Chapter 82 Climbing to the top (Norbert’sperspective)

“Good idea, my ass,” Norbert muttered to himself as he leaned out of the window.

It was located in a classroom nearest to the collapsed floor, and as such, climbing from this specific location gave him the best chance at reaching a place that would allow the policeman access to the top floor.

‘This doesn’t look safe at all,’ Norbert thought as he grabbed the drainpipe and shook his head.

There were two sets of metal bolts keeping the drainpipe attached to the wall. And while a single shake of Northert’s hand wasn’t anywhere enough to dislodge them, they didn’t look all that strong either.

Norbert then closed his eyes for a second, seemingly pushing his consciousness out of his body.

His vision suddenly turned blurry, as if two images had added up on top of each other. One of the images was the nice view that Norbert had from the window he was at. And the other image showcased the confines of the fire-emergency tunnel that Daniel broke into.

‘He is still climbing,’ Norbert thought as he took a deep breath and canceled the vision from his ability. ‘But that doesn’t mean I have a lot of time either,’ he thought.

“Here goes nothing,” he muttered to himself before gritting his teeth and grabbing the drainpipe, only to put his foot against the outer side of the wall and press out as much as he could.

‘Thankfully, this wall is quite easy to climb.’ Norbert smiled when he realized how easily his shoes stuck to the grainy texture of the cheap paint used to turn the compound a little nicer to the eye.

And so, Norbert started to climb, using the drain pipe as a climbing rope.

Step by step, he continued to push himself a little bit higher than before. And in just a few minutes, Norbert managed to reach the outer rim of the topmost window.

‘Should I try to enter from the roof?’ the relatively young policeman thought, looking up towards the upper end of the building.

Just like most of the brick-like buildings, the roof was only surrounded by a thin and insecure metal fence, something that a former soldier like Norbert could scale with his teeth and legs alone.

‘The question is, can I scale the last floor fast enough?’ Norbert thought before summoning his ability once again. And by closing his real eyes, he could now use his scout to its fullest potential.

‘The stairs from the roof are too far,’ Norbert realized after quickly flying with his ghost-like ability through the topmost floor of the building.

Despite how against the physics this ability seemed to go, the vision it provided was perfectly normal, as if it wasn’t a ghost created by some strange ability but a drone instead.

And then, Norbert’s ghost suddenly stopped.

The first reason was exactly the same one that caused his convulsions before. It was the sight of the bloody mess that the surviving students organized on the floor.

‘Poor girls,’ Norbert thought as he could only watch the bigger students currently making use of their physical advantage to force themselves on the few girls that saved their lives.

To the side, Norbert could see the clear second-class students, left with nothing but bound corpses of active zombies that managed to get away without that many repulsive injuries.

‘It’s like they organized an entire society based on sex,’ Norbert thought while his mood darkened.

The girls that were currently bound and used near a pillar of unburied corpses… they were all the same age as his little sister!

‘At this point, I can only hope she died the moments the zombies appeared,’ he thought, trying not to imagine the possible fate of his beloved sibling.

Norbert then shook his head before turning the vision of his ghost a little to the side.

And there it was, the main prize of the mission. And also the only element within Norbert’s ghost vision that looked different from how he saw it with his very own eyes.

‘The merchant,’ Norbert thought before pushing his ghost towards the area he believed the sealed entrance to the fire shaft was.

And just when Norbert found the seal, a loud bang attracted everyone’s attention to it.

“What was that?!” one of the burly students turned his head to the side, right to where the noise came from. He then pushed himself on his knees to the back, moving away from between the legs of some unlucky victim of this new, rotten society.

‘At least she didn’t need to suffer all that much,’ Norbert thought coldly when he caught a glimpse of the punny dick that the rapist was cursed with. And given how he was just interrupted in the middle of the act…

‘I bet he tries to raise his own self-worth by forcing himself on the girls,’ Norbert thought.

He threw only a single glance at the lifeless face of the girl.

From her expression, it was clear that she was long broken, no longer able to accept the reality around her. Her eyes were empty, and she didn’t even bother to cover herself up when her oppressor ceased his act.

‘Poor girl,’ Norbert thought before turning his attention back to observing how the students would react.

THUD.

This time, he could also hear the sound of Daniel’s fist striking against the concrete of the seal.

“I heard it too!” More and more students moved away from their tasks or ill pleasures only to gather around the part of the wall that sealed off the shaft’s exit.

‘This is a perfect opportunity,’ Norbert thought, pulling himself up to the edge of the window. And yet, right as he was about to jump inside and rush towards the merchant…

Another student walked out of one of the few rooms on the topmost floor. Right behind him, a group of two girls and three men followed.

Yet, while that spoke a lot about their hierarchy within the group of survivors, there was something else that made blood within Norbert’s veins freeze.

The man at the front didn’t bother to look in the direction everyone else gathered up. Instead, he intentionally ignored it as his eyes scanned the area, only to then rest for a while on the location of the merchant.

“They finally came,” he said in a low voice, a voice that Norbert could only hear thanks to his ghost.

The massive student then reached to his belt before pulling out the standard-issue handgun, exactly the same as the one Norbert had to leave back in the classroom he climbed out from.

“Do you really need us?” one of the men from behind asked, only to reach out and directly grab at the chest of one of the girls. “I really wanted to try the double penetration!” he announced, quickly proving that even the upper echelons of this strange society they built over just a few hours weren’t free from the sexual exploitation either.

‘A bunch of horny monsters,’ Norbert thought, his soul filling with rage.

At this point, he didn’t even need to picture his sister as one of their slaves. Just the sight of the faces of the bastards responsible for such a sick den was enough to fire his soul up.

“This is likely a distraction,” the clear leader of the group announced. He then turned around and pointed his gun at one of the girls chained to the wall.

‘Those handcuffs…’ Norbert thought, gritting his teeth in mute fury.

There was only one place where that gun or those handcuffs could come from. And this place was the corpses of his colleagues!

“I need two guys at each staircase; the rest shall guard this wall,” the leader announced after a moment of hesitation. “Just in case they want to make us think it is a distraction,” he ordered, only for an evil-looking smile to appear on his lips.

THUD!

The sound of Daniel’s hit turned out to be far greater than any of the former ones.

‘Now!’ Norbert thought, pulling himself up over the ridge of the broken window.

He managed to fall inside, rolling on the floor to soften his landing and make himself harder to notice.

The leader of the students turned his head around, most likely alerted by the noise Norbert made.

But it was too late.

As soon as Norbert finished his roll, he ended up curled on the ground, with his legs tensed up and face directed at the merchant’s figure.

And so, with one fluid motion, Norbert released his tensed-up muscles, springing up and leaping right towards the merchant.

“OVER THERE!” the leader of the students raised his hand and shouted.

But it was too little too late.

‘Got you!’ Norbert thought when he grasped the darkness hiding underneath the veil of the merchant. And then, he brought his fingers together, only for a shadowy realm to explore and expand all around!

‘What is this…?’ Norbert thought, stunned by the sudden change in the situation.

He could no longer feel the animosity of the students. He couldn’t establish contact with his scouting ability either, as if something either cut the connection off or as if he ended up in a place completely separated from the real world.

Yet, for how fascinating this shadowy realm was… it was also as empty as it could be. Besides the strange mist that hung low above the ground, there wasn’t anything of interest there.

‘If it’s empty, how did he get those supplies out of here?’ Norbert thought before gritting his teeth, pulling out his stashed cores, and throwing them in the air.

“I want to summon a system user named Mathew from the location within this school’s compound right to this place!” he shouted, only for a crazed smile to appear on Norbert’s lips. “I offer all the cores that I brought!”