บท 14: Progress
In his previous life, Brick was an average person with nothing special about him.
He could stand in a large crowd and be unable to stand out for his looks, his personality or his abilities.
If there was one defining trait then it was that he was the type to get lost in web novels as he escaped his boring life.
Escapism was a regular term which was brought up when he had visited his doctor and he was recommended to take up more active and outdoor activities.
He enjoyed all kinds of stories that were available to read online without there being a cost to look through them, there were many worlds which had been written up by amateur or professional authors which featured many types of worlds and settings.
He often imagined himself as a main character or a side character in the story and thought about how he would do things if he was in that kind of world.
If an author had left him unsatisfied then he would tell them through his reviews and comments.
While there were times when he was very critical of their work and ranted on about the points which had annoyed him, he tried his best to avoid being flagged as abusive.
One day he stumbled upon a new web novel which was a typical revenge type novel where the female lead would go from weak to strong until she gets her vengeance and discovers clues about the apocalypse including the details about who was working behind the scenes to harm her during both of her lifetimes.
The web novel caught his interest since it was interesting to read a good revenge story with some apocalyptic and superpower settings.
He had read many original or translated zombie stories on the same website so even when he was confused about the various problems which appeared, he still stuck with it until the end.
The novel barely had any viewers since most people had dropped it much earlier, he was the only one to read it all and left behind his review which was full of the flaws in the novel he spotted and the questions that had been left unanswered.
Suddenly awakening in a new body while being given the task of protecting a certain person in the apocalypse which was destined to be on the opposite side of the main character was not a great thing for him.
In an apocalyptic setting, most were busy protecting themselves first and were unable to protect others unless they had the power to do so.
Brick had awakened his power later and had a useful ability but it had many limitations and could not hold up to the main character's halo.
The main character had been unable to ignore the minor villainesses attempts to gain power and to get revenge so the end came to the minor villainess and her bodyguard after a series of betrayals and traps.
Until the end, the original Brick had placed himself in front of the minor villainess to protect her and delay the others but his power had not reached a stage which it could hold up to them.
He was crushed by overwhelming power and was frozen by the main character who felt that his death was a little pitiful and that she would have liked to have someone so devoted on her side.
The minor villainess which was Tanya shouted at Lucy while gathering energy to attack but an ice shard pierced her causing her death.
On the main character's path to revenge, she allowed nobody to live that was a threat to herself and she gave no second chances even if that person had suffered previously because of her own path of vengeance.
Tanya was in the right to take revenge after she fell into the abyss of despair but Lucy dealt with her with no mercy like she was some minor bug that had crossed her path.
Later in the novel, it had been revealed a little through her actions why Tanya had to die and that was because of opposing powers that could suppress the main character in combat.
Many villains showed up with the same power and no matter how small their actions or their grade of power, they died and were given no room to be spared as if Lucy had something against fire power users.
Many guessed in the comment section upon finding the recurring theme that one fire user had played a major part in suppressing her before her capture during her first life so that made her more wary of them but there had been no answer to those theories.
The current Brick was busy going over his memories of the novel and the original owners while recalling everything that had happened so far.
He was seated against a wall with a couple of zombie corpses laying by his side which had been beheaded.
A bottle of water was by his side which had been mostly drunk since he had first added the crystal nucleus granules.
There was only a third of the plastic bottle remaining which showed more time had passed within the day or that his absorption of the energy within his body had been quick.
The constant exercise and combat had often left him exhausted and needing a way to replenish his energy so he either chewed on an energy bar or had a drink from the plastic bottle.
Relying on the water and granules alone was foolish since they would not solve his hunger problem and he could not afford to have his immune system weakening when he was taking the water and granules.
If his immune system was weaker then he would only be able to absorb so much before it would start to become dangerous for him so taking care of his bodies needs like food, drink and rest was a must.
He was not yet an evolved human so he could not he reckless and he could always overexert his body if he pushed himself too hard.
Alice was watching over Brick while panting to the side. "Hu..ha…"
After getting ahold of the guns and other weapons in the weapons building, they both had moved around and started clearing the insides of the outer walls.
