Faculty Quarters
Ascending to the next floor, Lucas retrieved the crimson class robe, using it as a makeshift hood to conceal his face. Ensuring no one was coming up the stairs, he remained hidden and surveyed the entire floor, scanning from east to west.
From his vantage point, he could observe the zombies that the former security guard group, now led by the ex-security guard William, were grappling with. While there seemed to be no immediate threat of infection or imminent danger, most of the group members were occupied with their respective pairs of zombies.
Unconcerned about their well-being anymore, Lucas quickened his pace up the stairs. Upon reaching another floor, even though the zombies' levels and strengths were consistent across floors, the higher he ascended, the more densely the zombies were packed.
Relying on his confidence in his abilities, Lucas continued his ascent, determined to secure the valuable items before anyone else. Progressing from the shopping section to the gold jewelry area, he methodically cleared them out, discarding the old clothes he had stored in his inventory pouch.
---
[Level 2 Zombie Killed, Awarding 100 Exp!]
[Level 1 Zombie Killed, Awarding 50 Exp!]
[Level 2 Zombie Killed, Awarding 100 Exp!]
[Level 2 Zombie Killed, Awarding 100 Exp!]
[…]
[Level 1 Zombie Killed, Awarding 50 Exp!]
[Level 4 Zombie Killed, Awarding 200 Exp!]
[Level 1 Zombie Killed, Awarding 50 Exp!]
[Level 3 Zombie Killed, Awarding 150 Exp!]
---
Their decapitated heads tumbled and rolled, while their vibrant green blood burst out like a ruptured blood vessel.
'A level 4 zombie? Are they that common now?' Lucas mused to himself as yet another level 4 approached him. This kind of surge in higher-level zombies might be specific to the inner city.
With a fluid motion, he dispatched the zombie with a swift strike, its blood spraying through the air from his blade. Immediately after, he took down another, this one a mere level 2.
The inner city was vast, especially to him, and the supermarket, akin to a mall with its diverse offerings, seemed to have it all. Lucas pondered whether he should look for something specific. Though Lucy hadn't explicitly mentioned it, he suspected it was common knowledge for this generation of teenagers—well, at least for him.
Weeks had passed since the onset of the doomsday. She would probably need it, but scanning his surroundings, he found nothing of particular interest left.
Lucas made a conscious effort to leave room for the items he truly desired, selecting only the jewelry pieces that caught his eye. Lucy, contrary to expectations, wasn't interested in these items.
'Wow, all of these are basically free,' he thought to himself. It wasn't greed; he saw this as seizing the opportunities presented to him. In any normal marketplace, there would be a section dedicated to selling gold jewelry, especially in the inner city where affluent individuals reside. While not extravagantly wealthy, many in this area seemed well-off. Activities like sports, bars, karaoke, and nightclubs—the epitome of luxury—were within reach. Lucy, too, could be included in this category.
Advancing to the next floor, Lucas halted abruptly. Just as he ascended, a fleeting shadow darted to the side.
'What's that? Another survivor?' he pondered, his mind retracing memories to the first human he had killed—the blood-soaked man.
Alert and wary, Lucas moved toward the location where the shadow had disappeared. Dispatching a group of weak, level 1 zombies that posed no challenge, he approached the spot where he had glimpsed the figure fleeing.
'No... that...'
A harrowing scene lay before him—a room filled with the lifeless bodies of humans, not zombies. Affixed to the door was a sign that read; 'Staff Room'.
Perhaps this space had been designated for cleaners or managers of the expansive supermarket. Inside, the room was occupied by people of various ages, differentiated by their uniforms. All had met their demise.
Amidst the grim tableau was the lifeless form of a young child, around 6 years old, with a stomach cavity rent open, organs strewn across the floor in a gruesome tableau of blood and gore. Next to the child was an elderly individual whose features were distorted beyond recognition, body partially split, bearing the marks of vicious claws.
'It's a good thing Lucy isn't here,' Lucas thought, his stomach churning in disgust. Even as he attempted to teach Lucy the art of survival, the sight before him filled him with shivers, and his stomach churned with revulsion.
The child's contorted visage was a macabre sight. This room seemed to be a last refuge for those who attempted to survive, a place choked with the oppressive presence of zombies, spanning from the ground floor up to the fifth.
