The violent beam of light instantly pierced through the countless grotesque birds behind them, blasting the creatures into nothingness. This finally allowed Rias to slow down a little and recover some of her mana.
Unfortunately, even more of those monster birds were already rushing toward them.
Meanwhile—back on Leo's side…
He was inspecting the loot bags scattered across the ground.
Yes, the bags dropped after the zombies were killed earlier.
Because there had been so many corpses, he hadn't come down in the morning. After finishing his quests, he'd gone straight off to do all kinds of things with Tsunade. It wasn't until evening, when he was about to wrap things up, that he remembered the loot.
But the moment he opened those bags, Leo was completely stunned.
"Bandages! First-aid kits?! And a hundred rounds of ammo?!"
In front of him was a pile of bandages and medical kits.
There were even bullets!
Such an abundant haul?!
Am I… not cursed anymore?
Just as he was reeling from the unexpected generosity of his drops, Kelly—who had wandered over out of curiosity—let out a shout of disbelief.
"A cement mixer? Why would a zombie be carrying a cement mixer?! Then didn't I fix one for nothing?! And why is there a bicycle too?! And over six hundred forged steel—can zombies even carry this much?!"
As she spoke, she casually pulled a cement mixer and a bicycle out of her inventory. Cursing under her breath, she tossed the now-empty bag aside and opened another one.
"Huh? This makes way more sense. A level-five M60? Damn, that's good stuff! Leo! This is really good stuff!"
She waved the gun excitedly at Leo. He glanced at the medical kits, bandages, and the pitiful hundred bullets in his own bag and fell into silence.
Objectively speaking, his luck wasn't bad—but Kelly was just obscene.
"It's fine… Overpowered lucky people die young. Overpowered lucky people die young…"
Leo could only keep repeating that to comfort himself. But just as he was about to convince himself, Kelly's voice rang out again.
"Hey, Leo! Come take a look at this—what do you think this is?"
Leo assumed she was about to show off again and prepared a fake smile. But when Kelly placed a book in front of him, he froze.
The book clearly didn't match the aesthetic of this world at all.
Its title was—
Mind's Eye.
"Mind's Eye?"
Leo muttered the name, then instinctively looked at Kelly and asked,
"Are you missing a screw? Why would this drop for you?"
Kelly just smiled and racked the bolt of her newly acquired level-five M60.
"Don't think you can talk nonsense just because you assume I don't understand your so-called Chinese. I know exactly what you meant. If you pull that kind of joke again, I'll execute you on behalf of justice, you perverted insect."
As she spoke, she made a finger-gun gesture and flicked Leo on the forehead.
"Tch."
Leo scowled and looked down at the book's description. Then he froze.
Mind's Eye:
Use your mind to perceive all things. When attacked, increases evasion rate, making it harder for enemies to hit you. Also allows greater focus on observing what you are doing.
An introductory skill of Wave Power.
Upgrading this skill increases evasion rate, as well as the precision and range of mental perception.
Press E to use.
If not for that final line—"introductory skill of Wave Power"—Leo would have assumed this was just another Seven Days to Die skill book.
But that phrase changed everything.
This item came from Kelly's world.
In other words, Kelly killed Seven Days to Die zombies—and they dropped items from Arad.
"What the hell is going on…?"
Leo stared at the book in a daze.
"Huh? You've never seen this either?" Kelly asked, puzzled by his conflicted expression.
"Honestly? No."
Leo took the book out of his inventory and handed it back to Kelly. She, however, raised another identical book in her other hand and flashed a sly grin.
"Four of them dropped in total. That one's yours."
Leo blinked, then shook his head helplessly.
"Do whatever you want."
He looked down at the book titled Mind's Eye in his hands. As he hesitated, Kelly suddenly clutched her head and collapsed toward him.
Leo instinctively reached out to catch her—but his hand slipped into the opening of her low-cut outfit and slid inside.
If he hadn't reflexively grabbed her chest, Kelly would've hit the ground.
But Kelly had no attention to spare for that. Holding her head, she cried out in pain.
"Damn it—ow, ow, ow…"
Leo was at a loss when Kelly suddenly straightened up and slapped his hand away.
"I'm talking about you! That hurts like hell!"
She didn't hold back at all. Leo felt like his arm had been whipped by a leather lash and jerked it back—only to make Kelly gasp again.
"Ah—damn it! Can't you be more careful?!"
"Huh?"
Leo stared at her in confusion as Kelly rubbed her chest with her other hand, complaining as she did.
"Do you have any idea how rough your hands are?! And you grabbed so hard!"
Kelly clicked her tongue.
"I only got dizzy from using that book. You made me cry out in pain with one grab! Don't think everyone's Tsunade, okay?! And until you and her are done, don't touch me casually!"
She glared at Leo. She didn't mind him doing things with Tsunade before coming to her—but doing it together was a hard no.
And Leo's hands were way too rough. She had no idea how Tsunade managed to tolerate it.
"Well… can't help it. I do heavy labor every day…"
Leo awkwardly pulled his hand back. Constant manual work had long since covered his hands in calluses. Right after work, they were even worse—hurting someone was hardly surprising.
A good wash would help a lot.
"I know, I know. I've just never been grabbed like that before. And I suggest you use that thing before sleeping. The side effects are way too strong… my head's still spinning."
Kelly knocked on her own head again, her brows furrowing before she moved on to the next bag.
Still, she explained a bit more.
"But everything inside is real—it really works. When I used it, I felt some strange power enter my body, like I went through brutal training… though it doesn't mean much for me. And what's ridiculous is that when I tried to use skill points to upgrade it, it said 'cannot upgrade, conditions unknown, please explore.' You unlucky bastard should stop looting—leave it to me."
She waved her hand dismissively and kept rummaging through the bags, clearly hoping to find more items like that.
Leo looked at Kelly, then at the book in his hands. After a moment's thought, he took a deep breath.
Ignoring Kelly's advice, he pressed E and used the book.
Unlike Kelly, Leo knew exactly where this item came from. It was a prerequisite for a true supernatural power. There was no way he could suppress his excitement.
He lay down on the ground and activated it.
The instant he pressed E, his brain was flooded with vertigo. Countless memories poured into his mind. He felt himself constantly attacked by unseen enemies lurking in darkness—slashed, ambushed, hunted.
Only when he sensed danger in advance could he dodge the attack.
Again and again he evaded. Again and again he failed.
He had no idea how much time passed, or how many times he failed.
In the end—
He remembered the feeling.
That sensation of perceiving the world with his mind.
Then he woke up.
His head was still spinning. Groggily, he looked up and saw black dots scattered across the sky. Nearby, Kelly had only just finished opening another loot bag.
Clearly, while his experience had felt incredibly long, in reality only an instant had passed.
Leo struggled to his feet. His head still throbbed—it was obvious he wasn't recovering nearly as fast as Kelly.
He suspected the dizziness wouldn't fade for at least half a day.
And once again, he was reminded of something painfully clear.
Even with skill points boosting him—
The gap between him and true supernatural beings was still enormous.