Chapter 4: Finally, finally, no more fear
As Alex browsed through the chat history, his eyes suddenly narrowed, locking onto a particular message.
Number 72727: "Selling a P92 pistol, anyone interested, PM with your offer!"
This message sparked a series of discussions.
Number 23452: "Damn, some people already got a pistol the next day, while I'm stuck here with just a damn razor."
Number 23345: "So jealous!"
...
Alex immediately sent a private message to the player.
"Hey, is the item still available? What are your conditions?"
Soon, the player replied.
"The item is still available. Are you interested? I'm asking for 100 bottles of water and 100 portions of food, any type."
Alex, containing his excitement, calmly negotiated, "That's too much! It's already difficult to gather supplies, just ensuring not to starve to death is impressive enough. Besides, I'll need to buy bullets separately for the pistol!"
The player responded again, "How much can you offer?"
Alex replied, "At most, 10 bottles of water and 10 loaves of bread!"
This time, there was a long pause before receiving a response.
Alex's heart raced in anticipation.
Just as he was hesitating whether to increase his offer, finally, a reply came.
"Fine, let's consider it a deal, as a friend."
Undoubtedly, the value of the pistol far exceeded this exchange.
But in the current circumstances, survival was the top priority.
There weren't many people who could spare extra food and water, and he had no other choice.
The other party listed the P92 pistol on the trading interface.
After both parties confirmed, the transaction was completed, and the items began to be sent out via mail!
The seller who received the water and food was feeling quite pleased with himself.
Trading a pistol that had run out of bullets for so many urgently needed supplies was definitely a win!
But when he saw the ID of the trading partner, he was startled.
Isn't this the rumored bot?
It isn't?!
The seller announced this information on the chat channel, causing a stir.
However, Alex was completely unaware of all this.
Of course, he didn't care either.
When he heard the "ding" sound of the email notification, his hands trembled slightly as he opened it.
Inside lay a P92 pistol, quietly resting.
[Accept]
In Alex's backpack, there was now a sleek black weapon.
Holding the weighty P92 pistol, Alex immediately felt a sense of reassurance.
He opened the window and fired a few shots at the zombies on the street.
The accuracy was impressive.
But with the blessing of unlimited bullets, several zombies still screamed and fell to the ground, unable to get up.
The sudden sound of gunfire startled Mia, making her sit up abruptly.
Then, she looked at Alex in astonishment.
Watching the fallen zombies and the ones around them howling, Alex closed the window with satisfaction, only then noticing Mia's stunned expression.
Alex just smiled and then gently whispered as he stroked the pistol in his arms, "Finally, finally, no more fear."
At that moment, Alex heard that familiar voice in his mind.
[Experience gained: 1]
[Experience gained: 1]
[Experience gained: 1]
[Experience gained: 1...]
[96 experience points needed to level up.]
Alex stared at his personal panel in astonishment, realizing that he could still level up.
But he wasn't sure what benefits leveling up would bring.
After gaining experience, Alex noticed a window of personal information appearing on his interface.
Opening it, he could clearly see his bodily stats:
Level: 1 (4/100)
Strength: 10 Agility: 3 Stamina: Abundant
Alex wasn't sure what standards these data referred to, but at the moment, his strength seemed relatively high.
Possibly due to his abundant stamina.
Beside the personal data, there was a note: "Upon leveling up, there will be random allocation of stat improvements."
The acquisition of experience points depended on the number and level of zombies killed.
Alex closed the personal panel and pondered with his chin resting on his hand.
It seemed that hiding in this abandoned supermarket was only a temporary solution.
Since the note mentioned zombie levels, it was highly likely that higher-level zombies would invade the supermarket later.
It wasn't safe here.
The strong sense of crisis dampened Alex's joy of acquiring the weapon just now.
For self-preservation, he needed to take the initiative to attack and level up as soon as possible to improve his physical attributes.
Alex opened his backpack to check his equipment.
A P92 pistol as the main weapon, along with a military knife, a few Molotov cocktails, smoke bombs, and some iron rods and shovels.
Alex wasn't satisfied with the quality of his equipment.
Frankly speaking, facing zombies, only the P92 pistol and Molotov cocktails would be useful.
As for the military knife, Alex, being just an ordinary person, didn't have the confidence to engage in close combat.
One careless bite would be the end of him.
After all, he had watched zombies outside withstand several shots before finally going down.
The physical condition like this is truly intimidating.
Alex climbed to the rooftop of the abandoned supermarket and took out his binoculars to look at the zombies in the distance.
The view here was good, he thought to kill the zombies from a safe distance on the rooftop to gain experience points.
After roughly estimating the distance, Alex chose a relatively safe position and took out his P92 pistol to start shooting.
Many zombies fell to the ground without reacting, while the rest of the zombies, a bit slow in response, looked towards Alex after hearing the gunshots, growling.
Alex was startled subconsciously, then realized that these zombies, apart from running closer to him, didn't make any other moves that could threaten his safety.
These should be the lowest-level zombies, just mindless walking corpses.
Alex breathed a sigh of relief and continued shooting.
The experience bar kept rising.
[Gained 1 experience]
[Eighty-three points of experience needed to level up]
[Gained 1 experience]
[Sixty-six points of experience needed to level up]
[Gained 1 experience]
[Forty-nine points of experience needed to level up]
...
After a while, Alex suddenly felt a rumbling in his body, as if a shackle inside him had been unlocked, making him feel lighter all over.
Then, the system's voice appeared.
Congratulations, player leveled up, please keep up the good work!
Alex was overjoyed and immediately opened his personal information to see the changes in his values after leveling up.
Level: 2 (0/200)
Strength: 12 Agility: 5 Endurance: Normal
A total increase of 5 points in stats, seems similar to an online game.
Alex looked at his personal panel and was quite satisfied with it.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone