Many of the survivors began trading with each other before entering the red portal.
The main goal, of course, was to get a "Black" or "White" type equipment that fits perfectly with their stat build.
Some offered food that they brought, while others offered System potions and non-System items like bullets, grenades and other things.
The trading lasted almost 10 minutes before everyone began to discuss what to do next.
While they were discussing, there were a few people trying to search for others undiscovered or untouched loots around the area.
One of them was Nathan's burnt body.
A man, who was part of the Asian group, went over to check Nathan's body.
The smell of the burnt flesh coming from the body wasn't as strong as compared to earlier where just a sniff of it made one want to puke.
The hair and the non-System clothes on the body were burned away.
Almost all of the visible skin turned to charcoal, while the parts that didn't were just one step away from turning into charcoal.
Meanwhile, the skin that was hidden beneath the System items, due to the intense heat earlier, the skin and equipment got stuck together.
One would have to clean the equipment first before wearing it.
And as for his gunshot wounds, thanks to the heat that burned his skin, in a way, it more or less slowed down the bleeding.
The man noticed a small pouch around the body's waist.
It seemed that it was still in good condition despite the severe burns and shooting earlier.
Thinking that he was so lucky, he immediately reached out for the pouch.
When his hand was just a few centimeters from touching it, Nathan suddenly opened his eyes and grabbed onto the man's wrist.
"Ughhhhhhh…!" Nathan groaned in pain.
He could feel his skin peeling away from his System items due to the sudden movement -- and that was just one of the pains he was experiencing.
However, his eyes were full of vitality and… immense hatred.
"The fuck!" The man fell pulled his wrist away from Nathan's hold and fell on his butt.
Everyone turned to look at the man who shouted.
There, they saw Nathan, a burnt corpse, yet still alive.
The man who tried to loot from Nathan got up and ran back to his group.
"You chicken shit. That man is already half-dead," said another member of the Asian group to the man who tried to loot from Nathan.
He was about was to go over to Nathan and end his misery when suddenly…
"Let me finish him," Crawler said as he pulled out a dagger and head to where Nathan was going.
He hasn't forgotten how Nathan beat him up at Cram city.
This was going to be his revenge.
The man looked over at Crawler for a moment before backing out.
"Make it quick," Rose said on the side. Her voice held no emotion as if it was just a normal matter.
Derek and Ashleigh couldn't help but notice it.
In the case of Derek, as much as he didn't like Nathan, he already started to have some doubts regarding Rose's true personality after that night he fought Nathan.
As for Ashleigh, she started to wonder if she really knew who Rose is and if it's safe to continue being around her.
Of course, she talked with Derek and he told her that he was thinking of leaving Red Dust one of these days to look for some people that he cared about.
"Wait!" Someone suddenly said.
Crawler stopped and everyone turned towards the person who said it.
It was Joseph.
"The guy is a Chosen One, right?"
"He's a killer. Don't bother," R.R. said on the side.
"Shut the fuck up, Terminator Dark Fate. As if you people aren't killers," said a person from Harry's group.
"What did you say?! I dare you to say that again!" R.R. said.
"What are you going to do, Terminator Dark Fate? Come on!"
The other members of the group began to join in as well.
Harry and Rose's group were already not in peaceful terms to begin with. So any slight altercation could no doubt disrupt their temporary ceasefire and lead to bloodshed.
"Everyone! Please calm down. We don't have time to waste. We have limited resources and we need to make a decision right away," said a man from the military group.
It was the sergeant that Nathan saw last night who was forced to enter the Divine Tower in order to escape the 3m-tall zombies.
"For once, a military dog is talking some sense," said a man from the Asian group.
"Why don't you come over here and I'll show you other things that we do right?" said a man from the military group.
"Suck my dick, military dog."
"Not possible. Your dick too small to begin it."
The Asian man pulled out a gun and pointed it at the military man.
"Let me hear you say that again!"
"Wait, what? So if it's big he would be willing to suck it? That didn't sound right," commented a person on the side.
The other member of both sides pulled out their weapons as well.
This Asian group was one of the groups that band together in the East of Cram city to fight the government.
"Stand down! I said, stand the fuck down!" Captain Barlow ordered his troops which they immediately followed.
He looked over at the leaders of the Asian group.
They were two men: a Chosen One that could transform into a werebat, while the other was still unknown because he hasn't shown his powers yet.
"You won't stand down? I don't mind dying in battle. However, I don't want my men to die a senseless death!" said Captain Barlow.
The Werebat Chosen One snorted before he looked at his companions and nodded.
They put down their weapons as well.
"Now, finish that Chosen One immediately so that we can resume our discussion for our next plan of action. As I proposed earlier --"
"Hey, why are you acting like you're the leader here? You dare to ignore me? I asked if that person is a Chosen One or not," Joseph said.
"He's already half-dead. He would only be a burden," Rose said as she signaled to Crawler.
Crawler resumed heading to Nathan.
"Don't you fucking move, motherfucker!" Joseph aimed at gun at Crawler. "I swear to God, I will fucking blow your brains out!"
"Put down that weapon or the ceasefire ends now!" Rose roared.
"Who the fuck are you to give me orders?!" Joseph said and looked over at Harry, signaling him that there's something wrong here.
Based on what he was seeing, it was as if Rose feared this Nathan guy. And he couldn't blame them after witnessing his powers.
Harry pondered for a very quick moment before opening his mouth.
"Rose, don't think you can fool everyone here. It's quite obvious what you're trying to do. The military and Asian group have 2 Chosen Ones, while my group only has 1. But your group… You have 3."
Rose was silent.
An uneasy feeling welled up inside of her.
Harry continued, "Now that there's an unaffiliated Chosen One who also happens to have some conflict with you, you want to kill him right away. No matter how we see it, the only group that will benefit from killing him is yours."
Hearing what Harry said, everyone started to look at Rose suspiciously.
During the fight earlier, the only people that Nathan attacked was Rose's group. He didn't touch any of them.
And in the case of the military group, given that they have an alliance with Red Dust, they were forced to help.
Rose turned to Captain Barlow to see if she could as for support. However, the expression written on his face told her everything she needed to know.
He too was displeased that Rose's group was the most powerful here in terms of Chosen One powers.
Most of the people who entered the Divine Tower didn't come here to hold hands together to complete it.
They were driven by the unique items and the [Artifact] grade items that the System mentioned when the Second Phase began.
It was too dangerous to have Red Dust hold too much power.
"Hmph! That person will only give you problems. You will be lucky if that person would even follow your orders," said Rose.
"You really want him dead, don't you? Do you fear him that much? Make him even worth recruiting," said Harry and sneered.
"Just a piece of friendly advice."
"Yeah, right," said Joseph on the side.
Rose signaled Crawler to return.
"Fucking lucky bastard!" Crawler spat on the ground before returning to the group.
"Now, let's discuss who will have that Chosen One."
***
Nathan who was silently suffering extreme pain heard everything.
He felt so insulted.
He, a Chosen One, was treated like a product by these people who have no choice but to group together because they were weak!
They didn't even bother to ask for his opinion first.
How dare they!
No matter what happens here, he will definitely kill everyone here to wash away the humiliation he felt today -- of course, he still wanted to torture Ashleigh and Rose.
If word gets out that he survived here due to pity, he would rather kill himself than live out the rest of his life carrying this great shame.
*********************************************
Author's thoughts:
I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Thank you for reading!
Hello, sorry for not posting the 3rd chapter for last week last Saturday.
I was fired from one of my jobs.
I mean, I knew it was going to happen because there were signs. But I chose to ignore it and didn't want to accept it because I worked for that company for I think almost 2 years... I guess? I don't remember. I'm still recovering from a hangover.
Anyway, so after I was done with my other job for that day, I went out with my friends to drink like crazy -- yeah, I know it wasn't the smartest idea but I was just depressed and it felt the right thing to do at that time. LOL.
And the next day, waking up with a crazy hangover, I just shut myself inside my room and watched Silent Hill videos the whole day.
I'm fine now if you're wondering. And on the bright side, while I'm still looking for a new job to replace one of the jobs that I lost, I have more time to write.
So anyway, this chapter is for the 3rd chapter that I failed to post last week.
To those people who voted with their power stones, I would like to thank these Power Immortal Voters:
• AreuShura
• shayan_mohebbi
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• Nea7
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• MyRedeemerLives
• M1keN10 (Third Seat Power Immortal)
• Passs3rby
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• wunderwave
To those who want to help this immortal in his path to immortality in writing his first immortal book, you can consider these two other immortal positions:
The first immortal position is to become one of my Immortal Patrons at P-a-t-r-e-o-n and have access to my "chapter drafts" for only $5 a month.
• https://www.patreon.com/Immortal_Shades
Please note that to view my P-a-t-r-e-o-n page, you need to enter the link I posted above and replace the asterisk symbols with the appropriate words. My page doesn't appear on the search list because it's marked with adult content. Moreover, the chapters posted there are only drafts. So when I will publish them here, there will be some edits.
By the way, I also posted the draft of [Chapter 102] and [Chapter 103] there.
With that, I want to give my special thanks to the Immortal Patron(s) for January 2019:
• Teltaios
• chan
The second immortal position is becoming an Immortal Donator by sending it to my PayPal address.
• immortalshades123@gmail.com
This Grandmaster Immortal would be eternally grateful to you... *Kowtows 3 times*
Thank you once again and I'll see you in the next chapter.