The World Cataclysm - Chapter 58: Human Greed

Frowning, Dave glared at the horde of zombies. He didn’t see any reason to risk their lives to save some strangers. Indeed, they were planning to establish a survivor group in the university, yet they should put their lives before other people. Isn’t it?

“I don’t think that it’s a good idea! What would be if more zombies are drawn to the noise of the battle?” Dave asked her harshly. He thought that there was no place for kindness in their situation since their survival should come first.

“But…” Rebecca mumbled as she tried to put thoughts into words, “We can’t just leave them here. They need our help. I know it’s quite dangerous, so I won’t hold you here. But I wanna help them.” She said determinedly.

“Please, think it over, Rebecca! We can’t risk our lives.” Rachel tried to persuade her otherwise, but it seemed Rebecca had already decided everything for herself as she refused her outwards.

“Don’t worry! I won’t blame you if you decide to leave. I’ll understand it.” Rebecca’s voice turned slightly softer as she knew that Rachel said it out of concern.

“You know you can’t throw your life aside when you get slightly stronger. Do you think that you’re kinda immortal? Don’t confuse foolishness with courage! One bite, and you’ll die!” Dave said harshly. However, the next moment, he sighed as he massaged his temples.’Fine! If everything goes smoothly, we can try it, if not, let it be a lesson for both of them.’

Furrowing his brows, Dave suggested, “If you want to help them so much, then try to kill zombies as fast as you can but don’t overexert yourselves. Remember, we shouldn’t make a big commotion, otherwise, other zombies would be drawn to us. In that case, run towards the dormitory building.”

Saying it, he gripped his Steel Sword. When she heard Dave, Rebecca’s eyes shone in relief as she nodded to him. Even though she said that they could leave her, she felt relief when she knew that someone would back her up. Dave’s decision was final, so Rachel decided to stay with them.

“However, first of all, Rebecca try to take down as many zombies as you can with the help of Star.” Dave immediately started commanding as he didn’t want to worsen their situation. Not only did the light is formless, but it’s also noiseless, so it was a good signal for the battle.

“En…” She nodded her head as she summoned her elemental spirit, Star. Observing it, Dave didn’t found any changes in it; it was still was an orb of light, almost spherical in shape, floating in the air.

Concentrating, Rebecca commanded Star to condense light energy into small blades weaker in power but enough for ordinary zombies. She was able to make five such blades and shot them at the closest zombies.

When the light blades sliced their heads, Dave led Rachel and Rebecca to leap towards zombies as he immediately started killing zombies in front of him, closely followed by two girls behind him. Since they needed to make it fast, Dave didn’t hold himself back, as he didn’t spare his mana and stamina, enhancing his body and continuously using Flash Step to quickly approach zombies.

Behind him, Rebecca and Rachel were also trying hard to kill as many zombies as they can, especially Rebecca who was actively shooting light blades at zombies. As the person who persuaded them, Rebecca felt responsible for her suggestion and did everything she could to lower the numbers of zombies.

…

Slash!

Killing the last zombie, Dave took a rag from his backpack and cleaned his sword, wiping the blood of zombies from it. Panting lightly, he said, “Let’s enter quickly before other zombies come running here.”

Both Rebecca and Rachel, compared to Dave, were panting heavily since they weren’t monster like him. Not only did Dave kill zombies easily, but he also had that manic smile on his face while killing them. Both of them responded weakly, “Yeah!”

Rachel was just tired from the battle, and she would restore her stamina after some time, but Rebecca felt weakness in her body as she was sick. She felt weak, nauseous and cold but tried not to show her state to others as she trudged weakly. If Dave could see her mana counter on her status, he would have seen a minus sign on it.

However, although noticing that she walking weakly, he related to the aftermath of battle since it was more draining than their usual battles with zombies where they didn’t need to race against the time. Even he had felt slightly drained after using his mana and stamina without holding himself back.

“However, firstly, we need to pick up all the coins dropped from the zombies. After that, let’s check those survivors and head towards our base,” Dave said as he started scanning the ground and the dead bodies for the presence of black coins.

