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"Mat!" Leila called, ignoring the risk of attracting the zombies.
Or rather, she was clearly eager to bring more of them to the fray so that the count of their cores would increase.
There was this visceral joy visible in the girl's eyes as if she truly enjoyed gathering the cores.
'It's as if she didn't see them as corpses of her schoolmates,' Mathew thought, lowkey troubled with such development.
It wasn't anything bad for the girl to find a coping mechanism for her situation. But seeing her beautiful face all in smiles while her hands have blood all over them?
This was the most disturbing image Mathew could find on the entire floor. Not the grotesque piles of corpses, not the blood splattered all over the place… The weird, satisfied smile of the girl who covered in fear from the zombies just a few moments earlier.
'Maybe leveling up has some weird effect on one's brain?' Mathew attempted to guess, only to shake his head and drop the topic.
This wasn't the time for such unnecessary debate.
"Yes?" Mathew called back to the girl, standing up from the pile he finished counting.
"I think we have well over two hundred now!" the girl announced, brimming with smiles.
"Guys, how about some help?!" Daria called out from the staircase, despite progressing down the stairs instead of just holding her high ground.
'Yeah,' Mathew thought, shaking his head as he straightened up and picked up his ax. 'There is definitely something in the air messing with our heads.'
Maybe it was adrenaline rushing through their veins. Maybe a visceral joy of their complicated lives simplified to the struggle for survival. Or maybe there actually was something in the system that messed with their brains.
'Did something like this happen before?' Mathew thought, reaching to his memories. And yet, no matter how hard he looked, he couldn't pinpoint the answer.
"I'm on my way!" Mathew shouted, shaking his head to get rid of those useless thoughts.
Whether or not something was interfering with their brains wasn't a topic for now.
'Once we will secure the school, there will be some time to think about it,' he thought, swinging his ax even before reaching the staircase.
Daria would likely be able to hold the zombies off… But Mathew didn't want to risk it. And since she called for help, he was more than happy to provide it.
"We should have nearly two hundred by now!" Leila shouted over as she dropped yet another haul by the pile of the life cores. "Are you sure you don't want to summon that merchant first?"
Ever since Mathew first mentioned the possibility of summoning a merchant, Leila was its greatest supporter. It was likely also the reason why she was so eager to collect the cores from the fallen zombies.
Because with the merchant, their ability to survive in the apocalypse would skyrocket.
"Still, are you really sure it's better than going back to the one you already summoned?" Daria asked when Mathew reached her position and started to swing his trusty ax around. "It's not like it would take super long either," she added, only to shrug her shoulders before cutting off a zombie's head with Mathew's sword.
"We still need to summon two more merchants in the school to turn it into a true fortress," Mathew rebuked, sharing the one vital piece of information that he found out in his past life.
Normally, he would keep it hidden, staying true to his idea of keeping his cards by his chest. Yet in this world, where he was likely the only one to have a system within the boundary of the school…
What could anyone do with that information?
'Sure, I could find a better location to place the merchant, but at this very moment, there are far more benefits to just going with the flow,' Mathew thought, sending a few more hits into the horde before nudging Daria.
"Let's head back," Mathew ordered.
They reached the breaking point of the stairs, where their other part would descend towards the bottom floor rather than the wall ending the building. If they kept on going, they would soon attract the zombies from below.
And this wasn't the purpose yet.
"Yeah," Daria nodded her head, obediently pulling back.
Compared to her girlfriend, she turned out to be much more level-headed, capable of holding her newly awoken instincts at bay.
Now that Mathew had made his decision, he cleaned out the last few zombies from the stairs before lowering his torso to start picking up the cores.
'I guess it's better to just go and do it,' Mathew thought, stepping forward and leaving the task of protecting the staircase to Daria.
He then approached the pile of the stones before putting them into a piece of cloth torn out of a random zombie's uniform. And then, just like he did on the top floor of the school before, Mathew repeated the summoning ritual.
"I, Mathew, son of Arthur, do hereby summon a tiered merchant!"
This was as far as Mathew's knowledge reached. What was the title of the third merchant required to form a fortress? He didn't know.
'I bet I can buy that information out of this guy,' Mathew thought, watching how the stones exploded in brightness only for a hooded shadow to appear where they were once the light vanished.
"Tiered merchant?" Leila asked, raising her eyes towards Mathew's face right as he reached for the merchant's shadow.
"That's right," Mathew nodded his head. "Contrary to the claim merchant above, this one, can evolve," he explained before pushing his hand forward and grasping at the dancing shadow underneath the merchant's hood.
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The shadow within Mathew's grasp expanded the second Mat squeezed down on it.
It suddenly expanded, forming a blurry barrier that separated the young man from the rest of the world.
While stuck inside, Mathew's experience of time changed.
'It's always this weird feeling, isn't it?' the young man thought, immersing himself in the darkness.
He never got to truly check whether or not the time flowed differently within the merchant's shop. It was something that only required both parties to carry a clock.
But still, Mathew never really had the time and opportunity at the same time to pull such a basic test out.
And what seemed like a mere moment later, the darkness suddenly pulled away, revealing three tables both on Mathew's right and left, with a sacrificial chamber in the middle.
All those elements were made from some sort of chiseled stone, giving off a tough and cold feeling. There were some runes inscribed on the sides of each of the tables, while the sacrificial chamber turned out to be…
A big, black, metal pot. A kettle, to be more precise.
"So much for grandeur," Mathew muttered, his lips twitching in a quick, small smirk.
It appeared that the basic, unupgraded merchant would display its status in the shop. And once its level would rise higher…
"Well, let's not waste time," Mathew muttered, scanning the content of each of the tables.
Sadly, most of it was already greyed out. Out of six items that this merchant would normally sell, only two remained intact.
'A weapon and a scroll, huh?' Mathew thought, analyzing the items.
Scroll indicated some sort of knowledge; every RPG addict knew that. On the other hand, a single sword on the other table didn't really need any further explanations.
"I will get both of them," Mathew said out loud, raising his hands and pointing at the items he wanted.
'Over two hundred stones, huh?' Mathew thought. 'A hundred to summon the merchant, and…'
A total of ten stones suddenly rose up from Mathew's makeshift pouch, only to turn into a ball of light and then reveal their content.
And just like this, a sword and a note appeared below Mathew's feet. Notably, though, while the scroll now turned into a blurry illusion, the sword on the table remained as it was.
'So I can buy multiple weapons, huh?' Mathew took notice before turning his eyes towards the sacrificial pot.
"I wish to upgrade the shop," Mathew called out.
"Ten cores," the familiar, robotic voice responded to Mathew's call without fail.
