Alex was still sore, a fucking novelty in a god damn mechanical body, but at least he was functional. Zanthras was off to the side, rummaging through the room to salvage anything she could. While the fight hadn’t been too destructive, some semi-important items definitely were broken. Unless Alex had been misled by the entire game itself, resources were important, regardless of the quality.

Alex decided this was good enough time to check his sheet. He wasn’t going to be moving too fast anytime soon. Sure, it was only two skills, but a change was a change.

ID: 413X

Class: Nano-Biologist

Level: 0

Skills: Eye for Analytical Biology, Android Durability.

Attributes: None

Still rather barren. But regardless, it's progress. But it did bring into question when Alex would get his aforementioned day-one bonus. If it was after the Backstory Scenario, things were going to be rather difficult. His first fight had shown just how underprepared for the fight Alex would be.

A random thug had crippled him. Not that grand of a beginning to an adventure. Killing rats would be less painful. Maybe. Hopefully. ...Probably not.

“Well, this sucks. Everything useful went into you. Everything else was broken in the fight. Were going to have to leave the room if you want to be fully functional. Was hoping it wouldn’t come to this.”

Zanthras looked rather glum when she relayed this information to Alex. Considering how she acted during the struggler, it was safe to say she wasn’t much of a fighter. Not in the traditional sense at least. She knew what was necessary for survival, as evident by the box of equipment she put on the table next to Alex.

“I don’t have much. Nothing if I’m honest. Have some spare clothing that could work as minimalistic protection, some tools that could help us break into some places, and my repairing gear. In case we come across anything I can quickly fix for our benefit. Other than that, we just have the skin on our backs.”

Well, new clothes would be nice. Alex had bleed over his basic trousers he was wearing. The tank top and shorts Zanthras was sporting didn’t look like they would provide much protection either. While Alex would like to ask why both of them were so underdressed, he’d just chalk it up to limited resources. Beggars can’t be choosers in the apocalypse.

Before setting out, Alex remembers that there’s a dead man in the corner. Walking over, he starts rummaging through his pockets. You can say whatever you want about respecting the dead, Alex knew those went out the window in survival situations.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

The alien, one that Alex could guess was a grey since it wasn’t distracting him with lethal swings, was just as baren. Other than what looked like food packets and some rapped cloth. His clothing was too dirty and torn up to make use of. So other than some minimal supplies and the knife Alex had been stabbed with, the man was lacking in items himself. As he was stepping away a bit disappointed, Alex saw that something had fallen out of one of the corpse's pockets.

A folded piece of paper had fallen out of his pocket. Picking it up, Alex unfolded it. It was a picture. Worn and old by the looks of it. It showed three grey’s smiling and doing funny possess. All rather young. The one in the middle was similar to the grey at his feet. Before he had looked so worn-down and rugged by life.

Alex just stared at the picture for a minute. He folded up and put it back in the grey’s pocket. Maybe there was merit to respecting the dead.

“Didn’t really find anything that could help us, not right now at least. Just some food and pseudo bandages.”

Zanthras had already donned some new clothing, a jacket, and pants that cover more of her skin. Scales. Scaled skin. Damn, Alex might never get used to describing her features in some cases.

“Shame. But at least that means he didn’t have any friends around. A better armed looter would have killed you or been part of a group. Lucky us.”

Alex buried the small thought that said he had just been as desperate as Zanthras. It was too late to regret choices that can’t be changed.

Zanthras grabbed a solid pipe made of some unfamiliar material and let it rest on her shoulder. A bit dented but far more lethal than the butter knife Alex had been stabbed with. Speaking of, Zanthras had it held up for Alex to take. The android made a confused face as he took the inferior weapon. Zanthras shrugged in response.

“Your class being a doctor of some kind, the biologist portion, might mean you have some Skill with knives. Best to put that to the test before you rely too much on an inefficient weapon in the long run. And between the two of us, I’m fairly sure I’m the stronger one.”

Saying those last words with a smile, Alex couldn’t help but examine his own stature. Even though he was mechanical and by that logic theoretically superior, he couldn’t disagree. Zanthras was most definitely the buffer of the pair.

” You’re right, but I call dibs on the next weapon we find.”

Zanthras chuckled as she headed for the only door to the room they were in. Grabbing a handle, she pulled the door to the side. Its rusted frame grinding and screeching horribly. Letting Alex’s eyes gaze upon the first real backdrop to Death Galaxy. The world outside the windowless room was just as desolate as the inside.

A familiar scenery of rusted metal, missing pieces of wall and ceiling with cables hanging out met Alex. Unlike the room though, it was noticeably darker. What little lighting there was, was sporadic at best, nonexistent at worst. A couple of steps into the hallway left Alex virtually blind.

“I can’t see shit. Wasn’t’ installed with night vision apparently.”

“Here, let me fix that.”

Zanthras took the knife from Alex’s hands. She then mumbled a few words he couldn’t identify, and the strangest thing happened. The blade began to shine like a flashlight. The knife gave off a soft glow, enough to light Alex’s immediate area. He’d not be stumbling over any more trash anytime soon.

“Well, lets get on with this why don’t we?”

Alex nodded. With better lighting, the pair walked into the unknown for Alex and yet undiscovered horrors for Zanthras