The acid rain stopped halfway past noon. The sky remained dark and eerie but the helper didn't warn him about anything, so Marco decided to make his move now.
During the idle hours that he had to stay cooped up inside his room, he was able to plan for what he had to do for this day. The first thing is to clear the two other rooms on the second floor, then further reinforce the stairway, so zombies would have a hard time climbing up.
After that, if the situation still permits it, he thought of stocking up on supplies like food and other materials. The government already said that they were planning how to solve the situation, so the best way to survive was holing up inside his room and be quiet about it.
He went out of his room and knocked on the adjacent room. "I'm going to check the remaining two rooms. If you want to help, you can come. Otherwise, please stay inside your room and don't create noise."
Marco waited for a response but didn't hear anything. "Is she ignoring me now?" He shrugged and didn't take the matter to heart. As long as he focused on the game aspect of the world, he won't shy away from social interactions with people.
All this time, he was thinking of her as an NPC and that worked well for him. NPCs are exaggeratedly beautiful and it was normal to see a beautiful NPC even in the real world, especially, one that forces plot narratives in your face.
Marco moved to the next unit and knocked on the door. "Is there anyone inside? Please respond. I'm doing surveys on the building and I will really appreciate it if you answer me. I'm a living human, not a zombie. Zombies can't speak, right? Right?.."
In the last part of his speech, he also wondered whether the zombies could speak. Not long after, he trashed the idea because it was too absurd.
'Zombies speaking? What an absurd idea. Imagine having to chat with them, errr' Marco shivered at the thought.
"Is there really no one? I'm going to force the door open if you don't answer."
Currently, on his Hotbar Slot1 was the Broom-spear while on Slot2 was the stone ax. Marco backed off slightly and readied his stone ax.
He aimed at the doorknob and waited for an answer. Several seconds later, there was no answer from the room and the stone ax came crushing. With a metallic ring, he struck the doorknob but only caused slight damage.
He recollected his breathing and took aim once more.
"Huff!"
Clang!
The doorknob got destroyed and the door started to open slightly. Instead of rushing inside, Marco waited for any movements from the room.
If the tenant inside was still alive and was just sleeping, which should be impossible because it was already past noon, they would have to react now and come out to deal with him. However, if it was a zombie, it would start raging even before he finished talking earlier.
Waiting in the hallway was just him acting safely. He can't risk close combat too much because he wasn't that physically fit. If things turned out bad, he could get chewed up several times just to kill a zombie in a real fight.
The fight over the empty lot was just a fluke in combination with luck. After that battle, he realized that he wasn't that proficient in fighting and that is why he created a spear, so he could get a range advantage.
Speaking of which, he stored the stone ax to Slot2 and swapped it to his broom-spear before entering the room.
The spear tightly clutched on his right hand, he slowly pushed the door opened using his off-hand. The door glided smoothly without producing any sound.
The dark living room welcomed him after stepping inside the unit. Knowing that the units have the same layout, Marco knew how to navigate the room and where to look out for possible sneak attacks.
After fumbling in the darkness, he reached out to the wall and turned the lights on. The room brightened up and presented a tidy living room. He moved towards the kitchen while gripping his spear tightly.
Shwuah!
Empty.
Marco looked around. He already checked the living room and the kitchen and they were both empty. There are only two areas left to check, which is the bedroom and the bathroom.
Before checking the remaining rooms, Marco opened the fridge and searched for food.
It seems like he was unlucky since the fridge was almost empty with only a few frozen portions of meat on the freezer. However, after checking the cupboards, he got lucky and found stacks of noodles and a variety of canned food.
At once, Marco had the epiphany that a man was living here. It was not that great of an assumption since women tend to cook their food instead of relying on instant foods.
Marco felt laughing after taking all the noodles and yet not being able to take the canned food because they were different from each other.
"I should always bring my backpack when going out. I have limited inventory slots when not wearing one." Marco muttered to himself.
Currently, his inventory was filled with stacks of spicy noodles, sweet noodles, and different types of canned food. He already took the most numbered canned food and left the type with the least amount.
After the looting spree, he checked the remaining rooms and didn't find anyone. He only postponed checking the room to see whether zombies could open doors. The doors didn't open since there were no zombies inside, and that doesn't mean zombies can't open doors. If he wants to delve deeper into this, he had to experiment further and at another time.
He did quick inventory management back on his unit and stashed all the food he looted. After dropping off the items, he went straight to the last room near the stairway.
Unlike earlier, he just placed his ears on the door and listened for any movement inside. Upon determining that there was no one there, he tried opening the door but it was locked. Then, he started hitting the doorknob to bust it open.
Clang! Clang!
"Kyaah! Bastard!!!"
After the second strike, Marco heard Jessica's frantic voice coming from below. He quickly ran to the stairway just in time to see her speedrunning the stairway, followed by a zombified balding middle-aged man.