As Danny looked at his next four foes, he knew that this fight would be slightly more complicated than the previous ones. This time, he could not make use of stealth to get a jump on his enemies.

The decent number of zombies inside the fairly small room made sure that there was no way that he would be able to enter it undetected.

It was fortunate that this door had been initially closed when he explored the third floor because he did not know if would have been able to close it while remaining hidden to its occupants otherwise.

And if he had been found out right at the start of his floor scouting by them, then it would have made his life a whole lot harder. Four zombies banging on a wooden door and growling wildly while trying to get to him would have attracted a damning amount of attention, putting a swift end to his stealthy approach to the floor exploration for sure.

Fortunately, it did not come to pass. Luck had been on his side this time around and there was no point in spending time wandering what could have happened if circumstances had been slightly different. It would only make him more apprehensive going forward.

Not a useful state of mind at all.

Danny discarded his distracting thoughts and prepared his hammer to receive the closest zombie that was coming his way while groaning at him. At this point, Danny was already inside the room with a closed door to his back.

He had not been idle while thinking about all those things and had swiftly moved to imprison his foes inside the room. Himself included.

Whilst fighting in the confined space against four enemies was harder than funneling them through the door and dealing with them one at a time, by trapping himself and his enemies inside, the chances of alerting and triggering the remaining zombies in the other rooms of the third floor would be lower. Not to mention the other ones in lower floors.

Since he wished to avoid escalating the situation and was confident that he could take these enemies at the same time in the cramped area, Danny opted to limit the fight to the room.

He did remember to drop his bag outside before closing himself inside the room in order to make sure he would be as unencumbered as possible for the fight though. Every little advantage he could get mattered when talking about his combat capabilities and personal safety.

Wishing to make the first hit count, Danny delivered a powerful two-handed downward swing. His aim was true and he hammered the approaching enemy at the top of its head with unerring precision.

He did not even need to look twice to realize that he had finished his enemy with this single attack as the sensation the handle of his hammer transmitted to his hands told him everything he needed to know. The creature would not be getting up.

Following that, he struck the body of his fallen enemy with his right knee to redirect it.

The momentum behind his now dead enemy’s initial charge had pushed its corpse to drop in Danny’s direction after his devastating blow. His simple knee strike took care of the problem though, pushing the obstacle away and ensuring that it would not impede him anymore.

However, Danny was forced to dodge to the right as another enemy approached him from the left, aiming to tackle him. Though his evasive movement was enough to completely avoid the tackle, it put Danny in the crosshairs of another zombie that approached him from the right.

Without enough time to effectively use his hammer against this new opponent, Danny simply countered this zombie’s bite attack with an elbow to the face.

The elbow guard of his newly purchased body armor, added by his own body’s endurance and hardness, ensured that he barely felt a thing from the impact.

On the other hand, his foe on did not have such an easy time. The blow had bashed its nose in and pushed the creature back, tripping over a piece of overturned furniture and falling on its back.

The zombie in question barely reacted to the otherwise extremely painful wound with a groan. The undead were unable to feel pain as far as Danny knew. At the very least, he believed them to be immune to pain.

If not so, how could they sustain such grievous wounds without flinching? With such lackadaisical reactions?

In any case, with one zombie killed and two more on the ground - one from its own failed tackle and an the other from being pushed back – Danny focused entirely on the last zombie still standing which was rapidly approaching him.

Due to his increased speed and reaction time, Danny had enough time to put a good amount of power into a left-handed swing of his hammer.

Though his left side was not his dominant one, Danny had just used his right arm to elbow the previous foe and did not have enough time to adjust himself to the new threat. Therefore, he could only respond to the zombie in time with his left hand which still held his hammer.

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Even so, his less dexterous and strong side proved to be enough this time around, as the steel head of his hammer landed precisely at his nearing opponent’s temple, caving it inwards and taking it out of the fight.

With two zombies down for the count, Danny had a much easier time dealing with the remaining ones. Soon after, he killed off the one that had tried to tackle him down before finally dispatching the one with a smashed nose, the final one.

After he dealt with all the enemies in the room, Danny opened the door once more and patiently waited to see if there would be any fallout from his fight.

However, it appeared that luck was on his side this day, as he could not hear any zombies banging on doors further along the corridor and the horde down below remained pleasantly unresponsive to his culling of their numbers on the floor above.

‘I guess it was the right choice to keep the fight to the room.’ Danny smirked, pleased with the results.

