We return to the safe zone in the evening with a total of fifty odd people. Twenty are part of the initial group, and the rest we found along the way.
Our fighters go off to do whatever, and I leave the new arrivals with two of William’s men for processing. In total, we rescued a little over four hundred people today, most of them without classes or any combat abilities whatsoever.
As for the total number of monsters killed, we stopped keeping track after the first thousand. By my estimate, the count should be in the ballpark of three to five thousand kills today. It sure as hell sounds like a lot, but it doesn’t feel like we made any difference at all. The monsters are just as dense as they were in the morning, and not even their overall level seems to have dropped.
It’s almost as if the system has a local level cap for the monsters, and new ones reach the cap faster than they should in order to fill the gaps we make. I wonder where the system gets the animals from, though. Most species native to the area seem to be represented in the hordes, and while it makes sense for the insects, others like pets or deer should be depleted by now.
Does it simply spawn new ones from thin air? The first message did mention something about the monsters both evolving and spawning, so that must be it. It’s unfair as fuck, but oh well.
And worst of all, despite me being at the forefront in every fight today, I didn’t go up a single level. I’m slowly inching towards it, but even though they’re evolving, the monsters don’t give out enough experience to keep up with my class’s demands. On average, they reward between 40 to 80 experience points.
I’d need to kill thousands of them by myself to make steady progress, and that’s not happening any time soon.
I’m spent, and so is Emily. She looks like she’s just about ready to collapse and fall asleep in the middle of the street. I want nothing more than to get some food in my stomach and crash.
“Come on. Let’s see what’s for dinner and then find a place to sleep,” I say.
She nods, so we get on the move. We search the safe zone, but nothing much seems to have changed since morning. Most of the store owners still stand guard outside their businesses, and even the supermarket doesn’t have lines anymore. Just a couple of William’s men standing guard.
They must’ve run out of fresh produce and are unwilling to part with the rest of their stocks.
I sigh. Once again, I could let it go. Split what little food Emily and I have left between ourselves, and restock in the morning after killing and cooking a couple of monsters. That would be simple. Easy. But I can’t just let it go, I can’t accept the simple and easy course. That’s how we’ll get a riot on our hands in a few days tops, one that the fighters might just join.
“Let’s find William and see why the fuck he didn’t solve this yet,” I whisper to Emily.
She whimpers, but she falls in line behind me. As we head to the police station, many people flag us down from all sides. Some are new faces thanking us for rescuing them, but most simply recognize us from yesterday and come begging for food again. I don’t have anything to give them except for the promise that we’re working on it.
A promise that means little when their stomachs churn with hunger, so I get loads of complaints and even a few fits of anger that I have to quell. That food riot might happen even sooner than I expected.
Emily sticks behind me for the most part, holding onto my shirt as we navigate the crowds. Except for when threats of violence start flying around, then she’s suddenly at my side, bow drawn. I have to gesture for her to stand down more than once. She’s fiercely protective, and while that’s great when we’re facing monsters, her readiness to kill is more than a little worrying when we’re up against normal people that can’t actually harm us even if they tried.
“Stop doing that,” I whisper after we avoid another altercation. “We don’t hit first, and we don’t kill people, okay?”
She nods. “No headshots.”
“Not what I meant.”
We argue about it all the way to the police station, though said argument consists of me speaking and her just making facial expressions that I have a hard time reading on occasion. I’m grateful for her presence, but I just wish communication would be easier. At any rate, I get the feeling that we reach an agreement by the end. If we come to blows with other humans, she needs to let me handle it and only step in if I’m in any actual danger.
No threatening body language, either. If people see her drawing her bow over every little thing, they might escalate into outright violence more readily.
With that settled, we go into the station and find William back behind his desk. He’s talking to Jessica, who just finished another recon mission through Polly. Her findings are a mixed bag of good and bad news, though it’s mostly bad. More monsters are building up, and they’re getting larger as well. The other safe zones are still handling the occasional assault, but for how much longer the stalemate will last is anyone’s guess.
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We really need to end the siege.
“Any idea where the bosses might be?” I ask.
“Maybe?” She says. “I found two large gatherings of monsters that don’t seem to be going anywhere, but I can’t use analyze through Polly to confirm that any of them are wave bosses.”
“I’ll get on that tomorrow,” I say, volunteering before my mind can catch up and tell me just how bad of an idea that is. “How about Mike and his group?”
“They’re doing great, actually,” Jessica says. “I spent a while chatting with him today, and I shared our findings and your strategies. He asked me to pass on his thanks to you.”
