"I'm so happy that you're stupid." Sergei said with a smirk, a second later a bottle with some kind of liquid appeared in his hand and he instantly threw it on the stairs.
The huge zombie's carcass slipped and rolled down the stairs taking other zombies with it. As a result, they all hit the barricade and then kept rolling further along with it.
"Heavy bastard!" The sly man didn't expect that the big guy would tear down the huge and heavy dresser with its weight, as he did fill it up with stones and other weighting agents.
Sergei ran to the pile of bodies and started cutting off everything within his reach: heads, limbs and flesh.
"ARGHHH!" The big guy freed himself and pushed away the dead and not so dead bodies of his comrades.
"You are one tough nut, aren't ya?" Sergei planned to kill him while he was buried under the bodies of other zombies…
"ARRRGHHHHH!!!" The hulk like zombie roared and… slipped, as his feet were still covered in oil. Seizing the opportunity, the human ran to the mutant - he was conveniently lying with his face down. Conveniently for the human of course… The big mutant raised its head and looked at the man.
Meanwhile, without giving the mutant any time to get up, the smart human thrust his sword with all of his might and impaled its huge eye pushing his blade all the way through its skull. The mighty mutant twitched a few times and went limp.
"Rrrrraahhhh!" One of the regular zombies appeared behind the man who stood in a half-bent state, but it wasn't planning on doing what Sergei was recently joking about…
"Boss, behind you!" Kid shouted and Sergei immediately teleported to his haven, leaving behind a confused zombie. He was just about to take a bite of a soft butt when it suddenly disappeared!
"What was it?" Upon appearing in the haven, Sergei immediately ran to the laptop.
"You be almost bitten in your… ass!"
"…Good job, I rather value my ass. Show me what's going on there."
"Yes, Boss, here be one zombie, here three more. Upstairs the humans kill the rest zombies and now be helping the wounded."
"Yeah… and not a single attempt to help their savior… What if I'm hurt or something?"
Sergei waited for a convenient opportunity then returned to the real world and immediately beheaded a zombie that was standing with its back to him. Then he quickly dealt with the rest.
"Hm… a green one." The man was holding the egg of reward but its color was green instead of the usual white. "Huh, I'll deal with it later."
After gathering all the coins, the man returned to the surviving humans who looked rather pitiful… Two remaining defenders were covered in blood - they had a lot of wounds including missing pieces of meat. The vaccine bracelets could be seen on their wrists that's why they didn't turn into zombies, but there probably weren't many doses left. Several women were tending to their wounds, others were repairing the barricades, while the rest were searching the bodies of dead humans and zombies.
(fr) "Blaise, it looks like that guy is still alive." Said a chubby blonde guy with a huge bruise under his eye and a completely bandaged left hand.
(fr) "Yeah, I can see that." Replied a younger looking brown-haired man, who was in a much better state than his colleague.
(fr) "Thank you for your help, but we don't have anything to repay you, no food, no bullets, no weapons." Blaise said when the stranger reached a ten meter distance.
(eng) "Do you speak English?"
(fr) "A foreigner?" The blonde guy was surprised.
"We do." Blaise replied grimly, distrustfully eying the foreigner.
"Thank you for your help, but we have nothing to repay you, no food, no bullets, no weapons." The brown-haired guy repeated in English.
"But you do have mouths to feed." Sergei smirked, leaving Blaise in perplexity. "I sell provision and take survivors coins as a currency. Are you interested?"
"Of course!" The chubby blonde jumped from excitement but immediately shut up and sat back down under Blaise's disapproving stare.
"We do need food, but only if it's edible."
"How can it be called food if it's not edible? Anyway, here, see for yourself." Sergei took a potato from his backpack and threw it to Blaise.
"A potato? It's not poisoned, right?"
"I sold it in the Louvre, in the Basilica and to Hubert in the office building, by the way he's expanding and taking in new survivors. You can go there and ask around."
"Okey. How much is it?" Blaise's face lost almost all of the hints of worry and he became a little bit more trusting to the stranger's words - not many people knew the name of the leader of the office building's camp after all.
"One kilo for five coins."
"It's a good price… How much provision can you provide?"
"Considering that you're in no shape to provide any kind of protection, I can sell you 200 kilos."
