Global Devourer: I Survive by Slaughtering Beasts

Chapter 3: The Cold Rules of Survival

The heavy oak doors rattled again as the desperate banging continued. Kai did not panic. He calmly slid the dark leather ring onto his finger, feeling a strange hum as the spatial pocket dimension bound to his soul. Then he picked up his blood-stained iron pipe and walked toward the noise.

He pulled back the iron bolt and swung the doors open.

A group of five terrified students stumbled into the room, falling to their knees on the polished floor. They were covered in dirt, sweat, and cheap clothes. Leading them was a tall girl with a sharp jawline and dark, serious eyes. She wore a stained white lab coat over her jeans, holding a bloody scalpel in her right hand. This was Chloe, a smart medical student Kai had seen around campus working late shifts at the student clinic.

"Please, do not hurt us!" one of the male students sobbed, curling his body into a small ball. "We ran all the way from the science building. The monsters killed everyone else."

Chloe stepped in front of the weaker students, shielding them with her body despite her trembling hands. She looked at the dead elite hound on the floor, then at Kai's blood-soaked clothes and cold eyes.

"We saw you fighting," Chloe said, her voice steady even though her knuckles were white. "You cleared this hall alone. We have food. We will give you everything we have if you just let us stay here and protect us."

She reached into her backpack and pulled out three small cans of beans and two bottles of water, holding them out toward Kai like a sacred offering.

Kai stared at the food, then looked at the trembling students behind Chloe. A few hours ago, he would have felt pity for them. He would have shared his last piece of bread because he knew what it felt like to have nothing. But Sarah and Brandon had taught him a painful lesson. Kindness in this new world was just a slow way to get killed.

"Keep your food," Kai said, his voice as cold as ice.

The students looked up, relief flashing across their pale faces. "Thank you! Thank you so much!" the crying boy stammered, starting to stand up.

"I did not say you could stay for free," Kai interrupted, his voice cutting through their relief like a sharp razor. "I am not your bodyguard. I am not a hero. If you want to stay in my shelter, your food belongs to me anyway. And so does your labor."

Chloe narrowed her eyes, stepping closer. "What do you mean?"

"It means I do not take dead weight," Kai said smoothly, leaning on his iron pipe. "From this second, I own this ground floor. If you want to breathe in here, you follow my orders without asking questions. You will clean the blood, build barricades, handle the heavy lifting, and watch the doors. Anyone who slack off, complains, or steps out of line gets thrown outside to the beasts. No second chances."

"That is insane!" a chubby student wearing expensive brand-name sneakers shouted from the back, his face turning red with anger. "Who do you think you are? You are just a scholarship kid! My father pays millions to this school! You cannot command us like slaves!"

Kai moved so fast the air whistled. Before the rich student could even blink, Kai reached out and grabbed him by the throat, lifting his entire body two feet off the ground with a single hand. The boy kicked his legs wildly, gasping for air as his eyes bulged with pure terror.

"Your father's money cannot buy you a single second of life out there," Kai whispered right into the boy's face, his grip tightening. "Out there, you are just meat. In here, your life is worth only what you do for me. Do you want to go back outside and test your father's money against the monsters?"

"No! No! I am sorry! Please!" the boy choked out, tears streaming down his fat cheeks.

Kai threw him hard against the wall. The boy crumpled onto the floor, coughing and crying, completely broken. The other students shrank back in total terror, realizing that Kai was far more dangerous than the creatures outside.

Chloe watched the whole thing without flinching. She swallowed hard, lowered her scalpel, and nodded once. "I understand. I am a medical student. I can patch up wounds, organize supplies, and enforce your rules. Just give us a safe place to sleep."

"Good," Kai said, turning his back on them. "Get to work on the side windows. Heavy tables against the glass. Move now."

While Chloe began shouting orders to the frightened group, Kai walked over to the corner of the study hall. A six-foot-long mutated viper lay dead against the wall, its green scales dripping with purple venom. It had been killed by the elite hound earlier.

Kai knelt beside the snake and placed his palm over its crushed head.

"Extract," he commanded in his mind.

A dark green light rose from the viper's body, flowing up Kai's arm and directly into the iron pipe he held.

[Target: Mutated Green Viper (Tier 1)] [Extraction Successful: +3 Agility] [Weapon Upgrade: Corpse Blade now inflicts Venom Paralysis!]

The black aura surrounding Kai's weapon turned a dark, poisonous green. Now, a single scratch from his blade would slow down any enemy and burn their veins with lethal poison. Kai smiled, feeling the surge of power settling deep into his bones. He was getting stronger by the minute.

Suddenly, the roof above them shivered.

A loud, shattering crash echoed through the high ceiling as thousands of colorful glass pieces rained down into the study hall. The survivors screamed, ducking under tables to cover their heads.

A massive, nine-foot-tall mutated alpha zombie smashes through the stained-glass windows of the second floor, landing directly between Kai and the shelter exits.