Chapter 298 - Decision

I could only assume that whoever went on the rampage with the intention of burying anything that was ever connected to me, didn't know about this last business of mine. This was so far the only good piece of news that I found in this city so far.

Despite scavenging it for about an hour already, the essences clashing site was the first place that looked promising enough to warrant my utmost attention.

From the outside, it looked like just any other industrial building of the city,  with just the right amount of architectural decorations to not stand out amongst the neighbouring places.

With all the commotion that I was causing so far, I decided it was time to stop with acting so nonchalantly. Even if assimilating the entropy boosted my strength to some degree, if an enemy equal to the protector from before arrived here, I would be doomed.

I guess my emotions took better of me.

Entering the building properly through the door, I skimmed through all the rooms that were supposed to be used by everyone who wanted to take part in this experiment and went straight to the warehouse area.

This was my very first jackpot.

Even if barely half of the dildos was brimming with the energy, I could thank myself for working so hard to make them because I could get quite a haul of attribute points from them now!

Not sure whether I would be able to construct a proper teleportation anchor to enable the use of my storage rings, I tore down the curtains from the windows and made a makeshift backpack with them.

Throwing all of the loaded dildos inside, I went outside while making sure to close all the doors behind me. There was no reason to leave any clues for later investigations that were bound to happen when all the zombies would die off and experts from the sects would come to reclaim this land.

Directing my steps to the north, I ran towards the great market, hoping to find something interesting there. Worst case scenario, if the materials there wouldn't be up to my standard, I would just use my randomising tool to get some items, equip them and save the space in the bag.

Arriving in the plaza that served as the entrance to the market brought as much grief as joy. Even when taking all the zombies there out of the account, it was still littered with corpses. No matter the strength of the person, everyone was equal for the grim reaper.

Since it proved to be effective so far, I continued to use small whisps of entropy to upset the balance of the energy inside the zombies that were trying to attack me. This by itself was quite a puzzling sight, when their bodies composed of both the bones and the muscle matter, were suddenly losing all cohesiveness and falling apart, yet proved to be resistant to the natural decay that I could observe so far in my fights with the beasts back on the island.

As if zombification changed something very basic in the composition of the bodies of the victims, their energy was no longer able to return to the world, leaving a trail of stinking mess behind me.

At least the haul from this place proved to be worth my time. Even if it was a far cry from the materials that Venna provided me with back when I was crafting my weapons, as a beggar, I couldn't be a chooser.

When I was dropping yet another lump of ore brimming with the energy, I felt fluctuations of mana somewhere in the distance. Since all the zombies were a product of Bonger's shenanigans, I really doubted that some kind of mutant capable of wielding the energy would appear, meaning that most probably, experts from the local sect's have arrived!

I had no idea whether they were just a bunch of small fries or people of the class similar to the protector I fought back then, so to avoid any mishaps, I condensed all my mana and aura within the confines of my body and jumped into a nearby pile of rubble.

"...telling you! It's just some kind of idiot trying his luck!"

It didn't take long for a group of people to approach my hideout. Either I wasn't careful while loosely covering my tracks, or they just had the bad day to approach me.

"Idiot? Do you really think that a simple idiot would be able to break the seals on this place?"

That was a bit of usefull information! If there were seals all over the place, that would explain how they could more or less track my movements!

As a kind of stale energy, it was nigh indistinguishable from the free energy of the world, making it hard even for me to notice it. But since it didn't really hinder one's movement, it wasn't able to rely on any information about the power level of the one breaking them!

I had to make a decision soon. Kill them and run, or just wait till they pass through my spot and risk being discovered while scavenging for more resources?

With my prime objective being the gathering of anything that could be usefull for the development of my small world, it would be a pity to just bail out because of those small fries!

"I don't change the fact that we need to get rid of him. Be it weak or strong, if he upsets the balance of the barrier, all those zombies would be released to the outside world. I don't want to think about what would happen then and we still need some time to prepare for the purge!"

With this bit of conversation happening just as they passed by my hideout, I could finally allow myself to scan them out with my energetical vision. From their words, I assumed they were some kind of weak cultivators sent on a mundane work, but upon realising that they were near the pinnacle of the spirit realm, my guess got shoved back down my ass.

If those people were small fries, then there was no way I could fight with the force they were preparing for the purge!

While this held true, it also proved to be a quite difficult problem, with pros and cons to all the decisions I could make.

If I were to leave soon to avoid any further conflict, I would be unable to collect anything else from the city, leaving me only with the insanely risky option of travelling to the other islands or teleporting to random places.

If I were to stay and somehow break the barrier, I would inflict some losses on their unprepared force, but it would most probably end up with escalating the number of innocent casualties, which I didn't really want to see happen.

So in the end, it all boiled to the problem of my own gain and the moral cost of risking other peoples lives?

While I could do nothing about the people that already died, I didn't turn into such a monster yet!

I don't know what the future will bring to me, but if I were to unleash hell upon innocent souls only for the sake of growing in strength and healing Eve with it, I wouldn't be able to look her in the eyes after she would wake up!