It took the survivors a few seconds to comprehend what Shaw just said, and when they did, they exploded in a storm of objections.

“You’re crazy!”

“Without using guns? How are we going to defend ourselves? By punching those monsters out there?”

“Everyone! Listen to what she’s saying!” This was the old religious woman again. She had always been whispering words of objection, but this was when she seized the opportunity and raised her voice to address all the survivors. “She wants to trick us! Fool us into being killed by the monsters outside! The servants of the Devil! This is proof! She is an agent of the Devil herself!”

“Oh my god…” Shaw growled in frustration. This time, she was truly pissed off. Come on, woman! Use your brain for once and think about this! For most of her years, she had been dealing with players who have comprehended and adapted to what was going on in the world. She had rarely encountered deniers who refused to believe that this game was happening or simply refused to follow the rules. After all, these deniers died off really quickly. “Fine! Then what do you think we should do instead?”

As the survivors turned to her, the woman closed her eyes and touched her metal trinket.

“Pray. As long as we pray to the Lord, He will protect us.”

Some of the other survivors coughed in surprise. Others turned away in frustration. Even they were starting to see how stupid the woman’s argument was. Just as they were about to return to the issue, Shaw suddenly charged forward in what could only be described as a blur. She was fast, too fast for the survivors all around her to even follow. The next thing Emily and the others knew was that Shaw had grabbed onto the woman by the collar and smashed her back into a wall. The woman choked, but that didn't stop Shaw from slowly raising her by the collar. A silver sword formed in her right hand.

“You think your god will protect you?” She said with a tone darker than anything the survivors had ever heard from her. With horrified eyes, they watched as Shaw’s sword came closer and closer to the old woman’s neck. “Go on. Pray. Pray as hard as you can, and let’s see if any Angel will come down from the Heavens and strike me down!”

The other survivors stumbled back as far from the conflict as possible. A few men thought of intervening but changed their minds when they remembered how fast Shaw was and what she was holding onto. Even the two officers were a little hesitant in stepping in. Finally, it was Emily who raised her weapon once again.

“Shaw! Let her go!”

Shaw stood there for a few more seconds and watched as fear filled the old woman’s eyes. Finally, she let out one last chuckle.

“Hmmm...quite an Angel indeed.”

She dropped the old woman to the ground and turned back to the survivors, mainly Emily.

“Look. What you’re going to do now is completely your choice. You can choose to hold out here for a while, but there is little potential for fortification here. If you stay, your fate is sealed. Once the NPCs level up enough or you run out of bullets, you die. All of you.” She glanced around the room. “Or, you can head for your precinct now. I will do whatever I can to help you on the way. You can melee the enemies or you can shoot them. Honestly, what you do is irrelevant to me.”

She turned the Silver Sword in her hand.

“Your choice.”

In the end, the survivors still decided to take their chances on the road. As much as Shaw’s methods terrified them, many of the survivors realized that she had a point. Plus, she promised to offer them some help. Given how fast she was...that should make the trip safer? Right?

The old woman didn't say anything else after narrowly surviving death, but judging from the way she looked at Shaw, it was clear she wasn’t feeling like letting this go. Shaw saw it, but she knew this old woman posed no threat to her the same way a sheep could never threaten a lion.

As the survivors started heading out of the door, Shaw tapped her chest again and quickly swapped to the mission interface.

Congratulations, player! You have completed an Optional Mission!

Congratulations, player! You have received 1 Disposable Attribute Point!

That was followed by a new reminder.

Optional Mission detected!

Optional Mission: Escort the Survivors to the Police Precinct

Reward: +2 Disposable Attribute Points + 1/10 Disposable Attribute Point per survivor, rounded up

Unknown Reward if 10 or more survivors reach the Police Precinct

Note: Survivors: (26 / 26)

This set of messages brought a smile onto Shaw’s grim face. It seemed like her time wasted talking to these survivors was in fact more than well spent.

When she first noticed the survivors held up in the McDonald’s, her interest in them was...limited, to say the least. Once again, talking to the survivors this early on in the game was a waste of precious time. Time that she could've spent leveling up and getting ahead. That mindset changed when she noticed an optional mission that showed up on her interface.

Again, the missions offered to the players, especially the optional missions, were random and of great variety. Some missions involved terminating certain NPCs. Other missions took fellow survivors and players into consideration. In most cases, these were escort missions, not that it was considered to be lucky for those being escorted. After all, missions were dangerous, and only rarely would an escort mission end with the entire escorted party surviving.

The mission Shaw was offered at first was simply for her to talk to the survivors. It was an easy task with little danger, but it also had next to no reward. In reality, this mission led to another mission whose details depended on what the survivors did. If the survivors chose to fortify the McDonald’s, maybe the optional mission would be protecting them for a day. If that was the case, Shaw would’ve simply left.

Either way, at this point, she was offered a rather sweet reward for protecting these people. If even one of them reached the precinct in one piece, she would receive 2 DAPs. If they all arrived intact, she would get 3 extra points and an unknown reward. This reward could be anything. A weapon. A piece of equipment. An ability. Anything.

As the last of the survivors left the McDonald’s, Shaw recollected her thoughts and focused her attention on these people. Once the mission was over, these people's life and death would matter little to her, but as of now, she would make sure as many of them arrive at their destination alive as possible.

Shaw’s Silver Sword cleaved through the belly of an orc. She quickly dodged to the side and avoided the sea of blood and gore that landed on the spot she was just standing at.

NPCs tended to take up different forms across the world. For example, the monsters in this part of the world were mostly made up of fantasy creatures like skeletons, goblins, orcs, and so on. Of course, there were still elements of ancient soldiers or bugs. Shaw knew from her memories that California was infested by entire armies of Roman legionnaires while New York was filled with Greek themed NPCs. She didn't know if that was just a sick joke by the Developers or if there was actually some meaning behind this.

Ever since the group left the relative safety of the McDonald’s five minutes ago, they have been constantly running into the NPCs that have infested the city. Shaw, as always, led the charge and attracted most of the attention of the enemies. The three officers moved to the side of the group, taking out NPCs that were coming in from the flanks with their firearms.

Up until now, things have been going relatively well. Most NPCs automatically went after Shaw, and Shaw made sure she was the last person they ever launch themselves at. The officers, with the help of the handguns, were enough to handle the low-level monsters coming at them without taking any injuries.

This brought some relief to the survivors, but many of them still remembered what happened less than an hour ago. Back then, things were going equally well until one particular tough monster attacked them. Once that happened, everything went from well to hell.

Much to Shaw’s disappointment, the others still refrained from taking the monsters in hand to hand combat. Then again, from what she remembered, Emily would eventually start her own journey of leveling up. She just hoped her intervention didn't change the young officer's journey to power.

This march continued for two more minutes. For two full minutes, the group moved on without taking any casualties. The officers were still firing, and the survivors were still moving. Finally, as she glanced at the men and women behind her once again, Shaw decided to do something that many would call reckless. Then again, it was for their own good.

When a trio of goblins came her way, she intercepted them, as expected. However, this time, after cutting two of the goblins apart, she grabbed onto the third goblin, raised it up, yanked away the dagger it was holding onto, and suddenly tossed it in Emily’s direction.

The young officer was clearly caught by surprise. She saw the tiny green thing coming at her, but it was too late for her to get out of the way. Following a slight yelp of surprise, she was hit in the face by the goblin and fell on her back. Her handgun flipped out of her hand.

The goblin was, in a sense, equally surprised by what happened, but when it hit Emily and brought her to the ground, its instincts took over. Before Emily could fight back, the goblin swiped its tiny green nails across Emily’s face in an effort to injure her. The nails didn't do any real damage, but what they did accomplish was leave several bloody trails across Emily’s previously flawless face.

The officer cried out in surprise as the survivors all around her stumbled back in fear. Not a single one of them thought to try to help the young woman who had protected them this entire time. In their mind, it was Emily’s responsibility as a police officer to risk her life to protect them, and for them to do the same for her would simply be stupid. After all, they were just civilians.

The other officers tried to help, but they couldn’t fire for fear of friendly fire, and when they thought of taking the hideous green beast by hand, they couldn’t help but hesitate a little.

Shaw simply stood by and watched in silence. She knew that if Emily was still at level 0 by the end of the day, she might as well be doomed. After tonight, most of the monsters would at least be level 2 or 3. The young woman might never become the valkyrie she was in Shaw's last life. It would just be very unfortunate to see such potential wasted, especially since Shaw suspected it was her intervention here that led to this. In the end, Shaw made up her mind and decided to force Emily's hands.

Finally, feeling the pain over her face, Emily’s anger overcame her surprise and her fear, and she grabbed onto the goblin and tossed it against the ground. The collision stunned the goblin a little, and Emily took the opportunity, drew her baton from her belt, and smashed it repeatedly against the tiny green creature on the ground until it was no longer moving.

And then, the invisible interface popped up in front of her.

As the officer's eyes stared forward and the other survivors looked at each other in confusion, Shaw tilted her head and smiled.