Its 444? Sounds unlucky

Nakami quickly put on his gas mask and threw five smoke grenades around himself, filling the area with green smoke. The werewolves, except their leader, began howling in pain. Without hesitation, Nakami drew his black katana and started cutting them down one by one.

Each swing of his katana produced a distinct sound.

"Fwushhh, kcakk... Fwushhh, kcakk"

The thud of werewolves falling to the ground echoed through the smoke. Finally, only the leader remained standing.

Nakami had no problem killing the ordinary wolves, but when he went for the leader, things got tricky. The wolf tried to grab him when he was about to sneak strike it from behind, but it was quick enough to dodge.

The wolf taunted him.

"You are nothing without you useless weapons!"

Then its fur turning red and its claws growing longer and sharper.

Nakami knew it was time to get serious. He quickly shed his backpack, lightening his load and increasing his speed. He was ready for anything.

The leader wolf made a deafening "Vooooooom" sound as it fiercely pounced at Nakami. The sudden attack caught him off guard, but he managed to dodge it, though not without sustaining a scratch that seemed to just vanish from his body.

Despite the wolf's repeated attempts, Nakami agilely evaded most of them until he finally stood still, ready to counterattack with his trusty katana. He was tired of trying to hit the nimble beast, so he waited patiently for it to enter his striking range.

"Come here, you one-dimensional, slightly bigger dog!" Nakami taunted the wolf, who seemed to understand his challenge and took the bait.

With a thunderous "Vooooom," the wolf launched its attack again, even faster and more explosive than before, but Nakami remained composed and waited for the perfect moment. As the wolf entered his katana's slashing zone, Nakami swung his blade horizontally without moving an inch.

The sound of metal clashing filled the air as the sword clashed with the wolf's claws, but the wolf's efforts were futile, as the sword cut through its body like butter, splitting it into two.

He actually took some hit during the last clash.. So he collapsed on the ground while looking at the leader that was still moving but it was dying for sure. It seemed to try to say something so Nakami crawls himself there to hear what it try to say.

"Hohoho, so it took you almost everything just to beat us? Good luck fighting others.. fufufufu" It stopped talking since it was dying anyway.

Nakami knew there would be more coming so he was never afraid to begin with it in fact for some reason he enjoyed fighting these monster.

"Am I really changing.. or this is just me.." thought Nakami as he already recovered enough to walk back home. The moon was fully covered by dark clouds as it might rain soon enough.

As Nakami arrived at his base, he was surprised to see Abe and the boys collecting the remains of the defeated wolves into their cart and truck. Despite the heavy rain, they were working tirelessly.

As he approached the gate, he noticed Alice, Wenwen, and others cleaning the ground with soap and detergent. Ever since their base was raided by rabbits, Alice and Sarah had been making soap, and now it was coming in handy. The rain also helped them to clean the mess.

After working for hours on end, Nakami finally called it quits around 3AM. He told everyone to get some rest because he would do the rest but Alice decided to continue working so he was fine with it. While Sarah was more eager to keep working. However, Nakami refused her help because he believed that Sarah, being just a child, needed to get plenty of rest to grow properly.

Since they had prioritized collecting the remains, all that was left was to move them to the pit and burn them. It was still raining, but Nakami didn't mind getting wet. In fact, he even let Alice accompany him to the pit, much to her delight.

Unfortunately, the truck storage couldn't carry all the remains at once, so Nakami had to make multiple trips. During these trips, Alice remained mostly silent, which struck Nakami as odd since she had been so enthusiastic earlier. Finally, on the last trip, Nakami decided to ask her what was bothering her.

As Nakami drove the truck, he noticed Alice's silence.

"Hey, you've been pretty quiet. Is everything alright?" he asked.

Alice looked up at him, her expression heavy. "I can't stop thinking about all those people who were caught by the monsters," she said softly, her voice trembling.

"What if we knew them??" as she started struggle to not cry..

"What if we could have done something to save them?" Nakami didn't try to answer Alice's questions, knowing there were no right words to say.

Instead, he remained silent and listened to her patiently. Tears streamed down Alice's face, and she cried onto Nakami's shoulder. He comforted her until the truck had finished unloading the remains into the pit.

It was still raining outside so Nakami just left the pit without burning the remains since it was impossible to burn them under the heavy rain. Alice had stopped crying since they departed from the pit and she continued being silence.

Nakami suddenly hit the brakes, catching Alice's attention. He faced her while waiting for her to say something.

"Umm, sir.. The day before they come.. I actually requested more people to come.. to help you.. I was afraid that we were not good enough to help you.. So I made the request.. I never thought that more people came.. it just.." Alice trailed off, tears forming in her eyes.

Nakami interrupted her, his voice serious but gentle. "Stop it. Don't cry. They made their choice to come here so it's not really your mistake, and there was no way to know if it was really you who made the offer for them to come here, right? Right?"

Alice tried to interrupt but failed as Nakami continued to speak.

"No but but. This is our life now. We could try our best to save some of them, but we could never be able to save everyone of them.." He patted Alice's head few times before continuing driving back home.

To lighten the mood, Nakami shared some funny stories from his university days with Alice, even though he found it boring. He kept talking because Alice was listening attentively and trying to memorize everything. Nakami told her that there was no point in remembering all of that, and he found it very awkward.

But he was glad the awkwardness didn't last long as they arrived at their destination around 4 AM~. He instructed Alice to get some rest and told her she could follow him after lunch if she rested properly until noon, even though she initially disagreed.

Nakami couldn't fall asleep right away because he was waiting for the E he had earned the day before. He was curious about the exact time the notification would arrive.

After taking a shower, he changed into comfortable clothes and watched some entertaining videos on his phone. They were legendary videos with millions of views that were less than a minute long, and Nakami enjoyed spending time on the app watching them.

Later, at 4:44 AM, Nakami's phone vibrated and the notification came.

"Err, 444? That sounds unlucky as hell," he muttered to himself.

[ 800E gained, 1595 left ]

As he lay there, he couldn't help but think about Alice's request for more help and how it may have contributed to the sudden stream of people.

"I really hope more people come here.." Nakami thought to himself.

"But at the same time, I can't help but feel a bit uneasy. What if not everyone who comes has good intentions? I mean, there could be some bad apples, right?"