5 Treasure Chest

Dave and Brian moved downstairs as they checked the lower floors for the presence of zombies. Fortunately, there was only one of them, so both of them quickly dealt with it. Dave decided to help Brian to kill it.

Finally, getting to the ground floor, Dave shushed Brian as he wanted to check the surroundings by the Life Pulse. Fatty sent a mana wave and sensed every living creature in a radius of 100 meters. Regretfully, his innate ability was limited in width.

"There are 3 zombies on the 1st floor and several of them are scattered nearly 70 meters away," Brian reported.

Dave saw three open rooms as the blood trail led there. Zombies had a weak sense of hearing, yet they were not completely deaf. The loud commotion as Brian had done will definitely attract unneeded attention.

"Brian, I'll take one on the left, while you will take care of one on the right. The last one at the end of the corridor will also be mine. Good luck!" Dave said as he headed to his room.

Brian hesitated a bit but quickly went to kill his own zombie. It seemed that Brian was quite scared since in all cases Dave helped him to kill zombies. Now, he needed to take care of one alone.

Dave couldn't help with his fear since he knew that the fear will diminish after several kills. He wanted to make Brian understand the abilities of zombies and show him that they're not to be feared but to be killed.

Silently approaching his target, Dave saw a zombie standing near the eaten corpse of a student girl. It seemed that the zombie was sleeping in the standing position, but Dave knew that it was hibernating.

Hibernation was the state of a zombie when it stood still or moved slowly from one place to another. At the sight of the human, they will leave such a state and chase after their target. Zombies were sensitive to warm blood and can smell it from afar.

In such states, they were easy to kill with a sneak attack. Most of the zombies enter into the hibernation state to conserve their energies which is quite limited due to their unique constitution.

With a swift attack to the head, Dave killed it in one move to the head as before. Brain substance was dripping from its head as it dropped a black Survival Coin.

Taking his spoils, Dave quickly left the room to kill the second one. It was standing close to the exit. Slowly strolling from one place to another, the zombie wandered near to the entrance point.

Approaching it from the back, Dave killed another zombie. However, instead of other killed zombies, shining with a light bright enough to force a person to close their eyes, it dropped a white chest on top of the survival coin.

'Treasure Chest!' At the sight of the white chest, Dave grew extremely excited since even the white chest - the most common of the Treasure Chests - was extremely rare. After killing the monster, it had a chance to drop such chests.

At the beginning of the apocalypse, a lot of survivors got their hands on the Treasure Chests, but as time passed fewer treasure chests dropped from the weaker monsters enticing people to hunt and kill stronger monsters.

One of his goals was to collect as many treasure chests as possible since they will boost his ability to survive and kill stronger opponents who might drop another chest.

Taking the white glowing chest into his hands, a transparent message had appeared before his eyes.

[Do you want to open the Treasure Chest (White)?]

'Yes,' The bright light escaped from the white chest as it started to slowly disappear into the air. Instead of it, a sword full of red-brown rust lay on his hands.

[The Rusty Sword was received.]

[Rusty Sword

Attack: 8-10

Durability: 10

Description: The iron sword covered by rust.]

It was a dull sword with a rusty blade. Even then, Dave was quite happy when he sensed a familiar feeling of a sword's hilt. Dave recalled how he finally got this rusty sword and trained with it to kill monsters far stronger than him in his previous world.

He was late to get his hands on the equipment from the system at that time and started later than other hunters. Left far in the back, he was weak and hunted monsters far higher than his level.

Gripping his new weapon, Dave went back to the room where Brian was panting heavily close to the body of a dead zombie. Brian was relatively paler than before as sweat dripped from his forehead. It was scarier for Brian since there was no Dave to insure him in the case of a mistake.

Lying on the ground, the zombie was a bloody mess as its chest bone, skull and other parts of his body were crushed by Brian club. The blood dripped from the tip of his club.

"You did a great job, Brian. Can you activate your Life Pulse again?" Dave asked Brian to check their surroundings another time to be safe from any surprises. Getting a negative response from Brian, Dave shared with him that he intended to go to the nearest library.

"If you want to, you can wait for me here in one of the rooms. I won't force you to go with me since he is my friend and you haven't to risk your life to it" Dave said to Brian.

"Nah, I will go with you. I have a hunch that I will live longer if I follow you. And how can you get there in one piece without me?" Brian said smugly.

In Brian's eyes, Dave seemed more of a monster than zombies he had killed. He was able to kill a zombie one-on-one and survive an attack from two zombies.

"Then, lead the way." Dave smiled lightly since it made his trip to the library much easier. With Brian, he can avoid most of the dangers and hunt zombies wandering alone.

"By the way, who is your friend you want to reunite?" Brian asked curiously.

"He's my best friend, Adam White," Dave said nonchalantly.

"What? A new student who enrolled this year and quickly became popular, this Adam White? And you are his best friend?" Brian said in amazement.

'Hah...right!' Dave recalled that Adam was quite popular in their university. His porcelain face combined with his straight black hair and cool personality made him a hot topic among girls. How was he called again?

'Ideal man, Adam! Bleh!' Dave thought inwardly.

He knew Adam from his childhood since both of them attended the same elementary, junior, and high schools. He always attracted attention from other people, making Dave around him outshined.

From the appearance, Dave was just a bit better than mediocre. Small stature, pale face as of the sick person, scars and burn marks on his face made Dave look more like a criminal rather than how a student should look like.

However, he was by no means ugly, maybe just a bit repulsive. Dave tended to think that scars made his face just a bit manlier than others and slightly gave him a delinquent's vibes. Although people's first impressions of him were affected by his looks, all the disadvantages had ended here.

In his junior school, Dave and his parents got into a car accident resulting in the early death of his parents. After the catastrophe which took the life of his parents, his face got disfigured and his backbone got damaged slightly.

Shortly after the operation, Dave was taken care of by the little brother of his father. His uncle, John Murckly, and his wife, Alice Murckly, tried to do everything to make up for the loss of his parents. They helped him to rehabilitate from the car accident and took him under their wings.

Adam was also there supporting him in the school and visiting him when he was in the hospital. He was the one who recommended Dave to apply to the best university in their city. He helped him with preparation for the exams and with preparation of the necessary documents.

The university he was attending was prestigious in the Federation. A lot of people from high and low classes attended it to ensure a bright future for them.

Both he and Adam chose to study economics. Dave decided to follow the career of his father, while Adam was obliged to study it since he was from a family owning a big company in the Federation.

Thinking about his best friend, Dave recalled that Adam had always supported him after the accident as warmth filled his heart. So he thought, 'Adam, this time I will be the one to save you.'