Chapter 34

- Xenon -

I opted to break through a window this time. I didn't want to destroy the door, as it would be my last line of defense if I ever get surprised by a horde of geeks. I went straight to the kitchen.

It was lunch time and I was getting hungry. I'd rather save the food in my inventory for later. The power was down, so the fridge was off when I found it, and it smelled a bit, most likely from the vegetables inside that have rotten by now.

I found a few bottles of juice, most were still sealed and thankfully, they were the kind that didn't require a fridge. They went straight to my inventory, I would be using those for breakfast with Cereals, I can't find any milk that hasn't expired right now, so that'll have to do. I also took a few things from the kitchen, from peanut butter, Nutella, Cereals, some spices, flour… I took everything that could be of use, and put it in bags, to make it easy to transport. It will all go to the back of my pickup, I had more space than I could use there.

I moved on to the other rooms afterwards. I checked every single one of them thoroughly. I may have left a mess behind, but hey, if they ever come back to live here, I'll personally apologize to them.

Theodore's request was very easy to fulfill, one of the room belonged to a teenager boy, apparently, and he had one such magazine safely hidden behind the drawers. I wonder just how advanced the internet was at this point in time, why he would need the magazines in the first place befuddles me. Perhaps it was for emergency situations? In case the internet was down, the power was down and he was adamant about doing it. There wasn't anything interesting besides that, only clothes and accessories I didn't particularly need. It took me about an hour and a half to finish, though I did take some time to eat my lunch.

When I got out of the house, a few walkers were roaming around, attracted by my arrival. I had checked every ten minutes outside in order not to be caught off-guard, and this number is actually manageable for me. Not only do I get to loot a whole house for myself, but I also have a few walking EXP points waiting to be collected. At this point, it wasn't even a challenge anymore. I had six walkers outside, whom I could've safely finished off with my throwing knives, out of harm's way. But I opted against using [Empowered Strike] if I didn't have to.

< 6 EXP Gained ! >

< You have leveled up! >

< Evaluating performance… >

* Ding *

< You are eligible for rewards! >

< +1 WIL Gained! >

< You have gained: Throwing Knives x 10. >

<>

…

Well, this is vastly different from my previous level up. I hardly gained anything at all. At most, I've got a single point in Willpower, something I have no concrete idea how to level up, but compared to my previous level up… it was the difference between heaven and earth, if I may quote every single fucking xianxia novel out there…

Am I doing something wrong? Thinking about it, I enumerated everything I've done since I leveled up. I stayed at camp for a good while, training my body safely. I learned how to throw knives and even got a reward for it. And finally, I came here to Atlanta, got a car and started looking for weapons and loot while killing any zombies nearby, until I earned enough EXP to level up. And yet I am doing something wrong… But to be fair, I can't judge from a single level up. It didn't make me any less annoyed though. I immediately started working on the next house afterwards, then the one after. And that is how I spent the next eight days, looting houses, killing the few zombies that came my way.

- Author -

During his eighth day, Xenon still hadn't stopped his routine of looting houses, looking for guns. In that area, he was relatively successful. He managed to find three handguns and one shotgun. He kept them all in his inventory, as it is what he considered the safest place in the world, but also because it allowed him easy instantaneous access to them in case of emergency.

But he was unaware of the two pairs of eyes that had been observing him for a few hours now, too engrossed in his task to consider there might be people around.

"That guy knows how to fight, I'll give him that." One of them chuckled, a tall man with a black beard, sporting a sinister look on his face capable of scaring children from miles away. "Explains why he's still alive."

"Yeah." His companion nodded. He was a rather fat man, incapable of seeing anything below his stomach, but his strength could not be underestimated, regardless of how his speed might be. "I would've preferred if it was a girl though. How are we even gonna find one in this hellhole of a city, if ever…" He added with melancholy.

"He can still be useful to us." The other man mused out loud. "Fighting the biters comes with the risk of getting bitten. We could let him handle the fighting from now on, we'd increase our chances a lot that way."

"Whatever you say, boss. What's the plan?"

"The only thing we should look out for is his knives, but you'll be surprised how a gun pointed to your head calms your mind." He chuckled. "We just gotta get the drop on him. He looks like a smart lad. He'll understand the situation easily enough."