Asan and Laszlo were looking at one point. There was a slight fear in their gaze, more from the unexpected appearance than from the fat man himself. His face was covered with thick eyebrows and he had a potato nose. His lips were blue and slightly trembling. Tears were welling up in the eyes of the chubby man. He was bald and not particularly handsome; usually such people are considered "negative" characters.
"Who are you, anyway?" Laszlo said, pointing his knife at the fat man.
"I... I'm Jacob" the fat man replied in a low voice.
Well, that's significant. At least now they know his name, but what is he doing here?
"What are you doing here? Were you also looking for food?" Asan asked, glancing at the swelling belly.
Sweat was running down Jacob's face. He was very nervous and greedily gulping air, trying to calm down. He was still sitting on the floor, completely unchanged in position.
"I..."
"I was hiding, from those people on the street…" — Stammered Jacob in response.
Asan nodded to himself. Hiding from them was a familiar routine, but staying in the city and not running away? Was staying in the restaurant really the best choice? Although there was water, food, and one could live for some time here. Unless, of course, one didn't consider the possibility that unexpected guests might show up at any moment; Laszlo and Asan were a clear example of that.
"Got it, my name is Laszlo, this is Asan. We came here to replenish supplies. How did you end up here?" — Said Laszlo, lowering his knife and no longer pointing it at the man.
The man immediately calmed down. He got to his feet and turned out to be rather short. If Laszlo was eight feet tall and Asan seven feet, then this chubby guy was even shorter against their backdrop. About six feet, to be precise.
He casually approached Laszlo and wanted to extend his hand to him, but after looking at the little flame, he decided to ask a question.
"I don't want to seem rude, but... Mr. Laszlo, what is this? Is this some kind of trick?" Jacob asked suspiciously, staring at the little flame Laszlo was holding.
"Uh... No, I don't think so? It's magic, are you surprised by that?" Laszlo asked, somewhat taken aback by Jacob's question. It seemed everyone should have already understood that such things now existed in the world.
Jacob stared at the little flame Laszlo was holding with undisguised interest. For Laszlo, this was more pleasant than otherwise. Meanwhile, Asan decided to continue gathering items they would take with them to the camp. From the conversation between Laszlo and Jacob, Asan realized that Jacob was slightly... odd.
As he said, he had ended up here before the system descended.
"Until that point, I worked as some kind of "independent" food taster" This caused Asan's face to break into a smirk; who would actually pay money for you to eat food? That's insane, right?
So here's what happened. When System descended, this guy hid in the kitchen, while the staff left the building through the back exit, barricading it from the outside beforehand. Because of this, he couldn't get out onto the street, being stuck inside. To verify the truth of his words, Asan went forward and indeed found an exit door in the darkness. Trying to open it, he felt strong resistance, but by pressing hard enough, the doors managed to open slightly.
If he tried really hard for about five minutes, he thought he could get out. Through the small crack in the door, the crimson light descending from the sky indicated that the barricade was made up of ordinary boxes.
If even Laszlo helps, then getting out through the back door won't be a problem at all. However, another question arose: why hadn't he tried to do this himself? Well, Jacob.
Approaching him from behind, Asan decided to ask him this question. He jumped sharply, scared like a mouse, and his stomach began to rise rapidly again. After that, there was no need for a question. He was afraid to go out into the street full of Ronnie, and that was normal. Asan had long been curious as to why he and Laszlo didn't succumb to such intense panic? Yes, he had almost died from fear, but he managed to overcome it. Ordinary people tremble at the sight of the creatures like this Jacob, so why not Asan and Laszlo?
Maybe it's because their System has been activated, or maybe they are more mentally resilient to such stressful situations?
His head hurt, and he didn't want to think about anything else.
Asan still desperately wanted to sleep, and this feeling was gnawing at his mind, not letting him concentrate on anything. Deciding to think about such matters after returning to the camp, the boy glanced once more at the dim kitchen, faintly lit by the Laszlo.
"Laszlo, how much longer will your flame last?" — He decided to ask, putting the ladle into the bag.
Jacob stood nearby, somewhat awkwardly, watching them and straining his ears.
"Huh? What are you talking about? Isn't it endless?" — He asked in surprise.
