Hans walked upstairs and tried his best to ignore the gruesome scenes on Floors 1 - 4. After a while, he made his way back to his room and had Kenji stand on the side.
As he opened his refrigerator, the problem of food supplies entered his mind.
"Right, we already secured the apartment building. Time to get all that food stored in each apartment unit's refrigerator or those small cold storage units."
His food supplies weren't plentiful, and he reckoned the other units didn't have much either. Ordering takeout was the normal way of eating food, and most felt that cooking wasted a lot of time.
Hans, however, developed the habit of cooking his own food, albeit splurging on energy drinks occasionally.
He picked up a chicken egg, some rice, oil, a few seasonings, garlic, and an onion.
Beside him, Kenji watched as his master cooked an egg fried rice, savoring the sweet aroma that permeated the room.
If the zombies were actually hungry foodies searching for food, they would've banged on Hans's door a long time ago.
The stove was turned off soon after, and Hans had himself a great meal. As he drove spoon after spoon into his mouth, countless thoughts surged in his head.
"There's no survivor in this apartment, apparently..." he was unsure if he felt good or bad about it. "The situation of the other floors are abnormal as well..."
"Ah, I wasn't there when the apocalypse started. Maybe people really did panic, and the residents of this apartment were unlucky."
He was looking forward to exploring the rest of the apartments and clearing them out.
The thoughts of expanding his area and moving into the city weren't on the scope of his agenda. Yet.
His unit count was too low, and the city had population in the millions. One loud gunfire in a small area could literally amass thousands of zombies at once.
"Even if there is a platoon of conscripts one-shotting zombies every day, it would take a very long time to clear 10 million of them..."
Hans clicked his tongue and shook his head.
"Clear these buildings, establish a simple base, invite survivors, train more units, rank up, and unlock the War Factory before things become a little worrying..."
Amidst his thoughts, the tupperware full of egg fried rice was now empty, his spoon thumping on it. His eyes rested on the tupperware, and reminded Hans of his mother. His family.
"I wonder how mom and dad are doing now..." he lay back on the wooden chair languidly, about to take a nap.
At that moment, a knock on the door woke him from his lethargic state, forcing him to prop up and fix his face.
"Who is it?"
"Commander, it is Conscript Adam, sir," the voice on the other side replied.
"Oh?" Hans raised his eyebrow, wondering if Adam had come upstairs because of that. "Come in."
The doorknob turned, and Adam went inside. On both his hands were two large sports bags bending on the sides.
"Commander, we have gathered most of the valuable materials we could find, but we are unsure if everything inside can be used."
Hans squinted at their haul, wondering if the people living in this apartment were just too damn rich or if there was something else in play.
"It's okay. Leave it at the couch. I will open it later." Hans waved his hands.
Adam nodded and put the two sports bags on the couch, making the accessories inside clang in response.
"Is there anything else?" Hans asked.
Adam turned and faced Hans, "Alexei and Selene has noticed a bunch of people waving a red flag in one of the apartment buildings."
"Hmm?" Hans perked up.
The thought that there were really survivors around excited him. They even looked friendly.
Probably.
However, being cautious was still Hans's way of doing things. He tapped the wooden dining table repeatedly with his eyes closed.
Adam and Kenji waited for a minute before Hans opened his eyes and spoke.
"Adam, find a way to reply to those people. It doesn't matter if they signal back to us or not. I will train a scout and an attack dog later to check things out."
Adam thumped his chest with his right hand and bowed, "Will do, Commander. Are there any more orders?"
"Block most of the first floor's windows and glasses with something. We do not want others peeking inside easily. Leave the entrance door free, and have four conscripts take guard duty every eight hours."
Adam nodded, waiting for Hans to continue.
"The rest of the team will collect food stored in the refrigerators and cold storage units. Make sure to wash their hands first and sanitize them properly. I do not want to be infected by careless handling of things. That is all, you may go now."
Adam bowed and left the room, his footsteps echoing down the hallway.
Hans picked up his plate and utensils, washed them, put them back in their container, and wiped his hands clean.
Now, it was time to reap the spoils of war, looking at the two sports bags with greed and malice in his eyes.
Kenji furrowed his brows, finding this exact scene too familiar, but he couldn't remember when and where.
Countless conversion prompts rang inside Hans's mind as he watched the jewelry inside the bag vanish every second. Most of them were silver, mostly ornamental in nature. Gold and diamonds were in the few, with gold barely reaching four hundred grams in total, and diamonds even fewer.
