"W-What?" asked Tristen instinctively.

"The terror." Max said while taking another slow step towards them. "Can you feel it?"

Their hands gripping their axes tightly, both Tristen and Ryan stared at him nervously. Their mind told them to turn around and flee, but their anger and pride didn't let them.

Furthermore, when they heard his question and realized they were indeed scared, their anger and fear turned into humiliation.

They quickly exchanged a glance, grit their teeth and rushed towards him, throwing caution to the wind.

"Fuck, Die you bastard!" Tristen growled, arriving in front of Max.

Swish! Swish!

Then, he slashed his axe horizontally from Max's right at chest level while Ryan slashed from the left at knee level, leaving him no chance to dodge left or right, or up or down.

Max's expression didn't even ripple.

While looking into Ryan's eyes with the same indifferent look that he had when Daniel rushed over to attack him, he lifted his right leg and threw a precise kick five inches below the blade, on the wooden handle. At the same time, he reached out with his left hand and grabbed Tristen's axe handle, effortlessly blocking their attacks.

Pa! Pah!

"Can you feel it now?" He repeated the question while the duo's eyes widened, the realization that Max was way beyond their league settling in their minds.

Without hesitation, they let go of their axes and sharply twisted their bodies, turning around to rush away.

However, how could Max let them escape when they had practically delivered themselves to him?

Right when they had turned around and were about to run, he released the axes in his hands and grabbed the back of their necks.

Tristen and Ryan's heart leapt, urgency filling their minds as he reached back and tried to free their necks, only to fail because the difference between their strength was massive.

"The terror you are feeling right now… Those innocent, helpless people felt the same when you animals slaughtered them in cold blood." Max's voice, bone-chillingly cold, sounded in their ears.

"P-Please…"

Crack! Crack!

Tristen had opened his mouth to plead mercy, but Max was in no mood to listen to his ravings and directly clenched his fingers, twisting and breaking their necks.

He very much wanted to torture them, to let them experience the real terror and pain their helpless victims had felt, but he didn't want to waste his time or scare Naira more than she already was.

Thud! Thud!

Throwing their corpses to the side, he looked at the house in front of which they had been sitting and saw a woman staring at him, her face pale and her wide eyes full of shock and fear.

His eyes narrowed.

He could tell she and others in the house, or the next houses for that matter, were Tristen and his companions' family members.

Just as he was thinking how he should handle them, he noticed seven men rush out from the other houses, carrying axes, long knives, hockey sticks etc, one after another.

The commotion had apparently alerted them.

'I should deal with them before thinking about their families.' He thought, leaned down and picked up one of the axes.

"You guys back off a little." Saying this to frozen Noah and Naira in case someone went past him and captured them, he rushed forward.

Swoosh!

Then, Noah, Naira and the goons' family members watched, he smashed, hacked and sliced one man after another until all seven were lying dead in the street.

Whoosh!

He didn't stop after killing them, instead, he rushed in the distance, after a young man who was running away, potentially to alert others.

Within a hundred meters, he caught up to him and…

Katcha!

A swing of the axe saw his head separated from his shoulders.

Splat! Thud!

The bloody head flew and smashed against the wall of the nearby house and a moment later, the headless body lost its momentum and fell to the ground with an audible thud.

Step! Step! Step!

Slowly coming to a halt, Max looked ahead in the street and didn't see anyone else in the houses ahead.

So, he turned around, and swept his gaze across the several people standing at their doors and coldly announced, "If one more of you try to leave, I'll slaughter you all. You are welcome to try me."

There were a few more who were about to do that just or shout to attract the attention of others, who Max knew were in the block to the left a little further ahead.

But hearing his warning, everyone felt chills run down their spines and smartly remained silent. It was mainly because his words had given them hope that if they didn't do anything--he might not kill them.

"Each and every one of you are criminals by association. However, I'm not a homicidal maniac like your husbands, fathers or brothers." He said pointing at the corpses in the street, "Therefore, I'm not going to kill you all."

Immediately, everyone became visibly relaxed.

"However…" Max continued, "You will receive appropriate punishment."

Everyone's expression fell, but none dared to argue because they knew it would only result in them suffering if not dying outright.

"With this said, tell me, how many of these people are still there?" asked Max.

Everyone stared at each other, before one of them, a 16-17 year old boy walked out of his house despite his mother trying to stop him and said.

"Sir… There were 73 people who got together to form a group which they called Scavengers and began raiding the blocks. Five had been killed during the raids and you killed ten just now. So, there are 58 more."

Max looked at him in surprise. While he had expected someone to answer him because they clearly didn't want to die, he hadn't thought that he would get such a detailed and seemingly honest answer.

[Name: Nick Davis]

[Gender: Male]

[Age: 17]

[Level: 3]

[Constitution: None]

[Loyalty: 0]

[Status: Bitter, Resentful.]

'Hm?' Max raised his brows upon seeing his status. Then, a glint of realization flashed in his eyes.

Though the boy was bitter and resentful, his resentment wasn't aimed at him, but someone else. And seeing how he had stepped forward to tell him about these so-called Scavengers, it wasn't difficult for him to guess who was the target of his resentment.

"I swear on my life that what I said is the truth." Nick exhorted upon seeing Max staring at him with narrowed eyes, seemingly suspicious.

"I can tell you haven't lied." nodded Max, then curiously asked, "But why?"

"Because I want them to die." Nick said, his voice cold.

Max noticed that as he said this, several people—the ten dead guys' family members—shot him cold, angry looks.

"Why?" He asked, walking over to him.

"My father was one of the scavengers. He had joined them because of my uncle. They had told him…"

Max silently listened to his explanation.

Apparently, Nick's father had joined them because the aim of the scavengers was to go around the city and scavenge food and water, or at least he had thought it was.

However, on the first raid, he saw them loot other people, r*pe the women and slaughter everyone. Not liking it at all, he wanted to leave the group, but after seeing how vicious and inhuman they were, including his brother, he didn't dare say it.

Instead, he planned to gather enough rations for his family on the next raid and then silently relocate to some other place.

However… he never returned from the second raid and his family was told that he had died in an suicidal attack.

Hearing this, Nick and his mother were immediately suspicious. After all, his father was a strong and brave man, someone who could handle himself.

However, they didn't dare reveal their suspicion to anyone, knowing they would be punished for it. They also didn't dare leave because their neighbours had begun keeping a lookout for them.

Days passed and one day, Nick overheard his drunk neighbor who was scolding his wife, saying she would obey her his every word and whatnot because he was risking his life out there for them.

In his angry, drunken rage, he had said that 'Fuck, if you don't appreciate what I do, I'll stop going on the raids. It's not like I like killing people. Argh, fuck, but I can't stop otherwise I'll be killed just like Davis.'

"From the moment I heard that, I was filled with rage and wanted to kill every one of them to take revenge for my father. But I'm weak and can't fight." Nick gnashed his teeth in impotent rage.

Then, he looked at Max, his reddened eyes glowing with hope, "However, you are strong and you also want to kill them. So, I want to contribute whatever I can."

"I understand." Max nodded in understanding. But then he asked, "But aren't you afraid I might not be able to kill them all? Then, wouldn't they make you and your mother suffer a life worse than death for this?"

"Ha… Haha…" Nick's already reddened eyes became bloodshot and helpless tears flowed out from them as he let out a bleak laughter.

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