I chuckle. “Thanks received. Next time you speak to him, tell him that Mom called us ungrateful brats and she’ll probably try to kill him when they reunite.”
Jessica laughs, but she promises to pass on the warning. She heads out, leaving only William, Emily, and me in the office.
“William?”
“No, it’s not going well,” he answers right away in a drained voice, as if reading my thoughts. “I didn’t make any progress with the store owners, and the non combatants won’t help out either. If you think those ideas of yours are ready to go, I’m all ears.”
“Okay, here’s what I’m thinking…”
----------------------------------------
After I’m done explaining, William is willing to give it a shot. We mobilize, and despite my insistence that she really should go get some sleep, Emily follows.
The first step, in my opinion, is to gather everyone in one place so that William can speak to them directly. No bullshit and meaningless reassurances like he’s done up until now, they all need to know how truly in over our heads we are. Maybe then, they’ll be a little more willing to cooperate.
Getting the masses to gather isn’t all that hard. We go around and recruit a few of the civilians into the effort, with clear orders to pass along. Like back during the breach, it only takes a few of them to get the ball rolling. The others will follow simply out of curiosity and a lack of better things to do.
We need a few more people to run the show, so while the gathering works itself out, we look for them. It’s not too many, just Karen, her son James, and his tabletop group. Finding them proves a little more difficult than I anticipated, since we have nearly one and a half thousand people here by now, but find them we do.
Karen herself is among the defenders, and she can lead us to the others. As we come up to the barricade she’s tasked with overlooking, I worry about how she’ll take the news of her husband’s death. The idea to not bring it up does cross my mind, but I can’t do that. Not if I want to rely on her help in the future.
After some greetings and small talk, I come out with it. I tell her everything, including where I buried the remains in case she wants to move them later or just pay her respects at the grave. To her credit, Karen doesn’t let the revelation bring her down. She’s probably been expecting this to be the case, so if anything, finally having the confirmation is a stone off her chest.
She removes her sunglasses, looks up at the sky, and takes a long, deep breath. I get a ping and a notification telling me that the quest is now complete, but I don’t go to claim the reward. The experience is enough to push me to the next level, and I don’t want her to see that.
I don’t want her to think I’m profiting off her husband’s death.
“Not a word about it to anyone,” she says after a long minute of silence. “I’ll tell James myself. Now, what are you here for?”
“William,” I say, gesturing for the man to step up.
“Nah, it’s your plan. You can explain it better.”
I shoot him a sharp glare, but I get to it. I just want it to be over already so I can hide somewhere and crash. Karen listens to my explanation, and since the plan doesn’t require her son to fight, she agrees to their parts. That leaves me a little worried for James, though. While his mother allowed him to get a class, she’s basically barring him from leveling.
And with how the monsters are evolving, it’ll only get harder to do so as time goes on. Right now is the perfect opportunity to fight relatively easy opponents and get a leg up.
I don’t voice those worries, however. The last thing I want or need is to butt heads with Karen and risk losing her support.
She gives some orders to her people, then we’re off to look for the teens. We collect them one by one, and I instruct them on their roles as we go. Once we have everyone, we head to where the masses are gathering.
I didn’t have any concrete place in mind, so William recommended the town hall. It’s not a huge building, but it’s smack dab in the middle of the safe zone. As we near it, we see that quite a few people have gathered already. The wide street in front of the building is full, with yet more people trickling in.
“Okay, spread out. You all know your roles,” I say.
The teens nod and leave, headed to the police station to set up for their part of the plan. The rest of us take a deep breath, and we push into the crowd to reach the front.
“Move! Make some room!” Karen bellows, flexing that skill of hers that makes my skin crawl.
The crowd parts, and more than one person looks unnerved. We take our place on the front stairs of the town hall, with William front and center and the rest of us around him. Karen is to his left, and I’m to his right, with Emily trying to keep out of sight behind me.
A few of William’s men, all police officers — or ex police officers now — are here as well to help instill a sense of order and control.
“I told you, but you didn’t listen,” I tease Emily. “You should’ve gone to sleep, then you wouldn’t be in this position right now.”
She sticks her tongue out at me, which makes me chuckle.
It takes the people about half an hour to all come here, time we spend idling on the steps. Some of them call for the meeting to start already, but William, with some help from Karen, gets them to wait a little longer. The fighters aren’t coming, obviously, but our troubles don’t stem from them anyway.
“Doesn’t look like everyone, but it’s enough,” William says as he sweeps the crowd with his eyes. “Should we get started?”
“Ready whenever you are.”