Malrik and Lucien made their way down to the sixth floor—the highest level of the entire building.
The empty hallway stretched out before them, devoid of any trace of zombies.
"Huh? Why is there nothing here?" Malrik muttered, frowning as he tried to figure out the reason.
Lucien placed a hand on his chin, lost in thought. After a few moments of silence, his expression shifted as if he'd just pieced something together.
"Could it be that no one on this floor went outside, so they didn't turn into zombies? From what I've seen, zombies came from outside."
Malrik's eyes lit up with understanding. He had actually forgotten about that strange red rain from earlier.
"Earlier, I noticed there were droplets of some strange red liquid in the rain. They all evaporated quickly, but maybe that's the source of the zombies. Since we're up here and there's no balcony, it's harder for anyone to get infected and turn into one."
"So you're telling me we just wasted our time? If there are no zombies up here, how the hell are we supposed to collect cores?" Lucien cursed.
He had been planning to sweep the building from the top down—since the lower floors were too crowded—but now it seemed there was nothing to do up here at all.
"Then let's head down quickly. Staying here is just a waste of time," Malrik said, glancing toward the floors below.
Jumping straight from here to the ground floor? Not the best idea. Sure, a One-Star human's physique was far stronger than an ordinary person's, but it still wasn't tough enough to survive a drop from the sixth floor without injury.
Seeing Malrik's gaze fixed downward, Lucien stopped him.
"Hey, what are you trying to do? Commit suicide? No… actually, you'd probably just break your legs."
"Jumping straight down won't work, but with a little trick, it's no problem." Malrik finished speaking and immediately leapt over the railing.
The staircase had small protrusions between each floor, and those were his targets. He angled his jumps precisely, using each one as a foothold to reduce his momentum.
In just a few seconds, he landed safely on the ground floor.
Lucien, seeing this, decided to copy him. His senses were far sharper now than before, so he figured he could give it a try.
Two figures dropped from above like superheroes, startling the already-panicked nurses into an even greater state of chaos.
"W—What… what was that…?" One of the girls stammered in fear.
Unfortunately, their landing spot wasn't a flat surface—there was a wooden bookshelf in the way. Malrik had assumed it was sturdy enough to support him, but he'd calculated wrong. The moment his foot hit it, the whole thing collapsed into splinters.
It must have been eaten through by termites over the years, because a cloud of dust exploded into the air, making it hard for anyone nearby to tell whether these two were human or zombie.
"Achoo! Achoo! Damn it, cult master, this is your fault!" Lucien sneezed the moment he landed, the dust rushing straight into his nose and making him cough repeatedly.
Hearing a human voice, the nurses' expressions shifted into something even more complicated. They didn't know how to react.
If these were zombies, despair would have been the obvious response. But if they were humans who didn't look like humans… what were they supposed to do?
"A–Are you two… human?" one nurse asked hesitantly.
"Do you have an eye problem? Do I look like a zombie to you?" Malrik shot back, sweeping his gaze across the area.
Right on cue, a small group of actual zombies, drawn by the noise, stumbled into view—eight of them in total, by a quick count.
The nurses, seeing this, screamed and bolted upstairs. Still, they weren't completely heartless; the last one to run turned back and shouted a warning.
"You two should find a place to hide! Otherwise, you'll die!"
The young woman's kindness wasn't going to change much in the situation, but Malrik and Lucien both took note of it nonetheless.
"Little lady, don't worry. If you trust us, stay right there and watch. I'll show you the strength of the Cult of the Evil God." Lucien's voice brimmed with unshakable confidence, his presence almost radiating dominance.
'Holy crap! He's advertising! This is straight-up advertising! Now that we've got some real power, it's apparently time to start building the brand of the Cult of the Evil God.' Malrik thought.
The young nurse froze for a second, but her gaze was drawn to the sword Lucien was holding.
Although she wasn't an expert, the young nurse could tell that the sword in Lucien's hand was anything but ordinary.
Moreover, being able to take out weapons like this in the hospital can also mean that these two weren't simple.
'Should I stay… or should I go?' she wondered. 'No, if I run, I won't stand a chance against the zombies anyway. I'll gamble! I have to bet everything on this!'
Her mind made up, she spoke firmly.
"Alright, then I'll see for myself what kind of strength your Cult of the Evil God has."
There was no hesitation or fear in her voice.
Malrik and Lucien exchanged a surprised glance. That one look was enough for both of them to silently give her a high evaluation.
Sure, she was beautiful—but Lucien had seen plenty of beautiful women before, so he didn't care. As for Malrik, with his mindset that didn't exactly align with normal human thinking, beauty wasn't something that could sway him either.
The reason for their high evaluation was her decisiveness. This girl had dared to place her trust—and her life—in the hands of two complete strangers. That kind of resolve caught their interest far more than looks ever could.
While the two men shared their glance, the zombies had already arrived right in front of them.
The young nurse instinctively covered her mouth to stop herself from screaming, but she still didn't move from her spot.
Blood sprayed through the air. The gruesome scene before her stunned her into stillness—but the ones bleeding weren't Malrik and Lucien.
It was the zombies!
Eight zombies with that level of strength were nothing in front of a one-star human.
Even without a weapon, Malrik could kill zombies barehanded—though it would be a bit more troublesome—so he simply focused on restraining them while leaving the finishing blows to Lucien.
In less than a minute, the two of them—currently among the strongest humans alive—had completely wiped out the group.
But Malrik's eyes went wide, not because of how fast they'd won, but because of the cores.
"What the hell? Eight zombies have two cores?!" He cursed, feeling personally offended by the injustice.
Whenever he was with Lucien, cores seemed to rain from the sky, but when he hunted alone, they all vanished like smoke. People compared to people… really could make you mad enough to vomit blood.
Lucien found the whole thing hilarious and, of course, wasn't about to spare the cult master's dignity.
"Hahaha, cult master, you really are unlucky. I think all your good fortune got used up the moment you opened that first mystery box. Maybe it's the curse of someone who possesses a divine skill?"
Of course these one-star cores are trash compared to divine skills, but whether one feels comfortable or uncomfortable inside is not really determined by actual value.