Nile was descending the stairs from the 3rd floor when he heard a faint rustle underneath.

Nile guessed that the commotion may have come from the underground floor. Well, it was quite obvious. He had already ‘cleaned’ up the entire Kanor Department Store, including the surrounding area. No zombies would appear in this place in a short amount of time.

So the only thing left that might have caused the rustle under him were the people that were foraging for some food. And it was not a coincidence that the foods were displayed on the underground floor.

He could also count on the possibility of some animals that are also scavenging for food. All in all, that would still come on the underground floor.

Nile felt it strange though, he did not see any animals since the day he transmigrated here. Well, can maggots be considered as animals?

When Nile heard the commotion under him, an imaginary light bulb lit up inside his head.

“Let’s scare them a ‘little’ bit.” He said while smirking.

Nile peeked on the underground floor and found that there were seven people in total. Three of them were holding a flashlight whilst the remaining four followed behind them. He could not determine their actual gender or appearance as they are far from him and the flashlight’s light ray only targeted the surrounding area. But based on the silhouettes, all of them must be a ‘He’.

He returned to the appliances area and carried some fragile appliances before returning.

Nile then decided to wait on the stairs leading underground.

After a while, Nile noticed that the seven men were heading towards his direction. Their arrangement was like a pyramid. 1-2-4. The three men holding the flashlight occupied the 1-2 position while the 4 at the back were pushing some kind of trolleys or shopping carts.

When they are nearing the stairs, Nile throws a led light bulb three meters beside him. The noise of the light bulb shattering certainly reached his target’s ears as the man in front suddenly halted. This caused a chain reaction and the people behind him stumbled on his back.

Nile felt amused by this scene.

He then threw a mini microwave oven, and the sound definitely reached their ears. Two men hugged each other and the four at the back inched closer towards the front. He then heard the flustered voice of the man in front.

“Wh..who is that?”

“Pfft. Hahahaha” Nile could not hold his laughter anymore and laugh out loud.

…

Ombit and the others upon hearing the laughter realized that they just got pranked. Although two of them had already reached Level One°, the unknown is still the most terrifying.

As they calmed down a bit, Ombit pointed the flashlight towards the sound of the laughter, but because the flashlight’s battery was already weak, the light it produced did not reach Ombit’s desired target.

Ombit beckoned towards his group, and they walked towards the still laughing man. The four men pushed the shopping carts along with them.

As they got closer, the man had already stopped laughing. The three of them pointed their flashlight towards the man’s location. There, they saw someone who was wearing a shirt, hoodie and a short. Half of the man’s face was covered with a mask.

Although he was already wearing a mask, Ombit still recognized him as the young man from yesterday who literally threw him unconscious.

“Hey, isn’t it a bit rude pointing your flashlight to someone?” The young man said while sitting on the floor.

‘For fucks sake, it was even ruder to prank someone you don’t know.’ Ombit screamed inside his head. But his outward expression was still the same. He liked to act cool.

Unlike before, Ombit did not act rashly. He was afraid the scenario yesterday might repeat again for the second time if he acted rashly. History repeats itself, after all.

“Ehemm..arrhh..hemm. Might we know who you are?”

Ombit made sure that he sounded gentle and not sound rude before speaking.

But the sound he produces seems a little bit off?

…

When the seven men came close to Nile, he realized that they were the people from the Barangay Hall. Alright, two of them are the ones he knocked out yesterday.

The haughty man from yesterday is the one who spoke first and asks him who he is. The tone of his voice is a bit weird. It’s like those men broadcasters on radio that are forcefully changing their voice into a woman. It’s unpleasant and has the ability to irritate your ears.

Nile guesses that this man might be secretly an ‘otaku’ or something like that. He is basically starting to form his team on this Apocalypse World. He has his Councilor brother as his right hand and the Barangay Captain on his left. He even has the four horsemen on his back.

“It’s also rude when you ask for some information and you are not giving one.” Nile said in a haughty manner.

Well, he might have sounded haughty, but he felt that it was okay. Because the man in front of him was also haughty. So he decided to contest on who is more haughtier.

But it seemed that the man had no plans of competing towards him as he began to introduce himself and the others.

“Okay, my name is Ombit, the one on my right is my blood brother, Goryo. He was a former Councilor and the one on my left is the former VIllage Captain of Compud, Polonyo. The four at the back are the security guards of my brother.” Ombit said in his weird tone of voice.

“Man, you sounded like a wore. By the way, the name’s Nile.” Nile said while getting up. He was preparing for a handshake when he noticed that all of them back out two steps away from him.

Ombit and the other’s heave a sigh of relief. They thought that Nile would suddenly attack them again.

Nile retracted his outreached hand and glanced at the four horsemen at the back. He observed earlier that they are still carrying the shotguns they used yesterday.

Nile is quite bothered by the rusty hinge earlier. Normally it would not rust that fast, well that still depends on the material. So he asks the System about it earlier. The System ‘slapped’ him with a lengthy explanation.

Basically, it was because of the First Virus that some sort of reaction took place that made the metals rust fast. The System said that after over two months; the reaction had already matured and was already apparent in the surroundings.

Some of the metals became ‘trash’ while some became ‘gold’. The System said that all machines had become wasted. After a few more days, guns and vehicles would no longer work. Of course, just like a businessman, the System assured Nile that the products brought from the System will be exempted.

Still, the guns displayed on the System Store are not cheap at all. Nile still preferred the melee weapons, they are cheap and unlike guns, they would not produce a loud noise when used.

“Hey, are your babies still working?”

If their shotguns did still work, it means that it would not be anytime soon when he would no longer worry about his safety because of the lethality of the guns. If the shotguns no longer work, it means that he will be free of worry about the problems concerning guns in the future.