As she stepped out of the threshold, she mentally reviewed what she knew of her milieu.
The neighborhood she lived in was an upper-class neighborhood. It was located in the suburbs very near downtown, with residential composition ranging from nouveau riche, politicians, and stars.
Each lot cut was around 300 sqm each, which was already very large considering this was still basically within the scope of the city. It could be said that a square meter of land here was worth a ton of gold.
It wasn't that her adoptive family was so rich, however. They managed to own such a house because it was bought early by her mother's grandparents when it was still valued low.
When her mother was young, a developer wanted to buy the lot for a questionable price but they refused.
Thankfully, at the time, mother already made a name for herself in the academe and had developed a good network, so the developer could only compromise and let them join the development for a fair price.
When they passed, the will named the three of them for a joint ownership.
Althea was incredibly touched by the gesture. Not by the money, but the thought that in their heart she and her husband were truly family.
It was just that her brother was often on business trips, and her husband was often on missions, so when their parents left, the house was often empty.
There were a total of 47 houses in this villa area, a couple of which took two or three cuts, all of them were undoubtedly well-off and should have at least a bit of wealth at home. Such a pity for their hard-earned digital assets though…
Such a pity…
In any case, she set her eyes on the house to her left, simply because the house on the right still had screaming women in it.
She was not about to rob people who were still alive, nor would she risk her life to save others who may just want to depend on her…
Forgive her for being unfeeling, but she couldn't do thankless things.
She spent years in an orphanage and—even with the deliberate protection of her now-husband—she had been exposed to the dark side of society fairly early.
She was never the innocent little girl who wanted to save the world.
More importantly, the people from that house were all snobbish nouveau riche whose daughters had more than once ogled her husband inappropriately like hungry hyenas looking at delicious meat.
She ignored the ear-piercing screams that also attracted a lot of zombies and turned towards her gate.
As she neared the gate, she went to check if there were many monsters outside. After all, the disaster happened at the height of nightlife.
She slowly opened the gate and closed it just as quickly. A second later, five zombies were trying to stretch their claws in.
She stepped back, a bit scared, but she remembered the experience and the bit of money she could receive.
So she gathered her wits and courage and, using the sharp edge of the shaft, she poked the zombies in the eyes. It was easier than before because their arms were trapped in the gate.
Elated by the discovery, she quickly poked the head of the others that were trapped.
[+5 copper coins, + 5 experience]
[+5 copper coins, + 5 experience]
[+5 copper coins, + 5 experience]
[+5 copper coins, + 5 experience]
[+5 copper coins, + 5 experience]
To be honest, if it wasn't for the rancid smell that entered her nose and killed her brain, this could have been quite addicting.
It was like playing the ancient-themed arcade game of whack-a-mole.
Then the stench interrupted her thoughts again and she felt like vomiting for real.
She ran to the house to drink some water, because it would be a waste to use the bottled water in her backpack.
While inside the house, she took a package of face masks and wore one.
She would be exploring the neighborhood after all, the smell would only get worse.
If she didn't do anything, maybe her nose would lose its function.
.
.
.
She paused at a thought, an idea brewing in her mind.
Smell.
….
Ten Minutes Later.
Althea stared at the bodies stuck on the gate with a complicated expression, seriously re-considering this experiment. Was it worth it?
However, she looked at the time again and swore to be more decisive. She held her breath and with bated breath, she cut off the arms of the zombies within her property line.
She then wrapped herself with blood and even wrapped an arm like a belt, just over her big belly.
She felt like vomiting again.
At this point, she wondered: Would she give birth prematurely due to disgust?
But only time will tell and she had no choice but to learn the answer to that for real.
She closed her eyes for a moment to gather herself. She also wanted to heave a deep breath, but she remembered the mind-melting smell and stopped herself just in time.
She slowly opened up one of the gates, carefully hiding behind its panel. She let a few monsters enter, and then quickly locked the gate again.
Another three monsters entered within those few seconds, and another half dozen were trying to enter like the previous batch, albeit they were stopped in their tracks by the sturdy metallic fences.
She couldn't help but stare at the dozens of zombies in her area, very concerned.
There were already so many monsters in their sparsely-populated neighborhood. She could not imagine what it would be like in the city…
All these thoughts passed by her head, but her whole being was watching the monsters on full alert.
She watched as they walked aimlessly around her garden, and she stood still to see what they would do.
They walked around without a target and Althea stood still until one of them started dragging its feet to her direction. Her grip on the shaft tightened and she could swear she could hear her own heartbeat.
Grrrrr...
The monster made some guttural noises as she... it... explored the area in front of her, seemingly not seeing Althea there. It gave her a moment to study the monster.
The monster looked young, in her teens, and it seemed like the other zombies that entered were also in the same age group. They were probably neighborhood teens going to a party when the transformation happened.
As the monster trudged across the lawn, closer and closer to where she was, Althea could see the puss and decaying skin on her face, the fluid coming out from the orifices, and the heavily pregnant Althea just wanted to puke again.
The monster was turning around when it suddenly twisted its deformed head to face her and she felt her heart drop to where her children were.
But it only paused for a few seconds before it finally looked away.
Althea heaved a deep breath and raised her rod, attacking it on an orifice while it was looking away.
[+5 copper coins, + 5 experience]
The noise attracted the other three and they ran to where the body fell, but they stopped when the noise did the same.
From her observation, the main organ working for these monsters was the ear. They were blind, which was a relief.
As for the sense of smell…, they should have it, but it was probably not much different from how it was when they were human—as seen by how an arm hanging around her could cover her own smell.
This made sense because hearing tended to retain its functions longer than the other two senses even during aging.
Not to mention, in accidents, the eyes and nose statistically lost functions faster than the ears that underwent the same trauma.
Taking note of her new discovery, she quickly killed the remaining ones inside.
[+5 copper coins, + 5 experience]
[+5 copper coins, + 5 experience]
[+5 copper coins, + 5 experience]
[Ding! Congratulations for leveling up to Level 1!]
With this announcement, she felt that some sort of aura exploded from her body, making the monsters outside crazier.
As if suddenly injected with a stimulant, about a dozen more zombies started attacking the gate.
Fortunately, the gate was strong enough, otherwise, they'd have broken it with sheer numbers alone.
Regardless of the zombies outside, Althea was in a better mood. She really felt that her body had improved: Her body felt lighter, she felt more energetic, and her senses a little bit sharper.
Of course, this also meant the rancid smell kicked differently.
Disregarding this, she looked at the dozens of monsters trying to destroy her gate.
With a bit more confidence, she headed towards these monsters, starting to see them as targets to hunt.