Mathew only nodded his head before throwing ten cores into the kettle.
The shadow that earlier revealed the area suddenly pulled towards the young man. Covering everything away from his eyes, it then shook like a single, living organism before receding again.
The stone slabs making up tables turned into proper, wooden stools. And more importantly now, not only each of the tables housed now three items, there were even plaquettes with the names of the item attached!
"That's surely convenient," I thought, my eyes moving towards the new grade of items I could buy. Yet, I quickly stopped my head and leaned down, picking up both of the items I had already bought.
"You may now know the names of the wares," I spelled the words on the note out loud. I then raised my other hand and rubbed the side of my head, not caring for the sword I already held in it.
"I guess those plaquettes are not the benefit of the upgrade, then," I muttered before raising my eyes towards the new items again.
Contrary to my worries, the items from the first shop didn't disappear. Yet, with their form blurred, I somehow couldn't tell at all what they represented. As such, I didn't know whether I couldn't buy them yet or if they were already out of stock.
"New grade of weapons, huh?" I commented as I turned my eyes towards the table that still housed the simple sword.
Now, there were two more options. A machete and an ax. Yet, there was a small caveat.
Mathew reached down and picked up the name tag of the ax.
'Outside of a single exception, this is the only nametag written in golden letters,' he thought before looking at the weapon in his hand.
It was almost exactly the same.
"What's the price of those weapons?" Mathew called out to the merchant.
"Five cores for the sword, twenty-five for the machete, one hundred and twenty-five for the fireman's ax," the robotic voice, like always, responded in an instant.
Mathew's lips twitched a little. He then raised his eyes towards what seemed like the densest part of the shadow.
"How much would the weapon I'm holding go for, then?" he asked.
'In this way, I will see not only whether or not I can sell my stuff, but also what's the markup on the items,' Mathew thought, trying to cheat out as much information out of his system as he could.
"Unable to purchase unidentified weapons," the voice instantly shut down Mathew's hopes.
'As if I would give up so quickly,' he thought, a smirk appearing on his lips.
"Unable to appraise items of the rank higher than the shop," the voice reluctantly gave Mathew another hint. While it still kept its robotic mannerism and tone… It somehow appeared annoyed?
'It's actually way easier than I thought,' Mathew noticed, his eyes flashing with excitement.
There was something damn satisfying in finding ways around stuff to do what he wanted.
"How much for another upgrade, then?" Mathew asked, crossing his arms on his chest.
"Fifty cores," the shop's voice replied in a cold tone.
"Tsk," Mathew clicked his tongue. "Cheapskate," he spat on the ground before throwing a fistful of stones into a slightly bigger kettle than before. "Go and get yourself a nicer sacrificial chamber," he added, slightly perturbed by the changes in the merchant.
This time, no comment came from the merchant. The shadows exploded in volume, once again filling Mathew's immediate surroundings. Yet, when the shadows retreated a moment later, the shop changed completely.
There was no sign of the former tables, all the items that Mathew had yet to buy were now gone, replaced by the new stock of even higher grade.
"Fuck…" Mathew cursed, realizing his mistake. 'I guess that's karma for me, for being rude to the merchant,' he thought, tightening his fists. "May I ask where all the old wares went?" Mat asked, raising his eyes at the shadows with the hopes of mending his faux pas.
"User now reached a new evolution stage of the shop." This time, the robotic voice was full of satisfaction. "Please, do enjoy new wares!"
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"The shop changed a lot," Mathew muttered under his nose once he finally shook off the shock of his failure.
There were several reasons why Mathew was in such a rush to raise the level of the merchant.
First came the need for weapons. And given how many floors Mathew's group still had to conquer before getting to the bottom floor, buying something durable was a must.
Then came the endgame of Mathew's plans. The monsters. And to defeat them, punny humans like them could only rely on the might of their weapons.
'That is, as long as we don't out level those monsters first,' Mathew thought, tightening his fists before taking a proper look around the shop.
Yet, before he could as much as figure out the logic behind the way it was set up, the young man raised his eyes towards the densest part of the smoke before asking again.
"Can you appraise my weapon now?" he asked.
This was the third of the big reasons why Mathew was so eager to push the merchant hard. Because from the looks of things, the ax that he wielded was actually of an even higher class than the one he could buy before. Otherwise, the merchant being unable to appraise it wouldn't make any logical sense!
And then, Mathew froze.
'Wait, how could I even use my own logic and impose it on the logic of the system?' he thought, noticing his second mistake.
Mathew didn't know the rules on which merchants operated. He didn't know and could ultimately only guess whether or not his idea would turn out to be correct or not.
"Cost of appraisal, fifteen cores," the mechanic voice of the merchant announced. This time though, just like at the beginning, there was no emotion behind it whatsoever.
"Deal," Mathew threw another fistful of cores into the air. And while some disappeared in the same flashy manner as before, roughly half of them remained suspended in the air, free for Mathew to pick up.
'At least it's not scamming with the price,' Mathew thought, waiting for the reveal.
"Status of the user's weapon updated on their log," the voice announced before disappearing. Something about the air's quality changed as if the world twitched… But Mathew couldn't really pinpoint the cause or location of this strange occurrence.
"User's log?" Mathew muttered, lowering his eyes and resting his chin on his hand as he thought. "Only one thing makes sense here," he concluded before raising his eyes and finally taking a moment to look around the new shop.
The tables from before were nowhere to be seen, replaced by a row of seven shelves. They looked exactly like the furniture of your average convenience store. In fact, if not for how varying the wares on the shelves were, Mathew could think he actually entered a small shop instead!
The quality of the place was also better.
The sacrificial chamber now turned into a box Mathew recognized from hundreds of magnas that he read in the past. It was as if it was stolen from some Japanese shrine, with five solid walls and a set of rails covering the top.
Mathew moved up and approached the first of the shelves.
"Supplies," he muttered, moving over to the next one. "Clothes, weapons, information, tools… and what exactly are those two?"
Mathew took a closer look at the last two shelves. Even though they were brimming with items, one of them was greyed out, while the other one housed an impressive collection… Of some strange, colorful stones.
Mathew then leaned forward and looked at the plaquettes arranged to mark every last of the displayed items.
"Zombie bait, Zombie repellant, healing ground, empowering stage," Mathew mouthed out several of the names before raising his eyes and looking at the items themselves again.
Yet, they were still the same colorful stones as before.
"Maybe those are some kind of buffs? Special abilities for the user to purchase?" Mathew muttered only to shake his head and move back towards the two shelves that interested him the most.
