Riku had nothing else to do so he decided to recall the fight with the monster he called P-Variant, P stands for power. He remembered every detail and he imagined how he could've down better and what should he have done for things to end differently.
There were quite a number of mistakes that he has done even before the fight has started, now that he thinks about it. For one, he has forgotten to use the ability of [Mask of Pareidolia] that he got 2 days before they even fought the P-Variant.
He has used the ability on a zombie and while it didn't work on it, it doesn't mean it wouldn't work on the P-Variant just because it looked similar to a zombie.
"Whether it worked or not, it wouldn't have cost me anything to try. In fact, it may have provided some information about the P-Variant no matter how trivial it may seem."
If he didn't learn this early on, no matter how many good skills he acquires if he didn't use them, they'd just be good for the show and ultimately a waste.
It might've been an illusion created by his constant fighting with the zombies, but he thought it was him fighting with no assistance, but the truth is that his combat prowess right now is thanks to the System.
The reason why he's able to kill zombies quite easily isn't his techniques, but his brute attributes.
The other mistake he made was underestimating the skill level. Now that he upgraded his skills this is where he realized that knowing too much can cause harm as well. He didn't think that the difference between level 1 and level 2 would be quite huge.
After all the System categorized them under the same category. The other mistake he made was related to skills as well, he was looking far into the future when he didn't have the luxury to worry about the future.
He had to survive first in the present without any worries before he could even think about the future.
Lastly, he once again either overestimated himself or underestimated the P-Variant, it wasn't clear, but the point is that he couldn't fight the P-Variant yet.
It was just obvious that he was weaker compared to the P-Variant the only advantage Riku had was his agility which wasn't even that much better compared to the P-Variant.
If either Eliza or Kohaku was missing during the fight. Riku would've suffered more than a few broken ribs. During the whole fight, they were just hanging on a thread.
One good hit and whether it was Riku, Eliza or even Kohaku they would've died immediately.
"I need to utilize the System's utmost capabilities. I need to get stronger."
Meanwhile, Eliza was killing zombies outside to clear her mind, the scene of having to kill another live human was just constantly hanging around her mind.
One of the reasons as to why she was killing zombies outside is to find an equipment that Riku could wear to boost his vitality. Riku was an essential member in their team fights.
Riku would constantly cover her back in fights and she would do the same. Riku made it easier to deal with groups of zombies, especially when Kohaku came.
As nice as Kohaku was, she didn't listen to Eliza's orders and would only listen to Riku. Now that Riku isn't supposed to go outside, Kohaku stayed inside as well, no matter how much Eliza asked.
Without Kohaku to track and sense zombies outside her vision, she could only cautiously proceed. If it was possible she wanted to find out more about the group of men that the woman mentioned in her story.
She still wasn't ready to kill them, but she wanted to at least know more about them. Eliza held the advantage, she knew about the group, unlike the group who didn't know they existed.
The information the woman provided was just lacking, it didn't have any information about their guns, their location and their official numbers, all the woman could claim is that they have guns and they were a group of 3 men.
Not wanting to waste the opportunity she went to where the woman came from when she screamed and found herself near a neighborhood. Just like every other street in the city, cars can be seen crashed, blood splattered everywhere.
The silence in the neighborhood was deafening, but Eliza at this point was used to this kind of situation. Looking around her surroundings cautiously for any signs of humans.
She was just about to give up on her search when the sound of a woman's scream can be heard in one of the houses. She approached the house and peeked at one of the windows.
Inside, she can see a bunch of women crying in one corner while two men vigorously acted like rabbits in heat along with a woman who wasn't moving at all. All of the women in the room were covered with bruises.
One of the women in the corner covered her mouth as she looked at the no longer moving woman in bed, then one of the men spoke.
"Damn did she die already? You must have been choking her too hard you asshole."
"It's not my fault, she wasn't moving her tongue so I had to make her."
"You're crazy, this is why we're gonna run out of woman to bang, it's also because of you why one of the b*tches escaped. She was a tough nut to crack too, too bad I didn't get to use her that much."
"Hey, I'm not crazy, at least compared to boss, I'm like these bitches savior. Isn't that right? Hey, you come here."
A man laughed as he called one of the women in the corner. A woman stood up and hesistantly approached the man. The man slapped her and asked.
"Why are you taking so long to come here? Tell him, am I crazy?"
"N-no."
"What did you call me?!"
"I-i mean no master."
"See even the woman isn't calling me crazy."
The man once again laughed before once again acting like a rabbit in heat. As for the woman who wasn't moving she was just pushed off the bed.
