The World Cataclysm - Chapter 89: A Clue

Silently following after Dean Siphon, Dave trudged right behind her. She seemed to be pondering about something with a serious face, so Dave decided not to disturb her. Since she still wore that expressionless face, Dave couldn’t guess what she was thinking about.

She didn’t ask Dave any questions nor did she share the topic of their discussion with him. After several minutes of complete silence, she finally asked him something, “Why didn’t you stop him?”

“I wasn’t obliged to,” Dave replied calmly. It wasn’t his business to meddle with. “Moreover, I wanted to see how you would have dealt with it.”

“Were you satisfied with how I deal with the man?” She asked without a change in her tone.

“More or less,” Dave said as he chuckled. “What do you plan to do with the infected man?”

“Not me. I usually leave such people to Dylan.” She said. “It’s not the first case we’re having someone infected. If it’s Dylan, I believe studying the process of turning into zombies would be more beneficial to him. He may work something out from the acquired data. It’s hard to secure a person in the moment of turning into a zombie. They’re either left on the surface or turn before they reach this place.”

Dave agreed with her on that point. At best, infected people turn into zombies in half an hour, depending on the place they were bitten and how much virus entered into the blood flow. “I didn’t expect it from a person with your profile.”

“What? Did you have a problem with that?” She asked in her emotionless tone.

“No. Actually, I like it.” Dave replied with a smile. Dave didn’t know where such a person was in his past life, but he found her more and more fitting to the role of a leader. Moreover, she got the status of the dean, so only a few would object to her decisions.

‘Adam will heave a sigh of relief,’ Dave thought.

“Later, we would burn their corpses as a gratitude for their contribution in acquiring data about zombies,” Dean Siphon said with a tinge of unnoticeable sadness in her voice.

As they were talking, they came to her office. Entering her office, she swiftly sat in her chair and took a cigarette from her desk. Lighting her cigar, she breathed in the smoke and exhaled it. The puffed smoke was sucked into the ventilation system right atop her.

“I didn’t think you were a smoker,” Dave said as he glanced at the smoke rising from her mouth.

“It’s hard to get rid of bad habits. I usually try to restrain myself, but I still end up smoking one or two times a day.” She said as she exhaled smoke from her mouth.

However, Dave didn’t mind it in any way and all the smoke was entering the ventilation system, so the smell hadn’t reached him. Instead, he took candy from the bowl and sucked it. Then, he asked, “So what do you want to discuss with me? You haven’t told me yet.”

Puffing a smoke, she said, “According to Dylan’s estimations, electricity will go off in a week. Without it, the ventilation system will stop working and we won’t have any fresh air to breathe down here. Therefore, we need to secure a place on the surface until it becomes too stuffy and suffocating down here.”

As he listened to her, Dave frowned slightly. He couldn’t recall it accurately, but it should be around this time when the electricity went off. He asked her, “How accurate is that information?”

“Although Dylan holds no interest except for his experiments, he’s reliable when it comes to calculating things like this. At best, a week will vary by a day or two.” She said in a cold yet confident tone.

“Hmm…So you want me to help you with securing a place on the surface, right?” Dave asked as he came to that conclusion. She wouldn’t have asked him to discuss things if she didn’t need his help.

“What I’m proposing is more mutual than just you helping us. I’m proposing to join our forces since I believe that you should have more than one fighter in your group. Moreover, considering the quality of your sword, you’re more high-levelled than me, so your help would be substantial for the operation,” She explained to him.

Listening to her, Dave chuckled, “But what do we gain from it? We already have a place where we’ve settled and we’re also doing fine.”

She pressed the tip of her cigar to a metal can where Dave could see a pile of other cigars and said, “If you help us with this operation, then I can promise you that you’ll be treated the same way as people who go to the surface. It includes a nutritional meal two times a day, a personal room and other perks of a combat group.”

“It should go without saying since when we join forces I’ll be automatically treated as a part of a combat group,” Dave said.

“Then, what do you want? I can’t promise you much.” She said, staring at him intently. Although she was revered as a leader of this group, she still couldn’t promise anything out of her reach.

Smiling, Dave said, “Don’t worry, it’s something you can provide me with.” At his words, Dean Siphon raised her brow. “What I want is full autonomy over my actions. And I also want to keep my own group intact. Furthermore, every item obtained by our group will be owned by us. However, I can trade those items for Survival Coins.”

Squinting her eyes, she asked him, “Considering the way you talked about it, you should know what is the function of Survival Coins?”

“Nope, I know nothing about it. However, if my guess is right, then Survival Coins should be similar to game-like currency.” He said while keeping his composure. He didn’t know why, but it seemed that he shouldn’t casually reveal information about the future.

Pondering for a short while, she replied to him, “Fine. I agree with your conditions, but you need to bring your strongest fighters to the operation.”

Coming to an agreement, Dean Siphon pulled out a booklet with a map of their university to show their target. It was a living complex where students lived if they could afford its costs.

‘No wonder she’s proposing it.’ Dave thought inwardly. First of all, it had a good geographical location, being close to the biggest mall and other facilities on the campus.

It was a huge living complex, constructed from four adjoined buildings and leaving open space in the middle. The biggest advantage it held over other dormitories was that it had only an entrance point, making it easy to guard.

Moreover, it had more than 700 hundred rooms, study rooms, a small gym, tables for table tennis, special enclosed fields for team games with a ball, a cafeteria and lounges to chill. It was actually the best place for a luxurious life in their university.

As he was studying the information about that living complex such as how big it was, how many floors it had and what would be their route to reach it, someone knocked on the door.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

Hearing three clear knocks, Dave glanced at the door to see who it was. He immediately recognized a man who had entered since he had met him just a few minutes ago. It was the man who tried to calm the infected person.

The man stood straight before the dean’s desk as he said loudly, “Dean, I’m here to report about today’s ascension to the surface.”

However, he stopped the next moment as he awkwardly stared at Dave. Following his gaze, she understood why he didn’t dare to reveal any information to an outsider, so she said, “Don’t worry. Today, you had gone to the surface to find an optimal route to our target, so Mr David would eventually know about it.”

“Understood.” The man said as he stood straight. “Fortunately, we have found that there were fewer zombies around the living complex than around other places. Initially, I just thought that it was our luck, yet we’ve stumbled upon a site of carnage.”

“What? A carnage? But who would kill people without turning them into zombies?” Dean Siphon asked as she furrowed her brows.

“No. The corpses didn’t belong to humans. Someone had slaughtered a whole group of zombies.” The man reported, trying to keep his composure. Next, he took out a phone and showed the pictures of the slaughter.

Studying the pictures, Dean Siphon frowned as she mumbled, “Strange. Who would be able to kill so many zombies?”

“May I?” Dave asked. Taking the phone, he accurately studied the corpses of killed zombies and thought, ‘Bingo! I think I have a clue.’