Althea didn't dwell too much after letting out the sobs.
But… she couldn't help but look at the dead zombie twins and her heart constricted again, imagining what they could've gone through.
How scared the children must've been to see the adults turn into monsters. How heartbroken they probably were to be attacked by the adults they trusted, filled with intent to kill.
And... how hopeless they must've felt when they turned to monsters themselves.
She couldn't help but sob again.
It took her a good five minutes before she gathered herself, blaming the darned hormones for her outbursts.
When she stood up though, her emerald eyes couldn't help but look at the kids.
It felt uncomfortable just leaving their corpses lying there. So after a moment of thought, she decided to cremate them.
Just as she was looking for some gasoline in the house, she noticed that one of the wall displays had dropped from the scuffle.
From the marks, it should have been just out of her eye level.
From the mess on the floor, her sights fixated on an intricate metallic scabbard just lying there.
She walked to it and pulled out the handle, and a sharp thin blade revealed itself, making her eyes shine.
Good weapon!
She almost missed this!!
Excited, she took it for a few swings, cutting the wood furniture like tofu.
However, just as she was getting carried away, she felt a sharp discomfort in her lower back.
"Ugh," She sniffed, "Pregnancy is so inconvenient."
She forgot that she was pregnant, and that her Spirit was too close to the 50% mark.
Gathering herself, she resumed her quest to find gasoline, which she really did find in such a traditional household.
She poured gasoline inside the house and burned it. Hoping to give the family a cremation, letting them join the soil sooner than wait to rot like all the others.
As she stood tens of meters away, her eyes reflecting the large blaze, she started to analyze what she had encountered so far.
At least 95% of the population had turned into zombies from the initial transformation, while most animals died from the get-go.
As for the few that survived, they turned to zombies that retained their physical advantages while they were still alive.
As for the remaining 5% (at most) of the human population… they seemed to have survived.
It was just that if they transformed into zombies midway, they would end up becoming upgraded versions of these monsters. These monsters were at least thrice as strong and thrice as quick as the normal zombies.
Their sense of smell was also stronger, so her little technique of covering her scent with zombie goo wouldn't work.
She realized that the smoothness of her journey until now made her feel complacent (again) and realized she had a tendency to do so.
She heaved a sigh, thinking it was time to rest and regroup.
She took a peek at her stats, studying it.
[STATS:
Name: Althea Witt
Age: 25
Level: 1 (655/1000)
Life: 200/200
Spirit: 102/200 (-5%)
Physical: 30 (-5%)
Agility: 27 (-20%)
Attack: 11 (+1)
Defense: 16 (+2)
Mana: 100
Physical Potential: B
Mental potential: SS+
Skills:
Active: None
Passive: None
Elemental Affinity: Wood, Water, Earth
Titles: None
Overall rank: S
Current Status: Gestating: two life forms, weakened state ]
As she headed back home, she didn't dare to jump above fences anymore. She went out the gates and used the normal route and naturally encountered more zombies.
With her now-skillful swinging of her katana, she quickly killed those in the way.
Fortunately, there were no upgraded zombies. It was just that the quantity still took a small toll on her spirit.
The decrease was small, a mere two points, but it triggered a chain reaction.
Like thunder, a lot of pregnancy symptoms attacked her simultaneously. Her back suddenly burst in pain, her legs weakened, and her stomach begging to puke.
Imbalanced, she could only lean on the wall to support herself, hoping no upgraded zombies would find her.
She looked at her stats and saw her spirit at 99, less than half.
So many symptoms of pregnancy appeared only now after so long, she reckoned it had to do with the spirit being less than half.
Dragging herself back home, house after house, she finally arrived within her walls and went directly to the bathroom to vomit.
She gasped and ended up on the cold tile floor. It took her several minutes before she could catch her breath.
Spirit, spirit, she needed more spirit.
However, instead of just sleeping it off, she decided to take a shower. She was no clean-freak but she couldn't handle all the grime and blood—from those twin children—on her any longer.
She checked on the water in the shower to see if it was heated. When it entered the right temperature she stepped in the shower and finally heaved out a refreshing breath.
Not only this but she also opened the tub so she could soak a little in one of her herbal medicine solutions.
It was fortunate that civilization has long graduated from its dependence on fossil fuels.
Otherwise, she'd have no electricity, maybe even water, within a day of this calamity. She couldn't imagine being covered with zombie goo the whole day.
After doing a basic rinse in the shower, she took the bucket to gather water to place in the space. Water was too important, the most important resource for survival, and she set a quarter of her space for water.
She sat down in her bathtub, letting out a moan of relief as she felt the soothing water cover her body. She rested for a while before standing up, drying her hair and body before dropping on her comfortable bed.
After waking up, she finally had the energy to study her current situation.
[WEALTH: 153 gold coins, 1822 silver coins, 4330 copper coins]
She was very curious about what she could buy with this and frankly, she had a little over-compulsive urge to convert everything to gold.
However, while she had the option of converting 100 copper to 1 silver, and 100 silver to 1 gold, it was for a price of 1% for each conversion, so she just left it as was.
She took out a notebook and listed down what else she needed to gather. From the houses, she actually got some items as well. Like that hundred-thousand-worth pair of hiking backpacks, for one.
Speaking of which, she was curious. The system said that items inside the space would be taken upon immigration. She wondered if other attached items could also be taken? After all, they wouldn't get there naked without clothes, right? Probably? Maybe?
Still, she dutifully added a few more changes of clothing for all seasons in her space. Just in case.