Annoying Survivors

There was a monster more powerful than Apollo at the top of the building. Grey could sense it, and Apollo could too. Walking towards the stairs, Grey took out all his shard stones and swallowed them, his stats increasing yet again.

"Are you going to help me in this fight?" he asked Apollo, who was standing on his shoulder.

"No. I want you to get stronger. Helping you will be counterproductive, don't you think?" Apollo replied.

Grey nodded. "That's good. I don't want to be babied. Just don't get in my way, or I'll hack you down along with the zombies."

"Sheesh... cold much. You couldn't do it if you tried."

"We'll see."

Grey planned to clear the zombies as he moved upwards, leveling up until he reached the top of the building to face the powerful being—if it didn't come down to him first. He didn't know what would happen if that did occur, but one thing was for sure: he wouldn't back down from a fight.

As soon as he entered the next floor, multiple zombies attacked him. Grey, with a blitz, decapitated them with a single swing of his sword, moving faster than ever. Grey was impressed by his strength and the sharpness of the sword which had made his hunt much easier.

He hunted the rest of the zombies with unrelenting ferocity, using some of his abilities in the attacks. His [Lightning Manipulation] proficiency was slowly increasing, though not as fast as it initially had.

As Grey weaved through the zombies, multiple bodies fell, sliced in two. Grey cut down a zombie at his side, then another zombie approached him. With a swift punch, the zombie's face caved in and it tore through the air like a rocket, slamming into the wall with such force that half its body was reduced to a bloody mess.

"Shit," Grey exclaimed, shocked by the raw power in his fist. He knew he was strong, but he didn't think he was this strong.

His fist had become a deadly weapon enough to take down regular zombies even without [Bane Sword]. But Grey figured he'd rather use his sword than his fist, as he didn't like getting his hand messy, and there was also the high risk of getting bitten. Right now, he was pretty much bullying them.

In the next minute, the last zombie was taken down and Grey let out a heavy sigh.

"You're still disappointing. I could have taken them down in seconds," Apollo said, shaking his head in disappointment.

Grey frowned, ignoring his statement. It seemed the monkey loved attention. He then checked his stat window and noticed that his proficiency had increased by one, which was quite disappointing, but it was still progress.

The shard stones he had collected weren't as many as when he fought the juggernaut, but it was something. Grey wasted no time ingesting them. He had to admit he had gotten used to the taste of them dissolving in his mouth.

All of a sudden, he heard a noise and, squinting his eyes, tried to figure out what it was. Looking around, Grey could hear quiet sobbing, and he realized it was coming from under a bench in the meeting room.

Bending down, he saw two people—a lady and a man—with looks of terror on their faces. They sighed in relief as soon as they saw his face, at ease that he was a human and not a zombie.

"Survivors," Grey thought. "It's alright, you two are safe. You can come out," Grey said, and though they looked hesitant, the two stepped out, looking around warily.

"What happened? The whole place was filled with zombies," the man asked.

"Well, I killed them. The floor is now safe, though I wouldn't leave if I were you," Grey said. The floor might be safe, but the rest of the building was not. He could sense they weren't strong at all, meaning they hadn't killed a zombie.

"You killed the zombies?" the man asked in a skeptical tone. "There were more than a dozen."

"Well... I'm strong," Grey said casually, noting the name on his ID: Greg.

The lady then began to whimper. "Everyone... everyone turned into monsters. They were biting each other," she cried. Grey also checked her ID and saw her name was Amy.

"Boo hoo... crying won't save you from zombies trying to eat your brains, haha," Apollo mocked, but Amy didn't respond to his comment, neither did Greg, which shocked Grey.

"Why aren't you surprised by the talking monkey?" Grey asked, pointing to Apollo on his shoulder.

"What talking monkey? All your pet is doing is making monkey sounds."

"Damn, don't call me a pet," Apollo said aggressively to Greg. But to Greg, Apollo was just hooting, displeased by something. This surprised Grey.

"You mean you can't hear him speak?" Grey asked.

Greg looked at him like he was a lunatic, thinking Grey might be using his monkey to cope with the horror of what was happening. "Yeah, I forgot to tell you only you can understand me," Apollo informed.

"What... why?"

"I don't know, bitch."

"Was calling me 'bitch' necessary?" Grey asked, furrowing his brow, and Apollo shrugged.

Grey, realizing he was talking out loud, saw Greg and Amy backing away from him, Greg holding a steel bat—similar to the basic weapon he got from the system—threateningly. An indication everyone did have a system.

Grey narrowed his eyes at the pair.

"Is this how you thank your savior?"

“Bullshit, you expect me to think you alone killed all those monsters. Impossible." Greg spat and Grey frowned.

“You are a deeply mistrusting person Greg, and honestly it's starting to piss me off."

“Okay let's come down there's no need to fight amongst ourselves.” Amy said as the mood was becoming tense, but Greg wasn't backing down, neither was Grey.

“Why bother about them." Apollo said. “You should kill them for the betrayal."

“Apollo not helping.”

Grey had come to terms to killing zombies killing hmans would be another case, but with the way Grey felt, he didn't think he'll have a problem crossing that line. Not at all.