"Chainsaw, gauntlet, cleaver, and handgun," Mathew counted out the new weapons that appeared in stock. This time, however, not a single one was named with gold-bearing letters.
'Oh right,' Mathew shook a little when the sight of weapons made him think of something. 'Now that my ax is appraised…' he thought before raising his head back towards the shadows.
"How much would my weapon cost?"
For the first time during all of Mathew's interactions with merchants, the voice didn't come right away.
"Three hundred seventy-five cores," the voice finally appeared, a clear annoyance perfectly noticeable in its dissatisfied tone.
'Woah,' Mathew took a step back before raising his hand and looking down at his weapon. 'It's that powerful?' he thought, baffled by the discovery.
He heard from one of his surviving classmates during the first run of the apocalypse that a golden fireman's ax could be bought from the merchants. That's why he was so happy to get one for free. And now, it turned out that the weapon he simply picked off the wall was worth nearly four hundred cores?
'If that's not a jackpot, then I don't know what else could it be,' Mathew thought, a satisfied smirk raising upon his face.
"How much do handguns cost?" Mathew asked before eyeing out the shelf with the weapon.
And then, he noticed something that he had missed before.
'Something is stuck in the back!' Mathew called out, leaning over the shelf to check it out further.
"A hundred cores," this time, the robotic voice of the merchant appeared to be in quite a panic.
"How about those machetes in the back of the shelf?" Mathew asked, recognizing the item.
This time, he no longer bore a smirk on his lips. This time, Mathew's expression turned devious instead.
'You wanted to make me think I lost all the items from before?' he thought, raising one of his eyebrows before shaking his head and taking on a natural expression. 'Well, there is no point in flexing this discovery in the merchant's face. Let's just play it cool,' Mathew decided.
He already suffered the consequences of angering the merchant. And even if its options to make Mathew's life were limited, there was no point in incurring merchant's wrath just for some self-satisfaction.
"Twenty-five cores," the voice replied, once again appearing to be completely emotionless.
'Does it hopes for me not to notice the pattern?' Mathew thought, only to ultimately ignore the topic and throw the rest of the stones from his pouch into the air.
"I want three machetes," he announced. And after a quick explosion of bright light, Mathew's new weapons appeared on the floor right beside him.
"Now then," Mathew turned his head towards the other shelf that caught his interest. "Could I maybe hear a little bit more about those scrolls?"
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Mathew posed his question. And then he waited. And waited. And once some amount of time had passed, he moved his eyes from the thickest part of the shadow back towards the shelf with the scrolls.
'If it didn't reply right away, it likely wouldn't answer at all,' Mathew thought before focusing on the names written on the plaquette below every scroll on the shelf.
"Patterns of spread, fortress establishment, and strategies, level information, class information…" Mathew mouthed the words, going through them all one by one.
"If this isn't a treasure trove of knowledge, then I don't know what is," Mathew whispered to himself before throwing a glance towards the thick part of the shadow again.
"How much for those scrolls?" he asked, pointing his finger at the shelf in general.
"Unable to answer," the robotic voice appeared right away.
"How about this scroll then?" Mathew changed his question, moving his hand to point at the scroll named 'Class Information".
"Fifty points," the robotic voice wasn't late this time. Yet, despite refusing to give the tally for all the scrolls before, it clearly didn't mind sharing the prices of each individual item.
"What's with this lack of accommodation?" Mathew muttered as he shook his head sideways. He quickly recalled, though, that he wasn't in some kind of grocery where the word of a customer was a word of law.
He was in a shop of a merchant that appeared at the same time as the apocalypse, and from the looks of the names of just a few scrolls picked at random, this shop was strictly tied to the very apocalypse that was happening.
In other words, the times when the customer was always right were already over. As such, Mathew could only complain under his nose before accepting the truth before his eyes.
"How about this scroll?" Mathew moved his hand over to another interesting piece. This time, it was one named "Strategems of battling the monsters."
"A hundred coins," the robotic voice of the merchant replied without even a hint of hesitation, proving that there wasn't likely any point in trying to kick the price a little bit lower.
'I can't afford it,' Mathew thought, staring at the scroll on display. 'Still, it's good to know that we can learn about how the world changes, even if it comes at a steep price,' he thought before leaning down and picking his weapons.
There wasn't anything specific for Mathew to grab. He simply reached out and waited while the shadows that created this strange realm started to contract.
The momentum of the shadows quickly increased, turning their return into a vile storm that threatened to knock Mathew over. Yet, before the young man could lose his stability, everything came to an end.
All of the shadows that made up the merchant's realm returned to the grasp of his hand only to then condense and turn back into the head of the merchant on which Mathew grabbed.
"I'm back," Mathew muttered, more to himself than to the girls left on the floor. "How long was I away?" Mathew quickly asked, turning his head around to ensure the situation didn't drastically deteriorate while he was busy with a merchant.
"Only a short while," Leila replied, gracing Mathew with a small smile. "Did everything go like you hoped?" she then asked, tilting her head to the side.
'She didn't even bother to clean herself up,' Mathew thought upon taking notice of the girl's bloody hands. Or rather, bloody arms, as the marks left over by what she was tasked with doing reached all the way to her elbows.
"Yeah," Mathew replied, keeping his thoughts to himself before he reached out and pulled one of the machetes that he bought. "This is your new weapon. It might look simple, but it's the best one I could afford right now," the young man then lied without batting an eye.
'Well, that wasn't exactly a lie,' Mathew thought, thinking back over his own words as he turned around and headed towards the staircase to deliver the new weapon to Daria.
Even though she actually started with a sword from the shop instead of some makeshift armament, it was only to be expected for that sword to start wearing off any moment now.
Given the number of the zombies that she downed, the number of skulls she cracked, and the bones she split open… The blade of her sword was only moments away from breaking!
"Daria!" Mathew called out shortly.
Despite the unlikeable front that she showed him at first, as their small group started to open up to each other, Mathew got to learn a bit about the two girls.
And if Leila was the unpredictable, cute yet crazy one, then Daria turned out to be just way… simpler.
"Yes!" the girl replied right away, kicking away a torso of a zombie that attempted to climb the staircase. "What's wrong?" she then turned her head around, only to shrug when Mathew patted her shoulder with the handle of her new weapon.
"Weapon delivery," Mathew gave a quick explanation before looking down at the stairs.
The roars from below only grew stronger in the few minutes they wasted on collecting the cores and then spending them.
They were truly running out of time.
"Well then," Mathew shook his head and placed his hands on his hips, "how about we finish up with gathering the cones and then keep on going?"
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"I think we are all done here," Leila reported as she approached the staircase. She then crossed her arms on her chest and looked down at the rest of her small group. "Shall we go?"
