Chapter 10: Beginning of Preparation

I woke up seeing an unfamiliar ceiling above me. Nicholas and the rest must’ve moved me when I was unconscious.

I sat up when suddenly, the door to the room opened.

“Ah, Will, your awake!” (Anne)

“Anne, yeah. How long was I out?” (Will)

“Just a few hours. You should sleep more.” (Anne)

“I’m fine. We should get going. Michael’s family might also be in trouble.” (Will)

Shaking my head, I stubbornly chose to stand up. I groaned but there wasn’t really any pain. Probably just because of habit.

Before this apocalypse, whenever I wake up, I would always find it troublesome to get up. Blaming the sun and all that. You know, normal grumblings of a teenager.

Well, guess I’m a bit old to be considered a teenager now. But habit still stays.

Well, maybe because of that groan, Anne had a worried look on her face but I just waved at her, signaling that I’m fine.

“The others are resting in the lobby.” (Anne)

I nodded and followed Anne to where everyone is.

“Will! Should you be moving already? Just rest some more, we can go once you’re fine.” (Michael)

Towards these people that kept worrying about me, I smiled wryly, thinking that it’s nice to have such good friends.

However, I still shook my head and didn’t sleep some more.

“We should go. Your family might be in danger as well. Call them and make sure they don’t make any noise.” (Will)

Michael hesitated for a second but still did as he was told.

Though he is worried about me, I know that he is also worried about his family as well.

Next, I looked towards the unfamiliar faces.

“This is my wife and kid. Mary and Jonathan. And this is William King, now the top-ranked person in the whole world!” (Nicholas)

“Hello. Thank you for helping my husband.” (Mary)

“Wow! Uncle is so powerful!” (Jonathan)

U-uncle...am I really that old?

However, the kid didn’t seem to say it as an insult so I guess I can’t blame him. He’s still about 6 years old after all. To him, I guess I’m pretty old…

“Nice to meet you two as well.” (Will)

After chatting with them for a while, I looked towards the others who were inside the apartment building as well.

“Everyone, I think you all know who I am already but still, let me introduce myself. My name is William King. We have information that at the end of every month, there would be a wave of monsters. For now, the mall near here is where I plan to build a fortress. Hopefully, we will be able to survive the oncoming wave. To do this, I need more people. But I wouldn't force any of you to join the fight. You can choose whether you want to simply take refuge or help fight the monsters. In the mall, there are plenty of rooms and food. I won’t be forcing you to pay either. But you can’t stay idle. Other than fighting, there are still other things that one can do to help. As for what it is, there will be people in there that would help assign you to different works.” (Will)

The people went silent. I can feel that some of them are hesitating whether to go or not. Others had a determined look on their face. This kind of people will definitely be a great help in the future.

“I’ll join.”

“Me too.”

“Sigh, anyway, if there really is a monster wave, then staying outside isn’t safe. I can help cleaning or cooking, but I can’t fight. I hope you’ll let me join.”

Hearing this, I nodded and assured him.

“Don’t worry. Cooking and cleaning are still jobs that are needed. In this kind of situation, it would be bad if one were to suddenly become ill. Having a clean environment and a healthy food is a must.” (Will)

After a while, everyone decided to join in.

“Alright. We’ll make another stop in the apartment building a few blocks away from here. Then we’ll head back. Move out!” (Will)

As such, our large group moved out of the building and walked towards where Michael’s family are.

The journey was quite simple. There were only a few [Goblins] and [Treants] and no big monsters.

Those in the crowd that wanted to fight, I let them kill these monsters to gain experience.

Only when we met a new monster would I fight it first. This only happened once when we saw a rabbit-like monster.

It was a small fluffy rabbit but with spikes on its back and looked extremely ferocious.

I’ll ignore Anne’s remark about how cute it is.

After killing it, I gained a new skill thanks to [Satanic Curse]. The skill I gained was rather decent.

[Enhanced Hearing]. It’s actually a passive skill and didn’t need any mana.

As the name suggests, it enhances my hearing and I’ve already tested is as I was able to hear the small whispers of the people behind me.

Some of it was embarrassing as there were some girls who were discussing how they can sleep with me…

With a red face, I shook my head and secretly blamed the system. If only this skill wasn’t passive...I can’t even deactivate it now…

“Will? What’s wrong?” (Anne)

“Nothing! Nothing at all!” (Will)

Surprised with Anne’s sudden question, I hurriedly shook my head in denial.

Anne’s brow wrinkled and narrowed her eyes, seemingly not believing me at all.

“*Cough* Well, I’ve scouted ahead. There doesn’t seem to be any powerful monsters around here. The [Sky Dragon] must’ve had a pretty big territory and no powerful monsters dared to get near it. We should hurry up before they realize that the dragon is dead.” (Will)

Seeing me evade the question, Anne sighed and nodded as she continued to follow along.

“We’re here.” (Michael)

Michael didn’t immediately call them and instead, looked towards me for confirmation.

“Un, there’s no [Outsiders] in the building. You can call them and have everyone in the building come out as well.” (Will)

Hearing that there weren’t any dangers, Michael excitedly called his family and instructed them properly.

Without any powerful monsters, the process went smoothly and after an hour of waiting in the lobby, a few dozens of people came out.

I looked at their souls to confirm their natures.

