Chương 89: Professional Team

When Vince stepped out, it was as if the four of them had been hit with a pause button, standing frozen in place with their spears gripped tight. A trace of a daze lingered in each of their eyes.

"I... Yes! We did it!" Zoe was the first to snap back to reality after looking at the zombie corpse on the floor. Dropping her spear, she bypassed the two still-stunned boys and threw her arms around Claire on the other side!

"Claire! We did it!" Seeing Vince emerge, she turned her head, staring straight at him with bright, sparkling eyes, looking exactly like an elementary schooler waiting to be praised. Vince could see her arms were still trembling uncontrollably, but that was pure adrenaline, not fear. Shaken awake by Zoe, Claire let out a long, deep breath. She didn't look at the corpse. Instead, she subconsciously looked toward Vince, her curved eyes revealing a trace of a smile.

At the same time, she reached out and hugged Zoe tightly, gently patting her back. Cody wasn't as relaxed as his sister. He still gripped his spear so tightly it looked like it had grown out of his hands. He gently and tentatively prodded the zombie with the shaft of his spear, wanting to confirm if it was truly dead. He still found the reality of the situation hard to believe. Seth, however, was jolted awake by Zoe's voice.

He stared blankly at the corpse on the floor for a second, then abruptly spun around and rushed to the corner of the stairwell. Leaning against the wall, he began to dry heave violently. But Vince had seen it clearly: his spear thrust had been far more accurate and ruthless than Cody's....

"Alright, alright..." Vince rubbed Zoe's head and pulled her off Claire.

"You've got plenty of strength. Even with a skewed thrust, you managed to pierce straight through the skull..." Zoe's spear had penetrated the deepest; it went in through the edge of the eye socket and pierced out the back of the head. An absolutely fatal wound.

"Claire, you did well. Your aim was great, but you didn't put enough ruthless force behind the thrust. Keep that in mind for next time." Claire's spear was lodged in the zombie's eye socket, but it clearly hadn't penetrated all the way through. Of course, it was entirely possible that Zoe's strike had carried too much force and pushed the zombie backward... Vince noticed that Cody's spear was lodged in the zombie's sternum. Even though Cody had been positioned further up front, his thrust had landed after Seth's.

Reaching out, Vince patted Cody on the shoulder.

"Your hands are steady, but you hesitated when you struck. Be more decisive..." He then walked over to Seth. Watching the man violently retch—a stark contrast to the ruthless, decisive strike he had just delivered—Vince looked at him somewhat hesitantly.

"I don't know why you're reacting like this, but... don't let yourself get trapped in your own head..." With that, he clapped his hands, drawing everyone's attention back to him.

"From this moment on, you are warriors!"

"Everyone, check your weapons and gear. We're moving to the next room!" He then handed the crowbar back to the door-prying duo who had just slipped out of their hiding spot.

"You two, get ready to pry the doors upstairs..." Watching the two men head upstairs, followed by the clink-clank sounds of door-prying, Vince knew they were just ordinary people. Naturally, they couldn't just brute-force a crowbar into a door gap like he could; they had to use a hammer to drive it in inch by inch. Vince had already scouted the entire building. He bypassed all the completely silent apartments and only picked the ones containing one or two zombies, ensuring absolute safety. Love what you're reading?

Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. He would leave the remaining apartments to Ben's crew. Vince's group was only responsible for clearing the building, not scavenging supplies. Having people help them deal with zombies was something they were more than happy to accept. While the two men were prying the door, Vince extended a hand toward Cody. Understanding the cue, Cody pulled the four silver-white auto-injectors from his pocket.

"Vince, what are these?" Claire was the first to ask. Although Zoe didn't speak, she looked at Vince with equally curious eyes.

"... Uh, how should I explain this? Just treat them as a last-resort insurance policy... They're a type of hormone, or stimulant..." Vince thought about it for a second, skipping their origin entirely and just explaining their intended effect.

"The side effects are unknown, and there's no absolute guarantee they'll work. So, if something goes horribly wrong, only inject them as an absolute last resort..."

"Dage, aren't you a vet? Why do you have these? They're not meant for animals, are they...?" Zoe suspiciously took one of the injectors from Cody and sniffed it.

