Chereads / Brain Eater in the Apocalypse / Chapter 29 - Mindless Fever

Chapter 29 - Mindless Fever

Under Pati's glare, the man started scooping the brains with his hands.

The man just started and he was already dry heaving a couple of times holding back his puke, it's not the man's fault since the smell of the brain can make anyone puke. His reaction is natural, even Salsa is still not used to the smell despite already harvesting brains throughout the day.

But for some reason, the smell of brains becomes fragrant and refreshing to Pati.

Even without much thinking, Pati knows that if this is prior to the apocalypse then he will probably react like them. So this is definitely the Brain Eater class effect that makes brains smell delicious.

After leaving the man alone, Pati looks back at the others.

Dinda just finished tending to the scratch on Salsa's legs using her light heal skill, she then stands back up before she glances at Pati and approached him, "What are we going to do next?"

"We're going to raid a gang that is located on the east of the city", Pati replied.

The leader just told him that there's a gang called Ivory Posse Gang that has gathered many people with the aim of surviving, from what he said the gang should be powerful since they are led by a fearsome leader called Mathian.

Mathian is a former professional fighter and also the son of a politician, he manages to gather more than one hundred survivors under his gang. The east is basically their turf based on what Pati heard.

Because of that, he intends to ask for a map that they should already start to make.

With Zombies crawling everywhere as a leader of more than one hundred people Mathian should put prioritize mapping the surroundings, he then will classify them into different zones based on the strength of the Zombies in an area.

Pati is aiming for that map and also takes their black coins if they really have many.

'There are only ten people that can enter the green light, the leader said that he's sent here to check the green light by Mathian', he thought while rubbing his chin.

Soon there's a mischievous smirk that appears on his face,

Dinda who saw this expression on Pati's face instantly knows that he's plotting something, and if he's smirking then it should not be a good plot but rather a selfish one. It's plastered clearly on Pati's face but he didn't care.

After formulating what he's going to do, Pati wiped the blood on his hands with a torn cloth.

While looking at the blood, Pati can't help but shakes his head when he saw his hands, 'I just killed three people, of course, I'm still not used to it', he thought seeing his hands trembling.

Despite him trying to survive in this new world, he was no killer prior to the apocalypse.

At least not yet since he was about to kill James but got beaten by the black wind, killing humans is still a big deal but he trusts that it will go away not long. He can feel it.

It's like he's now in the right habitat, something that he has never felt before.

The feeling of fitting into the place, he has never felt that prior to the apocalypse since he's a loner.

But soon Pati saw Dinda looking at him with a meaningful look, he frown for a bit before he somewhat know that Dinda wanted to say something, "Do you have someplace in mind?"

"Well... I kinda want to check my house", Dinda said while looking down and playing with her feet.

From the fight she just witnessed where Pati fights against five armed men, Dinda becomes certain that to survive in the apocalypse she just needs to stick with him. It's what she believes is the smart move.

Upon hearing this, Pati can't help but smile, 'So she's playing the good girl, huh?'

Just from looking through Dinda's face when he finished fighting the group of five, Pati realized that Dinda is already determined to follow him and he will accept her with open arms.

She's a healer, nobody will reject her in this kind of world.

Dinda is also the first one to ask where they would go after this, and Pati saw through her. She's trying to play the good girl so he won't dump her, but she got beat by her own worries.

Her family's condition is still unknown, so she's dying to know.

"My parents should still be in the house, so can we stop by there first? Salsa's house is also not far from my house, we can save time before going to the gang you talked about", Dinda asks hesitantly, she's even trying to sound cute to melt Pati's heart.

But out of her expectation, Pati is thinking other things, 'I don't want her parents to still be alive...'

'They are just going to be a hassle if they're alive, Dinda will surely bring them along. Should I check the house and kill them silently...?', he deliberates inside his head.

Dinda is looking at him expectantly with her starry eyes, she even puts on her pleading face.

After thinking for a moment pretending to actually deliberate her request, Pati then finally nodded his head making her eyes widen in delight almost instantly, "Thank you, Pati!", she jumped happily and gave Pati a bear hug but got quickly denied by Pati pushing her face away.

"Fine, but your house better be not far", Pati said warningly.

Since she's too happy for Pati to actually said yes to her request, Dinda only nodded her head repeatedly making her blonde hair dance beautifully along her head's movements.

Pati stood on his spot looking at Dinda that brings the good news to Salsa.

But his eyes then soon make eye contact with Jeff who is looking at him with a troubled look, he approaches Pati before stopping on the side and turning back around to look at the girls.

"Oh, I thought you're going to scold me for killing them", Pati teased while crossing his arms.

Hearing what Pati said made Jeff force out a smile, he then replied while watching the celebrating girls, "Dinda just may have just made a point earlier, it seems I do need to be more like you. Just like the other survivors, I also don't want to die..."

"Good, keep it that way because we're going to kill so much more people later", Pati said lightly.

A moment later,

Both of the men that are following Pati and the others are shivering on the back.

They just saw their deceased friends' brains get eaten by Pati right in front of their eyes, it's traumatizing even for the two of them. It's a very disturbing sight but Pati's a Brain Eater.

