I drew a wiggly line in the south corner of the map and wrote a big S under it. Then crashed back into the chair as I looked at the map.

Where the heck did that giant snake come from?

It must have wandered in from somewhere. From my observation for the past few days the weaker ones get either killed by the stronger or driven out of the city, and the stronger ones, tend to go closer to the center. Don’t know why they do that though.

So, the current status quo was extremely static and ever-changing, as it had only been a few weeks since this new environment was created.

But the real problem is whether I can go back or not?

Even if a massive snake blocked the way, the monkeys that were located past it were the only ones against who I stood a reasonable chance. Essentially, my stepping stone towards becoming stronger.

And the biggest reason was. That I had to pick up the gun that I dropped there. Even if I had only a limited amount of bullets left, that thing was still my strongest weapon, I couldn’t afford to lose it now. Especially in fear of danger as small as encountering a wandering giant snake. There were more things as dangerous as that in these areas, and I might as well not go out if I stop in fear of the slight chance I encounter it again.

Well, now that, that’s decided, the question is how to win against those apes.

I only have 2 knives left. One large kitchen knife and a smaller one. It would have been a lot better if I had enough projectiles to snipe them to my heart’s content. Can I use anything else?

I thought of any alternative for a long minute, then my eyes widened in realization and facepalmed myself.

My god. I really am stupid. Why am I throwing away good knives when there are plenty of things that can be thrown all around me.

I sighed. From the massive oversights to the many mistakes that I made and the things I could have done to prevent them. I was starting to think that I might not as be as smart as I thought I was.

Or worse, dumb.

No matter. I can just prepare to compensate for all the mishaps I might make later.

Realizing that I was getting side-tracked, I brought my thoughts back on track. Now that long-range is dealt with, the next was getting a proper weapon. My hammer that barely went past 15 cm did not hold at all in the monkey fight and it would especially not hold in the upcoming one. I needed a better weapon.

The good news was that I could get a little creative and use a lot more unconventional weapons than normal because of my vitality. So, I searched the house for anything long, thick, and preferably was top-heavy as a substitute for my hammer.

And after scouring the house a few times, I dropped in defeat into the chair again. Except for using a broken leg of a chair and attaching something to the end, there really wasn’t anything like that in this house. And I couldn’t depend on a risky weapon that might break on the times when I was not using vitality.

Maybe I wasn’t being creative enough. I thought as I eyed the piano that was sitting in the living room, or more specifically, its stand.

I walked closer to the piano and broke the stand away from its feet and which resulted in a long rod that had a bulb of metal at the end. Kind of like a Morningstar, without the small spikes in it.

That’ll do. I thought as I smiled and swung it around as practice.

The next day, I woke up feeling energetic and refreshed. I exercised lightly and stretched to prepare for the activity for the later part of the day.

30 minutes later, I was sneaking towards the ruined location with a kitchen knife, my new weapon, and an empty holster strapped to my sides.

I had to take a minor detour, away from the last place I saw the giant snake in, so it took a little longer to reach back to the place in question. But I reached the place regardless, without encountering the giant snake. One problem down, I guess.

I walked even more warily as I entered the ruined location, for anything they might have set up for me, or for any ambush they might have. They did not.

I reached the half-constructed building with no event. The stairs towards the second floor were littered with cement rocks and pieces but had no bodies and or gun.

I sighed. Of course, they took it. They saw me killing 2 of them with it. They must be curious about it and what it can do.

Either that or they took it because it looked shiny. It didn’t change what I was about to do, anyway.

Another 20 minutes later, I stood in the same vantage spot as yesterday as I looked down to see the monkeys again; they looked to be less in numbers than before.

I looked towards the one room in the half-demolished building that still had a roof on it, which blocked my view.

From the fact that I couldn’t see any injured monkeys after they were mortally, or at least seriously wounded from the falling rocks, told me where the rest of them were.

I picked up one of the solid rocks that I’ve gathered next to me and placed myself in a throwing position.

Time for round two!

And threw the rock as hard as I could towards the ape that was resting peacefully. The solid rock strengthened enough to be as hard as a bowling ball, crashed into the sleeping monkey’s head, crushing it.

The rest of the monkeys went ape shit from the sudden and death of their comrades, but this time, instead of looking around aimlessly for the cause, their eyes went directly to me. And I stayed in my position as I smiled at them challengingly instead of hiding like last time.

They rushed towards the building I was on, intending to kill me once and for all while I stayed and pelleted them with rocks, but this time without vitality. I was going to be needing those.

Even without strengthening, the rocks did plenty of damage on their own, because, well... they were rocks. And I managed to whittle down the oncoming lively monkeys into half-injured bleeding monkeys by the time they reached the building.

Just as I lost vision of them as they ran inside the construction, I ran towards the stairs where there were barrels and a lot of concrete rocks piled upon a steel bench, waiting for them.

I lifted one side of the bench, making it drop onto the stairs as soon as they started climbing up. Dropping heck load of rocks that I’ve collected that were on top of the bench. They tried to dodge the incoming landslide by latching on to the pipes on the sides, except for that one stupid ape, but the slippery wet varnish that I applied caused them to not have any purchase on the poles and brought them right back into the stairs as the rocks collided with them.

This time, no one was spared, as each one of them ate a mouthful of rocks as they fell to the bottom of the stairs. But I didn’t give them any fighting chance as I rolled down the heavy barrel next, crashing down into the already unconscious and injured monkeys.

I felt a river of energy flowing inside of me after the barrel crash-landed, but I rolled the next barrel I prepared as well, for safety measures.

Just as I was about to drop it on them, I was suddenly yanked forcefully from behind. I almost fell to the floor but stayed my balance as an onslaught of fists rained upon me.

