Chapter 51: Price For Carelessness


    The stuffy and rotting smell lingered in the air as their group gazed at the group of zombies. Zombies had been standing there dazedly, surrounding a dried pool of blood. It seemed that Kyle didn''t run for long as he was surrounded by zombies.


    "Hey, don''t be insane! How are we going to do it? Reba, just say something to him." Evelyn whispered as she was trying to object to Dave''s suggestion. Reba, on the other hand, kept her silence since she had already done such a thing in the cafeteria. Rachel was also unusually calm.


    "We had already done it before, so don''t worry. Evelyn, you''re taking down a Hunter. It''s the one with long nails or ws on its hands. Arthur, Giant is yours. I hope I don''t need to exin how it looks." Dave calmly exined to them his n.


    "Arthur, say something?" Evelyn looked at her friend in thest attempt to change their minds.


    "If Dave says that we''re gonna be okay, then that''s it. We should trust him more. Plus, he''s helping us to clean the supermarket, so we need to obtain help from him while we can." Arthur replied nonchntly as he firmly believed a person who already did so much for them.


    "Fine!" Evelyn grumbled slightly. If everyone was going to fight them, she didn''t have a choice but join them. "Hunter''s the one that is very fast, yes? And the Giant is stronger than ordinary zombies?"


    "Right. Evelyn, you need to be careful while fighting it. It may be as fast as you or even slightly faster. As for you, Arthur, just try not to be hit. Your strength should be enough to kill it." Dave reminded them, then he turned to Reba and Rachel. "Reba, help Evelyn if it gets dangerous for her. Rachel, you need to protect Mary, so stay close to her."


    Saying everything he needed to, Dave gave a signal to attack zombies. Even though he understood that their coordination wascking, he didn''tin about it. It was good enough for people who just joined their team since nor Arthur and Evelyn had abundant experience as him.


    Knowing that the main role wasn''t his for the battle, Dave decided to act more as a support than an attacker. He was trying to test the duo''s strength, so he could rx a bit during the fight.


    With Rachel and Mary standing behind them, four of them rushed towards the group of zombies and swiftly killed four zombies that weren''t suspecting anything from the seemingly empty supermarket. Other than a group of survivors trapped in the underground basement, Dave doubted that anyone else had survived in the building full of zombies.


    Killing his first zombie, Dave quickly changed his stance as he rushed towards zombies, perfectly cutting their necks and beheading them. Ordinary zombies could do nothing to him as more of them were being killed.


    It wasn''t so surprising since his reaction time was 1.5 times higher than that of an average human. If not for beginning to be surrounded by them, Dave couldn''t have even retreated. However, no matter how fast he was, he couldn''t fight against them when he was being surrounded by them.


    In a span of several seconds, Dave quickly killed three or more zombies as he retreated back. Both Arthur and Evelyn gazed at him in amazement. Arthur''s eyes even glowed with more admiration towards him as he personally witnessed Dave''s strength.


    Of course, he had seen how Dave had dealt with Kyle, but it was more stunning to barge into the ranks of zombies, kill several of them and leavepletely unharmed.


    Not noticing nces of amazement and admiration, Dave had more thought about zombies he was fighting with. ''As I expected, even ordinary zombies are growing stronger with every passing day.''


    Even though changes weren''t noticeable at the first nce, as a person who had analyzed power levels of each monster, Dave easily discovered it. Indeed, it wasn''t much of an increase in strength, but it showed that zombies were also growing stronger along with people.


    Dave knew that if people gave them time, then soon even an ordinary zombie would be as strong as a Giant and as fast as a Hunter. He had always thought that it was the most terrifying thing about zombies; it was their evolutionary potential.


    While he was immersed in his thoughts, Dave automatically killed every zombie that attacked him, while others had already started fighting with evolved zombies.


    Warned by Dave, Evelyn was the first one to initiate an attack on Hunter since it was able to choose as his opponent Arthur instead of her, and she didn''t want it. Arthur was much slower than low-rank 1 Hunter, so she was concerned about him.


