Chapter 17: Exploring the Town
"The Blood Moon gives four times the experience points?!" Shawn exclaimed. The nearby wandering walkers turned their heads at the sound and slowly started to approach.
But at this moment, Shawn suddenly regretted leading the Ferals here. If half of them hadn't been killed by this group of survivors, he could have leveled up to at least Lv. 11 or Lv. 12.
"Forget it, forget it. A person's greed is never satisfied. I might not have been able to handle so many walkers at once," he reasoned. "Reaching Lv. 9 is already the limit of my abilities. But once I have a fortress in the future, I'll find a way to maximize my XP gain."
Shawn cheerfully closed the log and opened the skill panel. It was another happy moment of assigning points.
Starting from Lv. 6, the Strength attribute required 2 skill points per level. And since Strength had reached Lv. 5, the next level of 'Skull Crusher' was unlocked.
2 points into Strength, bringing it to Lv. 6; 1 point into 'Skull Crusher', bringing it to Lv. 3. Perfect!
[(Strong) Level 6/10, moderate increase to Strength and headshot chance (You are very strong. Let the posers at the gym be jealous).]
(Image Here)
[Skull Crusher Level 3/5 (Specialize in using heavy weapons like Sledgehammers to destroy enemies and objects.) — Smasher]
[Note: You can now smash most things you encounter with a single blow.]
(Image Here)
Seeing the dozen or so walkers closing in from all directions, Shawn pulled the Stone Sledgehammer from his backpack again. He loosened his arms and grinned as he watched his stamina and health gradually recover.
"Let's practice on these walkers and see what my combat power is like now."
With that, Shawn leaped directly from the car roof, his hammer sweeping horizontally to knock down three walkers that had turned from the dead survivors. He felt as strong as an ox. Even the physique under his wood armor set was beginning to bulge with well-defined muscle groups. The Stone Sledgehammer, several times heavier than before, felt no different in his hands than the old bone club.
The current Shawn fit the title of 'Barbarian' better than ever before. As he swung the Stone Sledgehammer, it whistled through the air with immense force. If he were fighting humans instead of walkers, they would likely be forced back by the sheer force of the wind before they could even get close.
Shawn swept the hammer horizontally, an air of invincibility faintly surrounding him. A dozen or so ordinary walkers couldn't even get near him. Especially after having fought the Ferals, these shambling walkers were nothing to him now.
"Slow as a snail!" Shawn roared, smashing his hammer horizontally into a pair of walkers coming at him side-by-side.
'Squelch—!'
The heads of the two walkers burst like watermelons. As the bodies of the last two walkers swayed and fell to the ground, a notification appeared.
[Level Up! Lv. 9 → Lv. 10]
These dozen walkers had leveled him up again. With this, all the walkers that had turned from this small town survivor camp had been cleaned up by Shawn. In a way, he had wiped out the entire survivor camp, just not with his own hands.
After clearing out the camp's walkers, Shawn didn't rush to leave. Various firearms were scattered on the ground. He moved the food from his backpack to the back seat of the car and then stuffed all the weapons into his inventory.
With the advent of the apocalypse and the collapse of human civilization, firearms were only being used, not produced. Their numbers were dwindling. So, Shawn took everything he could, not even leaving behind damaged gun parts.
After searching outside, Shawn went into the house. It had two floors. As soon as he entered, he saw ammunition in the corner, with rifles leaning neatly against a gun rack.
A quick count revealed that this 30-person survivor team had 7 rifles, 12 handguns, and 8 boxes of ammunition. This was a considerable arsenal. Shawn's own team only had Merle's rifle and Andrea's handgun; everything else was a melee weapon.
Without hesitation, Shawn took all the weapons and ammo. Fortunately, the system backpack had a stacking feature, so all of it only took up a few inventory slots.
Then Shawn went up to the second floor. The moment he pushed open a door, he breathed a sigh of relief. The room wasn't filled with captive, disheveled women as he had imagined. It was just a row of beds. It seemed this was where they slept.
"If a group of women had suddenly appeared, I wouldn't have known how to handle them."
Shawn shook his head. In the apocalypse, kindness could get yourself and others killed. Useless things, no matter how many you acquired, were just a burden.
Shawn was a man. He appreciated beauty, but he wasn't desperate or ruled by lust. He wouldn't make a losing trade of taking on a bunch of dead weight just to satisfy his desires.
What Shawn liked best was a clear price, cash on delivery. What else could you expect? He was just a stinking pig butcher. He had no other thoughts beyond that.
"Done here."
Shawn checked everywhere, packed the remaining food and gasoline into his system backpack, and walked outside.
A night had passed, but Shawn wasn't in a hurry to return to the camp.
"Since I'm already here, I might as well explore the rest of the town."
Yesterday, Shawn had only searched the area near the Farm. Half of the town remained unexplored.
The nearly totaled car creaked and groaned as it moved, like a vintage car that had weathered decades of use.
Shawn set out from the survivor camp and continued east. He passed by residential houses, only stopping in commercial areas like shops, pharmacies, bars, and gun stores. These commercial places usually stored large quantities of similar types of supplies, making them easier to search.
The sky quickly darkened. Shawn spent the whole day searching. But unfortunately, the doors to all these establishments were wide open, and their contents were long gone. It seemed he wasn't the only one with this idea.
He found some liquor and sealed packs of cigarettes in the bar. By the time he walked out, the entire town was plunged into darkness. Aside from the occasional low growl of a walker, there was almost no sound.
Shawn parked the car and found a decent-looking house. After dealing with its previous 'owner', he moved in.
"Is it still working?" Shawn fiddled with the showerhead. After about a minute, hot water started flowing out.
He took off his clothes, folded them neatly to the side, took a swig of liquor from his system backpack, and sank comfortably into the bathtub.
"Modern facilities… gotta use them while you can~~" Shawn's tone was wistful.
In reality, there wasn't much difference between him and Rick. They were both just barely facing the apocalypse. Without the system, Shawn couldn't imagine what would have become of him. Even knowing part of the future plot, he probably wouldn't have had a very easy time, would he?
He casually opened his system. Shawn was now Lv. 10, with 1 unused skill point. He didn't plan on using it for now. Further levels in the Strength attribute required at least 2 points per level, and at the highest levels, it would take 3.
"I'll save it for now, just keep saving…"
He hadn't slept for a night and a day, and he had killed several waves of walkers. A wave of drowsiness began to surge from the depths of his consciousness, completely overwhelming him. Before he could finish his thought, he had already fallen fast asleep in the warm bathtub.
-----
Note: Guys I started working on a new story. I'd really appreciate it if you could spare a moment and check it out.