Mathew raised his head to take a quick glance at the girl. He then quickly turned his eyes back in the direction he aimed them at before.
"The next floor is quite full of zombies," Mathew informed as he leaned over the rail and took a peek into the floor below. "Are you sure you are up for the task, girls?" he asked, turning his eyes towards Daria.
'I shouldn't need to worry about Leila, I guess,' Mathew thought.
This girl showcased far less human emotions when it came to the apocalypse than Mathew expected her to.
'Maybe it's her coping mechanism?' Mathew thought, only to then shake his head. 'No, it doesn't really matter,' he swallowed a gulp of saliva. 'But at the very least, she is pretty scary,' he thought, sending a quick glance over to the girl before moving his sight back to her partner.
"I'm up for it," Daria replied, shaking her shoulders as if it was just a small matter. "With this machete? Fighting those stupid zombies will be a breeze!" she exclaimed, raising her short weapon above her head in a triumphant gesture.
"Good." Mathew shook his head, content with the level of motivation the girl had.
Ultimately, this was something that they had to do, whether they liked it or not.
'Still, seeing her happy to participate makes me feel a little bit better about this entire ordeal,' the young man thought before turning around and taking a quick look at Leila.
"While gathering the cores, did you check the classrooms on this floor?" he asked.
There was no telling whether or not some more survivors managed to stay hidden despite the entire floor being filled with zombies.
'I know that they are ultimately attracted to living beings, but it's a slow process,' Mathew thought, approaching the doors to the nearest classroom himself.
"I checked a few, just to ensure no zombies are inside," Leila said before shaking her head. "But if someone really wanted to hide in them, I didn't look close enough to be able to spot them," she added.
'And I doubt anyone would come out seeing her in nothing but a skirt and blood covering her arms, chest, and legs,' Mathew thought.
He then took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He kept by the wall for a moment, taking his time to think things through.
"Okay then," Mathew said as he pushed himself away from the wall and looked at Leila again. "First, try to get some clothes. It can be pretty distracting when you are parading with your boobs out," he ordered before sending a short yet meaningful stare towards the girl's chest.
The young man only shook his head.
"Daria," Mathew said in a soft tone, turning his face around to look at the other girl.
Even though she first appeared to be the rowdy and sexually freed girl, Mathew has long abandoned that kind of view about her.
"I get it," the girl nodded her head. "I will be leaving the stairs to you for a while, then," she added before jogging, butt-naked, back to the class where she left her clothes.
"Now then," Mathew muttered, rolling his eyes with how annoyed he was already with the second part of his second wife. "If you think being a virgin is a problem, then I can only have pity for you. I'm not the slave to the modern ideas of the sexual revolution because I actually paid a little attention to who invented this entire thing and why was it spread in the western world," he pointed out, staring daggers at the girl.
For the next few moments, not a single word was said. Yet, it was still Mathew that ultimately released a deep breath before shaking his head.
"Well, not like that socio-political stuff matters today," he claimed before lowering his eyes. "Now then, can you stop acting stubborn and get dressed already?"
"No." Leila shook her head, denying Mathew's request. "Now that I'm all bloody, there is no way I will wear my clothes! How do you imagine me washing then later?" she asked as if she was schooling the child over something that it should belong aware of.
"Is that really all there is to it?" Mathew asked, raising his eyes and looking the girl directly in the face.
"That's right," Leila nodded her head, placing her hands on her hips while pressing her chest forward. "But seriously, if it's really that distracting, you can just play with…"
"How many cores did you gather?" Mathew asked, cutting into the girl's words.
Leila tensed up her lips before squeezing a few words of answer through her tightened mouth. "A little over two hundred in total. Seventy more than we had when you went to the merchant."
"Good," Mathew replied, only to approach the cores and gather them all into his improvised pouch before approaching the merchant again.
Mathew's body froze in a weird position while he grasped at the merchant's head, only to return to its normal state a moment later.
Yet, contrary to before, there was a set of plain, black clothes hanging down from his outstretched hand.
"Will those do for now?" he asked, throwing a set of pitch-black yet simple clothes at the girl.
"You really are a massive virgin," Leila muttered as she grabbed her clothes. At the same time, the look in her eyes softened somewhat as she looked at Mathew again. "You don't happen to have anything to wipe myself with?" she asked. "Wearing clothes while smeared with all this blood," she added, looking down at her hands and then her impressive chest.
Mathew rolled his eyes again. Yet, rather than going to the shop again, he grabbed the side of his simple, plain shirt before ripping it off with a single pull and throwing it at the girl.
"Here, this should be enough," he said, throwing his ruined shirt at the girl before turning away and approaching the class where Daria was still changing.
"I'm sorry to interrupt," Mathew said as he pushed the doors open. He happened to enter right as the girl was pulling her panties up her thighs.
"It's okay," Daria replied, her cheeks turning a tiny little bit brighter than before. "It's not like you can see anything you didn't see before," she added.
"Then hurry up," Mathew said in a calm tone before approaching a pile of rubble. Initially used as a means to barricade the doors along with chairs and desks, it was now decaying away in the corner of the room.
Yet, rather than rummaging through the items, Mathew simply hid the pouch with the remaining stones in the rubble before glancing over at the girl.
Thankfully, Daira heeded Mathew's advice, doing her best to dress up as quickly as possible.
"Are you ready?" Mathew asked, watching with amusement as the girl struggled to pull her shirt down her sizeable bosom.
"Actually…" Daria hesitated before turning her face to Mathew and revealing a massive blush on her cheeks. "I might need some help with putting this…"
Just as the girl was about to finish her sentence, her boobs finally gave up under pressure, obediently sliding below the shirt.
"Or never mind, I guess," Daria commented, a sense of loss flashing in her eyes as her face darkened.
"Good," Mathew stood up and turned back towards the doors. "Then let's not waste any time, and let's go clear the rest of the school!"
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Nadia's PoV in case you guys need this kind of information*
"Mathew…" Nadia muttered under her nose.
She sat down directly on the ground, right on the edge of the broken floor. Her eyes were directed straight down towards the hole that replaced the once-grand staircase of the school's compound.
'Just where the hell are you?' the girl thought, pulling her knees closer towards her chin and then wrapping her hands around her legs.
It's been only about two hours since Mathew decided to jump down. Even a little less since the outer chunk of the floor collapsed, bringing down all of the police officers but two.
"This is outrageous!"
The commotion took place just to Nadia's back. A bunch of students from the group Mathew saved were now arguing with the two remaining policemen.
