Chapter 8: The Safety


    The minimarket was close to the library, so they reached there in less than 10 minutes. Having Brian in their group, they were secure from sudden dangers.


    Life Pulse was truly the best when it came to survival. Its ability to detect living creatures from long distance was irreceable for their team of three.


    Along the way, Dave helped Brian and Adam to kill zombies. With his aid, Brian killed another two zombies and Adam killed four of them.


    After leveling up, Dave was able to easily handle several zombies. His high strength stat enabled him to easily sh zombies into pieces. But, killing zombies were no more useful to him since he needed to kill nearly a hundred of them to increase his level.


    After all the hunt, they reached their destination. The minimarket was right before their eyes. It wasparatively smaller in size than others on the campus, but it didn''t matter to them.


    Dave knew that the number of zombies inside can''t threaten their lives, yet he didn''t lower his guard. Nobody knows what the world had prepared for them.


    Scanning the building with the Life Pulse, Brian spotted three zombies in the minimarket.


    As Dave had anticipated, their n to get into the minimarket went without a hitch. Except for one moment.


    "Dave, I''ve got a white chest!"


    Clearly, Brian was excited by the drop. His face beamed with delight as he blubbered about how lucky he was.


    "Lucky, you."


    Adamughed slightly as he tried to hide his envy from Brian. He had never envied someone, but a new world offered new items to be envied.


    Brian opened it as a white in his hands disappeared into the air. Brian held a kitchen knife in his hands.


    "Pfft...Brian, good, you got a weapon fitting you."


    Seeing a kitchen knife in the ce of the chest, Adam burstughing as he teased Brian.


    "It''s not a kitchen knife. It''s a dagger."


    As he said it, Brian became more depressed than before.


    Dave was amused by his reaction. Brian received a weapon from the system, yet he made a face as he ate shit. Finding the situation quite funny, Dave shot a nce at a knife.


    [Failed Dagger


    Attack: 7-9


    Durability: 9


    Description: Failed attempt to make a dagger.]


    It was an excellent weapon for mobile fighters at the initial stage. The problem was in the fighting style of Brian. He wasn''t a fighter who relied on agility as he only knew how to kill from the backs of the zombies.


    Still, it is better than a Wooden Club. Brian had a proper weapon to defend himself, so he had higher chances to protect his life.


    "Let''s go to the storage room. It is much safer than here."


    Urging them to go, Dave led them towards the storage room. It was the only room in the market which was fortified by a metallic door.


    The storage room was spacious enough to store the food for a year. It had a lot of boxes lined in the room and several bags of rice with other resources.


    As they entered the room, they all felt exhaustion. It put lots of strain on their minds as they were cautious all the time. Adam and Brian sat on the ground as they rxed their minds.


    "We are finally safe now."


    Brian breathed leisurely as he tried to pace his breathing, while Adamy on the floor as he tried to rx his tensed body. Both of them enjoyed the feeling of safety.


    Only now did they start thinking about the future. Everybody had families to worry about and they weren''t an exception. Adam and Brian both had parents, while Dave had his little brother, Billy, and his uncle with an aunt.


    His uncle, aunt, and little brother were on a family trip to another city. Due to attending university, he wasn''t able to travel with them. In the past, he never saw his family in a 5 year period of time.


    They could only pray for the safety of their families. Dave knew that it would be suicidal to drive to another city since cities had zombies, while outside of the cities was the domain of beasts.


    Beasts were much stronger than zombies because they had no obvious weaknessespared to zombies. They were dull andcked even basic intelligence. Killing them stealthily was one of the ways to deal with them.


    There is still a lot of time before the cities will be able to establish contact with each other. Dave can only hope that his family is safe in another city.


    "Dave, what will we do next?"


    Brian and Adam rested enough to think about their next step. As far as Dave remembered, Adam was always like that. He was calm and collected calcting all his choices. Perhaps, it is the influence of being born in a wealthy family.


    "It is quite simple. We should be much stronger than now. Only by bing stronger, we would survive."


    Indeed, in the world where the weak person is trampled on, it is important to have the strength to back their lives.


    "Fortunately, we have Brian to detect zombies, so we can effectively hunt them. We should at least level up both of you and quip Adam with a weapon. But at first, we all should rest and restore our mentality."


    They locked the door of the storage room and sat against the wall dozing just after several minutes.


    ...


    "Run!"


    Dave heard as his captain shouted at him. He was slightly huge for a middle-aged man with thick muscles covering his body. His captain usually had a cheerful attitude, always joking andughing, but currently, he had an ashen face as he ran from the building.


    "There is a horde of zombies!"


    As his captain rushed from the building, a horde of zombies streamed out from it. Dave saw as the person who trained him was being torn by the teeth of zombies.


    Rage surged through his heart, as he and his teammates started shooting at zombies. Dave sensed the smell of lead and gunpowder as he emptied a magazine of his pistol.


    As they thought that they had killed all of them, shadow leaped from inside the building. It moved so fast that it left afterimages. No matter how much they had shot, no bullet reached it.


    Dave saw how it had killed a one-armed man after another. Desperation had filled the hearts of soldiers as they started running towards their vehicles. It was only a hundred meters away from them.


    Dave ran with all his might as he heard shrieks from behind. He had joined the ranks of soldiers to eat to his fullest and to be strong enough to keep his life, but he never thought that his first mission will turn into a nightmare.


    The sudden emergence of a shadow from the building sent the formation of soldiers into disarray. The shadow barged in the ranks of soldiers as it ughtered more than half of them.


    As one of the soldiers heard how shrieks wereing closer and closer to him, he took a grenade in his hands and held a safety pin with his fingers.


    When the shriek was heard too close to his location, the soldier pulled the safety pin and blew up himself with a decisive expression.


    *Boom*