Thankfully, none of them had black souls so they should all be decent people.

I made the same speech as before but this time, more people hesitated.

It can’t be helped. After all, they didn’t see me defeat a dragon earlier so they were pretty much unconvinced.

Seeing their hesitation, some people on my side began to excitedly tell them about the dragon incident earlier.

I sighed with a wry smile hearing their exaggerated stories.

It was already too late to stop them so I just let them do as they please.

After a while, they also agreed to join us.

Michael’s wife and daughter, Kate and Keira, happily hugged Michael at the side and also thanked me.

“Alright, let’s go!” (Will)

Heading back to the mall was also relatively safe and there were barely any people who were hurt.

Along the way, I hovered above the group so I had a full view on everyone. I have the [Overseer’s Robe] minimap but it only has a radius of 5 meters away from me so it isn’t too reliable when there’s a large group with me.

From time to time, I would also carry Jonathan and Keira with me as I flew and they would giggle non-stop all the way.

Seeing this, the three mothers, Mary, Kate, and Anne, were also smiling warmly and were releasing a motherly-like aura.

From the start, leaving the base to saving Nicholas and Michael’s family, not a single day had passed and we managed to get back to the mall by dinner time.

“Welcome home.” (Ryza)

“Will! Welcome back!” (Sam)

“It’s good that your back.” (May)

Watching the three girls all welcome me, my heart grew warm and I also smiled at them.

“I’m back.” (Will)

* * *

After coming back, I noticed there were a few more people that were isolated in another place for the time being.

I greeted them and we all added each other as friends in the [Relationships] before I let them go.

Of course, I checked whether there were any black souls among them too but as they were all fine, I let them go.

I checked in with Christine and was told that there were plenty of people who had bought earlier.

I also consulted her what to do with the dragon drops and she advised that instead of selling it. Keeping it for crafting equipment is better. Of course, I would need to find a way to craft equipment first.

“There will be a chance for it. Keep it with you for now or giving it to me for safekeeping is also fine.” (Christine)

“I can have you safe keep it?” (Will)

“Yes.” (Christine)

“...Is there a charge?” (Will)

“Do you want me to give you one?” (Christine)

“Of course not!” (Will)

“Tch- well, since you’re the store owner, it is free.” (Christine)

Oi, did she just tch-ed me? Was she actually planning on ripping me off!? What kind of clerk is this!? Oh, wait. I forgot that she’s actually an [Outsider] and a Queen of a world at that. Basically, an alien Queen…

To this weird girl, I can only sigh and shake my head many times before managing to calm myself.

I sold other miscellaneous stuff from the other monsters but it only gave me 10 Gs...well, I didn’t really kill that many small monsters…

I then asked Christine about the waves.

“Any ideas what monsters will we be up against in the first wave?” (Will)

“Hmm...not really. It’s just the first wave so there will be plenty of level 5 and below monsters. A few level 6 to 10 monsters. A probably just one more monster that’s stronger than the rest. Maybe a level 20.” (Christine)

“Alright. That’s enough.” (Will)

After which, I went back to the mall and called in Ryza, Sam, May, Brook, Michael, and Nicholas.

Sarah tagged along with Brook together with her friends, Jane and Megan.

“There’s about 20 days until the end of the month. This means we need 20 days to prepare for the oncoming monster wave. I already asked Christine but it seems the first wave will only contain at least level 20 and below. However, there is still a chance for something strong to appear. But even if there is, it will only be one and not many. The problem here is dealing with a lot of small mobs. While I can easily kill them myself, if there were too many, it will be inevitable for some to slip through me.” (Will)

The rest nodded and grew serious.

“The mall only has a few windows that let us see outside. So we need a few people on the roof to keep an eye out.” (Brook)

“We should also prepare AoE attacks like bombs or molotovs.” (Nicholas)

“We can arm a few people with guns or bows at the rooftop as well.” (Michael)

“I will look for a gunner group. I think I saw a person earlier that got a sniper as her personalized weapon. We’ll have her be one of the scouts on the rooftop.” (Ryza)

“I also saw a few traps in the store. We can buy those things first and scatter them outside the mall.” (Sam)

“Other than that. There’s a store in the mall itself that sells cameras and such. We can install CCTV cameras in the surrounding areas to monitor the situation outside.” (May)

“Oh, speaking of which. Maybe there are some of those flying camera things being sold here. We will be able to monitor the situation around the mall by air with it.” (Sarah)

“There are also other gadgets here. I’m sure I can find walkie talkies or something similar. We would be needing that as well.” (Jane)

“I’ll visit the bookstore and see if there are any books that would help in terms of tactics in defending a fortress.” (Megan)

“I’ll clear the surrounding area’s monsters so we wouldn't have any hindrances in preparing.” (Will)

We continued to brainstorm roughly for a few more hours before calling it a day.

Tomorrow, we’ll have to finalize the plan so we can start preparing immediately.

The sooner we prepare, the better the preparation will be when the time comes.

Status

Name

William King

Level

23

Mana Points

590/590(+100)

Ranking

1

Strength

15(+10)

Wisdom

36(+10)

Agility

24

Stamina

14

G Points

650

Status Points

7

Skills

Flame Aura

Play Dead

Photosynthesis

Heavy Strike

Alpha Pack

Dragon Eyes

Enhanced Hearing