"Really?" The chubby guy jumped once again.
"When will you be able to deliver it?" Blaise asked without even sparing a glance towards his emotional friend.
"In an hour." Sergei shrugged, which really surprised the leader of this little camp, but he tried to hide it.
"Okay, we'll be waiting for you. This place is not safe anymore so we're going to move to somewhere else and lay low for a while."
"Deal."
The salesman left without saying goodbye. The first floor was quiet: no humans or zombies. The street was quiet as well - all the local zombies were previously mobilized by the big guy. After making sure that the coast was clear, Sergei quickly found a safe place and teleported to his haven.
He was in a hurry to return to haven not because he wanted to rest or prepare for the deal - no, he was thinking about the egg! It was in a green package and he's never seen such before. By the way, for killing the big guy he received 20XP and now his experience scale was 64% full.
"Great job, Boss." Kid said upon seeing his Boss.
"Yeah, yeah, keep minding the camera I have an important business!" Sergei quickly ran into his house and sat down on his bed.
"He-he, my precious!" He took out the green egg and gently freed it from its package.
"The chocolate looks and tastes the same… Let's open the container… A bow?"
A HUNTER'S BOW, LEVEL 3.
PERFECTLY SUITED FOR THOSE SCAREDY CATS WHO ARE AFRAID OF FIGHTING FACE TO FACE. THE RECOMMENDED FIRING RANGE IS NO MORE THAN ONE HUNDRED METERS. TRY TO AIM IN THE DIRECTION OF YOUR FOE!
WARNING! YOU CAN SHOOT ONLY WITH THE SPECIAL ARROWS. TO CREATE ONE ARROW YOU NEED TO SPEND ONE MANA POINT.
"I'm not a scaredy cat!" Sergei remembered Emmanuel telling him that for some people the system would change the description of the items especially for them. That's why he was sure that the system was trolling him.
"What is wrong with reducing the number of the enemies from the safe distance before engaging them in close combat?" There was no answer. "Fine… let's try to create an arrow. And how am I supposed to do that? Make an arrow, create, craft. How am I supposed to make one?!"
SAY "CREATE AN ARROW".
"I already did! Create an arrow!"
YOU CANNOT CREATE AN ARROW, YOU DON'T HAVE A QUIVER. DO YOU WANT TO CREATE A QUIVER?
"Fuck you… And fuck your creators… In all of their holes… In the most brutal way possible… Ten days in a row! YES, I want to create a quiver!" The man exclaimed and the leather quiver appeared in his hand out of thin air! With a strap!
"Not ba… What the hell?…" The man mumbled as he got dizzy all of a sudden.
WARNING! YOU'VE SPENT HALF OF YOUR MANA IN ONE USE. TRY NOT TO DO THAT AGAIN, IT'S NOT GOOD FOR YOUT HEALTH.
"Bitch! I hate you!"
In forty minutes Sergei, Gautier and Old Man Louis headed to the Blaise's camp. Each of them carried a heavy backpack but because Sergei was not feeling well his backpack was half as light…
"Why are you so weak… As soon as I have some time I will help you guys to become system users, then you'll finally become qualified loaders!"
Louis decided to stay quiet while Gautier didn't know English that well yet. They met four zombies on their way, but they were not lucky - Sergei was in a really bad mood. Before killing them off he chopped one of their legs off and watched them crawl around. But while he was at it Gautier almost got bitten…
***
"You really came." Blaise met Sergei's group on the first floor of the office building.
"The business world is all about trust and I do value my reputation. Here's exactly 200 kilos. Oh and I need my backpacks back so here are some sacks, put potatoes in those yourselves."
"…Okay. Michael, get some men."
"Okay, bro." The chubby guy whose name was apparently Michael, ran away and returned after a while with eight women of varying ages. They hastily started moving potatoes from backpacks to sacks.
"Here, one thousand coins." The camp leader took a coin from his pocket and handed it to Sergei.
"Huh? A one thousand units coin? I've never seen one before." The salesman mumbled taking a closer look at the coin.
"I've recently learned this trick myself." Blaise took back the coin and put pressure in two places. Another coin appeared from it… Now Blaise was holding two 500 unit coins in his hands. Upon noticing Sergei's shock, he hurried to explain. "It's easy. You press here and send a mental command to the system what denomination you want to get. You can create one coin from a thousand."
