The steps were built near the wall, and the two of them carefully went down. The entire basement had an area of more than one hundred square meters and a height of over two meters, but the visibility was very low, making it difficult for them to see even with a flashlight.
The surrounding walls seemed to have been treated not long ago. Even in this dark and dim basement, there were no traces of mold or dampness, and it appeared to have undergone some kind of moisture-proof treatment, something that was not common.
There were many display cases along the surrounding walls, exactly the same as those in the previous secret room, but instead of all kinds of weapons, they were filled with cardboard boxes.
In the center of the room, there were a large number of cabinet-like showcases, with a weapon placed on top, covered by a delicate glass cover.
"Are these… ancient weapons?"
"They should be…" Merle looked at the weapons in the showcases with disdain. They were all flashy things, and with this number of weapons, no one would turn into a walker. If the basement were only used to store weapons and ammunition, it would be enough for several thousand people to use for years.
He reached out and opened the display case, and casually pushed the box inside.
"Huh? It's actually quite heavy!" Merle muttered in a somewhat surprised tone.
"Is it something good?"
With a flick of his dagger, the box was opened directly, and Merle looked inside.
A cartridge! A box full of ammunition!
Incredible—he opened the other boxes, and there were still many more bullets!
"Wow, could it be that the owner of this place was a complete idiot? Was it impossible for him to use these weapons and ammunition to protect his home?"
"There must be some reason why he couldn't use these weapons and ammunition…"
Little Hanna thought of the well-dressed walkers on the third floor earlier, secretly guessing what had happened to them.
But Merle could not control his excitement. Seeing so much ammunition found all at once, he couldn't help but grin from ear to ear. What was most needed in these last days?
Naturally, it was firearms, and firearms without bullets would become nothing more than scrap copper and rotten iron.
Although he had a pistol at his waist, only he knew that he had only six bullets in it. It was fine for scaring bad people, but it was not enough to deal with fast walkers.
Fortunately, he had not encountered anything more terrifying than ordinary walkers. Therefore, he had been fine so far—but now, that uneasiness was gone.
After walking through the basement and confirming that all the boxes were filled with various types of ammunition, Merle felt relieved and finally understood why the firearms in the study's secret room had no bullets.
There were already so many supplies found in just this basement—what could be in the other two basements?
There was no need to say that many secrets were hidden in the owner of this house. He didn't know who they had been before the end of the world. Perhaps the only walkers in this mansion were workers who had lived here and didn't know about the existence of these basements. Perhaps the real owner of the house had evacuated beforehand, and these resources were left behind, forgotten, without anyone else knowing of their existence.
Of course, Merle didn't care much about that kind of thing, so he thought: "Well, I'm damn lucky!"
He took two boxes of ammunition and moved them upstairs. Merle was not in a hurry to secure these things right now. The other two basements that had not yet been found attracted him even more, and ever since he realized the value of these basements, he wanted to find them as soon as possible.
Finding one basement gave both of them a lot of confidence. Next, Merle focused on checking places that could easily be overlooked and found another basement half an hour later.
This time, it was finally not weapons and ammunition, but a large amount of stored food. This discovery made little Hanna laugh, and she couldn't help but feel excited. She had never seen so much food gathered in one place, and impatiently, she ran to a box and opened it, discovering that it was packaged food.
Special ham, dried food, various canned goods, compressed biscuits, sealed food, and even a large amount of military rations.
"Who is the owner of this house? Why did they store so many supplies?"
Merle looked at these things in the room and smiled indifferently. In his opinion, it didn't matter who the other party was—they were the ones benefiting from it now.
"Whoever it is, all I know is that tonight's dinner is going to be great." As he spoke, Merle took out several bags of food from the box and handed them to Hanna, saying, "Go upstairs and prepare the food first. Meanwhile, I'll try to find that basement on my own."
Rubbing the larger key, Merle couldn't help but look forward to it. What would the third room be? Even the key was very different.
Hanna went to the kitchen to prepare the food by herself, while Merle carried out a meticulous search. For now, he had only found two basements. Based on the size of the large basements, there shouldn't be another one near this place.
So he focused on the rest of the area, and needless to say, everything became more intense. Every room turned into a mess, and when Hanna returned and called him to eat, she saw the disorder in the room.
"Old man, it's time to eat!"
Hanna walked through the corridor, calling out to Merle loudly, wondering where he was.
…
What made her feel a bit strange was that the corridor had become extremely quiet, and there was no sound in the room that had been active just moments ago. She called several times, but no one responded. Hanna felt a dark wind blowing around her, and there was no one there. The hallways of the house seemed to grow increasingly gloomy.
Growing more and more nervous, Hanna couldn't help but take out the small axe she carried at her waist. She was truly at a loss over the sudden disappearance of old Merle. The deaths of her parents and Elena made her feel uneasy about this sudden disappearance.
"Merle? Where are you?"
Hanna kept peeking her head into each room, but every room was empty, and Merle could not be found at all, which made her feel agitated. Then she saw the entrance to the basement.
Did he go to the basement?
She hurried to the basement entrance and shouted twice, but she couldn't hear anything except the echo. This made her panic even more. Everything she looked at became gloomy—even the basement full of supplies turned into a dark shadow, and the entrance, like a black hole, became terrifying.
Hanna's heart began to pound violently. She became more and more restless, her palms sweating, and all kinds of thoughts flooded her mind.
Are there other survivors in the villa? Did they attack the old man while she was distracted?
Her nerves were stretched to the limit. The strength in her hands gripping the axe handle increased again, and her body slowly retreated into the hallway, moving toward the villa's door.
As she slowly backed toward the door, Hanna let out a sigh of relief. She only needed to take a few more steps before she could reach the villa's exit. She looked around one last time and confirmed that there was no danger.
Just as she turned around and placed her hand on the doorknob, a knock sounded from outside the door. The sudden noise made Hanna scream, and her body jumped back as if struck by electricity.
Staring at the door in horror, she let out a long breath of relief when a familiar voice came from outside.
"Boss!"