Stepping into the room, like the release of his wind ability, a shadow dashed from the corner of the room.
'Fuu-'
Caught off guard, Lucas wasn't able to raise his sword in time. He instinctively unleashed his skill, the shadows swirling around his hand before he could utter a word.
"Clawing fang!"
The elongated claw emerged as he swung it toward the shadow, piercing its neck and causing his hand to be coated in its flesh that adhered to the claw.
"Kuk."
The shadow crumpled to the ground, allowing Lucas to identify what it was. With eyes fixed on him, the figure struggled to rise, a bleeding hole in its neck, its skin grayish, with minimal patches of hair. Its clothes were torn, much like what he had seen before.
"A ghoul?" Lucas murmured in recognition.
Lucas muttered as his jian swung at the creature. The being writhed and twisted, deftly evading his blade while lashing out with its own elongated claw.
'I have a claw too, you idiot!'
Navigating around the ghoul's swipe, Lucas extended his own claw-like nail and plunged it into the ghoul's abdomen. He gripped whatever he could and yanked it out, narrowly avoiding the ghoul's claw, almost rending the back of his head. The ghoul fell, writhing and struggling.
"Shsss!"
The creature's screams filled the room as it fought to reach Lucas, its eyes wide and unblinking.
'Can it see me clearly?'
With a decisive swing, Lucas severed its head from its body. Surveying the lifeless ghoul before him, he attempted to clean the green stain from his slightly damaged red robe. The fabric showed signs of self-repair, the hole diminishing slower than he initially observed.
A self-healing class robe.
'If that claw had touched me, I might not have survived.'
---
[Level 2 Ghoul Killed, Awarding 300 Exp!]
[Received 30 Coins!]
---
The room was a grim tableau, containing twenty to thirty decomposed human corpses, each marked by red blood and organs—a stark contrast to the green-blooded monsters now roaming everywhere.
How were these creatures born?
Lucas contemplated this, his mind swirling with questions. Could they have emerged from some kind of ritual? But he dismissed that notion; magic, as far as he knew, wasn't real.
So, what was the origin?
He prodded the ghoul corpses with his sword, flipping one over with his foot. The long, gray-skinned corpses bore visible rib cages beneath their thin skin. The sight was disconcerting, and Lucas's headache deepened as he surveyed the scene.
Returning his gaze to the other corpses in the room, he sighed. Thankfully, no zombies seemed attracted to the ghoul's dying screams. Either the room was soundproof, or there were no nearby zombies to hear the death cries—a muttering of a dying person's last words.
With a heavy sigh, Lucas approached the deceased humans and examined their belongings; ID cards, cash, jewelry, and even a Taser.
'Can a Taser work on zombies?'
Using it against animated corpses that were already rotten? The fact that the Taser lay on the ground suggested it had already been employed.
'It didn't work.'
Lucas shook his head, somewhat disappointed, and slipped the Taser into the pocket of his jeans underneath the red robe.
There was nothing more intriguing to discover in the room. As he wandered around, he pondered the circumstances of their deaths. It seemed likely that they had starved, venturing out of the room in search of food. However, the open door had likely attracted the attention of ghouls or whatever had ultimately killed them.
The room resembled a grim cannibalistic dining area, filled with the bodies of humans. 'Perhaps the ghoul took up residence here, occasionally venturing outside to hunt for more food. Did some of the humans here get dragged over?' Was this behavior akin to how predators drag their prey to a specific location? But all of these thoughts were merely conjecture.
There was no trail of bloodstains on the floor. The possibility that the ghoul had licked the floor clean existed, but it seemed unlikely.
"Oh, this!" Lucas muttered, his face flushing as he lowered his head. He instantly discarded an item he had found in one of the lady's handbags and resumed his search for more items.
"This is embarrassing. How am I supposed to give it to her?" he thought, his embarrassment evident. Despite his usual expression of indifference mixed with confusion, his face now blushed a pale red. He sighed and continued his pilfering, eventually leaving the staff room.
'A... tampons.'
His eyes blinked in mild surprise, embarrassment still coloring his cheeks as he ascended the stairs to the next floor.
"Ah, @?!%$! This is going to be so embarrassing," he muttered to himself, his apprehension growing.
For the first time, he realized how flabbergasted Lucy would be if she saw him in this state.