"It's pretty valuable information." Said Sergei, then turned around and went to his backpack. From one of the compartments he took out a packet with cartridges. The packet was of course brought from the haven.
"It's not much, but I think it will be useful to you since you're moving. Let's call it a price for this valuable information." There were forty 9mm bullets in the packet. With the proper use it could save the camp from the horde of zombies.
"Thank you, these will be very useful." Blaise was surprised but happily accepted the bullets.
"Hey, listen. To my understanding, your group moves around a lot?"
"Yes." Blaise answered honestly.
"I'm still new to this area, so can you tell me about other groups?"
"Alright. There are three large groupings in the area. The first and largest one is the Brotherhood of a True God. They believe that the system is a god, and zombies are the trial that their god sent them. They consider system users the messengers of the god, but the worst part is their rituals…" Blaise grimaced. "They sacrifice people by feeding them to zombies and say that they are purifying our world. This group is pretty large and they are located in The Alexander Nevsky Cathedral and I highly recommend against messing with them."
"The second group is "The Yellow Jackets". They are anarchists and trouble makers, even though they're not criminals they are not far from them. They are located in the unfinished stadium to the north from the Louvre. They are mortal enemies with the Louvre and they clash a lot. But "The Jackets" would really clash with anyone they don't like, so you should be careful if you try having business with them."
"The third group is called "The Élysée Palace", but everyone calls them Rabid Ones. They are located as you might've guessed already, in the palace. It's a group of hawkish feminists. There's a whole army of ugliest women who hate men and everything related to them. If they catch a man, his fate is to become a slave and a sex toy - men don't live long there."
(rus) "Death by Snu Snu…" Sergei thought out loud.
"What?"
"Nothing, please continue."
Blaise told him about a few dozen small groups that he knew about and their known locations, he also mentioned a few bandit camps. Sergei and co thanked Blaise for information and left the camp. After sending Louis and Gautier to the haven he headed to the Hubert's camp.
"Are you ready, Alice?" Sergei returned to his haven and handed Alice a second set of the second level armor. Now he stood in front of her house, waiting until she finished getting dressed.
"One minute!"
Alice came out after ten minutes. She was wearing skintight leather clothes. The system automatically adjusted the gear to fit the user, that's why it was a perfect fit. It accentuated her breasts particularly well as well - which caused a certain reaction from Sergei's nether regions.
"Let's go, we don't have much time left! I don't want to disrupt the schedule."
"Yes, Boss, I'm sorry…"
"Let's go!"
Sergei promised Hubert that he would bring someone "with a special skill". But first he wanted to help Alice to become a system user, he didn't know if Hubert had a way of distinguishing a system user from a regular person.
"Do you understand the plan?" Boss and Alice stood in front of an apartment.
"Yes, Boss…"
"Don't worry, you have a vaccine bracelet, you won't become a zombie if they bite you. They won't even bite you in a first place. Okay, I'm starting!"
Sergei broke down the front door and immediately barricaded it with a washing machine that he teleported from the haven. Two zombies ran to the noise and got stuck in the entrance.
"Chop!"
"Kya!… Ouch!"
"Who chops like that, you idiot!"
Five minutes later.
"Oofff ooofff…" Alice was sitting on the floor, breathing heavily.
"The war as well as killing zombies - is not for women." The man concluded. Alice's been trying to kill two harmless zombies for five whole minutes. Not only couldn't she put enough force in her strikes, but she also missed a lot like a blind person with epilepsy! Four times! She almost killed Sergei four times!"
"Did it work out?"
"Yes… now I'm a first level system user." Said the tired but happy girl.
"Good, what's your reward?"
"The "Mind Reading" skill."
"Oh? O-o-oh! In business such skill is more valuable than gold! Now you are my most valuable employee!" The man smiled happily.
"Really! Thank you…" Alice blushed and tried to stand up only to fall right back. She puked a lot after killing a zombie, the European girls were too spoiled with a good standard of living…
"Drink this and let's go." The gallant man gave the girl a bottle of chilled spring water. "Better? Then get your butt up, we're being late."
