The tension inside the Faculty Lounge remained taut. Allisson stood motionless near the water cooler, his right hand gripping the shaft of the Twin-Blade Spear. His cold gaze drifted past João Felipe and locked onto Jarbas.
"We aren't staying here," Allisson declared, his voice calm, low, and stripped of any emotion. "And I'm not asking for permission. My group hasn't had a single drop of water or food in over twenty-four hours. We are going to take what we need and leave."
Jarbas took half a step forward, narrowing his eyes in an attempt to project physical authority.
"Allisson, listen to reason," Jarbas argued, adopting a patronizing, measured tone. "This room has very few supplies. The water bottle on the cooler is almost empty, and we don't know how long we'll have to hold out until rescue arrives. If you take our water, you're condemning us."
Allisson didn't even blink.
"Don't lie, Jarbas," Allisson cut in instantly. "I was in this room yesterday afternoon before the collapse. The storage closet next to the sink holds a sealed five-gallon jug. The stock is full. I am taking the water for myself and my squad, whether you like it or not."
The swift exposure made Jarbas's posture waver for a fraction of a second. But the one who reacted with unbridled fury was João Felipe. The teenager's face flushed deep red with rage, his fists clenching at his sides.
"This is mugging! It's robbery!" João Felipe yelled, his voice cracking with loss of control. "You're a contracted teacher at this school! Who do you think you are to barge in here and steal from students?! As soon as this is all over, I'm personally going to the principal's office and the police! My family will ruin your life!"
Allisson turned his head slowly toward the student, meeting his hysterical glare with disturbing indifference.
"This is the Faculty Lounge, João Felipe," Allisson replied with razor-thin coldness. "If anyone here shouldn't have stepped foot in this room, it's you."
Clara, sensing that the situation was escalating rapidly toward a point of no return, stepped forward with her hands raised in a pacifying gesture.
"Please, everyone... let's not fight," Clara pleaded, her voice trembling slightly. "There are monsters outside. If we start fighting among ourselves in here, we're all going to die..."
Huddled in the corner, Jade hugged her knees, wiping her dust-stained face with her hands.
"She's right..." Jade whispered in a low, vulnerable voice. "Sharing is the right thing to do... as God taught us. We don't need to kill each other over water."
A heavy, ten-second silence descended upon the room. Allisson did not reply. With a simple, pragmatic motion, he turned to the cooler, grabbed four disposable cups, filled them quickly, and began handing them to Paulo, Abner, Pierre, and Jade.
Blinded by arrogance and the sense of impunity he carried from the old world, João Felipe could not stomach having his demands ignored.
"I told you not to touch that fucking water!" the boy screamed, charging forward with his hand outstretched to snatch the cup from Allisson's hand.
Allisson didn't even need to rotate his full torso.
In a dry, clean, and brutal reflexive movement, he flexed his right knee and landed a direct front kick straight to the center of João Felipe's chest. Allisson's 12.0 Strength hit the boy's paltry 5.0 Constitution like a hydraulic sledgehammer.
BAM!
The impact launched João Felipe backward. The boy flew over six feet through the air before colliding with a violent crash against the conference table in the center of the room, knocking over chairs and landing flat on his back on the floor—gasping for air, coughing, and writhing in spasms of pain.
Jarbas's eyes widened in shock, and he took two rapid steps to place himself between Allisson and the fallen student.
Allisson stepped forward, looking down at João Felipe with absolute contempt.
"Grow up, kid," Allisson said, his voice cutting like a razor. "You're nothing more than a spoiled rich brat who still hasn't realized that the old world is dead. Out there, there are monstrosities that rip heads off in seconds, and you're in here playing childish power games."
"This is unacceptable!" Jarbas bellowed, his voice hoarse with indignation as he pointed a trembling finger at Allisson's face. "Striking a student?! Have you lost your mind, Allisson?! Are you prepared for the consequences of this?! João Felipe's family has massive wealth and influence! When rescue forces arrive, they will drown you in lawsuits with the best lawyers in the state! You'll never work anywhere again!"
Allisson met Jarbas's enraged glare without flinching. A chilling, unsettling calm radiated from his posture.
"Good luck to him finding a lawyer now," Allisson replied drily.
Jarbas froze. The short answer hit like a brick against the harsh reality of their situation. The physical education teacher swallowed hard, at a loss for how to counter such icy detachment, and retreated slowly back toward João Felipe and Clara. The room's original trio withdrew to the back of the space in a hostile, defeated silence, broken by the indisputable demonstration of power.
Taking advantage of the forced truce, Allisson's group drank their water in slow gulps, catching their breath after the intense skirmish in the hallway. Paulo kept watch near the deadbolted door, while Abner and Pierre checked the perimeter of the window overlooking the courtyard.
Allisson leaned against the water cooler and looked down at his left arm. The deep puncture wounds in his flesh, caused by the bite and crushing jaw pressure of the mutant hound through his chitin armor, were still bleeding slowly, throbbing with a sharp pain that threatened to impair his movements.
He knew he could no longer delay fortifying his own body.
With a swift mental command, Allisson summoned the System's holographic interface, which floated smoothly into his peripheral vision:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ATTRIBUTE DISTRIBUTION]
Available Points: 2
Allocation: Constitution (+2.0)
Current Constitution: 12.0 ➔ 14.0
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The instant the confirmation processed, a surge of intense heat coursed through his circulatory system. The agonizing pain in his left arm eased significantly as the muscle fibers surrounding the wound contracted, sealing off primary blood flow. His metabolism accelerated, hardening his physical density and increasing his overall damage resistance.
Allisson then recalled the notification he had received upon reaching Level 5, mentally consolidating the passive effects of his new skill:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[NEW SKILL REGISTERED: Until the End - Lv. 1 (PASSIVE)]
Effect: Grants absolute mental clarity and complete immunity to panic or hesitation under extreme pressure and imminent risk of death. The greater the surrounding threat, the faster and sharper tactical reasoning and decision-making become.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Allisson closed the System screen. He felt the practical effects of the skill every second: the psychological fatigue accumulated over the last twenty-four hours had evaporated, replaced by a crystalline analytical focus. Every draft outside, every subtle shift of the survivors in the room, and every tactical variable for crossing the central courtyard organized themselves in his mind with mathematical precision.
He gripped the Twin-Blade Spear with renewed firmness and turned to his squad.
"Break time is over," Allisson announced.