After roughly a third of the night had passed by, Kairos decided to wake someone else for them to watch. At that point, Chase decided to rest as well. While keeping watch with Kairos, he definitely had trouble keeping his eyes open, so it seemed that Chase really needed to get some rest.
The night passed by rather uneventfully.
By the time Kairos woke up, Nicole and her parents were awake. However, Chase was still tossing and turning around.
Harold whispered.
“What if we leave him here and leave quietly? I don’t feel safe next to him.”
Nicole pouted.
“He tried to kill one of us so easily! There’s no way we can trust him.”
Kairos waved his hand dismissively.
“His personality is a little bad, but I think it’s fine to take him with us, at least for now. He won’t betray us any time soon because he really needs someone to ally with.”
Sydney furrowed her brows.
“But still, why should we take someone that might turn on us at any moment?”
Kairos sighed.
“Because he is powerful.”
Harold frowned.
“Doesn’t that mean he can easily backstab us?”
Kairos raised a finger.
“But, that man also has a weakness.”
Nicole blinked a few times.
“He does?”
Kairos nodded.
“He can only use so many arrows. After that, he will be… relatively weak.”
Sydney raised an eyebrow.
“How do you know that?”
Kairos shrugged his shoulders.
“I found out by talking to him.”
Harold furrowed his brows.
“But what if he was lying?”
Kairos shook his head.
“I have a good sense for when people lie. I’m ninety percent confident he was telling the truth.”
Nicole frowned slightly.
“But that means there’s a ten percent chance…”
Kairos rolled his eyes.
“If there really aren’t limitations in how he can shoot his arrows, then he would’ve just killed us straight away. He has no reason to team up with a bunch of random people like us.”
Sydney narrowed her eyes.
“That… does seem to make sense.”
Kairos waved his hand dismissively.
“Frankly, having him on our side is far better than provoking him now. He can easily assassinate people using his arrows.”
Nicole muttered.
“O-Ok…”
Kairos sighed.
“Anyways, we should eat a bit. Once we are done, let’s wake him up and set off.”
He pulled out his bag of bread, giving each person a slice. The other three also brought out a few things they brought from the grocery store. One thing Kairos gradually realized was that even after eating quite a bit, he still didn’t feel that full.
Sydney noticeably ate the most, with Nicole right after. Harold was the one that ate the least, and he also made a surprised comment about the other’s appetites.
It seemed like spending too many points could easily lead one to need more food as well. Kairos realized that they would probably need to restock more often, which wouldn’t be too hard.
However, he couldn’t help but worry about the future. Hopefully, he would find a solution before then.
After roughly thirty minutes, they finished up.
As for Chase, he was still sleeping. However, he had his brows furrowed, like there was some sort of bad dream.
Kairos coughed.
“Hey, wake up.”
Chase did not wake up.
Kairos sighed and nudged his arm with the tip of his shoe.
“Wake up.”
Suddenly, Chase sat up with his eyes wide open. He had already raised his bow and conjured a mana arrow onto it.
While Nicole and the others were afraid, Kairos simply clicked his tongue.
“We allied up, remember? An enemy would silently slit your throat, not wake you up.”
Chase blinked a few times before lowering his bow.
“Ah, right. Good morning.”
Kairos nodded.
“Good morning.”
Chase looked down at the mana conjured arrow he created.
“Hold on, I have to get rid of this thing.”
He then walked over to the windows blocked by bookshelves and easily pushed one aside with his shoulder. With an elbow, Chase smashed the window before aiming outside.
After a few seconds, he released it.
Kairos rubbed his chin with his thumb and forefinger.
“Did you hit something?”
Chase nodded.
“One of the monsters right in the skull.”
Kairos blinked a few times.
“You can hit things from that far away, huh?”
Chase laughed.
“I’ve always been using a bow. My archery is probably one of the best.”
Kairos nodded.
“Plus you can curve the arrows.”
Chase smirked.
“Heh. So you saw it. I suppose dodging that arrow wasn’t all a fluke.”
Kairos shrugged his shoulders.
“Anyway, let’s get to a grocery store.”
He turned to look at others and saw Nicole in particular was pouting silently.
“Do any of you know a closeby grocery store?”
Sydney hummed to herself.
“I do remember one along the way, yes.”
After a few moments, Chase turned his head.
“What do you mean by along the way?”
Kairos shrugged.
“It just means the way we were traveling. There is a nearby grocery store, but we’ve already been there, so there’s no point in going back.”
Chase raised an eyebrow.
“…Alright.”
Sydney seemed a little confused, but just nodded.
“Alright, I can lead the way.”
The group got out of the school and immediately noticed that there were several bloodstains around the normally clean pavement.
Harold sucked in a cold breath.
“They were just outside the school it seems like.”
Chase nodded.
“They are far more active during the night.”
Kairos let out a soft hum.
“I suppose it won’t be too bad for us during the day.”
With that, Sydney led the way, passing by several houses. Along the way, Chase ate a few energy bars.
At some point, they encountered two monsters hiding in between the alleyways of the houses. However, Sydney was able to react in time, taking care of one while Harold dealt with the other. As for Chase, he didn’t even try to kill the monsters, seemingly uninterested in the points they offered.
They ended up seeing a few monsters through the windows of houses that were just sleeping. However, other than the slight scare, there were no issues.
Eventually, they arrived at another grocery store, lined up against several other shops. However, they weren’t the only people there.
