Trash in the Apocalypse

Chapter 197: Exploder

When the two dimensional storages collided, a new window appeared.

Jun became surprised after seeing the new window. Three inventory screens appeared on his vision; his dimensional storage on the left, the new window at the middle, and Marvin's inventory on the right. He knew that it was Marvin because of the name attached to the inventory's header.

The new window probably connected Jun and Marvin's dimensional storage together, and although their storage became connected, he couldn't see what's inside Marvin's dimensional storage due to blacked-out background with a huge white question mark.

As he was contemplating, a watering-can appeared on the middle screen. He raised his head, and saw Marvin in shock. He transferred the watering-can into his storage, then placed an energy fruit as a replacement. The fruit disappeared not a second later after it was placed. 

The two raised their heads and stared at each other in excitement. They didn't celebrate but calmly backed off from each other without acting suspiciously.

Afterward, Jun checked the watering-cans description and gasped in astonishment after reading it.

[Energy Extractor]

[Description] An item forged by a master craftsman. It can extract the purest energy from the supplied source and help develop another target.

[Durability - 500/500]

[Energy - 3/10,000]

'Could I use this to increase my energy? But what if I evolve into something... No, let's experiment later. For now, I'll just keep it hidden.'

The only people who knew about the watering=can was his group. He knew their personalities and became reassured that no one would spread this news.

'Since this is a watering-can, it should be able to help enhance the farm's production, right? Wait... what if... Can this help the Tree of Life to grow faster?'

Jun became elated at the thought of harvesting more fruits when the Tree of Life matured.

After the pit stop at the cemetery, the more than 200-man clearing team continued north while following the highway. Numerous survivors learned that a horde was coming, so the people nearby gathered and set out for the horde. When they arrived at the scene, every last enemy was already killed and being looted.

Then they noticed that rotters were coming out from the cemetery which should have been impossible. Everyone knew that the cemetery respawns enemies when your inside, but they can't go out! Even more so, they can't be looted!

Contrary to 'common knowledge', the enemies still respawn from the cemetery but they can go out and get looted. This shocked many while also making pet-owners happy. The price of pet food has risen due to demand and supply ratio with demand so high with almost no supply circulating in the market. With the changes in the cemetery, a few would lose their sources of income while others would be able to save some costs.

Jun thought of a plan after understanding the changes to the cemetery. With the inspiration from the gardener, he planned to create an energy stone farm if possible. Its already proven that the carriers respawning at the cemetery were lootable and could evolve. Now, he just has to experiment whether it was true that a carrier at the brink of evolving produces an energy stone.

And also, stat essences can be found inside the carrier's brain. Jun learned that when he searched the D3 he killed earlier and found a +10 Essence of Power. Unfortunately, he only found a mid-tier essence shard when he searched the heart for energy stone. Though disappointing, it only further solidified his belief that only carriers at the border of evolution could produce an energy stone.

Jun had many plans and he doesn't even have enough time to do all of them.

Jun asked Evo to deliver the salvaged resources(body parts) to Old John, together with his note while asking to do an experiment with the watering-can. He doesn't have any time to start the energy stone farm since he was going somewhere, so the vegetable farm and Tree of Life could benefit from it first.

A small group decided to guard the cemetery, in case another horde come out after it respawned over time. Everyone knew that those people only wanted a safe place to get experience and loot but no one exposed them.

The clearing group was like an army of bandits as they traveled the highway. At times, the group would split up after entering a new area, then come back several minutes later, leaving empty houses on their wake.

The carriers on the streets got mowed down after both survivor and carrier groups charged at each other. Evolved carriers were assassinated by powerful people while leaving the weak ones to regular people.

Jun spearheaded this time, to further increase the clearing speed. He didn't bother looting dead bodies as he only wanted their experience.

He helped clear the roads by pushing cars to the side, and even gave some pointers on how to fight properly. In the end, the people loved him and deemed him much better and much approachable than Marcus.

Indeed, Jun was a good man. He acted how everyone wanted a good leader to actexcept for kills stealing though. It's just a small matter and the people were already getting used to it. Besides, he continued paying above the market price.

Jun started to tone down his kill stealing after he stopped selling bone weapons. Not many people knew of the Faction Storage, and him having hundreds of all kinds of weapons were strange enough, but the survivors ignored it, so they could continue buying.

He told everyone that he ran out and if anyone wants to procure anymore, they would have to travel to Binangonan.

When people started asking for the black cards, he sold five Numbered cards before announcing a sold-out. He explained that the black cards were his extra and he already gave his last card out.

In terms of discounts, an anonymous or numbered card has no discount while the blue-striped and red-striped cards have ten percent and twenty percent discount, respectively.

The group arrived at Villa Gloria and started cleaning. With their numbers, they easily swept the subdivision from the front gate to the very last house. They were like thieves who barges into a house and clears room by room in a group of five. Most houses took more or less five minutes depending on the skilled individuals in the group. A group of friends takes their time as they loot from bottom-up while some groups searched the rooms as if they were shooting a police raid clip.

As the large crowd traveled to the next subdivision, they encountered a flock of crows circling in the sky. The flock followed the group and landed on electric cable as they cawed and observed the people passing by.

Two people stood at the lawn of the residence they chose to clear when a dull sound came from the garage. Both of them knew that it was a rotter since humans don't mindlessly knock on something repeatedly.

The gate had a solid cover preventing them to see what's on the other side, but it was slightly ajar. They could see an obese rotter that has a large beer-belly continuously pounding on the door. 

"You should stop scratching it." 

"I should, but it's really itchy!"

On the man's arm was a swollen wound. He was the man that got bit by a house spider this morning. His friend kept reminding him to stop scratching the wound but he couldn't do it.

They entered Baytown and were now cleaning houses by groups. They prefer their two-man team since they can't trust other people. Although they are helping each other right now, there's no guarantee that when they let someone join their group, that person wouldn't think of backstabbing them.

Ever since the cemetery fight, he felt something crawling on his skin but he couldn't find any insect even when he stares at it. The only thing he could do was to scratch it to alleviate some of the itchiness.

As he continued scratching, he felt his skin got torn off followed by numerous tingling sensations.

When he looked down on his palm, he noticed some cobweb on his torn skin, together with numerous small spider eggs. He shivered and finally paid attention to the tingling feeling from his other arm.

Extremely small spiders scrambled after the place they treated as home got demolished. The man quickly shook his arm to throw off the crawling spiders. Even though he was successful in sending them away, he couldn't help but shiver as his body hairs rose up from the creepy sensation.

After taking a sigh of relief, he turned his arm and saw a small holearound one cm wide, one cm deep.

"What the fvck was that?" he said as he shook his arm some more, making sure that all the spiders already fall from his arm.

"That's scary. I think it's better to get bit by a rotter than getting bit by a spider. I think we need to buy some insect spray soon."

"Let's do that." the man replied while taking a gulp.

The two checked the front door and it was locked, so they chose the garage as the entry point. The garage gate creaked loudly causing the obese rotter to notice them.

Both of them backed off and waited for the rotter to come out. Its body fats jiggled as it ran, but its hoarse scream scared the two.

Unlike its durable appearance, a nick of the bone short sword to the stomach caused it to explode. Strange juices together with all kinds of worms and parasites showered the two. The rotter's upper body disappeared leaving only its lower body.

As the two cursed while removing all the sticky fluids on them, the crows that followed the group since earlier appeared excited circling around the two.