By the time Allen and the co. reached his house, dusk had already fallen.

He carried the bag of canned cola and snacks that they picked up at a shop on the way. Opening the gate, they made their way over to his house.

Allen’s house is a small house design considering its area but still functions as a complete house.

With its simple roof configuration, this type of house offers simplicity not only from the outside but also from the interior.

The patio is in average size which accommodates some visitors. The Main entrance opens to an open ended living room all the way to the combined dining and kitchen.

2 Bedrooms which one of them can serve as a master’s bedroom and can accommodate a queen size bed and built-in cabinets. The other bedroom was a bit smaller and is located at the rear right of the house.

These 2 rooms shared a common toilet and bath.

It was certainly a common ordinary house for two people.

The door opened without any noise, as it had been well maintained.

“I'm back...”

Allen said while entering the empty house.

It sure is boring coming home to an empty house.

Unexpectedly, the thought of Allen’s sister crossed his mind.

It was a sight he would always see when he came home up until a few years ago when her sister was enlisted to Manila by her sister’s company. Although reluctant to part, his sister endured because of high pay.

The money was enough for Allen’s school fees so she reluctantly decided to accept the company’s offer.

Allen took off his shoes by the entrance followed then by the girls behind him. They passed by the kitchen and entered the inner room. With the lights off, the room was dark and quiet.

“That's pretty unusual.”

Allen put the bag he was carrying in a corner of the room and turned on the lights. Despite the light, the room was still silent.

“I'll make some food.”

After removing her shoes by the entrance, Aileen went to the kitchen and reached out to an apron hanging on the wall. This was originally owned by Allen’s sister but now, Aileen who lived here since yesterday use it whenever she’s in the kitchen.

Although she seemed eager to cook, actually it was in fact just instant noodles.

--- ---

Allen noticed his whole body covered with sweat. Obviously, as by how he walks around all day long and even sometimes fought against monsters along the way, his body would certainly be covered in sticky sweat.

Although he was hungry, he decided to take a bath first as to clean his body before eating. Feeling the sticky sweat really does not feel better.

After a short bath, Allen proceeded to the kitchen.

There, he found Aileen in apron accompanied by Alicia bustling about.

“Dinners done~”

“Uhm, let’s eat then….”

Regarding eating a meal, Allen was never picky. The food is what matters to people, whatever it was. When hungry must eat, this is the instinct.

Without hesitation, he took his own bowl. Raising the fork, he took several strands of noodles with egg and forced it on his mouth directly.

Hot yet held sweet taste.

Fine, elegantly simple, delicious, and suitably hot.

Aileen stared at Allen for a moment before digging in her own food. Scooping some soup for herself, she was appeased after praising herself silently of how invincible her culinary skills were.

--- no, don’t be misled! It was still instant noodles!!

Aileen enjoyed her own bowl and seeing how Allen liked her food so much, she was pleased.

Look how talented I am, father just doesn’t understand it!

This is art!

Looking at Allen and Alicia enjoying their food, she couldn’t help but show a smiling face as she also carries the bowl in her mouth and chews carefully.

--- I repeat. It’s just instant noodles!!!

Inside the small house, the three youth was eating with peace and harmony, completely disregarding the crazy situation outside.

--- ---

After Aileen and Alicia fell asleep, Allen walks out from his room and then went out of the house while carrying his backpack.

The destination is the graveyard not far away.

It was .5km northwest of Allen’s house. It was a large graveyard and because of the Apocalypse, it was now filled with undead such as skeletons and zombies from Lv1 to Lv2. Although from Allen’s memories, there seemed to be Lv3 or 4 undead elite and Lv5 undying king.

But the undying king shouldn’t appear right now. Unlike before, I came early this time! Its appearance should be tomorrow night or maybe on the sixth day.

Allen didn’t ride any bike or car as to not alarm the monsters around and could only run with his feet.

However, his speed at this moment was no less than that of riding a car.

If anyone saw Allen, they would surely notice his abnormal speed. Allen could easily run past bicycles. And a car couldn't quite lose Allen. His running speed at this time was far above 20 kilometers per hour.

