A Deal

Dave intensely stared at the pictured carnage as he mumbled, "Devourer, right?"

"What are you mumbling about? Do you know something about it?" The dean asked him in her usual cold manner, but Dave was able to catch some notes of interest in her tone. She easily noticed subtle changes in Dave's facial expression, making his reaction kinda odd.

Saying nothing for a while, Dave continued to analyze the picture before him. The taken photo illustrated a broad road, piled with corpses of zombies. Dave was able to count more than 30 corpses, and it was only what was shown in the picture. He didn't know how many of the corpses were there, failed to fit into a frame.

...

Finally, he voiced his opinion, "Clearly, they weren't killed by humans."

"Heh, by whom then? What do you know about corpses? You're just a brat." The person, who reported the case, chuckled slightly as he didn't trust Dave's words. Obviously, what could a student say about such slaughter?

However, he quickly shut his mouth, catching an intense stare from his dean. He didn't dare to anger his superior since she could punish him in many ways. She was cold as a glacier yet had that intimidating aura that makes you unable to oppose her.

Silencing the man with a stare, Dean Siphon nodded to Dave as she nudged him to continue. "Forgive his rudeness. And why do you think that those zombies weren't killed by other survivors?"

Smiling widely, Dave shared his observations, "Nothing complicated. You might have also noticed some oddness in the way they were killed."

Slightly nodding her head, she said, "Most of the corpses are headless."

"Right. Mostly all of them are headless. But it's not the only things that are strange. First, zombies didn't seem to be killed by weapons, but, on the contrary, they look like they were ripped by something much stronger than them." Dave showed the halved corpses. The traces were too dirty for a sword, and there were no signs of being stabbed or smashed.

"Second, some of the corpses have holes in their bodies, and they are too big for any weapon I know," Dave said as he pointed on some corpses with gaping holes in their chests.

Next, he showed some corpses that were just a mess. "Third, if we look closer on some corpses, they are too indistinguishable from each other, more resembling puddles of melted flesh than corpses...Like they were corroded by some substance..." He said the last sentence more in a ponder than before.

"Then, what do you think killed all the zombies up there?" The reporting man asked half in disbelief and half in agreement. Well, Dave's arguments were on point to doubt that they were killed by other survivors.

Dave flashed a smile to the man as he said, "I don't know, don't I? But, I guess it's some kind of a monster. However, don't even try to kill it. It'll kill more people before you can even leave a scratch on it."

At his words, the dean frowned. "I don't think it's possible. If it's some monster, we may avoid it as much as we can, but we'll still clash with it when we try to return the university to us. So I can't promise anything."

"Don't worry about it. It should be gone before you even meet it." Dave smiled as he stretched his hand to take another candy from the bowl. Then, he stood up from his seat and walked to the door, intending to leave. "Then, I'm gonna call for a backup."

With these words, he closed the door, leaving Dean Siphon and the man confused in their places. The man, who brought photos, said in a complaining tone, "Sorry, dean, but where did you find that brat? He's too arrogant for his age."

Dean Siphon sighed in a tired manner as she said with pain in her eyes, "Well, let's wait and see if he's too arrogant or confident of his own abilities. I hope it's the latter. I've already seen enough deaths of my students and don't want to see another student dying."

***

After leaving the dean's office, Dave immediately left to make preparations for a coming operation. Using a new map Dean Siphon had given to him, Dave was able to get to Luther's hideout without any hitch. He needed to chat with someone for a short while.

When he entered the circular room, nothing serious was happening inside it. Well, it wasn't surprising since he had left it just a while ago. Nothing much could have happened in that period of time.

"Big Boss!" Dave heard Oscar's cheerful voice and saw how he was running towards him. Dave's body stiffened slightly as he wasn't accustomed to being a role model for anyone. Even in his past life, no one had idolized him like Oscar. It looked like he had an enthusiastic sidekick around him.

Smiling weakly as if submitting to Oscar's attitude, Dave said, "Where's your brother?"

"Ugh...Did you come to see him? He said he needed to know more about people in our gang, so he went to talk with them." Oscar said in a somewhat displeased tone. "But when are you gonna teach me how to envelop my weapon with energy?"

Looking at Oscar's enthusiastic eyes, Dave said in an apologetic manner, "Sorry, but not now. I came here to talk with someone. Can you lead me to Richard? I remember saying to confine him somewhere down here, right?"

"Oh, you came to visit him. Okay, follow me." Oscar seemed slightly disappointed...like a puppy when you refused to play with him.

Ending the conversation, Dave followed Oscar through one of the pathways. They passed through two people, seemingly guarding that pathway, and end up in a dead-end. There, Dave's eyes fell on Richard, now tied tightly with ordinary rope and wires instead of his mana threads.

He seemed...weak. Although he was gone only for less than a day, Richard already looked less energetic than before. At least, he didn't curse Dave at first sight, although he kept staring angrily at him.

"Did you give him any food?" Dave said as he looked at Richard's sorry state.

"Nah, we planned to feed him only once a day or two. Big Boss, you came quite fast. I thought we planned to starve him for a while." Oscar responded darkly. He didn't want to waste their resources for a person like Richard.

"Good," Dave said shortly as he came closer to Richard. Looking at him from up above, Dave noticed that the scar he had left on Richard's face was covered beneath bondage. It seemed that Luther had disinfected the wound as Dave had instructed him to do.

"Hey, how our huge guy is feeling himself? Are you living well?" Dave said almost mockingly.

"What do you want? Did you come to laugh at me? Ridicule?" Richard looked upwards at Dave's eyes and said with a somewhat angered tone. He was already going crazy, staring at one floor. He was hungry and extremely thirsty to add on top of it.

However, it wasn't the worst thing. His biggest fear was his own thoughts of what Dave would do with him. Would he starve him to death or torture him at every visit? Or would Dave do the same thing to him and throw him at the horde of zombies without the ability to fight back? Zombies would crowd around him and try to bite through his metal skin until it gives in. They would crawl around his body for several days, growling and slowly driving him crazy...

...And he would die like all the people he had pitted with zombies!

No, Richard didn't want to end like this!

He was already on the brink of losing his sanity. He was just a student, who should have happily hang around with his thug friends and have fun every day while doing his studies at some point. It shouldn't have ended like this to him.

Richard's angry tone was quickly overtaken by a pleading one as he said, "Why do you need all of this? Just free me! I'm sorry! Do you hear? I regret doing it. Just release me and I promise I'll never do anything like this. I'll leave the university! I'll disappear from your view. Just let me go. Please!"

Next, Richard burst out crying as he kept mumbling "Please." He was living quite happily as a student. Having an uncle as a university official, Richard was able to get into this prestigious university and fool around it while his uncle covered everything for him.

Even after the start of the 2nd Cataclysm, Richard was able to quickly adapt to his situation and form his own group, where he was a king. His words were final, and he made everyone listen to him.

But now, he already started regretting doing everything he did...He shouldn't have killed people...He shouldn't have pitted them against zombies...And he shouldn't have gone against Dave.

Looking at Richard, Oscar stiffened a bit as he hadn't expected to see such a sudden burst of emotions from Richard. As for Dave, he smiled slightly and said, "Fortunately for you, I have a deal to strike. After that, I may consider leaving you alive."