Spectacular World

Enlightened Cockroach

Oleander's stadium had been one of the few things the city was truly proud of. The people of Oleander were quite fond of their sports, and so the stadium was always kept in good condition. The only time it had been damaged previously was when Pretty Face held a concert in it and several groups, including Zoo, attacked. In less than a week, the stadium had been rebuilt with funding from the Milas family, another of the great Noble families.

Of course, now that the Beast had attacked, the stadium was once again destroyed. Just like Oleander, it was left mostly in ruins. The Beast had attacked Oleander with a single powerful slashing attack from the very beginning of its invasion. An attack that had instantly cleaved every structure in Oleander directly in two. The stadium was no exception. The top half of it had been perfectly sliced clean off and tumbled to the ground outside of it. Most of its stone walls were cracked, and dozens of destroyed and gutted cars were scattered in the parking lot around it.

The Cleanup Squad would have a field day fixing all the damage when they finally got their foothold in Oleander back. Either that or Battery's Giants would fix it back up. Whatever came first.

Alice followed closely behind the young hero known as Paragon. The healer had changed a lot. Something her chat was freaking out about. Most people knew Paragon as the young girl that clung to her mother's arm and remained in the hospital constantly. Now though the world was seeing the new Paragon. The hero didn't wear her mask anymore and didn't seem to care about hiding her identity. Such things were no longer important to her. It made Alice wonder just what had happened to cause Paragon to change so much.

Her question was soon answered though when they entered the stadium. It was dark, making it hard to see, but Paragon let out a call. "I'm back! It's okay to come out."

Alice watched with wide eyes as several shadowy figures stalked out from behind the pillars and came to the center of the stadium. There were around twenty of them, give or take. Most were older people. The kind of folks who were shoved to the very back of the line when it came to the food shortage. A few were crippled folks, people who had been missing limbs for so long Paragon could no longer heal them back, and finally a few were kids who clung to their parents. They all had one thing in common, though. They were all still alive.

Alice's eyes lit up as she watched the number in her stream shoot up even higher. It was nearing ten thousand viewers as people from all over the world wanted to see what was going on in Oleander at a time like this.

"You've been keeping all of these people safe?" Alice questioned.

"I've been trying." Paragon slowly placed the orange chest down. "It was mostly thanks to him." The girl nodded her head toward a figure that approached. Alice raised an eyebrow at the man. He was frail and bald, dressed in a white shirt and black pants pulled up. Despite that, he held a smile on his face compared to the gloomy looks the others in the crowd had. "Mr. Lauren, I've returned with some supplies. Can you start handing them out to the people?"

"Of course." Alexander began to rummage through the box, getting any supplies he could hold, and slowly he began to hand them out to the other onlookers, making sure everyone got something.

Alice watched the man work on the sidelines, keeping her phone close to her chest. "Lauren? As in Alexander Lauren?" The older woman questioned.

"Yeah. You heard of him?" Paragon asked, raising an eyebrow.

Alice nodded. "I don't know a lot about him, but I know enough. He was infected by the Dead Virus. Most of the world waited to see if you could cure him. When it was revealed that you couldn't, we all figured he'd end up dead. How is someone like him walking around so casually?" Her chat was going wild, spamming out theories and conclusions. Most were claiming this as proof Paragon was the new Lord of the Land and Life.