Trying to cope with the weakness in her body, Rebecca didn’t say anything. On the other hand, Rachel exclaimed in curiosity, “I always meant to ask you about it. Why do we even collecting them if they have no apparent use?”

“Just my guess. Considering that they are dropped from zombies and taking into account obvious game-like setting, they should have their own use, otherwise, as you have said, there are no meaning in them, which is very doubtful.” Dave explained calmly, “In any way, there is no harm in collecting them.”

However, inside he thought, ‘Better to collect them as many as I can before going there. Perhaps, I can even buy something useful there.’

“Hmm…okay.” Rachel agreed with his reasoning, finding no flaws in it since she also believed that Survival Coins may serve for something that they don’t know yet. Noticing that Rebecca didn’t move much from the end of the battle, she turned to Rebecca and said, “Rebecca, are you alright?”

Massaging her temples, Rebecca smiled slightly. “Don’t worry, just feeling slightly disoriented. I’ll be alright right after a moment, and I can also rest in the dormitory building when we finish here. Let’s enter into the building, people inside should be scared.”

Knock! Knock! Knock!

Knocking on the door, Dave said lowly, “For the time being, it’s safe outside. Open the doors unless you want to stay there.” Immediately, Dave heard hurried steps inside and whispers inside the building as people inside were actively deciding on opening the door.

Click!

However, a short while later, the door opened with a click as someone unlocked it from the other side. Opening slowly, a burly male student with short hair peeked out of the doors as he cautiously glanced at his surroundings.

“Shhh…Follow me inside!” He said hastily as he called them over. Saying it, he kept glaring worriedly at their surroundings until they entered the building, waiting to close the door. Getting inside, Dave immediately recognized a study room from it as cream-white tables were located all over the space.

Entering inside, Dave frowned as he noticed that a burly male student was blocking the door. Inside the building, he found 4 men, seemingly slightly older than him. Two of them had clubs on them, and another two had dagger and bat respectively, both being trash weapons. The burly man, blocking their way out, held a bat.

“Nice to meet fellow students when everything had turned into chaos. You know, we, students, need to stick together, otherwise, we’ll end up feeding that monsters. We are third-year students, and you are?” Stretching his hand, the man with a dagger introduced himself, well, if it even could be called an introduction. He seemed to be a leader among them.

“First-year student.” Dave shook his hand as he said coldly, “How did you even end up here? You shouldn’t go disturbing such a large horde of zombies.”

“What can we do in such a situation? Of course, we were searching for any food we could find. We didn’t eat for days.” A savage glint flashed in his eyes for a moment as he said it. “By the way, do you have any food on you? You have quite a big bag on your back.”

Glaring coldly at the male student, Dave said, “No, we don’t have any food to share.” The male student couldn’t hide his greed as he looked at Dave’s bag, full to the brim. He licked his dried lips as he had greed in his eyes.

“Fuck! Just give that backpack and scram!” Impatiently, the burly man at their back shouted madly as he slammed his fist to the wall but didn’t approach him to take it from him forcibly. It seemed that though he was suffering from hunger, he didn’t forget that their group of three had killed zombies outside.

Lifting his sword and standing into a battle stance, Dave directed the tip of the sword towards them and said coldly, “Stay back, or don’t blame me for killing you!”

Immediately, the air in the building became tenser! Dave just wanted to scare them off, trying to avoid a bloodbath, while the male students were cautious of him. Not only did Dave look intimidating, but his Steel Sword also seemed better than their weapons.

…

Sensing the tense atmosphere, Rebecca, still weak from overspending mana, stepped forward between Dave and the male student as she tried to stop both sides from attacking each other. “Please, we can’t fight with each other! We need…Eek!”

However, as she tried to persuade both sides, the leader of the group pulled her by her hand and put a blade on her neck. “Give that backpack on your back, or I’ll kill her!” Trying to threat more effectively, he even made a cut on her neck as blood dripped out of the cut, causing her face to pale in colour.