Karl spent the entire day in his office, he was just about to head home when he received a notification that the Head of the Association and management body requested to meet him. He could roughly guess their intentions so he called his wife Lisa first.

"Hey" Lisa's happy voice from the other end of the phone made a smile appear on his face.

"You sound like you are having fun" Karl chuckled.

"I just got invited to April's grandfather's retirement party. I guess I am considered an elite, of course, I'm having fun" she sounded very excited.

"I didn't know you loved parties" Karl was amused by the cause of her excitement.

"I don't intend to attend"

"Why not? April just invited me" Karl asked.

"Of course, she would invite you" Lisa's excitement died down a little.

"She said I could bring you" he added.

"Oh, well my invitation only has room for one. That hardly seems fair" she joked.

"Have you made up your mind?" she asked solemnly.

She hadn't paid attention before but after Karl told her about the exploration mission she started to notice the efforts of the Explorers Association in reducing the amount of food consumed and the Hunter's Association seemed to have lowered the requirements to register and reduced the difficulty of their training. It all pointed to the fact that what April told Karl was true, the Survival Area desperately needed a new food source.

"Lisa..." Karl suddenly didn't know what to say to his wife. He couldn't stay back and do nothing, he thought he could but after all this time thinking, he realized he couldn't. And at the same time, he didn't want to leave his wife.

"Karl don't worry about me. I will be here when you get back but if you stay behind and something goes wrong, there will be no Survival Area to raise our baby. I think you should go, just hurry up and come back home to me"

Karl had a solemn expression on his face as he processed his wife's words. He knew she was right, besides his fear for the Other Side was less of his chances of dying in it and more of his attachment to it. It made him feel different like he was mutating like the animals in it and was no longer human. It was a subconscious fear of the possibility that he hadn't thought about but it was there in his mind guiding his actions.

"I love you Lisa" Karl finally managed to say.

"I love you too"

"See you at home" he ended the call and took a deep breath only to look up and see April brooding at the entrance of his office. She hadn't heard what they were talking about since Karl hadn't said anything about it but she heard him say 'I love you Lisa' which was the reason for her gloominess.

"They asked to see you too?" he asked when he saw her ignoring the expression on her face.

"You don't need to attend the meeting" Lisa swallowed her bitterness and stated the reason she came. After inviting Karl the last time, she had made up her mind not to allow him to go with them on the exploration mission. She understood that he must have had a traumatic experience in it the last time he was there and that kind of trauma wasn't something that could easily go away. There was also the high risk of dying in those unexplored areas, a risk she didn't think was worth it for Karl to take. Aside from wanting to protect him, for the first time she selflessly. considered the fact that he had a wife who would be waiting for him behind if he went.

"Is there any way I can change your mind about going on this mission?" Karl suddenly asked. He didn't think there was no one else in the entire Survival Area who could complete the mission, he knew it didn't have to include him or April for an excellent work to be done so he still wanted to change April's mind. If she stayed, he would have even less reason to go and the guilt in his heart would be lighter than it was now.

April was surprised and she raised a brow at his question. A teasing smile suddenly appeared on her face and she coyly entered the office and closed the door behind her. She sat in front of Karl in the visitor's chair and crossed her legs before answering.

"There is one way," she said.

"What is it?" Karl cautiously asked, eyeing her with a wary expression.

"Divorce your wife and marry me" she suddenly blurted with a straight face. But Karl wasn't at all surprised by what she said.

"I tried, you didn't listen. Let's go to the meeting" he stood up and headed for the door.

"What? I told you not to go" April stood up from the chair and rushed forward to stop Karl. She already knew what his reply would be before she said her condition but she said it anyway as a joke, she didn't think it would motivate Karl to go on the mission with her. Karl didn't pay attention to her and placed his palm on the wall to open it.

"Karl, it was only a joke, I have said similar and worse things in the past before what got into your head?" April continued hurrying to follow him until she was walking beside him anxiously.

"You are about to make a life or death decision, don't do it out of anger. I'll stop pestering you and I won't ask you to leave your wife again, just think before you do this" she tried to dissuade him. Suddenly noticing an explorer watching them she screamed at him.

"Get back to work!" her voice came out like a small growl scaring the explorer who was enjoying their drama. April was not higher ranked than him but she was more powerful and recognized so she had an authoritative aura around her.