Chapter 3: Attacked
While Oakley made his was moving northwards, there were faint tremors underground that weren't felt by anyone, and the mana that was had long since permeated throughout the world increased rapidly.
The world was also changing, unbeknownst to anyone.
...
Oakley was keeping an eye out while walking, and he wasn't only looking out for the zombies.
Similarly, the pea shooter that was now in perfect condition, was scanning the area with it's eyes. The sunflower just kept shaking its head from side to side slightly, as if it were listening to music.
He passed by several empty shops and cars. There was the smell of rotten flesh from the bodies littered all over the ground, as well as the familiar smell of iron. He had to watch where he stepped, as some of the bodies lying on the ground may not actually be entirely dead.
He treaded forth carefully, seemingly unfazed by the gruesome sights around him. He had seen similar scenes throughout his walk, now he was used to it, though the smell was quite unsettling.
Then, he saw a group of three people walking out of a shop from across the street.
They saw him, and started walking over. Oakley noticed that each of them held weapons, and that said weapons were covered in blood just like the peoples' clothing and skin.
"Hey kid, hand over everything you've got there and we'll let you go, without a scratch." The one who spoke was a man, presumably the leader of the group. His short black hair was balding on the front, and he sported a beer belly. He was wearing suit that was now stained with blood, and the other two were similar. They looked they worked in a company, and they were probably coworkers. They didn't seem to care about Oakley's plants, probably thinking they were toys or something.
He didn't sound convincing at all, in fact, his tone seemed condescending and commanding.
Thoom! Thoom!
That was Oakley's response, it seemed that his plants' targets weren't limited to zombies. The pea shooter started firing, having sensed the threat, it had locked onto the three men.
"Argh!" The man in the front was struck by the peas, he didn't expect it.
The leader of the group looked at his chest, only to find two large holes, the peas went through his body like nothing. He collapsed in a puddle of his own blood, and his fate was unknown.
"Liam, get that f*cker!" One of them spoke, running towards Oakley with knife in hand. He didn't seem to mind that he was about to kill another human being.
Oakley saw one of their weapons suddenly catch on fire, as if they activated a skill, 'So I wasn't the only one...' He confirmed that other people had skills to, but he still didn't know where his class and skills ranked or stood among them. It probably wasn't low though.
The man with his weapon aflame swiped at the pea coming towards him, but when the knife collided with the pea, his hand broke and the knife was flung away. Though, fire directly counters plants, the plants that Oakley had weren't normal, adding on the fact that the fire's small size, akin to a lighter. It was a given that Oakley would win in this trade.
"Go to h*ll!" The last man said, he was about to hit Oakley with the pipe held by both hands.
"Are you an idiot?" Oakley responded, and as he said that the pea shooter locked onto the man's head, and fired.
Thoom! Thoom!
The man saw something green flying towards his head, and then his vision went black. He fell backwards onto the ground, a chunk of his head blown off. The man had paused a little bit when he said those words, giving Oakley even more time. Who yelled out like that when they were fighting?
Oakley came out of the fight unscathed, and this time he wasn't shaken up at the sight of their corpses, he was numb to it by now. And, he knew he would be seeing a lot more of these scenes. Plus, he thought that their classes were probably weaker than his, as he remembered that only one person used a power and it was kind of underwhelming to be honest.
If he didn't kill them, they would have killed him, it was as simple as that. The government were probably more preoccupied with the chaos.
This whole time, he barely saw anyone alive, and he was only in his apartment for about a day. He assumed that they had either moved to a shelter, which was probably where groups were operating anyways. He saw no police or anyone of the sort.
The manpower had been delegated elsewhere.
'Either the stadium or some building.' The stadium that was in Oakley's city was especially large, able to fit several thousands at a time, especially with the field probably being use as well. That was probably where the gun noises from earlier originated.
Oakley decisively chose to not go there, he thought that one of the worst things you could do in an apocalypse was to go somewhere highly populated.
Bang! Bang!
Right on que, he heard gun shots in the distance, in the direction of the stadium. He could even make out yelling.
'No wonder all I've seen are corpses.'
Oakley thought about it, realizing that most of the zombies were attracted by not only the sounds of the gun, but just the living in general. It was like that situation in his apartment when the creatures came knocking at his door, how did the zombies know he was in there? He had turned off his television, and it was quiet in his apartment.
That led him to conclude that the zombies somehow knew where there the living were, 'Maybe animals will targeted as well.'
He hadn't seen any animal corpses yet, so he didn't know, but he believed it was possible. He shook his head, not at his situation, but for those who brought their pets with them at the arena. If his conjecture was true then, they had literal ticking time bombs next to them. Of course, all of this was under the premise that humans and animals could be affected by whatever was turning them.
[Out of combat, experience gained.]
He checked his interface again.
=============
[Interface]
Name: Oakley
Class: Lifeweaver 5★
Power: 7
Abilities: Pea Shooter 1★, Sunflower 1★
=============
...
Oakley was now in front of a large house, with two stories. Strangely enough, there were no corpses in this particular area and it seemed deserted. The cars were gone, probably because the owner of the house left to seek shelter.
Thinking about it now, it must have been because these people received the news earlier, so they managed to evacuate quickly. Oakley didn't believe that the apocalypse happened exactly today, it must have occurred a some time ago.
He made such an inference because when he went inside, everything was gone, even the things one would normally leave because they weren't important. Furnishings and everything, the place had been stripped clean. This implied that those here must have had ample time to make a getaway.
He went to the house next to this one, and the situation was the same, and then the next.
'This is weird.' Indeed, even if those here had ample time, they shouldn't have been able to strip everything clean like this. Something was definitely going on.
After thinking about it for a while, Oakley still couldn't figure it out. Were there people who knew about the apocalypse beforehand?
He decided to stop wasting his time thinking about it, and chose a house to start planting the pea shooters and sunflowers in the front yard.
He dug some holes, and put the plants on him in them.
'Wait do I even need to dig a hole?' He tried activated Pea Shooter on a vacant spot, and found that he didn't.
He thought that each use would drain his mana, so he could only plant a couple, until said mana regenerated.
Oakley ended up with 7 pea shooters and 3 sunflowers total, including the pea shooter he tested with and the one he had in the pot and the sunflower in his backpack. He felt fatigued at this point, and a bit drowsy.
He needed to sleep, but before that he wanted to set up some defenses.
He kept 2 pea shooters in the front yard with 1 sunflower, and moved 2 pea shooters and 1 sunflower to the backyard.
After that, he chose a room upstairs, and kept the remaining pea shooters and sunflowers in the room to guard him. He only had one pot, so most of the plants were in piles of dirt that he placed around the room.
The reason he kept a single sunflower in each group was because he thought that the sunflowers needed to be within a certain range to keep them alive and invigorated.
Tonight, he wanted to test if the sunflowers could function at night, or at least whether they stored the sunlight they absorbed from the sun to use later, like a solar panel.
He leaned against the wall, slowly falling asleep. He would be able to confirm it in the morning, and he didn't worry about the plants dying because he knew that they could survive for several hours without the sunflower.