Ren climbed the stairs. At the top, he paused. The hallway stretched out ahead.
He walked down the hall, past empty classrooms and locked doors.
He heard people talking around the corner. It wasn't coming from the cafeteria. It sounded closer. The laundry room maybe? Ren slowed down so he could listen.
"Please, I need that." a young girl said. She sounded very scared. "It's all I have for today."
"Yeah?" a guy's voice said. "Well, now it's all we have. Thanks for the donation."
He started laughing, and two other people joined in.
Ren turned the corner. Three guys stood in the hallway outside the laundry room. Two of them he recognized. Vance's crew. The ones who'd held him down while their boss kicked him. Marcus wasn't there, but these two were bad enough. Tier 1 Awakened. Enhanced Strength types. Not as strong as Vance but strong enough to push around normal people.
Between them stood a girl. One of the guys dangled her ration card above her head, grinning.
"Jump for it," he said. "Come on. Let's see some effort."
Ren started boiling with anger. He knew that feeling. He knew what it was like to be small. To have people take your stuff and laugh while they did it.
Not anymore.
He stepped into the hallway. All three guys turned.
The one holding the card looked closely at Ren. "Who—" His eyes went wide. "Holy shit. It's the zombie."
"Not a zombie," the second guy said. "That's Ren. Ren. The Carrier. But he's supposed to be dead."
"Yeah." The third one pulled out a knife. "He looks alive to me. Weird eyes though. What's up with your eyes, freak?"
Ren didn't answer. He walked closer. The pipe hung loose in his hand.
The guy with the knife laughed. "You want some too? Vance already taught you a lesson. You want another one?"
"Give her the card back," Ren said. His voice came out flat.
"Or what?" The guy with the knife stepped closer. "You gonna fight us? Three on one? You might have gotten lucky with Vance, but we're not gonna—"
Ren's eyes changed.
[GENE-SIGHT ACTIVATED]
[ANALYZING TARGETS...]
Suddenly everything slowed down. The guys in front of him moved in slow motion.
Text appeared above their heads.
[TARGET: JAKE MORRIS]
[THREAT LEVEL: TIER 1 AWAKENED]
[STRENGTH: 2.1 / SPEED: 1.8]
[WEAKNESS: SLOW REACTION TIME]
[TARGET: DEREK SONG]
[THREAT LEVEL: TIER 1 AWAKENED]
[STRENGTH: 2.3 / SPEED: 1.7]
[WEAKNESS: POOR BALANCE]
[TARGET: PAUL KIM]
[THREAT LEVEL: TIER 1 AWAKENED]
[STRENGTH: 2.0 / SPEED: 1.9]
[WEAKNESS: HESITANT]
Ren saw it all. He could see their stats and weaknesses. They were moving to surround him. But they were slow. Their Tier 1 strength meant nothing against his Tier 2 body and Tier 3 temporary boost.
Jake tried to stab him first. Ren sidestepped. His hand shot out, grabbed Jake's wrist and squeezed it hard.
The knife dropped to the floor.
Derek attacked from the left with a big, slow punch. It was obvious that Ren saw it coming easily. Ren just leaned back, and the fist missed his nose by a bit. Then he tripped Derek with his foot, sending him crashing into the wall.
Paul hesitated. He looked down at his friends and then back at Ren. He decided it wasn't worth the fight and backed up.
The whole fight took about five seconds in real time. But to Ren, it felt like an hour. He saw every opening and every mistake they made.
Jake was on the ground now, cradling his wrist. Derek had slumped against the wall, looking confused and terrified. Paul stood still, with his hands up in surrender.
Ren walked past them and picked up the ration card from where Jake had dropped it. He then turned to the girl.
"Here." He held out the card.
She took it. "Thank you," she whispered.
"Don't thank me yet." Ren looked at the three guys. They looked terrified, which was exactly what he wanted. "Tell Vance I'm coming for him. Tell him I'm not scared anymore. Tell him we're going to have a conversation real soon."
Jake nodded frantically. "Yeah. Yeah, okay. We'll tell him."
"Good."
Ren walked away. Behind him, the guys got up fast and ran away. The girl stood there for another moment, staring at his back, before she hurried off in the other direction.
Ren looked at his hand. Still steady. The fight hadn't even raised his heart rate. He'd handled three Tier 1 Awakened like they were children.
A week ago, any one of them could have beaten him bloody. Now? Now they were like flies. Annoying but harmless.
His stomach growled again. He still needed food.
The cafeteria was close. Just around the next corner.
Into the lion's den.
But Ren wasn't afraid of lions anymore.
[TEMPORARY BOOST: 43 MINUTES REMAINING]
He adjusted the pipe he was holding and started walking. The vials in his pocket clicking together softly. That was his secret weapon. Nobody knew what he could do yet. Nobody knew how he'd grown so strong so fast.
And he planned to keep it that way. At least until he was strong enough that it didn't matter who knew.
The cafeteria doors were just up ahead.
Ren pushed the doors open and walked inside.
Everyone turned to look.
And this time, not a single person laughed