"This isn't the world from yesterday anymore!" One of the students shouted, heavily gesticulating with his hands. "Police is no more, the military is no more!" he claimed, only to end up with his hand pointing at the older of the two policemen. "In other words, what makes you think you can tell us what to do?!"
'This fucking idiot,' Nadia thought, squinting her eyes as she took a glance at the situation.
"How about this?" the policeman didn't bother arguing with the group. He simply pulled out his gun and retracted its safety. Yet, even though his threat was obvious, he notably didn't point the gun up, keeping its muzzled aimed at the ground instead.
"How dare you!" Another student joined in, the policeman's action turning into the water for the man's mill. "Threatening students with a gun?! Do you really think you can…"
"Yes," the policeman answered, raising the gun and pointing it at the troublemaker. "I have a gun," the officer stated as if pointing the weapon at the group wasn't enough to nail the point. "And what are you going to do about it?"
Like a wave, the group of students backed off, not expecting the policeman to be so forward with his threats.
'This is bad,' Nadia thought, bitting down on her lips.
She then stood up and circled around the uppermost floor of the school, trying to keep as much distance from the commotion as she could.
"A small reminder," one of the saved girls spoke out while hanging on the arm of the burly student that kept at the back of the group. "When Mathew went to fight zombies, he didn't bring any guns with him," the girl pointed out with a smirk.
'Who gave you the right to utter his name?!' Nadia screamed out in her thoughts, clenching her hands into fists.
The feeling of powerlessness surged through her soul, filling the girl's mind with sour thoughts.
Nadia was always athletic. From the times of her childhood when she turned a local acrobatic park into her own playground, through the primary and grade school when she excelled in various sports clubs. She even managed to reach a black belt in a well-known martial art, even if she always considered it to be just a fluke.
'All of that won't help me in a crowd's brawl,' Nadia thought, her teeth threatening to crack if she were to tighten her jaw any further.
"Ah…" Nadia suddenly moaned when her vision blurred.
The girl momentarily lost her sense of self, her blurry vision then turning into the red world she saw before.
A world where she could see everyone's heart beating, everyone's blood flowing. A world of no obstacles and complex problems.
"Are you alright?" Nadia heard a voice above her.
'Huh?' the girl struggled on her feet. She then shook her head and blinked her eyes, only to realize she somehow ended up on the floor. Only thanks to her outstretched hands did she manage to keep her head from hitting the ground.
"Girl, are you okay?!" the voice from above turned strange.
'Who?' Nadia raised her eyes only to see that both of her visions now merged.
The crimson world from before now seemingly faded. All its wonders were still there… just that Nadia had to specifically focus on those peculiarities to notice them.
"I think?" Nadia replied, slowly gathering herself up from the floor. Yet, when she looked up to see the owner of the voice, her entire body froze.
'The other policeman?' she thought, instantly turning her eyes towards the man's partner.
"You won't scare us!" the turmoil in the middle of the floor continued.
Nadia turned her eyes, already knowing by heart what would happen, even before it would happen.
The older policeman aimed his gun at the students in the front. Yet, with his partner helping Nadia up, there was no one to watch his back.
"DIE!"
BANG!
The law enforcement officer likely developed his sixth sense to its limits… Or he simply paid attention to all the noises and clues of the situation he was in.
The second the idiotic student shouted and then swung his improvised weapon, the policeman bent his knees, twisting his waist as he intentionally fell on his bottom.
BANG!
The powerful noise of the nearby shoot filled the open space of the floor.
'FUCK!' Nadia nearly screamed out when the loud noise seemingly threatened to split her head open.
The unlucky student never finished his swing. At first, he simply froze in place. Then, the metal pipe fell out of his hand, only for the man to follow it right after. By the time his head struck the floor, the student was already dead.
"STAY WHERE YOU ARE!" The policeman paid no attention to the corpse. He swung his torso back only to pull the gun closer towards his chest.
Rather than going for the cinematic long-hold with his hands stretched out, he opted for a more efficient and maneuverable stance.
"Drop down or drop dead!" the policeman who helped Nadia before joined the fray, pulling his gun out and aiming it at the group.
'So that's why he came to me,' Nadia noticed when she realized just how smart the law enforcement officers' position was.
By staying together, they would be susceptible to a rush attack. A charge heated enough for the group not to stop even if one or two shots were fired would be enough to discount the advantage of firearms of the policemen.
Yet, by splitting apart, leaving the more experienced soldier close to the danger while putting the other one a bit away, with a better angle over the entire group…
Now, the students had no physical ways of subduing both of the officers at once. Since they numbered around twenty, there was a huge chance both the policemen had just enough ammo in their guns to kill them all before reloading!
And in this new situation, despite one of the students dying, the rest quickly fell to the ground.
'Right,' Nadia released the air from her lungs, only now realizing that she held her breath back. 'They are only students, not zombies nor veterans,' she thought, her body relaxing a bit.
Yet, there was one thing that kept the girl worried, despite the situation quickly de-escalating.
Now that everyone's blood was pumping under the kick of adrenaline…
Nadia could feel a strange lust for that rushing blood as if an ancient, innate hunger awoke inside her!
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"I'm sorry, little miss, but I don't think we can hold on here for much longer," the policeman said in a low voice while keeping his eyes and muzzle still on the group ahead.
"But we don't really have anywhere else to go, do we?" Nadia muttered, fighting off her newfound desires in order to maintain the clarity of her mind.
Everyone who followed Mathew before ended up on the topmost floor of the school. Yet, by destroying all the staircases, they locked themselves out of the ability to run anywhere else.
'Sure, it was a good idea to stop zombies from swarming us…' Nadia thought, bitting down on her lips. 'But now, this gaping hole only serves to remind us that we cannot escape any further.'
"That might be the case here," the policeman whispered before taking a step forward.
"Back off!" he shouted, pulling the hammer of his gun back with his thumb.
It was a tiny threat, especially for those who didn't really understand it. But in the era of movies, shooting games, and a general glorification of the gun, hardly anyone could fail to understand the policeman's meaning.
"Fine, fine!" the leader of the student group finally came forward, his hands raised in the gesture of defeat. If anything, only his girlfriend still cuddling herself into the man's raised arm made him look strange.
Once ahead of the entire pack, the burly young man brought his hands to the sides as if he wanted to embrace the air ahead in a bear-hug. Yet, rather than going forward, he pushed backward instead, using his spread-out arms to force the rest of his group along.
Strangely enough, though, he didn't seem to be perturbed by the death of one of his classmates just now.
"We backed off. Are you happy?" the young man shouted over, alternating his eyes between the old officer in the middle of the room and the other policeman by Nadia's side.
"Back off," the younger officer repeated his words.
