Zero made it to the nearest Convenience store, finding the windows had been broken into and the shelves cleared of all food. 'So they took the food and drinks, but they didn't take everything else.' Zero instantly started picking up everything from the store, ranging from the spare change that had been dropped on the ground to ripping the old tv off the wall before placing everything into his shop. 'The change will be metals and the mechanical parts in the tv may be able to be used by those with crafting abilities.'
Zero knew that clearing out every single shop in the city would be impossible, however, if he could make those in the high school think twice about searching for goods or buying them from his shop, then it would be worth it. For the rest of the day, Zero moved from building to building, searching shops, and homes, even going as far as to clear a small library of all of its books. Zero hadn't wanted to focus on the books until he realized the Shop put the title of the book in the name of the item for him.
Once he cleared what he considered enough for the day, he hunkered down into one of the homes he had finished in. 'I'm only a couple of buildings away from the school, so the shop will still reach them. I'll continue to rapidly clear the buildings around it to ensure they have to go farther and farther to get supplies.' Zero had thought about hitting the big shopping buildings he knew were around here, however, he decided to stay around the school for his mission.
Settling into a bed he hadn't moved into his shop yet, something that was rather hard for him to do as the Window would first make him touch the item he wanted to claim for a varying amount of time, depending on the size of the item if he couldn't carry it. The bed had taken an hour before he was even allowed to put it into his Shop. Then he would have to wait another ten minutes for the Window to expand and slowly swallow the item. He had done this only for one entire bed in the beginning as he was trying to see if it was possible, before deciding he would make a final sweep at the end to collect them all.
The Window once more asked if he would like to see his Sponsor list, something that had once more grown into multiple Windows worth.
-Notice-
…
Zero noticed a couple of new ones while others had shown up during the week he had spent in the Mall. Closing the list after memorizing them all, Zero fell asleep.
"CRASH!"
Zero was suddenly awoken by a loud noise coming from the first floor of the house. Fingers outstretched, Zero got to his feet before slowly moving towards the stairs, finding nothing on them. With careful steps, to not make noise, Zero started moving down until he was peering through the railing and into the open living room. Zero's eyes glued to what he could only describe as a large dog's ass sticking around the corner that led to the kitchen.
'Window, what am I looking at?'
-Notice-
The creature in front of the Host is a Croygel.
Zero didn't even bother to ask about the creature, as he knew it would simply give him the option to buy the overpriced information from the shop. Before he could think anymore about it, the part of the creature Zero could see suddenly disappeared. 'At least I learned an ability to help me against this.' Moving forward until he stepped into the living room, just as a board on the wooden floor made a loud creaking sound.
Without warning, something slammed into Zero's right side, sending him through the shattered front door and down the steps. Tumbling end over end, Zero rolled backward, catching himself on his feet as he stumbled back. Shoving the pain that he felt throughout his entire body away, he faced the inside of the house through the doorway, finding only darkness within. 'What hit me?' Zero took a step backward, his left hand in a fist, and held up as if he was wearing a shield.
The night was cool, and the surrounding area was completely quiet. Zero pushed his senses out, trying to hear the tiniest sound originating from the house, but he couldn't. Time crawled forward, Zero was sure he had been standing there for more than ten minutes when still nothing happened. Deciding that he had to do something, he slowly started taking steps backward until he was at the small gate that lined the lawn, twenty feet away from the doorway.
Reaching his hand backward, he raised the gate's metal latch, a creaking coming from the latch as he did. Zero nearly missed it as something came flying out of the doorway toward his stomach. In the brief second between the object reaching him and him getting hit, Zero shoved his raised arm out, as if shield-bashing the air. 'Death's Guard!'