Going Home

Ding! The elevator door opened, and another dozen or so zombies turned their heads to him.

With a bit more confidence this time, he threw the meat to the face of the nearest zombie.

The zombies rushed towards the fresh bloody meat and he took advantage to run towards his car.

He took most of the meat he had in stock, throwing them at opportune times until he reached his precious baby.

His car was actually a bulky-awesome-manly SUV model Monster 931. Most people would think he'd own sexy sports cars like the Leopard.

In reality, he was a bit of a macho and he liked larger cars, unlike his pretty boy image.

By the time the meat was gone, he was already inside the car.

"Whew…" he gasped, resting on the very comfortable upholstered chair of his car with its ergonomic design and breathable fabric made of special synthetic materials.

He looked at the unchanged interior of his baby with a smile. "Forever reliable, yes you are…" he said, wiping the headboard, the backseats, and the wheels.

And finally, after taking a short breather, he turned on the engine. He reversed the car and stepped on the gas—

Thump!

[+5 Copper, +5 Experience]

"Oh?"

It quickly dawned on him about what he just hit and his eyes brightened.

After that, he headed to his target location, running over zombies and gained experience and copper by the way.

[+5 Copper, +5 Experience]

[+5 Copper, +5 Experience]

[+5 Copper, +5 Experience]

[+5 Copper, +5 Experience]

[+5 Copper, +5 Experience]

[+5 Copper, +5 Experience..

While he couldn't take the lives of all zombies he ran over, he still made a decent amount of experience overall.

The road had been much smoother ever since.

...

"Ah, my baby is the best~" He smiled, driving through the zombies, while avoiding major obstacles to the best of his ability. 

This car, hereby referred to as Barbara, was a top-of-the-line monster he bought with most of his dividends from the company.

Not only did it run fast and smooth, it had a strong bodice and quiet engine.

It also had superior high-ground clearance, off-road capabilities, and a powerful engine that allowed it to just run over zombie corpses without the carcasses affecting its run.

It was like he bought this car for the apocalypse.

Well, almost. 

Scratches were still inevitable, unfortunately. This wasn't a monster truck that could crush other cars after all.

When the car's metallic armor screeched as it scrapped other cars, Ansel teared up a bit.

"I'm so sorry Barbara, but we have to trudge through this!" 

It was painful, almost like he was being scratched himself, but he had no choice but to press on the gas, even when he knew his Barbara would get dented.

Ah, the torture.

Anyway, except when there were road blockages that he had to crash towards, he was basically unimpeded and unaffected by the chasing zombies for a good hour (gaining some experience as he went) until he finally neared the border of the city.

He looked at the back mirror and saw that there were still scores of zombies running after him.

He took out the bell counter he stole from the hotel reception and threw it out of the car. The small sound was enough to distract the remaining zombies for a few seconds. It was enough for him to maneuver an escape.

Well, sort of. After all, there were still plenty of zombies in the suburbs.

Fortunately, it was much calmer, and even with the new zombies running after him, he felt very calm.

He found zombies a little cute now.

But then he remembered the dents and scratches on Barbara and his hits became personal again.

[+5 Copper, +5 Experience]

[+5 Copper, +5 Experience]

Sure enough, only huge cars were real cars.

Anyway, he continued to happily run over zombies.

After running past the suburbs, he arrived at a relatively abandoned highway. Even if there were zombies, they were few and sparse. Even if they got to him, they would be run over by the car.

After driving for a bit, he found a place to park his car for a bit of rest. 

As he sat, he looked at his stats. 

[STATS:

Name: Ansel Witt

Age: 23

Level: 1 (165/1000)

Life: 165/200

Spirit: 45/200

Physical: 42

Agility: 35

Attack: 21

Defense: 17

Mana: 100

Physical Potential: S

Mental potential: A+

Skills:

Active: None

Passive: None

Elemental Affinity: Fire

Titles: None

Overall rank: A

Current Status: Weakened. ]

[EQUIPMENT LIST

Head:None

Ears: None

Body: Wool Suit, Cotton Polo +0 Defense

Arms: None

Legs: Wool Pants +0 Defense

Hands: Gun +Attack indeterminate

Feet: leather shoes +1 Defense, +0 Agility ]

[WEALTH: 43 gold, 0 silver, 410 copper]

He wondered what would happen if his Spirit turned 0? Would his soul fly out of his body?

Well, he decided not to know by experience.

So, he closed his eyes and took a well-deserved rest, even if just for a while. 

[19:44:53]

He was woken up by the sound of gunshots not far from him. At first, he was annoyed, but soon his eyes showed a tinge of interest.

After all, such noisy guns were really old school, discontinued all the way to before he was born. Did someone use antiques to defend himself?

Then again, old guns were better than no guns, so this dude was definitely better off than others.

Curiously, he looked over at their direction and eventually found the action. He also saw a huge middle-aged man apparently losing bullets and was now using it as a hammer instead.

Although he was not naive enough to save a person because of kindness—he was someone who was kidnapped once—this dude had been the only survivor he'd seen after so long.

Not to mention such a brave real man like this one. He decided to help out by pressing the horn to distract the zombies, attracting about half of the zombies to him.

Then, he proceeded to drive away.

Sadly a few minutes later there was a huge blockage in front of him.

It was a deciduous tree felled by a truck. Just as he stared at the obstruction and pondered on what to do, Ansel heard a breathless shout behind him.

"I'll help you if you help me!"

His eyebrows rose as he looked at the rearview mirror. 

It was that gun-hammer guy from before. "PLEASE!" He yelled as he swung his hoe (where did that come from?) to the head of the zombie.

Knowing there was little choice, Ansel just sighed and made a backing, crushing a lot of the zombies, earning him a bit of experience again.

(At this rate, it wouldn't be long until he reached level 2.) 

The man didn't wait for the surviving zombies to stand up, he quickly killed them and jumped in the car.

"Please make a backing. There's an alley on the right. I've been there and the road is clear!" 

Ansel nodded and followed instructions. Now that he noticed, the man had a mellow voice and he was also very soft-spoken, totally incongruent with his muscular body.

After a while, they did find a clear road. He accelerated past the zombies, running over a few again, before the reached the high way with relatively few cars and zombies. 

Several minutes of silence passed before either of them spoke up.

"Thank you." The older man said, taking out a few bolts of silver. "This is half of my earnings so far. Please take it."

Ansel was not polite and took the few bits of silver. Of course, his willingness to pay definitely added favorability to his direction.

[Received! +12 silver]

The man didn't speak for a while and just gathered his breath. Some moments of silence passed by them, and Ansel just drove as if he were alone.

"My name is Tom. I live a few blocks from here," the man finally spoke after a while. 

"Ansel." He just answered. "Where do you get off?" He asked, just a bit curious.

The man paused in thought. "Where are you heading?"

"Z city."

The answer seemed to have excited the man. "Can I go with you? My brother's family is in Mocci Town." Mocci was a town under the jurisdiction of Z city. "I will pay you with all the copper I have. I have 100 so far."

Ansel did not agree immediately. Instead, he looked back at the man's performance from before. "You're already level 1 as well?"

"Yes."

He nodded. "Okay, but I won't protect you, and you better not hold me back."

"Of course, of course!" 

Ansel smirked and focused on driving again, dark green eyes fixed on the relatively clear roads ahead.

Ignoring the sparse zombie population, it was as if he could see the person he wanted to see at the end of the road.

'Wait for me, Althea.' he mused, 'I'll find you, definitely.'