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Almost at the moment he heard the sound of moving furniture from downstairs, Louis's body reacted. He didn't panic in the slightest; his brain began to whirl rapidly, and he sprang into action.
He didn't choose to hide in the cabinets or under the desk of this manager's office, because those would be the primary targets of any search.
His gaze swept quickly across the hallway, finally locking onto an empty, wide-open room diagonally opposite, where even the door panel was missing.
Right there!
Louis moved immediately. He drew his wand and pointed it at all the supplies piled beside him—cans, bottled water, the backpack, and that crucial suitcase.
"Wingardium Leviosa."
Whispering the incantation, he gave the wand a light flick.
In the next second, all the supplies were lifted as if by a large invisible hand, floating silently in mid-air.
Louis immediately directed this pile of "spoils," like commanding a group of obedient soldiers, making them float silently and swiftly toward the empty room.
He followed closely behind. The moment he entered the room, he whipped out the silver invisibility cloak and unfurled it completely, like drawing a curtain across the sky, tightly covering himself and all the supplies.
He chose a corner to squat down, curling his body up to minimize his presence.
From the outside, this room was almost entirely exposed. Aside from the scattered wooden planks, glass shards, and some discarded documents on the floor, there was only a rusty metal ornament standing lonely in the center.
It was a most dangerous place, and therefore, the safest.
Because it didn't look like a place where anyone or anything could be hidden at all.
Louis tried his best to control his heartbeat and breathing. His palm holding the wand was already slick with cold sweat as he waited silently for the uninvited guests to arrive.
Downstairs, the sound of moving obstacles grew louder. Soon, several heavy footsteps ascended the stairs to the second floor.
"Shit, there's definitely someone here!" a gravelly voice cursed. "Search! Everyone, be thorough!"
Louis's heart instantly leaped into his throat.
He heard those people first burst into the manager's office where he had been, followed by a loud clatter as they rummaged through everything.
"Fuck! Nothing! Just a few bottles of water someone drank!"
"A waste of effort! Come on, let's check next door!"
The footsteps rang out again, and they were coming toward his direction!
Louis held his breath, his heart pounding violently.
A tall, bearded man appeared at the doorway. His murky eyes, filled with a trace of impatience, swept across the room.
Louis's heart almost jumped out of his throat!
He saw the man frown, seemingly wanting to step in for a closer look, but after just one glance at the empty, wretched state of the room, he immediately lost interest.
"Motherfucker, this one's a shell too!"
The bearded man spat on the ground, cursed, and turned to leave. "There's definitely a rat in this building. I clearly saw a kid's shadow flickering by the window when we passed by earlier!"
"Damn brat!" another voice said dismissively. "I bet that thief ran off a long time ago."
"Hmph, he better not let me catch him again," the bearded man said viciously. "Otherwise, I'll chop off those little hands of his and see exactly where he's hiding things!"
The footsteps and cursing gradually faded away; they seemed to have gone to another floor.
But Louis didn't move. He remained like a statue, curled motionless under the invisibility cloak.
After a long time, until the sound of moving furniture came from downstairs again, the engine outside roared to life, and then everything fell silent, did he finally confirm that the group had completely left.
He didn't get up immediately but waited silently for another ten minutes.
Only then did the several metal needles that had been floating before him, their tips gleaming with a cold light, drop weakly to the ground with a "clack."
Just now, during those few short seconds when the group passed the door, Louis had prepared for the worst.
If any of them had dared to step into this room, if his invisibility cloak had been at risk of exposure, he would have directed those steel needles, bolstered by the Levitation Charm, to instantly pierce their throats and eyes without hesitation!
He didn't want to kill indiscriminately.
But in this world where human life was worth less than a dog's, when it came to life and death, he would not hesitate for a second!
It wasn't until he confirmed it was safe that the tightly wound killing intent slowly receded, replaced by a wave of exhaustion brought on by the aftermath of a narrow escape.
Only then did Louis dare to take large gulps of fresh air. He realized that his back had long been completely soaked in cold sweat.
He reorganized his supplies, but his heart no longer felt any peace.
This experience served as a wake-up call to his previously somewhat relaxed state.
Even with magic and the invisibility cloak, operating alone for a long time was still too dangerous!
The danger didn't just come from Walkers.
Louis couldn't stay alert twenty-four hours a day. If that group had crept in while he was fast asleep, he might not have even had a chance to react before his throat was slit in his sleep.
Similarly, his energy was limited.
He couldn't be responsible for guarding, scavenging for supplies, and squeezing in time to practice magic all by himself. It would leave him physically and mentally exhausted, and once his condition faltered, a fatal oversight could easily occur in any part of the process.
Finally, and most importantly, he lacked information.
He was like a deaf and blind man, knowing nothing about his surroundings.
He didn't know if there were other survivor groups nearby, whether they were good or evil, and certainly didn't know if the military or government had established any safe zones.
What if the military suddenly decided to nuke the city? What if another power decided on a whim to drop incendiary bombs nearby to clear people out?
Relying solely on his foreknowledge of the plot wouldn't allow him to accurately grasp the situation.
Solo leveling sounded cool, but the risks were far greater than he had imagined.
It seemed... he still had to find a way to join a team.
A reliable, trustworthy team, preferably... one whose plot he was familiar with.
In Louis's mind, the image of that man named Shane, who had spent half the day driving around looking for him, slowly emerged.
Perhaps following the main plot was the safest choice for now.
He hadn't dismissed other possibilities.
After all, as a fan of the American TV show who had watched the entire The Walking Dead series, he knew that in this apocalyptic world, there were several behemoths hidden that were far more powerful than ordinary survivor teams.
That mysterious, powerful CRM with helicopters?
Don't be ridiculous. Louis dismissed that option immediately. CRM was too mysterious and cold, with an operating style comparable to secret police. Moreover, no one knew where their base was right now.
What about the Commonwealth that appeared later?
This option was equally unrealistic. While it sounded good, the Commonwealth was a large community that wouldn't appear for several years; it was too far away to help with his immediate needs.
As for The Governor's Woodbury or Negan's Saviors, the former was a dictatorial fortress with a polished exterior but rotten inside, while the latter was a blatant group of thugs. Joining them would be like playing with fire.
As for those unfamiliar teams that hadn't appeared in the plot, the risks were even higher. Just like that group of intruders just now, who knew what kind of things would be inside.
After eliminating all the wrong answers, the only choice emerged clearly.
Rick's main group, although they had constant internal conflicts and would face countless hardships in the future, and weren't all saints, at least their moral baseline was relatively the highest in the early stages of the apocalypse.
For a child like him who needed to disguise his identity, seek protection, and desired a relatively stable environment to learn magic, there was no better choice than a team whose core members' characters he was familiar with and which possessed a strong "protagonist aura."
What's more, he had already left a good impression on one of the main characters, Shane.
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