Chapter 13: Calm before the storm

After entering inside their room they didn't immediately sleep instead they sat on their respective bed while discussing on their next course of action.

"So, tell me what's your plan for s*cking up into that Malek guy?" Reynold asked him.

"A way out for us." Ziv replied at him.

"What do you mean by that?" Reynold asked in confusion.

"Like you said, Black Market is a secretive gathering spot with power and influence before the apocalypse, but why did Malek reveal himself in the open by building this area?" Ziv asked him.

"Hmm.. Maybe he was confident in his strength and he also wants to come contact with different strong Users?" Reynold ponders for a while before answering.

"Exactly. We show him that we're strong and our sincerity earlier, even though we slightly reduce its price and if he really want to make connection with different User he will befriend us for sure. In the future, we can look for each other if we ever need help." Ziv explained.

"Wow, how can you think of like that? What is your brain made out of?" Reynold realizes what he is up to.

"It's still made out of tissue, don't worry." Ziv jokingly said.

"Anyways, just prepare tonight we will buy a lot of items tomorrow." Ziv added before organizing their stuff.

"Okay."

...

While sitting on the bed, Ziv ponders as he tried to experiment his skill on the water in the glass bottle.

'I've been experimenting various things for these past few days, but the extent I can use my skill is about 50-60% of its full capabilities.'

'While Combining and Decomposition are the first thing that I discovered, I feel that there should be at least one or two more left to explore.'

While staring at the reaction of the water, he suddenly thought about something else.

'Wait a minute, I suddenly think of something.. If fire and water mix together what would you get? You will get steam. While if you cut a tree from its roots what would happen? The roots will eventually decompose and if so..'

"Ha.. That's it! It's all connected after all! The effect of this two reaction will eventually lead to.. Change!"

Ziv was laughing loudly after he got struck by this sudden realization.

While Reynold was cleaning his gun he suddenly got startled when he heard Ziv was laughing for no reason.

"Ah.. Are you okay?" Reynold asked in concern.

"Of course. I'm more than okay!" Ziv laugh foolishly.

"Okay. Have you discovered something?" Reynold asked while seeing him happy.

"Well, I can use my skill in full capabilities now." Ziv proudly said while pumping up his chest.

"That's nuts! Let's spar sometimes!" Reynold replied while punching in the air.

"You know what, I just figure it out that I can't still completely used it and I need to further study it for maybe 10 years?" Ziv respond in modest tone.

"P*ssy! What a coward excuse was that!" Reynold cursed at him for being spineless.

'How can I defeat someone who can kill Tier 1 Zombie by himself?' Ziv thought bitterly.

"If you will teach me CQC for a few months I will fight you then." Ziv suggested.

"Sure. Just don't go crying when you still got beat by me." Reynold said with a malicious grin.

"Whatever. We can start as soon as possible." Ziv shrugged.

"Okay. No problemo." Reynold said with a huge smile hung on his face.

After talking and chatting for a few hours, they eventually sleep for the night to prepare for tomorrow.

(Ah-San: Of course its separate bed.)

...

The next morning they woke up early while preparing to start their training on CQC before buying the items they need.

While they were about to go outside, an unexpected guest suddenly knocks on their doorstep.

"Oh.. Is it Malek? He is much impatient than I thought." Reynold exclaimed when he heard a knock on the door.

When Reynold approached the door, he first looks at the peephole of the door to see the person on the other side.

"I can't! Why is it so dark?" Reynold said with confused tone.

"Hmm.. Just open the door first, then we will see who it was." Ziv urged him while walking towards the door.

*Clank* *Weng*

After opening the door, they saw a tall man clad with black cloaked that emits a black miasma that coming from his body, while staring at them with his pure white eyes that only visible on his face that surrounded by darkness.

"So, what can we do for you weirdo?" Reynold impolitely asked.

"I, Shadow was here to warn you to stop associating with Malek nor befriend him or else death is the judgement we will give."

"We will give you a chance for your salvation. Die or Join the Black Hawk." Shadow warned them with deep and solemn tone.

'Haa.. A total weirdo indeed.' Reynold inwardly insulted him.

"We want to leave, but can you give us a boat?" Reynold asked him.

"No." Shadow replied.

"What about different materials we need, do you have one?" Reynold asked again.

"No." Shadow replied in annoyed tone for asking him again.

"So.. What is your benefit to us?"

This time Reynold asked him with visible despise in his eyes while looking at Shadow in front of him.

"Salvation." Shadow answer him.

"Salvation my a*s!" Reynold cursed at his answer.

"Is that your choice? You lead yourself to destruction then."

*Swish* *Shiing*

When the man was about to leave Reynold suddenly pull out his knife on his thigh before striking Shadow's head.

The knife didn't hit anything solid instead it only strike a black wisp of air that swirling around that area.

"How dare you attack me!?" Shadow was infuriated when he got suddenly attacked.

"I hate it when people threatening me! The last person who did that was now in my suitcase." Reynold cursed while his eyes are looking at him with murderous intent.

"Y-You are going to pay for this!" Shadow felt scared and humiliated when he saw Reynold looking at him like some kind of prey.

After Shadow staring at him for a while, he immediately escapes and disappeared into thin air before everything turn to normal.

"What is that all about?" Ziv asked him.

"I was just trying to touch his head, but he suddenly dodges. Anyway, he is a more coward than you." Reynold said while playing with his knife.

"I don't know if you are complimenting or insulting me." Ziv bitterly said.

"I think no training for now as it is going to be noon later. At least we need to buy the items I'm looking for." Ziv added.

