Shot

With a trace of frustration in his eyes, Dilan pulled the Reinforced Stone Spear out of the female zombie.

The faint glint of an Essence crystal entered his view, only for it to fall to the ground.

This proved a part of his theory that every living being created one of such Essence crystals when the Primordial Ascension happened.

It was probably also linked with the entire System that revolved around the holographic screen, the increase of strength one received by absorbing the essence of other beings, and so on.

But Dilan couldn't even force himself to smile for having found out something new that might help him in the future.

Right now, he was just frustrated that he had been unable to save the girl.

Unfortunately, there was no point in feeling guilty because it wouldn't bring back the zombies he had just killed.

As such, instead of acting like an emotional wreck, Dilan took a look around, making sure that there was no zombie or other monster around.

After he was certain that there was nobody to surprise attack him, he stored the Reinforced Stone Spear away before using the dagger to get hold of the zombies' essence crystals.

There were a total of 16, and he packed them in the backpack.

Yet, just when he was done, Dilan heard a rattling noise from inside the hospital.

This led him to quickly reach out for the Reinforced Stone Spear while jumping backward.

His eyes were fixated on the hospital's doors that opened to reveal four pairs of eyes.

'Survivors?' Dilan immediately wondered, the tension in his body subsiding for a moment before he spotted guns in the hands of two survivors.

They were simple Glock 18 handguns, a type of weapon one could find quite easily in Rian.

Nonetheless, Dilan had never expected his first encounter with human survivors would be with someone pointing guns at him.

As such, he froze in place, while the group eyed him with their guns pointed at him, sizing him up.

The group of four consisted of two men and two women.

Both of the women were slim and scared witless while staring at him as if he was a monster.

They looked rather harmless, but Dilan didn't allow their appearance to trick him because the gun that was pointed at him could end his life in an instant.

Thus, he wanted to lift his arms to show that he meant no harm, only for the hoarse voice of the middle-aged burly man to reach him.

"Don't move, kiddo!" He ordered while pointing his gun at Dilan as well.

Meanwhile, the skinny young man behind the middle-aged man looked at the unfolding scenario in fright, his eyes flicking towards the large number of zombie corpses every now and then.

Doing as instructed, Dilan looked into the eyes of the middle-aged man.

He appeared to be scared as well, but not as much as the rest of his group.

This was a good sign, giving Dilan hope that he was more reasonable to talk to.

"Hello, my name is Dil-..."

While starting his introduction in a polite tone, he tried to placate the group as the middle-aged man simply looked at him with a neutral expression.

However, the young woman beside him started to quiver.

Her fingers closed down on the trigger, and it looked as if she was losing her sense of reasoning as she shouted out.

"You murderer!!!"

*BANG*

With an ear-splitting sound, the bullet shot out of the gun, astonishing everyone.

Even the young woman herself was perplexed, not understanding what had just happened.

Only when she looked at Dilan's left upper arm did she realize that she had shot someone, and nearly killed a fellow human.

Grunting in pain that went straight to his head, Dilan's head instinctively turned towards his left upper arm that had been shot.

The bullet pierced through his muscles and flesh, cleanly penetrating him and escaping out of his hand from the other side.

It didn't injure any of his bones, which was his fortune.

As he looked at his wound, large amounts of blood trickled down his arm.

Anger flared within Dilan because he had been shot without reason, only for the seething woman's voice to accuse him a moment later.

"We saw you killing the young girl!! You monster!!!"

Only now did he understand the reason for her doing so after hearing her voice that was filled with fright, desperation, and disgust.

'They saw me!'

However, instead of feeling the need to explain why the girl was beyond saving, Dilan wondered whether they had seen him moving faster than the average human and taking the Essence crystals out of the zombies as well.

This was more important because it looked like the group of four didn't know anything about what was going on with the world!

But it was only a moment later that Dilan's eyes widened slightly as the burly middle-aged man hit the woman that shot him.

"Bitch!! Do you want every single zombie to hear us?! Why did you have to shoot him!"

By shooting Dilan, she had not only wasted their scarce ammunition, but the burly man could also see a group of zombies approaching them.

They were relatively far away, and coming through the other end of the parking lot.

However, such a distance was negligible.

Taking a second glance at Dilan, the man could easily guess that he had gone through a lot in the last few hours.

His shirt was torn in the center of his chest, bloodied, and his entire right arm was burned.

Adding his ice-cold eyes, and the fact that he didn't scream out in pain when he had been shot, to his overall demeanor made it clear that Dilan was not to be taken lightly.

"If you don't want to be eaten by zombies, hand over your weapons, and we will allow you to follow us inside the hospital!"

Ignoring the young woman he had just hit, the middle-aged man named Jack looked deep into Dilan's eyes.

Dilan threw a short glance towards the back before looking at Jack's gun that was still pointed at him.

Sighing deeply, he knew that there was not really something he could do, right now other than listen to Jack.

Even if he didn't want to go inside, the number of zombies that had been attracted by the sound of the gunshot was simply too high.

Thus, with a swift movement, Dilan turned around the Reinforced Stone Dagger.

Holding the blade in a pinch between his thumb and forefinger, he reached out with his burned arm to hand over the dagger.

"You take it!" Jack told the skinny young man, Oliver, to take the dagger.

Oliver was visibly petrified but he shakily nodded his head and reached out for the dagger in his hand.

At this moment a notification popped up in front of him, and Oliver nearly exclaimed in surprise.

'Increase in strength? There are weapons like that now?'

It had not even been 24 hours and the world had been turned upside down.

Everything had changed!

Oliver saw that humans turned into zombies, how some of his friends had been eaten alive, and now a game-like screen popped up in front of him, saying that this stone dagger increased his strength.

And the most insane fact was that it truly felt like his physical strength had increased.

Thus, while holding the Reinforced Stone Spear, Oliver's eyes began to gleam.

For a short moment, he even forgot the fear of the unknown world into which Milarn had turned.

"Follow me! If you dare to act up, I will shoot you in an instant!"

Jack didn't care about Oliver's awestruck eyes as he ordered Dilan around.

Dilan just nodded his head in return, his eyes glancing towards the woman, who was tightly holding onto her gun with one hand while holding her bruised cheek with the other.

She was not even able to say anything against Jack's decision to take Dilan inside the hospital.

Fresh tears welled in her eyes, but everyone ignored her.

Even her friend was more focused on Dilan's backpack, where his Essence crystals were stored.

She had noticed that his speed was much faster than that of an ordinary human.

Thus, by connecting the dots, she had figured that the crystals Dilan had pulled out of the head of the zombies had something to do with this.

'Maybe…'