“What!? You can’t be thinking of keeping it all to yourself!” The woman who was standing beside the man was enraged. She did not want to lose a source of food that could feed her child.

“Look, we do not want a confrontation, but we will not give up anything that will allow me and those I am protecting to live. As you can see, we are five. You are three. We need more resources than you do. Just because we are claiming this store does not mean you can not do the same elsewhere. But if you want to fight over this store, then we do not mind fighting it out. Even if you have a system, we already did not start on fairgrounds.” Ricky had a feeling humans did not get any special abilities when they got their system. He was making a wild guess, but he always trusted his gut in situations like these.

He got a skill called enhanced strength. While he needed to level it, it was still something that boosted his strength by quite a bit. Everyone here had one special ability or two that came with their evolution. If those who did not evolve got more than just the system, Ricky felt that it would be a bit unfair since the evolution process was very painful to go through.

The man took Ricky’s words as a threat. To him, the meaning was that the former humans were stronger and outnumber them. While even if this was a bluff, the man understood that there was no way that he and his family could win against the five of them. He gritted his teeth and snorted before saying: “We are going. But do not think just because you all evolved into monsters, that you are any better than those things out there. As you know from being a former human, humans have always prevailed.” 

“Think what you want. We do not think we are any better than we were before. But since you are giving up, we will be on our way.” Ricky did not care for the cold glare the man gave him. He felt bad for the child since if they do not get food, he will end up suffering but…. He looked at Desaray and the other three kids in his care and took a deep breath. He had four lives here to protect. He could not protect the world.

“Dad….” Desaray held her father’s hand. She could feel that he was not feeling too good at this time.

As Desaray and the rest walked away. The man and his wife stared at them with eyes filled with hate. “Tom, what do we do? If we can not find a few sources of food to stick into these inventory things, we are screwed!”

“We will just have to rummage through the buildings. I doubt they searched them all. My guess is after the messages; they went straight to the closest store. But don’t get me wrong. If I cross paths with them or any monster that was once human, I will get my revenge once I am stronger.” The man, named Tom, clenched his fists. He knew he could not take all five of those people on. If they did have special skills that he, as a human, did not have, he knew fighting would mean death. “Let’s go.”

When Desaray and the rest arrived at the store, Desaray did a quick check to make sure no one was inside. They did not want to get ambushed or anything. “Clear.” 

After announcing that the place was clear, Desaray climb in through the broken window and was quickly followed by the others. “Take everything. Even if we can not use it, take it. If the inventory does not let items spoil, we can maybe use them to trade later on. A pack of cigarettes or even pills from the pharmacy might be used for trading for other items later on.” 

Desaray was trying to think far ahead in the future. She had no doubts that even after the landscape changed or even when more monsters began to show up again that colonies of survivors would begin to pop up, and there would be some form of currency system in place. Whether it was bartering or something else, she did not know. Right now, she only wanted to prepare for that time, just in case. 

“My side is clear!” Becky yelled out. This was followed by everyone else as well. Ricky was in charge of the alcohol sections and pharmacy. While the kids, Desaray, and her friends took everything else.

“Let’s head to the park then. We can build a shelter and wait out the last of the changes. Maybe we will get a chance to kill a few monsters as well.” Desaray knew that besides securing food resources, that leveling was another thing they had to concentrate on. If they did not wish to be killed or forced to give up their items, they would need the strength to protect it all. She did not wish for anyone she cared about to be harmed.

With the store now cleaned out, the group crossed 5th Avenue and entered the park near the terrace. They had to find a spot that was not filled too much with debris and claim it as their own. Desaray had suggested that they set up a place using the debris to form a barrier as a means of creating some protection from others during this time. When the system said the terrain would change, she did not know what would happen. But if the so-called monster camps appeared right next to them, they needed a way to defend themselves. It was also good to have a barrier to protect themselves from other survivors as well.