Cronas

[Time Catcher (Level 5)

Effects: Allows the user to take the time of other living beings and convert it into Cronas. Note that the user's Wisdom must be more than the person on whom it is used.

Cost: 5 Cronas obtained per 50 Time Points per 30 minutes

Skill points required to upgrade the Skill: 10]

"Hmmm… what qualifies as a living being again?" I questioned as I looked at this strange skill of mine. Even on my status, there was a tab showing the amount of Cronas I have. If I wasn't wrong, Cronas should be usable in the shop, which I should unlock within this week.

Though there was one thing that I needed Cronas for…

[Skill Fusion]

[Would you like to fuse the skills [Active Time Generation] and [Passive Time Regeneration]?]

[Success Chances: 95%]

[Cost: 2000 Cronas]

I tried checking other skills and if I could fuse them, but the success chances were below 50 on everyone with the cost being minimum 5000 Cronas. Maybe the skills were so basic and similar that the cost was less and success chances were high.

But that brings us back to the main question,"what qualifies as a living being?"

While science has its own definition, I doubt it can work here. For example, even microscopic organisms are living beings in a way but as I suspected, it won't work on them. Also, it doesn't work on plants as I hoped it would.

I kind of don't want to immediately try it on a living being like humans or animals combined, but then that leaves me with little to no options.

'I still haven't tried it on a 'not dead' zombie, yet,' I thought as I looked in the direction of the gate where the zombies were banging incessantly.

"But even if I find a living being, 2000 Cronas are a bit too much of a stretch right now," I pondered as I calculated that it would take more than 8 days to get that much Cronas. That too if I kept continuously absorbing the Cronas.

"Well… I guess, we can use Plan- B here," I thought as I moved back to the 36th Floor where I saw Caroline talking with George as she turned towards me and started walking towards me with a smile on her face.

"Would you like to eat something?" she asked with a cheerful smile and I nodded as I patted her head before turning to George,"after we finish eating let's talk about something in private."

He looked at me with little hope entering his eyes before he nodded and as I looked around I asked,"where is White? Ask him to come along too and yeah, call Alex as well."

He was confused about Alex but still nodded as he spoke,"they are waiting for you at the top floor."

'Top Floor? Hmmm… people must be really afraid of the zombies, that they ended up staying at the top as much farther away from the zombies as possible,' I nodded at that thought before speaking,"Let's go up then."

Soon all of us went up to the top floor where I found the others trying to enjoy the little bit of time they had. Observing me, different people had different reactions and I turned at White first and called him before turning at Alex and nodding at him.

White was helping with some metal work, while Alex was teaching the kids how to deal with small things and at my call, both of them moved towards me with a slight serious look on their faces.

"I take it as you have devised a plan?" White asked as I shook my head much to George and White's disappointment but before they could say anything I spoke,"I actually had one more plan beforehand… but I didn't want to proceed with it. But with how things are right now… I am going to put that plan forward."

George looked at me with a slightly confused expression but White understood where I was going as he asked,"are you sure we should be doing that?"

"Yeah… the gate will break in about 2 days and even if we barricade, the max we get is about another week.The food won't last more than 3 days for this many people either. We don't have any options here," I sighed as I explained my reasons and White nodded before speaking,"I guess, that makes sense."

After that, all of us took our turns to get each a plate of food, of which I once again gave mine to the kids. Caroline was against it as usual but I said that I had already eaten some before from the part that we saved for ourselves.

After finishing the food, we reached a few floors down and moved to an apartment with its door still intact. Closing the door from inside, I turned to look at the people in front of me.

Alex with his sister, Caroline and White on one side, were sitting on the sofa.

George and his two men, Adam and Blake who were always with him.

"How much do you know about zombies?" I asked George as I walked behind him before moving around to reach in front of them as I sat between Alex and Caroline.

"That they are ferocious, stronger than average men and their bite can infect people? Is there more to it?" George asked with a confused expression before I spoke again,

"Do you remember how I speculated that some zombies were stronger than the others?"

He nodded and I continued,"well… to be honest. I didn't just speculate but found a couple of zombies much stronger than the others. Though, it doesn't just end at that… actually I found another interesting fact. Want to see a magic trick?"

There was a slight smirk on my face as I saw the narrowed eyes of those three in front of me and George slowly nodded before I put my hand on the table and showed it from both sides,"do you see anything in my hands?"

Then spoke,"no nothing." I then asked them to touch it which they did and their answer remained the same.

Then…

I used the Time Storage to take out an E-grade Zombie Core from it and placed it on the table.

"Surprised?!" I asked with a smile on my face as I observed them.