Trash in the Apocalypse

Chapter 181: Marcus the Swindler

The soothing music continued to play in the background. People who listen to its rhythm would feel like they were floating in cloud nine.

Jun opened the glass door and entered the viewing platform of the gymnasium. There was no one guarding the area, which allowed Jun to move around quickly. He moved corner to corner until his smartwatch received signs of movements.

He went towards the stairs and cautiously peeked at the party below.

The event hall below was filled with all kinds of uniquely dressed people. Some wore formal attires while others dressed in their casual wear. Servers were walking back and forth to serve dishes at different tables when a particular group of people came in from the front door.

Marcus led the group with a weird face. He looked around the area then started walking towards the buffet table.

Marcus slapped someone on their face before grabbing the individual's hair. He dragged the man towards a set of double doors that leads to the floor below him.

Jun followed Marcus' name that dragged a set of question marks. There were times that the question marks would stop and run away, but Marcus quickly caught him back.

When the two stopped moving and only made small movements, Jun decided that it was time to go down. Since it was faster if he jumps down from the second floor towards the ground, Jun climbed the railings and adjusted himself for the jump.

Just as he was about to jump down, he saw two sets of question marks enter his IDSearch radius.

'They are probably guards assigned to protect Marcus.'

Jun hesitated whether to jump or not. Before he could even decide, a roar came from the direction of the plaza.

Marvin has already transformed into a 2-meter Destroyer and came running out of an alley. His every step as he ran caused slight tremors on the ground.

Behind the red-skinned Destroyer were hordes of rotters ferociously streaming out of the alley. On its hand were three people bundled together.

Cain responded immediately and hastily organized the group. They weren't startled about the sudden appearance of the horde since they were expecting it. The only thing that could be deemed shocking was the Brute that was in the horde.

It was the first time they saw a red-skinned Brute and weren't sure if it has other abilities. Even its nature seemed weird as it chose to play with human lives instead of directly eating them.

"Spear-Cleaver position!" shouted Cain as he stood in front of everyone. He took a 1-meter rod from his dimensional storage, then made a spear stance with the rod. The metal rod has a chainring welded on its end, which appeared to have its spiky edges sharpened.

The twenty or so nearby personnel heeded his call and formed two rows with ten survivors per row.

The ones standing in the front were holding a small shield made from solid wood and motorcycle tires. The shield covers the chest and the waist area of the wielder.

On their other hand, a short pipe appeared. The pipe had a sharpened scrap iron welded from the center to the tip. If the scrapped iron attached weren't rusty, they could have used it for chopping edible meat.

The second row of people wielded long metal rods with an iron spearhead attached at the head.

It was also noticeable that the front row only had small people, while the back row had tall people. 

Cain chose to charge forward to divert some of the attention of the horde to him. He also wanted to rescue the three unconscious survivors on the Brute's hand.

Currently, he was the only Level 9 survivor amongst the security circle. He roughly knows everyone's prowess, and with the current defensive line, as long as they don't meet any mutated rotters, everything would be fine.

When he was only five meters away from the red-skinned Brute, it suddenly slowed down and pulled the hand, holding the three people backward.

Cain couldn't help but widen his eyes as he trembled in shock while watching the Brute throw the survivors forward. Instead of eating them, it chose to use people as throwables?

The three survivors flew past him. When he felt the breeze pass him, his mind woke up and became focused on the problem ahead.

Instead of charging forward, the Brute ran towards the adjacent street and grabbed a motorcycle that was already stripped of useful parts. Several rotters chased after it and started attacking its back.

The Brute squashed those rotters with the back of its hand, then gazed towards the plaza. It grabbed the back end of the bare motorcycle and started spinning in place.

Cain, 'F*ck...'

Marvin, 'Hehehe, I'm in charge of destruction!'

The gymnasium trembled when something hit its walls. The people were already frightened of the loud shrieks outside and couldn't continue the party. Their personal aids brought them out and went towards the Municipal building.

At least, the Municipal Hall has four floors with narrow hallways. They could easily defend the place with the right fortifications.

Jun was walking against the crowd as he made his way towards the double doors that lead to Marcus.

Even with the commotion outside the street, the two people didn't move away from their positions. Their duty was probably to stay by Marcus' side.

Jun took off his leather jacket, which only left him with a plain gray shirt that says 'I[3NY' and his blue jeans.

He pushed the double doors slightly and took a peek of the situation. The area outside leads to the hallway that brings you to the pavilion. On the other end of the hall, which would lead to the back of the building, two rough-looking men were guarding a door.

Jun carefully closed the door and began thinking of a plan. Several seconds later, he smiled and started doing some warm-ups.

'Three, two, one.'

"Hey, you still have some stick? Lend me some; I'll pay you back when I find one." The man said to his buddy.

The other person shook his head in disbelief. He knew that his friend would never pay him back, but he still gave him one stick of his expensive cigarette.

"Do you think we'll be sent out to help them? I'm kinda bored being stuck here when everyone's gaining more experience outside." said the man as he took the stick from his friend.

"We can't do anything about that since we have a rotation duty. Let's just think that it's our bad lack..."

As the two were having an idle chat, the double doors opened widely, and a frightened young man came out. From the man's expression alone, the two realized that the horde managed to enter the building.

As if confirming their thoughts, the young man shouted: "Help! Please help me!" then dashed and hid behind them.

The two waited in anticipation since they were finally about to relieve their boredom.

However, their excitement disappeared when their bodies felt powerless after something hit the back of their heads. Like a fragile tower of cards, they quickly fell towards the floor.

Jun shook his head. It was only a single strike on their napes, and they quickly fell. He only wanted to make them unconscious, but in reality, Jun was unaware that his blows were a bit strong, which caused the neck and spinal column to receive some damage. His secondary quest was increased by three since earlier.

A voice came behind the door. The sign above reads, 'Storage Room.'

"What's going on? Is the horde coming?"

The door opened, and a fat old man stared at a young man standing behind two unconscious men.

Marcus hastily tried shutting the door, but Jun was a step ahead to dash forward.

Jun tackled Marcus to the floor, and they started punching each other. They rolled on the floor until they hit the nearby shelves.

The contents near the edge of the shelves dropped continuously on top of the two; folders, tools, and boxes.

Jun quickly overpowered Marcus and remained on top. He sat on top of Marcus, then sent an Empowered punch which struck Marcus' face cleanly.

Marcus coughed blood. "Fuck*ng bastard!"

His already crooked nose became further disfigured. He glared at Jun, then used one of his skills.

Marcus' body glowed for a second before he started sweating profusely. Instead of being sticky, the sweat became slippery to the touch.

The oily sweat made Jun's grip on Marcus' neck to loosen and slip.

Marcus shoved Jun's body to the side.

Getting off-balanced, Jun grabbed Marcus' arm, only for his hand to slip once more. He fell to the floor sideways with his vision going up to the ceiling.

The door slammed shut with Marcus fleeing like a sweating pig.

Jun quickly got up and was about to chase after Marcus when he heard a muffled groan from the side.

A badly beaten up man was staring at Jun with pleading eyes. He's probably around mid-thirties from the way he looked.

Jun glanced at the man once, then headed for the door.

The man stared at Jun's receding figure with disappointment. He could feel life seeping away from his body after getting thrashed by Marcus. He coughed heavily while spatting blood, then closed his eyes, accepting his fate.

In the looming darkness, he heard a click of the tongue, followed by several footsteps. The next thing he knew, a warm feeling was entering his body and being absorbed willingly.