How to Loot?

He stabbed the knife through her eye and climbed on top of her to make sure enough force was delivered. His weight helped in controlling the movements of the zombie.

She clawed continuously until the kitchen knife sank fully, causing her flailing arms to fall to the side.

After making sure that she was really dead, Marco slowly crawled to his feet with rough breathing.

"Moving is so hard! I need to exercise if I don't want to die quickly."

Marco turned on the spot with his knife on the ready, making sure that there are no other zombies nearby.

After making sure that the area was safe, he noticed that the man remained unmoving as blood trickled out from his nape. The game did not really explain what kind of virus was transmitted to other people but one thing was guaranteed. People who got bitten would become carriers of the disease. The disease would remain inactive until they die, which would turn them into fast-running zombies.

Marco bit his lips as he stared at the missing flesh on the man's neck. If he was a bit more familiar with the man, he could have even cried on the spot for failing to save him. As he sees it, it was his fault for having to look down and catch his breath that the man got assaulted from behind. If he did not get easily exhausted, he could have warned him from the attack.

Nonetheless, the thing already happened and he can't do anything about it.

He hesitated whether to loot their body or start doing his task. Looting was a common feature in games where you search dead bodies for useful items. However, the screen would be covered with inventory items and visibility would be blocked.

If zombies started to appear, he would have a hard time collecting the required resources, and might even cost his life. Cutting branches from plants would create noise while searching for stones would take some time. Everything now depended on chance.

In the end, curiosity won over him as he stared at the body waiting for the loot advice to appear.

In games, it's common logic to wait for the loot message before pressing certain keys. However, there are times when the option doesn't appear and the body only gets highlighted by the outline. And this time, none appeared.

"So, will the loot option appear or do I need to blink too?" Marco pondered as he started guessing how to loot the body.

He waited for several seconds until the man started to twitch as if coming to life. Marco played hundreds of games and knew that the man probably died from shock or blood loss and has now reanimated. With him still feeling guilty, he forcefully sent a knife to the side of the head. He should have killed the man earlier but he was hoping that the man could survive, so he didn't finish him unluckily resulting in him turning into a zombie.

"Sorry, bro. I thought you could fight death, but I guess I was too optimistic."

Marco turned the body over and saw a luxury pen on the man's chest pocket. It was a cool pen and so he took it, thinking the other party might not need it anymore.

As his hand touched the pen, two separate inventory screens appeared in front of him. The left side was his main inventory screen while the other was obviously from the dead man in front of him.

The man had nothing valuable with him except for some cash in his wallet and the cellphone in his pocket. The work papers and notebooks could be used to start a fire but why take them when they are everywhere? He had limited inventory space, so he needs to choose what items to take and what things to leave behind.

The stained white long sleeve was a no-no, the pants too. The shoes were made from leather but he saw no use in taking them since running shoes were much welcomed unless he can find combat boots, which was probably difficult to find now.

It's probably too late to go shopping, right?

He took the cash and transferred them to his inventory. It was the only loot he thought worth taking for no reason.

The process was invisible from the naked eye and everything was done virtually. His hand did not move during the whole process and was still holding the pen.

Lastly, he transferred the pen and moved his hand away.

During this time, he had several realizations regarding how the looting feature works in the real world.

First, everything works just like the game. When looting bodies, two inventory sections appear, one contains loot while the other is the main inventory.

Second, you have to physically touch a storage space from the body, for example, the pockets in order to loot them. Loot varies from the items held by the body and sometimes random loot can be found after searching dead bodies.

Marco had several questions about looting but he kept it on the back of his mind for now. He had to make his move now since his neighbors weren't asleep and were peeping behind the curtains, watching the events unfold from the safety of their rooms.

As an experiment, he searched the pocket of the two zombie couple. The woman had nothing of value except for a lighter but her partner had strange stuff on him. A glowing stick and a handcuff.

Knowing that the man wasn't a cop, Marco couldn't help but feel weird. 'What kind of stuff are you guys doing?!'

He left with slumped shoulders and sighed as he walked slowly to the back of the building.

By the time he arrives at the back, his stamina bar was almost filled and his breathing has stabilized. The back of the building was an unattended empty lot. It was filled with overgrown grass and even had unknown plants almost reaching up to his waist. These plants don't bear fruits and mostly become children's playthings to whip around.

The lot remained unsold and unrented since the place wasn't good and found at the outskirts of the town. Even if someone wants to move in and settle in the town, there are other available options far better than this place.