***
Two days later.
Along the way Seth left Chicago, he found some survivors already forming their groups. The number wasn't as small as before; one group could have ten to fifteen members.
There was no limit to the number of members in a party; they could add more members according to their needs. Seth even found a large party with 300,000 members and several branches in major cities.
Seth had no interest in joining such a group. According to him, the group's purpose could be distracted if it already had many members. They no longer wanted to liberate the earth but instead tried to control the human community with the authority they had.
As a result of this kind of thinking, the earth is getting increasingly shackled to the Skywatcher's rule. The game was never finished because the survivors felt comfortable living in their new life.
Seth was the only one who didn't join any group on the fourth day after the alien invasion; even Alfred and Laura weren't members of his party.
"Are you new in town?" asked a man with long, curly hair wearing a jeans jacket and shorts with black shoes, standing with two of his group mates.
"Yes. Do you know where I can find a horse?" asked Seth.
The man felt how sore his legs were from walking from Chicago's city center all the way to the small town in the south, Calumet City. A city with a smaller population than Chicago but a higher average number of survivors.
"Horses? Haha! You'll never find a horse in this entire world. They've been killed for eating," the man said.
Seth squinted, looking around him. Something was wrong with this place; it felt so deserted, unlike before.
The man still held the crossbow in his hand in a vigilant stance. He glanced slowly at the houses with half-destroyed buildings; there was mysterious activity from there.
Seth could see it clearly. His sensitivity was high because he had been trained to respond to certain things with Alice and his other friends.
"How many people are besieging me right now?" asked Seth coldly.
The man before Seth smiled sarcastically, chuckling lightly after realizing Seth wasn't a random person, "Not many survivors realize it. You're a sensitive person, Sir."
"Get out, all of you!" said the curly-haired man.
Seth turned around, counting the number of people who seemed to be surrounding him from all directions. The man's eyes rolled, noting the weapons used by the people. Most were melee weapons, such as baseball bats, machetes, iron spears, axes, and a sword.
There were ten in total, and they seemed amateurish. They seemed doubtful whether they could attack Seth with their weapons or not. Seth sighed lightly; there was fear and pleasure in a moment like this.
"You won't be able to defeat me," Seth said.
He kept the crossbow behind his back, close to the quiver –where he kept the arrows. Seth's right hand reached into the back pocket of his pants, pulling out a second handgun with the blue plasma still intact, undiminished.
"A-A gun?" asked the man leading the group.
"Are you sure you still want to fight me?" asked Seth, with a sharp look of intimidation in his eyes.
"His bag must be full of goodies. Attack him!" the group leader yelled, ordering his men to attack Seth.
The first target killed by Seth was the curly-haired man, precisely shot in the face to create a precise circle-shaped hole. He was bounced off by the laser fire and died instantly, soaked in blood.
"JACK!" shouted a man, a friend of the curly-haired man.
Jack's men stopped in their steps, stunned with their hearts pounding erratically. Some of them had pale faces as if they were facing a grim reaper.
That's right! Seth was their grim reaper if the people insisted on fighting him, especially after they saw Jack could die quickly with one shot from Seth's gun.
"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" shouted Jack's friend, walking over as he pulled a sword from its sheath.
He and the man beside him dashed towards Seth to avenge Jack's death. Seth's hand movements were pretty fast for someone in the early situation of the alien invasion.
Seth easily shot the bodies of the two men, no matter what the target was. One shot hit their bodies enough to make them die from losing blood.
The blue laser shot rapidly and silently from Seth's handgun, striking the first man in the stomach and the second man in the right chest. Both men collapsed immediately with their mouths vomiting blood. They tried to close the gaping holes in their bodies, though it was useless.
"Do you also want to die like them?!" groaned Seth, shouting at the people who surrounded him from all directions.
They were still dead silent, their legs hardly moving due to their heart's order not to approach Seth. Having finished with the three people before him, Seth turned his attention to the people behind him, the rest of the curly man's subordinates.
"I'm counting to three. If no one puts down their weapons, I'll consider him a threat!" said Seth, counting down to give them time to surrender.
One by one, the crowd began to lay down their weapons. Seth asked them to throw the weapons away in any direction, not wanting to take any risks.
"Are you going to kill us?" asked one of the men, a middle-aged man with shaved hair and a short, fat build.
"Depends on whether you want to obey me or not," Seth said flatly.
"We already obeyed what you said!" said the fat man, showing their empty, unarmed hands.
"Do as I say now. Press the status transfer menu on your bracelet!" said Seth.
The people were naturally confused by that, which was utterly unknown to them because no one had told them. Innocently, they pressed the menu as they thought it did not endanger their lives.
Dozens of blue holographic notification screens appeared on the system's bracelet. Seth also pressed the same menu, but he would act as the receiver.
[Warning!]
[Initiating status transfer connection]
[Attribute transfer connection path opened]
[Waiting for sender]
"You all tap the sender menu on the bracelet," Seth said.
They did so without arguing, some of them wanting to know what Seth was actually trying to do. Their status appeared on the holographic screen, but their average level was still at level five.
Seth stretched his bracelet forward, and spontaneously, his handgun also reached out to make them scared again, "Tap the search menu for the receiver!"
After pressing that, they found Seth's identity on the receiver search page. Seth ordered them to press Seth's identity menu on their screen. Instantly, notification texts appeared from their holographic screens, something they didn't understand.
The writing on Seth's holographic screen was different, displaying a message informing him that the attribute delivery process was successful. Now, he has a large amount of EXP and GP.
[Transmission complete]
[Attributes received: ]
[+40500xp]
[+11450gp]
[Starts synchronizing with the receiver's attributes]
[Synchronization process completed]
[Level up!]
[Congratulations!]
[Merchant Map Feature Unlocked]
[Weapon Upgrade Feature Unlocked]
"Finally, I can get the merchant feature. They must have a hoverbike," Seth said, happy.
Right after the successful status transfer, they all looked back at their statuses. They were surprised that the attributes in their status suddenly became zero, either EXP or GP.
"What ... is going on?" asked the middle-aged man, confused.
"Status transfer. You send all your statuses to me, and I get your EXP and GP attributes!" said Seth, pointing his gun at them.
"You filthy bastards!" he yelled, furious at being deceived.
"Blame yourself for not realizing it!" said Seth.
The man began to pull the trigger of the laser handgun, shooting the remaining members of the curly-haired man's group one by one. Everyone panicked, scattering to protect themselves from Seth's deadly threat.
However, Seth's hand was much faster than they thought. As a result, twelve people died with their bodies lying on the city street, blood flowing profusely, creating a pool of blood in that place.
"What a bunch of hicks!"