Trash in the Apocalypse

Jun woke up at dawn, shivering. The cold air in the morning made his body felt sluggish. After yawning and stretching his arms, he went out of the room.

Jun noticed the wandering infecteds that were gathering outside.

He went downstairs and woke the group up.

Bernard stood up dazedly, still half asleep, followed by Gina and Dyna.

The first thing the group of women did was to help each other tidy themselves. They then stood up and walked towards Jun, with Alex as the front.

She combed her hair with her hands and then slowly put her hair behind her ears.

"Umm... after talking to each other last night, we changed our mind. We realized that we wouldn't survive alone, and we should stick together as a group." Alex said anxiously. "Can we still join your group?"

"We'll know that soon enough." Jun turned and walked towards the entrance. After peaking on some small holes, he called for Adrian.

"Give me some wood, choose the larger ones, and put them here," Jun said as he pointed beside him.

Adrian walked over with a vortex on top of his hand. He placed several piles of wood tidily on the floor.

Jun placed his hand on top of the pile.

The pile of wood distorted then suddenly melted while being covered by white lights. The light then slowly changed its shape into baseball bats.

A black line appeared and seemed to print the baseball bat out-of-nowhere as it regained its color and texture.

When the black line finished printing the baseball bat, it instantly vanished.

'Ding!'

[Item Creation Complete!]

- Wooden Baseball Bat x4

[Wooden Baseball Bat]

[Description] A baseball bat made from coconut lumber.

[Additional Effect - Increased item durability.]

[Durability - 150/150]

"Okay, everyone, come here. We have a new plan."

***

Bernard was feeling nervous. "Can we really do it?" he asked Jun, who was standing on his left.

There are two rows of people, four in front and two in the back.

Bernard, Gina, Dyna, and Alex were in front, holding baseball bats. Behind them were Jamie, Kareen, and Ester standing between the gaps, showing nervous expressions on their faces.

"Remember, it's just whack-a-mole, keep hitting them in the head until they're dead.", said Jun to Bernard's row. "Focus on killing them as quickly as possible. The support group will take care of looting the bodies."

Jun took one last look on them before nodding towards Edward.

Seeing the signal, Edward raised the shutter and made sure to level it with his knees. He then plugged a wooden stool underneath to fix its current height.

Raising the shutters caused enough noise to attract the infected in front of the shop. They dashed towards the sound.

Edward peeked below and shouted, "Minions of the Underworld! Are you brave enough to fight us to death!? Come here! Yes, that's right—"

Edward couldn't finish what he was trying to say as an infected dived at him. It landed between Alex and Dyna, which shocked the two.

The infected shrieked and wiggled its body as it crawled forward.

Gina was the first to react. She raised the baseball bat overhead and swung it down.

Blood splattered on their feet as the head shattered. Her hand and legs trembled as she went back to her position. Jamie, who was behind Alex and Dyna, closed her eyes as she unwillingly grabbed the infected's neck.

"Focus! Here they come!" Jun reminded them as the shrieking outside increased.

The infected started hitting the shutters, and some of them began to crawl underneath.

The loud rattling noise of metal hastened the heartbeats of the group. Some tightened the way they held the baseball bat, and some chose to focus on the gap.

The infected kept coming one after the other. The rate of infected being killed decreased when the dead bodies blocked the others from crawling through.

After eight waves, the front row had become exhausted. Fortunately, most of them leveled up, except for Alex.

Jun received two stat points as a reward for his subordinates leveling up. He managed to invite Bernard and Gina into his faction. He tried inviting more, but he received a prompt that the number of direct subordinates has already reached the limit.

He put all of his newly earned points into power since he's trying to reach the requirement for the Ogre's Club, which needs 20 points in power.

The three stepped back and swapped roles with the support team; Jamie, Kareen, and Ester.

Having looted a lot of bodies and after being exposed to the gory scene, they did well on their first wave.

After a few minutes of head bashing, they finally level up. The clattering outside was also noticeably weaker compared to before. There were only two pairs of legs that firmly knocked on the shutters instead of crawling through the gap.

"Congratulations." Jun smiled at them. "You guys are now officially members of my group."

Jun looked everyone in their eyes and declared, "There's only one leader here, and that's me! You'll follow whatever I say! Whatever I tell you to do!"

"And in return, I'll make sure that you stay alive."

It wasn't a grand speech that can move people's feelings,s but it achieved what it was meant to do. After experiencing how fighting an infected felt, that deal sounds good enough for them.

"Go back and loot everything inside; food and water are the top priority. Sheila, go with them and teach them how to use the menu screen", Jun said.

The newborn survivors felt excitement and exhaustion take over their bodies. They happily followed Sheila into the store's display area.

When the group was a distance away, Jun waved for Adrian to come closer.

"Follow them. Listen to their conversations."

Adrian stepped back and didn't reply. In the next second, he was gone.

Jun was a bit surprised. He searched for him with furrowed brows. After focusing hard, he found Adrian walking along the walls.

The clattering outside reminded him of the threat out.

"Are you ready?" Jun said to Edward, then shifted his body sidewards as he took a batting stance.

Edward nodded, and a thin protective aura covered his hands. He squatted down and held the shutter, then pushed it all the way to top.

The two infected who were hitting the shutters fell forward after hitting thin air.

Jun took advantage of this and killed the infected nearest to him.

Edward chose to punch the infected to death.

A familiar feeling came from inside him, and it spread evenly on his body.

[You leveled up!]

[You received two stat points.]

Jun opened his character panel and unhesitatingly added two points to power. He noticed that most of his skills have leveled up, and one actually evolved.

[Jun Reyes][Profession - Thug][Level - 2]

[Health - 150][Energy - 100]

[Title - Thug Life]

[Power - 15][Endurance - 6][Speed - 5][Wits - 4][Cunning - 5][Charm - 6]

[Stat Points - 0]

[Trait]

-[Brave]

-[Iron Guts]

-[Strong]

[Skills]

-[Threaten - Lvl.2]

[Description] The user's voice becomes threatening, reducing the enemy's overall stats by 25%. Drains 11 energy upon activation and 6 energy for every minute it was continuously active.

-[Rob - Lvl.2]

[Description] Gain a 50% chance to take 6 random items from the targets dimensional storage. If the user's strength is three times higher than the target, Daylight Robbery is activated. When Daylight Robbery activates, the user can choose 6 items to take instead. The target becomes immune to the skill for 24 hours. Drains 10 energy when used.

-[Execute - Lvl.2]

[Description] Gain a 12% chance to instantly kill the target when you land a critical hit on a vital area.

-[Melee Weapon Mastery - Lvl.1]

[Description] Gain 20% damage when using a melee weapon.

- [Blueprint Creation - Lvl.1]