Chapter 66: Helping Some Citizens Along The Way

Seattle was just... destroyed. Before I slept, it was already looking pretty bad with the fallen buildings, fires all over the place, wrecked cars, and destroyed roads.

But now? It was much worse. I spotted massive craters and more and more buildings completely destroyed. The whole place looked like a bomb had been dropped on it or something.

I couldn’t believe it. If I still had any doubts about whether things were going bad or not, now I was sure. We were screwed.

The first thing I thought about was running to a safer place and slowly getting strong so I wouldn’t have to fear any of that. But no, I had fucking Zeph with me that I needed to take care of. Just wonderful.

Maybe I could just throw him on that mountain and disappear. Would that come back to haunt me? I wasn’t sure...

Balthazar had asked me to take care of the bastard, and Balthazar was someone I was quite scared of now, considering everything he knew and how powerful he was. Perhaps I should actually bring Zeph back to his family.

In all honesty, if they gave me a decent reward for saving his ass, then it would be worth it in the end.

So, with a clear goal in mind and knowing exactly where to go, I moved. Flying there wasn’t a good idea, just like before when I fled the academy. It would draw too much attention.

Seattle and its surroundings were certainly packed with monsters, villains, and even hunters who might do bad things for their survival. I didn’t want to be chased down by them.

I ran down the mountain, jumping from tree to tree, swiftly reaching the base without much problem. No monster saw me, or if they did, they didn’t bother chasing me with my current speed.

To reach Lake Crescent from where I was, I would have to go to Everett, then fly from there to Port Angeles, and then reach Lake Crescent from there. ℯℯ𝘭.

It wasn’t as bad as going through the center of Seattle, for sure, but that didn’t mean things would be easy for me. Not just Seattle but the areas surrounding it were getting pretty damn dangerous.

I ran non-stop, barely letting my feet touch the ground before picking them up again. My movements barely made any sound as I traversed the forest, going straight for Everett. It took me about 2 hours to get there, which was better than I expected.

Right as I was about to reach Everett, I spotted two groups of people. I thought I would see monsters first, considering this massive invasion going on, but no, I saw humans first.

They were clearly fighting against each other, or about to. I quickly hid behind one of the trees. No one noticed me. Or if they did, they were faking it damn well.

"Give me your backpack," someone from one of the groups yelled. "I need it."

It was a fight over supplies. Were things already that bad, with people scraping for supplies? Damn. This was quickly turning into a fucking mess.

"No," a girl with bangs shouted back, retreating a few steps while firmly holding her backpack. "You can easily get food and water if you want to. Why are you stealing from me?"

"Easily?" the man was visibly angry. "If I was awakened, then yes. But we ordinary people can’t have that luxury. We’re fighting for our survival here."

He wasn’t wrong. With the whole mess going on, I could easily hunt animals or even eat beast meat if I needed to. My tremendously powerful body and cube were the best weapons to hunt things down.

But an ordinary human? What could they do? Even if they had a firearm to hunt, it wasn’t that easy to track down animals. Plus, the forest wasn’t a safe place.

However, I couldn’t just let him steal from that poor young lady like that. She didn’t deserve it.

I left my cover and walked toward them. The group consisted of 3 people on each side. One side was clearly just trying to steal supplies, so I sort of knew who I would stand for.

When they saw me approaching, a man with no weapons and ragged clothes who didn’t look scary enough, the man, the same one who had been yelling moments ago, shouted again.

"Who is this? Your boyfriend?" he said, moving his gaze between us. "Step away, or this will get ugly. I won’t hurt her, but you? I’ll beat your ass up."

People were really aggressive in times like those. Everyone was on edge, doing everything they could to survive.

"Are you sure you want to fight me?" I said, smirking.

I thought about just telling him I was a hunter, but why spoil the fun? I wanted to see how far he would go for those supplies.

I kept moving toward him, and once I was really close, the man finally made his move. He came at me with his fist closed, throwing a punch right into my face. He smiled when he noticed I wasn’t moving at all. However, his smile disappeared when he saw that I hadn’t taken any damage. It was as if he hadn’t punched me in the first place.

"I’ll ask you again, are you sure you want to fight me?"

The man wasn’t all stupid. He linked things together and realized I wasn’t someone ordinary.

"A-Are you a hunter by any chance?" he asked me.

"Indeed," I said. "Did she steal from you, or are you just trying to steal from her?"

The possibility existed, so I just wanted to make sure that was out of the way before judging the situation.

He was much more respectful now.

"No, sir. We were trying to steal it... But understand our side too," he said. "We don’t have supplies to last long. What are we going to do? Seattle is ruined, and the nearby cities are in a shitty state too. We won’t get enough food."

What the fuck could I do? That was the thought crossing my mind. The problem was way bigger than my current solving capabilities. It wasn’t like I could just give shelter and food to everyone I met.

"Why can’t you get supplies for your group? Are the market shelves empty or what?"

It couldn’t be that bad already, or was it?

"There are supplies in the markets still, sir, but the city has too many monsters. Most of the markets have rift monsters inside, so we normal people can’t get in. And the hunters are more focused on protecting the main Hunter Society building in Seattle and trying to reclaim the city."

I sighed. It was pretty obvious that the hunters and the Hunter Society would focus their attention on Seattle and all the other ’major’ cities across the country. No one would waste time and effort reclaiming small towns.

I had to go through the city anyway, so why not help them? It wouldn’t take me long, probably.

"I’ll clear a market for you," I said. "Then you can go there and fill up on supplies. Do you guys have a car?"

"Really? Will you do that?"

The tension in the air vanished completely. They weren’t trying to murder each other anymore, which was good. Really good.

"Do you have a car?" I asked.

We took two cars and drove through the city, heading toward the closest supermarket that still had items inside.

I was inside one of the cars, just cruising along, looking outside through the window.

Eventually, even before we reached one of the supermarkets, a monster jumped in front of our car.

"Sir, we have a problem," the man from before warned me. "A monster on the road."

I didn’t even move my body. I just summoned my cube, turned it into a massive hammer, and smashed the monster into a pulp. Everyone was shocked to see my display of power.

It wasn’t every day that they saw hunters fight right in front of their eyes. That was something they usually saw on TV or the Internet.

"That’s the supermarket," the man said, pointing at it for me to see.

There was a monster right in front of it. A troll. Those creatures loved to eat, so it made sense that they were protecting the supermarket, not letting anyone get near and steal their food.

"Wait here," I said. "It won’t take long."

I left the car and walked toward the troll, which instantly spotted me. The creature was tall, at least 9 feet, with green skin and a wooden club in its hand. The creature’s nose was so big and pointed that I almost laughed while staring at it.

"So, it’s time to show them who’s the real danger around here..." I murmured.

The poor little creature would regret standing in my way. I had to quickly finish that task and leave the city before that fucking Zeph died for good.