"If you refuse then I'll have to take it by force, the choice is yours..."
The man's expression turns hideous as the woman behind him unconsciously holds the bag tighter, Pati wanted to take their black coins and even though they also don't know what it's for something that dropped from a Zombie is never useless.
At least there is something they can use with whatever items the Zombie dropped.
Soon the others also arrive beside Pati as they all look at the couple, Jeff leans closer to Pati and asks, "There's not enough space to enter the green light, we can't let them get inside"
"What do you mean? Salsa can't enter since she's not lev-"
Before Pati can even finish his sentence, he immediately realized what Jeff meant just from his look.
Pati can't help but shakes his head, the answer can be seen clearly on Jeff's face. Without a doubt Jeff gave some of his share of bird Zombies to Salsa to help her reach level 10, he has the same thought as Pati.
The difference between them is that Pati is helping Dinda while Jeff is helping Salsa.
Logically thinking without involving feelings, Dinda is the natural selection since she's a healer and very important but Jeff has already determined to get close to Salsa. It's a bit troublesome but Pati can't do anything about it.
After sighing, Pati then glanced back at the couple.
Pati saw the man is already pointing his short shotgun toward him with a determined look, "Let's not fight, we're just trying to survive and we need the black coins"
"I told you, there are only two options"
"And bad news for you guys, turns out we four are going to enter the green light. One of you needs to stay behind, so choose which one you want quickly before I choose the options for you"
Since Salsa now can enter the green light, the couple needs to sacrifice one to stay behind.
The man glanced at the woman on his back and hears her whisper something, Pati can't hear what the woman said but out of nowhere, the man pulls the trigger.
Bang!
Pati raises the sharp bone to block the bullets that he somehow can see using his eyes.
Just from this alone he now knows that modern firearms are not going to be a problem to fight, he doesn't need to be wary of modern firearms finding that he can perceive the bullets as if they were in slow motion.
After blocking the bullets, both Pati and Jeff move at the same time.
In just a couple of wide steps, the two of them reach the couple that made a run towards the green light. But they're not as fast as Pati and Jeff who has their agility in the three-digit mark, they are at least 10 to 20 times faster than a regular person prior to the apocalypse.
With that being said, their speed is blazing fast reaching the couple swiftly.
Using the ashy sharp bones, Pati swings it powerfully at the man just after Jeff stumbles the running woman by sliding her legs. This made the man stop and forced him to block Pati's attack.
Crash!
The man got sent flying away upon getting hit by Pati's attack.
He got sent 200 feet away before rolling on the ground because of the momentum, his body then crashes to a street light pushing the air inside his lungs before finally stopping.
"Gerry!!", the woman shouted with wide eyes seeing the man get sent crashing away.
But Pati ignores the woman's cry and even the man that is struggling to stand up and looks at the blue crystal shards beneath him, this shards made him frown, 'Ice? Don't tell me one of them is a mage or something?", he thought.
The girls approach them while Pati is looking down at the ice shards.
Soon Pati snaps out of his daze and looks at the woman that is on the ground in front of him, she's glaring at him angrily seeing the man called Gerry got sent crashing away from one hit. It's not a surprise for Pati anymore seeing his attack can send a grown man flying away.
Pati then steps forward intending to take the woman's bag but his arm got held by Jeff.
"Are you stupid or what? Why are you grabbing my arm?", Pati glanced at Jeff sharply, in a fight such as this grabbing his hand is a stupid move since it's a natural weapon for himself.
Just as he asked that,
Slash!
With a slow and menacing movement, Pati turns his head to the front with a dreadful expression.
The woman takes advantage of Pati's distraction from Jeff holding his arm, she pulls out a knife that is strapped to her thighs before slashing Pati right on his face. She did it in a fit of anger.
But the woman then widen her eyes in surprise seeing the knife didn't manage to cut Pati.
Even though she used all of her strength just to slash Pati's face with a knife, the skin doesn't get cut only Pati's face got turned to the side from the slash. Now Pati's expression is that of someone possessed, he's looking at the woman with a brutal expression.
Since his vitality reached the three-digit, his skin now has turned sturdier than even steel.
Normal knife, blades, or even bullets will not penetrate his skin without sufficient force just like what the woman did, the skin on his face doesn't get cut by the knife but made him angry instead.
"Pati, calm down. She's a girl!", Jeff shouted from the side still holding his arm.
Without even turning his head to look at Jeff, Pati clenches his hand into a fist before punching Jeff right on his face sending him to the ground a couple of feet away.
After doing that, he then slowly steps forward heading toward the woman.
The woman is crawling back while looking at Pati fearfully, she can't believe that the knife didn't do anything to him. She even started to regret doing that since she clearly pisses Pati off.
Out of nowhere, Gerry ran back limply and stands in front of the woman.
"We'll give you the black coins so please stop right here. Here, you can take our bags", Gerry said before putting both of their bags in front of him for Pati to take.
Just from their brief confrontation alone, they know that Pati is way stronger than them.
Fighting Pati for a quota while risking their lives in the process is just not worth it, so it's better to just surrender here and survive. There will definitely be other opportunities aside from this one.
But the man started to sweat profusely as his body shuddered in fear.