A set of cars had been lined up in a semi-circle around the grocery store entrance with quite a small group of bandits watching the perimeter. There was also a small group from the outside. The two sides seemed to be arguing with each other.
Harold looked towards the others.
“Maybe… we should avoid this grocery store.”
Chase laughed.
“Oh come on. Don’t be so scared.”
Sydney furrowed her brows.
“It’s called being smart!”
Kairos frowned.
“I… I think we should still try.”
Nicole looked at him with widened eyes.
“But why?”
Kairos shook his head.
“Remember when I killed those monsters in the freezer while they were sleeping? They gave me a decent amount of points which I used to strengthen my body. It was my mistake doing so, as I didn’t realize it would increase my appetite by so much.”
Chase raised an eyebrow.
“Monsters in the freezer? May you elaborate further?”
Kairos clicked his tongue.
“I just killed monsters while they were sleeping. That’s all.”
Harold tapped onto his chin.
“But I don’t remember you eating that much.”
Kairos smiled bitterly.
“That was because I decided not to eat too much. In reality, I’m actually really hungry.”
Nicole gasped.
“Then why didn’t you eat more?”
Kairos adjusted his glasses.
“I was planning on catching up at the grocery store.”
Sydney frowned.
“Then let’s just go to the next grocery store.”
Chase smiled.
“And what if that one is defended by even more people?”
Harold clenched his fist.
“We don’t know that!”
Kairos spoke softly.
“But with every second, more people are taking the limited supplies from these stores. Since these people are willing to defend it, that must mean there is enough inside worth defending.”
Chase smirked.
“Exactly.”
Nicole grit her teeth.
“I guess we have to. If we want to… survive.”
And so, the group walked towards the grocery store. Chase took the lead naturally as he did not bother slowing down.
As they got closer, they heard the conversation.
“For the last goddamn time, you’re not getting in here!”
“Please, I just need a little! Surely some of the food is about to spoil, right?”
One of the bandits was pointing what seemed to be a black pistol at a woman with two kids behind her.
A few other bandits looked over, but didn’t act.
The one pointing the gun frowned.
“I told you already, I don’t want to waste a bullet, but I will if I have to!”
As for the woman, she seemed rather desperate.
“And I told you that I have no other option! My children and I don’t have anything to eat! T-There was supposed to be a sale today, so I wanted to wait a little for our groceries!”
The bandit furrowed his brows.
“That’s none of our business, alright!”
As they walked closer, Harold cursed.
“They have guns! How do they even have those? Guns are illegal!”
Sydney furrowed her brows.
“The police station! They must’ve raided that place.”
Nicole clenched her fist.
“We can’t fight people with guns! We have to turn away!”
Though Kairos didn’t say anything, he essentially had the same opinion. He really didn’t expect people to just have guns. However, before he could call out that decision, Chase walked up nonchalantly, waving his hand.
“Hey, we are here to take your food!”
Several bandits already had their eyes on us, but now, they pointed their guns too.
“Get out of here!”
“We won’t hesitate to fire!”
“We’ve already killed people before! Don’t test us!”
Kairos furrowed his brows, wondering what Chase’s plan could possibly be. Even assuming he had enough mana to kill all of them, the time it took to shoot the arrows would be more than enough for them to shoot multiple times.
Nonetheless, Kairos didn’t believe Chase was that stupid. And so, he simply watched.
Chase didn’t even pull the bow off his back. Instead, he spread his arms out wide, as though trying to welcome them.
“Look, I’m just telling you what’s going to happen in advance because I’m nice, alright?”
The bandits seemed a little confused, but still kept their guns pointed at him.
“Stay back!”
“You want to get pumped full of lead?”
“With how many of us there are, we are bound to hit you!”
Chase narrowed his eyes as a mocking smile formed on his face.
“Oh, really?”
The bandits began glancing at each other, but quickly regained their confidence.
“Yeah!”
“Scram already!”
Chase lowered his head ever so slightly.
“Well, before that, how about I tell you a story?”
Frowns formed across the bandits’ faces. One of them cursed, tightening his grip around the pistol.
“No, why should we care about your story?”
Chase continued on as though the bandits were actually an audience that couldn’t wait for his performance.
“Haha, don’t get too excited! I will tell you the story now.”
The bandits looked at each other with clear confusion, now listening to a retelling.
Chase pointed towards the bow on his back.
“I’ve always used the bow for most of my life, getting pretty good at it. In fact, there were several times where I went out hunting with it.”
He sighed as though recalling good memories.
“I always had this one friend with me that was insistent on getting me to use guns instead of my bow. He was like me, but instead of liking bows, he was a gun nut.”
One of the bandits cursed.
“We don’t care about your damn story!”
Chase held his hand up.
“Don’t be so impatient! A proper story must also have proper pacing.”
He cleared his throat.
“Anyway, we would always compete in hunting, to see who could get the most game. It was always pretty close, but I would win most of the time. In the end, my friend would blame the gun, constantly switching back and forth between various kinds.”
Chase chuckled.
“And every time he brought a new gun, he would drone on about the various mechanisms and parts within it, showing me each feature. He ended up showing me nearly every gun in existence.”
He nodded to himself.
“It was boring as all hell, but those were still some good times.”
One of the bandits held their gun out a little farther.
“Alright, you told your story. Now leave!”
Chase tilted his head to the side.
“It seems you didn’t realize why I told you that story…”
A sinister smile formed on his face.