Bang! Bang!
"Please! Open up!!"
"The zombies are chasing us! Please!!"
Pleads of panic resounded on the hotel's lobby.
Five people in ragged clothing with dirt-covered faces desperately knocked on the hotel's doors.
The hotel was cold and unresponsive.
Tears and snots decorated the survivor's faces.
Roar!
The trauma-inducing screech of the Infected was heard about tens of meters away.
"Break the door! Break the door!"
"Hurry! Hurry!!"
The fear of death made them behave erratically.
Just when the five outsiders were about to break the glass doors with their bats and stones, the door opens!
Rooar!
The Infected attracted by their screams were closing in.
"Hurry! Run inside!"
"Find a room! Find a room!"
The frightened survivors rushed inside in a helter-skelter manner.
Zoom!
In a split second, a black shadow zoomed past all five from inside the hotel.
"Aaah!"
The survivors thought that it was an Infected and raised up their weapons.
Loud sounds of a hard object being smashed were heard.
To their surprise, the survivors turned their heads back to the entrance.
Thud! Thud!
The black shadow stood tall and mighty.
Beneath its feet, were the Infected that were chasing them a few moments ago!
"H-h-h-how?"
Upon closer look, both of the Infected's skull was missing its upper half.
That scene left them flabbergasted.
'Human! It's a human!'
After overcoming their shock, they were relieved that the black figure was human.
Snap! Crack!
But what the mysterious person did next nauseated them.
The person desecrated the corpses of the monsters by pulling out their spinal cords!
A few of them threw up.
'Did we escape the lion's jaw just to enter the tiger's lair?'
The person's movement was fast.
He even butchered the charred corpses of the Infected outside the hotel.
After three minutes, the black figure walked back to the hotel lobby.
Kachak!
"Who are you?"
Their savior asked them while pointing a menacing black crossbow to them.
…
A few minutes earlier, Bucky alerted the family about the intruders.
"Do we let them in?"
Subconsciously, Bucky asked for his brother's permission.
"It depends. I'll handle this. You guys wait and rest in the 1st Floor's Control Room."
Erza wanted to gauge the intruder's intentions.
"It's been so long since we see other people! Let's greet them toge-"
"No. Stay in the Control Room and rest. I'll explain later."
As Feera got all excited to meet other living humans in almost a week, he got shot down by Erza.
Feera sulked but he understood that his brother must've had a good reason.
"Bucky, connect the lobby's security feed to my ePhone. Only when I give you the signal, unlock the doors."
The apocalypse would give birth to many strong entities, and also peculiar ones.
…
"Sir, please! C-calm down!"
"We come in peace! We come in peace!"
The tense atmosphere made the survivors anxious.
'Three women and two men.'
The black figure holding a crossbow was Erza.
He quickly analyzed all five of them.
"You talk about peace but yet you still hold your weapons? You take me for a fool?!"
Click.
Erza's subtle adjustment to the crossbow made their hearts beat faster.
"Yes! Yes! We're sorry! We're sorry!"
Wooden bats and steel pipes fell to the floor.
Five pairs of arms shot straight up in the air.
Then, a middle-aged looking man mustered his courage and spoke up.
"Sir Savior, thank you for saving us! W-we saw a big smoke coming from this direction, so we thought we would check it out.."
Looking a little emaciated and dehydrated, he must have lived by just enough every day.
Then, a frail-looking woman kneeled down.
"Please, sir!! We haven't eaten since two days ago and we haven't had anything to drink since yesterday night! Please give us some water!!"
Her brown hair was disheveled and exuded a strong smell.
The other three survivors kneeled down with her, except for one person.
"You cowards! Why are you kneeling like a dog! He's only one person, and we have five! If we gang up on him, we can take all his food and water!"
The moment the blood-covered youth spoke up, the other four's faces went pale.
They stared daggers at this person who jeopardized their chances of survival.
Erza was silent.
His unresponsiveness caused the tension to be heightened.
