Although everyone didn't understand what was going on, they joined forces to push the shelves together to block the entrance. Making sure there was no gap to completely separate it from the outside.
After finishing, one man who had just run back breathed a sigh of relief, the other two also sat down on the ground from exhaustion.
"Mr. Yaka, what's going on?" The middle-aged man asked the man who had just run back.
The man named Yaka continued to pant for a few breaths before responding to that question.
"We found a bunch of monsters, a lot of them.." His voice was slightly trembling.
"…How much…?" The middle-aged man also trembled as he asked again.
"Not sure exactly but at least over twenty."
"What?!" The other three shouted at the same time.
"Shut up! Do you want to die?" Yaka shouted.
The four of them then fell silent, no one said anything more but everyone was focused on observing the movements outside.
After a while of confirming that there was no noise outside, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. At this time, another man in the group who had just run back noticed Ruminas's new appearance.
"Oh, new person again?"
"Mr. Kazin, this is the girl who saved us."
"Oh…" Kazin narrowed his eyes as he observed Ruminas.
Meanwhile, she was also observing them, the Yaka man was also middle-aged but his body was still very strong, he held an iron rod in his hand. As for Kazin, he was a bit younger but there was something about him that made Ruminas feel uncomfortable.
Especially that look.
Yaka stood up and walked in front of Ruminas and introduced himself: "Hello, I am Yaka Ojisin, just call me Yaka, and this is Kazin and Hama" Yaka introduced himself and pointed to the man and woman next to him respectively.
"We've been here for a while now, we're always looking for more people to join so it's nice to meet you," Yaka said, holding out his hand.
"Ruminas," she said, but did not extend her hand in response.
"As for these three people, we just met them not long ago. They said someone saved them but they were surrounded by monsters, so we went to check it out, and ended up discovering another group of monsters approaching."
Ruminas nodded.
"Hey girl, where are you from? How old are you?" Kazin asked.
Ruminas frowned, indeed that tone and face were what she didn't like about this guy, but since she might have to stay here temporarily, she still reluctantly responded.
"In a remote countryside, I don't even remember my birthday," Ruminas replied.
"Oh, how pitiful. You stay here, I will protect you."
Kazin spoke but Ruminas did not reply.
Yaka forced a smile and added: "There are quite a lot of monsters outside for now, so if you're not in a hurry, you can stay here. We still have enough food for everyone anyway."
"Thank you," Ruminas said.
"Alright, everyone take a break. You never know when monsters will come, so keep your physical condition at its best," Yaka said and left.
The others also chose a seat for themselves, Ruminas sat in a corner near the entrance, for her this position was the most convenient for running away in case of an emergency.
Although there was no problem cooperating with those people, ever since the apocalypse came, Ruminas had developed a heightened sense of caution towards everything, so she couldn't easily entrust her back to someone else.
While she was resting, the woman and the young man she had saved came over and sat next to her. They took the initiative to start a conversation.
"Hello, I didn't have time to properly thank you for saving my life. I'm Sousei, this is my son – Akira" The woman said and turned to signal the young man.
The young man nodded in response but didn't really care.
Ruminas also nodded back, she had already said her name earlier. Other than that, she had nothing to say about herself.
After the introduction, Sousei looked at Ruminas for a moment and then asked softly, "Have you been fighting monsters for long?"
Ruminas paused for a moment before replying, "It's been a while."
The answer is short but doesn't give too much away.
"So you've been surviving alone all this time?"
Ruminas did not reply, but only nodded slightly. She had no interest in talking about herself, nor did she feel the need to.
Sousei was silent for a moment, seemingly thinking about something. Finally, she said softly, "Thank you for saving us. If it weren't for you, we might have died."
Ruminas didn't react much, just shrugged as if it was no big deal.
Akira, who had been silent until now, suddenly spoke up: "How many monsters have you killed?"
Ruminas raised an eyebrow at him. The question was quite strange, but it seemed Akira was genuinely interested in it.
"Not counting," she replied simply.
Akira looked at her for a moment and then smiled faintly: "Oh... I thought someone as good as you would have a specific number."
Ruminas didn't react to the gentle taunt. She just looked at Akira for a moment and then looked away.
The conversation ended when Sousei and her mother were called back by the man who was with them. Ruminas glanced over. They were saying something but it seemed like they didn't want her to know so they left her sight.
Ruminas also ignored it.
She started to doze off a bit but kept the knife in her hand and kept herself from falling completely asleep.
