Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night
Chapter 274: Very Poor Choice of Words

Blade cut through flesh, blood, and bone as limbs were severed from the body in an instant. Zane's Sickels tore through the undead in front of him at a speed unrecognizable by a standard human eye. He himself was covered with the coagulated blood of the monsters which he slayed.

Could he have peacefully walked from one end of the city to his destination? Yes. Was he going to give up a perfect opportunity to farm the undead for their blood crystals and resources? Absolutely not.

Of course, there was only one problem with cutting through thousands of monsters that lie between you and your destination. You were basically creating a giant path of blood and body parts leading directly to where you were headed.

Because of this, after cutting through a few hundred undead, Zane ceased his actions. To kill that many undead, in that short of a time span. You would either need to mobilize a large force of awakened survivors. Or you would need a Horde King to have done it.

With the number of people Zane saw in the Jungle, it was not unbelievable for a few dozen Awakened to get together and start massacring the undead in the vicinity of their base. In fact, Zane suspected routine purges were quite common.

But if he began racking up a body count in the thousands within the span of seconds, he would have given away his position to the local Horde King instantly. Assuming the man or woman in charge didn't immediately realize who was the culprit behind such an act, he would have a limited time to escape before this was revealed.

Because of this, Zane walked away after taking out around a thousand undead altogether. The resources and blood crystals they left him were enough for one day, as he and Gwen quickly made their way to a more wealthy area of the las Vegas area where the abandoned mansions awaited them.

While Zane was coated in blood and bile, Gwen remained entirely unfettered. Clearly, she was either too fast to get marred by Zane's violence, or had just stayed away far enough not to be within the splash zone.

Either way, she was certainly chipper about the whole thing as she followed Zane into the mansion whose door he busted down.

"That was fun, I guess. It was rather a bit too quick for my taste though. Tell me big brother, is this where we are making camp tonight? And how exactly does that work with your camp feature? Wouldn't it be better to replace a nice open plot of land instead of some place like this?

Zane did not immediately respond. Instead, he latched onto Gwen's words and quickly looked at his camp management feature. Which surprisingly, had brand new options when he made his current whereabouts his camp.

There was no spawning of what he had already constructed. Instead, there was a tag by the system that labelled this mansion has his "temporary residence" allowing him to do things like temporarily restore power, fresh water supply, sewage, and any other form of utilities that by now could not possibly be operated.

Zane looked at this with confusion until he saw a comment at the bottom of the section screen. It was a message written directly to him, and he knew exactly who the culprit was.

---

[Mommy can't have her baby boy living in squalor now can she? Enjoy the benefits of temporary residency! You can temporarily restore any building you enter to its previous glory with the click of a button. But beware it costs gold to perform each task. I can't possibly just give this to you for free now can I? hehehe]

---

Zane shook his head and sighed, and Gwen noticed this with a perplexed expression on his face. Although she was even more shocked the instant after when all the damage that had been done to this building by the sandstorm was immediately swept away and replace with parts as good as new. The lights turned on, and the sound of the air conditioner could be heard humming in the background.

She was immediately bewildered by what had happened, as it was simply not plausible with the state of things in the city. Turning her head to Zane and asking him how he could have achieved this.

"What did you do? How did you get this place looking so nice, and so quickly at that?"

Gwen wasn't exactly aware of the system that his mother had designed for him and granted to humanity. She may be aware of awakened humans, their newfound powers, enhanced abilities, and other strange things that did not exist. But one would have to be awakened to see the actual system that facilitated these things.

And because of this, Zane's response was short and to the point.

"Consider it a gift from my mother. In exchange for a share of my resources, I can temporarily revitalize any structure I stay in. Although once I leave, it will go back to its actual state of being."

Gwen stared blankly at Zane as if she had not just heard things properly. She was about to ask a question when Zane turned around and headed upstairs, making a brief comment before disappearing from sight.

"I'm going to go take a bath. You do whatever the hell you want."

Gwen's mind nearly froze when she heard this. Did Zane just say he was going to go take a bath, and that she should do whatever the hell she wanted….. Was that not an opportunity to twist his words against him?

With a wicked smirk on her face, Gwen hatched an idea that would thoroughly piss Zane off.

---

Zane was sitting in a large and luxurious bath tub. One that was capable of using jets as if it were a hot tub. The water was warm, but not scaldingly hot. Even then, it was soothing to the touch.

The blessing he had, even after his body stopped requiring sustenance, was the fact that he could still enjoy the sensation of tasting food, or drinking alcohol, or taking a bath, or getting a good night's rest.

And because of this, he closed his eyes and let the jets within the bath tub perform its magic as it messaged his muscles much in the same way a hot tub would. That is, until he heard a splash of water, and felt skin on skin contact with his foot.

Zane quickly opened his eyes and saw Gwen sitting across from him in the bath. She had shamelessly forced her way into the bathroom and entered the tub, completely naked. Not that Zane could see anything intimate as her body was all thoroughly covered by the neck deep water, the turbulence of the jets, and the bubble bath formula he had put into the water.

Still, the thought that this little brat would force her way into his privacy. It caused Zane to scowl as he stared at Gwen with an almost murderous gaze while expressing his confusion with a hostile tone.

"What the hell do you think you are doing?"

Gwen, of course, was not the least bit intimidated by Zane and his performance. I mean, why would she be? Even if she couldn't defend herself due to Zane's control over her, the man needed her more than anything.

She shamelessly smiled at Zane in a way that only further infuriated him. After all, the man had said that she could do whatever the hell she wanted, right? This was a sentiment she was quick to shove back in the man's face.

"What? You said I could do whatever I wanted? Well, I want to bathe with my big brother! Is that so wrong? Now come here and let your little sister wash your back!"

There was an expression on the girl's face that could only be described as perverted as Zane instantly used his authority to stop.

"Stop! Don't you dare fucking touch me!"

Gwen could not refuse an order, and pouted as she sat back in her seat, incapable of moving while restrained by Zane. She could only comment on his actions with discontent.

"You're no fun!"

Zane sighed heavily as he facepalmed. He realized the error in his words that had caused this misunderstanding. No, it wasn't a misunderstanding. It was deliberate on Gwen's part, and she simply used his very poor choice of words to justify her behavior. And he couldn't exactly stay mad at her be, because she had done what he said. Which was to do whatever the hell she wanted.

Thus, he sighed a second time, before telling Gwen to get the hell out of his bath and leave him be.

"Get out! And don't you ever try anything like this again!"

After saying this, Zane closed his eyes, and waited for the sound of Gwen exiting the bathtub, and closing the door behind her. Which after she did, he peaked open one of his eyes and looked around to make sure his commands had worked.

It was only then that Zane heard a familiar voice in the back of his head. One that was truly and utterly shameless.

'I just love seeing my baby boy get along so well with his siblings!"

It was then that Zane realized Gwen was not the only one capable of intruding on privacy, and he quickly became embarrassed.