Trash in the Apocalypse

Chapter 167: Side Quest

Jun was headed to Taytay in search for his mother. He had the address given by his sister safely tucked inside his leather jacket. There were a few barangay that he would passby but he only had to enter one town to reach Taytay, it was the municipality of Angono.

He traveled using the scooter he picked up on the side of the road. Scooters were more silent than motorcycles or cars which allowed him to attract less attention to himself. Most of the carriers that notice him were those who were by the side of the road.

He switched vehicles a few times in a single day since there were lots of abandoned cars on the streets, blocking the way, especially in the bridge areas. Cars even drove over the sidewalks just so they could leave the traffic, only to be trapped by electric poles and other sidewalk vending machines.

On his travels, he met other survivors who scavenged for food, and some groups of people who tried to kill him. He told the survivors about the town and its up to them whether to go there. Those people who tried killing him? Ofcourse he killed them all.

His short travel for the day already introduced him to the new world. He immediately noticed the vast difference between their strengths and equipment. 

The survivors he met mostly have regular tools and sharp objects as weaponsranging from wrench, pliers, kitchen knives, hammers and so on. The most dangerous group he encountered were people armed with improvised guns. Some had iron pipes as barrels while others used PVC pipes.

Every time he met this kind of group, he talks to them, trying to distinguish whether they have good intentions or not. If they plan on robbing him, he would then use them as experience points for his [Rob] skill. He doesn't kill them even they were armed. The only ones he killed were those who fired on him and he felt that they weren't even worth killing.

Some of the people he killed were not infected, allowing him to absorb some free stats. The rest? They became experience and essence shards.

When night came, he stopped traveling and cleared a two-storied building for himself. Jun felt that everything was so easy. He even doubted whether everyone was just weak.

The next day, he drove with his new scooter along the high-way when the scooter suddenly made screeching sounds and lost balance. Jun's vision tilted to one side, so he jumped off the scooter and rolled to the side while covering his head.

The scooter tumbled a few times after Jun kicked off its body. It created skidding sounds before bursting up with flames. The gas tank started leaking and started spreading on the road. 

On the middle of the road, Jun saw sharpened barbwires placed on the middle of the road. It stretched from both ends of the road meaning that it was placed here by someone.

Jun sat up and looked around. People stepped out of hiding and he immediately became surrounded. There were seven of them. Each of them walked casually towards him.

"He's alive?"

"We have a tough one here!"

"Yiihihi~ this would be fun."

The leader, the first one to talk, looked down on him. "Nothing personal man, its your fault for not paying attention on the road." he clicked his tongue twice and with a benevolent tone added, "Leave everything on your storage here and we'll let you go. Don't try to be smart and leave some, we have someone who can inspect whether you hid things from us."

A scrawny man started playing with his crowbar and impatiently said, "Oy, hurry it up!"

Jun dusted himself off as he stood up and ignored the man. He stood as if in a daze while staring in from, examining them.

Based on their appearances, they clearly got enough food for themselves. They're probably bandits that prey on the anyone that passes by which is probably the reason why the leader told Jun not to take it personal.

Jun sighed and slightly shook his head. "I'm tired of killing people. I have to fight the dead and even the living. Can't we just spend a day peacefully?"

"What are you even saying?" said one man then grabbed Jun's shoulders. "You wanna fight, huh?!"

With a quick uppercut, Jun managed to dislocate the man's jaw rending him unconscious.

The people around him was shocked but instantly reacted.

"Bastard! Take this!" 

The attacks all came at the same time. Jun moved forward and grabbed someone in front of him to become his shield. He lifted the adult man like he was handling weightless objects.

The unfortunate man received the combined attacks of his friends. Rods and pipes of all sizes gave him different levels of pain. The most excruiciating pain he received was from the crowbar that bruised his shoulder. He even felt some stings for his back but he couldn't see what it was.

Jun let go of the man and slapped the man next to him backhandedly. The man took a few steps back as he felt dizzy, feeling like he was struck by a heavy object.

The four remaining people felt that something was wrong but had to continue their attacks. They charged at Jun at the same time, but was dealt one by one easily. Jun took advantage or their spacing and dealt with them from nearest to furthest. He didn't even use weapons since the difference in stats was like the abyss.

By the time they realized that they couldn't win, everyone was already sprawled on the floor with several bruises all over their body. 

Jun looked up towards the condomium by the side and glared at the dumbfounded man on the terrace. "Are you going to jump or do you want me to go there?"

It was a three-story condominium and the terrace the man was currently on was the third floor. If the man jumped like he was told, it was guaranteed that he would break his legs.

"I'll spare you if you jump but I'll kill you if I go up there. I've given you options, just like your guys gave me. By the way, if you don't jump, I'll kill them too. A few of them were already dead, do you want all of them to die?"

Jun suddenly became flustered as the man ran back inside without giving an answer. "I'll take that as a no." he turned to the ones still wriggling in pain and said, "I thought your were friends. My bad."

Jun ended their misery and killed everyone of them by stabbing their heads. He felt nothing as he killed them. It was like he was just killing carriers and hoping that some good loot would come out.

He climbs up using his strengthened physique and jumped up terraces after terraces. His arm muscles became firm every time he pulled himself up. He easily found the man hiding on his room by using his IDSearch feature that can bypass walls. The red-black question marks were in large contrast with the room's white walls.

The man tried stabbing him with a kitchen knife but he easily overpowered the man and disarmed him. Jun dragged him back to the terrace and threw him off the building like a piece of paper.

The man shrieked loudly as he free-fall towards the ground. A loud crashed was heard and Jun remained stoic.

[Side Quest - Complete!]

[Stranger Trouble(Repeat)]

[Description] Kill 10 strangers.

[Rewards] Random.

[Failure] None.

[You received 2 stat points.]

'Hehehe, do you know why it was only 2 points? Because you killed them too quickly! You should have made them suffer first. Bahahaha!'

"I finished the quest, so shut up. You're not supposed to be talking when quests ended."

'Don't like to chat, I see. Atleast do a better job on entertaining me. I'm still new to this quest thingy, so I'll take any of your suggestions. I'm on your side, okay? I'm even helping you become stronger faster.'

"You either stop talking or get out of my head."

'Tsk, tsk. What a grumpy man.'

Jun sat down on the slanted chair. He stared into the distance then scratched and massage his forehead. The day after the town defense, a voice from his head started talking to him. The voice didn't even bother introducing itself and would just pester Jun to become stronger faster. The voice even gave him the repeatable quest to kill people.

Jun weighed everything before accepting the quest. Since there were some groups of people that were inclined to doing bad, he would use them to finish the quests. Though the rewards were random, until now he only received stat points. And he was glad for it.

If he wants to search for his mother, he need to have the strength to do so. 

After a few minutes of rest, he heard feasting snarls from below. He stood up and looked down. The bandits from before have now turned to carriers. He expected them to be already infected since they didn't even wore protective clothing.

The carriers were feasting upon the guy that he threw off the building.