My hands raised to my face as I tried to defend myself, but it was grabbed by one hand of my assailant, with the other slamming into my eye.

My vision blurred and went up in contrast as I saw images in white as if hit by a flashbang. But I could feel another first coming up.

In a moment of clarity, I evoked vitality and kicked him off. Feeling the empowered kick sink into his stomach as he flew off.

I saw a slightly larger monkey with an injury on its shoulder down on the ground. Didn’t he die from the snake?

I ran towards him to finish him off as my body swayed sideways, smashing into the ground.

Noticing the extent of how damaged I was, I walked on all four towards my pole as the monkey slammed both its fists into my head.

My face smashed into the ground from the force, but I felt the familiar cold surface in my palm. And swung the pole in my hand as I turned around. Smashing the thick ball part right on its head.

I saw the ape’s tooth fly off as his jaw came down, hanging loosely along with his blood. I got up as I dropped the half-aware monkey off my body and slammed the weapon again, this time for good, as I felt the energy flow into me.

I breathed hard as my head was dizzy from all the fists I ate. I gave myself a moment to stay upright and abruptly fell to my rear.

I breathed hard as I stared at the monkey’s corpse.

Where did he come from?

My eyes wandered to the scaffolding that was behind me. Right. He must have climbed it from the first floor, knowing that I was prepared for them. Smart little shit.

It was a pleasant reminder that you were not the only one who was learning from the previous experience.

I laid down, as my skull started to hurt even worse now that adrenaline was wearing off. I closed my eyes from the dizziness, feeling sick and tired and the next moment I woke up much later, the sun already meeting the earth’s horizon as red painted the sky along with the auroras.

I got up groggily from the worst headache ever; the weapon trailing behind me as I went towards the crash site of barrels and rocks. Some of them were crushed to death, while others seemed unconscious or heavily injured.

I lifted the discount Morningstar and slammed it on the unconscious monkey’s head.

10 minutes later, though dead tired from repeatedly smashing each of their heads, I was filled with a sense of accomplishment and a lot of souls.

Now all that’s needed is to find my gun. And I already had an idea where it was.

I walked towards the monkey’s base. It was empty, as its inhabitants were all killed, but there was a dark room at the end of the building.

I entered the room with my weapon ready for another fight, in case there was another creature like the mother owl but instead, my eyes saw a gathering of injured monkeys that were either unconscious or injured enough to not be a threat, lying on the ground.

And at the end of the room were a few infant monkeys who were cradled in the arms of some injured ape.

One of the slightly able monkeys stood up and started screaming at me in an effort to intimidate me. But my mind was not on him.

My mind thought slowly and coldly, in contrast to the shouting outside.

There were as much as injured ones inside the room as I just killed just now. My reward was essentially doubled effortlessly from this.

But…. it felt really wrong for me to go through this.

The monkey that was screaming at me didn’t move an inch from his spot. Instead, was guarding the youngling’s behind him from me.

But. Do I have the Leasure and affordance to not kill them?

Every creature had offspring. That was obvious. Just because it was directly shown to my face doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t go through with what I had to do.

This now was already a dog eat dogs world. If I wanted to survive, I would have to kill. If I left these guys unharmed, just because they tugged my heartstrings, would I go on without killing any other creatures?

No, I wanted to live. And I had to kill to live in this world now.

But even still. I seriously considering leaving them be. But another thought slammed onto me.

Just because I was in a position where the result of my actions would be shown right in front of my face?

That would be the same as protesting when people killed a chicken in front of me but happily eating KFC back at home. Hypocritical.

The creatures in the mart. I mean, weren’t they basically infants? Do I just not kill these guys just because they appear more human-like or cute? And murder the babies of other creatures because they did not meet the standard of tugging my heartstrings?

If I don’t kill them, I might as well not have killed the monkeys that are lying dead in the building behind me. And I might as well not kill anything else.

I breathed hard as my morals tugged me from two sides, and the screaming monkey was not helping it.

But after a moment, my wavering eyes stilled, turning resolute. And the ball of iron crashed into the screaming monkey’s face.

The effect was instantaneous. The injured ones who were too weak and who could only observe, recoiled back in fear, into the corner of the walls, in efforts to be unnoticeable. I walked towards one who was lying on the ground with a big wound on its face and crushed its head.

I walked closer to the next one. Who could only scream in despair and smashed its face into the wall as well. The injured ones, seeing that I was bent on killing them all, mustered up whatever strength they had to resist as they attacked me, but I crushed the half-dead opponents with vitality turned on.

After the massacre, only the infant monkeys were left, covering in the corner from the human who barged into their home and killed their kins.

I went towards them as I thought of why I was even doing this.

Was my life even worth it?

I raised the top-heavy weapon to smash its face as I looked into their fearful eyes. They almost looked like normal baby apes you see in zoos or enclosures. In fact, they looked identical and indistinguishable from them.

I stared at their fear-stricken eyes as I held their metaphorical executioner’s axe upon their head. Their eyes looked so innocent and pure. But to stop here would again be hypocritical of me. They had lost their parents and protection and would die regardless of whether I do this or not.

This might even be kinder for them, rather than starving to death.

I kept my weapon raised above as it trembled with hesitation and indecisiveness. And walked out of the closed room, a hypocrite.

I stared at the dipping sun and sighed.

Then noticed the implications of the dipping sun and sighed again. Can’t go back now. It was already hitting night; I don’t want to find out what roams in these places during those time, especially when I couldn’t even see them.

The smart choice would be to camp here or rather hide in some hole and wait for the next day.

With that thought, I walked towards the building for finding a place to sleep, as my mind fumbled with what I was really wanted to do in this new world.