In fact, this kind of speed was possible for an athletic person to run like this for a short time. But running continuously for a long time without dropping such speed is certainly impossible. Allen could do this only because of his level up!

After a while, Allen finally managed to arrive at his destination.

Graveyard.

Before him was a place covered in darkness and was totally and completely horrifying with crow sounds flying everywhere akin to a horror movie.

Even for a returner like me, who survive countless life and death battles, being deep inside this kind of place is really eerie.

The graves were quite decayed. Cracks could be found and even long vines encircled the grave stones.

The whole place was filled with a foul stench that could make anyone with a weak stomach vomit.

I remember when I was still a child; I used to come here to play especially on Halloween. But now, it was already a very dangerous place.

Although it was certainly properly maintained by the people living near here because of the Apocalypse, it transformed this place into something like this.

– The entire graveyard was decayed.

It’s now a place for the dead who came back to life to roam now.

Even the trees only held crows and no leaves, while black clouds hung over the sky adding more horror flavor into this place.

As Allen stand in front of the graveyard, things that looked like people started crawling out of the ground.

–Zombies.

There were even some skeletons holding some sticks crawling with a ‘kara kara’ sounds.

--- ---

Looking at the incoming monsters, Allen shifted to his combat stance.

Undead won’t stop moving until they’re close enough to attack. And zombies, in particular, were fortunately very slow.

One zombie arrived in front of Allen and lunges at him. While watching the strike, Allen dodges the attack completely.

For some reason, he was confident that he could avoid the attack from the beginning. The opponent’s movement although strong was still slow and he could see it very clearly.

Allen bends his body downwards and swipes at the zombie’s feet. Without holding back he drives a fist into its body, causing it to fall on its back.

“uugghh…!”

Pointing his gun, Allen shot its head.

The undead monsters, especially zombies possess a fatal weakness and that was their heads. Because it was based on stories especially movies, zombies, once struck in the head will certainly die. Though that is only for normal zombies~

Up ahead was a group of four zombies slowly coming towards Allen.

Hm, I guess this is the best time to try it out.

Instead of using his gun, Allen put it back on its holster and raised his hand, pointing towards the group of monsters. He opened his palm and said, “Explosion!”

[ Explosion ] his newly acquired skill.

He didn’t have time to try it before because of fear in involving unrelated people and might cause unexpected trouble. But with only the zombies around here, it should be a good time to try it out.

As soon as Allen finished chanting the skill’s name, he immediately felt as if the space in front of him started distorting.

Although it wasn’t quite clear, he just felt it.

2 seconds…

‘Zi Zi Zi’ Allen then felt some chill followed by a faint ringing sounds like those produced by mosquitoes.

4 seconds…

BOOOM!!! A heat wave was suddenly created and the place around the four zombies suddenly exploded!

This explosion had blown the zombies' bodies around. It was even strong enough to leave a small crater on the ground.

“…Sure enough, it’s strong.” Allen softly muttered. It was really unexpected; the zombies became lumps in an instant just from one attack.

Looking at the splattered zombies on the ground, he said, “…it’s more or less compressing gas.”

Allen’s skill [ Explosion ] was a skill capable of compressing the gas around its target and suddenly releasing, creating an explosion just like a concussion grenade but without the smell and only the blast.

“Besides, its lethality was quite low if it isn’t a direct hit” … seeing that the zombies four to five meters from the target were still alive, although crawling pathetically, Allen concluded.

He suddenly felt fatigue surging on his body.

“…And one more thing, this skill’s consumption isn’t half-assed. From the feeling I got, I think I could only use it two to three times in a day if I couldn’t replenish my stamina.”

From what I know, active skills like this consumed the [ Mind ] stats. Seeing that I should’ve 2.4 points in [ Mind ], probably 0.8 to 1 was the skills usage.

Except for the [ Skill Replication ] which didn’t cost anything, I have only 2 active skills; [ Beetle Buzz]and [ Explosion ] and these skills cost quite a high amount of [ Mind ] points.

I guess I need to find a way to increase my [ Mind ] Stats…

Finishing analyzing his new skill, Allen once again took his gun and resumed his hunt.

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