The World Cataclysm

Chapter 27: Haunted

Suddenly, the trio sitting in the kitchen stood up abruptly and approached him with big strides. Even though he had predicted that they will gather around him, their facial expressions seemed extremely odd to him.

'What is it? Did something happen to them when I wasn't here? Maybe something happened to Rachel and Katelyn? Well, I don't care tough.'

Finally, coming to the distance of stretched arm, instead of worry all over their faces, they seemed solemn for an unknown reason to him. While Rebecca and Adam had still checked him for any external injuries, Brian looked like he was forcing down his laughter.

"Did something happen to you?"

Although his internal organs were injured pretty heavily, he tried not to reveal the fact that he was wounded...still, when he heard what Brian had said, he felt like he couldn't suppress his internal injuries any further as he coughed out a mouthful of blood.

"Hahaha...Dave...hahaha.. tell me honestly, did you truly gift a condom to Adam on his 18th birthday?"

When he heard Brian, he was flustered by his question and glanced at Adam who was trying to stop laughing and understood everything without any words...He was betrayed by his brother!

'Fucking Adam, he sold me out! And what's wrong with it? He was rich enough to have everything he wanted, and so I thought that I should give him something he truly needed. Which man doesn't need a condom? I took a safe option!'

When he had coughed blood out of his mouth, all three of them stopped laughing and were looking at him worriedly. Lost in the process of reminiscing their fun stories from the past, Adam had forgotten that Dave had come from outside.

"Are you injured?"

"Do you need anything?"

"..."

All three of them were concerned about him as Brian and Adam exclaimed in worry, while Rebecca was checking every part of his body, which was quite hard since he was covered in blood, of course, not with his.

"Ohh, now you're worried about me? You should continue talking about me and sharing with each other my secrets behind my back, while I will treat my injuries, why don't you?"

He chuckled loudly as he was mocking them. At his words, all three of them looked apologetic as they were saying "We're sorry!" repeatedly. Satisfied with teasing them, he moved towards his room to get rest and restore his strength.

"Don't worry so much! I'll rest a bit and I'll be alright, so don't overthink anything."

Dave decided to drop a fact that he had several ribs broken, not to say about his internal injuries, since they didn't need to know about it. Even if they knew that he was injured heavily, it will only cause excessive worry among them.

Entering his room, he had a strong urge to just lie on his bed and relax his muscles, yet he bore with pain and changed his clothes. However, it was a maximum he could do because he felt staying any further on his legs and he would drop exhausted on the floor.

Grunting heavily, he lied on the bed and started making plans for the future.

'So, no solo hunting for a few days and we should go to the cafeteria before we run out of supplies. There is still a long way before university becomes a safe place to live. There should be some of the other Enhancers in university, yet I don't know any of their definite locations. Pretty sure, I'll meet them in the future. Nothing will happen if I fasten things a bit, right?'

He was too exhausted to think about anything else as he had soon entered a dream world.

...

He did see a kinda bizarre dream.

He was stuck in a small dark room and for some reason, he was really depressed as he had sat there several days. If Adam and Brian had seen it, they would have already recognized in it a storage room where they lived for a few days.

Dave was eating cans of food and crying over the death of his best friend, then weeping till the point when he had no tears to shed, he slept from the exhaustion.

Unable to leave a storeroom, loneliness and boredom were driving him insane as he was checking zombies outside periodically. Like this, he was stuck in a minimarket for over a month, as sanity was slowly leaving his mind. Only exercising time after time had helped him to calm his mind.

Until the day when he noticed that 2 zombies had left a minimarket, leaving only one of them. He saw a chance...chance to leave a storeroom. Perhaps, he would have only a minimarket to move freely, yet it was enough for a person who was stuck in a storeroom for a month.

Strategizing everything and with several tries close to death, he was able to kill it, yet still moved cautiously in minimarket, observing the behaviour of zombies through transparent doors.

Suddenly, everything had blurred around him, as he was transferred to another place. And it struck him!

He was starving! Never did he starve so hard before in his life!

His stomach was growling like it was eating him from inside, yet he dragged his body to finish his duties.

It was two years after cataclysm had started and food was a scarce resource, which was given to ordinary people like him at an absolute minimum, so he won't die. He was found in the minimarket after a year when university campus had formed united survival group, cleaning university campus of monsters, leaving some forbidden areas.

Even then, he was satisfied that he was alive...useless and weak but alive.

Was it bad to wish to be alive? He knew it wasn't.

Was it bad to wish a better life? It was also a normal thing to wish.

Was he worthy of his life? No, at least he thought so. He had always imagined what if Adam was alive instead of him. Would Adam have done better than him?

There was a great disparity in statuses of Enhancers and common people since hunters were able to go outside, kill zombies and grow stronger. He had also wanted to obtain a weapon from the system and slaughter monster, growing stronger with every kill. He had envied other Enhancers and lamented his life.

Living disgusted by his life, he finally had a chance in his third year when city officials had reached their university with an armed people, so he decided to become a soldier to gather enough contribution points to buy a weapon from the system.

He had thought that his life will be different than before!

He had envisioned a better future for himself!

However, after harsh training for several months, he completely lost his right to own his life. He became a soldier, a pawn or, how he had felt, a cannon fodder, who had to obey every command and risk his life for no significant benefits.

Then, after a year when they had cleaned a substantial part of their city, he had left ranks of soldiers and purchased a weapon and a Skill Book for his contribution points.

Even then, his life didn't change much except that he was free and owned his life. His days as an Enhancer became much more dangerous since he needed to kill monsters several levels higher than him all alone. Even though his life grew riskier and more dangerous, he was satisfied by his freedom.

He trained and learned skills from other Enhancers, converting his stats to further strengthen himself. Meditation, Mana Application, Flash Step, Swordsmanship, Reinforced Breathing and several other skills were learnt by him due to his hard work. He put his soul in learning them that even his commitment to it might be called maniacal.

He thought over his every action, analyzed the system and gathered data on other monsters, outlined strategies and tactics. It was how he lived his last two years. Searching for any ways to make him stronger, he had lived in his own world, neglecting everything else. He did have acquaintances in the city, yet no close friend to call upon.

He had a poor affinity to mana, had no innate ability and had no evident offensive skills, yet somehow, with great efforts, he was able to survive in a world of madness. After two years, he barged in the ranks of Enhancers and was called the weakest.

In two years, he had grown strong enough to barely keep his life and he was ready to venture further from the city and join expeditions with other Enhancers. Perhaps, he would have a chance to search for his uncle's family.

However, even then he had lost his life in a sudden demonic wave, which swept over their city. So the question is...

Would he have lived differently if he had an innate ability?