On a ruined road, Sage and Winter trudged through corpses of humans and walkers alike. The air reeked of blood, gasoline, and rotting flesh.
Ever since leaving the house, the two encountered small groups of walkers, which they killed with relative ease.
Winter was on the verge of leveling up. Normally, he would take the initiative to hunt down walkers to gain more experience.
Sage walked alongside him, ensuring no walkers would get too far. If any walkers were to make it past a certain distance, they would find an arrow through their head.
Time slowly passed when they finally saw the huge plaza in the distance. Sage pointed it out as they continued to walk towards it.
When approaching the Safeway, Winter saw a figure run out of the building with a bag of what he assumed were supplies. Sage thought about following, ultimately deciding against it. They were there for two reasons: supplies and her sister.
But there were some lingering thoughts. Like, why was he running away? That could possibly cause some noise, which would attract walkers. Unless there was something to be more afraid of within the store.
Keeping that thought in mind, Sage and Winter slowly and cautiously entered the store.
Glancing around, the two let out a breath of relief. It seemed to be relatively untouched, possibly because people were still too afraid to venture outside. But that may change soon after the military broadcast.
What they needed to stock up on were food, medical supplies, and electronics. Now that they had a reliable source of energy, it wouldn't be bad if they could get their hands on some.
Winter thought to himself for a few seconds before opening his system shop. Searching for 'storage', a list of accessories and bags was drawn out on the screen. Each item held a certain amount of space, depending on the visual markings.
But the prices.
A storage ring containing one cubic metre of space was 1,000 Apocalust Points, and the prices only multiplied from there on. Fortunately, after a night with Sage, he now had more than 190k saved up.
A storage ring containing 3x3x3 cubic metres was 10,000 while a storage ring that had 9x9x9 was 50,000.
Not wanting to spend all his points on the storage rings, Winter purchased two of the 3x3x3 storage rings and put one on his ring finger. Fluidly, it molded around his finger before setting when he stopped moving it.
Suddenly, Winter felt a prick where the ring was. He thought about opening the space in the ring when a screen popped up in front of him.
[Storage Ring]
[User: Winter Izanami]
[Space: 3x3x3 Cubic Metres]
[Space Used: 0%]
[Items: None]
Figuring out how it worked, Winter handed the remaining one to Sage.
"Here, take this."
Sage accepted the ring with a hint of surprise.
Staring at the ring, she blushed. "I like you, too, and all, but don't you think this is a bad time for this?"
Winter stared at her, confused. When it dawned on him, he face-palmed. "It's not a proposal ring, it's a storage ring."
*Phew*
"You almost had me there. Not that I don't like you or anything, marriage should be the least of our problems." Sage said, slipping on the ring.
After it set on her ring finger, it pricked her, gaining a reaction.
"What the f*ck? What was that?"
Seeing her shock, Winter chuckled. "It's registering you. Think about accessing the space within the ring."
Doing as he said, the same screen appeared in front of her, the only difference being the user.
Winter explained to her what it was—at least from what he read in other webnovels.
Sage understood and thought about storing her bow inside. The next second, the bow disappeared and appeared under the Items tab. With a thought, the bow appeared back in her hand.
Excitedly, Sage hugged Winter, shaking his body from side to side.
Letting him go, she twirled around shouting. "THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!"
Getting his bearings, Winter placed his hands on her shoulders, gripping firmly. "You're welcome, but I'm gonna need you to calm down. We don't know what's in here with us."
*GRAWH*
As if to attest that, a deep growl was heard towards the back of the store. Immediately, heavy footsteps were heard making their way towards their location.
A thought shot through Winter's head. 'No wonder he was running away from the store. That's also probably why this place has barely been touched.'
Grabbing Sage's hand, he pulled her towards the other aisles, creating distance between them and the creature.
Arriving at where they once were was a grotesque, huge creature holding a shopping cart in its hand. Though it was huge, it wasn't fat. Most of the mass on its body was huge muscles, putting professional bodybuilders to shame.
Wherever it went, there would be a trail of cracked tiles on the floor behind it. Its yellow eyes scanned around the room, looking for the source of the noise that interrupted its slumber.
Winter and Sage kept their distance, its tall build and heavy footsteps a dead giveaway on where it was walking towards. This game of cat and mouse went on for a few more minutes, the strander finally losing interest.
It walked back to its abode, doing one last sweep before shutting its eyes to rest.
Turning towards Winter, Sage immediately questioned in a hushed tone. "Why didn't we fight it? We probably could've won."
Winter glanced at her and saw she was genuinely perplexed, so he replied logically.
"There are two reasons. One, we don't know if we can beat it or not. I'm not one to gamble with my life. Two, if people know there's a strander here, and that's why they've been ignoring it—"
Understanding him, she added. "—That would mean more supplies for us."
"Exactly."
Sage pointed over the aisles. "So we just be extremely quiet to not wake it up again?"
Winter nodded his head and pointed at the supplies on the shelves.
"Shall we?"