They had finally made their way around a couple of buildings and found a couple of dead employees.
After killing the zombies they came across, a set of keys which belonged to a car had been found so they both decided on their next destination.
After wandering around, they finally found the car but the alarm had attracted a couple of the remaining zombies in the area.
A battle took place which left them both exhausted after all the moving around and fighting they had done.
Brick finally stood up and lamented at his current state. 'I have to do better otherwise one mistake could be the end of me. If only there was more information on the details of the Reed residence at the beginning of the story. From Brick's memories, he seemed to have followed the warnings of the television broadcast and did not come out until the main resistance had begun days later. By then his food and drink supplies were low and he was then sent off on a mission along with many others to retrieve Tanya Reed.'
He got up and entered the car with Alice then sat in the driving seat.
Alice turned to him and asked. "Can you drive? You do not have your license yet right? How about you give this to me?"
Brick shook his head. "I can do this."
While he was thinking to himself. 'I may have not had much I was good at in my original body but at least I knew how to do the essentials to help me live. Brick may have missed his chance to get his license but I passed.'
Upon checking the insides of the car, he was relieved that there were no differences to the cars from his own world. 'Thankfully nothing is different in this area, it would have been annoying if everything was in a different place..'
The key was inserted and turned then he began his preparations. "Put on your seat belt."
Alice gasped and quickly secured herself within the car. "D..drive safely."
Brick rolled his eyes the pressed his foot down and drove forward.
The next moment there was a body which was crushed underneath the car as it drove over a dead zombie then kept moving through all of the roads around the area.
A zombie was wandering on the open road until a car drove into it and continued forward.
It went underneath the car and was crushed while another was later hit and was flung into the air.
Another one had crashed into the windshield and caused it to crack a little before it rolled over the top of the car and fell behind.
Brick and Alice had continued to clear the outer wall as they drove over the remaining zombies that had remained then reversed over their bodies before checking every area.
Alice was shouting at Brick upon seeing him being so reckless as he drove into the zombies but eventually got used to it.
The car was full of dents and cracks after he was done with it but Brick was not too bothered about it since it was not his car and belonged to someone who was already dead.
There was no consequences for him breaking it so he could use it as he liked and it had helped him quickly solve the zombie problem in the area.
After collecting the heads and transporting them to the security post, Brick held a walkie talkie in his hand and pressed the button. "The outer area is safe outside. I repeat. The outer area is safe. Stay in doors or come outside if you wish but if there are any zombies inside locked up then secure them in place before opening your doors and letting them out. We will be there shortly to deal with the problem."
More zombies started to appear outside the security post once again after the announcement had spread out which caused Alice to show fear and annoyance once again. "Why did you have to.."
Brick shrugged. "We have rested up enough and we need to think about the future. We cannot just sit here and be happy with our current accomplishments."
Complacency would only lead to laziness and dropping their guard, there were still many problems outside and inside the Reed residence that they had not found yet.
If there was going to be a rescue team put together then they would have to be able to leave the walls so thinning out the population nearby was a must.
There were the inner walls to worry about too which had not yet contacted anyone outside so they must have had their own share of problems to deal with.
There was an additional thing that Brick had not mentioned and that was that he had a certain sense of accomplishment and freedom each time he overcame one of the trials ahead of him which he did not experience much in his previous life.
Although he was quite restricted by the original owner's regrets and felt that it was annoying, he still found it interesting to be in such a world so he wanted to work hard and accomplish something for once in his life.
Maybe it was to protect his own life and Tanya's life too but there was still a desire to discover certain things about the world which had still been left unanswered by the author.
To him having greater power or special powers in the future was just the bonus or reward which came from him reading the novel and knowing certain things before others so they were easy for him to obtain.
Hiding and building his own power would be easy for him to do with what he knew but that would be too boring and since he was placed on the side of the Reed family and had to protect Tanya, there would probably be some unavoidable conflicts with Lucy so he could not avoid taking chances to improve himself.
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