Chapter 45: Emergency Shelter

The team returned, and they were in far worse shape than before. Sage explained that they had encountered way too many strong mutants the further down they had descended.

The team formed by the residents was also finding it hard to continue, making progress in clearing the lowest floors of the building more slowly.

The reason was quite simple; the apartments on the lower floors of the building, though expensive, were not as expensive as the upper floors and were quite affordable to families who are sitting above the average wealth bracket. And these apartments usually contained full live-in families, making the number of mutants higher than on the upper floors.

The good thing is, the more mutants there are, the more origin crystals to be gained as long as one survives. So, the team earned a generous sum by just clearing three extra floors that had not been cleared, which was the sixth and fifth floors. Other floors before these ones had been cleared either by Brad and his underlings or by the residents’ team, whom Mildred and the rest had run into on several occasions.

The value of crystals they managed to get this time was quite decent; a total of ten origin crystals. Highest they’ve ever gathered. Seeing as they had so many mouths to feed, they used it all to purchase several provisions, which everyone shared.

Night passed, and moaning came, signaling the start of the fourth day of the Apocalypse trial. At this point, things were setting into a routine, and people were keeping to strict rules for survival—

And someone a full city distance away from Damon’s location was living by his own special rules.

Gaius had survived the first night he used his ability by the teeth of his skin; now he was hiding in a clean supply room on the lowest floor inside an abandoned office building. This was the closest to safety he could find after his surprising skill not only obliterated everything around him; it also drew a swarm of more than double the number of mutants to that area.

He had been hiding inside this closet, making use of the over two hundred origin crystals in his possession as well as the awarded hundred crystals for his achievement of surviving for the last couple of days.

Since he only needed to feed himself, about five crystals a day was all he needed to survive; he had a surplus amount, so in a way, Gauis felt he was doing much better than others. He had posted a public message on the global chat, spending a whopping ten origin crystals. This message was to get in contact with any of his family members, but he still hasn’t gotten an Dm’s to that effect. Rather, his private messages were packed with several messages from desperate people needing help, or people imploring him to come join their side.

Truth is, he wasn’t some powerful awakened as everyone believed; though he had used a bunch of his origin crystals to improve his stats as advised on the chat channels by those more experienced, his most powerful ability was still quite dangerous to use.

This reason was simple. The situation at his clothing store had been quite convenient, with all the mutants around gathered in one location; so the explosion took them all out, and though it called the other mutants some distance away, Gaius still had time to escape the jaws of death.

There was no practical way for him to repeat such a scenario. If he were to attempt to lure or gather mutants by himself, he would probably be mauled before he succeeded, and if he were to use his skill on just a few mutants around to survive, the swarm would instantly come for him; Gaius knew his survival would not be guaranteed.

Now, thanks to his stats, Gaius was considerably stronger than most mutants, and he should theoretically be able to take down a few with his strength alone; but not a swarm of them. Gaius had no fighting experience whatsoever.

The cost of raising one’s stat was exponential. First, he only had to use one origin crystal for one stat, then two for one, then four for one, then eight for one, then sixteen for one. So to raise a total of five stat points, Gaius had consumed a total of thirty origin crystals. And since he had raised both his physique and mentality stats, Gaius had spent a total of sixty-two stat points on both stats. Now his origin crystal balance was this—

[Balance: 96 oc]

One hundred of those crystals had been used to purchase one of the cheapest items in the gear sections of the origin store.

[T-0 Electric Baton]

[Functionality: Good for smashing in skulls and delivering a lethal electric charge to the brain]

[Durability: 20/20]

[Cost 100 oc]

Gauis looked at the item resting by the wall of the cleaning supplies closet turned living room. He had never seen an item with such a material before; hell, he hasn’t even seen an electric baton before. The color was like liquid silver, with a charcoal-like handle, constantly humming at a very low, almost imperceptible frequency.

"Does that thing run on batteries?"

There was no mention of it using batteries, but it looked like an item that requires a power source; yet, it’s been fine for more than two days now.

Gaius had gotten this weapon not just because it was one of the cheapest items in the gear section, but because he needed a good weapon. There were reports that regular firearms were becoming ineffective against the mutants; hopefully something bout from the system would not suffer a similar fate.

Gaius felt his Origin crystals were running dangerously low. There were a few mutants loitering around the office building, but not many. The strong revolving door at the entrance of the office building seemed to be keeping the mutants aimlessly roaming outside, from freely waltzing in. As long as they don’t sense prey, it should be fine.

"Maybe I should put my new stats to the test ?"