"Whew…"
Leo rubbed his temples again. His head finally felt a little better, but it was burning hot now. It was obvious—this was a side effect of that skill book.
"I'm not going to end up with a shortened lifespan, am I…?"
He was a bit worried. But even so, if given the chance again, he wouldn't hesitate to use it.
The reason was simple: now, as long as he closed his eyes, he could easily sense the direction of the wind around him and objects within a three-meter radius.
The feeling was incredibly strange—and the greater the movement, the easier it was to detect.
Of course, it wasn't omnipotent. To be precise, he'd only just learned the skill. It merely allowed him to vaguely sense that something was nearby, or that something was approaching quickly. When he closed his eyes and focused, his perception sharpened.
But it was still blurry—more of a feeling than clear information.
Leo didn't know how much this skill amplified someone like Kelly, who already had extremely sharp senses. But for him, it was enormous.
He could clearly feel that after learning this skill, his reactions had become faster—especially when he closed his eyes and concentrated. His reflexes improved even more.
If he put skill points into Agility now, his speed would probably become quite impressive.
But all of this came from the Seven Days to Die system—which meant others could obtain it too, and likely become far stronger than him.
That thought left Leo feeling rather gloomy. He couldn't help but open his system panel.
"So… what exactly is my built-in cheat even good for?"
His system felt almost useless. Aside from telling him this was a struggle for dimensional control, it didn't explain anything else.
And of his two skills, "Seven Days to Die World: Dimension Lord" clearly belonged to this world.
"As for Endless Traverser… who knows where that even comes from. It's useful, sure, but right now it's basically useless."
Yet—
Level: 1
Seven Days to Die World: Dimension Lord (32%)
Endless Traverser Lv.1 (35%)
Energy: 495
"It's already at 32%, but I don't feel anything at all. And what's with this Level 1? How do I even level this up? If it's through killing monsters, then why didn't I level up even once after killing so many zombies?"
Leo stared at the Dimension Lord progress bar, clicking his tongue. All he'd done was survive zombie hordes—did that really count as exploring the dimension?
Or was this world, just as he suspected, one that kept ramping up in difficulty?
And that Level 1 bothered him even more. He had no idea how to raise it. But he had a strong feeling that once he managed to increase that level, he'd finally obtain the extraordinary power he longed for.
"What a pile of mysteries…"
Shaking his head, Leo stopped thinking about it and looked toward Kelly.
Watching her pull out one absurd item after another from the loot bags, Leo genuinely envied her luck. But if Kelly didn't have that level of luck, she probably wouldn't have survived the lawless zones of her own world in the first place.
He stopped watching her treasure-hunting act and walked toward where Tsunade was.
When Leo found her, Tsunade was forging structures around their base using steel pillars and system blocks. She wasn't adding anything to the already well-developed floating house. Instead, about five meters beyond its perimeter, she was building a tall wall to encircle their home.
This was something only Tsunade could do so easily—because she didn't need to worry about falling.
She worked fast. By the time Leo arrived, she'd already set up the system framework. All that remained was slotting steel pillars into place, forming a dense fortress. It wouldn't completely stop a sea of zombies, but it would delay them from reaching their faces and buy precious time.
Seeing Leo arrive, Tsunade stopped and jumped down beside him. Pointing at the trader's territory—where system blocks couldn't exist—she explained her plan.
"I'm planning to use brute force to hammer steel plates over there later, extend it all the way to the trader's land, and cover everything in one go. That way, zombies won't be able to pile directly onto the floating house. The psychological pressure will be much lower, and the defenses will be a lot sturdier. We won't have to worry about direct attacks from above."
She sounded a bit emotional. Just days ago, she'd been terrified the house might collapse… and honestly, everyone else had been worried too. This was her way of fixing that problem.
She'd also repaired the underground tunnel that had been dug through before—this time sealing it off entirely.
In her design, zombies would have to dig through three layers of steel plates before they could threaten either the floating house or the newly prepared underground defenses.
"Yeah. Thanks. No one knows what we'll face next time."
Leo nodded as he looked at the foundation she'd built. But just as he was about to say more, a sensation he'd never felt before suddenly enveloped his entire body.
Danger!
Leo reacted instantly, turning toward the source of that ominous feeling. In the next moment, he saw a vulture—its skin stripped bare, feathers gone—charging straight at him, its sharp talons aiming for his eyes!
Almost instinctively, Leo pulled a machine gun from his inventory and shredded the vulture into bloody pulp.
But it wasn't over.
In the distance, he clearly saw a massive shadow rising from the forest and moving toward them.
Even the clouds on the horizon looked wrong.
After zombie hordes—now vulture hordes?!
Without hesitation, Leo hoisted the limp Tsunade onto his back and shouted to the side.
"Kelly, get back here! Enemy attack!"
He sprinted toward the entrance of their floating house with Tsunade on his back. Just as he was about to put her inside and rush out to support Kelly, the roar of an engine suddenly thundered behind him.
Before he could react, Kelly soared past him on a motorcycle.
Yes—a motorcycle.
Leo saw it clearly: a wasteland-style bike straight out of a mad-max nightmare.
Wait—where did you even get that?!
Leo stared in shock. The next second, Kelly landed ahead of him, pulled out two machine guns, and sprayed bullets behind Leo's back. He didn't even need to look to know—a swarm of vultures was incoming.
"Get inside!"
Kelly covered Leo as he carried Tsunade into the house and slammed the door shut. Leo quickly set Tsunade down and rushed to block the firing slit—
Only to see a red meteor crash down not far away.
From it emerged a panting Rias, along with a completely flustered Lux.
And following them—
Countless zombie vulture monsters.
It was obvious.
Rias had brought trouble with her—and had come asking for help.