Void Reaper: The Essence Apocalypse

Chapter 58 58: You’re just a horny dog

This time, the knock at the door felt almost routine, same as yesterday, and the day before that. Like everyone was slowly getting used to the fact that the world had changed… and that even in an apocalypse, certain things could settle into a rhythm.

Leon walked over and opened up without hurry.

Patrycja stood in the doorway, smiling at him naturally, with no tension in her face. "We want to hand out breakfast again," she said.

Leon just nodded, already accustomed to the routine.

He was about to turn and grab his things when he noticed Patrycja wasn't leaving. Instead, she looked him over, feet to shoulders, like something had only just clicked in her head.

"Wait… you…" she started, then stopped and smiled even wider. "You're walking normally."

"Yeah," Leon replied calmly. "Looks like it's over."

"Seriously?" Relief rushed into her voice. "So… you're healed?"

Leon nodded. "Yeah. I'm fully fine now."

Patrycja looked genuinely happy, like she'd actually been worrying. After a moment, Leon added, a little awkwardly, "And… thanks for the clothes and shoes. Really."

She waved it off. "They might be a bit big," she admitted. "It's hard to find the right sizes for everyone. And definitely not in decent quantities."

"It's still a lot," Leon said.

When Patrycja headed down the corridor toward the others, Leon fell into step beside her. As they walked, his eyes drifted to the way she moved, more confident than a few days ago. None of that faint stiffness that used to scream fear or inexperience.

A thought formed in his head, one he didn't fully understand.

She started fighting too.

He hadn't seen her in action. No one had told him anything. And yet he had this strange, instinctive sense that Patrycja was stronger now, like her presence had more weight.

"You know it isn't random," Valeria said at last, walking beside him in silence the whole time.

Leon glanced at her from the corner of his eye but didn't respond. Only he could see and hear Valeria, talking out loud while Patrycja was right there would make him look insane.

"The fact you can feel it," Valeria continued evenly. "With your Intelligence and everything you've been through, you've started relying on instinct. You're not analyzing it consciously, you're just sensing changes in people. Her Essence is more stable than it was a few days ago. That's why she feels stronger."

Leon nodded slowly.

They reached the court where the others were already gathered, Natalia, Adam, Marek, and Elena with the black cat hugged to her chest. Leon only needed a second to realize someone was missing.

Roland wasn't there.

Natalia noticed Leon immediately and, without any preamble, studied him from feet to head.

"You're completely healed?" she asked.

Leon nodded. "Yeah. Everything's closed up."

"In a few days…" Elena murmured under her breath, more to herself than to him.

Marek and Adam looked at Leon almost at the same time, disbelief written across their faces. In their minds, the image of him barely standing, feet burned raw and blood on his face, was still fresh.

"I still don't get it," Marek said finally, shaking his head. "With injuries like that, a normal guy would be down for weeks."

Adam didn't snark back the way he usually did. He just exhaled heavily, his expression turning serious as he looked at Natalia and Patrycja, who'd spent the last few days mostly managing food distribution.

"Right…" he said, rubbing a hand over his face. "We need to talk. At this rate, we're running out of food."

Leon wasn't surprised. All you had to do was count how many people had passed through the shelter lately. Over a hundred and fifty wasn't a handful of students anymore.

It was a small, hungry community.

Patrycja grimaced. "We've been letting everyone eat until they're full," she said, frustration clear in her voice. "We didn't want to start rationing immediately and make morale worse, but supplies are disappearing fast."

"No wonder," Marek said, looking from her to Adam. "We've been focusing on clothes and medicine. So we go get more food."

Adam nodded slowly. "I've been thinking the same. At our current levels, zombies and weaker mutated beasts aren't a real problem anymore. We can push further out than before."

He paused, then added, "But the university cafeterias and the grocery stores are a ways from here. That's not a quick run."

