Charlotte not only had basic nursery skills but also proved to be an excellent cook. The stew, made from vegetables left in the fridge, turned out to be surprisingly tasty despite the simple ingredients used. Unfortunately, the stew had no meat in it. After the zombies appeared, eating meat became a luxury because it had to be fresh for cooking.
Leo quietly ate, creating a tense atmosphere where nobody dared to make a sound. Apparently, three student girls were mostly scared of him, while Willie felt that it was too awkward to speak in such an atmosphere.
It tasted good enough for Leo, but looking at how she struggled to eat it, it seemed that it wasn't to the liking of Hazel. Born into a wealthy family, she never starved and always ate to her full, so such a meal looked quite lacking to her. However, she didn't have a face to complain about the taste of a stew since she didn't even know how to cook.
"After Adam wakes up, we will go grinding since the food in my backpack should be enough to last for several days. Combined with the leftover ingredients from kitchens on every floor, if we are lucky enough, we should be able not to starve for a week."
As he finished his meal, Leo suddenly broke the silence. Nobody expected him to speak, so everybody jolted in surprise. Girls looked at him with apprehension, while Willie didn't mind it at all as he resumed gulping down the stew. He was already sick of canned food, so he found pleasure in eating hot stew.
"Girls, if any of you are interested, you are welcome to join us tomorrow on our expedition. I assume that everybody is already familiar with their status windows, so you should know that killing zombies can make you stronger. I won't force you to come with us, but you need to know that there will be no food for slackers. If you want to stay inside the dorm building, then cooking will be left for you. Am I clear?"
As Leo glared at them, they hastily nodded with their heads. The women were too fearful of him, while Willie had no objections as he continued to stuff himself with food.
Having said everything he wanted, Leo returned to Adam's room and resumed his meditation. He continued his meditation for another three hours, deep in thought and reflection. While he was meditating, Charlotte came in for a moment to feed Adam with a stew.
After he had completed his meditation session, Leo went to sleep since he was still a human being who knew what exhaustion was.
...
As Leo closed the door of his room, all three women couldn't help but sigh in relief. Their first impression of him was that he was delinquent due to the scar on his face, so they didn't believe that he was a person they could rely on.
'Can't he be more gentle? Acting as he owns everything. How can he force me to work for him? Am I not valuable enough for the second can?'
Sarah thought that Adam was a shallow person. He refused to give her a can of food, even though his backpack was overflowing with supplies.
"Can I have another one?"
Still not satisfied, Willie stretched his bowl to Charlotte, who was closest to the pot. She gave him another bowl of stew after becoming alarmed by his inquiry.
"Ehm...Willie, right? What do you think of Leo?"
As he was hastily eating the stew, Hazel couldn't help but ask him about Leo. For her, it seemed that he was a leader of their group. Also interested to know more about him, Charlotte and Sarah also looked curiously at Willie.
"...Well, he was the one who saved me. He is not too bossy, and he is also very sensible. Even though he looks like an evil dude, you can trust my word since I was picked in school; he isn't a bad person."
Still stuffing his mouth with stew, Willie made occasional pauses before continuing to speak.
"...However, when it comes to fighting, he is a monster. Even though I'm not a fighter myself, I never saw someone who could fight like him. You should have seen how he killed more than a dozen zombies. When I saw it before, I already decided that I would follow him no matter what."
Banging his bowl on the table, Willie couldn't help but exclaim enthusiastically. Willie thought that if he followed such a monster as Leo, he would have higher chances to survive. Moreover, after several days of traveling with him, he already considered him his friend. It was very simple for Willie.
"What about you? From which faculty are you?"
Licking the stew from his lips, Willie smiled strangely. He started asking them various questions about their lives and interests.
'Even though zombies are wandering outside, I'll never miss a chance to hit on girls.'
Willie thought excitedly about it. He never had a girlfriend, so he didn't want to waste an opportunity when there are three chicks before him.
He learned that all three of them were from the same course of study on cultures. However, when he started bombarding them with questions, they quickly left him alone in the kitchen. Willie didn't know where he went wrong as he sat in the kitchen with a bitter face.
...
Leo woke up early in the morning to have another meditation session. While meditating for an extended period, he heard a groan in the room. Leo noticed that Adam woke up. Leo had heard that it wouldn't usually take a lot of time for a person to awaken.
Leo quickly moved towards Adam and took his temperature to assess his condition.
'His temperature returned to normal. Does it mean that it was a success or what?'
Leo didn't know how people usually awaken. This was the first time he had personally witnessed the process of awakening. As far as he knows, only 10% of people had awakened at the beginning, and more people started awakening over time.
"Hey, Adam, Are you okay? How do you feel?"
Leo helped him to rise to the sitting position. Adam still looked slightly pale, but he appeared better than his previous state. He stared at the space in front of him as he was reading something.
"Leo, I got system notification that I became an Awakener."
"And what is it saying?"
Adam appeared confused as he stared at the system notification. Just yesterday he was dying from a fever, while today he got a message that he had awakened. It was happening too fast for him to react to it.
"It says that my body had successfully undergone mutation and I got an innate ability called telekinesis."
"Congratulations, bro!"
"...and it also says that I became an Evolver of Spirit stat, and I will get 1 stat-point increase every time I level up."
As Adam informed him that he became an Evolver, Leo became stunned. He thought that he misheard him, so he decided to ask again.
"Did you say that you got telekinesis and became an evolver of a spirit stat?"
"Yes, it is written here."
'Fucking lucky bastard'
Leo couldn't help but curse Adam since he became a double Awakener. He awakened two times, meaning that he got two mutated cell types in his body.
'How much good karma does a person need to possess to be that lucky? Not only Adam started his awakening process right in the beginning but also became a double awakener.'
He was genuinely dumbstruck by his luck. Usually, most of the people became Evolvers rather than Ability Holders since there is more chance that more common cells will mutate. Innate ability is the result of mutation of more uncommon cells or mutation in a different direction.
Therefore, Ability Holders are rarer than Evolvers, while double Awakeners were even rarer than Ability Holders.
'I heard that only 1% of all Awakeners were double Awakeners. How it comes that he fell in that 1%?'
It was too shocking for Leo since it was too rare. Every double Awakener is destined to be on the top of survivors. All of them were strong enough to have high social status and were revered with respect.
"Is it good? Hey, Leo, don't I look cooler than you now, right?"
Adam smiled cheekily as he rubbed the fact that he had awakened over his face.
'For some reason, he is really getting on my nerves. Isn't he too cheeky right now?'
Leo couldn't help but feel irritated by Adam's behavior, feeling a growing sense of annoyance towards him. Briefly, he entertained the thought of using his 16 points of strength to hit Adam but promptly dismissed the idea.