"I didn't expect that Ms. Hazel would survive."
Arriving in time to behold the silhouette of Ms. Hazel, Jerome, who was moving limply, couldn't help but utter with emotion, not expecting the other party to survive the trial.
"This—where is your stuff? You didn't pack anything?"
Seeing the other party walking out from the first room of the first floor, Naib noticed that the other party wasn't holding any item in his hands, eliciting confusion on his face.
"Er... I put all of my items inside the inventory. You can do it just by imagining the items entering the space within the inventory."
Hearing this, Naib hurriedly followed Jerome's words.
Sure enough, upon imagining the items in his hands entering his inventory, the items he was holding suddenly turned into sparks of light, flickering in front of him before embedding deep between his brows, vanishing within as the items mysteriously appeared inside his inventory—filling 1/5 of the space in an instant.
"Indeed, how convenient. It could save us a lot of time."
At the same time, while Naib was praising the panel's feature, Hans also appeared above the staircase.
Holding a wooden crutch in his hands, Hans approached the two below, giving the item in his hand to Jerome before facing Naib beside him.
"So, where are we going next? There are still 18 hours before the next trial starts... Why not rest first, then ponder about the trial that we are going to choose in the last 6 hours?"
Speaking those words, Hans couldn't help but glance at the wounded thigh of Jerome, unable to understand why Naib was insisting on them moving despite the unfavorable state of his brother.
"People are smart; some of them probably already looted the groceries and drugstores by now. If we don't move, it will be too late for us.
"Moreover, I really don't want for Jerome to follow us, considering his injuries, but..."
Scanning the still dark surroundings and gazing at the empty shrine in the distance, Naib then continued.
"Leaving him here alone to rest might not be a good idea."
Having no idea how many abominations are outside right now, freely roaming the land and looking for flesh to consume, Naib wasn't willing to leave Jerome here alone.
As for letting Hans accompany the latter while he scavenged around, that thought never crossed his mind yet, since he still hasn't trusted the latter.
Moreover, with Hans' intelligence, Naib knew that the other party would surely join trials to increase his strength; hence, letting the other party watch Jerome while he was gone wouldn't work.
Henceforth, he could only make Jerome suffer a little bit by forcing him to follow them.
Although it might be hard for Jerome to move right now, probably even worsening his condition, staying here and waiting for his injuries to heal wasn't an option either.
Without participating in the trials to take the rewards, the panel could give as much as possible; surviving further would surely be difficult.
In addition to that, even though joining trials right now would put Jerome at risk, with him around, he could at least protect the other party.
"Let's go to the nearest drugstore first to bandage your wounds, and after that, go to the nearest shop to look for food."
"The nearest shop... You're talking about the grocery store 1.2 kilometers away? The one with a trial difficulty at Low-F grade?"
In an instant, upon hearing Naib's words, Hans immediately asked, remembering the trial related to the place that he had seen in the quest tab earlier.
If that's really the case, then bringing the injured Jerome to the place would be feasible.
Having experienced the strength of the "Tsanak," he could already assume the difficulty they would face if they encountered a Low-F grade entity.
Although it's risky, the trial should be within their capabilities.
In fact, Hans even believed that if they were careful enough, they could even accomplish the trial without sustaining any injuries.
"Yes, that one."
"I see, then going there isn't a problem."
With that, the three finally start advancing toward the exit of the abandoned school, only for their mood to drop upon seeing the scene of the outside world.
On their way, they encountered corpses scattered throughout the place; some bodies were either drained of their blood or their innards were missing... However, the most disturbing thing was that, in their lifeless faces, all corpses showed fear at various levels.
Even their dull eyes still have lingering traces of despair on them, greatly affecting the group that was moving forward.
Fortunately, other than the corpses, the group also encountered humans on their way; their goal was also similar to theirs, as they could see them heading toward the trials specified within the panel.
Luckily, other than greeting each other or glancing their way, no problem arises when encountering other people.
It could be said that on the first day of the apocalypse, people's morality was still relatively intact.
But despite this, Naib knew that it was only a matter of time before chaos unfolded amidst humans. If authorities didn't show up in a few days to enforce basic rules, it's bound that human desires would again take control of some humans' minds.
Consuming their morality, allowing the real devil to descend into their hearts.
Soon, while Naib was consumed by his thoughts, the group finally arrived at the nearest drugstore after walking for 20 minutes.
Seeing the intact lock on the roller shutter, a testament that no one had entered the place, Naib couldn't help but heave a sigh of relief.
"Do you two have items that could destroy the lock..."
"Here, take this."
Not even finishing speaking, Naib saw a sparkle of light materialize on Hans' hand, followed by the sudden appearance of a 3 kg hammer, instantly causing the eyes of the two to enlarge.
"What are you two looking at? I took the hammer from Mang Ernes's place, who happened to be a carpenter; hence, he has lots of items in his place that could be used as a weapon.
"Oh, right, the crutch that Jerome is using right now came from the disabled on the fourth floor — I planned to steal the crutch earlier but ended up bartering it for canned foods since the latter was still alive."