While Ryan and the others were waiting to put their plans in motion, Zane had gone out early in the morning after returning from his daily scavenging, and had spent the early morning clearing the undead from the school grounds.
The fact of the matter was prior to the apocalypse, this high school boasted some 3,000+ students, and enough faculty to look after them all. By now, less than a hundred were still breathing. The others had all either been devoured by the Undead or turned into one of them.
And though Zane and his followers had cleared a significant number of Undead from the School Grounds, there were always more entering the campus. Or there had been prior to Zane locking the gates that sealed off the local high school from the rest of the city.
Of course, the Stalker was intelligent and capable enough to unlock said gates and allow access to the school grounds once more for its fellow undead. But for some time now, whenever Zane inspected this matter, he found that the gates were only ever opened by living beings, whether that be himself, or Ryan's unfortunate scouting parties.
This was, of course, a peculiarity, but one Zane did not have the time, nor the concern, to investigate. Thus, he spent the entire morning killing Walkers with his makeshift club, before finally returning to his encampment in the high school's second building.
Zane had recovered a decent amount of blood crystals. Enough so that he was forced to debate with himself about whether or not he should consume them, or distribute them to Elena and Olivia. After all, though, he was the highest level among the current awakened survivors, at least among those he had met.
Zane's skill was passive and showed no sign of advancing into what one might call an active skill.
It became abundantly clear to him during the battle with the abomination just how useful Elena and Olivia were in fights against more powerful enemies. When his rifle had failed him, the two women by his side managed to come through and save his hide.
That was a sentiment Zane never thought he would ever express in his life, but it was true. And because of this, he clutched the small bag which he kept his blood crystals in while coming to a proper decision. When Zane returned, he found that his former homeroom teacher was actually sleeping in his room. Or at least the classroom which he made his temporary quarters out of.
"That's right, I've got enough for you and Elena to reach level two... I just need to go find the bitch, and drag her ass in here so I can keep watch over the two of you..."
Olivia frowned when Zane called Elena a bitch. After all, if the little dispute the two women had in the hallway confirmed one thing, it was that Elena clearly cared for Zane. But Zane did not seem to care that Olivia appeared angry at him, and he instead walked off to go fetch the crimson haired beauty who had had once been so close to.
As Olivia sighed and popped the first blood crystal in her mouth, she thought about just what had gone so terribly wrong for Elena and Zane to have such a complicated and outright terrible relationship. That is until Olivia felt an overwhelming sense of pain take control over her body, as well as witnessing the blood-red letters of the system display themselves to her.
---
[Blood Crystal Consumed!]
[Debuff Applied: Corruption]
[+8 XP]
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This would be the first of many such messages that both Olivia and Elena witnessed throughout a long and painful day.