David coughed awkwardly and instructed, “I need to go out for a while, I’ll leave this to you.” With that said, he turned his head and glanced at Duke, who was still struggling.
Arnold patted his chest and replied, “Leave it to me.”
David nodded and opened the door, walking out. He planned to go upstairs to find the man and clarify how much he knew about the red light. Although David didn’t know which room the man was in, the only thing he could be certain of was that it wasn’t on the same floor as them.
“I can only search slowly,” David murmured. He summoned his armor and held an alloy battle sword in his hand. This was the most critical moment, and if any unexpected situation occurred, he needed to be alert and prepared to handle it.
Equipped with his gear, David walked up the stairs. He searched room by room for signs of occupancy, passing by Brian and Lily’s room. The bloodstains inside the room had long dried up, and the scattered flesh on the floor became even more evident. David quickly averted his gaze, turned around, and continued to the next room in search of the man.
Meanwhile, in the stairwell, the man wearing a duckbill cap walked heavily, pressing the cap low. As he walked out of the stairwell, he didn’t notice David’s presence as he had left through another stairwell. The man leisurely took out a key, opened the door of the third room from the left, and entered cautiously, closing the door behind him.
On David’s side, he searched floor by floor for the man but couldn’t find him. When he reached the rooftop and saw the empty platform, he furrowed his brow. How could he not be here?
Standing at the entrance, David looked at the red light on the ground but didn’t take a step forward. Letting out a long sigh, he turned away from the rooftop. Returning to the room, Duke had already finished absorbing the energy and his eyes were bright, excitedly discussing something with Arnold.
Arnold noticed David’s return and quickly greeted him, “David, you’re back.” Then, he nudged Duke. “Duke seems to have leveled up too!”
David’s lost eyes lifted his head when he heard this. Before more powerful zombies appeared, he had to improve his own strength to the maximum and establish his own team. Only then would he have the capital to confront the apocalypse and ensure his survival in the long run. David knew that the upcoming tasks were crucial, and he had to seize the time to complete them.
There was still much for David to do. However, the most urgent matter at hand was to find a new stronghold, as it was their refuge and the most important facility for survival in the apocalypse.
“Hey,” just as David was contemplating, Duke’s voice came through.
David turned to look and saw Duke extending his hand towards him. “What’s the matter?”
Duke shook his hand and said, “Give me a bit more of that thing, I still want Crystal!”
Want it? This kid was getting too full of himself. David immediately rejected his request.
Duke looked dissatisfied and said, “Why not?”
Listening to his question, David replied calmly, “If you don’t want to die so soon, you can keep asking me. If you still want to live, absorbing the amount I give you every day is enough.” With that said, David turned his head and looked out the window. Thump! His heart trembled as the red light receded.
David stood up, picked up the nearby coat, and prepared to leave. Duke walked over and asked, “What do you mean?”
David glanced at him and said, “That’s what I mean literally.”
Then, David gave some instructions to Arnold. Just as he was about to leave, his hand was already on the doorknob, and at the moment of opening the door, Duke spoke up, “I’ll go with you.”
David raised an eyebrow, didn’t refuse, and nodded. The two of them went out.
Inside the room, Cola slowly opened its eyes, “Meow.” Cola meowed and stood up. It glanced at the crystal in front of it and absorbed it in a few moments. Before Sally could come over, Cola disappeared from the spot.
“Cola?” Sally looked at the vanished spot where Cola had been and was momentarily stunned. Recently, Cola has been mysteriously disappearing. But in the end, Cola would definitely come back home. Moreover, it always appeared after David returned. Could it be following David?
Sally pondered for a moment but felt that something was off. If David wanted to take Cola with him, he wouldn’t just leave directly. She walked to the window and watched the two people who had already walked downstairs.
Sure enough, Cola wasn’t following behind them. Where did Cola go? Downstairs, the two had barely taken a few steps after exiting the stairs when the sound of zombie roars reached their ears.
David swiftly raised his blade and quickly dispatched several low-level zombies. Thump! One after another, their heads fell to the ground.
As David swiftly killed several zombies, Duke naturally refused to be left behind. As the red light dispersed and the sun gradually appeared in the sky, shadows of various objects, including the zombies, became visible on the ground.
At that moment, a zombie roared and charged towards the two of them. David was about to raise his alloy short knife to deal with it when he heard Duke’s furious roar, “Die!”
David turned his head and saw Duke clenching his fist tightly, smashing the fragmented shadow of the zombie. With a loud “bang,” the zombie’s body, which was already swinging its severed arm, suddenly exploded with an ear-piercing sound. Witnessing this, David quickly dodged behind an abandoned billboard, avoiding being splattered with foul-smelling blood and flesh. Looking at the zombie that had been crushed into a pile of meat by Duke in an instant, David frowned slightly and glanced at Duke.
