Chapter 44: Treasure
He waited outside the door for a moment. Seeing no more walkers emerge and hearing no more sounds, Shawn finally put away his stone hammer and walked in.
"Whoa—"
Shawn looked in surprise at the corpse of a man lying on the bed. He was shirtless, and his lower half was just a skeleton. There was a bullet hole in the man's temple, and his right hand was still clenched in the posture of holding a pistol.
Connecting this with the female walker that had just rushed out, and looking at the man's empty lower half, Shawn felt an inexplicable shiver.
"What an unlucky bastard," Shawn said with some sympathy. But he still went forward and took the pistol from the man's clenched finger bones. From an open nightstand drawer, he found half a box of spilled pistol ammunition. It seemed the man had hastily loaded his gun and committed suicide while being 'chewed on'.
Shawn scanned the room. A motel room was just a temporary hotel; the entire space, including the bathroom, was less than 50 square meters. Rotten, cheap fast food, a dusty old tube television, and explicit magazines scattered on the floor...
Shawn's gaze finally landed on a pair of sturdy leather boots placed quietly in the corner by the bed. They were dark, solid, and of a suitable thickness.
"Good taste, buddy. I'll gladly take these."
Shawn smiled and took them. This room wasn't a complete waste of time after all. After all, others were just opening rooms, while he was 'opening' rooms, which was quite tiring.
Finally, he took a tube of toothpaste and two bars of soap from the bathroom. Shawn shouldered his hammer and walked out of room 101.
"The rooms are much smaller than I thought. Opening them one by one shouldn't be a problem."
"Daryl, you stay on the first floor. I'll go check the second."
"No matter what you find, we meet in the courtyard in 20 minutes."
Shawn went to the door of 102, gave Daryl his instructions, and then headed for the second floor. It had only taken about two minutes to clear one room. If they hurried, with both of them working at the same time, searching more than half the rooms in 20 minutes wouldn't be a problem.
Reaching the turn in the stairs, Shawn stopped. A vending machine appeared before his eyes. He wiped the dust from the glass and peered inside. He hadn't expected much, but what he saw made him grin.
"Yo, this motel owner was on top of things. Did he just restock this machine before the outbreak? Waiting for me, were you?"
Shawn reversed his grip on the sledgehammer and smashed the handle against the vending machine's glass. With a crash, the almost fully stocked rows were revealed. After clearing away the broken glass, Shawn grabbed an energy bar, opened it, and bit into it as he continued up the stairs, muttering, "I'll grab the rest on my way down."
But the moment Shawn stepped onto the second floor of the motel, the instant his foot touched the ground!
A crisp sound echoed in his ear. Shawn's eyes widened, and he froze. This sound effect-like noise was all too familiar. As it sounded, a light screen appeared before his eyes.
[Apocalypse Quest (Resource Search)]
[There is a treasure room in this unknown, abandoned motel. It contains brand new resources reset by the system.]
Shawn glanced at it and grinned. "Isn't this just a free gift?"
The 7 Days to Die System prompt was concise; it was basically telling him this was a bonus quest. And the words 'brand new resources' meant there might be things inside that didn't originally belong in a motel. Perhaps fresh vegetables, unexpired medicine, or even weapons and ammunition, common and uncommon daily necessities...
When the light screen faded, a warm yellow exclamation point appeared before his eyes.
"Quest start," Shawn thought to himself, looking at the exclamation point.
'Whoosh—'
When Shawn looked at the semi-open-air corridor of the second floor again, he could clearly sense that something was different.
He tightened his grip on the sledgehammer, swallowed the last bit of the energy bar, and kicked open the door to room 201.
"Here I, go!!"
Shawn swung at an old man walker who was still staring at him blankly, not having reacted yet. The walker flew backward. With a hoarse growl, an old woman walker crawled out from behind the bed. Her toothless mouth was wrinkled, and she trembled as she approached Shawn.
"Look at you... sigh... I don't even know what to say."
Shawn just pressed the end of his sledgehammer against her forehead, and she couldn't move an inch forward. She bared her soft gums at him fiercely.
"Pfft—" Shawn couldn't help but laugh. He finally understood the meaning of 'even anger looks cute when there's no threat'.
"Alright, alright. Old ladies should get more sun and rest. What's all the fuss about?"
Shawn used the sledgehammer to turn her around, so her back was to him. He grabbed the back of her collar like a little chick, lifted her onto the bed, wrapped her in a blanket, and tied it with a TV cord. The walker was now as docile as a caterpillar, wriggling in the blanket but unable to escape.
Looking at the old lady's snarling face, Shawn rubbed his chin, still not quite satisfied. He took a 'Christmas-style' knitted hat from an old-fashioned coat rack and placed it on her head.
The old lady instantly went still, as if frozen in time. She looked just like a peaceful little old lady.
"Mhm, good girl."
Clapping his hands, Shawn nodded in satisfaction and was about to leave with his sledgehammer. But after a few steps, he stopped again. He frowned and pressed his ear to the adjacent wall. Next door was room 202.
'Growl, growl—'
The sound was faint, but thanks to the thin walls and poor soundproofing of the motel, Shawn heard it clearly. After a moment's thought, a grin spread across his face, and he raised his sledgehammer high.
With one blow, the entire section of the wall collapsed, crushing the walker behind it. He walked over and finished it off.
[+300 XP Gained]
He glanced around the room. Seeing only a dust-covered TV, he walked to the next wall without hesitation.
"Since it's brand new, this definitely isn't it."
Instead of wasting time collecting these old, dusty items, Shawn would rather focus on finding the system-reset 'treasure room'.
'Thump—'
Downstairs, Daryl suddenly stopped and looked up in surprise.
"What's Shawn doing?"
"Isn't he supposed to be searching for supplies? How did it turn into demolishing the building?"
But before Daryl could continue his search, another dull thud came from upstairs, as if a bulldozer were smashing its way from the east wall all the way to the west. And it seemed this was just the beginning.
Shawn broke through 13 rooms in a row. A little less than half of them had walkers inside, and all but the old lady were dealt with by him. Looking at his panel again, his experience bar was now at Lv. 13 (79%).
After finishing off the last walker in front of him, Shawn caught his breath. He waited for his stamina to recover by more than half before he started smashing the wall of the 14th room.