The speed and strength of this mysterious man surpassed all five of them.
In the event, a battle broke out, how many people would die?
'He's got weapons, a full suit of armor and great strength. We don't stand a chance.'
The longer the standoff went, the more hopeless they felt.
The crossbow bolts pointing at them made their danger senses screaming.
Pssh!
One of the female survivors could not stand the stress, and wet herself.
The silence made the situation more embarrassing.
Tears also flowed out of her eyes.
"Have you had enough fun? If you're not going to even share your water, just kill us!"
The standing young man made his stand.
Erza then spoke.
"Why should I give you water?"
It was a very practical question.
In times of resource shortages, men would kill for a piece of biscuit.
"Sir! I can pay for it! Here, I have several credit cards! I also have a cash reserve in the ba-"
The middle-aged man stood up and took out his wallet.
"Do you see any shops open?"
Erza's one sentence stumped the man's hope.
The wad of cash he was holding was practically less useful than toilet paper.
"Sir, I can sing, act and model! I-If you want, I could also offer my bod-"
A woman around her mid-20s revealed her cleavage while kneeling.
Before the apocalypse, she was a relatively popular actress.
"Not interested."
Erza's reply to her is even shorter than before, but it shattered the last bit of hope she had.
"Sir, I was a nurse before the city went down into a spiral. I could treat most injuries that you might have."
Although her face is tainted with dirt and soot, she has fair skin and her hair is long and chestnut-colored.
Underneath the grimes and mess, Erza could tell she is an oriental beauty.
"Understood."
Although Erza said a word of agreement, it was ambiguous.
Next to her was a girl in her teens kneeling on her own pool of urine.
"S-s-sir, although I'm young, I-I-I could learn how to please you and-"
"Stop it. You don't have to spread your legs for Mr. Death God here. Hey! I know you're tough and all, but can you live alone?"
Erza was intrigued.
Arrogant and prideful types like him have their positive sides too.
"What are you suggesting?"
"You have food now, and water too, but what happens when you run out, huh? Sure, you could go kill zombies and go for a supply run, but you can't keep up with both! You need a muscle guy! I can carry the supplies for you while you kill those damn things. And if you want me to be bait or cannon fodder, I'm fine with it too."
The loud man voiced out his proposal.
All these while, he has never lowered his hands down.
'Prideful, brave, but adaptable. He's quality team member material.'
In the apocalypse, the best resource one could get is loyal manpower.
With a reliable and skillful team, you would survive nine times out of ten.
Erza slowly took out a black water bottle.
With his left hand, he slowly unlocked the cap and sipped a few in.
But the whole time, he never lowered down his crossbow.
All of them gulped at his action but didn't dare to make a move.
"Here's how it's gonna be. I will fight anyone of you or even all of you. If I lose, this whole bottle is yours."
His offer was tempting but having witnessed his strength first hand, they erased the thought.
"I'll go first!"
Unsurprisingly, the loudest person volunteered.
The man was 180 cm tall.
Coupled with a muscular physique, he looked intimidating.
But to Erza, he's just a slightly bigger human male.
"You can use anything as a weapon."
Erza inserted the water bottle back into his bag, and slowly folded his crossbow.
The muscle man picked up his baseball bat.
"Just you?"
Erza looked at the other four survivors.
"Looks like it."
The man shrugged his shoulder without even looking back.
"Alright. Anytime you're ready."
The second Erza finished the sentence, the loud man dashed towards him.
"Raaaaaargh! Die!!"
He screamed and swung his bat like a madman.
His fighting style resembles street brawling.
"Yaaah! Heeeesh!"
Erza was facing him bare-handed.
Despite carrying a big bag, a crossbow, and wearing a full combat suit, he dodged every single swing by a hair's breadth.
Hundreds, if not thousands of swing was aimed at Erza but not a single one managed to land.
'My footwork is still not how it used to be.'