When it was midnight, Ruminas was awakened by a slight noise coming from inside the supermarket. She immediately stood up and was on high alert, not excluding the possibility that a monster had sneaked in here, so she decided to go check it out.
Ruminas began to move her slow steps, when she came to a turn she saw the three people she had saved sleeping next to each other. She did not go closer but chose another direction.
Ruminas finally determined that the sound was coming from inside the storage room, and the closer she got, the louder the sound became. But just as Ruminas was about to open the door, a hand was placed on her shoulder.
Ruminas reflexively turned around and swept across, but the other person quickly dodged it.
It's Yaka.
He didn't say anything but just signaled for her to go somewhere else to talk. Ruminas realized it was someone so she lowered her guard and followed him to a further corner.
"Don't mind what's in there," Yaka said curtly.
"What is that?" Ruminas asked back out of curiosity.
"Do you really want to know?" Yaka asked again, but his voice was a bit hesitant.
Ruminas nodded slightly.
Yaka sighed and said, "It's Kazin and Hama, they're doing 'it'. This has happened many times before so you just have to get used to it."
"What?!" In the darkness, Ruminas' face unconsciously turned slightly red, she didn't think they could still do that in the current situation.
Yaka shrugged. "It's just a normal physiological need. The world has changed, but people can't change that fast."
Ruminas nodded.
She was about to go back to rest but was suddenly called back by Yaka.
"I'm planning to check outside again tomorrow. I heard you're quite good at fighting, so can I come along?"
"Going out?" Ruminas thought to himself.
Well, since she also wanted to see how many monsters were outside, she nodded slightly and continued walking forward.
The next morning, as dim light filtered through the dusty windows of the supermarket, Ruminas was ready. She stood near the entrance, still clutching the knife, waiting for Yaka to arrive.
He appeared shortly afterwards, still looking serious as usual.
Before leaving he turned back to ask the others but everyone was avoiding him, even his two teammates Kazin and Hama were silent. Perhaps they really didn't like going out.
Yaka didn't say anything more but just turned to look at Ruminas and asked: "Ready?"
"Yeah," Ruminas nodded.
The two quickly opened a small gap between the shelves blocking the door so they could slip out without making a loud noise. Once outside, they gently closed the gap, ensuring that if anything happened, the monsters wouldn't be able to easily rush in.
The air outside was heavier than yesterday. A thin layer of fog covered everything, making it difficult to see far.
"Which direction shall we move?" Ruminas asked.
"Go around this floor first. If anything unusual happens, we'll come back immediately." Yaka replied.
Ruminas nodded, and the two of them began to move forward.
The first floor was completely quiet so they continued up to the second floor of this place.
The second floor was also just a pile of rubble, although Ruminas had never been up here before, it was not difficult to imagine these things. The second floor was also empty and they continued up to the third and fourth floors.
"This is the top floor," said Yaka.
But when they reached the fourth floor, the smell of blood hit them, making them much more alert. The smell of blood wasn't too strong, indicating that not many people had died here, but a few faint sounds echoed in the rubble from afar.
"I've never been to this fourth floor before so I didn't know there were still monsters up here…" Yaka said.
Ruminas did not reply but only slowly moved closer.
If there's a monster in here, it needs to be dealt with quickly or it might call more of its allies.
The two slowly approached and although they tried not to make any noise, on the way Yaka accidentally stepped on a piece of glass causing it to crack.
Immediately, a parasite rushed out from within the rubble.
Yaka firmly held the iron rod in his hand and swung it forward, sending the monster flying. At that moment, Ruminas also rushed forward, a stab to the heart finished it off.
[Receive: 20 EXP, 1 monster skin]
"You reacted quickly," Yaka breathed a sigh of relief.
But before they could relax, noises rang out from around them, both of them quickly picked up their weapons and were alert everywhere.
From the ruins began to come out parasites but luckily no chaos ones.
"Stage one parasites, 14 of them," Ruminas said softly.
"Do you know what they are?" Yaka asked again.
"I happened to be told by someone else," Ruminas chose to lie.
"So do you know what the weakness is?" Yaka asked without any doubt.
"Heart and Fire"
"Okay"
The two of them leaned back against each other, facing the monsters surrounding them. Ruminas took advantage of the moment when Yaka wasn't paying attention to drink a small mouthful of black blood.
That's enough for this bunch.
Her spirit was slightly lifted, looking forward to this battle.