It's going to be a waste to leave the brains like that, so he ate them.

The man that threw the spear is carrying the bag containing the harvested brains, he manages to close the torn part of the bag by wrapping his t-shirt around the bag. So he's now topless in a world full o Zombies that can turn him into one from a scratch.

Because of the exchange before, the Chaos Pati will gain will definitely lessen.

Almost half of the brains inside the bag are spilled to the ground, and most of them are shredded into pieces because of the spear stabbing the bag.

It still pisses him off but he can't do anything about it.

Other than carrying the bag containing the brains, the man also supported the leader since he got stabbed by the Peacekeeping Sword Grinder. Pati didn't have the leader's wound healed by Dinda, it's a waste of Chaos for Dinda.

Pati has no remorse for them for spilling his brains, so it's either follow him or die.

From eating the brains of the three men he killed before, Pati got 8100 Chaos. He just got the information that eating human brains will give him exactly the current Chaos they have in their status windows.

Pati becomes excited as he just needs to eat strong survivors' brains if he wanted to be strong fast.

Imagine if one of the survivor whose brain he eats has 20,000 Chaos in their pocket, Pati will gain all of that just from eating the brain of a single survivor. Killing Zombies has many risks if they're strong.

One of the risks is the potential to be turned into a Zombie from a scratch.

Fighting other survivors on the other hand is way safer, Pati can receive as much damage from the opposing side without the risk of turning into a Zombie. So it's more ideal to steal from other survivors.

Because of that, he can't wait to meet this Ivory Posse Gang.

They all are currently walking along the side of the street sticking their bodies near the building, they did it because of the fear of getting attacked by the bird Zombies from above again.

Just a minute ago they saw some of the bird Zombies flying above, so they're doing this.

While walking through the street there are Zombies attacking them but with the addition of the items they just bought from the Pershala Merchant, fighting the Walkers, Runners, or even other stronger ones becomes easy.

Zombies around this part of the city only amounted to this much, and this should be the sign for them to change to other parts of the city where more powerful Zombies reside.

But there's no rush,

Pati swings his new sword left and right as it cuts the approaching Zombies easily.

The man that is carrying the bag containing the brains is the busiest amongst them since Pati told him to harvest the brains, the day can hardly be felt as the sun turns golden. A trail of dead Zombies was left behind them.

With his current stats, Pati finds that the crystal he got from Brawlers, and Heavy Walkers no longer gave him any stat points. So he started giving the crystal to the others.

Upon reaching the end of the business district, they saw a pack of oversized dogs in front of them.

Just like Tanky that has been Zombified because of the Black Wind, these oversized Zombie dogs should be former regular dogs that have turned into these disgusting creatures.

Their K9 teeth are longer and sharper giving off the vibe that can bite through concrete walls.

Even their bodies are surrounded by bones that stick out like thorns on a porcupine's back, getting slammed or slashed by that will be very gruesome and potentially fatal.

"Alright, Jeff and I will go attract their attention while you guys went past them", Pati said.

But just as he held the hilt of the Peacekeeping Sword Grinder tighter, the leader on the back suddenly stopped him, "I think your people need to rest, they have fought Zombies non-stop"

"Despite your high level, you will need to rest after fighting Zombies", he added.

Hearing this, Pati looks back and finds that the girls and Jeff have pale faces showing they're not feeling good. But it's more than just tiredness, there's something more, "What do you mean by that?", Pati asks glancing at the leader.

"Look at your Insanity stat, that stat will rise the longer you fight with Zombies", the leader replied.

The girls look at their status window and as their Insanity stat already exceeds 80, Jeff has a slightly lower Insanity stat in the 70s. But when Pati opens his status window, he finds that his Insanity stat is very surprising.

But while Pati is thinking, the leader explains despite his wound, "If the Insanity stat reaches over 70 your stat will decrease, and if it reaches 90 you will lose your mind. We call this state the Mindless Fever"

"Those who have Mindless Fever will act like a Zombie and attack everything in sight, it will eventually pass and the person regains consciousness but it varies from each person. It's advised to not reaches this state because some never recovered from the fever and become an actual Zombie"

"Even if you do recover, the Mindless Fever will bring a heavy weakening effect that lasted for days"

Pati was surprised as he never has guessed something like this exists, it's good information to know especially since the girls' Insanity stat has already in the 80s. Just a tad more from getting the fever.

Both of their expressions turns pale as they realized they almost got the fever.

"Let's rest first... I don't want to turn into a Zombie"

"Agreed, I don't want to either"

The girls said nervously before their eyes unconsciously shifted to Pati for confirmation, and Pati of course nodded his head as he doesn't want them to get the fever either.

After nodding his head, Pati looks at his Insanity stat again.

His Insanity stat is still at 29 points showing that despite fighting Zombies non-stop, he can still keep going without rest. The leader also mentioned something about level, so the higher the level should also make the increase in Insanity stat lower.

But his level is not that far from Jeff but Jeff is in the 70s points, so there should be something else.

'Is it the Zombie Mind passive skill...? There's no other explanation'