At that moment, Duke seemed to be intoxicated by the pleasure of slaughtering zombies, with a hint of excitement on his face. But in David’s eyes, it was a sign of Duke being too bloodthirsty. Moreover, it was Duke’s first time consuming a crystal and gaining special abilities, and he had expended his energy so recklessly for a low-level zombie.
To David, this was not a wise move. It was important to note that activating special abilities had a fatal weakness. As the energy was depleted, physical strength would greatly diminish, resulting in a direct decrease in combat effectiveness and even death on the battlefield for the ability user.
Every ability user cherished the opportunity to use their abilities and would not use them unless they encountered particularly formidable zombies. For example, David, even though his level was about to reach level six, still carried an alloy short knife when he went out. That way, he could kill zombies without depleting his energy. After all, crises were everywhere in this world, and for survival, every survivor had to leave themselves an escape route.
But obviously, Duke had overlooked this point. “You better not consume your energy like this next time, or I’m not sure if you’ll end up being one of the zombies,” David advised him.
Listening to David’s words, Duke glanced at him, his pride still intact. In his view, he had already activated the power to crush everything, so why not enjoy killing to his heart’s content? Moreover, he believed that as long as David continued to provide him with crystals, his strength would undoubtedly surpass anyone else in the room.
However, because only David had crystals at the moment, Duke didn’t reveal his true thoughts but instead concealed his intentions and nodded. “I understand. I will remember it next time.” He then glanced at the zombie that had been turned into pulp, a hint of disdainful smile on his lips.
The two of them continued on their way, encountering scattered zombies along the path, all of which David swiftly dispatched with his alloy short knife. Although Duke was eager to use his own special abilities, he could only think of the crystals on David’s person, swallowing his saliva and silently following behind him.
Before long, David led Duke to the entrance of a tall building. Looking up, the building had around fifty floors, but due to relentless zombie attacks, it appeared dilapidated, with many of the windows mysteriously shattered.
Duke looked at the building with some confusion and asked, “Why are we here?”
With a calm expression, David didn’t answer Duke’s question but instead gripped the alloy short knife and walked straight into the building. Seeing this, Duke, although puzzled, followed inside.
Pushing open the weathered glass door, which was covered in cracks and even had dried black bloodstains, the two of them entered the building one after the other. The entire tower had a gloomy atmosphere due to the lack of signs of human habitation. In some hallways, there were already decomposed and putrid corpses. Observing the torn limbs and bite marks on these bodies, David immediately understood that this was the work of zombies.
To be on the safe side, David tightly gripped his alloy steel knife, fearing that a zombie might suddenly appear from a room or corner. Although he had more than enough strength to deal with a few zombies, he didn’t dare to be careless. After all, being careless in such a situation would be playing with his own life.
Having already died once, David had no desire to experience the taste of death again. Ignoring the ground floor lobby, David went straight to the second floor. The situation on the second floor was similar to the lobby, with several bodies of women lying around, torn apart by zombies. Seeing that each of them fell in the direction of the entrance, David guessed that at the moment the zombies appeared, they had tried to struggle and escape. However, the outcome was already known—they had failed.
Duke frowned as he looked at the bodies, wishing he could go out and teach those zombies a lesson right away. Bypassing the corpses, David pondered for a while in several rooms on the second floor but found that they were all offices and not suitable as a hiding place for their team.
Their main objective for coming out this time, as the red light faded away, was to find a new stronghold for their team. Their previous location had been compromised, which David considered extremely dangerous. If he wanted to ensure the team’s permanent survival in the upcoming battles, he had to quickly find a new base.
Shaking his head at the spacious offices, David continued to the third floor. Unfortunately, it seemed that each floor of the building had the same layout. After going up to the tenth floor without finding a suitable stronghold, David realized that Duke had also understood the purpose of their expedition. ．
“This kind of building is semi-public; there are simply no hidden places,” Duke said, wrinkling his brow. “Instead of searching here for a base, it’s better to take a look in the alleys outside. We might find some unexpected rewards there.” Duke’s judgment was not wrong. Compared to this building, the residential houses in the alleys seemed more suitable as a stronghold and were sufficiently hidden.
David had naturally thought of this option, but after careful consideration, he felt that other surviving teams might have the same idea. In that case, multiple teams would end up living under the same roof, and conflicts would be inevitable. In this world, people with ulterior motives were everywhere. David had to avoid all risks and ensure that their team was secure enough. That’s why he came to this building that everyone else overlooked.
After circling the tenth floor, David suddenly spotted a car key on a table, and a spark of inspiration ignited within him!