Chương 116: Apocalyptic Existentialism

When the last batch of zombies was lured right in front of Claire and Zoe, Bruno looked as if he had finally completed his life's mission. He staggered two more steps before collapsing heavily into a pile of zombie corpses. It wasn't until Claire and the others finished wiping out the remainder of the horde that they realized the man was completely unconscious. The wounds on his right arm and left foot had split wide open, but his blood had almost run dry. The ground was littered with bodies and slick with gore.

It was impossible to tell which blood belonged to the zombies and which belonged to Bruno.

"Zoe, Seth, you two keep watch. Make sure there aren't any stragglers nearby..." Claire crouched next to Bruno, pulled a vial of potion from her pocket, and jammed the injector right into his neck! Hiss— As the liquid injected, his entire body jolted violently. Once the potion began to take effect, his shallow, ragged breathing finally started to steady... This was what Vince had instructed her to do over the comms just moments ago.

"Hit him with a stim first. I'll be right there," he had said. Claire looked at Bruno lying in the dirt—battered, bloody, and barely clinging to life. A pang of sympathy rippled through her. Even though this guy had shown up out of nowhere, he had genuinely helped them wipe out the horde. Right up until the very end, he had kept running circles around the "Moving Castle" as bait. Had her decision been the right one?

If she had let him in right away, the four of them could have faced the zombies together, or simply hidden and waited for Vince to return... But the moment that thought surfaced, she frowned and ruthlessly squashed it. Sure, she could wait for Vince. But what if Vince was in danger? Who was he supposed to wait for? Claire had to make a call right then and there. That was the responsibility Vince had entrusted to her before they set out.

In emergencies, everyone had the autonomy to act, but if the overall tactical plan needed adjusting, she was the one calling the shots for the squad. This was Vince's trust in her, and she hadn't let him down. By utilizing Bruno, they had eradicated the final wave of the horde, and the entire team had even gained a decent chunk of stats from the kills... But the price might just be this man's life. Claire's expression turned bitter.

Almost murmuring to herself, she asked Zoe, who was busy poking at a dead zombie with her spear, "Zoe, tell me... why would he be willing to pay such a steep price to trust a bunch of strangers?"

"Because he has a working brain. It's not about being willing; he knew he didn't have a choice..." Zoe was still seriously pondering the philosophy of it all when Vince's voice rang out from behind them. The second Zoe heard his voice, her train of thought instantly derailed. She spun around, only to see a completely blood-drenched Vince.

"Dage! You're hurt?!" Hearing Vince's initial comment, Claire hadn't even had a second to process it before Zoe's alarmed shout made her heart leap into her throat. She immediately stood up and turned to face him.

"Don't be dramatic. It's just zombie blood..." Vince looked like absolute hell, but the gore was entirely from combat splatter and from gutting a beast for its Crystal. He had taken a minor hit, but his HP was fine. Vince closed the distance in a few strides. Looking down at the unconscious Bruno, he said, "He's survived this long because, aside from pure luck, he's smart. He knows how to play his hand... He runs when he has to, he fights when he has to, and he gambles when it's the only play left."

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. Bruno's HP bar had plummeted from over eighty when he first started kiting the zombies, down to barely twenty. If Vince hadn't ordered Claire to hit him with the stim, the guy probably would have bled out right here in the dirt. But as the potion kicked in, his vitals visibly stabilized.

The twenty-something Energy points he had passively recovered over the last few minutes began to slowly tick down, converting directly into HP... In just twenty seconds, his HP climbed back past forty, right as his Energy bar bottomed out at zero again. What a god-tier survival skill... Vince stared at Bruno. The Wild Potion hadn't just boosted his HP regen; it had accelerated his Energy recovery as well.

He just wasn't sure if this 'Mana-to-HP' conversion was an active skill, or a passive mechanic triggered by low health. The only difference was that this time, the Energy purely replenished his HP without triggering that berserker-like, unconscious fugue state he had entered earlier.