    Gripping her dagger, she shed at the hideous face of the Hunter but having low fighting experience, she couldn''t urately aim to its head. Faced against a Hunter that was slightly faster than her, Evelyn kept backing away from it as she dodged its attempts to bite and sh her.


    Suddenly, her back touched the shelf. Not noticing it, she was already backed against a shelf and didn''t have any way backwards. Gritting her teeth, she made a piercing motion with her dagger. Hunter''s face was already right before her face as it intended to gnash its teeth to her face.


    Ptuh!


    The dagger went into its skull when it was right before her. Hunter twitched as it fell to the floor, and blood sprayed onto Evelyn''s face. A disgusting rotten smell washed over her nostrils as a colour drained from her face.


    Stabilizing herself by leaning on the shelf, she slid with her back on the shelf down to the sitting position. Just now, she was so close to her death! If she didn''t lift her dagger, she would have been dead!


    Thud!


    As the scene of a Hunter right before her face kept haunting her, something smashed to the shelf next to her. Pulled out from her stupor, she nced at the source of noise, but in the next moment, she sprinted to there and shouted, "Arthur!"


    *Cough* *Cough* Arthur coughed as he tried to stand up from the floor. "Sorry...I just got distracted for a moment."


    Dave, who was observing everything from the side, had only thought, ''Foolish as ever, Arthur! He should have minded your own battle instead of looking after Evelyn. However, he''ve gotten good instincts.''


    Perhaps, Evelyn didn''t know about it, Dave clearly saw how Arthur had gotten into this state. In the beginning, he had a winning hand against a Giant. However, when Evelyn was being pushed backwards, he kept looking at her worriedly. Indeed, Giant was slow, but Arthur wasn''t that fast to ignore it.


    When Evelyn had killed a Hunter, he rxed slightly and got a punch from a Giant. Thankfully, Arthur was able to react quickly and leapt in opposite direction, minimizing the damage he had taken. By this, Dave was able to notice the traits of a natural fighter from Arthur.


    On his side, he had already dealt with all of the zombies. One-two of them had slipped past him, but Rachel easily killed a single target. It was a good decision to leave her at the back. A short whileter, more cautious than before, Arthur had finally killed a Giant as his spear pierced its head from the back.


    Silently collecting ck coins from the ground, Dave heard a high-pitched voice of Mary as she ran towards Arthur. "Arthur! How are you? Are you feeling pain anywhere?"


    *Cough* Coughing a small amount of blood, Arthur clenched his fist to hide blood droplets on it as he replied weakly, "Yeah, I''m fine! My chest is hurting though..."


    Arthur tried to put on the nicest smile on his face, but it seemed more like a grimace than a smile since he tried to resist the pain in his body.


    "David, what was that for? I thought you were gonna cover us? Why did you just look from sideways?" Evelyn asked angrily as mes burned in her ruby eyes.


    "I would have helped if things got really dangerous. And it''s the price he had paid for being careless while fighting a Giant. He shouldn''t have kept ncing in your direction. He had a high chance of winning but due to a moment of carelessness, he got hit by Giant. You should understand that there won''t always be a person who''ll save you. Also, I''ve told that Reba would have been covering you, Evelyn." Dave calmly exined as he didn''t mind her tone at all.


    At his words, Arthur and Evelyn had finally noticed a white sphere of light floating above Reba''s head. Catching interested nced from others, Reba said, "I''ve told you before about Star. Star, greet everyone."


    "Whiiing! Whiiing!" It vibrated slightly as it made a whistling sound. Dave didn''t know how it was able to make a sound, yet he didn''t think about it even further, understanding that he won''t get an answer to it.


    "When Evelyn was pushed against the shelf, Reba was already ready to save her," Dave said as he recalled how Reba was preparing to sh with light.


    "Yeah! But...,"


    "He''s right, Evelyn. It was my mistake from the start. We need to take care of ourselves." Arthur stopped her from saying her words as he understood everything.


    "Then, what about people down there?" Evelyn mumbled it silently as she said it as lowly as possible.