Exploring the Neighborhood - Part 2

                                    

                                          

After gathering some of her wits, Althea looked at her status bar and saw a full 20 points of spirit was deducted. 
However, she dared not rest for too long and she began to peruse around the luxurious living room after a couple minutes of breather.
If the outside details were showy, the house's interiors were just gaudy. 
There was a mishmash of expensive displays and antiques. The upholsteries had patterns and even the cornices had intricate designs. It was visually exhausting. 
It was like the owner was a peacock. 
Maybe he was. 
Anyway, she immediately held the items in an attempt to sell them. She was surprised to find that, basically, every display had value. 
[ 2 gold]
[ 4 gold]
[ 23 silver]
[ 12 silver]
[ 3 gold]
Elated, she happily continued exploring the rooms of the house, killing a few more servant zombies along the way. She earned quite a bit of money from the first floor alone. 
As she walked, her eyes were attracted to a wall-mounted rack not too far away, and her green eyes brightened. 
"A golf club set!" She uttered, her strides taking her in front of it. It was a complete set, made of cutting-edge materials like a titanium head. 
She looked at it in excitement and determined the best weapon would be the golf driver or the Wood-1, which remained in her hand while she kept the rest inside her space.  
She then went to the kitchen and took all bottled water and food with a long shelf life. 
Satisfied, Althea went to the next floor and ended up in the mistress's... er.. sister-in-law's room. 
She knew whose room it was because this woman loved pink to the point that it was pathological. 
Every time she ambled and jogged around the neighborhood, anyone could see her figure by virtue of her bright colored clothes alone. 
After shuffling through the woman's items, she found the jewelry and exchanged it for a few hundred silver. 
She then went to the master's bedroom, took in a few high-quality coats and leather attires for men and women. 
She found all the valuables, watches, and the like and got hundreds of silver and dozens of gold coins. 
It took her a while to find the safety deposit box. She eventually found it in the study, under the carpet floor. 
She didn't bother to open it and exchanged it directly, surprised to find that her balance increased by scores of gold coins. 
Politicians were really rich. In hard currency, too.
She exited the house to the east wall and repeated the old trick. It was just that the garden of this neighbor was full of rockery, so she didn't dare jump down carelessly. 
After four more houses, she had already gained quite a bit. 
She thanked the heavens that she had the foundation for self-defense. Since her husband learned, she and Ansel learned too. 
Especially when he became a soldier, in which case their repertoire of fighting knowledge expanded tremendously in turn.
How many stalkers she handled with the techniques she learned, she didn't even know.
What surprised her the most was the lack of animals, at first she was fully prepared for encountering zombie pets because of the trouble the mutts caused her. 
But... after so many houses, she had yet to encounter another one. 
Then she saw the untransformed body of the guard dogs, and then rats, and cats. 
She realized that whatever it was that affected people's genes and turned them into zombies, it was too much for most animals. 
She felt a bit sad for the animals, but at least they didn't have to suffer through this hell. 
Using her 'armor' bug, she breezed through a full seven more houses and finally checked on her status during a short break. 
[STATS:
Name: Althea Witt
Age: 25
Level: 1 (585/1000)
Life: 200/200
Spirit: 102/200 (-5%)
Physical: 30 (-5%)
Agility: 27 (-20%)
Attack: 11 ( 1)
Defense: 16 ( 3)
Mana: 100
Physical Potential: B 
Mental potential: SS 
Skills: 
Active: None
Passive: None
Elemental Affinity: Wood, Water, Earth
Titles: None
Overall rank: S
Current Status: Gestating: two life forms, weakened state ] 
[EQUIPMENT LIST 
Head: Face mask  0 Defense
Ears: None 
Body: Leather jacket  1 Defense,
Arms: None
Legs:  Leather pants  1 Defense
Hands: Metal Rod  1 Attack
Feet: Rubber boots  1 Defense,  0 Agility ]
[WEALTH: 89 gold coins, 1522 silver coins, 2330 copper coins]  
Her biggest gain though was the baby products. Although it was only an opened can of powdered milk and diapers, it reminded her that she needed to stock up on these as well. 
What bothered her was that there were no other survivors. At all. 
This survival rate was not even 5%...
She felt heavy at this realization. How was her brother? Did he turn to one of these things? If he didn't, he was probably surrounded by them now, right? 
Alas... he was hundreds of kilometers away from her. She could not do anything about it with her current abilities. Worrying would be for naught and wouldn't help him at all.
In the end, she decided to just prepare as much as she could, and maybe they will meet in that Other World and she could support him.
It was just that as smooth as she had gone, she encountered quite a bit of a challenge in the next house.
___

Again, do check out the WN story for updated story? :D