Burying the Neighbors

Jessica breathed in and out before raising her head. "Why do I feel that you're enjoying this... these absurd changes? Are you still okay in the head?"

Marco stopped from his tracks.

Was he still sane? The world changed and he accepted readily.

Was he enjoying the changes? Probably...

A realization struck him, then he started chuckling.

"Kukuku. I think I'm not? What kind of sane person adapts this quickly, right? But does it matter? The world has already changed and you'll be eaten if you don't change. Don't you think it's better to adapt faster, so you could get used to things ahead of everyone? Having a proper mindset can lead to different results."

Jessica scoffed, then whispered. "You've really gone crazy."

She stood up and wiped the dried tears from her eyes. "You feel like a different person. It feels like I don't know who you are anymore."

"Do you know anything about me? None. Just because we talk doesn't mean we know anything about each other." Marco said.

"True enough. I hate pricks who act like we're close buddies yet I don't even remember their faces," she replied.

"Isn't that probably just you ignoring most male fans all the time? You're a streamer, so you should bond with them," he said.

"Ignorance and sarcasm. I guess you're still you." Jessica smirked, then sighed, "I'm a female streamer, most of my male viewers are perverts. You can't expect to have a proper conversation with them without one of them requesting nudes."

Marco blushed and handed over her bag. "Stay in your room, that should be safer for both of us."

Contrary to expectation, Jessica shook her head. "I don't want to live alone. Personally, I think I have a higher chance of survival if I stay with you. I'll stay in your unit and I'll work for it. You still need a lookout, right?"

Marco was caught unprepared and didn't know what to say.

Seeing his reaction, Jessica beamed a joyful smile. "Adapt fast or be eaten, right?"

Marco grinned in satisfaction, not a single thought of malice entering his mind despite a hot chick willingly moving to his unit.

"I'll wait for you here, so drop your items in the room. Bring your backpack, we might need it when looting the apartments. We need to clear this building before doing anything else."

"Okay, I'll be right back."

The two started clearing the building, unit after unit. Jessica was a good lookout and they were able to open doors before zombies could arrive. It took them almost an hour mainly due to transporting looted items.

After clearing the apartment building, they realized that they were the only people currently staying here. If they count the three dead people by the road, the apartment had five people staying here this morning.

Marco looted everything useful from each room. If the tenants were going to come back, they could have done so earlier. The acid rain has already stopped a long time ago, but no one showed up.

He came up with two reasons why his neighbors aren't coming back. First, they're already dead. Second, there's nothing worth going back for. Most of the tenants were single and doesn't live with their partners. The units mostly have clothes, money, and small quantities of food.

There was no reason to come back and they might die while attempting to do so. They might even be in a better place, much stocked and reinforced than this building.

"So, do we own this building now?" Marco said after looting the last unit.

"I guess so, that is until the manager shows up and decides to kick us out." Jessica chuckled.

"Oof. That would be terrible then." Marco stifled a laugh when the dead bodies on the road caught his attention.

Jessica followed his gaze and also saw the bodies. "I think I know them..."

"They're tenants from the other units and I had to kill them earlier this morning. I think you're still sleeping soundly at that time." Marco teased.

"Don't mention it." she smiled proudly, then jabbed his shoulder. "Hey, I woke up at the right time, alright. I managed to save you, don't you remember?"

"Alright, alright. I'll pull them in the back, you search for something that we can use to dig." Marco suggested.

Jessica saluted playfully. "Okay~"

While pulling the dead neighbor's body, Marco tried creating a shovel blade using stones but failed repeatedly. He positioned them to look like a shovel blade but nothing happened.

'It seems like although the Creation Platform is powerful, it can't create items without logic. It still follows a certain rule and I need to figure it out fast,'

Jessica arrived just after he dropped the body to the ground. "That was fast, what do you have?"

Marco raised his head and stared at Jessica, posing with a pink mini-shovel on her shoulder. "What in the world is that?"

"It's a shovel," she answered as a matter-of-factly.

"I know that's a shovel and it looks like one, but why do you have something like that? A fan sent this to me last week. Well, they think it's my address, but it's my manager's address. Fans will never find my location."

"Streaming needs a manager? Why waste money on that?" Marco almost exclaimed in surprise.

"One person can't handle too many things at once. You need friends for that. Speaking of which, she still hasn't seen my messages. I hope she's doing fine."

While Jessica was being worried about her friend, Marco was mulling over the shocking revelation that streamers have managers.

Jessica even heard him mutter, "That's probably why I only have one viewer on my streams."

"Isn't it good that you at least have one viewer? Someone finds it entertaining to watch you, and you should value them. It's better to have dozens of loyal viewers than hundreds of passersby." Jessica advised.

"I guess so, but I can't do anything about that now. Hand me the shovel, so we can get going. We don't have the whole day."