Silence fell. Every one of them understood food wasn't some optional luxury. It was the foundation. Even the strongest Evolver couldn't cheat biology forever. No fuel meant weaker bodies, lower output, and eventually not being able to use their stats the way they should.

Leon spoke in a calm voice.

"Without food, everything collapses. Even if we can handle it, the ordinary people will panic." His eyes hardened. "And a hungry crowd is the worst thing that can happen in here."

Natalia nodded, like she'd been waiting for him to say exactly that.

"That's why we plan it," she said coldly. "Before supplies actually run out, not when it's already too late."

Elena only spoke after a moment, when the conversation dipped and she was still stroking the black cat's back, visibly uncomfortable with everyone's attention slowly drifting toward her. She wasn't loud. She wasn't dominant. But she knew what she wanted to say mattered.

"I-if it's possible…" she began hesitantly, swallowed, and forced herself to keep going. "It'd be good to get more clothes too. Everything we've found so far, we gave it out, but… it's still not enough."

She lifted her eyes for only a second.

"The locker room showers work, so hygiene isn't… terrible for now, but wearing the same things for a week…" She trailed off and grimaced. "It's starting to get really unbearable."

Natalia answered first, without even a breath of hesitation.

"We'll find more," she said evenly. "That won't be a problem."

And even if the topic barely applied to her, she wore artifacts, not ordinary clothes, she could still understand Elena and the other girls. They'd been normal students not long ago. Now they were trying to live in a world where even a clean shirt was starting to feel like a luxury.

Leon's mouth twitched like he almost smiled. Somewhere in the back of his head, the thought flashed that even now, clothes were still a conversation that kept returning, but he didn't say anything. There was nothing strange or funny about it.

Elena let out a clear breath of relief.

Then Leon's gaze shifted to Adam.

"And the military?" he asked suddenly. "The government, the police… anything. Any word?"

At that, Patrycja, Elena, and Marek all looked a little darker. Adam answered after a short silence, shaking his head.

"No. Zero contact."

The air thickened. Fear and resignation moved across people's faces like a shadow. That single sentence stripped away the last quiet hope that someone outside was going to "save" them quickly.

Only Leon and Natalia stayed calm.

For a moment, Leon's thoughts drifted toward his family, images trying to force their way up, but he pushed them down immediately, setting them aside on purpose. There wasn't space for that right now.

"Then," he said at last, "we need to get as much food as we can. Fast."

He paused for a heartbeat, then his voice cooled.

"But from now on, some things change."

Everyone looked at him at once. Natalia narrowed her eyes slightly.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

Leon didn't rush.

"From now on, the people who refuse to help in any way get food in quantities that keep them alive," he said bluntly. "I'm not feeding parasites."

His gaze moved across the faces in front of him, one by one.

"If someone won't move forward, won't fight, won't risk anything, won't do anything to get us out of this, then they don't get to expect me to carry them on my back. I'd rather work with people who actually want to climb out of this hole."

Then, quieter, but sharper...

"I'm not letting anyone drag me down."

A few meters away, Valeria, invisible to everyone else, smiled faintly. She heard the shift in those words. Leon wasn't the same boy who'd saved everyone outside the gym without thinking, who'd taken everything onto himself by default.

He'd saved them because he wanted to.

But if someone tried to keep living off that kindness without lifting a finger themselves…

Leon wasn't going to be part of that.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait!" Adam suddenly shouted, stepping forward. "Are you insane?!"

Leon looked at him.

And vanished.

Adam didn't even register movement. One second Leon was meters away, then the next, cold steel kissed the air beside Adam's throat, so close that the tiniest flinch would split skin.

Adam's eyes went wide in pure disbelief.

Even though he'd grown stronger in the last few days, even though he knew Leon was fast, he still hadn't seen him move.

"And who are you," Leon asked in a flat, emotionless voice, "to ask me if I'm insane?"

The blade pressed a fraction closer.

"You're just a horny dog trailing after Natalia with your tail tucked," Leon said, ice-calm, "and you really think you have the right to talk to me like that?"