.

Mary was like a little girl who had just gotten herself a lollipop, overly excited and enthusiastic.

"Nathan, don't you see this." Mary ignored Shi Tian's question and echoed him with her hand, telling him to come over.

Sighing softly, Shi Tian quietly walked toward Mary and glanced at the part that she was pointing at.

"See that, Nathan. Those are advanced armaments that I've always wanted to equip my Iron Sentinel with." Mary said excitedly, pointing at a hidden weapon. 

"They are high-energy laser turrets for precision strikes and anti-missile defense. It also features electromagnetic railguns for long-range engagements. These two are just perfect for my Iron Sentinel." She added, her hands slowly attempted to reach closer to it. 

Luckily, Shi Tian managed to detect it and stopped her in time. 

"Regain your composure, Mary. Commander Theobold is coming over." Holding her hand, Shi Tian whispered softly to her, warning her that Theobold was coming toward them.

And almost as if a splash of cold water had got on her face, Mary's excitement quickly vanished as she stood up straight.

She then turned around and greeted Theobold, "It's good to see you, Commander Theobold." 

Meanwhile, Theobold was briefly stunned by her calm and collected tone. He wasn't blind and was able to see what Mary was doing. Thus, he had hurried over, worried that Mary might do something to his precious FATV Mark X. 

There were only a few of these available in the market, and it was an expensive one. He could not afford to have someone touch it, even if it was someone who had assisted him quite dearly during this monster wave invasion.

"Indeed, it's good to finally see you in person, Mary." Theobold nodded his head and said. They had been in contact for a while, except this was their official first meeting, given the other communication time was through a holographic projection. 

And although Theobold sounded quite pleasant, his action didn't escape Shi Tian's eyes. 

Theobold was casually walking over them and subtly inspecting his vehicle, almost as if he was afraid of them breaking it.

'Great, two vehicle fanatics have now been detected.' Shi Tian thought to himself, feeling dumbfounded by the two people's actions. 

Mary being a fanatic of vehicles didn't surprise him much, given that he had seen the number of features available in the Iron Sentinel, but Theobold? 

Never did he expect a righteous and seemingly serious man would be such a manchild when it comes to his vehicle. 

Naturally, if Shi Tian was able to notice Theobold's action, the same goes for Mary, who clearly was pouting but had it concealed thanks to the mask on her face.

This was one of the many reasons why it was dangerous to be in the wilderness because everyone had a mask on, meaning their facial expression could not be read. 

"Commander Theobold, do you mind if I give this a test drive?" Mary walked closely to Theobold and asked in a friendly tone. It was clear that she wasn't going to give up this easily after a mini setback. 

"Umm, I don't think we have the time for a test drive…" Theobold was visibly stumped, clearly unwilling to let Mary inside his precious vehicle.

Alas, Mary was a persistent folk as she continuously pressed upon the matter, forcing Theobold into a corner bit by bit.

And Shi Tian was utterly speechless by the sudden development.

Did they come all the way here to talk about vehicles or to suppress the monster wave? 

'My expectation has truly been shattered…' Shi Tian exclaimed inwardly, his favorability for Theobold had gradually lowered thanks to this incident.

As Shi Tian turned around, avoiding the clown moment between these two, he was slightly taken aback. After all, Vanessa had been staring in his direction for who knows how long.

Although Vanessa might be covered entirely to protect herself from the pollution and possibly corrosion from the number of corpses here, it doesn't even take him a second to recognize her.

Not knowing how long she had been staring at him, Shi Tian feigned innocence and headed toward the tent. 

There were soldiers nearby the tent, but none of them stopped Shi Tian, given that they had just seen their commander walking to them and acting friendly. 

To be a soldier, they must not only have strength but they are also required to have intelligence and insight, so none of them were dumb enough to block Shi Tian off. 

With Shi Tian easily walking past the soldiers and taking a seat, waiting for the farce between Theobold and Mary to end, he was confronted by Vanessa.

"So you're just going to sit there and feign innocence?" Vanessa crossed her arms and said. "Not even going to apologize for your action?" 

It was clear that she was beyond frustrated when Shi Tian acted as if nothing had happened.

Did he not feel any guilt or remorse at all for his actions? 

"What? You're just going to remain silent when you treat me like some garbage? Tossing away whenever you wanted?" Vanessa raised her tone when she realized Shi Tian did not have any plan of replying.

Meanwhile, the soldiers nearby were able to hear the conversation, and became slightly awkward.

Clearly, they were not expecting to hear such a conversation happening when a monster wave was literally still close by to them.

A few seconds later, Vanessa was about to increase her tone further to interrogate her, but Shi Tian spoke up this time. 

Had he continued to ignore, then everyone else would have been attracted by the loud tone emitting from here, so there was no other choice.

"I don't feel guilt or remorse, knowing fully well that you are in safe hands. As for you being a garbage, that's your interpretation and I have never said that about you." Shi Tian replied emotionlessly.