2: Survival And Money

“This should be enough,” Ace mumbled, gathering any weapon he could find inside the house and putting them in his dimensional storage. He let out a sigh of relief when he didn’t feel the weight of the objects inside his storage.

Ace wasn’t sure how to use his newly found ability aside from making it his invisible storage. He was certain that nobody could steal anything inside the dimensional storage. It only activated whenever he thought about it, making it impossible for others to use it.

“Hah! I can’t believe they’re growing in numbers in the blink of an eye,” Ace heaved as he watched the zombies scattered outside. He closed the door and took out an axe to use. It was supposed to be a decoration so the edge of the blade was a little dull, though with enough force, it could render the enemy unconscious or shattered their skull.

Ace swung his hand with an axe until his arm got used to its weight.

“I’ll have to leave as soon as I can,” Ace muttered to himself before kicking the door open. He rushed to the zombies and slashed their heads with an axe, their brains spattered on the ground, and a foul odor spread in the air.

“Oh, crap.” Ace held his breath as he continued to clear his way to his old truck. He was glad that Mike and Hannah didn’t take it when they escaped.

Ace was getting used to slaughtering the undead when he noticed a small scarlet stone dropped every time he killed them. He finished off the zombies first before picking up the stone.

“What’s this?” he asked, staring at the stone that came from the zombie’s head. “Is this like their magic core?” Ace mumbled and decided to put the stone in his storage.

[Ace! You have acquired 16 mana stones]

“Huh?”

[Ace! Dimensional storage capacity is available for upgrade]

[15 mana stones will be used for the upgrade. Do you want to proceed?]

Ace blinked twice when he heard a voice in his head. “Mana stones? Are those the ones from the zombie’s head—Oh damn! I don’t have time for this.”

Ace ran to his truck and started the engine. He kept cursing under his breath as more zombies were heading his way. The moment the engine roared, he stepped on the gas pedal and sped away from that place.

“I should get home in more than 2 hours. Mom and Dad should be safe since they’re far from the city,” Ace mumbled while checking the time on his watch.

He was glad he made a call at his parents’ home earlier to check on them. His parents heard about what happened and even witnessed the city’s destruction on live television before it was cut off. When Ace asked if there were zombies there, his parents said nothing had changed yet.

“It would be safer to stay in the countryside than the area around the city. I don’t know what happened but this is just like the end of the world in the movies,” Ace grumbled, tightening his grip around the steering wheel.

He arbitrarily stopped the truck when he noticed an abandoned supermarket on his way. Ace roamed his eyes around like a fierce hawk before driving his truck inside. He couldn’t afford to leave the truck outside while he was gathering supplies. The possibility of zombies coming to block his way was high.

“Good. There’s a lot in here. I should be quick and get everything I can. It would be hard to get food at this time though I’m not sure if it’s still convenient to farm in the countryside,” Ace told himself while filling his storage with food, water, medicine supplies, batteries, emergency lights, and anything that could be used for fighting.

After filling his dimensional storage, Ace started putting groceries in a huge backpack he brought with him. He checked the surroundings and nobody seemed to be around, but he decided to use the backpack as plan B in case someone was hiding and watching him gathering supplies.

Ace was convinced that he wasn’t the only one who awakened with an ability. Even so, he wanted to keep his dimensional storage a secret as it was not only convenient but also the safest place to hide important things without worrying about thieves.

“It’s done. I should get out of here and meet my parents,” Ace zipped his backpack and carried it on his back. He was on his way back to the truck when three men approached him with a clear hostile intent.

“Oh! Look who’s here. A brazen runt who dared to empty our storage house,” one of them said, shaking his head while holding a piece of wood.

The other two grinned and positioned themselves around Ace who wasn’t surprised by their approach. Ace knew it couldn’t be avoided to encounter people like the three considering the situation they were in. However, he also needed the supplies he took to feed himself and his family.

“I didn’t take much. My family needs them,” Ace said in a calm voice. He didn’t want to start a fight over some supplies. “There’s a lot left so why don’t you share some with me?”

The three looked at each other before laughing hard. “Did you hear what he said? Oh, boy. Sharing isn’t part of our vocabulary.”

Ace clenched his fists. “Then how about I pay?” he compromised, although he didn’t have enough cash, he got a diamond ring in his dimensional storage that could be worth more than the supplies he took, though he didn’t want to take it out in front of them. “If that’s okay with you, please total everything so I can pay.”

One of the men groaned and grabbed Ace by the collar. “Oh, no. If you have the means to pay, you should leave all your money and that backpack before you can go.”

Ace scolded himself when he realized the world had turned into a place where money couldn’t solve most of the problems anymore. He knew he shouldn’t have mentioned ‘paying’ in the first place. He regretted what he did, but it was too late to take back what he said.