He looked agitated and snuggled in a chair to recover.
'Are you ok?'.
'Yeah, it's just that a raccoon~ started to chase me after I finished scouting~ and I wasn't able to shake him off~, in the end, I went near one of the conflict zones to escape~'.
'Are you sure it wasn't able to follow you?'.
'Yeah~ I saw it getting shot when he changed targets to some human ~'.
'I'm glad you are ok, we are planning to move from here tomorrow'.
'That's a good idea~, the animals went crazy~, the second conflict were dozens of people that are under attack~… horses~, cows, pigs, and a lot of other animals~', I think they were different groups but when they were attacked they joined hands to defend themselves~'.
'Tell me what else you saw'.
'In the morning I went to see Mr. Ryan, he made a grave in his house and left~ he went to the group in the Police station~, that group is the biggest in the city~ they had to go to a school to be able to stay together, the group that was in the clinic have grown a lot and is the second largest, both groups have "control" of the city center~'.
'And around here?'.
'Around here are a lot of smaller groups~, Jamie's one of the biggest is more than a dozen people, but none of them seems happy~ he is attacking the other groups if they don't join him~, he is living in a house about 6 blocks to the north east~. The group they are at war with seems strong... About ten people'.
'The group that is defending from the animals how are they doing?'.
'I don't think they are going to resist too much'.
Since they were attacked by surprise and were smaller groups, at the beginning of the attack, they must have been unorganized, we should assume that those animals came from the farms outside, so the west probably is getting attacked by the animals of the forest. Which makes the west of the city more dangerous, there's a swamp in that forest.
The city center should be safer, but the supplies are going to be scarcer than here because of the large groups.
We must move a little toward the center, but not enough to get in the way of the larger groups.
According to Dante, there are a lot of smaller groups around here, but I don't think they all are going to be active in attacking others like Jamie's.
From the east, we have farms and from the west, the forest. That leaves south and north. Even if north is where Jamie's fights are happening, I think that in the future we should move, going south means going toward the desert, fewer animals, and fewer supplies and no water, this leaves the north.
Since we know the position of Jamie's groups we could move to a place in which his group and the one they are at war, can be used as a wall to protect us from the animal invasion, it was dangerous, but it was also the safest place since most of the groups should want to get away from them. Fewer groups equal more supplies in the area and if we keep a low profile they are not going to look for us there.
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, it could be useful to keep an eye on them.
Also, even if it was dangerous, the system gave that mission for a reason. And I want to finish it for the rewards.
It was decided we were going to move to the northwest to avoid the conflict area.
I bought 5 bullets for the rifle it cost 2 system points each. I had 7 bullets left in the handgun, but I doubt that if a cow or a horse appears those bullets are going to be able to do anything to them.
And I reloaded right away.
The 15 points left were for emergencies, I had a couple of ideas already if we are involved in something dangerous, but unless there's a need for it I'm not using them yet.
I stayed outside with Dante, he gave me a lot of details about the things he saw including some abandoned houses we could use as temporary refuges.
We would move toward Haley's home, the time it took walking was about the same as her current limits, from there, we keep moving north we should arrive at the place I have in mind.
While I was talking I heard a sound. Dante's ears went straight up, I didn't know from where it came.
'Did you hear that'
'Yeah, it came from the roof'.
'Use the mental connection and tell all in the house to not come out'
It was late at night the moon was barely noticeable, but thanks to the stars you can see around without problems, my enhanced eyes allowed me to see a little better, but it was enhanced vision and not night vision. I took the rifle and walked to the backyard to check the roof, I closed the door softly.
I have never shot it before, but I knew the theory and I knew already the correct grip.
Dante climbed the wall on the side of the backyard and was also looking around.
I was focused, changing between the wide visible range, and the vital point view, but the vital point didn't show anything, so I kept with the first view and scanned the roof.
At the beginning, I didn't see anything but after a while a noticed a red dot… it was an eye of a little black bird, as soon as I saw it, I pointed at it with the rifle, but since it was small I wasn't as worried as before. I was thinking if I should take the shot anyway, or not… I should have done it.
'Careful' Dante climbed down the wall and the bird opened his beak.
"CAAAAWWWW!!!!! CAAAAWWW!!!!!"
BANG!!
It happened in just a second a loud scream came from the bird I take the shot but had to leave the rifle in the grass to cover my ears.
The shot missed, but it scared the bird… or so I thought because it took flight, but instead of leaving it came to me, I was a little dizzy but reacted and rolled on the floor to dodge. Since the bird was too mobile and my rifle abilities suck I took out the handgun. When it attacked me, I noticed that it was a crow, and it's incredibly difficult to be able to follow its movements in the night.
CAAWW!!!! CAWWW!
At least it wasn't smart, the caws are annoying and hurt a lot, but after 3 times I noticed that always does that to leave me vulnerable before it attacks me.
This time, when the scream stopped I was ready and took another shot, this time with the handgun.
Again, I failed.
It didn't come for me, it changed directions and almost got Dante, at the last minutes he made a strange twist and was able to dodge it.
Stupid bird earlier, I thought that fighting a bull would be incredibly dangerous, but a freaking bird was giving me a lot of problems, my confidence in survival was on the floor right now. And when I tried to look at Dante to see if he was ok I lost the crow. I looked around. I should have trained more my Dex.
CAAAWWW!!!
Thank god the stupid bird is polite enough to tell me each time it's about to attack.
I turned around, my ears hurt, but this time I didn't cover them, I shot 3 times while the crow was diving.
Finally, one of the bullets grazed one of the wings and it fell. It tried to fly again, but Dante was fast and before it could scream again went straight to his throat, it struggled a little, but after half a minute it stopped moving.
I dropped to my knees, I was a little dizzy and felt my neck wet I touched with my hand and found blood coming from my left ear.
I didn't need my medical knowledge to know that I had a perforated eardrum. With my right ear, I heard the door of the backyard opening and a worried Hope came running followed by Rose and Hayley.
[Congratulations user, for Killing his first F-Ranked beast 5 system points]
[Achievement unlocked]
[First Blood
This world had changed, and you must defend yourself.
Kill your first living creature
Reward 10 System Points +1 stat point]
[Mission: Kill ten beasts (at least F-Rank) 1/10
Type: normal
Reward: 50 system points
Time left: unlimited]
[Mission: Survive the Whole Collapse
Type: Main
Reward: 500 system points, ???
Time to complete: 3w 1d 23h 21m 14s]
That was the first time I heard about the collapse, but it wasn't going to be the last.
In the years later, the collapse was going to become the name of a short period after the meteor shower.
When most of the technologies were lost or unusable.
When half of the life in the earth died.
When those that survived changed.
When the animals turned into beasts and walked rampant around the cities.
When the humans forgot their morals to survive and the strong ruled the weak.
When everything as we knew before collapsed…