Aside from swallowing Evolution Nectars to directly increase his strength, he has been practicing martial arts he learned in his previous life.
What use is strength when you can't control it?
Martial arts are the sole proof that techniques could amplify and efficiently utilize one's strength!
"Huff-huff!"
The loud muscleman pants heavily.
"Tired already?"
The smirk in Erza's eyes showed a hint of ridicule.
"I'm just getting started, you bastard! Yearrghhhh take this!!!"
He picked up the steel pipes and bats on the floor, and threw them at Erza!
'Good thinking.'
This round, Erza got a little serious.
He deflected the projectiles with his bare left hand.
"Gotcha!!"
The muscleman used the flying bats and pipes to sneak behind Erza.
BAAAM!
A silver metal bat lodged itself between Erza's head and left shoulder.
"He got him! He got him! He won! He won!!"
The sideliners cheered for the muscleman.
Serious damage must have been dealt with from the loud sound of metal meets the human flesh and bone.
"Sorry to burst your bubbles."
Like a grim reaper's whisper, Erza spoke up.
Muscleman tried to pull out his bat, but it wouldn't budge even an inch!
Upon closer look, Erza's left hand was gripping the bat by another end.
Despite deflecting the pipes with the same left hand, he managed to respond fast enough to stop the bat.
The atmosphere got quieter than before.
They have lost all hope in getting the water bottle.
The mystery man was just too strong!
Smack!
Muscleman's baseball bat was yanked out of his hand.
Erza casually flung the bat away.
Crack!
What a seemingly casual act made got the bat embedded inside the hotel's wall.
Losing his only weapon, he started to cautiously approach Erza.
"Hmph!"
He then started his attack with a low kick.
This time, Erza was blocking all his attacks. He controlled his strength to not injure his opponent.
Symptoms of stamina loss appeared.
His complexion paled, and his breathing became irregular.
But despite the condition, he still punched and kicked with everything he got!
Muscleman's swings and kicks contained almost no energy now.
"Pak!"
A fist finally landed on Erza's right cheek.
His eyes glimmered with hope.
But in almost a split second, the tables turned.
Dhoom!
Erza's movements were so fast, all they saw was him subduing muscleman underneath him.
Creeeak!
"Arghhhh!"
Muscleman's arms were slowly stretched, almost reaching the point of breaking.
"I'll show mercy if you call me uncle."
Erza slowly whispered to muscleman's ear.
"F*ck you! Suck a d*ck and go to h*ll, you sadistic b*stard!!"
Even in the middle of excruciating pain, he stood by his pride.
'I would rather die than being humiliated!'
"Dying for your ego would be regretful. No?"
Erza kept pulling on his arm.
And finally…
Thud!
"Huh?"
All of them were confused.
'Why didn't he break his arm?'
"Here. You won."
Erza placed the black water bottle in front of the muscleman.
"What?!"
A thousand and one questions ran through his mind.
He looked at the black water bottle with contempt.
"Hey! Are you toying with me? I clearly lost!"
He wanted to smack the bottle but he was too weak at the moment.
"I said, if I lose, the whole bottle is yours. When was it ever your call to begin with?"
Erza emphasized that he is the one in control.
His words controlled their life and death.
"Hmph! I'm not going to accept this humili-"
Erza pinched a spot between his neck and shoulder.
Before the muscleman could finish his words, he fainted.
He then opened up the water bottle and slowly chugged it into his mouth.
Despite being unconscious, the human body still retains its survival instinct.
His parched lips gobbled the water greedily, even spilled out of his mouth.
"Cough-cough!"
The muscleman even choked a little for drinking too fast.
The other four watched in envy but were powerless to do anything.
They dare not offend this powerful character.
"He will wake up in a minute. The water is his, what happens to it is none of my concern!"
Erza slowly walked to a lift entrance and tapped his Key Card.
In a few seconds, he was gone from the Ground Floor.
"Urghh~ what happened?"
True enough, muscleman woke up after a full minute.