"You talk too much!" Vince flicked Zoe on the forehead. [-1] The latter let out an "Ouch!" and clutched her head, ducking behind Claire. Seeing the Health Bar deduction, Vince was startled and quickly checked her HP. Fortunately, it really only dropped by 1 point. He was still not entirely used to his superhuman constitution; it was too easy to accidentally use too much force... Claire turned and rubbed Zoe's head, glared at Vince, and reached out to take an injector from Cody, slipping it into her pocket.

Cody took one for himself and handed the final one to Seth. Everyone had their potions equipped. This was the only external assistance Vince could offer them.

"I'll supervise you guys clearing a few more rooms. After that, I'm heading over to Ben to hunt mutated zombies. You guys good on your own...?" Vince was still slightly worried, but seeing their brimming confidence, he felt he was being a bit too much of a worrywart.

"Let's go, upstairs!" He watched them clear three more apartments. Two had a single zombie, one had two. All were killed without any real danger. Watching their teamwork grow increasingly proficient—despite their physical stamina being a bit lacking, requiring them to rest every so often—they genuinely looked like a professional tactical team.

"Don't let this go to your heads just because you killed a few zombies. Someone on Ben's side died earlier due to pure carelessness... By the way, Zoe..." Vince took advantage of a rest break to speak to her.

"From now on, if there's only a single zombie, try to strike after Claire. If she manages to stab it to death, then just save your stamina. If she doesn't kill it, then you step in and finish it off..."

"Got it, Dage!" Although Zoe didn't fully understand the underlying reason, she assumed Vince was just having them take turns to conserve stamina, so she agreed readily. But only Vince knew what kind of storm was raging beneath his calm expression. While standing behind them during these breaches, he had been closely observing their Health Bars. Out of the four zombies, Zoe had killed three, and her Max HP had remained completely unchanged.

But Claire had killed one, and her [105] had ticked up by 1 point, becoming [106]...! Although it only increased by 1 point, it is undeniably the exact same growth path as mine! This meant that Claire could potentially level up to 200, 300, or even 600 Max HP just like him! Although back when Vince first woke up, his 100 HP granted him vastly more strength than Claire's current 100 HP...

even if a 600 HP Claire couldn't match his raw stats, she would still be exponentially stronger than any ordinary person or regular zombie! When he first realized this, Vince actually had the wild urge to take Claire to a zombie-infested hotspot and "power-level" her! But he quickly squashed that thought. It seemed that, just like the others, he was getting a bit too arrogant after killing a few mutated zombies.

He could comfortably kite and fight dozens of zombies solo, but if he brought Claire along, she would probably be overwhelmed and killed before they could farm much of anything... It was far better to let this group party up and kill zombies together. As long as Zoe yielded the killing blows to Claire whenever possible, not only would Claire's Max HP increase, but their overall teamwork would improve.

Looking at the three green and one yellow Health Bars in front of him, a sudden surge of ambition swelled in Vince's heart... If all of these people could eventually attain his current level of power, then perhaps survival in this world wasn't a completely hopeless endeavor. But the prerequisite was figuring out the exact mechanism behind Claire's awakening path, and whether it could be replicated... While lost in thought, Vince pulled out his walkie-talkie.

"Ben, you there? This is Vince..."

"Vince, Vince, this is Ben. I'm here..."

"Any suspicious rooms?"

"Yes... I'm in Unit 5... There's an issue on the fourth floor..."

"I'm on my way..." Vince put away the walkie-talkie and ruffled the hair of Claire and Zoe, who were resting on the stairs.

"Don't push yourselves too hard if you're tired. Head home and rest when you hit your limit. We have a long road ahead of us..." Sweeping his gaze over their excited eyes, he turned and headed downstairs. Their teamwork was solid; there was no need for him to micromanage them anymore. Children kept in the cradle would never grow up. Reaching the second floor, he simply turned and walked into the living room of apartment 201, where they had killed a zombie earlier.

Without breaking stride, he vaulted over the balcony and plummeted to the ground below... His short spear struck the concrete with a heavy thud. The fledglings had grown their wings. It was time for the falcon to hunt true beasts...