Demon Lord's Reincarnation

Looking closely and seeing it from a different perspective, Quinn might've been right though we still had to find the smaller treasure chests around this area before heading to that place—or even possibly contacting the old dude and see if we could be allies or not.

Of course, we weren't doing ourselves any favors by taking his stuff but we did clear out the places where they couldn't be accessed and the rule for finder's keepers in the apocalypse was still in effect so the you snooze, you lose was also.

If anything, I could try and curry favors from "Jim", "Bradley", "Douglas", "Mitchell", or "Gregory" if I gave him his stuff back plus extra.

It wouldn't hurt to have another friend outside our walls and if all that would take was a few fetch quests and clearing spaces around the location of his supposed bunker, I'd gladly go to this treasure hunt. But yeah, we still have to figure out who this guy really was and our two hackers weren't having that much luck due to the connection speed provided by our relays.

'We really got to power up one of the major cell towers one of these days…'

"FOUND IT!" Jared exclaimed.

"WHERE?!"

"THERE'S A FALSE THINGAMAJIG UNDER THIS COUNTER!"

"Let me see—"Nôv(el)B\\jnn

"HANDS OFF, BRO! THIS IS ALL MINE—"

"I just need the documents!"

"I SAID HANDS OFF— GchkK! CHKC! AckKG! I give— I GIVE! BROOO!!!"

After easily putting Jared in a headlock and making him pass out for a few seconds, I started pulling out items from the same rucksack I uncovered from the EDSA Station—and maybe due to the nature of this rucksack's location, being in a more secure place where civilians couldn't just enter—I found more valuable items.

Aside from the revolver/pistol combo chambered in .357 and .45 ACP, there was also this Shockwave-like shotgun with two boxes of Double-aught Buckshot.

In addition, it had more food and water stored with the rucksack—with what the rest of the space could allow—and there was even a camping kit and a mess kit tucked underneath them all.

'It's valuable and all but where could he possibly camp in this whole city? Even out of it is just more cities…'

Still, I took all of them and found almost the same documents and the same markings on the map provided. The only thing I didn't find among his fake IDs was the one for "Bradley" though there was still a wad of cash wrapped tightly with a key for possibly one of his bug-out vehicles close by.

So yeah, instead of driving towards the next station which was three stations away, we drove over to the back of this tattoo parlor of sorts right next to a department store—and there we found this classic jeep without a computer box.

It was covered and parked inside this enclosure of chain-linked fences mixed with a lot of trash and cardboard to make it blend in plain sight—and it actually looked like a dumpster covered by a tattered piece of tarp.

Quinn gave an approving look, "Sweet. Mr. Ng would love this."

Jared looked confused, "That jeep? Looks like a jeepney cut in half or a jeepney jr."

"Heh. It does look like that but there's a reason they're still drive-worth these days. They're made to last years IF you actually take care of it—and look at the back."

"Woah— HOLY— Ow! Bro?! What the fuck?!"

I rolled my eyes, "We just cleared this street for 15 minutes just to get to this Jeep— I even forgot to check it for traps but I guess the dude who hid this here was confident it wouldn't get found out. Still, we should be careful of taking his shit from him."

"And why is that?"

"The first two— I mean, three, including this one, didn't have any booby traps but we can never be sure. I'd want to call him right at this moment but we don't know the guy yet— Ilana, June—"

Ilana and June spoke at the same time, "Still looking! June's looking through the database for the names while I'm trying for an image search!/ Yeah! This will take a while! It's not like in those TV shows or movies, you know?!"

I chortled, "You think I don't? How about something more concrete? Try this license plate: DRT 882. It might be a fake but it's still worth a shot, right?"

"I'm still running my—/I'll do it."

"Great— So, what's in the back?"

Jared never smiled so wide, "You'll never believe this shit, bro."

"I might— Anything's possible with that guy."

"Then check it out," Jared said as he completely pulled on the covers.

To my delight, this old-school Jeep definitely had what it takes for a single person to survive the wilderness for a month. Again, I wasn't sure why these items were placed in a rural setting but honestly, I could still make do with these items and survive in this place for a while.

But yeah, without the limiting factor of his rucksack, I found a fully automatic AK, a bolt-action M70, a Remmington 870, and a good ol' 10/22 for hunting small game. Each of these guns had very simple and practical attachments and they all had full ammo cans for each of their respective calibers.

In addition, this Jeep had a few boxes of MREs, gallons of water, water-purifying tablets, a water filter, another camping kit, more tarps, a sleeping bag, binoculars, flashlights, waterproof matches, a compass, a radio, a few packs of batteries, more unmarked maps, a change of clothes, prescription drugs, a shovel, a machete, a pickaxe, a wood saw, and a fire axe.

Enjoy more content from empire

If this guy would bring people with him, I bet it'd only be a single person or if anything, I bet my lunch that he preferred to be alone.

'I mean… Some of those pictures— I guess I'll make proper judgment when I see all his stuff and him when the time comes.'

In any case, once I put the keys into the ignition, the engine sputtered for a bit before it ran just fine—and my group just made our way to the next checkpoint which was one of the stations further up.

However, no matter how many times we turned over each panel, vent, table, counter—heck, even checking the ceiling, we found no trace of another rucksack that could benefit a person or two for a quick escape.

Ibarra chimed in, "Isn't this the closest spot to the Harbor the Mayor have one of his outposts setup?"

"You saying he or his people might've found it?"

"Yeah. Have you told him about our guy?"

"Not yet. I just want this fun to ourselves, the rewards we find our secondary though I kind of want to meet this guy and get to where this supposed bunker is."

"Where is it anyway?"

"Just a bit off Iskoh's territory—It's in the borders of Quezon City, pointed at either this Sports Center, College Campus, Theater, Church, or Burger Joint. Any of those five."

Quinn chuckled from the side, "I would've taken the Sports Center as a place to hunker down but the Burger Joint is the close second."

I thought for a bit, "College Campus is the way to go if you have a group since it almost has all of those things but if I'm by myself, I'll take the Theater."

"Really? Why?"

"I mean, not as crowded as all the other places and I doubt a lot of people would try to break into one. Unless the need for costumes had gone up significantly."

Jared cut in, "Haa… I give up, bro. Can you ask the mayor if they found traces of the same guy?"

I waved him off, "Not now, we'll see the other places first before we contact him. Come on, we'll try the other stations first and those three places before we tell him. But yeah, we've spent maybe an hour at this place already, we might not be able to go to those other safe zones."

"Sure, can we check at least one? The one by 5th Avenue is close, right?"

"Hmm~ Sure."

"Great! That would be our last stop if we spent the same time on each place."

With that said, we easily breezed the streets and the other stations for possible rucksacks—and excluding the United Nations Station, we found four out of five bags that were supposed to be in LRT Line 1.

However, the search for this guy's identity was still ongoing right until we reached this safe house Jared insisted on going.

I'd spare some of the details because this treasure hunt of ours got us really excited so let's just say that not everyone who prepared for this type of situation—or any type of situation really—was guaranteed that they'd last or thrive like we were.

Still, with all the things we gathered for this old gentleman, we had to give him a proper send-off by getting his remains burned on top of the hundred or so bodies he managed to take down before he succumbed to them.

'Farewell, Gregory Adams. I would've loved for you to meet the old man...'