The World Cataclysm

Chapter 17: Awakened Adam

It seemed that Rebecca didn't only have basic nursery skills, she also was an awesome cook. The stew was made from vegetables left in the fridge, yet it was tasty enough for such simple ingredients. Unfortunately, it had no meat in it. After the appearance of zombies, it was a luxury to eat meat since it needed to be fresh enough, so it could be cooked.

As Dave ate silently, nobody dared to make a sound. Apparently, three student girls were mostly scared of him, while Brian felt that it was too awkward to speak in such an atmosphere.

It tasted good enough for Dave, but looking at how she struggled to eat it, it seemed that it wasn't to the liking of Rachel. Born in a wealthy family, she never starved and always ate to her full, so such a meal looked quite lacking to her. However, she didn't have a face to complain about the taste of a stew since she didn't even know how to cook.

"After Adam wakes up, we will go grinding since the food in my backpack should be enough to last for several days. Combined with the leftover ingredients from kitchens on every floor, if we are lucky enough, we should be able not to starve for a week."

As he finished his meal, Dave suddenly broke the silence. Nobody expected him to speak, so everybody jolted in surprise. Girls looked at him with apprehension, while Brian didn't mind it at all as he resumed gulping down the stew. He was already sick of canned food, so he found pleasure in eating hot stew.

"Girls, if you want, you can follow us tomorrow. I assume that everybody is already familiar with their status windows, so you should know that killing zombies can make you stronger. I won't force you to come with us, but you need to know that there will be no food for slackers. If you want to stay inside the dorm building, then cooking will be left for you. Am I clear?"

As Dave glared at them, they hastily nodded with their heads. The women were too fearful of him, while Brian had no objections as he continued to stuff himself with food.

Having said everything he wanted, Dave returned to Adam's room and resumed his meditation. He meditated for another three hours. While he was meditating, Rebecca came in for a moment to feed Adam with a stew.

After he had completed his meditation session, Dave went to sleep since he was still a human being who knew what is exhaustion.

...

As Dave closed the door of his room, all three women couldn't help but sigh in relief. Their first impression of him was that he was delinquent due to the scar on his face, so they didn't believe that he was a person they could rely on.

'Can't he be more gentle? Acting as he owns everything. How can he force me to work for him? Am I not valuable enough for the second can?'

Katelyn thought that Adam was a shallow person. He refused to give her a can of food, even though he had a backpack filled to the brim with food.

"Can I have another one?"

Still not satisfied, Brian stretched his bowl to Rebecca who was closest to the pot. Flustered by his question, she gave him another bowl of stew.

"Ehm...Brian, right? What do you think of Dave?"

As he was hastily eating the stew, Rachel couldn't help but ask him about Dave. For her, it seemed that he was a leader of their group. Also interested to know more about him, Rebecca and Katelyn also looked curiously at Brian.

"...Well, he was the one who saved me. He is not too bossy and he also very sensible. Even though he looks like an evil dude, you can trust my word since I was picked in school, he isn't a bad person."

Still stuffing his mouth with stew, Brian made occasional pauses before continuing to speak.

"...However, when it comes to fighting, he is a monster. Even though I'm not a fighter myself, I never saw someone who could fight like him. You should have seen how he killed more than a dozen zombies. When I saw it before, I already decided that I will follow him no matter what."

Banging his bowl on the table, Brian couldn't help but exclaim enthusiastically. Brian thought that if he followed such a monster as Dave, he will have higher chances to survive. Moreover, after several days of traveling with him, he already considered him as his friend. It was very simple for Brian.

"What about you? From which faculty are you?"

Licking the stew from his lips, Brian smiled strangely. He started asking them various questions about their lives and interests.

"Even though zombies are wandering outside, I'll never miss a chance to hit on girls."

Brian thought excitedly about it. He never had a girlfriend, so he didn't want to waste an opportunity when there are three chicks before him.

He learned that all three of them were from the same course of study on cultures. However, when he started bombarding them with questions, they quickly left him alone in the kitchen. Brian didn't know where he went wrong as he sat in the kitchen with a bitter face.

...

Dave woke up early in the morning to have another meditation session. As he meditated for a long time, he heard a groan in the room. It seemed that Adam woke up. Dave had heard that it wouldn't usually take a lot of time for a person to awaken.

Dave swiftly approached Adam and checked his temperature.

'His temperature returned to normal. Does it mean that it was a success or what?'

Dave didn't know how did people usually awaken. It was the first time he personally witnessed the process of awakening. As far as he knows, only 10% of people had awakened at the beginning and more people started awakening over time.

"Hey, Adam, are you okay? How do you feel?"

Dave helped him to rise to the sitting position. Adam still looked slightly pale, but he looked better than before. He stared at the space in front of him as he was reading something.

"Dave, I got system notification that I became an Awakener."

"And what is it saying?"

It seemed that Adam was still confused as he stared at system notification. Just yesterday he was dying from a fever, while today he got a message that he had awakened. It was happening too fast for him to react to it.

"It says that my body had successfully undergone mutation and I got an innate ability Telekinesis."

"Congratulations, bro!"

"...and it also says that I became an Evolver of spirit stat and I will get 1 stat-point increase every time I level up."

As Adam informed him that he became an Evolver, Dave became stunned. He thought that he misheard him, so he decided to ask again.

"Did you say that you got Telekinesis and became an Evolver of a spirit stat?"

"Yes, it is written here."

'Fucking lucky bastard'

Dave couldn't help but curse Adam since he became double Awakener. He awakened two times meaning that he got two mutated cell types in his body.

'How much good karma person needs to possess to be that lucky? Not only Adam started his awakening process right in the beginning but also became double Awakener.'

He was genuinely dumbstruck by his luck. Usually, most of the people became Evolvers rather than Ability Holders since there is more chance that more common cells will mutate. Innate Ability is the result of mutation of more uncommon cells or mutation in a different direction.

Therefore, Ability Holders are rarer than Evolvers, while double Awakeners were even rarer than Ability Holders.

'I heard that only 1% of all Awakeners were double Awakeners. How it comes that he fell in that 1%?'

It was too shocking for Dave since it was too rare. Every double Awakener is destined to be on the top of survivors. All of them were strong enough to have high social status and were revered with respect.

"Is it good? Hey, Dave, don't I look cooler than you now, right?"

Adam smiled cheekily as he rubbed the fact that he had awakened over his face.

'For some reason, he is really getting on my nerves. Isn't he too cheeky right now?'

Dave couldn't help but get irritated by him. For a moment, he even thought about hitting Adam with his 16 points of strength but quickly discarded that idea.