Thinking to herself that she's seen enough, Eliza was about to leave when she felt something cold and hard pointed at her head.
Realizing it was a gun, she couldn't help but think.
"Riku, help me."
She had to dismiss that thought immediately though, as she knew that he wasn't in a good condition. When she dropped her bat as a sign of giving up. The man behind her immediately pulled her head and whispered to her ear.
"Now, now, it's not fun to just watch right? Come on in, I'm sure you'll like it."
He dragged her inside the house and slammed the front door, the ones in other rooms must've heard it as scrambling can be heard in different rooms before four naked men appeared and said.
"Boss welcome back!"
"See this b*tch right here? You f*cking idiots, she was able to spy on you guys and none of you bastards even realize!"
The four men paled and some of them glared at Eliza.
"You f*ckers better get your sh*t together otherwise you'll have an alone time with my dear."
Hearing the threat, Eliza couldn't help, but think it was a weird threat. Seeing the four grown men shaking, however, made her assume that it's something horrible.
"Do a good job, and you'll have this woman as a reward. Until then, no one touches her."
The man that seems to be the leader dragged her further into a room. Inside was four messy looking women who were all tied up, the man tied Eliza before leaving. The sound of the door locking could be heard after he left.
"You must've realized, but your chances of surviving out there would be much greater than here. Well, you can blame your luck out of all the places to go, you got here. By the way, my name's Rikka."
A tall woman with long red hair sitting in a corner. White skin, hazel eyes and thin natural pink lips. Eliza could only think that she was beautiful and didn't deserve to be locked up here, looking around the women she could see that all of them were actually beautiful, in fact they looked like models.
"My name's Eliza, how did you guys get here and who was that guy."
"Just call him Kuruoshi, well, I think it's the same for the four of us, but I heard them shouting that they're there to save survivors next thing you know a gun's pointed at ya."
"So what will happen to us?" Eliza asked. Rikka answered in a relaxed tone.
"Well, the imaginary scenario is we'll wake up from this sh*thole the next best case would be us saved by the government, as for the realistic best scenario? We'd die here out of hunger with our dignity intact."
"Listen up girl, there are two things you don't want to happen. One is to end up as the four men's toys. The other thing you don't want to happen is meeting dear, that's the real bad news. Who dear is, it's better to hear it from her sister."
Rikka looked at one of the women and Eliza followed her eyes. A woman who senses their gazes sighed and started talking.
"That man is a stalker of my sister, he didn't want her rejecting him so he made those monsters bite her before keeping her in a closet where he feeds her other people that pisses him off."
The woman said in a deadpan tone, her eyes looked lifeless and it seemed like she didn't have the will to do anything. Eliza didn't know what to say, all she could do was apologized, but the woman ignored her.
Rikka, at that moment started to talk again.
"Well, now that you know the gist of the situation. Welcome to the group. I hope we can see each other tomorrow."
Bewildered by her behavior Eliza couldn't help, but ask.
"Aren't you afraid of dying?"
One of the girls couldn't seem to take it anymore as she scolded Erika.
"Won't you just shut the f*ck up? I don't know how your experience was out there, but everyone has their own ways of dealing with the situation and that girl over there. That's her way of coping with this f*cked up situation. She's been broken thoroughly!"
Eliza couldn't help but feel ashamed, she knew that everyone went through hard times just to survive and she knew she was extremely lucky compared to these other girls, though her luck seems to have come to an end.
Six hours must've passed and Eliza still tried to think of ways to escape, but no bright ideas came to mind.
Still not willing to give up, Eliza looked around the room and tried to find any ways to escape. She could probably break down the wooden door, but that'll make a noise so she didn't consider that.
She asked questions and it seems like the only way for her to leave the room is when someone gets a reward or when their food is brought to them and they'll have their guns with them. All of their actions were also monitored by the men.
She tried to think of any other way, but she couldn't come up with anything that had a chance of working. It would've been a different story if the girls had any will, but they didn't, they've surrendered.
Imagining Riku saving her made her smile a little, before she started to think again. Rikka, who didn't miss the sight of her smile asked.
"Why were you smiling?"
Surprised Eliza still answered.
"I think my friend will come and save me soon."
Rikka stared at her blankly before laughing so hard and answered.
"No way, no way that's impossible unless your friend is stupid, there's no reason why he'd dare to come in here."
Just as Rikka finished laughing, the door opened. Eliza, who was slightly hoping looked at the door excitedly, but to her dismay, it was one of the men who was looking at her pervertedly and he said while looking at her.
"Hey b*tch I'm here to claim my reward."
Eliza could only pray as the man started coming closer to her while holding a gun.
"Riku please save me."