Chapter 27

Frantic footsteps echoed throughout the lobby.

The dazzling lights that used to emit from luxury stores and fancy bars were absent. Darkness lurked in every crevice, stalking the men and women running for their lives. Plastic water bottles and packages of bread slipped out from their embrace as they stumbled towards the winding staircase.

"I knew we shouldn't have brought Ning along. She doomed us all!" A muscular man in a waiter's uniform cussed. His heavy footsteps clanked against the metal floorboards, reverberating in the hollow corridor.

"Ning is dead! It's useless chastising her now!" A lady in a sweatshirt rebuked as she wiped away a strand of perspiration.

Descending the stairs, they arrived at deck 3, the living quarters authorized only for crew members, officers and staff of the cruise ship.

The anarchic growls of zombies behind grew closer and the group of scavengers immediately picked up their pace. Straight up ahead, another tall man in staff uniform was waiting by a metal door.

"Liam! Our mission failed! They're coming!"

Squinting his eyes to observe the group, the tall man's face displayed shock and misery. Without hesitation, the man entered the cabin and sealed the door behind him, leaving the group stranded outside with a horde of blood thirsty zombies.

The group halted before the metal door and bellowed to alert the people inside.

"Open the damn door Liam! Let us in!" Banging on a steel door, the muscular waiter roared. But he received no response from inside.

"Fuck!" The lady cussed. "Ning is his fiancée. There's no way he's letting us in."

The group made an immediate decision to continue running towards the other rear end of the ship to extend their survival. Cabin doors and walls tainted in blood and condensation flew past their peripheral vision. They had no choice but to descend another deck lower.

"We can't keep running like this! Escaping into a cabin is the only option!"

Although eerie darkness reigned the corridors, the group's sole flashlight was sufficient enough to navigate throughout the corridors. The cruise ship was basically their home, so they knew every nook and cranny of the layouts.

"Haven't we gone through this conversation before? The electronic locks are not working anymore, all of our access cards are denied." The lady said as several vague figures up ahead in the alleyway caught her attention. "Wait, I think there are survivors over there!"

When a beam of light suddenly enters an individual's field of view, it will set off an impulse seen as moving flashes bombarding your vision. However, Jericho wasn't remotely affected. His eyes adjusted to the contrasting brightness smoothly as if immune to the laws of physics.

Flicking his wrist, Jericho's palms were set ablaze with blinding light. Light quelled the lurking darkness and brought back a sense of peace and hope.

"Can I test out this ability?" Jericho asked for permission, his posture alluded immense eagerness to kill.

Exchanging glances, Jay and Esther nodded their heads. "Go ahead, just don't go too overboard."

Dashing past the group of survivors, Jericho faced the horde of zombies crowding the corridors head on. The environment rekindled the murderous spirit he had repressed since his battle on Kujil Island.

He wished he was born normal, like any other kid. Maybe he would be a studious nerd who excelled at academics, appointed to a gifted program, enrolled in a prestigious high school. But he was raised this way, and he was destined to remain this way.

The slaughter was over.

Sheathing his untainted dagger into his pocket, Jericho walked back to the group. His every step splashed the river of blood underneath his boots while his palms continuing to illuminate the long corridor. Designers clothes, expensive jewelry, wrinkly elderly and innocent children, the corpses on the floor signified countless of lives, but Jericho's dagger did not discriminate.

The survivors had their jaws dropped. Even the muscular man was in disbelief. How could such a small figure unleash such brutal destruction?

"I haven't found anything else special about this ability." Jericho waved his palms nonchalantly as the light vanished, leaving only the survivor's flashlight to provide visibility.

"Abilities take time to develop Jericho. More exploration would accelerate your growth." Jay said as he placed his attention onto the group they saved. "Now tell us a little about Utopia. How's the situation like?"

"I— I don't know much about the upper decks, but I can tell you about deck 4 and below…"

While the rich customers reveled lavishly at the higher decks, the cruise ship crews who work behind the scenes lived below the sea level, where most of them do not have the luxury of portholes. Officers and staff members live on deck 3 and deck 2, while deck 1 was where they stored equipments and luggages, as well as where the tender ports were situated. It was a miracle for them to encounter Jericho at such coincidental timing and location.

"So you were at deck 5 lobby to obtain food from the restaurants?" Jay landed his eye on the few food and water supply in their arms, most of them abandoned during the escape.

The lady snorted, displaying a show of indignation. "Some bastard claimed the kitchens on deck 4 just because they had brawn."

"Elaborate a little." Jericho questioned. The word 'brawn' interested him since he had just recently obtained physical enhancements.

"Sure?" The lady frowned at Jericho's reaction, but quickly followed up. "Some member or passenger on the Utopia developed some sort of super strength. I know it sounds unbelievable… but it's true because I saw him crush a zombie's skull with his bare hands!" Raising her thin eyebrows, the lady suddenly averted her gaze from the corpses on the floor and onto Jericho. "Are you a superhuman too? There's no possible way any human could generate light from their palms."

Jericho gave an ambiguous nod and remained silent so that Jay or Esther would help him continue the conversion. For some reason, he just hated talking to people in general, other than to Jay and Esther.

"We'd love to repay you by leading you to the control room, but first, we need to settle some problems of ours." After extensive discussion, they had formed a temporary alliance with the group of survivors. It would be much easier to navigate Utopia with crew members rather than exploring the entire cruise ship alone.

Of course, Jericho wasn't just keen on accessing the control room. With the skill and strength he possessed, he could might as well gain control over Utopia, the floating island.

Utopia had a passenger capacity of nearly 5000, which meant endless opportunities for growth. Numbers flashed through Jericho's hungry eyes.

He sauntered towards the mutilated corpses and began splitting open their skulls with his dagger, searching through their brain. Under the disgusted gaze of the other survivors, Jericho picked out a glaucous shard from a child who looked younger than him. If the child had lived a little longer, perhaps he would have obtained an ability too.

"Jay and Esther. Please accept this soul fragment." Jericho said in a monotone voice, offering the shard. Under closer inspection, it was slightly brighter and prettier than the dim shard he had received earlier from Esther.

"It's alright Jericho. It's yours. So you should keep it." Chuckling, Jay rejected his offer.

"Mine?"Jericho questioned, visibly confused.

Crouching down, Esther patted his head. "Yes darling. You killed them yourself, so of course it's yours."

Jericho stared at the gleaming shard in his, lost in his own world.

'What a weird sensation.' He thought, suppressing the strange emotion in his heart. 'Why would they decline it? Is it not good enough?'

He had accepted the shard from Esther because he had given Jay one of his knives on the beach. It was a trade, a give and return.

But this was different, and he wasn't so sure how to react.

Everyone who survived the selection was trained to become the best assassins. He did as he was told, and that was it. Whenever he completed a mission, he would be sent back to that mundane white room in isolation. Trophies? Souvenirs? Rewards? Wasn't residence and food a reward? Or was this a reward?

His mind couldn't get over the meandering thoughts and emotions brewing. 'Happiness? This is happiness right? This is definitely happiness.'

Jericho smiled. It wasn't a proper and perfect smile like how he was taught during training. In fact, it felt more challenging to him as if he was moving a foreign muscle. Yet, it just felt different. It wasn't artificial.

This smile felt genuine. It felt sweet.