"Whatever. What do you need by the way?" Reynold asked.

"I think I will buy a revolver and raw materials to upgrade our equipment." Ziv answers while looking at the list in his hand.

They went downstairs to look around the market and buy the things they were looking for.

After looking around for a few hours they spend for about 13 Tier 0 Crystal while buying a black Colt Python for his gun in addition of leather, rubber, metals and fiber materials.

"We only have 14 more Crystal left. Let's go back now." Ziv suggested while getting all the items they need.

While heading back to their room on the 2nd floor of the gambling den, a guard approached them while saying that Malek want to meet them.

They leave the stuff they bought on their room while following the guard to a wooden double door room.

...

On the inside of this room, there is a long meeting table, a painted dragon on the wall and a huge glass window that outlook the whole Black Market.

There is a 7 male and 3 female with different age from 16 to 40 years old sitting inside.

While Malek was sitting in the center chair of the table while sniffing some purple powder on the table.

*Clank* *Weng*

When Ziv and Reynold enters the room, the people that were sitting on the table, gaze at them for a while as they stride confidently to an empty seat completely ignoring them.

"Do you need to be so rude that you are going to ignore us?" a young man with black armor and a sword on his back that was leaning on wall asked them.

"Well, we didn't know you in the first place, why do we need to greet you?" Reynold rebuked him.

"He got a point." a middle age man agreed to him.

"Y-You!" the man got speechless for a moment before he kept his silence.

"Good, all of you are here.. Wait.. Why did we have 24 people in here? I thought I only Invited 12?" Malek said while looking at the people on the meeting room.

"Anyways, I have a good news and a bad news for you. You want to die or you want to live?" Malek bluntly asked.

"What!?"

"What are you talking about?"

Some people in the room were shocked and panicking when they heard that as they didn't expect that they were called out here just to hear that they will die.

"Oh.. my bad I didn't clearly explain. There is going to be a zombie horde that was directly coming towards this direction and the Black Hawk and those Terrence Group decided to team up to attract that horde to attack the Black Market." Malek suddenly dropped a bomb.

"How many zombies we are talking about?" a young girl raises her hand before asking.

"50,000 zombies." Malek replied.

"Ha.. I thought it was 100,000." the young girl heaves a sigh of relief when Malek dropped another bomb.

"I'm not finished yet. There is atleast 50,000 zombies, but there is a 2 Tier 2 Zombies and 30 or more Tier 1 Zombies in that horde." Malek said without worrying about what they feel.

"W-What!?" all of them were shocked by this news.

A Tier 0 zombie can be killed with just a pistol, knives or even bare hands.

A Tier 1 zombie can survive a sniper rifle shot if it didn't fatally hit its brain that protected by a thick muscle on its body.

Lastly the Tier 2 zombies, these zombies couldn't get any damage to most of the weapons except sniper rifle and RPG. (Skills are not included here just weapons and guns.)

"You can escape from this place and live without helping us while those who stay here will get a portion of Energy Crystal that we will get from this fight and maybe even those bastards Energy Core." Malek coldly stated when he speaks about those 'bastards'.

When they heard that they can leave here without fighting, some of the 'cowards' hurriedly leave while escapes to safety as only 5 people that stayed in the room including Ziv and Reynold.

"*sniff* If you have a problem in the future, just contact me. Any question?" Malek looked at the people that stay in the room.

"Well, I have a question. If I kill a Tier 1 Zombie by myself can I take the Crystal right away?" Reynold raises his hand while suddenly asking him.

"What do you think? *sniff* There is no issue, right?" Malek asks them.

"We don't have a problem with that. There is at least 30 Tier 1 anyways." the middle aged man agreed.

"Yeah. Instead, we will be grateful if you can handle it alone." the young man with black armor and sword also agreed.

"Okay. I hope you will be ready by tomorrow." Malek said before leaving.

After leaving the meeting room, they immediately return to their room, especially Ziv as to ready their equipment when the fight happens.

"Reynold! After I finished the equipments let's train immediately I need to be more prepared." Ziv demanded after saying his plan.

"Sure, just finish it early and we will go training right away."

...

Meanwhile, a few kilometers away from the Black Market there is a dense black mob that constantly moving in the snowy terrain of the road while following a trailer car that carrying a bunch of glowing white crystal.

At the top of a building, there is a 9 people that were staring at this scene with domineering aura.

"Baiting a 50,000 zombies with a dozen of Tier 1 Crystal, is this really lucrative?" a tall man with a huge double headed battle axe in his back asked the man that was beside him.

"Of course Gianis. We will distribute half of the Crystal we acquire after this." a man with a black and red cloak replied at his answer.

"Klint just to be sure whoever kill a User in the Black Market shall get the Core."

"We, Black Hawk, shall reassure you that we will abide with our promise." the man that called Klint bow his head slightly before speaking in a solemn tone.

"Hmph, do whatever you want!" Gianis said before leaving with 3 people on his side.

"Shadow, what is the response to the two User that you want to recruit?" Klint asked in thin air before Shadow appeared out of nowhere.

"T-They declined and that bastard even dare to attack me!" Shadow that Reynold attacked earlier infuriatedly said.

"Okay. Just don't let it affect our plans or else.." Klint stares at him while he was getting angry before coldly reminded him.

Shadow immediately felt a cold sweat running on his back when he got stared by Klint as he nodded immediately.

"You are dismissed!" Klint instructed them.

"Yes, Your Excellency!" the people on the roof call out in unison before leaving.

"The world shall be spilled with blood and vengeance."