Trash in the Apocalypse

Chapter 157: Cemetery Minions

Usually, the Large Rats in the mine only gives experience. He wasn't expecting anything extravagant but had his hopes up after the recent stat increase for looting Special Carriers. He consoled himself that receiving the rat's meat and hide should be a lot better than receiving nothing.

Jun then placed great importance on the carriers body on the other side of the bridge. He even stared affectionately at the towering D1 on the frontlines with the Large Rat swarm and Special Carriers clash. When the late newcomers came, Jun called for everyone to come back. Since the Large Rat only gives meat and hide with no stat increase, he decided to get his people some rest and leave the rest to everyone.

Food was slowly becoming an issue for everyone. Most of the people have already looted the surrounding hot places. The grocery stores, the public market and even the houses were already looted. After a month of surviving and looting, the town is running dry of food stocks and if they want to scavenge for food they would have to venture out further into the unknown.

Jun have stopped selling food a long time ago. Although the vegetable garden sold some vegetable a few times, it would never meet the demand of the whole town. Its main purpose was to make sure that Black Haven's member had food on their table.

"How did it go? How many of them leveled up?" said Jun.

Nik smiled and said, "A few of them did. I guess they learn quickly?"

"Good. Explain the system basics then have them collect those." Jun pointed over the pile of dead rats and focused back on the battle.

When the Large Rat swarm slowly became thinner after receiving attack from both ends, they started fighting each other. The people became happy since it became easier to fight since they have less Large Rats to worry about, netting them easy kills and loot. They were happy because they thought that these dead rats would give them stat increase.

Then something strange happened at the center of the Large Rat swarm. One exceptional looking Large Rat started chomping on its kin and ate them vigorously. It mercilessly ate everyone nearby, then afterwards, its body ballooned out and became swollen. The Large Rat became enveloped in dark light followed by a rhythmic heartbeat that pulsed on everyone's mind.

Jun stared at the large black ball of light at the center of the swarm. He found it interesting since it was the first time seeing something like this, and leisurely waited for it. When the pulse repeated itself and continuously became faster, he frowned and noticed the D1 together with its lap dogs H1, rushing towards the black ball of light.

The D1 practically ran with large strides as if excited with its discovery. It trampled over those Large Rats and brushed them aside. When it finally got close with the black ball of light, it slammed down its bulging hands.

At the same time that the D1's hands swung down, the black ball of light disappeared top-down, revealing a one meter tall Giant Rat. But compared to the two meter D1, the Giant Rat was quite small.

The D1's hands struck the back of the Giant Rat which caused the two of them two wail and whimper at the same time. The D1's hands bled after striking the spiky behind of the Giant Rat. The metallic like hairs behind the Giant Rat injured its hands. The Giant Rat that received its full forced slam felt its bones cracked and its muscles squashed. Both of them received injuries but neither backed off. The two faced each other and started brawling. The Giant Rat swiped its sharp claws on the D1's legs while the D1 struck its head repeatedly.

When Jun noticed that the Giant Rat was getting dizzy after the repeated pounding while the D1 got slower with every attack, he decided that it was now time to rush in. He charged with his bonehammer and dashed towards the two enormous entities on the area,

The people who were trying their lucks by fighting the remnants of the Large Rats felt something brushed past them. The next thing they knew, a group of people were running towards the clashing titans.

Jun easily maneuvered himself over the Large Rats and killed some of them as he passed by. Now that their numbers were reduced, the threat of being surrounded by Large Rats weren't as scary compared to earlier. The Special Carriers finally finished dealing with the Large Rats that stalled them. Instead of rushing towards the Giant Rat, the Special Carriers started eating the dead rats on the ground.

By the time Jun arrived at the center of the swarm together with his personal guards, the Giant Rat already had cuts on its side after being ganged by the D1 and two H1. The Giant Rat didn't let itself got beaten up for free as it retaliated with its little brothers.

After repeated strikes on its legs, the D1's torn leg muscles gave up causing it to plummet down. It tried to stabilize its fall by leaning on the H1's at its side but it only caused them to be squashed by the sudden weight. The H1's tried wriggling their way out of the D1's grasp but the Giant Rat took this chance to kill the two of them. Its two razor sharp claws struck each head of the H1's.

The D1 furiously glared at the Giant Rat, only to see it falling forward after its strike. The Giant Rat's head was twitching even when it died. Upon seeing their big brother's death, the remaining Large Rats became frenzied and started attacking the D1. Some attacked infront while others climbed behind it.

Jun hammered the D1's head and started killing the Large Rats that tried eating the evolved carriers. When he looked at the other side of the bridge, he heard the scream of a carrier as if in pain. The special carriers started their advance ignoring the screaming carrier on the ground.

Jun chopped the D1 and H1's head off and stored them in his dimensional storage. Their bodies have to wait for later since he doesn't have the time to salvage them now. He wanted to experiment whether their bodies would have special effects or bonus when used as materials for crafting. Black Haven personnels appeared behind them and started collecting dead rats bodies.

He looked around and glanced at his subordinates. His elite group for clearing hordes and dungeons; Adrian, Sheila and Edward. His personal guards led by Nik, and the new recruits. Most of them were civilized people before the change but if you look at their bloodied bodies, the only thing to described them was savages. Their eyes weren't fearful even at the face of danger. At best, they were nervous since some of them doesn't have experience but they were fast learners. That's also one good trait of humans, they adapt.

"You own what you kill. If anyone has any problem with that, they can come forward. If you want some, then work for it. "

Jun's voice echoed in the area. He wasn't saying this to his subordinates but to the people playing safe by the side. Their were two types of late comers, the ones who fought the swarm of rats and the ones who watched them fight. They acted scared and preserved their energy. Whether they have good or bad plans weren't known.

When confronted by Jun's authority, some of these people started negotiating with those who were able to get some dead rats. They wanted to buy the whole body and haggled with CP. Jun lost interest on them and faced forward.

The new recruits were energized with what Jun declared and vigorously fought in the front lines together with the Black Haven veterans. When people saw that things were much stable compared to the earlier chaos, groups of five and ten naturally formed. This numbers became the common group size so party's could evenly distribute loot while having the capacity to remain safe.

Several seconds later, the carrier that was rolling in the ground earlier finally stoped moving. It slowly stood up while its muscles further improved and became larger. Its arms and legs gained explosive growth spurt that should have been impossible but was happening. Its abs became more well defined and even becoming taller by the second. By the time it managed to stood straight, it was already towering at two meters.

It became a Ranked 1 Destroyer.

Jun smirked and said, "That's mine. I'll loot that one and let's see how much increase I can get."

With Jun spearheading the battle, the wave was cleared in less than ten minutes. Most the time was even used for looting the dead bodies. Jun was elated after he received a +0.5 increase in strength after looting the D1. They collected their spoils and teleported back to town. People chose to rest after Jun announced that they still have a few minutes before the next wave arrives.

The Frontier was planning to go and explore the public market when they met a horde of carriers near the broken bridge. They fought well since they were already experienced and fighting regular carriers were already easy for them. But things turned awkward when weird ghoul-like carriers appeared and started chanting incorrigible mantras. Their people started screaming and attacked each other causing them to lose their prior advantage. Not only was that weird ghouls appeared, the carriers would come at them periodically in a timely manner as if they were respawning endlessly.

They could only disarm those crazed members and fall back. Falling back was easier said than done when being chased by weird creatures. They wanted to kill those ghouls but they would run away after a certain range and they can't keep chasing since the carriers could surround them.