Drawn Monster

Every group member that witnessed the death of a fellow student immediately entered into an aggrieved mood. His death had only further strengthened their insecurities and worries.

Would they end like him?

How much time they could last like this?

And, finally...What do they need to do to not end like that?

Countless thoughts swirled inside their heads. They were like a hive of bees disturbed by an imminent crisis. The tragic death before their eyes revealed a brutal truth to them; even with a plan and high numbers, they had still ended up with casualties.

Of course, it wasn't them who had died. However, the next time, they can't be sure that they wouldn't be the ones, lying on the ground and slowly dying in someone's hands.

They had already seen how terrifying were zombies. They wouldn't even die if you chopped their limbs apart. Zombies were relentless and ruthless in their actions, madly craving for their flesh. Onlookers weren't sure in their ability to keep their lives, not to say about clearing their university from all zombies.

Therefore, they clearly understood how much individual strength was important for their survival. They had personally witnessed the power of people blessed by the System. Either it was a strengthening effect such people had after every level up or mind-blowing abilities they possessed to kill zombies, it would greatly boost their chance to survive.

Yet they didn't forget that to become one of them, they needed a weapon given by the System. However, they also understood that after joining their ranks, they would need to risk their lives to further increase their power.

Moreover, they had already missed the opportunity by refusing their dean's proposal to volunteer on their first day. Now, they only could enviously stare at people around their dean with weapons in their hands and lament their own foolishness. Compared to their metal pipes and rods, their weapons were a real deal, meant to kill others and not just to harm them without inflicting any real damage to zombies.

It was the way of life: first come, first serve. And, those who risk their lives to be a step ahead of others usually end up reaping the most benefits from the situation. That's what Dave's [Regression] allowed him to do.

He was several steps ahead of others, knowing what he needed to focus on to reap the most benefits. Compared to people who were ignorant of what was happening around them, Dave knew exactly what he needed to.

While others avoided dangers, Dave plunged right into it.

While others trembled in their rooms, Dave trained his body to raise his stats and recover his skills.

Although he might not be as lucky as Adam to double awaken nor as smart as Brian to memorise and comprehend the whole Skill Book, cautious planning and hard work had always kept him alive. Even with his flawed reaction speed at the start, Dave was still able to join the ranks of Enhancers.

Having built his mentality in those five years, Dave was more than happy for subtle changes happening among other survivors. 'Right, keep your eyes open. After all, people need a stimulus to wake them up, to show how insignificant someone's life can be. Just how Adam died before my eyes.'

Thinking so, Dave sent a glance to his best friend as if making sure that he had saved him in this lifetime.

Adam had a faint frown on his face with slightly scrunched up brows. He stared at the dead male student with a tinge of sympathy in his eyes, but he didn't look grieving over it. It wasn't the first death he had seen after the appearance of zombies. He had already seen one in the library where he first took shelter in.

Next, Dave's gaze swept over other group members. Although they were saddened by a tragic death before their eyes, no one of them was truly shocked by it, with only Rebecca and Arthur having more pity for the dead.

After all, they had killed more than enough zombies that closely resembled humans in appearance to react, if not completely indifferent to someone's death, much calmer at such bloody scenes. The first kill still greatly affects the way people view and look at things around them. Furthermore, it wasn't their first kills.

Adam, Brian and Rebecca were with him from the very beginning, with Rebecca joining him slightly later. Evelyn and Arthur can be said were somehow involved in Kyle's death, while Richard was cruel enough to pit humans against zombies, so Dave was confident that Richard would be unperturbed of an unknown student's death.

Standing for a short while in their places, they had waited till other teams finish with their assigned tasks which didn't take a lot of time. Approximately five minutes later, both of the teams left their buildings almost at the same time that Dave had even suspected they had agreed to do so before entering it.

Of course, they had also finished their tasks with somewhat gloomy and depressed expressions. Both of the teams had casualties in their ranks, losing up to three people in total. Well, Dave hadn't expected more from them, considering that fighting in a narrow passage was extremely disadvantageous when you have large numbers of people in your group.

That's why Dave wasn't keen on taking more people with him since a small team of elites was enough to do so. However, he understood that not all teams were capable of doing the same fit as them, so they needed to compensate lack of individual power with more manpower. However, by following such a tactic, it was impossible to not have casualties in a group.

Even the noisy Oscar grew silent after returning, not calling him "Big Boss" or excitedly running to him. Well, Dave was sure that they would see plenty of death in the future if they wanted to survive, so better grew accustomed to some casualties.

"Everyone's here. What we're gonna do next?" Dave asked Dean Siphon as he approached her. Well, in his case, it was only formalities since Dave clearly understood what they were gonna do next.

Returning to her cold unemotional state, Dean Siphon glanced at worried people surrounding her and said, "One team need to slowly transport people from the underground base to this living complex. While others should try to make the surrounding complex safer by killing wandering zombies. Then..."

Roar!

Suddenly a loud roar cut her speech as it reverberated through the living complex, preventing her from finishing her command. Hearing it, all the people tensed their bodies as it was too abrupt when they had thought that everything was over.

"What was that? It sounded like a beast's roar!"

"Didn't we killed all zombies here? I know what can sound like that in our university. Are there something else except for zombies?"

"But we should be in a safety, considering that we are hidden in an inner court of the living complex. Even if it's some monster, wouldn't it just move past us?" Immediately all the people started discussing the matter with each other, speculating the origins of the sudden roar.

As the roar sounded, one of the members of a team that guarded the entry point rushed over to them. "Huh...huh...there's some kinda monster, wandering at a place where we killed all the zombies. But the strangest thing is that it didn't rush immediately at us, eating the corpses of zombies lying there."

Saying it in a huffed tone, he looked pale as he seemed to rush here immediately after spotting it. Their team was vigilant in the beginning, but seeing no signs of dangers, they had relaxed a bit as they leisurely observed their surroundings.

However, just more than half an hour later, something dashed over the place with zombies' corpses. It looked monstrous in every meaning it could look like. Spotting it, they panicked a bit and sent the man to report the matter to the dean, while others tried to avoid attracting its attention as much as they could.

'Damn! It couldn't be the Devourer, right? Knowing its location, it would have been foolish to go after it without any plan. I've planned to observe for some days. Why is it even here?' Dave thought hard, trying to explain the situation.

However, the only plausible explanation for this was that it was drawn to zombies' blood scent. With high possibility, it was not far from them, so it was able to smell the killed zombies' blood scent.

'But there are lots of zombies in other places. Why couldn't it go after alive zombies? More fun from chasing them,' Dave thought in irritation. 'Although it would be dangerous, I've still prepared something for unexpected situations.'

Thinking up to here, Dave glanced at Richard that he had kept using as a human shield. Although the damage taken by him was minuscule, stacking all the damage he received as a human shield, Richard should be able to activate his [Rage] skill.

Dave hadn't used him as a human shield just for nothing, even taking away his weapon and prohibiting him from killing zombies. It was for the moment if something unexpected happened. If Richard hadn't received enough damage to use his skill, Dave would gladly help him to break the threshold.