After finishing his preparations, Astrea stepped into the relatively cleaner master bedroom.
This had been the studio of the guild's top performer, but she had long since met a gruesome end at the hands of a mutated zombie.
With a critical gaze, Astrea scanned the room's decor.
The entire space was drenched in shades of pink, with indecently explicit pin-up photos plastered across the walls. The wardrobe was stuffed with various uniforms and cosplay outfits.
There were even some peculiar tools Astrea had never seen before—this top performer was clearly a high-level player!
Who knew how many battles she had fought on this bed? How many "enemies" had she conquered?
Shaking off the unnecessary thoughts, Astrea stripped off his blood-soaked clothes and retrieved one of the few clean outfits from his wristband.
Only then did he eagerly begin sorting through the spoils of his recent battle.
Six zombies, four pieces of loot, plus 80 arrows—what a haul!
Thinking back to his past life, where drops were pitifully scarce, this loot rate was absolutely insane!
What was this, the Ganges River?
Well, with maxed-out Luck, this was perfectly reasonable!
First up—two supply capsules.
The first one: [Hairy Crab].
Nice. Luxury food!
Who would've thought that something so rare in normal times would show up in the apocalypse?
The second one: [5L of Purified Water].
Hell yeah! That covered at least two days of drinking water.
Next, he examined a ring glowing with a faint green light.
Upon closer inspection, the patterns and engravings bore a striking resemblance to the Ring of Vitality already on his finger.
Astrea's eyes lit up. It was exactly what he thought—
[Ring of Stamina]
Grade: Excellent
A timeless ring, forged with a simple enchantment that grants the wearer additional stamina.
Stats: Constitution +5
Passive: Slowly regenerates stamina when out of combat.
Not bad. A stamina recovery ring, and it just happened to form a set with his Ring of Vitality.
Without hesitation, he put the ring on—his stamina was already running on empty.
After all, even looting skills required stamina to use.
Who would've thought that on the very first day of the apocalypse, he'd already managed to complete a full set of these rings?
[Ding! "Ring of Stamina" equipped.]
[Ding! Set effect activated: Rejuvenation.]
[Rejuvenation]: Instantly restores a small amount of vitality and stamina to the survivor. Cooldown: 1 hour.
Finally, a life-saving ability!
Astrea was only Level 3, but his current stats were already on par with his Level 10 self from his past life.
Base Stats:
Strength: 27 Spirit: 15 Constitution: 25 Agility: 18
His gaze then landed on an old, unassuming book.
A skill book!
Just when he was worrying about not having a decent skill—here it was!
In the apocalypse, there were generally two ways to acquire skills:
Reaching Level 10 and completing a class advancement quest, which would unlock profession-based skills. Learning from skill books, which granted various abilities.
These skills typically fell into three categories:
General combat skills that required a specific type of weapon to use. Support skills that provided buffs in battle, making them universally useful. Life skills like construction, crafting, and alchemy—generally the least desirable for combat-focused survivors.
Technically, anyone could learn a life skill, but its usefulness depended on the individual.
Regardless of the type, skill books were extremely rare and valuable due to their high acquisition difficulty.
"Please, just let it be a solid combat skill! A support skill would be fine too—just don't give me some damn life skill!"
Astrea mentally prayed to Buddha, then to God, before finally opening the skill book with anticipation.
[Judgment Arrow]: Excellent-grade general skill. Requires a bow or crossbow.
Consumes stamina to charge up a powerful shot, gradually increasing its range and damage. Max charge time: 4 seconds. While charging, the user can fire a phantom arrow at any time. At full charge, the shot deals 150% damage. Each enemy the arrow pierces reduces its damage by 15%.
A bow-based skill?
After carefully analyzing the skill, Astrea gave his verdict.
For most people, this skill might seem a bit underwhelming.
After all, learning it would essentially lock them into a bow-focused class.
You couldn't exactly expect a mage to ditch their spells and start wielding a crossbow, could you?
But for Astrea, this skill was extremely practical.
Not only did it allow for long-range sniping, but it also provided solid area damage—a rarity for archers.
And considering he had to spend 1.5 seconds reloading after every shot, having an ability that let him charge up a powerful attack was a game-changer.
More importantly, with his S-Rank Talent: Double Strike, a fully charged shot wouldn't just deal 150% damage—it would double that to 300%.
[Ding! Congratulations, "Lone Wolf," you have successfully learned the skill: Judgment Arrow!]
Astrea's fingers itched to test it out. He took aim at the air and let one fly.
Without even needing a real arrow, the moment he charged up, a phantom arrow—glowing in a deep purple-red hue—materialized on his warbow.
Even better, he could still move and turn freely while charging.
"Not bad… I can even do a reverse shot?" Astrea's excitement grew.
At full charge, he twisted his body and fired an arrow backward off the balcony—a move straight out of a wuxia novel.
In the apocalypse, a normal bow or crossbow had an effective range of 30 meters.
Beyond that, arrows rapidly lost velocity, and the maximum range barely reached 40 meters.
But this fully charged phantom arrow?
It soared to a staggering 50 meters before finally losing momentum!
However, while the skill's cooldown wasn't too long, there was a downside—his stamina pool.
With his current stats, he could only fire six fully charged shots before running out of energy.
If the stamina drain weren't so brutal, Astrea would have happily perched on the tenth-floor balcony, picking off zombies below like a sniper.
He suppressed the temptation. Tomorrow, he'd put this skill to real use.
Looking at today's gains, Astrea was more than satisfied.
Level: Nearly Level 4 Gear: A full ring set, a warbow, all Excellent-grade Supplies: A solid stash of food, water, and gear
If this were his past life, he wouldn't have even dared to dream of a haul like this.
But the biggest reward wasn't any of that.
It was the SSS-Rank Talent he awakened after slaying Gina.
On top of everything else, Astrea had successfully plundered three powerful talents:
S-Rank Talent: Luck
S-Rank Talent: Double Strike
C-Rank Talent: Masquerade
This was, without a doubt, the best possible start he could have asked for!
At this moment, Astrea retrieved the half-empty bottle of Coke from his inventory.
Then, he popped open the capsules containing a grilled steak and a hairy crab, ready to indulge in his well-earned feast.
Since his rebirth, he had barely eaten—just enough to keep going. By now, he was absolutely starving.
He had to admit, while the Enforcers weren't exactly reliable, their apocalypse-grade food capsules were top-tier quality.
The moment he pressed the activation button, the rich aroma of perfectly cooked food flooded the room.
Even after materializing from the capsule, the food remained at its peak freshness, as if it had just been served from a high-end restaurant.
The taste? The texture? Absolutely flawless.
…Though he had to admit, pairing grilled steak with hairy crab was a bit weird.
But whatever.
Without hesitation, Astrea devoured everything in front of him.
Then, he took a final swig of Coke—
Buuurp—
Damn. That hit the spot.