'Huh?' Nadia shrugged a little when she raised her eyes and noticed a small peculiarity.
The officer's hands… were sweating.
'He sure knows how to put on a bravado,' Nadia thought, her facial muscles tensing up.
Sure, his understanding of tactics against mob might be great, but…
'Compared to his senior, he is an amateur,' Nadia thought, sending a quick glance at the other officer.
"Peter!" the policeman shouted over. "Get the supplies and head for the nearest staircase!"
The sound of the old man's voice filled the floor. And for different people, this message bore different meanings.
For the students that wished to do away with the police supervision, it was a dream come true. Since officers wished to retreat without a fight, there was no use and any real point in stopping them from doing so.
Yet, the supplies thingy…
Given the current state of the world, it was debatable whether getting rid of the police was worth the cost of then snatching the precious little resources the group had!
'What's the reason for this move?' She racked her brains, desperately attempting to see through the strategy of the senior officer. 'Weren't all the stairs blown up?'
For the policemen, retreating was likely the only option. They saw the hell and the bottom floor. They saw the hell that nearly reached them all the way up there.
But contrary to what one could expect, it wasn't the zombies that were the greatest threat to them.
It was the unruly students.
The situation right now proved it. Sure, they managed to handle it so far, and it appeared as if a single shot was enough to convince the young ones about the futility of their attempts…
But it was only a matter of time before the shock of what happened would pass. And in a world ruled by an apocalypse, people would strive to grow more and more resistant to the sight of death, indicating the officers had only a little time.
Because once the push would come to shove, they barely had enough bullets for the first wave of the students. If anything were to happen, if either of them were to fall to an ambush…
"We need to run right now," the younger officer whispered, his forehead sweating just as much as his hands. "The stalemate will crack any second now," he warned. The officer then rubbed his fingers against the handle of his gun, shaving away the slick sweat to ensure his grip.
"Excuse me…" a voice from behind felt like a hammer for Nadia.
She was so focused on the events ahead that she didn't pay even the slightest attention to what was on her back!
'Fuck!' Nadia cursed under her breath, rapidly turning her head around. "It's on me!" she uttered on half of a breath, hoping to stop the officer from looking to the back as well.
But it was too late.
"KILL!"
This time, the students didn't hesitate.
With the younger of the officers no longer paying close attention, they only had the older of the two to be worried about.
'Too quick,' Nadia thought, looking at the face of the remarkably cute student and likely her boyfriend that approached her. Even though she moved her eyes away, she could somehow sense the events happening in the back of her head.
The students rushed forward, all eager to get the situation over with.
The other officer raised his hand.
Nadia could see it clearly despite not looking, as if the rushing blood in the officer's veins produced some sort of information that the girl's subconsciousness could somehow process.
'I can't see the gun,' Nadia thought, realizing the limits of her strange, new ability.
BANG!
The officer fired his first shot.
Alerted by the exploding sound, the younger of the two turned his attention back to the fight, fixing his grip and raising his muzzle back towards his desired target…
And then, he simply stood in place, watching how four more students fell to the ground, only for the rest of the group to tear the older officer apart.
"I'm sorry…" The officer's face turned into a snotty mess. Tears appeared in his eyes. And yet, all he could do was utter the words of apology with his trembling lips.
"Move!" Nadia shouted, some sort of force pushing her into action. She reached out and grabbed the two that approached them. She then squeezed out her thigh, sending a kick towards the officer's butt.
'What's happening!?' Naida screamed out in her mind, her eyes widening beyond their healthy limits as shock filled every last nook and cranny of her soul.
Yet, her lips moved again, uttering a quick, simple shout.
"MOVE!"
'From just the two of us, through having an entire comando all the way to the current state of my group,' Nadia thought, unable to control her body any longer.
Her muscles were moving on their own, just as if someone had taken over and was attempting to help her go through the dire situation.
'And now I'm stuck with two normies, a dysfunctional officer and my strange state!' Nadia lamented in her mind while her body continued to drag the three of her new companions towards the staircase.
"I can run on my own!" the officer protested, shaking Nadia's hand as he started to run himself. "Where are we going?" he then asked, turning his eyes towards the girl.
"How could I know?" Mia's lips moved on their own, uttering her words in a voice oozing annoyance. "You wanted to run to the stairs, didn't you?" she then asked before shutting her mouth close to preserve her breath.
As the very central point of the entire school, the place that Mathew initially picked for their stronghold was pretty spacious. It was so huge, in fact, that its creator actually fitted several rooms and additional classrooms just in the middle area in the space used for technicalities on the lower floors.
'I wonder if we will make it,' Nadia thought, limited to just passively watching how the events unfold.
She could tell that her body operated with the strength it shouldn't have. Yet, while she could no longer control her movements, she could very well feel the drawbacks of using so much strength to run.
'IT BURNS!' the girl screamed out in her mind, while her lips remained oblivious to the overuse of her body.
"There!" the cute girl that started the entire disaster shouted and shot her hand forward, pointing at something in the distance. "The stairs… are gone!"
'It's over,' Nadia thought, her mind projecting all sorts of things that would happen to her once the rest of the students would get their hands on her.
'I know I trained all sorts of stuff; I know it seems I'm stronger now, but…' Nadia thought, only to then bite down on her lips. 'It still won't be enough!'
For a moment, Nadia's mind fell into despair. Yet, just as she was about to succumb to the dark state of her soul, the girl shrugged.
'Huh?' she took a moment to clear her thoughts only to then cast them all aside and focus on a single, particular feeling.
'My lips… are cut?'
It was only a small detail, a tiny injury, that she found herself suffering more often than most of the other people around. All because of Nadia's habit of biting down on her lips when she couldn't figure something out.
Yet…
How could her lips be split open right now? Or rather, why did her body react to her thoughts if she could no longer control them?
"We destroyed all the stairs, after all." The voice of the officer's comment forced Nadia's mind back on the track.
She eagerly wished for a moment for herself so that she could figure out what was going. Sadly, the world around Nadia didn't care what she wished for or what she wanted.
And neither did the group of students that finally figured out what was going on and started their chase.
"Supplies!" the officer shouted, turning his head to the back, only to feel Nadia's shoe on his butt again.
"Too late; we can't grab them now," Nadia quickly informed, rushing towards the stairs.
And right as the small group of four managed to reach the destroyed staircase, Nadia figured it out.
'I just need to stop resisting?' she thought before mentally swallowing a gulp of saliva and then relaxing.
In an instant, Nadia returned to reality. Her vision turned back to its human version, and the immense power bursting through her veins dissipated all at once.
'What the hell was that?' Nadia asked herself, only to take a quick glance to the back.