At any given time, it was hard to estimate what the outcome of one’s actions would be. Danny could only plan to the best of his abilities to get his desired outcome, but things were always just a shy step away from spiraling out of control.

Anyone was subject to unforeseen circumstances and developments as no one could reliably predict the future.

Fate had the tendency to play with men’s plans.

He knew that he was walking a tight rope by getting inside the factory and taking all those risks when he accepted the job. This was the greatest challenge he had taken so far, but he still accepted it nonetheless.

Given all the danger involved, it was strange to say that deep down, Danny also felt a little bit of excitement. That was not something he consciously had taken notice of, but he was itching to put his growth to the test.

To challenge himself and see if he had what it took to survive in this new world on his own terms.

For the first time in a very long time, he was looking forward to something. He aspired to something other than simply freeing himself from the clutches of his own personal demon.

All of that went mostly unnoticed to him however as he went ahead with clearing the remaining rooms of the floor however.

The remaining offices held very little surprise for Danny and ended up being cleared in a very unclimactic and easy manner.

Though he did find a few more undead hiding in the various rooms, their sparse placement meant that he had very little trouble dealing with them. He even afforded himself the luxury of not spending anymore bolts.

He never had to face more than one undead at a time while he went over each individual office that had not been inspected yet, so he managed to take care of the remaining enemies without too much commotion, even when solely using his hammer.

The rooms themselves also did not hold any good surprises sadly.

Apparently, most of them had been repurposed as dormitories for the former survivors of this place. Danny could only find clothes and other personal belongings of the previous residents in there.

Mostly useless stuff for him right now.

Though there were things like cans of food and packs of batteries here and there that were worth picking up, he did not bother to do so. He was not hurting for supplies for now and they would only add to his carrying weight.

Since he was looking to a major battle against numerous enemies in the near future, doing so was poorly advised.

Besides, it was best not to waste any more time rummaging for scrap goods that he could come back to get after he finished his job anyway.

Seeing that his search turned out to be fruitless, Danny did not wait a single moment before he started building a barricade in front of the stairs.

Very carefully, he started moving furniture pieces to the spot, cautiously making sure that he did not make much noise while carrying them and placing them on the appropriate location.

‘Heh, I never thought that eating soul gems like candy would have the unintended benefit of making me a very efficient hauler. If everything else fails, maybe someone will hire me as a moving worker…’ Danny snickered.

His increased strength ensured he had little trouble picking up and moving the various objects to the stairs. He could even lift things that looked entirely oversized for him to carry in his arms, giving the image quite a comic outlook.

Danny looked no different than a worker ant carrying oversized leaves’ pieces by hauling those items that were too big for one person alone to carry ordinarily.

After piling beds, couches, filing cabinets, chairs, tables and all sorts of different items into a barricade that was over two meters tall and blocked the passage to the stairs, Danny pulled a rope out of his backpack and started tying over the various pieces that comprised the barricade together so that the undead could not easily topple it with the strength of their numbers.

Once he was done, he tested it over and over, grabbing, shaking and pushing it in different places to make sure that the barricade would not simply collapse at the first sign of trouble.

Though he was no master when it came to the subject of knots, and the structure looked shoddy beyond measure, as he stepped back to view his construction in full glory, Danny nodded with satisfaction.

‘It looks like shit, but it will do.’

The only place that had not been caught in the webbing monstrosity of knots that Danny had conjured was a single point in the middle. There, he had left a hole where he could pass with his body turned sideways, ensuring he had a way to go through the barricade.

The hole was not a big liability as well, since it was fairly easy to plug. He had left a small steel closet by the side of it that he could simply push in place to completely block the passage.

Wiping his hands together to clear them of the dust that had accumulated on the palms of his gloves before removing his helmet and using the back of his right hand to wipe the little sweat that had accumulated on his forehead, Danny stopped in place and contemplated his choices.

He had to deal with the zombies on the second floor next. That much was obvious. However, what was the best way to approach them? He could either go down the stairs in front of him or he could make use of the emergency stairwell.

The first option drew attention away from the emergency stairwell – his sole way to get to the rooftop and out of the factory – while, at the same time, made it easier for him to be noticed by the remaining horde on the lower floors.

On the other hand, the second option was stealthier, as the emergency stairwell allowed for less transmission of sound in-between floor given its sound insulation. However, it also drew more attention to his escape route and could jeopardize it.

Ultimately, Danny decided to go with the open stairs.

He felt that it was more important to keep a clear escape route than anything else, so even if he was taking a bigger risk from the get-go by choosing this route, he still thought that it was the better option.