644 After the Delivery, Going Out of the Settlement and a Hidden Threa (1/2)

General Padilla, his secretary, and his other trusted men were taking the evaluation of the papers seriously. After all, even though Mark and his group seemed to be trusted in both Infanta and Bay City, it was different here. Furthermore, what Mark did here was to cause deaths so far. Of course, they would be warier than trusting.

Mark noticed this but did not bother to refute their thoughts. It was not like their wariness would do any harm in any way. Still, the General's group looked silly checking if the documents were complete considering even Mark did not know the password to the lock. If he really wanted to tamper with it, he would have no choice but destroy that digital lock.

And as far as everyone here knew, the lock was fully intact.

Instead, Mark focused on rewatching anime with the little girls. It was while they were waiting for the go signal for his group to leave. Well, he did not forget to glance at the twitching eyebrows of the soldiers. It was because they could hear the screams coming from the laptop in front of him. The volume was not loud. Nevertheless, Mutagen enhanced the bodies of humans. Thus, even the low volume sound coming from the laptop was still audible in this enclosed room.

The soldiers could not concentrate. At first, what they heard from what Mark and the girls were currently watching was happy giggles, although there was a bit of scared screaming. It was until the one hour mark that the sounds coming from the anime started to turn horrifying. The happy giggles became screeches along with panicked shouting and despaired crying.

Just what in the world were they watching? Some of the soldiers that were just standing guard were curious. On the other hand, the ones checking the documents were getting distracted.

Another half of an hour passed. Finally, General Padilla was done checking the documents.

”Done?”

Mark asked, seeing the General arrange the documents.

”We are. My apologies for the wait. We just had to thoroughly examine the contents of the package as per protocol.”

General Padilla replied while returning the documents back into the briefcase.

Those words made Mark shrug his shoulders a little. That was the General's softer way of saying that they were careful about the package since they did not trust him or his group. Not like he cared about their trust at this point. In fact, the way that they handle things here was way more untrustworthy.

”Then, can we go now?”

Mark asked.

Inside this room, Mark, Mei, and the little girls were present. The others were in another room. Of course, there was no need to ask why. Even if one was to ask, they would only reply that it was according to protocol. In truth, however, it was one of their ways of being careful.

To Mark's question, the General replied.

”Definitely. Are you sure that there's no need to prepare a place for your group to stay?”

”There's no need.” Mark shook his head. ”Just prepare some passes so we can enter and exit the settlement without getting stopped by your soldiers.”

Those words made General Padilla nod his head a bit. He heard about what happened this afternoon. He then turned to his secretary, Vanessa.

”Vanessa, go lead them to the registry. Give each of them special passes and a group pass.”

”Yes General.” The secretary replied. And without anything else, she walked towards the door near Mark's group. ”Please, follow me.”

With the invitation, Mark patted the girls' heads as he closed the laptop. They then met up with Pefile and the others as they headed to the Registry Office.

The Registry Office was where any person that arrived in the settlement was supposed to go first. Their names and personal information would be registered for reference. The most important part of this was stating both the specializations and previous occupations of a person. It would likely dictate what jobs in the settlement that the person could do. Office workers back before the outbreak could be hired in different department offices while laborers such as farmers and construction workers would also get the same jobs.

It might not sound that appealing. However, having secured a work designation in the settlement meant a secure flow of food and necessities. It was not only for the person working but also for his family.

In every settlement, there were at least two Registry Offices. One was for public use, while the other would usually be the main office located in the military area.

The one that Mark's group was led into was the main Registry Office. The other one was at the Trade Area, but that was still quite a distance away from here compared to the main one. Besides, Mark's group was, more or less, VIPs at this point.

Inside the office, the group sure took everyone's attention. There was Mei, as per usual. This time, however, it was more because the General's Secretary was guiding them personally. Unless it was someone who was either had high standing or very important people, such privilege was impossible to happen.

Thus, everyone in the office engraved the faces of Mark's group into their minds. But of course, it was not because they did not want to accidentally offend Mark's group. It was because there might be chances that they could curry favor on these people. This was something, although not common, that would happen quite frequently in government offices. Bribes and stuff, as long as they would have some benefit from people with high standing.

Of course, this nasty thought of these people did not escape Mark. Unfortunately for these people, what they had in their minds would never happen as his group would not stay here for too long.

The process did not take too long, and Mark and his group got their passes. It was fast considering the usual time wasted waiting in government offices in the Philippines back in the days. Was it because there were no other people than Mark's group? Not really. There were times that being the only person inside the government office would still cost more than an hour or worse, more than that.

The people issuing the cards were quite baffled, however. Unlike the usual registration process wherein all information was required, Vanessa stated that it was not necessary. Mark's group only needed their names, signatures, and thumbmarks.

Mark received his card and examined it. It was nothing fancy. It was just a printed card written with their names and was signed by them before it was laminated and cut. The only thing that stood out was the embossed stamp since it was gold in color.

It looked very different from the one from Bay City. As for Infanta, Mark never really received or needed one.

”Good, we are leaving.”

Mark said, making everyone nod.

”If you are leaving, your group better use the back door.” Vanessa suggested. ”There were still those people out front. It would be hard to pass by without getting into trouble.”

”Where's the back door?”