Trash in the Apocalypse

Chapter 232: Learn — Adapt

The orange rays of the setting sun shone inside an alley followed by numerous sound of puddle getting stepped on echoed repeatedly. The buildings nearby show no signs of someone living there for a long time.

A group of people was run in a triangular formation while chasing a Rank 2 Hunter. As time went by, the carrier's instincts were getting sharper. Once a Rank 1 or Rank 2 Evolved Carrier realizes that it would die, it would spare no effort to run away. It's becoming important to kill any Evolved Carrier as soon as possible since they were beginning to learn or adapt to their surrounding.

The five soldiers chasing the R2 Hunter were armed according to their positions. The lead soldier had a machete and a pistol as a sidearm. The rest had sharpened polearms with rifles slung on their backs. The usual tactic would be to first use the polearms to kill as much as possible and only use the rifles when they're in trouble.

As the group got out of the alley, they arrived at an abandoned construction site. The squad leader immediately noticed the sparse carriers in the area.

After examining the carriers around them, a chill crept up behind everyone's backs.

All of the carriers in the area were Evolved Hunter, with R1 Hunters numbering the most while the R2 Hunters in the few.

The squad leader did not panic and ordered a hasty retreat.

Of course, the R2 Hunter who risked its life to bait them into chasing here wouldn't watch them simply run away after all its effort. It snarled and the R1 Hunters immediately chased, while the other R2 Hunters just stood there.

Seeing their attitudes, the R2 Hunter hissed at them. The three R2 Hunters then cowered before running after the crowd.

These Hunters were the ones who experienced life and death under the soldier's regular area sweeps. They became more cunning. They learned to bait when in trouble, trap when outnumbered and wait patiently in ambush until its the right time. 

It's been more than a month since these batch of soldiers were first sent out to be stationed here.

The Outpost has been standing strong if you look at it on the outside but the reality is that it was full of holes. The supplies they receive weekly have been dwindling and their ammunitions were starting to get dangerously low.

As they ran away, the squad leader noticed his members glanced at him pleadingly. Left with no choice, the Squad Leader sighed before allowing the use of their rifles.

After turning into another corner, everyone quickly swapped from sharpened poles into automatic rifles. With renewed vigor, they turned around and started firing wildly on the chasing R1 Hunters.

Everyone was using their skills and every shot was causing damage. Although it was hard to aim at the R1 Hunter's heads due to their quick strange movements, it wasn't impossible to hit their bodies in this narrow alley.

The group easily dealt with the chasing R1 Hunters but no one created any sound. They stared at the end of the alley, waiting for the R2 Hunters to come. After waiting for a few more seconds, the Squad Leader walked forward and knelt down near the pile of dead Hunters.

Just as he was about to place his hand on top of their bodies, he heard scraping sounds from above. He immediately looked up and saw the R2 Hunters dagger-like teeth zoomed in on him.

The squad members noticed his action and everyone looked up. Three R2 Hunters jumped from the ledge of the two-storied building and they were all going for their squad leader. The squad leader rolled back and everyone started giving suppressing fire as soon as the R2 Hunters dropped down.

R2 Hunters clawed at the air, causing the bullets that entered the claws path to get cleaved into two. The cleaved bullet changes direction but still hits the R2 Hunters body, albeit with reduced damage. 

The deadliest thing about using rifles in battles was the reloading time. It doesn't matter whether you panic or not when a soldier runs out of bullet while this close to the enemy, they would be forced into a melee. 

The R2 Hunters realized their mistake earlier and distributed targets. One R2 remained while two ran past the squad leader to rush the soldiers from behind. At the same time, the two R2 Hunters didn't miss the chance for a sneak attack while they ran past the squad leader. 

The squad leader's upper arms got clawed from both sides. Five red lines appeared and began to bleed. The last R2 Hunter didn't waste another second and quickly lunged forward for the kill.

As the two R2 Hunters left the squad leader and lunge forward to the four reloading soldiers, a thin ivory spear pierced the protruding back of the R2 Hunter that was about to feast on the squad leader.

The squad leader was surprised but still used his hand to block the flinging body of the R2 Hunter. He used his right arm to grab the Hunter's head, preventing the numerous dagger-teeth from biting him. Then, he used his other arm to shield himself from the flailing arms of the dead Hunter.

The two soldiers at the front stopped reloading and swapped to their sharpened polearms. They raised the poles like amateurs as the two Hunter lunged forward. One even had his eyes closed as if he was afraid of seeing his own death. 

A loud crashing sound rang synchronically with the flailing of fabric being blown by the wind.

When the man opened his eyes, he saw a cloaked man stepping off the R2 Hunters dead bodies.

Jun examined the area, then tossed a small bottle to the soldier nearby. "Use that on your leader. It can help slow down the bleeding," then asked, "Did you find their nest? Have you killed all of them?"

The soldier he gave the bottle bowed and thanked him, then ran towards his squad leader.

The soldier who closed his eyes lowered his head in shame then gathered his courage to answer. "I'm not sure. We didn't get an accurate count since we ran after we realize that its a trap."

Jun asked for direction, then he bade farewell while running towards the abandoned construction site. 

The five-man team stared in a daze as they watch him run away. 

"That's him, right? The crazy guy."

"Sssh! Are you crazy?! What if he hears you? If you want to die, don't get us involved please!"

The man who asked the question covered his mouth with his hands before looking away.

It's been a week since Jun started his community service.

When he first showed up for his community service, the officer in charge of directing manpower rejected his request to work alone. The number of people at the infirmary was already too many to handle but this one willingly wants to get injured! He steeled himself to not send another man to his death, but with the intervention of the outpost commander, Jun was allowed to do what he wanted on the condition that he would stay in the area he was designated to.

Jun agreed and the officer in charge could only sigh. This man's death isn't on me!

There are numerous reasons why Jun wanted to be alone. He had high-tech items that he needs to keep as a secret and several daily experiments he was doing.

In these seven days, he was able to level up three times bringing him to level 14. His stats weren't increasing leaps and bounds like it used to be, and it was even increasing ever so slowly.

Even with the high-quality carriers he killed, the amount of experience he gained wasn't up to his satisfaction. He wished that he could get the EXP buff from the monolith at the Calvary Peak to further increase his experience gain. If only he knew that most people took two to three days to level up, then would he still feel unsatisfied?

Unlike Jun, other people work in groups to hunt carriers. The experience they receive would be divided into those who dealt damage and to those who gave them supporting aids.

In these past few days, he learned Bladestorm, Detection, and Block. Bladestorm was a simple three spin cyclone move using a weapon. He has been using the skill a long time ago but only had the time to truly learn it now. Detection was the result of Aura(IDSearch) being registered to his skill list. Block was a recent discovery for Jun, and he learned it by accident preventing him from furthering his research on skill creation.

Block was a simple skill. If the user has enough energy, the damage that was supposed to be received would be negated. He tried shooting his hand and it works perfectly fine.

Jun arrived at the abandoned construction site. He looked around but couldn't sense anything. He activated the camouflage cloak to hide his smell then activated his military boots to remove his footsteps.

Unbeknownst to him, he was being watched by the R2 Hunter from the rooftop of a nearby motel. 

Upon sensing that Jun appears to be troublesome, the R2 Hunter chose to run away.