Trash in the Apocalypse

Chapter 9: Screen Panel

'Menu screen?'

Jun asked himself as he straightened his back. Even though he's dying to know and wanted to know what that notification meant, he still chose to be patient and prioritized his safety.

He surveyed the area outside the bank through the broken door. When he confirmed that it was safe and there's no infected near the bank, he exhaled and finally closed his eyes.

After taking a few seconds to relax his wildly beating heart, he turned around and searched for someone. When he saw the manager, he strode forward with a savage look on his face.

The manager had his back on him and was looting an infected he recently pulled back. A dim flash illuminated his hand, and a shard appeared.

A trickle of sweat appeared on his forehead when he suddenly felt an enormous pressure behind him. He turned around and saw Jun eagerly staring at him.

"Stand up, show your pockets and give me everything that you've looted." Jun ferociously said. His gaze felt like it would devour the manager alive.

The manager hurriedly emptied his pockets, flipping the inside out. There were precisely eight translucent shards that have the same shape and appearance as the one on his hands.

Jun thought that this old man would try to steal at least one or two shards, but he didn't. From the time that he got called to help, and when he finally finished looting the last infected, the color of the question mark above his head never change; it remained white.

Jun took everything and was barely able to hold eight shards on his left hand. He put them all on his jeans pockets, causing a bulge to form.

When he felt pain and that it was difficult to move, he took a green-colored eco-bag in the bank's counter. He turned around after he transferred the shards in the bag. 

He walked towards the door and stopped near the last infected he killed. He softly kicked the body and glanced towards the manager. He said, "I'll give you this one. I hope never to see anyone of you again."

***

"Didn't you hear what I just said?" Jun snapped as he closed the gate of the clinic.

After leaving the bank, he turned to his left and began walking.

The group of infected that came from the overturned jeepney scattered in the area. Infected who still have two remaining legs chased after their unsuspecting victims, those people who tried to help them. While those infected with one or no legs at all could only crawl as fast as they could, causing long trails of blood.

After taking less than five steps, a young teenager started yelling from the bank, asking for him to stop. Luckily, the nearest infected in front of him was at least 30 meters away.

Before they could attract anymore infected, he dragged the kid into a nearby clinic. The clinic had a reinforced gate and metal fence that reached up to two meters in height.

Before Jun could release his anger, the teen immediately kneeled on the floor and begged.

"Please take me with you. I'm alone and don't have any relatives so I can't go anywhere. I can usually take care of myself, but with things being different now, I'm not sure anymore."

His hair flowed down and covered his eyes as he lowered his head. He had black straight hair, which leans towards the left. He's wearing a cheap black hoodie partnered with worn-out jeans. In contrast to that, the pair of running shoes that he's wearing seemed to be brand new.

"My name is Adrian Santos, and I think we can help each other." said the young man confidently.

"And why would I need your help? You're so thin; you probably can't out-muscle any one of those infected." Jun sneered as he cautiously approached the clinic's door.

He can see two floating question marks wandering inside the clinic, but can't pinpoint which room it was coming. He tried twisting the knob, but it was locked.

Just as he was about to call inside, a gentle voice came from behind him.

"Let me open that for you!"

Adrian took a strange looking item from his pocket as he walked towards the door. Two small L-shaped wire appeared on his hands. He leveled himself on the doorknob and inserted the two wires simultaneously. Barely five seconds had passed when they hear a soft click. Adrian stood up and gave way to Jun.

"I told you. We can help each other."

If it were anyone else, Jun would have already smacked the other person in the face. The only reason that he hasn't done it was that he got curious about the name's color above this young man's head.

When they first met, it was the indifferent white. But after the scuffle and siege at the bank, it turned green. The young man chased him while shouting, almost attracting the infected in the area, resulting in their current predicament that they need a safe place to talk things out. He created the problem, and he solved it.

Jun harrumphed and entered the clinic as he ignored Adrian, who had a triumphant smile on his face.

What welcomed them was an open space filled with sofa chairs, the waiting area. There were four rooms divided into two by a single aisle. The first room to the left had a [Cashier/Pharmacy] sign. While the second room has [Storage] sign on it. The two question marks were floating inside the storage room.

On the right side are the [Radiology] and [Consultation] room.

Jun sat down on the nearest sofa. Adrian closed the door and chose to sit on the single sofa chair to his left.

Since the place seemed secure enough, Jun decided that he should explore the 'menu screen.' He tried saying every cool sounding chant that he knew of and some unique hand gestures. His actions resulted in self-embarrassment as Adrian kept on staring at him.

'Stare?' Jun thought to himself, then gasped. 'I'm an idiot!' he chided himself.

He remembered the first time that he interacted with the screen.

It was when accepting to absorbed Jake's legacy, causing a slight increase in his overall strength. He focused hard and willed for the menu screen to appear. With a chiming sound effect, the menu screen popped up.

There are two icons in the middle of the screen, namely, character and dimensional storage.

He got intrigued by what dimensional storage means, and so he clicked it with his mind. A game-like inventory screen expanded towards the right side of the icon. It was an inventory screen with numerous small empty boxes.

He immediately lost interest and opened the character icon. It expanded to the left side and showed numerous information about himself. There are now two transparent screens on his left and right side, the character and the dimensional storage screen, respectively.

***

[Jun Reyes][Profession - Thug][Level - 1]

[Health - 100][Energy - 100]

[Title - Thug Life]

[Power - 8][Endurance - 6][Speed - 4][Wits - 4][Cunning - 5][Charm - 6]

[Stat Points - 2]

[Trait]

-[Brave]

[Description] The user never cowers in front of danger. Permanently gains immunity to fear and panic.

-[Iron Gut]

[Description] The user has a stronger stomach. It lowers the chance of food poisoning.

-[Strong]

[Description] Gain additional power and extra knockback from melee weapons. [ +2 Power, +1m knockback with melee weapons]

[Skills]

-[Threaten - Lvl.1]

[Description] The user's voice becomes threatening, reducing the enemy's overall stats by 20%. Drains ten energy upon activation and additional five energy for every minute it was continuously active.

-[Rob - Lvl.1]

[Description] Gain a 50% chance to take five random items from the target's dimensional storage. If the user's power is three-fold higher than the target, Daylight Robbery is activated. When Daylight Robbery activates, the user can choose five items to take instead. The target becomes immune to the skill for 24 hours. Drains ten energy when used.

-[Execute - Lvl.1]

[Description] Gain a 10% chance to instantly kill the target when you land a critical hit on a vital area.

-[Blunt Weapon Mastery - Lvl.1]

[Description] Gain 20% damage when using a blunt weapon.