There were three residential complexes around the mall, each separated from it by little more than a road.
Aside from Starlake Residences, where Leon lived, there were also Anke Residences and Golden Residences, where Ray lived.
The survivors who had joined the camp today were from Anke Residences.
To be honest, Leon had been somewhat surprised when he learned where they had come from.
That was because Anke Residences had an underground tunnel leading directly to the supermarket on the mall’s basement level.
Normally, anyone coming to the mall from Anke Residences would take that route.
But the place had long since been overrun by Rattata.
For an ordinary person, going in was practically certain death.
“Take me to meet them. I’m pretty curious about how they got here,” Leon said.
“No problem. We’ll go after breakfast,” Ray quickly agreed.
With Ray leading the way, Leon soon met the survivors who had just joined the camp.
“This is Andrew Anderson. The lady beside him is Lily Anderson. These are their daughter, Elsie, and their son, Aaron.” Ray introduced the Anderson family one by one.
Leon raised an eyebrow.
He hadn’t expected an entire family to make it here together.
Ray quickly explained, “Andrew actually came to the mall once yesterday. He wanted to go to the underground supermarket, but I stopped him. I didn’t expect him to come back today with his whole family to join us.”
“This is Leon, the second-in-command of our camp,” Ray added, introducing Leon to Andrew.
Hearing that, Andrew hurriedly greeted him.
“Greetings, Leader.”
“No need to be so formal. Just call me Leon.” Leon quickly stopped Andrew before he could bow.
“Mr. Anderson, could you tell me how you got here? As far as I know, if you don’t take the underground tunnel, you have to make a pretty long detour,” Leon asked curiously.
“There’s no reason I can’t tell you, but what I’m about to say might be a little hard to believe. I can guarantee that everything I’m saying is true,” Andrew assured Leon with a solemn expression.
Leon nodded, ready to hear him out.
“We came through the underground tunnel, but we didn’t enter the underground supermarket. Once we made it through the tunnel, we went straight up to the first floor using the stairs on the basement level.”
“You didn’t see the rat monsters?” Leon asked.
“We did.” Andrew nodded, then continued, “Actually, even if you hadn’t come to see me, I would’ve reported this to June. Those rat monsters aren’t doing too well right now.”
“Oh? Did they already manage to wipe out all the food in the supermarket?” Leon asked, puzzled.
“No. The rat monsters are fighting a group of gray humanoid monsters over territory—or rather, over supplies.”
As Andrew said this, he couldn’t quite keep his expression straight.
A strange look crept onto his face.
Gray humanoid Pokémon?
Machoke was the first thing that came to Leon’s mind.
After all, Andrew’s description of “gray humanoid monsters” was rather specific.
“That doesn’t sound right. Those gray humanoid monsters you’re talking about should be omnivorous. If they were running out of food, shouldn’t they have gone after you first?” Leon frowned slightly, thoroughly confused.
According to Pokémon’s lore, Machoke was essentially based on a lizard-man.
If a Pokémon with that kind of design really appeared in the real world, there was no way it would be the same muscle-obsessed simpleton it was in the anime.
“No… They do eat people, but they prefer eating…”
Ray couldn’t help urging him on.
“Eating what?”
“Protein powder! Those gray humanoid monsters invaded the underground supermarket to steal the protein powder inside. And normally, they stay in the gym at our residential complex pumping iron.”
“Compared to other monsters, the gray humanoid monsters actually aren’t that dangerous to humans. Unless they’re so hungry their eyes turn red, they won’t hunt people.”
Leon: “…”
If Andrew had said those Machoke were fighting over other supplies, Leon definitely would have started questioning the Pokémon’s cost-effectiveness-first rule when it came to hunting.
But if it was protein powder, then everything made sense.
For muscle-crazy Pokémon like Machoke, protein powder really was more appealing than humans—even more appealing than other Pokémon.
There was absolutely nothing strange about them going to war with a pack of Rattata over protein powder.
“We entered the mall by following those gray humanoid monsters. Thanks to them, we didn’t run into any danger along the way.” There was a trace of relief in Andrew’s voice, along with gratitude that even he himself hadn’t noticed.
“If that’s the case, then it makes sense.” Leon suddenly remembered something else.
There seemed to be quite a lot of protein powder on the second floor.
Leon wondered whether he could engage in a little protein-powder diplomacy with those Machoke—or perhaps offer some protein powder as tribute.
But fearing the classic scenario of “I’ll take the goods, and I don’t feel like paying either,” Leon ultimately decided to shelve the idea.
If those Machoke refused to play by the rules and decided to take both the protein powder and the people, losing his life over it would be a terrible deal.
“But I remember Anke Residences has several supermarkets, doesn’t it? Have they already been looted?” Leon asked again.
At that, Andrew explained bitterly, “Anke Residences has been taken over by a gang of thugs.”
“That happened?”
The moment Ray heard there was another survivor camp nearby, his interest was immediately piqued.
“On the third day after the apocalypse began, the property management staff at Anke Residences established a survivor camp. At first, the survivors really did gather together for mutual protection.”
“But on the fourth day, Victor Stone, the manager of the property security department, suddenly led a group of men in killing the property manager. Right after that, Victor and a bunch of thugs just like him took control of the Anke survivor camp.”
“Most of the residents at Anke Residences have families. With their loved ones as a weakness, and with Victor being so ruthless, hardly anyone dared resist after he killed several more people to make examples of them.”
“Oh, right. The Anke property manager was Victor’s brother-in-law. That bastard is completely devoid of humanity. Not only did he kill his brother-in-law, he didn’t even spare his own sister.”
“The most disgusting part is, they didn’t even leave the bodies…”
“Don’t tell me they ate them?” Ray stared at Andrew in horror.
Andrew looked at Ray as though he were some kind of freak and hurriedly explained, “No. Whenever Victor goes out to gather supplies, he uses the bodies as bait to draw the monsters’ attention.”
Only then did Ray breathe a sigh of relief.
“You scared the hell out of me! I thought someone around here had already crossed that line.” Ray patted his chest in relief, the cold sweat on his back still not gone.
Andrew continued, “Anyway, that survivor camp in Anke is unbelievably messed up. All kinds of crazy shit happens there. Saying morality has collapsed is putting it mildly, so I took my family and hid back in our home.”
“But the food we had stored at home was almost gone, so I took the risk of coming to the mall to try my luck and look for supplies. You already know what happened after that. I ran into you, and when you told me the camp here was decent, I brought my whole family over.”