"She killed them," the cat said.
I stepped inside the room and took a look around. The walls were far too bloodied to tell anything, the very air inside felt like a scavenger that would eat away at anybody who stepped inside.
I could only imagine how many diseases normal people would catch just being around this place. Thankfully, a good mana circulation was a great immunity booster, and my method was the best.
"Why?" I asked.
The cat remained outside, unwilling to step in. But it seemed more scared of the two corpses than of the state of the room.
"They were drug addicts, petty criminals. The man lived his life thieving and stealing, and the woman whored herself out."
I raised my brow and looked at the two corpses. Yup, there was no telling anymore.
"The man always used to beat Alice up, saying he didn't know which dog she was born from. Well, that was an excuse, he just liked beating her up."
"How were they living here?"
"Blackmail. She managed to land a businessman as a customer and the man took pictures, he died soon after giving them this place though."
I thought they were frauds who claimed relatives until they were caught, but they seemed to be worse than that. Unfortunately, they still rang no bells. It had been a long time since I had gone to the other world, but the affairs of this one weren't that strange to me.
Like all normal people, I was always updated on the matters of the underworld.
"Alice brought me in a long time back, she used to keep me hidden. They beat me up a lot too, but Alice did whatever she could to protect me."
I had a general gist of what happened.
It wasn't uncommon.
It truly wasn't.
"What happened to cause this?"
"They needed money, the woman's face was messed up after a fight. So they decided to pimp Alice out."
"Then?"
"She killed them when the 'customer' came around, the customer ran and these two died."
"When?"
"About a month before the apocalypse."
How were the neighbors able to bear the scent? I figured out the reason not long after. That the girl with a strength stat equivalent to a child could survive for so long amidst the zombies was because there were none, to begin with.
"This place lacks neighbors, huh?"
"Yes. It was set to be demolished very soon. Almost everyone had moved out except a few on the topmost floors."
A twenty-one-year-old had lived her life this entire time worse than kids would. It was obvious just from a gaze that food was a commodity that she couldn't usually afford and that being without injuries was a miracle that she could only face after she had managed to kill these bastards.
"I am disappointed…"
"Boss. She's not a bad girl! She had no choice—"
The cat was defending her very quickly. Just as I had expected, cats were rather quick to understand where their safety was guaranteed. The cat seemed to have judged the hero and me to be the safest place for it and its master.
"You… when you have to be in a similar situation… killing is for the better."
"Exactly. I am disappointed that she took so long to kill them."
The cat stared at me with widened eyes.
"You… don't mind that she's a murderer?"
A chuckle left me.
"Murderer? This is not the work of a murderer, but a survivor."
"Huh?"
"Very well, I am sold." I found a window in the room at last and broke it open. I whistled and the slime ran over like a perfect dog.
It gave me a grenade in hand and got on my shoulders.
I stared at the cat, its face turned from confusion to shock, to utter horror as it ran into the room and climbed on me as well.
I removed the pin of the grenade and dropped it in the room before jumping out the window.
"I'll help get your owner to our level, where being called just a murderer would be insulting."