Trash In The Apocalypse

Jennie didn"t pester Jun anymore after what happened at the BES Elementary School. The curious and surprised look when Jun gazed upon her was still imprinted on the back of her mind.

She realized that the man who looked exactly like her brother wasn"t him, nor could she force him to act like him. It became enough that she could see him from afar without causing him any troubles.

The next day after the defense, she checked new missions on the Notice Board while waiting whether she could chance upon Jun, but she never saw him.

Followed by the next day, and still couldn"t have a chance encounter with him.

On the third day, she finally got an answer to her doubts. She asked a female Black Haven staff and learned that Jun left the town the day after the defense. It wasn"t that she was unlucky to not meet him, but there was actually no chance for that to happen.

That day, she dejectedly joined the Public Market Campaign and wreaked havoc all over the place. 

Jennie already had an excellent hearing ability before the apocalypse and it was magnified when everything finally started.

When she leveled up, she received Silence and Adrenaline, together with enhanced hearing as her pre-generated skills. Silence is a single target skill that prevents the target from making any kind of vocal noise.

The skill would last for ten seconds and has a one-minute cooldown. She mainly uses the skill to prevent D1"s and H1"s from creating too much noise that could possibly attract nearby hordes if they weren"t already attracted.

Adrenaline was a self-buff skill that increases Attack Damage and Speed by 10% while reducing defense by 20% for 30-seconds. It has a cooldown timer of two minutes.

During the time of transition from BES Elementary School to Black Haven Compound, Jennie did her best to improve herself overall. With her previous knowledge of self-defense, she quickly rose to fame by using daggers in close combat.

She was nicknamed "The Blur" because, by the time the enemy attack reach her, she already dashed closer for the kill.

She could weave in and out with ease and doesn"t even have to watch where she was retreating to, as if she knows where all the enemies were. It was simply because she could hear every growl, footstep, and wind movement get amplified around her.

It could not be called echolocation since she really doesn"t see what"s around her, but most likely a downgraded version of it.

She wanted Jun to see her improvement and unknowingly waiting to receive praise. Then, Jun left and she realized that they weren"t really that close since he didn"t even bid farewell to her.

Except for their brief encounter inside his room and the thrilling journey she had with him, there was nothing else. She was one-sidedly attaching herself to Jun because she felt lonely for being alive.

After the Public Market Campaign, she went to the docks to relax and feel the late afternoon breeze of the lake. She stood at the edge as she stared blankly on the skysc.r.a.pers on the other side of the lake.

"I am always alone."

"Even before this... I was always alone."

While contemplating about life, she heard a commotion from somewhere together with pitiful growling noises.

She quickly ran towards the parking lot and saw two well-equipped men whittle down a mutated dog"s stamina as they ran around in circles.

The dog"s left leg was severely injured and it was raised in the air, disabling it from getting a balanced movement. With its only right front limb used to chase after the two, the mutated dog slowly tired out.

The two were Hunters who specialize in hunting wild mutated animals. The occupation was created due to the farm mission on the Notice Board that asks Agents to catch livestock and submit them to Black Haven.

People liked the mission and the adventurous ones accepted it.

At first, she thought that the mutated dog attacked the two but realized that she was entirely wrong after hearing the two"s conversation.

"It looks like we"ll become rich for a week after this. Every part is profitable and we would surely become kings! Hahaha." said the man equipped with a short sword and a buckler s.h.i.+eld. 

"It"s thanks to your ability to ambush it, Brother Tim. If we couldn"t injure its leg, I think we wouldn"t be talking right now." said the other person as he withdrew throwing the bone spear while quickly evading the mutated dog"s charge.

Usually, Jennie would be level-headed and wouldn"t intervene, but today, after her discoveries and realizations, she became emotional

She saw herself as the dog getting bullied and mistreated just because others could. She remembered the hard times when she needed help but no one came.

The mutated dog knocked over a car and hit its injured leg on its roof causing the cut to bleed profusely.

As the mutated dog wailed pitifully, the two Hunters rejoiced. The mutated dog was extremely tired and it"s finally their time to harvest their spoils.

Just as they stood before the mutated dog, Jennie nimbly appeared behind them and quickly cast Silence on the bone spear-man. Afterward, she quickly wielded a dagger and hostaged the s.h.i.+eld-bearer, pointing the bone dagger to the man"s throat.

