Chapter 4: Main Quest Arrives
"Here, eat this to replenish your strength," Alex told Alice, handing her a chocolate bar.
"Thanks." Alice took the bar from Alex and began eating.
They were currently inside a mart not far from the Umbrella building. They had come here in search of food to replenish their strength because they had encountered more than twenty zombies on their way, expending a lot of energy to kill them. This made them even hungrier than they already were.
Sitting beside Alice, Alex opened a protein bar and started eating. While eating, he accessed the System Panel in his mind, recalling the notification sound he had heard when he killed his first zombie in this world.
He opened the system panel and found that all the previously grayed-out options were now available. The Combat and Task options had notification marks on them. Switching to the Task Panel, Alex saw that the system had assigned a task to him.
[Main Quest: Survival!]
[Quest Goal: Successfully Escape from Raccoon City!]
[Reward: System lottery 3x]
[System tips - The world of Resident Evil has begun. While it may be the start of an apocalypse for other people, for you, it is a chance to conquer this world. Your first step towards conquering this world is to survive the zombies and the upcoming nuclear bomb strike and escape the city.]
"As expected. In an apocalyptic world, the system's first quest is related to survival," Alex said to himself. He then started devising a plan to smoothly leave the city.
Closing the Task Panel, Alex opened the Combat Panel and saw that his Marksmanship proficiency had increased to 30. After consulting the system, he learned that proficiency in any skill could be improved through repeated practice.
Closing the Combat Panel, he opened the Status Panel to examine his strength, among other things. The panel didn't contain any names; instead, it had categories such as Physique, Spirit, and Energy, each with a value of 100/100/200, ten times that of an average human. Each category had several sub-categories.
Physique sub-categories: Arm Strength, Leg Strength, Muscle Density, Bone Density, Flexibility, Stamina, etc.
Spirit sub-categories: Soul Strength, Soul Perception, Soul Concentration, Reaction Speed, Thinking Speed, etc.
Energy sub-categories: Psionic (Energy reserve, control, manipulation range) and Mana (Energy reserve, control, manipulation range).
After learning more about himself, Alex decided to test if the amount of Mana used by Arc of Embodiment would differ based on his level of knowledge about the object. He wanted to confirm if creating the same thing, knowing its details or not, would consume the same amount of Mana. To conduct the experiment, Alex first created a Beretta 92 gun without detailed information, which cost him 10 points of Mana. Then, he imagined the details of the Beretta 92 gun that he knew from his previous life as a gun enthusiast. This time, it only cost him 5 points of Mana, less than half of the previous time.
From this experiment, Alex learned that the more detailed concept he had in mind about what he conjured up, the less Mana he would use. With this newfound knowledge, Alex decided to create Null Magic - Analyze from the world of 'In Another World With My Smartphone.' Creating this magic, he took out the gun from his storage, which he had obtained from the corpse of a police officer they had encountered before, and used Analyze magic on it.
The moment Alex used this magic, his Mana decreased by one point, and a large amount of detailed information about the gun's structure and the elements it was made of, etc., appeared in his mind. Having a brain ten times more active than an average human, Alex quickly absorbed all the information. He then used that information to create the same gun, consuming only 3 points of Mana and completing the creation in half the time.
Learning more about his powers, Alex stored all the guns he had created in his storage. Then he created a bracelet with the effect of collecting mana from the surroundings to store inside itself. It could store around 1000 points of mana and provided a Mana/Psionic energy regeneration buff for himself. All in all, it cost him 70 points of mana, leaving him with only 101 points, which quickly increased after he wore the bracelet.
While doing all this, Alex noticed that Alice had been looking at him with a smile on her lips.
"What happened?" He asked.
"Nothing. I was just looking at your face. So, what were you doing creating all those copies of the two guns?" Alice asked him, and Alex explained the results of the experiment to her.
"So, the more detailed information you have about the things you want to create, the less time and energy you will consume. That's great. So, can you create anything?" Alex noticed a hopeful expression in Alice's eyes and instantly knew what she was thinking.
"Not everything. I can't create completely unknown things, nor can I create things that require more energy than I have. So, sorry, I can't create the antidote for this virus," Alex said, patting her head as she sighed upon hearing his answer.
"I know," Alice said, shaking her head to reset her mood. Focusing her mind, she stood up and, while looking at Alex, said, "Let's go."
"Okay. But before that, let me pack some supplies." Alex said as he also stood up. With a wave of his hand, everything in a radius of 10 meters around him disappeared as he stored them all in his storage. He then categorized the items and returned the empty furniture using the auto-sort feature of the storage.
He repeated this process a few more times, emptying the entire shop. Turning to face Alice, he said, "It's more beneficial to take all of them with us; they will only rot in this place anyway. Let's go."
Knowing that Alex was right, Alice nodded and said, "Okay."
After leaving the store, Alex noticed a Yamaha V-Max parked by the side of the road. Seeing the bike, a light flashed in Alex's eyes as he remembered it as the one Saber used in the Fourth Holy Grail War.
Looking at Alice, Alex pointed at the bike and asked, "Alice, would you like to ride that bike?"
"Which one?" Alice looked in the direction Alex was pointing, saw the bike, and nodded. "Why not? That's a cool-looking bike."
"Okay. Then it's decided. We are going to ride that one." Alex took Alice near the bike. Finding it locked, Alex handed his gun to Alice, used Analyze magic on the bike, and created a key to unlock it based on the information he received.
Seeing Alex use magic to create the key to unlock the bike, Alice's mouth twitched as she thought, 'If Alex wants, he can be the best thief in the world.'
Unaware of Alice's thoughts, Alex sat on the bike and, after creating a soundproof barrier around them to avoid attracting zombies, he looked at Alice, who seemed lost in thought. He said, "Alice, what are you thinking? Let's go."
"Ah! Yes," Alice quickly sat behind him and hugged his waist as Alex accelerated the bike.
"So, where are we going?" Alice asked.
"I thought of collecting some more supplies. Can you point me to some marts, everyday shops, and gun shops in the area to replenish our stock and find weapons and ammunition for protection?" Alex answered.
Alice agreed with Alex's plan and recalled the nearby marts, malls, everyday shops, and gun shops. She then guided Alex to the nearest gun shop.