Chapter 50: Risks and Rewards

Everyone was silent as they listened to Adam.

"Come closer?" Are you sure?

"Yes, someone will have to take that risk anyway Won't they? It better be me."

"I'm sorry, I don't know what level you are exactly, but I suspect you are the highest level person in the shelter and the head of it, if you die it will be complete chaos. It's not a good idea for you to be the one to go."

Carlos spoke seriously, Adam was the leader and, in his opinion, his job should be to organize the shelter, not to go out and kill zombies.

"So what do you plan to do? Eh? This is the best plan I've heard. I think the probability of killing that thing is quite realistic. Besides, as Miguel demonstrated, just getting close to that thing doesn't seem to wake it up."

"How did Miguel prove it? When did he approach the thing?" asked Carlos, who had a bad feeling. Alfred looked at his father and sighed.

Zack and Miguel looked at each other momentarily. In the end the military man decided to tell the truth, although he knew it would not be a pleasant discussion.

"When I took the group of rookies to one of the buildings, we passed quite close to the monstrosity and were able to identify it."

"You what?" shouted Carlos, who began to berate Miguel for his carelessness. Adam listened to the conversation, trying to remain calm, but he soon lost his patience.

"Enough! Stop fighting over something that could have happened. Miguel had no idea how dangerous it was and in the end everything turned out fine. Carlos, if I hadn't risked leaving my house at the beginning of all this shit, I'd probably be dead now and who knows if all of you would be too. It's risky, but we have to kill this thing now."

Carlos looked at Adam and narrowed his eyes.

"Are you still thinking that after what happened to Jane?" I thought that would at least make you wiser.

Adam winced, but it soon disappeared. Jane's death still haunted him, but that didn't mean the decision to attack the Void Zombie as quickly as possible was wrong. He looked at Carlos in silence for a moment as everyone else in the room waited for his response. Miguel thought Adam would be upset, but to his surprise, he kept his cool.

"What happened was partly my fault, but attacking that building was not a bad decision. It was as necessary as it is now to kill the monster in the square, and if you believe otherwise, then you're a bigger idiot than I thought."

"Then, do what you want. I just hope you at least leave a way to choose a successor, because at this rate you'll end up like Jane in just a few days."

Carlos got up from his seat angrily and then went to his room, where he closed the door tightly. Tracel watched his friend until he disappeared and then turned to look at Adam. He couldn't help but feel a certain respect. Adam had always struck him as the kind of man who always went with the flow, someone not suited to a position of power or great responsibility, but he had proven that he could exercise his authority when the situation called for it. He wondered what had brought about such a change or if he had always been like that.

"Well, I would like to apologize on my father's behalf, he doesn't like to take risks," Alfred interrupted the chain of thought to break the silence that had fallen over the room.

"Don't apologize, I don't like taking risks either. Besides, we also need people like him, because the right decision is not always the quickest and riskiest one, something I have some experience in, unfortunately."

Miguel's words didn't sit well with Zack, who thought Carlos was just a coward. He looked at Adam with new eyes. He thought that at least he could trust the boy not to break down in difficult situations.

"I think this is all excellent, but I have a question for you, Adam, and besides, this ties in with the topic I was talking about earlier."

Everyone looked at Noah. Adam just nodded.

"Doesn't it strike you as odd that just when we need a solution to how to kill that monster the system would give you such an ability? Isn't that very convenient?"

Adam thought for a moment about what Noah had said.

"What were you talking about before?" he asked.

"About how "fair" the system is," Noah replied, emphasizing the quotation marks with his hands. "Zombies with lethal abilities have low defense and the opposite is also true. In our case I think we are more balanced, but now I think there may also be a pattern according to which the System assigns us abilities."

"Is it worth discussing this? I mean, I understand it's important and all, but I don't understand why you have brought this topic twice already to the meeting," asked Zack.

"Nothing in particular, it's just that it's something that's an issue I haven't been able to get out of my head lately and I think it's important. I think understanding these things will make it easier for us to survive."

"Noah is right, the System is not willing to answer all the questions we ask it about itself, so the more we are able to understand, the better prepared we will be against any challenge."

Tracel listened to Miguel as he himself reflected on what Noah had said. If he was right and the System had given Adam the ability to solve a problem, maybe if he leveled up, it was possible to get something he wanted or needed. The idea began to swirl around in his head and he couldn't forget it.

"Maybe. I'm inclined to think Noah is right, but there's no clear way to check, at least for now. So we'd better concentrate on the monstrosity in the square."

"As the boss commands, but now if you'll excuse me, I'll try to get some sleep. To tell you the truth, Adam, I don't understand how you could sleep after what we went through. I've tried to forget about it and I haven't had much success."

Adam looked at Noah as the others tried to suppress their curiosity. They had an idea of what had happened, but didn't dare ask.

"Good luck with that. I haven't been able to completely forget about it either, but... let's just say I got some help."

Noah nodded and then left the apartment.

Miguel looked at Noah with some concern, he knew the man had been distracted during the meeting, but his random interventions made him to understand that he had probably barely been paying attention to the meeting.

"So how are we going to proceed?" Zack asked.

Adam closed his eyes for a moment to think. To use his ability in such a way that he could kill the thing, he would have to reach all four corners of the square. The problem was that the monster's position was very close to one of those corners. To reach it he would have to risk provoking it.

"I need a pencil and paper," he said. Alfred nodded and went to get them.

"What do you need paper for?" Zack asked.

"I want to try to test an ability I haven't used yet. It allows me to create and understand maps."

Miguel nodded, understanding Adam's intention immediately. They all waited for Alfred to return.

When Adam had the paper and a pencil in his hand he concentrated for a moment, he didn't know exactly how to activate the skill. Besides, in the past, despite having studied maps and created digital maps, he had never needed to create one by hand.

His hesitation did not take long to pass, as he managed to activate the ability. Adam felt as if he had flipped a switch. One moment he was confused and uncertain how to start, and in the next he found himself overcome by a strange instinct, which led him to start the map with almost no thought.

A few minutes later the map was finished. The result was not perfect and could not pass for a map made by someone with experience, but it was legible.

Everyone gathered near Adam to look at the map of the square. Adam drew the nearby buildings as simple geometric figures and divided the square into the four main gardens with semicircular figures. He marked the location of the monstrosity with an X and the four corners with a circle.

What surprised Adam about the map was the scale. He had instinctively drawn everything on a realistic scale. He didn't quite understand how he could tell it was to scale either, but he supposed it was part of the skill.

"Well, not that the map provides anything new, but I can see its usefulness," said Zack.

"I think it's more useful than it sounds. You should get used to drawing maps of the surroundings Adam, I think they could be useful." Miguel interjected.

"Yes, very useful, but please let's get to the point, I don't want to beat around the bush," Zack interjected again. "What are those circles by the way?" he continued.

"They are the points where I need to use my ability to create a large trap. The most problematic one is this one," Adam pointed to the lower left corner, where the point was almost 5 meters away from the monstrosity.

"This is certainly going to be a lot more complicated than I expected. So we'd better get on with it."