The silenced man became surprised and wanted to fight back but saw his friend on a tight spot. He tried speaking but no words came out of his mouth, so he just raised his hand to tell Jennie to calm down.

"I"m sorry, but what are you doing right now? Do you know that we can report you to the police? Or... I shouldn"t have said that. You won"t kill us now because I threatened you, right?" said Tim as relaxed his body. Although he knew that he could overpower the woman behind him, any unnecessary movement would only place his life in further threat.

Jennie ignored the man and glared at the other person.

"Please calm down! Ohh, I got my voice back. That was creepy, I don"t want to experience that again." the man said, then became serious. "Look, I don"t think we know each other, nor do we have grievances with each other. Can you please let my friend go before we talk?"

Jennie felt that the man"s voice was rather convincing and almost let the man named Tim loose but when she heard the labored breathing of the mutated dog, she woke herself from the skill the man used on her, Suggest.

She realized that the man used a skill on her and pushed the tip of the dagger with precision until the hostaged man"s throat bled a little.

"You"re not helping man. Don"t try to bullsh*t at times like this." Tim gnashed his teeth as he glared at his partner.

"Okay, okay." the man apologized to Tim with raised hands. "Miss, we can split the loot. We can even split it fifty-fifty. Can you just let my friend go?"

Even with his extremely fair loot distribution, the woman didn"t even seem to think about the offer. Instead, it only caused the fire in her eyes to burn more furiously.

"No?" the man dejectedly asked, then his eyes widen when the realization struck him. He observed Jennie"s expression and noticed that it wasn"t of greed but pure anger.

With a restrained chuckle, he managed to piece the puzzle and asked: "Are you the owner of the dog?"

Jennie pondered for a few seconds before she decided to cover for the dog. Otherwise, she would be claimed as a busybody and troublemaker.

"Auu!(Yes!)" she uttered and followed with a nod of her head.

Though Tim and his partner were surprised to hear the weird voice come from her, they ignored it and negotiated further.

Tim said, "Alright, alright. We apologize for hurting your dog. We understand that we"re in the wrong and would compensate you. Can we treat this matter as a misunderstanding?"

He then signaled for his partner to move away from the injured dog, which the man reluctantly followed. "See? We"re also good guys. We just thought it was a wild dog, so we tried hunting it. But now we realized our mistakes. Could you please let me go now? I promise that we would leave immediately. Please?"

Jennie could feel the sincerity from the man"s words. She circled around and now the mutated dog was on her back. Tim"s partner cautiously moved as they swapped positions.

A few seconds later, Jennie pushed Tim towards his friend.

Tim turned around after getting freed wanting to renege on his promise, but when he saw Jennie"s actual face and stance, he s.h.i.+vered.

His dimensional storage appeared as he slowly moved back towards his friend. A small ointment bottle appeared on his hand which he placed down on the floor.

"This is a new item produced by Black Haven. It"s an ointment that can slow down the bleeding. I"m sorry, this is the best that I could do."

Tim"s friend became shocked after he offered one of their life-saving items as compensation. It cost them a thousand credit for that single bottle and they"re just giving it away for free!

Before he could say anything about his displeasure, Tim quickly pulled him and they went off.

When the two were almost ten meters away, they started to quarrel in hushed voices. Unfortunately for them, Jennie just has to focus intensely and was able to eavesdrop on them.

"Why are we running away!? She"s alone with only a dagger in hand! This isn"t right! We should go back and claim what"s ours."

"Jori, do you seriously not recognize her? Although we didn"t get that deep into the horde, you must have at least seen her once, right?"

"What do you mean?" Jori turned around and stared curiously at Jennie. Then a crazed woman who fought the horde alone earlier overlapped with the innocent woman in the distance. "Holy sh*t. Let"s get out of here."

As they walked away, the two discussed animatedly and Jori even muttered something that creeped out Jennie,

"Well, don"t you think she"s quite hot?"

When the conversation turned weird, Jennie immediately stopped eavesdropping.

She stared at the small transparent bottle on the ground. There was a greenish-red paste substance inside the bottle.

Since it was already here, she might as well use it. She picked up the bottle and approached the injured mutated dog.

The mutated dog didn"t even bother to move as she sat nearby it"s bleeding left leg. It only glanced sideways with its lifeless brown eyes as if it has already given up.