Liam sat on a chair and began observing his stats.
His System Points had reached 70, and he was curious about the System Shop feature.
With a thought, he could open it.
(Pills!)
(Weapons!)
(Skills!)
(Artifacts!)
(Pets!)
When he opened the shops, Liam saw a list of other menus.
However, aside from the pill menu, everything else was locked with a warning that he didn't have enough System Points to access them. He could only open the pill menu.
And since that was the only option, he opened it.
Only one item appeared—the rest were locked for the same reason.
The one available item was a green-colored pill.
Tier 1 Life Pill priced at 50 System Points.
It was said to instantly heal injuries as long as he was below Level 10.
'Buy!'
Liam bought it without hesitation because he knew it could be very useful.
DING!
(You purchased a Tier 1 Life Pill for 50 System Points. You can retrieve the item from your Inventory!)
(System Points: 20)
(Inventory:
[Tier 1 Sword]
[Tier 1 Shield]
[Tier 1 Life Pill])
Liam didn't take the pill out of his Inventory. It would attract unwanted attention from others.
He then turned to look at the principal, who suddenly cleared his throat.
"Students, please stay calm," he said in a firm tone.
"At this point, we still don't know what's going on. However, we are the strongest nation in the world. The government surely won't remain silent. Stay here and remain calm. We will wait for help to arrive. If we go out again, it'll be even more dangerous. Though this is difficult, I believe you all can survive. If you have food or drinks, please share them with your friends," he continued.
"Principal, I don't agree with what you said!" Just as the principal finished speaking, another voice was heard—a slightly chubby male student wearing round glasses: Joel.
He wasn't in the same class as Liam, but he often visited Liam's class since he was a close friend of Anthony's.
They often played mobile games together.
"What do you mean?" the principal asked, frowning.
Usually, teachers and students at this school didn't dare to argue with him, but here he was being openly challenged by a student just after speaking.
Of course, he was baffled.
"I just want to say that no help is coming. Look at the situation—who's going to help us? I'm sure even the military bases are in chaos right now. Survivors are struggling to stay alive. If we just wait, we're only waiting to become corpses in this warehouse. This place might even get broken into by those zombies because they're clearly growing stronger by the minute. This is the apocalypse, but luckily the heavens gave us a chance to fight back. Of course, we need to fight. We can't just sit here and do nothing." Joel answered calmly.
He clearly had a reason for his confidence—he could summon a pair of wind wings on his back.
Liam unconsciously nodded after hearing his words.
He thought Joel was absolutely right. They couldn't just hide in the warehouse.
The solution wasn't to wait for help, but to become stronger.
Even if help did come, there was no way it would arrive within a single day.
And even then, the help might not be good.
"Fool! Are you capable of fighting those zombies? They're growing in number and more keep coming to the school. How will you face them? Sure, you can fly, but what about everyone else?" the principal retorted.
"I can't fly, but I think Joel is right. We need to fight." Suddenly, Anthony spoke up.
He clearly wasn't satisfied just sitting in the warehouse.
"Then why did you come into the warehouse?"
"This is for resting and preparing for the next battle, not for hiding. In my opinion, we just need to create a safe passage in and out of this warehouse."
Anthony seemed to have a long-term plan when he said that.
"Yeah, I don't plan to keep hiding either."
"Right... Maybe once we get our second skill, we'll be stronger. That's less than half an hour from now."
Suddenly, other students began voicing their thoughts as well.
They were supposed to receive three skills, but the second and third would be granted gradually—after one hour, and after one day.
With many students speaking up, the principal fell silent.
It turned out, several male teachers also agreed with Joel and Anthony's opinion.
This swayed the principal's thinking. He began to realize that waiting for help wasn't the solution—they needed to build their own strength.
"Very well, but let's wait until we receive our second skill," he said.
'I hope my second skill is also SS Tier,' Liam thought.
He could already tell the difference between skills, and in his opinion, most people were only getting Tier C Skills—probably the lowest tier.
He didn't know what the highest tier was, but SS Tier Skills were clearly much stronger. This was proven by how he had the fastest and highest zombie kill count.
He even already had two skills thanks to his performance.
Time felt especially long when waiting under such tension.
The loud noises outside never stopped. Now, even the warehouse walls were being banged on hard from outside.
No one could be sure the warehouse would hold up for several more hours if those zombies weren't stopped.
"Anthony, you bastard, what are you doing?" Suddenly, a girl screamed from the corner of the warehouse, shocking everyone.
She was a fairly pretty girl, currently eating a piece of bread.
Anthony was standing beside her and quickly extinguished the flames in his hand when everyone looked at him.
Of course, other students had lit the area, so he was still visible.
"Melly, what did he do?" one of the girl's friends asked.
"He tried to touch my chest," the girl replied, pointing at Anthony angrily.
The latter looked panicked.
He quickly responded, "Melly, don't falsely accuse me just after I gave you my bread!"
"Who's falsely accusing you? It was clear you were trying to do that," Melly snapped.
"This weeb is starting to show his pervy side," Lisa said, standing next to Liam.
She might've been a bit clueless about fantasy powers, but she had good analytical instincts.
"Melly, don't accuse me without proof..." Anthony continued to deny it.
Melly's close friends pulled her away from him, clearly convinced he was trying to harass her. But the current situation didn't allow them to deal with this issue—and there wasn't any solid evidence. He had only tried to do it but failed.
The teachers just silently observed as well, too preoccupied with their own fates.
"I didn't do anything," Anthony muttered to those still watching him.
But no one was dumb enough to believe him.
After arguing with the principal, his courage seemed to have increased drastically.
"Be careful of him. He said something weird when this disaster started," said a female student from Class 3B.
"Yeah, he was strangely excited when this whole thing began."
"What did he say?"
"He said all the prettiest girls in this school would become part of his harem."
"What? He must be insane. How dare he dream of something like that—such a pervert. I didn't think he was that bold."
"...."
"Seriously, Liam, did this skinny guy really say that?" Alex, still beside Liam, asked.
He looked like he wanted to laugh.
Liam didn't respond with words—he just nodded.
He wasn't interested in discussing something like this.
At this moment, the female students looked extremely wary of Anthony, not wanting to become the next target of his advances.
They were well aware that some people would try to take advantage in desperate times.
DING!
(You will receive your second skill in 60 seconds!)
Suddenly, everyone received the notification.