The World Cataclysm

"Please," Richard kept sobbing as he mumbled the word. He was already so scared of his future that he couldn't hear Dave's proposal.

And, of course, it got on Dave's nerves since he didn't like to repeat himself. In such a state of mind, Richard would be just useless to him. He sighed lightly in irritation and said loudly, "Stop crying or I'll break all your teeth. And I remember that I still haven't tested the resilience of my new punching bag. However, it's never late."

"Keough!" Making an unusual sound from suddenly stopping his tears and feeling clogged down his throat, Richard immediately shut up at Dave's threat.

'And he was called a Tyrant in the future. Without his innate ability, he's just a crybaby! I shouldn't have expected much from a student,' Dave thought as he looked at the muscular guy crying in front of him.

"Now, listen to me. Do you want to live?" Dave asked when he noticed that Richard finally started listening to him.

"Live?" Richard repeated somewhat dully as if mumbling in a dream. But then, he vigorously nodded his head as he said. "Yes, yes. I want to live."

"Then, do you mind helping with something?" Dave said in a slightly higher tone while smiling widely.

"I'll do everything you want, just free me." Richard agreed easily.

"Then, it's settled. I'll come after you early in the morning. You'll be tied till that time since I still don't trust you." Dave said as he clapped in satisfaction with his two hands.

"Wait," Richard said hastily as he gulped, "With what do you need my help for?"

"Nothing complicated. You'll just help me to kill one zombie. It's just happened that I urgently need a strong fighter who won't die easily, making you a perfect candidate. Help me to kill it, and I won't kill you," Dave said, intending to leave.

It was the only reason he still hadn't killed Richard. Actually, he didn't give a damn to Richard's past deeds. He had already seen far too many deaths in his life and wasn't easily affected by them. Well, it may be for better or for worse, he didn't know.

He had never considered himself a saint or a fighter for justice. Actually, he had also killed a lot of people in his past, including guilty ones and even innocent people. That was just how life was...Sometimes, it's just you either kill or get killed.

As for Richard, his innate ability was too useful to waste it with his death. Moreover, Dave didn't know much about Devourer's abilities or how strong it was. Except for exaggerated tales of its powers, Dave only knew that survivors had sacrificed a lot to kill it and that it was extremely hard to kill.

Therefore, Dave needed a person with whom he would slay a Devourer. Such a person should be strong enough not to get in his way and shouldn't die easily at Devourer's hands. There wasn't a better candidate than Richard if he took into consideration his [Rage] skill.

Before leaving Richard, Dave turned to Oscar and instructed him, "Give him some food and water. He should be in his top state when I come tomorrow early in the morning."

Confused by Dave's sudden proposal to Richard, Oscar still followed his orders, "Yes, Big Boss!"

"Then, I'm gonna talk with your brother a bit and head to my dorm," Dave said as he waved his hand.

***

Finding Luther among other survivors, Dave called him over for a few words. He shared information with him about tomorrow's operation and gave him several orders to be ready for it. Then, he left their hideout and headed towards his dorm.

Since he already was strong enough to freely wander on campus, Dave easily reached the dorm building. As he entered from the front doors, Dave immediately saw Adam, crowded by other survivors and giving commands to them.

"Adrian and Arthur, I'll task you with scouting our area surrounding the dorm, so you may gather manpower and guard our dorm," Adam said as he pushed through the crowd and rubbed his temples.

All the situation with survivors was giving Adam huge headache. The problem wasn't that he wasn't able to cope with their management. No, Dave thought Adam was doing quite good for a fellow student. However, the problem was that he was just one of the students. His status wasn't enough to calm all survivors and give them peace of mind.

"When do you think will the military respond to all the situation?"

"How can you be sure that we'll be safe here?"

"Don't you think we should leave the campus?" Like a bunch of reporters, panicked students crowded around Adam as they asked their questions.

Entering from the front doors and observing everything from the door side, Dave thought, "Luckily, I left everything to Adam, otherwise I would have injured a bunch among them."

Although Dave didn't like to manage this bunch of panicked horde, he clearly understood that isolating himself from everyone and acting alone wasn't an option. Albeit being able to kill hundreds of zombies, one person still couldn't go against a thousand or more. He'll be just ripped.

Furthermore, they needed people to maintain their small oasis. More people needed for patrolling, raiding and doing other miscellaneous jobs around the campus. Therefore, Dave couldn't just turn his back on other survivors.

Smiling weakly, Dave called over his friend. At his sight, all other survivors backed a bit and quickly dispersed to mind their own businesses. Well, most of the survivors had already seen Dave in action, so they avoided him as much as they could.

"Oh, you're here," Adam said slightly grumbling.

Dave shook his head slightly, saying, "Heh...Actually, I've come with good news from you. But, if you don't want to know..."

"What good news? Just spit it out," Adam said somewhat curiously.

"First of all, let's gather everyone. I don't want to repeat myself," He said as he headed to the lounge on the first floor.

10 minutes later, everyone sat on the comfy sofas around the lounge table. Adam had called everyone as they immediately quit what they were doing. There were Adam, Dave, Rebecca, Rachel, Adrian, Arthur.

Everyone was present...Well, except for one. Dave frowned as he said, "Where's Brian?"

Gathered people smiled in an odd way. Adam was the one to answer him, "He's not in the dorm. Brian's currently helping Caroline, or how he says 'love of his life', with levelling up. He should be here an hour later. I'll pass everything to him."

'It seems that I need to punish him later.' Dave thought darkly as he planned to beat Brian for another round. However, back to the business. "Let's first start with sharing information. I've found another group of survivors. And I think we can work with them."

Actually, Dave had already stumbled upon small groups while he was searching for Devourer and Richard, but there was no point in telling it.

At his words, everyone cheered since they knew that people should stick to each other at such times.

"Tomorrow, I'll take five of you with me. We'll pick up the underground gang with us and head towards their place." Dave said steadily. Next, he turned to Adrian and Rachel. "Both of you will remain here. We need people who'll keep things together here."

"Okay," Both Rachel and Adrian responded without any objections.

"Arthur call over Evelyn from the supermarket and put some people to guard it. She would be in the team." Dave said to Arthur as he sipped the tea brewed by Rebecca. 'It's quite good.' Dave thought.

Next, Dave took a leaflet of their university as he unfolded it, revealing the map of their campus. As everyone curiously observed his actions, they came closer to get a clear view. Dave pointed at the target living complex and said, "This's our target."

"It's the living complex we're going to move in. It has a good geographical location and is protected from every side. Moreover, the entrance point from underground tunnels is directly beneath it."

"Which tunnels?" Arthur asked casually.

"You'll see tomorrow," Dave said as he filled them with other information, like how they would enter it, how many people there would be and possible dangers. Then, he wrapped everything with a more casual talk and dismissed everyone.

He even got a pleasant system notification.

[Leadership (LVL 2) has turned into Leadership (LVL 3)]

"Ho...it seems easy to level it up." Dave thought as he grinned. 'Well, I believe I wasn't in a situation when it levels up in my past.'

As everyone left, it was Adam and Dave who were left behind. Adam smiled as he intensely observed his friend. "Actually, I've thought you would ignore all other survivors in the university. I'm pleasantly surprised by your willingness to group with others."

Adam had said everything from the bottom of his heart since he had never considered his best friend as a kind and heroic person. Dave was more a selfish and aloof jerk that wouldn't mind anyone's feelings, not to say, strangers' lives.

"Of course! We need slaves and servant who'll work for us." Dave said in a joking manner as he flashed a smile to Adam.

"Ehh...You're the worst..." Adam heaved a sigh, but a light smile stood on his face.