Trash in the Apocalypse

Chapter 8: Level Up

Pablo holstered his pistol and helped on pushing the locker. They manage to block the door, but there's still a small gap that remained. 

Currently, the glass door blocked by two wooden filing cabinets, and a locker served as a choke point for them.

The gap between the blockades was tight enough so that they only have to fight one infected at a time.

Jun pushed the filing cabinets so that they lean to the wall, making a diagonal blockade. He then hurriedly went inside an employee's cubicle and started pulling a heavy wooden table.

When he glanced at the door's durability bar, it already reached half bar. It made cracking sounds, and the web-like breaking pattern appeared a lot more often. The damage it received per hit instantly doubled, making the door's durability bar to fall faster. Pablo and the manager helped him place the table in the middle by pulling on the other side. With the only open space slightly blocked, he went and picked up the essence shard on Jake's chin and the baseball bat beside him. He already did everything that he could do, and the only thing left to do now is to wait.

As he was looking at Jake's body, a sudden jolt of inspiration came to him. He quickly squatted down and placed his hand on Jake's forehead. When a screen popped up, his eyes widened because he got a new message instead of the looting notification.

[ Would you like to receive a part of the user's legacy? ]

[Yes] [No]

Jun tried tapping the yes button, but his finger just went through. With no other options, he focused and used his eyes to try and click the button, which actually worked!

+1 Power

+1 Endurance

+1 Speed

+2 Charm

After those notifications faded, a warm feeling abruptly rose from his stomach and started spreading across his body. Even though he had a mesomorph body type, he still felt that his body become much lighter, even his muscles became more compact and felt like they can produce more force when needed.

Jake's body became dry as it cracked before turning into glittering dust.

***

Jun stood up just in time to see Pablo aiming at the front-most infected.

Most of the people were already on the second floor of the bank. Showing their frightened faces as they climb the stairways while looking back.

"Don't shoot!" Jun tried to stop him but was still a step too late. Being on a tight space and shooting at a close distance, for a trained professional, it was impossible to miss.

A loud gunshot echoed, and the first infected finally fell.

The bad news was, the infected that was on the 20-meter radius of the bank accurately found the source of the loud noise and immediately came running. Those who were a bit far away ignored the gunshot and continued what they were doing.

"Stop shooting!" Jun said when he reached Pablo's side. "Let's save the ammo for later when we might really need them."

Jun's not omniscient, nor does he have any knowledge that the infected are attracted to noise. The sole reason he stopped Pablo was to try and get all the EXP that he could get.

Ever since getting the essence shard and seeing a human body vanish in thin air, he finally accepted that the world turned into a game.

He played online games when he was a teenager. He knows that there are two critical aspects when playing a game, the character's level, and its items.

When he gained the knowledge that you can earn experience when using an essence shard, he began thinking of ways to get them through reasonable means.

After using common sense, the only way that he could think of is through killing those strange infected.

That's why, when he saw the door getting surrounded by infected, he thought of barricading the door.

With the blockade setup, the infected that he needs to fight at the same time reduced to one.

As the infected's body fell after being shot, it fell into the diagonal filing cabinet, adding itself as an additional barricade.

Jun quickly dealt with the first infected that just managed to stand after crawling on the small gap. A powerful swing was delivered to its head, bashing its forehead, causing the infected to fall lifelessly.

The second one died quickly, after bashing its head using the same amount of force and angle. He held the bat with both hands, raised it high in the air, and then swiftly brought it down.

After doing this for two more times, Jun suddenly cursed.

"I'm a fucking idiot! Push the table! Quickly!" he yelled to Pablo, who was nervously aiming at the infected.

Pablo's eyes revealed slight hesitation when he processed what Jun said. Not a second later, he started pushing the table.

An ear-piercing, screeching sound was heard from the table as it got pushed by Pablo.

On the other side of the barricade, the first infected Pablo shot was slowly getting up.

"Hey, you! Mr. Manager! Come here!" Jun shouted upstairs as he bashed another infected that was trying to stand.

The manager seemed to hesitate and was thinking if he should come down when Jun started cursing and threatened to kill him if he doesn't hurry up.

He's someone who worked his life inside the office, a peaceful, loving manager.

Feeling that Jun might do what he said, he unwillingly went down the stairways.

"Took you! Long! Enough!" Jun said after repeatedly bashing an infected's head. Sweat started to appear on his face, and his back became thoroughly drenched with sweat.

This one is the seventh infected that he killed and there are still two infected stuck outside that's trying their best to get in.

Jun took a few deep breaths, then turned to the manager. "Okay... what you'll be doing is pretty simple. Pull the body to the center and place your hand on top of them, alright?"

"Okay!"

***

Jun watched as the last infected finally managed to slip through the gap. It was a beautiful woman who has an open belly.

When it broke the glass door earlier, it got pushed to the side by the others behind it.

It could only come forward after the others got taken care of. The infected woman dashed towards Jun like a starving dog that finally found food. The usual brilliance in its eyes was already gone, and its yellow eyes turned pale.

A crunching sound filled the room as Jun swung the bat to its head; like he was just playing a game of baseball. The woman fell sidewards and even tried to stand up but immediately got whacked in the face.

After that hit, Jun's vision became filled with bright lights. Followed by a refreshing feeling, taking all of his exhaustion away.

[You leveled up!]

[Lv.0 ] Lv.1]

[Congratulations, you now have access to the menu screen.]