'Thirty seconds at most,' she judged the distance and the speed of their pursuers before taking a look at the gaping hole in the floor ahead.
Surely enough, the floor below was filled with zombies. Yet, while jumping right into their brain-craving hands seemed like a bad idea, it was actually the act of jumping itself that Nadia was horrified by the most.
'If the floor breaks just like it did before…' she thought, only to shake her head and grab the arm of the officer.
Now was no time to deal with the psychological problems of some randoms.
"I…I didn't…" the officer attempted to argue, clearly unwilling to assume responsibility for what happened, even if only on a mental level.
"You fucked up before," Nadia cut the officer's words short before shaking her hand and the man's arm that she grabbed on. "But now you can redeem yourself," she stated, cursing away at the guilty feeling that instantly filled her soul.
'Who am I to offer that man redemption?' Nadia asked herself, only to shake her head and refocus her attention.
The group of students was now only ten seconds away.
"What?" the officer asked, clearly not catching Nadia's drift.
"You fucked up before." Nadia's eyes darkened, and her fingers tightened around the man's elbow.
Five seconds.
"Then go and pave the way for us to escape now!" Nadia shouted, suddenly using all the strength of her muscles and weight of her body combined into one of the simplest throws that she had ever learned.
And without even a moment of hesitation, she threw the poor officer towards the zombie-filled staircase of the lower floor while using her other hand to grab the gun that fell out of the policeman's hand.
A second. The students at the front already reached out with their hands, ready to grab the girl and her two other companions.
"Jump!" Nadia shouted, raising the gun in a single, fluid motion. She gently pulled on the trigger the second both the muzzle and the body of the nearest opponent appeared in a single frame of her vision.
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Nadia's shot stopped the advance of her pursuers only for a brief moment.
The dust kicked by the shot fell down, clearing the air in the room. Once it settled, like soldiers following a commander, the remaining students rushed forward.
'They are worse than zombies,' Nadia thought, relaxing her finger only to pull on the trigger again.
"Jump!" she shouted, not daring to look away.
A club came swinging from the right. Nadia lowered herself on her left knee, bending her entire torso away from the attack.
Whoosh!
The improvised weapon flew right past Nadia's ear. The wind dragged along by the club made her earlobe flutter.
'Piss off!' Nadia screamed out inwardly.
"Haaa…." Nadia exhaled when she kicked her right foot forward. Her shoe struck a man in front of her. His outstretched hand, clearly aiming for the girl's hair, comically stayed in place when the man's chest caved in under Nadia's kick.
Bang!
She quickly followed with another shoot, finally putting a stop to the frenzy of her pursuers.
"Help!" the officer shouted from behind.
Nadia's red vision returned, growing more and more intense with each strike, each kick, and each shot. By the time the group of males hungry for Nadia's flesh realized their situation, it was Nadia who pressed up the attack.
"Jump after me!" the underclassman companion of the cute girl shouted.
Nadia then heard a slight rustle, only for her brain to make her feel how the young man jumped to the floor below.
Right where zombies were busy swarming the defenseless policeman.
'I will surely go to hell for that,' Nadia thought, pulling the trigger yet again, mortified by what she had done just a moment earlier.
'I really did throw a man to his doom.' This single thought filled Nadia's head, making her doubt her morality as she continued to slaughter her former schoolmates.
All the aggressive students turned now into nothing but a lump of rushing blood.
It was so charming, the rhythm of their beating hearts. A melody that Nadia felt a powerful urge to hear, to absorb, to consume.
"Die," she ordered when her high-raised knee smashed against the throat of the retreating aggressor. This word came out of the girl's mouth without her even noticing.
"Die!" she cried out when her finger desperately clutched against the trigger, only for the gun to fail to shoot.
With no munition, a handgun was nothing more than a doorbell-like shaped lump of metal.
Heavy and unhandy.
'Perfect,' Nadia's soul resonated with the meaning of this word, her lips trembling in excitement as if she was a child that just found its new toy.
Nadia switched her hold over the gun, grabbing it by its barrel instead.
It took only a second for the bottom of the handgun to shatter the side of yet another student's skull.
It didn't matter that the students started to retreat long ago. In her frenzy, Nadia continued to chase after her former pursuers.
She killed more than half of the initial group. Judging from the sensation of beating hearts, Nadia could tell only five of the defeated foes remained alive, two of which would soon succumb to their wounds.
"Help!"
A desperate cry somehow broke through the red mist covering Nadia's mind.
The red-hued world before her suddenly stalled; a flash of the normal colored world replaced it, only for the blood-like crimson to cover everything up again.
Nadia's body moved, rushing back towards the staircase.
Just like before, she couldn't really control her movements.
'It's as if my body worked on instinct and instinct alone,' she thought, her will reduced to just the spectator of the events.
It was great to know that she could rely on this strange state of her mind in a pinch…
'It's really infuriating after all,' Nadia thought, mentally clenching her hands.
Whatever she would do now wouldn't be the result of her own work, her own struggle. Unable to influence what she was doing at all, Nadia felt strangely detached from the events playing out before her eyes.
But for her body, Nadia's mental struggle didn't matter.
Her legs carried her towds the secondary staircase, the same one that she was at just a moment earlier. And as soon as she got to the edge of where the policemen had demolished the floor and stairs before, Nadia jumped.
The policeman and both of the underclassmen were already on the other side, dealing with the horde of zombies. Or actually, the pair of Nadia's juniors continued to struggle while the bloodied body of the policeman proved he paid the highest price for his incompetence before.
"DIE!" Nadia shouted from the bottom of her heart. She raised her legs and pushed them forward, opting to go for a double kick instead of a traditional landing.
Nadia's shoes dug into the skull and a shoulder of two different zombies, respectively, And while the attack she executed with her left leg only served to hinder the zombie's movement…
'What…?'
Nadia's shock was so great that she somehow got out of her frenzied state.
Because the right leg that she brought down on another zombie's head… Actually mashed its skull in, ending its struggle to stay somewhat alive.
"What?" Nadia muttered when she finally landed on the ground, only to instantly push forward, right into the wave of the zombies.
While the shocking effectiveness of her kick took the girl by surprise, there was one memory that overshadowed everything else, forcing the girl to push through.
And it was the moment when the floor of the same floor, just more towards the middle of the building, collapsed.
This single event took out several well-trained and armed policemen, all of whom Mathew tried so hard to gather. As such, between getting molested by the zombies and falling to her death along with the rubble…
Nadia didn't need to think much to make her choice!
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"Just die already!"
Nadia used her voice to add strength to her punches.
With only an empty gun in her hand, she managed to clear her immediate surroundings, establishing a zone of relative safety.
It was only as wide as Nadia's reach, spanning just above the length of her arms. But against the slow and clumsy zombies, this amount of space was just right.
"Help…" the cry of Nadia's underclassmen grew weaker.
'There is no time,' the girl thought, swirling in her spot, cracking heads all over the place. Yet, the more she rushed to help her last remaining companions, the less she cared about her own safety.
"Fuck!" Nadia let out a small scream when a first scratch appeared on her arm.
Her blood was pumping erratically, instantly covering the small yet ugly wound with blood.
The entire crowd of zombies froze for a split of a second, only to then rush ahead, invigorated by the smell of truly living blood.
"Die!" Mia shouted from the bottom of her lungs. She swung her arms faster and dulled her kicks higher and further.
'I'm at my limit,' Nadia coldly realized, only able to observe the events her body was involved with.
Nadia's body couldn't move any faster. Her strikes had already reached their top possible strength.
'I can't do anything to help them,' Nadia thought, desperation filling her soul.
"Help…" the cry from nearby turned silent.
And then, the zombies all over the place started to move.
As if someone pulled out the plug in the bath, the yet-to-rot corpses proved that while they were slow, they still did move.l
"JUST DIE ALREADY!" this powerful shout was out of place, as it didn't come from Nadia's mouth. It didn't come from the students that had already arrived at the edge above and observed the struggle of the escapees.
It came from the place where only pleas for help arrived before.
'Hah?' Nadia nearly jumped when her attack suddenly didn't find an opponent to land on.
As more and more zombies fell to the ground under her attacks, Nadia found the free space around her expanding.
For the first time since she jumped down, she had some time to look around.
'They there are,' Nadia thought, directing her eyes where her crimson vision pointed the last remaining humans to be.
And to the girl's surprise, her underclassmen actually fought their way through!
"Die! Die! Die!" the young man swung a long piece of rebar, still covered in cement dust.
'Where did he find it?' Nadia initially thought, only to then shake her head and focus on cleaning the zombies out instead. 'No, it doesn't matter,' she quickly realized, pressing forward with her own fight in an attempt to join the forces.
If there was an advantage to the situation they were in, it was the narrowness of the corridor. As it was located at the back of the compound, most of the student traffic was concentrated towards the central parts of the building, allowing for smaller corridors and bigger classes.
And now, this small width of the path they had ahead was what allowed just three of them to withhold a charge of zombies.
"I'm here!" Nadia shouted when she finally managed to cut herself a path towards the two underclassmen of hers. "Let's go!" she shouted again, hoping to encourage her compatriots.
'I don't know where did you find the courage and strength to fight like that, but it would be a waste not to use it now!' the girl thought, using this new hope as fuel for her body.
'Even with his help, it's still only a matter of time…' Nadia thought, running her mind through every possible scenario…
And then she saw it.
It was just a short, neatly instant flash when her eyes struck some sort of reflective material.
Maybe it was the glass of a window embedded into the classroom's sides? Maybe it was a random piece of rubble that ended up splitting so cleanly it could serve as a mirror?
Nadia couldn't really tell what caused this, but for this one instant, she saw several strange objects floating all over her head.
It all happened in an instant…
Yet, Nadia's crimson vision allowed her to peer into the details kept within those strange, floating windows.
[Wife #1]
[Name: Nadia Astra]
[Age: 19]
[Level: 81]
[Race: Half-zombie]
[Class: Prime Wife]
[Status: Frenzied]
"What the hell?!" Nadia screamed out, the reality around her resuming its usual pace.
The strange, floating screens disappeared from before the girl's eyes… but their image burned itself off in the back of the girl's head.
'What the hell is this?' Nadia asked herself, swinging her arms to clear the path deeper into the floor. For each swing of her limb, another zombie would fall to the ground, never to raise up again.
And before Nadia could even notice, her small group managed to clear the entirety of the corridor.
"The others!" Nadia whispered as she violently turned around, facing the gap in the staircase.
Those few students that stuck around to observe her rampage were now clearly considering whether or not to descend to the floor below. Thankfully, whatever motivation their leader potentially had for catching Nadia, it clearly wasn't enough to press those guys into a nearly suicidal charge.
After all, they happened to witness both the floor collapsing when a huge weight suddenly dropped on it…
And they just witnessed how Nadia dispatched tens if not hundreds of zombies in a single rampage!
"Thank you…" a soft whisper reached Nadia from the back, followed by a dull thud.
'Not good,' Nadia forced her face back to its usual position, turning her eyes towards the source of the sound.
And there he was. Nadia's underclassman who bravely fought against zombies to save his friend or possibly girlfriend.
'That's so touching!' Nadia thought, unable to stop her girlish side from coming out, even in the middle of her, as her own status called it, frenzied state.
The young man was covered with wounds, some of which had already started to fester.
'A single scratch won't hurt you, isn't that what you said?' Nadia thought, recalling the words that Mathew left her with before she first started to lose her consciousness all this time before.
And yet, despite only having his body covered in scratches, the young man was clearly in bad shape!
Not minding all the blood and filth that covered the young man's body, his female companion stuck around, holding the young man's head on her knees.
"How is he?" Nadia asked, only to watch how the girl gently wiped a droplet of blood from the man's cheek.
She didn't even turn her head around, nor did she reply, not giving Nadia any reason to believe she even heard the question.
"I…" Nadia opened her mouth, only to make it gape like a fish before closing it. She then took a deep breath as she raised her eyes back on the girl. "I can end his suffering if that's what you want," Nadia said.
Now, it was the boy's girlfriend's time to make a decision. It was a sort of burden that Nadia couldn't help them to carry.
Hoping to give the two some privacy, Nadia turned to the side, only for her eyes to lay on yet another reflective surface.
And just like before, there it was. The same status as before, with just her level rising by one. Yet, there was another screen hanging on the other hand of Nadia's head.
"…uck…" a distant echo of a curse barely reached Nadia's ears.
"Huh?" Nadia shrugged when she noticed movement from the corner of her eyes.
The girl's focus was now on a veteran level. Even though she only fought once, this life-or-death situation allowed the girl to crack open all the restraints that she imposed on herself over the course of her years-long training.
Yet, when she turned her eyes to where she noticed the movement…
It wasn't the corridor but the very first window with her status.
And in there, her level continued to go up. This time, however, it was its second component that continued to reach new heights.
From one to two. From two to three. From three…
The counter ceased to move only when Nadia's total level reached fifteen.
And then, the entire building shook as if it was about to collapse… Only for the entire wing to Nadia's right to go and vanish in a thunder-like noise!
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