Trash in the Apocalypse

Chapter 203: Storage Balls

The rest of the night passed by as Jun spent his time meditating. He did not use the already learned skill Aura since it takes too much energy unlike from manual training.

Jun also paid attention to his skill levels. Except for Rob, Threaten, Execute, Melee-Weapon Mastery, and Howling Rage, most of his skills were at max level even though he didn't do anything to level them up.

Normally, he needed to use the skill for some time before he gained enough mastery to raise the skill level. Then why did the system set it at the max level? Should he be happy? Of course not! A skill's effects could be increased when it reaches a higher level. Even though the increase wasn't that high, an increase is still an increase.

With his skills at max level, he was prevented from raising it to a higher level and receiving a slight increase in power. On paper, having max skills appear exceptional but that also means, you've reached the limit and couldn't improve anymore. 

Is this also special treatment by the system? Or a direct obstruction to his growth? Even though he wanted to know the reason, Yetu never spoke to him nor even showed his presence around. It was like he was gone except for the system being left for him as a gift.

Although Yetu wasn't responsive, the side quest 'Stranger Trouble' still continued to go on. 

Jun continued to ponder what to do with the skill cap obstructions while he meditated. He wouldn't find the answer immediately, but he had to something about it soon.

On the streets of a certain subdivision, there were numerous spiked barricades facing outwards, creating a maze and serves to block anything from advancing hastily inside the subdivision. Also, there were barrels of fire scattered around the street that illuminated the area. Inside the houses were lit fuel lamps that kept the dining table bright enough to see what you're sticking your fork into.

The two guards stationed at the top of a jeepney, blocking the entrance of the subdivision, chatted with each other as they shared a piece of bread. Below their wooden chairs were two cups of smoking hot coffee.

"The town sure is lively earlier with all those commotions around. What do you think happened?"

"I have no clue and I'm not interested. We have our own problems and we can't delay it any longer. The resources nearby were getting depleted by them. If we don't find somewhere to look for supplies we would have no choice but confront them. Marcus is a bastard but as long as we play by his rules, we should be safe."

"Goddamn right," said the other man as he stood up and unzipped his pants. He chatted as he did what he had to do, seconds later water gushing could be heard. "Well to be fair, If I became a Lord too, I would probably do the same thing. I mean, everyone else probably will, right? Who wouldn't? The power to command people and..." As the man continued talking, he felt a breeze passed him by. He shivered and could feel his body hair raising. "Ugh, it's cold. We really need a better jacket if they insist that we stay for nightshifts."

The man took a bite of already cold bread and picked up the cup of coffee on the roof of the jeepney. When he got up, he noticed that his partner was as pale as snow.

"Hey, are you okay? You should drink the coffee before it gets cold. What the f*ck?"

A giant bat that sized around one foot was biting the back portion of his partner's head. If it were a cat instead of a giant bat, it would have looked cute and comical, but the glowing tooth as if absorbing something, frightened the man.

Not a second later, the giant bat flopped down into the jeepney and bounced off to the ground. He gazed at the giant bat as it fell down, missing the subtle movements of his partner's hand. When his partner's eyes opened, both of his eyes glowed ghastly white. 

Behind them, a colony of bats was wreaking havoc into the subdivision causing panic screams from numerous houses. People tried to defend themselves but the results after getting swarmed unprepared were inevitable.

A couple sneaked into the rooftop of the mall to play and saw the dark sky above a distant subdivision. It gleamed as if the houses were burning, but it didn't deter the two to stop what they came here for.

After a few days with a lack of proper sleep, Jun decided to not abuse his body and let his mind and body rest. When he took the nap he deserved, his body took this chance to recoup its lack of sleep which made Jun wake up quite late while Marvin was nowhere to be seen.

He didn't look for him neither the girls and just left the town as is while wearing his camouflage cloak.

"Takaw! Wait for me!"

Anna shouted as she pedaled furiously uphill. Behind her were her friends Erin and Emman pushing their bikes as they followed her while breathing roughly.

"Can't we take motorcycles or at least something motorized? This will kill us before those carriers get us." Emman said as he gave his final spurt of energy to reach the top.

"We've already been using these for a week but you still haven't adjusted yourself? Give me a break. You are the only man I know who complains like a girl! Besides, isn't the reason why we use bikes clear? We could get in trouble if we attract a large horde with our small group!" Erin sighed deeply while shaking her head.

Takaw who was leading ahead suddenly stopped running and growled at the intersection corner. The three quickly reacted by taking a gacha ball from their dimensional storages and tapping it on their bikes.

The next second, their bikes glowed and got absorbed by the gacha balls.

The item was named 'Storage Ball' and was a recent invention by Evo to store larger things that could not fit through the dimensional storage. It was one of the top-secret equipment of Black Haven that wasn't even listed in the Black Haven Virtual Library.

Currently, it could only store regular-sized bicycles due to certain circumstances and has to be charged every time you have to use it.

Also, motorcycles and cars were too heavy and would always destroy the storage ball when forced to store them. An accident when someone almost got crushed to death isn't funny when there was literally no risk to someone's life due to the town being safe.

Due to this, a lot of scavenging requests have been listed on the Black Haven Notice Board. All kinds of enhanced woods, odd-looking plants, and durable stones were submitted daily.

Also, the information gathering missions were gaining a huge success after the world changed.

With almost everything having some minuscule changes to them, the information gathering mission has become a profitable way to gain credit points and reputation. As long as someone found something new and submit it to the Notice Board, after a few minutes and several verifications, the person could quickly know whether he would get a hefty amount or not.

If the same information gets submitted repeatedly, its value would continue to go down until it could no longer be priced by the authenticating system Evo created. Of course, Evo couldn't handle all that, and so he hired planners from the people. He distributed the task from the Notice Board and masked it like it was just a simple survey on what they wanted to be improved.

Afterward, he would implement them whether those functions were useful. Those surveys regularly come once a day and is a jackpot mission for the people since it's basically free and they all need to do is provide feedback to earn free credit points.

The best information they got was that trees gained enhanced durability depending on their age. Also, pre-cut woods from before the apocalypse have a lower durability cap than woods being processed now.

On a side note, tree loggers appeared and wanted to hoard trees but got rebuked by the police. There was no reason for the people to cut trees recklessly, and Black Haven and The Frontier supported the decision.

A Nature Conservation Group was created with the three powers in town as members leaving the alliance of small parties out of the loop.

Though the people were annoyed, they agreed on the surface and planned to do it when no one was looking. The three factions knew that they couldn't stop everyone but would be able to reduce the number of troublemakers with this. Also, people can just report someone who recklessly logged trees.

Also, cutting down trees isn't illegal; hoarding trees is illegal.

Anna charged the storage ball, so she could use it under an emergency. Erin and Emman did the same before all three of them stored the balls on their dimensional storages.

Anna and Emman brought out their new longbow and crossbow made from redwood with enhanced properties before taking their corresponding arrow and bolt from their dimensional storages. 

Erin armed herself with a metal sword crafted from smelted metals and ground D2 bones. Her round shield was pure metal with leather strips as the handle.

The group slowly inched closer to the corner with Erin in the front with Anna and Emman at the back. Takaw continued growling until it saw the one-meter mutated dog that appeared on the corner.

Takaw stopped growling and wagged its tail acting like a good dog.