"Thank you thank you!" The green-haired girl shouts at Sam. To her surprise, he does not reply and still heads northeast.
To be fair, Sam did not save her, so she does not need to feel appreciated or anything similar. To him, she is nothing else but baits.
The girl introduces herself. "I'm Dan! What's your name? Which planet are you from?"
Sam stays silent.
What he did was simply to prevent a powerful foe that can create even more powerful zombies. If what Sam has been gathered until now can be applied in any case, then sooner or later, this whole city will be swarmed with zombies that can use magic.
"You can't talk? Can your species talk? But I heard you earlier?"
No reply.
Sam looks at the sky and he can see a countdown. Curious, the girl also looks up. It has not even been even thirty minutes since it started, but the number of participants has already been reduced by 10. A small number, in some people's eyes.
But.
After the first hour, it will be 20. After the second, 80. A quick calculation shows that at this rate, it needs only almost 8 hours to convert all the participants into zombies. And that is not counting the number of normal zombies.
He and all of his companions will be dead by that swarm or suffer an even worse fate.
"Hey! I'm going to call you Mute at this rate!" She seems a little angry. "At least pay attention to someone when they are talking! Don't your world have manners? Are you still barbarians?"
Dead silent.
A zombie runs after her, and she vents her anger by creating a huge pillar of ice to crush its entire body.
"What a weird guy!" She mumbles.
Sam thought about disposing of her, but there is better usage. Since the zombies are targeting the magic user first, if he can use her well, she will be a good meat shield for him to use when it is most dire. Right now, he can still manage on his own, thus Sam decided to keep the girl alive.
He understands the mission of the Goddess. It is the Selection, after all. No way the challenges are going to be simple. Surviving for 72 hours under these circumstances on his own is extremely difficult. Sam is not sure that he can do this alone.
Logically thinking, the first stage must be a group mission. It must be about building a base and organizing a team.
One would have to worry about their surroundings, their companions, as well as food, water, and shelters. There is no way a single lonely person can go through this. Furthermore, nothing can make sure that the circumstances will not change. Sam has seen the Fire magic spells of L'ren being mimicked on the zombie women. Further away, L'ren is still doing just that. There should be a reason why he is so focused on doing that. Maybe he is charging up, somehow. If so, it is exceptionally bad news.
In the end, keeping a live decoy is not a bad idea at all.
"Can you at least nod your head? Is this because of a language barrier?" She pouts.
Sam pays her no attention. He has only two options for this person.
Die.
Or become a meat shield and die when the time comes.
He does not need anything else.
Looking left and right, seeing the chaos that is forming, the girl bites her lower lips and keeps running after Sam.
All according to plan. The girl has seen it, too. She probably understands that working alone is too risky. Focusing on one person is much better than focusing all around, after all. When that time comes, well, she can be dismissed.
And maybe she is thinking the same way. Sam needs to be prepared for all the possible outcomes. If she shows a sign of betrayal, Sam will fire a Laser Barrage at her head.
"Hey! Wait up!" She runs after him. Still no reply.
In his mind, Sam is having another conversation with Nycta.
"Hmmm! I have no idea you can be so calculated, Sam."
Sam glances at the back and sees the green-haired girl following him.
In battles, I must always do that. He tells Nycta his thoughts. On a greater scale, it is the same. We must do what we can to survive beyond everything. You girls are more important to me than the universe itself. Anyone else can be sacrificed when needed.
"Awww! I love you so much! Not going to lie though, but I thought you were going to add another member to our group." He can hear her chuckles.
I can barely manage all of you girls! It feels like you always try to kill each other! He thinks.
"Don't think about it too hard, Sammy! We are a happy family! As for the girls, if she can pass the test, then she can join us."
"Graaaah!" A zombie suddenly approaches Sam as he runs forward.
*Pow* *Crunch*
His body glows in yellow light as he punches the head of his target to bits. Just one punch from him combined with the gauntlets can obliterate the head of the zombie.
Light magic: Physical Enhancement.
His power right now must be around 5, getting close to 6. He has not tested it out with the magic dummy, so the exact number is still unknown. What he does know, is that he was unable to destroy bones with his fists with just one punch before. It is too hard to determine his strength just by killing a low-grade enemy, anyway.
"That's a good punch, Sammy!" She compliments him.
Test? What kind of test? He keeps talking to Nycta. I'm just curious, she is NOT going to join us.
"Let's just say it shows the dedication to you, Sam."
You're being cryptic again, Nycta.
"Am I? I have no idea. Hehe!"
How is your condition?
"All good, Sam! It has been a while since I can unleash all of my Void Element. You know, usually, I just control the minds of people. It is getting kind of stale. The rest are doing fine, also." Over on Nycta's side, she throws away a dark flame from her hands. Although it does not explode or burn through anything, all that the dark flame touches vanishes into thin air.
Void Magic: Eradication.
That's great to hear. I know I can trust you girls.
"Hehe! As for the meeting location, how about that biggest building in front of you?"
Okay, after that, we can go find the girls.
"Of course! See you there."
I'll see you soon.
Running towards the destination, Sam starts seeing more and more potential magic users. It seems they are actively trying to kill the zombies rather than trying to survive.
"Take this! And this! And a little bit of that!" A white-haired guy keeps on spamming Wind Blade. The size of the blade is so big that it cleaves through a big chunk of enemies at the same time. It seems he is enjoying this.
To which, Sam does not care. Kill as much as they want, it is not his business.
*Bang bang bang*
"AAAAAH! WHAT THE FUCK!!! SOMEONE SHOT ME!!!" He loses his focus and his visualization of the spell due to an attack from somewhere. Even though he is still wearing armor, the shots still hurt, cutting his concentration apart.
It is a police officer. His face has been chewed off, only a reddish muscle tissue layer is intact. In his hand is a black gun with smoke coming out of it.
"Graaaah!"
"Gaaaarrrrr!"
From all directions, zombies swarm him as he is defenseless.
"GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!!!" The white-haired guy slashes his arms, cutting the zombies around him in half.
Sadly, the heads are still intact.
"AREGHHHHHH LET MY LEG GO FUCKING DAMN IT!!!"
*Crunch*
It is too late to save that guy.
Shaking his head, Sam throws a big Fire Bomb towards the white-haired guy. The explosion consumes him and all the zombies in a small area.
The clock is still 71 hours left, so Sam really does not want to waste his mana. But still, having a zombie that can have such a big wind attack is not an ideal situation, so Sam kills him.
"Hey! Did that guy...change into those things, too? Was I about to be even like him?" The girl appears to be dumbfounded.
Sam is getting annoyed at this point. "Stop talking!"
"Eh?!"
Nevertheless, the number of zombies is also rising parabolically. From all around, pale purple figures are pouring in like a flood. Some magic users who can not fly actually get eaten up by the horde, turning themselves into zombies. Because of this, Sam has to calculate his run path to face the least zombies, saving as much mana as possible. He also would only use his mana rather than the girls' when the situation is still uncertain.
It has been going well, until now.
"Crap!" As the distance shortens, Sam can finally see the huge building.
In front of it are thousands of zombies.