After a while, the ringing stopped. He glanced at the first sports bag and noticed a few objects lying in there, not accommodated by the system's conversion.
"That's too bad then. These products are probably defective..."
Though disappointed, Hans also noted that the system could detect whether jewelry was genuine or not. When trading with survivors later, he could gain leverage against those who were deceitful in their approach.
"Continue with the conversion!" Hans put the first bag aside and swooped into the second one. Seconds later, the conversions stopped.
Hans looked at his Gold resources, unsurprised about the skyrocketing gain.
[ Gold: 40 (+1781) -> 1821 ]
With gold overflowing his treasury, Hans did not hesitate and trained an Attack Dog and a Scout.
[ Gold: 1821 (-1600) -> 221 ]
The Attack Dog took eight minutes to be trained. Once done, a dog strutted in, head held high. Its thick golden and black fur glimmered under the light. The intense beastial aura it emitted alerted Kenji and Hans.
It loudly barked at Hans and sat down, waggling its tail while sticking its tongue out. On its neck was a dog tag inscribed with its name. The dog wore a flexible black vest that boosted protection but didn't hinder its movement.
Hans approached the dog, kneeling in front of it and petting it with great affection.
"Good boy, what's your name, huh?" he lightly pulled the dogtag and read. "So your name is Rex, goody boy?"
Rex barked then licked Hans's face. The Commander was fond of such pets, having a few smaller ones back in their house.
A nostalgic feeling indeed...
The two played around for a while and Hans couldn't ask for a much better troop than this dog.
Before he drowned in happiness, Rex stopped licking his face and looked toward the door. The shadow of a man moved through the corridors, barely letting any sound reach Hans's ears. If not for the fact that Rex turned around, or that it was his new troop on the move, Hans felt that he would have been killed without knowing how he died.
What a sneaky and dangerous fellow! That was his initial expression, far surpassing his expectations of this new troop by a huge margin.
He stood up, and patted the dog's head, "Rex, sit on the side."
Rex woofed and followed his instructions.
Hans faced his newly trained scout unit, waiting for the introduction.
"Scout Dmitri Volkov."
The scout unit wore a tight and fitting black fabric, with a few thin paddings on their elbows and knees for protection. The rucksack on his back was large, yet the rustling sound was minimal.
What felt most impressive to Hans was that this scout carried a few grenades, three of them! One he could identify as the fragmentation grenade, a small but deadly armament against zombies.
He viewed the scout's interface to see more information about it.
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Name: Dmitri Volkov
Unit: Scout
Tier: 0
Star Promotion: 0 - 0 / 3000
Primary Weapon: MP7A1 Submachine Gun (4.6 x 30mm, integrally suppressed, 30-round magazine, 2 magazines, 150-meter effective range, ammo refreshes every 24 hours)
Secondary Weapon: Suppressed P226 pistol (9 mm, 15 rounds per magazine, 2 magazines)
Melee: Combat Knife (black coated 18 cm steel blade, indestructible)
Grenades: 1 frag grenade, 1 smoke grenade, 1 flashbang grenade (all refreshes every 48 hours)
Special Tools: Lockpick kit, Mini-explosive charge (1kg, breaching only, refreshes every 48 hours), Compact binocular-rangefinder hybrid, fiber-optic inspection camera, Night-vision Goggles
Attachment: Integrated optic + laser module (toggleable IR beam).
Personal Kit: Lightweight tactical pack, 1.5-day field ration (refreshes every 8 hours), 1.5-liter polymer flask (refreshes every 8 hours)
Uniform: Stealth-weave fatigues with adaptive surface camo (reduces visibility by 20% in bright areas, increases to 80% effectiveness in dark areas); soft-tread composite soles for silent movement; soft cap with bone-conduction comms and night-vision monocle; compact med-patch kit, climbing rope (15 meters), and multi-tool wrist module.
Driving Proficiency: Can operate most land vehicles (jeeps, trucks, APCs, light IFVs, and tanks), small boats, simple helicopters, and planes; cannot pilot complicated aircraft or heavy armor.
Trait: Cat Reflexes (+20% reaction speed, +10% movement speed, +10% accuracy)
Remarks: Gateway to special forces units. An extremely well-rounded special forces troop that has high accuracy and mobility. It can conduct reconnaissance, assassination, and infiltration with utmost efficiency. Bad at handling large swathes of enemies.
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