"Yes, Boss…" Alice was a little hurt by such an attitude. People would end up being sued mercilessly just for saying "get your butt up" in recent times. But at the same time she knew that she owed him her life and that it was just his nature…
Alice finally managed to recover in ten minutes and they reached Hubert's camp accompanied by Sergei's grumbling. Hubert came to personally greet them - in fact he was already waiting for them for quite some time!
"You're late, so I was beginning to worry but you're very much alive! You even got a company!" Hubert said with a wide smile, eying Sergei's new companion. The old warrior pulled in his stomach and approached the girl with a wide smile. "I'm Hubert, the leader of this camp. What's your name, Madam?"
"Alice." Said the girl who was slightly scared of the one-eyed man and his security who were staring at her openly.
"Alright, let's not discuss my people, much less hit on them." Sergei said and hid Alice behind his back, then looked into the Hubert's remaining eye. "Lead us into the room that I asked you to prepare."
"You're so insensitive. Okay, I prepared everything, what about potatoes?"
"A trade secret."
"I see." Hubert nodded and looked at a huge backpack behind Alice's back. Sergei gave it to her to divert attention. Soon the trio reached a room on fifteenth floor. "It used to be a cold storage room. This whole floor is one huge food court and this cold storage room was one far all.
"Not bad! Now I'll ask you to leave us. But I'm warning you, I will easily noticed if I'm being watched and just as easily can leave this place even if you lock me in." The salesman said and looked askance at Hubert.
"Now now." The old man took a step back, raised his hands and made an honest face. "I hope that our relationship will be long and fruitful. I wouldn't do something so stupid…"
"I hope so. Trust is hard to earn and easy to lose, and I can always find other buyers. Alright, please leave us alone." The grumpy man said and shooed them away with his hands.
"Okay, okay!"
After Kid behind the camera made sure that there was no one around, Sergei waved his hand and three tons of potatoes filled the room.
"Are we leaving?" Alice asked finishing a boiled potato.
"No, let them wait a little *crunch*" Boss answered taking a bite of a well salted potato.
"By the way, here, take this." He took out a third level bow and passed it to her. "And this too." He remembered the quiver and took it out as well.
"Huh…?"
"Take the bow and throw a quiver behind your back. Say "create an arrow". Say it mentally." Alice nodded and in the next instant an arrow appeared in the quiver.
"It works!" She exclaimed happily.
"Yeah, yeah. Do continue…"
***
"I don't feel good…" Said the girl after creating a fifth arrow.
"It's because you're low on mana. How many points do you have?"
"Five out of ten."
"Okay, let's rest for ten minutes and head home." Sergei took out another two potatoes - one he passed to the pale girl and the other ate himself.
"Kay… *crunch*."
***
"You are done already?" Asked Hubert who's been patiently waiting on a soft couch in food court's office space.
"Yeah, you can go see for yourself."
"On it!" Hubert did ran away and returned almost immediately.
"It's not easy to weigh up, so I'll take your word for it. Here's your reward as promised." Hubert clapped his hands and his people bright a bag of coins.
"It's not easy to transport coins like that. Let me show you something." The salesman took two coins and made them into one two-units coin.
"I never knew that! It's really much easier!"
"Yeah, now come on and help me, my colleague needs some rest anyway." Sergei nodded at very pale Alice.
"I understand. Of course I'll help!" Hubert and three of his assistants started merging the coins, but it turned out that only one of them was able to do that.
"It looks like regular people can't do that." Stated the old warrior.
"Yup." Sergei pretended that he already knew about it.
After fifteen minutes all coins were merged into fifteen 1000 units worth coins and one 7 units one. "Here, this is an extra." Sergei handed him back seven coins.
"When can we expect another shipment?" Hubert asked after taking his "change", he was almost glowing from happiness. With these three tons he can gather much more people around him!
"How much?"
"How much can you offer?" Hubert's eye twinkled with anticipation.
"You are not my only client, so from three to five tons - I can't tell how much exactly."
"Deal! When?"
"In four days."
"Excellent! Would you like to celebrate the deal? I have a magnificent champagne."
"No, sorry, I'm still on meds."
"Such a pity."
After a few more minutes of talking, Sergei and Alice left the camp and after finding a safe place returned to haven.