When he opened the car door, Luis was dumbfounded when he saw a dark-haired woman with her hair in a ponytail, sitting behind the wheel of the car.
How could he not be dumbfounded that it was Alice.
"You," he said spontaneously.
Alice looked at him without changing her expression, moving her head as she said, "Get in!"
Despite the surprise, Luis got into the car without asking any questions. Now was not the time, he could ask her when the car was already running.
Whoops!
He had just closed the door and hadn't even buckled up yet and the car was already moving.
Not only was the inside very luxurious, it also had an amazing balance system so no shaking was felt. Luis even felt like the car wasn't moving.
He was only surprised when he was finally inside a flying car.
Up until now, he had never once boarded a flying vehicle including an airplane, he had only ever flown in person.
The Awakeners in the casino could only watch in silence as he drove away in the car.
Firstly it was impossible for them to catch up unless they had the same car.
Secondly they were a bit hesitant, worried that the car belonged to an important person of the empire since only important people could have it.
Luis observed the interior of the car for a moment before looking at Alice.
This beautiful woman was almost always calm, which made it hard for people not to be curious and now Luis only became more curious about her.
"Alice, who is Zarion Vex?" Luis asked her.
They were probably destined to be in the same camp, so he felt more relaxed about her.
"You'll meet him yourself when we arrive at our destination, there's no need to ask. The point is, he's an important person of the empire and very powerful so you should be polite to him," Alice replied. "However, are you sure about joining us? If your identity is revealed, you won't have a peaceful life anymore."
She questioned his confidence after answering his question.
"You're brave, why wouldn't I be," Luis replied. "It's just that, I wonder if this has become some kind of organization?"
"Yes, it's called the Long Night Organization. It's newly formed and only operates in Velos 33, 34, and 35, having the goal of fighting the empire. It may look small now, but you should have no doubt about its growth later. Mr. Zarion is not only very powerful, the resources he has are also very abundant, but he will not share the resources if you do not make a contribution."
Hearing the name of the organization, Luis felt that he had heard of it in recent times.
It started with the news of a group of people wearing black robes and masks who had then attacked the military headquarters and had killed some of the higher-ups there.
Luis suddenly suspected that Alice was one of those assassins.
It seemed that the most important part of this organization was to hide the identities of their members.
"You know, the best part of Mr. Zarion is his ability to gather information. This is information that exists in Apocalypse World, such as the location of rare monsters or spirits. By joining this organization, you can have more purposeful adventures in Apocalypse World and we can get every piece of information for free," Alice added.
"Really?" This naturally piqued Luis' interest.
People like him tended to move randomly in Apocalypse World. Perhaps he could meet his luck this way, but more often than not, he would not succeed.
It was different if he had information that could lead him to a clear goal.
He instantly became more interested and ultimately did not regret making this decision.
"It's a pity you didn't tell me earlier," he said.
"You don't look convincing in my eyes, but maybe Ms. Tara has a different mind," Alice replied with her eyes straight ahead.
Luis rolled his eyes at that, feeling like he was being belittled by this woman.
"Is Ms. Tara also a member of the organization?" he asked.
"She didn't officially join, but she was good friends with Mr. Zarion when they were in the military and she seems to support his actions. By the way, how did you win that hundred thousand dice game? I feel like learning it." Alice suddenly asked about his victory.
Luis smiled at that and then pretended to show an expression that didn't seem serious.
"If I want to win, I can win, no matter how many dice. It's just that I can't teach anyone easily," he said.
His tone sounded like he was joking, but it could still make people think that he really could win if he wanted to.
Alice furrowed her brows at his reply, giving a momentary look as if she didn't want to joke.
After that, she didn't say anything else.
The car was apparently heading towards a very luxurious housing estate.
It was filled with futuristically designed mansions that each had a land area the size of a soccer field and were surrounded by high concrete walls.
Luis knew that this was an exclusive housing estate where only locals who had made great contributions to the kingdom could live besides the kingdom's own residents.
After entering the compound, the car pulled up to one of the mansions and landed in front of it.
"As of now, we don't have a dedicated headquarters and all business will be conducted in this mansion, let's go down," Alice said.
She opened the door beside her and got down first.
Luis quickly followed behind her, unable to help but look around curiously as he was not used to this kind of luxury.
Alice went straight into the mansion whose door was not locked at all.
She held the door open for Luis to enter.
Inside, Luis saw many facilities from outer space most of which weren't even sold on earth. For example, a TV, it only took one small pencil-like device that was attached to the wall and was able to turn the wall into a large, crystal clear TV.
He also saw robots with various designs that did various jobs, such as cleaning, organizing the contents of messy cabinets, and making repairs to various tools or other robots.
"Luis, Mr. Zarion asked me to help build your Power Core. From the looks of it, he just left again, so let's build your Power Core first so you can advance to Level E+," Alice said to Luis.