Chapter 6: New Neighbors

The hazel plant literally had no drawbacks, aside from being single target. In which case, it would struggle against groups, but Oakley wasn't counting on it for that since he could use other plants later on that focused on area of effect.

Oakley had to get moving now, and he realized that he should be proceeding with his plan of finding a new location.

Smack!

'How am I supposed to move without the plants?' Only now did he realize the problem, he currently had no way of transporting the plants, unless he left them here and went off by himself and a few plants he could carry.

'Too dangerous.' He crossed that plan out immediately, the few that he could carry wouldn't be able to protect him if he were to get surrounded or swarmed.

He had made a decision, and started making more pots for the witch hazels and started placing them around the house.

Oakley inevitably decided to stay, but he would leave when he found a way around his problem.

He really wished he knew how to drive, because then he could just stuff all of the plants in the vehicle, ideally a large one. Unfortunately, he didn't and there were no vehicles from what he could see, the area had been cleaned out.

There was the problem of blocked roadways, gas, and maintenance among other problems which would be too hard to overcome, if not impossible.

Tap! Tap!

The noises were faint at first, but Oakley suddenly heard the sounds of tapping, 'It can't be those zombies right? Don't they usually attack at night?'

He peeked out the window, careful to avoid being seen, and saw a large group of people.

The group was quite large, and they were somewhat armed. Oakley didn't see any guns, but he certainly saw several melee weapons, which seem to be the go-to weapon with ammunition probably not being produced and whatnot.

"Hey, what's that?" A man in the front of the group spoke, drawing attention to the house Oakley was in. They noticed the pea shooters, sunflowers, and witch hazels that Oakley had spread around outside.

The plants had long since noticed the newcomers, and they were ready to strike at a moments notice.

"Is anyone there?" The same man spoke again, appearing to be the leader of the group.

Oakley was quite confident that most likely didn't have a gun, and even if they did he doubted they wouldn't attack him without a reason. But, if the former and latter were to happen, then the plants would be the first to react. The plants were like some sort of killing intent-detectors, and he had seen such time and time again, like with how those crawlers were shot before they even opened the door.

Thinking such, Oakley decided to answer, "What do you want?"

His question was direct and straightforward, as he was never one to beat around the bush.

"My name is Jack, and our group was just looking for a place to stay, we mean no harm." Seeing how direct Oakley was, Jack didn't want to waste time either, responding in kind.

After Jack responded, the people in the group tightened their grip on the weapons in their hands, which mostly consisted of sharp and blunt weapons.

"You can call me Oakley, and no problem, just pick one of the houses here. It's not like I own them anyways." Oakley was still weary though, human nature was fickle. He didn't want to end up with a knife in the back.

The world is very different now, the rules and regulations of the past no longer bounded anyone. People could kill, torture, and all sorts of inhuman acts without fearing any repercussions, at least ok or from the law.

Oakley still didn't know the situation of the world, not the governments, but he assumed that it wasn't too great.

After getting confirmation from Oakley, Jack turned around and appeared to be talking to some people before the group turned around and started to pick some houses. The group appeared to be pretty coordinated, and chose houses near each other.

Oakley really wanted to try and get some information from them, but he knew he would either have to resort to force or be able to give something in exchange. It was give and take essentially.

And, he didn't try and trade the houses because that wouldn't work. First, he didn't own the houses, and they probably knew it. There was also the fact that refusing the group could mean forcing them to resort to violence, and nobody would gain anything from that, especially with night approaching. Jack probably asked because he didn't want any conflict.

He didn't know much about the overall situation of the world and such, but he knew that nothing was free in this world.

Even attacking the group and threatening them to get information may cost him, and he could end up injured or dead, even with his powerful plants.

He didn't want to become to confident or underestimate anyone, no matter how weak they seemed.

Just like he had his methods to survive so far, so did the group of people.

If they didn't mess with him, then he wouldn't mess with them.

…

About an hour later, the group decided to settle in the three houses across the street, and they started fortifying the place and setting up some fires for lighting.

Oakley could faintly smell food, the group appeared to be heating up canned food and they ate quickly after distributing it.

Most of the people appeared to be in a hurry to get inside, as they probably knew about the creatures too.

Oakley wasn't the only one being attacked at night, and he wondered how many fell prey to those creatures.

He saw that Jack talked to some people, who were most likely told to stand guard.

Oakley ate and went to sleep shortly after, thinking that he should be very safe, especially since he reinforced his defenses.

The numbers of zombies seemed to increase with each passing night, so he expected to have enough power for a new skill tomorrow morning.

…

The darks clouds came, followed by the heavy rain, and then the thunder.

This time, there were even more zombies, but nothing the plants couldn't handle.

The witch hazels seemed to target the stronger mobs, turning them into mushrooms, which just blew out puffs of condensed purple air. It took several hits to kill a zombies, but it was helpful nevertheless.

Meanwhile, with the other group, they were faring surprisingly well.

Under Jack's lead, they coordinated well, alternating the exhausted people at the front with those in the back and sending more support to those that needed it.

The zombies' assault didn't end until they all died, and several hours later the victors were decided.

Jack's group won, but Oakley saw that there were a couple people that died or got injured by the zombies. Those that died were buried after making sure they wouldn't come back to life, and as for those that were injured?

Jack brought those people to another house, to which Jack was the only one who came out.

Oakley had an idea as to what went on in there, the bloody weapon in Jack's hand further cementing that idea. That wasn't his problem though, as the long awaited prompt came.

[Out of combat, experience gained.]

He checked his interface immediately after that notification.

=============

[Interface]

Name: Oakley

Class: Lifeweaver 5★

Power: 20 {Select Skill}

Abilities: Pea Shooter 1★, Small Flower Pot 1★, Sunflower 1★, Witch Hazel 4★

=============

He lamented at the loss of all the excess experience, but there was nothing he could do about it. If only he knew how hard it was to gain Power and how monstrous his speed was, then he would probably slap himself a couple times across the face.

He interacted with {Select Skill} again, and received another prompt.

[Select Skill.]

{Magnet Shroom 2★}

{Wall-nut 1★}

{Cardinal Flower 2★}

Oakley chose {Magnet Shroom} after a moment of thinking, it could deal with metal weapons, specifically guns, by simply taking it away. Oakley suspected that it could even do the same to bullets. It was too good to pass by, especially when he didn't know if it would show up again.

The {Wall-nut} skill probably did what the name implied, act as a wall, which was definitely a plus, but he didn't know if the pea shooters or witch hazels could shoot through it. In the game he played, the walls blocked off enemies, while those right behind it shot at the enemies. It was as if the peas and other projectiles ignored the wall entirely, phasing through it.

And frankly with {Cardinal Flower}, he didn't know what it even was, so he thought it was safer to choose between the other two. It wasn't too rare of a skill either, so he didn't really regret his choice, after all, if it shows up again in the future he could just select it if there wasn't anything better.

He went about his life in the same manner, and it would be like that for a while.