Right now, Sam was like an industrial-grade snack shredder just switched on at full power.
He violently ripped open packages of various candies, cookies, and beef jerky, then indiscriminately stuffed them all into his mouth.
His teeth chewed at high speed, making sickening crunching sounds, as if performing a final crushing and reorganization on these poor snacks before converting them into pure energy and continuously feeding them into Sam, this newly upgraded 'super factory'.
He also chugged several bottles of ice-cold cola like a thirsty buffalo, the cold liquid sliding down his throat, washing away some of the post-battle heat.
He rarely devoured junk food like this, as if in some eating contest, but it was all that was left in this looted convenience store.
Filling up this ravenous 'new body' came first.
When Sam let out a satisfied belch after finishing a bottle of soda, his feet now surrounded by four or five empty cans, he finally tore his gaze away from the shelves and turned towards the female clerk who had been cowering in the corner, still shaken.
"Hey," Sam spoke, his voice slightly muffled from just eating, "Want something to drink? I figure your unlucky boss probably won't be paying out this month's wages. Consider this an advance, take a soda to cover it."
Seeing the girl looking tense and ready to cry, he casually grabbed another bottle of what looked like still-cold lemon soda from the cooler and handed it over.
"Oh, right," he added as if suddenly remembering, a faint smirk playing on his lips, "You… aren't actually going to charge me, are you?"
Honestly, if this girl had the incredibly inappropriate humor to ask him for money right now, Sam might actually be pleasantly surprised, even find her interesting enough to chat with for a bit—of course, he still wouldn't pay a cent.
"Th-thank you." The girl was clearly stunned for a moment, seemingly unable to believe that this police officer, who had just dispatched two vicious thugs like an action movie star, would say this as his first words to her.
She hesitated for a few seconds before finally accepting the soda Sam offered.
The cold bottle made her fingers, stiff with fear, tremble slightly.
Only now did Sam get a chance to really look at the girl before him.
She looked mixed-race, perhaps with Latin or Southeast Asian heritage.
Her skin was a healthy tan, her features defined and delicate.
Her eye sockets were slightly deep, making her large brown eyes seem exceptionally bright and beautiful, currently glistening with unshed tears from terror, like a startled fawn.
Smooth brown hair lay messily against her cheeks, her facial lines soft, carrying the unique youthfulness and gentle beauty of a girl in her early twenties.
All in all, she was a pretty girl who would normally make people take a second look, though now that beauty was overshadowed by fear and despair.
"Name's Sam. Of course, you can call me Officer, or even handsome, I don't mind either." Sam casually grabbed a pack of mints from the shelf, tore it open, and popped one into his mouth.
A cool, sweet sensation instantly exploded in his mouth, refreshing him.
"I… I'm Vanessa." The girl's voice still trembled noticeably; she clearly hadn't fully recovered from the bloody scene and the threat of the two thugs.
She subconsciously hugged her arms tighter, her eyes wary, as if remembering something, and then added with deliberate emphasis, "I… I have a boyfriend. His name is Ryan."
"Got it, Vanessa." Sam raised an eyebrow, indifferent to her self-protective declaration.
He certainly wasn't going to make a move on this traumatized girl—not because he'd suddenly developed a conscience or some noble moral code (honestly, he wasn't even sure if he had any so-called principles), but purely for some… well, personal reasons that weren't convenient to elaborate on right now.
(Not because of ED or not liking women, the answer to this question will be explained at the end of this volume.)
"So, what's your plan now?" Sam had already grabbed a plastic bag emblazoned with the convenience store logo from nearby and started stuffing things into it, prioritizing high-calorie, quick-energy junk food—chocolate bars, chips, energy bars, the more the better.
"I… I don't know…" Vanessa was still slumped on the floor in the corner, hugging her knees, her voice barely a whisper. "Outside… it's so scary out there right now…"
"Yeah, it is pretty dangerous outside." Sam mumbled indistinctly, chewing on a chocolate bar he'd just stuffed in his mouth, while suggesting in a tone that implied 'see how considerate I am', "Staying here isn't bad, actually. Got food, drinks, the door's barricaded pretty solid. You could stay safe here for quite a while."
He could feel the strange changes happening inside his body, the food he'd just swallowed felt like it was being thrown into a high-efficiency furnace, converting into pure energy at an astonishing rate and being delivered throughout his limbs.