"What skill?" Claire asked, looking confused as she stared at Bruno and overheard Vince's muttering. Vince didn't answer directly. Instead, he silently checked their Status readouts. After grinding out the last thirty or forty zombies, their Max HP caps had each bumped up by a dozen points or so. Bruno's massive kiting lap had pulled in a lot of stragglers from the outer perimeter. The residential compound was basically wiped clean of mobs now.

"Nothing. This guy's vitality is cockroach-tier. He's stabilized. He won't die, don't worry..." Saying that, he reached out, took Claire's hand, and gently massaged it.

"Does it hurt?" Vince had noticed it earlier. From gripping her spear so tightly for so long without daring to relax for even a split second, her hands had cramped into a stiff, awkward claw. As he massaged the tense muscles and tendons, she furrowed her brow slightly.

"It doesn't hurt... just a bit numb..." Claire shook her head. Feeling the warmth from his hands, the ironclad resolve in her eyes finally began to melt, revealing a trace of vulnerability and uncertainty.

"Earlier..." She proceeded to recount everything that had happened and the exact thought process behind her tactical decisions. Once she finished, she looked up, her voice wavering.

"I don't know if I made the right call..." Vince didn't give her a direct answer. He just gently pressed her hand against his cheek. When he spoke, his tone was soft, but absolute.

"In this world, there is no objective right or wrong."

"Since the day I woke up, I've been making non-stop decisions. Whether it's about you, about the zombies, or about mutated monsters. And honestly? Half the time, I have no clue if I'm right or wrong."

"But I do know one thing. The split-second I make a choice, it's driven by a specific goal I need to achieve."

"If my goal is survival, then I only look at the end result. If I live, my choice was right. If I die, I was wrong."

"So, you just need to look at the result right now and ask yourself if it matches what you wanted."

"You, her, him. You're all breathing. Hell, even he's breathing," Vince said, pointing at Bruno in the dirt.

"As for whether it was 'right' or 'wrong,' that's a judgment only you can make." Seeing that Claire still looked a little conflicted, Vince made a mental note to dig up some military strategy books for her to read once they got back to base... Right then, Zoe shuffled over, pouting dramatically as she shoved her hands practically into Vince's face.

"Dage, my hands are numb too..."

"Go find a tree and practice your gorilla impressions on it."

"Claire, Zoe, you two head back first. Wash up and grab something to eat. I still have a few things to take care of out here. I'll be back shortly." Vince looked at the two girls. Even though their Max HP had scaled up considerably, they were visibly exhausted. It was time for them to rest. Almost all the stray mobs on this half of the compound had been cleared out. The kill count far exceeded the grinding quota he had set for them this morning. They had overachieved.

"Don't just stand around here. Go home, eat, and rest. We might have other activities planned for the afternoon, so get moving." Claire really was dead on her feet. With their objective complete, the adrenaline crashed. She lost that fierce, battle-ready posture, her eyelids drooping heavily. Just tens of minutes ago, all she wanted was to finish the grind and go home. But now that it was actually over, she felt a weird, inexplicable reluctance to leave... But hearing Vince's order, she didn't argue.

"O... Okay then. Zoe..." Zoe had a bit more energy left than Claire, but not by much. Hearing her name, she naturally hooked her arm through Claire's. Waving goodbye to Vince, the two of them headed toward the stairwell of their building. Seth, who had been quietly double-checking the corpses for any surviving zombies, saw the girls leaving. He walked over to Vince and spoke up carefully, "Vince, Claire and Zoe bagged way more kills than I did. I still have stamina left. Let me stay and help out..."

"You're sure you're not tired?... Alright, fine. You're an Awakened now anyway. There are still a few crippled zombies over there. Go finish them off. We've got more work to do when you get back." Since Seth was volunteering, Vince didn't mind. The guy really had secured far fewer kills than Claire, so Vince figured he'd let him farm a bit more free EXP. Watching the two women disappear into the stairwell, Seth gripped his spear and headed toward the remaining stragglers.

Vince pulled out his walkie-talkie, switched the frequency channel, and held down the button.

"Ben, it's Vince... You busy?"