My OP Minion System in the Apocalypse

As the sky became darker, the sounds of zombies grew.

"Chloe, I just remembered something."

"What is it?"

"I've got a music player."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I got it from the merchant a while ago."

I took out the [music player] from my inventory and placed it down. The two of us observed the little machine as it sat on the ground. It was oddly archaic, like a music player from the 80s. I also had a few [music disks] in my inventory so I took one out and placed it onto the player. There weren't any labels on the disks so I had no idea what music they were about to play.

As the disk slotted into the player, there was a brief moment of silence before some music started playing. It was a very soft, alternate pop-style song. It was alright I guess, something to pass the time and block out the sound of violence, although it wasn't really loud enough to completely block out the sounds from outside.

"The music's pretty good," Chloe commented.

"I guess, it's not really my style."

"Ah, what's your style?"

"Uh, upbeat pop I guess? If I had to name a genre."

We were suddenly interrupted by a Minion that made its way into the hut.

[A human has been detected]

A human? This late at night? It was only a few days ago when we met the last few outsiders. Hearing the news, Chloe and I decided to make our way outside. Many Minions were hard at work, fighting off the zombies, however, I noticed that an entire area of the forest was basically silent, as if someone cleared all of the zombies in the area. It was eerily empty.

What on earth?

We made our way toward the border and saw someone standing on the other side of the wall, however, their presence was very different from the people that other time. They were an extremely aloof boy, yet their body exuded confidence. As we approached, he looked over at us; there was not a single zombie in the general area.

"What's up?" he asked.

"Um... nothing much I guess. Anyways, what are you doing and what do you want?" I asked.

"I was just exploring, you're the first other people I've seen, what are all these robot things around here?"

"They're my Minions, anyways, what do you want?"

"Nothing, nothing, I'm just wandering around~"

He looked at us, his glare was different, it was clear to me—he was strong.

"Anyways, I think I should introduce myself," he said, "I'm Robby, rank five."

Rank five... it's true, someone named Robby Solly was in fact ranked fifth on the global rankings. However, I didn't have any proof that it was actually him. But from what I could see, he managed to kill all the zombies in the area before I could even see what happened. Especially if he was wandering around this late at night, he must have been someone who was strong.

I didn't really want to get in a fight with him.

"Well, I'm William."

"Oh, well, nice to meet you, William."

"Sure."

"Haha, you're not very friendly."

I placed my hand on the grip of [Mayuri-Luc-Ei]. I could tell that Robby also had a Demonic Weapon which was attached to his hip.

"Hey now, I don't want to get into a fight,' he stated.

I didn't really want to get in a fight with him either.

I slowly relaxed my posture.

,m "I'm not asking that we work together or anything, but I wouldn't mind if you'd greet me a little more nicely," he requested.

"I mean, I guess I could do that."

With this level of confidence, he was definitely strong.

"And who's the lady?" he asked.

"I'm Chloe."

"Ah, Chloe, nice to meet you."

"Likewise."

"Well, it was nice talking with you guys, it gets pretty lonely living alone for so long you know!"

With that, he waved goodbye and made his way back into the forest. He didn't show any fear or care for the zombies which inhabited it.

Robby Solly...

Well, he had helped us by taking out a large number of zombies. My Minions were easily cleaning up the rest. iｎ????????????α????. ????????????

"What's with that guy?" asked Chloe.

"I mean, he doesn't really seem like a bad person..."

"I suppose so, how you didn't decide to kill him?"

"He's strong, if he's the rank he says he is, I'd probably lose."

"Ah..."

It wasn't exactly an unpleasant interaction, however, it made something very clear. There was still much improvement I needed to do. There were people in this world who were much stronger than I was. Not only did I want to increase the number of Minions that I had, but I also wanted to increase my own strength.

Whilst my Minions were very useful, in terms of taking on one very powerful opponent, anyone with an area-of-effect ability would destroy my Minions. Like with Callum Ffrench, I was forced to take him on myself, using [Mayuri-Luc-Ei].

My Minions weren't exactly built for one-on-one combat. Their main strengths were the sheer scale on which they could collect resources, I needed to get some better equipment or find some way to increase my physical strength if I wanted to maintain optimal strength.

The sounds of combat grew more and more distant. I guess my Minions were pretty easily holding back the waves of zombies. With that, I decided to go back into the hut and get some sleep.

*

It was the next day, I was awoken by the feeling of existential dread.

I slowly got up and opened the door of the hut. Chloe had also just woken up at this time. The two of us slowly regained full consciousness and looked around.

"Hey William, can you get one of your fire Minions to follow me around like yesterday?"

"Yeah."

I set the command and the Residential Heater Scout Minions made their way over.

"Alright, I'm going to do some excavating."

"See you."

Chloe began making her way to a relatively open area of the forest.

I had been wanting to check on some of the specialisations of my Minions. They had been learning for quite a while now so I wanted to see how far most of them had gone. After that, I'd likely send them off on expeditions like I did the previous day.