It felt like plugging a nearly dead quick-charge battery into an ultra-high-power charger; his whole body's 'charge' was rapidly recovering.
"Oh, right," Sam's sharp gaze swept over the small flip phone Vanessa was clutching tightly in her hand—her tense knuckles and occasional glances at the phone screen clearly indicated she was looking for a chance to make a call. "You're not thinking of calling your boyfriend or 911, are you?"
He offered a piece of well-intentioned advice, "I'd advise against it. Call the police department? I'm 100% sure it's even more chaotic there than here, nobody will answer. Call someone else? Besides putting them in danger too, or making you more upset with their crying, it won't do any good. Of course, if you just want to listen to some MP3s to relax, go ahead—just remember to use headphones, or keep the volume at minimum. Otherwise, if those zombies outside hear the music and start partying along, things could get messy."
After casually giving his advice, Sam paid no more attention to Vanessa's reaction.
He had already filled a large bag with snacks and drinks.
His next target was the second floor.
He planned to jump out the window from there – although he noticed earlier the convenience store had a back door, jumping out the window was about the same to him.
And then… head straight for the nearest liquor store.
Grab a few bottles of hard liquor, and see if he could 'borrow' a portable DVD player and some movie discs along the way – there were quite a few good movies in the early 2000s.
If he could find a safe enough room where he could watch movies and drink, tonight would be absolutely awesome.
Sam picked up the heavy bag of 'loot' and had just turned to head towards the second-floor window when a timid, tearful female voice came from behind him:
"Off… Officer. Please… please wait. Um… could you, help me?"
"Hmm?" Sam stopped, turning back somewhat impatiently.
He had already planned his route for the 'happy night plan', what did this woman want now?
Vanessa struggled up from the floor and ran a few steps towards him, rambling urgently, "It's… it's my boyfriend Ryan. He said he'd come home early from work today. He's a graduate student at the university nearby, he's really smart and strong. Maybe… maybe he's already home. Or on his way home. I…"
Her eyes reddened again, tears welling up, looking at Sam with pleading, watery eyes.
"My home is nearby. That apartment building on the corner. It's less than three hundred meters away, really. Please, Officer, could you… could you take me home? I'm so scared…"
Sam looked Vanessa up and down as if she were an idiot.
Is she crazy? he thought.
Man-eating monsters were outside, yet she didn't want to stay in this relatively safe convenience store, but wanted to go back to an apartment that god knows if zombies had broken into?
And she still expected her 'excellent' graduate student boyfriend to walk through these hellish streets unscathed to get home?
Her imagination was wilder than his when he was drunk.
"Please, Officer." Seeing Sam unmoved, Vanessa clasped her hands together tightly, bowed her head deeply, pleading in an extremely humble posture, her voice trembling violently with fear and sobs. "I really… I really can't stay here alone… Please take me home…"
"If you're scared of the corpse next to you, I can throw it out for you." Sam frowned, trying the most practical way to dissuade her.
In his view, this woman was probably just terrified by the dead male clerk lying nearby and the two thugs from earlier, now just wanting to curl up somewhere she thought was safe.
However, just as he was about to refuse again, the familiar pale blue panel forcibly popped up before his eyes:
System Mission Issued: Escort Survivor Objective: Escort Vanessa safely back to her home in the nearby apartment building. Mission Reward: +100 Hope Points. Mission Failure Penalty: -50 Hope Points.
[Fuck. Couldn't you have popped up earlier or later, why bother me now?] Sam cursed fiercely in his mind.
He gritted his teeth in frustration, his gaze flickering between the system panel and the pretty woman before him, head bowed, shoulders shaking slightly from sobbing…
Honestly, a mere 50-point penalty was nothing to him, he could completely ignore this mission and just leave.
But… looking at her pitiful state, and the system's blatant 'reward'…
…Damn it, guess I'm just in a particularly good mood today.
"Alright, get up." Sam sighed, casually placing the bag of snacks on a nearby shelf. "First, tell me exactly which building and which unit is yours."
He could always come back for these snacks after escorting her.
"Re… Really? That's great. Officer. Thank you so much. You're such a good person." Vanessa looked up abruptly, her face instantly blooming with a mixture of tears and ecstatic joy.
She repeated her thanks incoherently, then immediately began to describe her apartment's location and what she knew about the nearby situation in detail to Sam…