Asan looked at him just as surprised. He had guessed that when using magic, Mana was being spent, and there was no need to think about it too long. After telling Laszlo to check his characteristics, Asan saw a message pop up in front of him. Scratching his head, Laszlo finally replied.
"Here it says that I have 11 mana points left out of 30."
30? Shouldn't it be 50? Asan was surprised by this answer, maybe the starting characteristics given to everyone can be different. However, even so, Asan calculated that his mana consumption was much lower than expected; they had been stuck in this restaurant for almost 20 minutes, which made it roughly clear that his fire was using up one mana point per minute. Right! Maybe it's about how much of that internal energy he directs into his little flame?
Asan wanted to check this but time was short. Gathering everything necessary, he approached Laszlo and placed his hand on his shoulder.
"Laz, we need to move, I don't want to stay here too long."
Laszlo looked at Asan, then shifted his gaze to Jacob. Upon hearing what the boy said, he immediately asked.
"Ah... where are you going? Do you have a home?"
"Camp?" Jacob asked, nervously rubbing his pant leg with his hand.
Asan suspiciously looked at Jacob. Taking another person to the camp? Asan was already expecting dissatisfaction from the geographer for bringing only two water containers for 19 people, and with Asan and Laszlo, that makes 21? That wouldn't even last a day, but even if they threw away all the food, they could take a maximum of four containers. Twenty liters would last a day if they drank less than a liter, but ahead of them was a long journey where resources needed to be conserved as much as possible. If Asan and Laszlo had gone with someone else, it would have been much easier.
But what if this fat guy who would carry a bag of utensils and an extra water container joined them? It would be easier and better, but… Asan didn't trust him.
Who knows what to expect from a person who can run away at any moment upon seeing Ronnie. Laszlo, surprisingly, Asan was also silent, not saying a word. Perhaps he expects that exactly Asan will make this choice, whether to take him or not. After all, if they say they have a camp, there's a hundred percent chance this fat guy will want to go with them, but is it worth it?
In the end, after some thought, Asan came up with a way to solve this.
"Pick up two canteens" said Asan, looking Jacob in the face.
He looked at Asan's face somewhat bewildered but still followed the order. He had enough strength to carry them, but for how long?
"Can you carry them for about a kilometer?" asked Laszlo, apparently understanding Asan's idea.
"Y-yes! As much as you want, just get me out of here…" Jacob replied pitifully.
It's tough… Four canteens of water are much better than two.
And if you really want to, you can even take five instead of one bag of canned food. But then it will be worse. Asan for some reason thought that it would be much worse if they decided to take more water instead of canned food.
"Asan, so what?" Laszlo asked him with a thoughtful look.
Asan, taking a deep breath, finally decided to nod positively. Two buckets of water would be very useful for their camp. He also hoped that Crane and Alice would manage to get some water too. They could have not worried about food since Paul is handling that, bringing bags to the camp right now, but what if something went wrong with the grains? Asan trusted the canned food more, and besides... they were tasty, no need to hide that.
"Alright, we have a camp a kilometer from here" Asan forced out, watching Jacob's reaction.
His eyes lit up with hope.
Even without saying it, both guys already knew what he was going to ask. He had been standing there with two torches, holding them tightly in his hands.
"Th-then… Can I…" — Jacob began to say, but he was interrupted by Asan.
"Yeah, but fewer questions" the guy replied sharply.
He immediately fell silent, possibly offended by such a sharp response. Asan didn't care about his feelings; let him be grateful for this opportunity. Now the three of them headed towards the entrance to the restaurant, the option of the black exit was out of the question since the guys didn't know what could await them on the other side. Besides, the fire Laszlo was soon going to end, so they could light their way, not to mention that it might attract the attention of Ronnie.
Jacob was so happy to leave this place that he walked ahead of the two guys toward the exit.
Opening the doors from the restaurant, a sleeping Ronnie appeared before the face of a fat boy. His emaciated body trembled slightly in the bloody light. His face was lowered, but Asan suddenly got an awful premonition.
The fat guy, seeing this monster a meter away from him in the bloody light, paled.
"Y-y...y" — He started to whimper slowly.
Asan's eyes widened; his inner voice sounded the alarm that something terrible might happen if this pig squealed. He instantly dropped one bucket and a bag and grabbed Jacob by the hand. Perhaps this was a bad decision, since Jacob was also frightened by this. After which...
Jacob screamed in horror.