Although he had already surrendered both of his bags that contains the black coins, some crystals, and also their rations, Pati didn't move from his spot or even say something aside from looking at him with his menacing cold eyes.
Pati just stood there in silence eyes fixated on the man before shifting back to the woman.
From the back Dinda and Salsa saw how Pati punch Jeff sending him to the ground with a groan, Salsa went to Jeff to help him while Dinda kept inspecting Pati with fearful eyes.
It's only been a day but in her eyes, Pati and Jeff are like brothers.
Sometimes although Pati tries to hide it she finds Jeff annoyed him a couple of times, he never really got mad and more like reprimanding or guiding even. But at this moment she can see the anger clearly seen on Pati's face.
Out of nowhere, Gerry grunted feeling a pang in his head before his neck got grabbed.
Using his Fear of Mind class skill, Pati manages to make Gerry stunned for a couple of seconds before he grabs Gerry's neck tightly. Without any reminder, Pati punched Gerry on his stomach powerfully.
The punch sends his body arching backward before he coughs out blood.
Pati then threw Gerry away again before looking at the woman that freezes on the ground like a statue, she can't believe how helpless they are against Pati, "You're the one that made the ice shield earlier, right?"
"You made a mistake attacking me when I'm playing nice", he added while raising his fist.
Jeff who just got up from the ground strugglingly saw this, he wanted to shout something but his head is still dizzy and in pain. He stumbles back down from his brain rattled because of the punch.
Seeing this, Dinda then gritted her teeth and shouted, "Don't kill her, she's not a Zombie!"
This made Pati's movement stop for a moment.
But in the next second, he grins evilly while still looking at the woman on the ground, "Don't worry, I'm not going to kill you. I'm just going to hurt you really bad..."
Immediately after he said that,
Bam!
"Huaakhh!", the woman widen her eyes in utter shock feeling she got punched in her stomach.
Pati drives his fist into the woman's stomach as if he's trying to burst his fist to her back, the sound of his punch resounded to the surroundings giving a hint to the others of the power behind his punch.
Just like before, the woman creates an ice shield on her stomach but got obliterated instantly.
Some cracks appear on the ground as the woman feels pain as if her body got mushed, even the stomach part where Pati punched started bleeding profusely. Her mind can't comprehend the pain.
With that punch, the woman went unconscious before Pati stood back up.
Upon seeing the woman get punched so brutally, Jeff ran at her before he kneels beside her and touch her neck with his fingers to check the woman's pulse.
He then sighs finding that the woman is still alive.
"Jeff, if I'm about to fight and you hold my arm again like that I'm not going to hold back against you. Imagine if that woman has enough strength to kill me, I would've been dead right there", Pati said with an icy cold expression.
Because of Jeff, he got cheap attacked by the woman.
It doesn't do anything since his vitality stat is quite high, but if that woman is strong enough or even holds a weapon deadly enough then h would've really died right there.
There's no game over and he's going to be respawned, this is real life.
Just thinking about it makes the anger within him boils, Jeff still thinks this hellish world is still the same as before, "You said that she's a woman? If I let Dinda kill 50 of those bird Zombies from before, she will become even stronger than you"
"So don't underestimate anyone even a woman, they can still kill you", he added.
Hearing this, Jeff looks back at the woman with a heavy frown on his face. He's in an internal conflict with himself, the morals of how he was raised are still etched on him.
Compared to Pati that lived alone for most of his life, they're completely different.
'If they just give the black coins after I show them my strength, this will not need to happen. But damn, being strong is very convenient', Pati thought, he takes both bags and finds there are 40 black coins inside them.
Without much thought, Pati took 30 black coins for himself.
The rest he puts it inside one bag before tossing it to Dinda, "There are 15 black coins in there, you're not as useful yet but at least you're not a hindrance", he said sarcastically.
After saying that, he puts both of his hands inside his pocket before walking into the green light.
Salsa holds Jeff's shoulder giving him some internal strength, "Let's go... he's just different"
"Well I agree on that, but then again I can see where he's coming from. Simply put, the world has changed and our way of thinking needs to change too. Maybe we need to be more like him, who knows", Dinda said while shaking her head.
She then grabs 5 black coins inside the bag before giving dropping the bag to the ground.
Even though Pati told her to get the 15 black coins, she still feels like sharing them with Jeff and Salsa, "Let's hurry, who knows what we'll get from this Pershala Merchant"
With the help of Salsa, Jeff stood up before the three of them went inside the green light.
Meanwhile,
Pati enters the green light slowly, his eyes are then got blinded by the bright green light for a couple of seconds. He then opens his eyes and finds himself inside the green light with the hooded figure in front of him.
Upon closer inspection, the hooded figure's body is covered with a black outfit.
A big and towering bag is on the figure's back, the hood of the robe covers the figure's head and a black mask covers its face leaving only its green eyes to be seen. But even around the green eyes, Pati can only see darkness.
It's very mysterious, Pati can't decipher whether the figure is a Zombie or not.
[You have entered the Pershala Merchant zone]
[Pershala Merchant has acknowledged your presence!]
Just after the two messages from the system, Pati then heard an astral voice coming from the figure standing in front of him, "Welcome dear survivor, I'm the Pershala Merchant"
"I'm here to help you in your endeavor in this dire time, in this new world"
"A new world where death army is the most prominent force..."