Level up Zombie Chapter 1: 1, a 13 tzameti fanfic

Zain Talen, your average college slacker, was busy skipping class to go play a new video game he had just bought, when a strange woman came running his way. Before he could get out of the way she collided with him. Quickly picking herself up she ran away leaving behind a pendant. Without knowing where she went Zain pocketed it and decided to look for her after his gaming session. During his binge, he heard it. *Bang *Bang *Bang His door was assaulted with the banging of someone who sounded desperate to get in. Rushing to open the door he found himself overpowered by something and not soon after felt a sharp pain on his neck. Vision fading in and out Zain found himself at death's door. "Could this be the end?" [Congratulations!] [You have been turned into a zombie!] [QUEST RECEIVED- Begin your horde!] [infected 0/10] [Level 1]

Level up Zombie #Chapter 1 Abandoned - Read Level up Zombie Chapter 1 Abandoned Online - All Page - Novel Usb

"Where are we heading? We can't just stay on this thing forever. We'll eventually run out of food." The Co-captain asked, looking into the distance, with the endless sea reflecting in his eyes.

"I don't know. Maybe we can find an island or somewhere where there are none of 'them'." His Captain replied, tilting his hat by pulling down its tip to hide the expression on his face so the other person couldn't see, but he could not contain his worry.

The Captain then placed his bony hand on the handrails. His wrist was frail, and the clothes were baggy. He gritted his teeth, shut his eyes, and as he gripped the handrails tightly, a drop of tear streamed down from his cheek.

'Someone..please... tell us what to do.' The Captain prayed as he listened to the roars around him.

The giant waves of the sea were being torn apart as the large cruise ship crashed into them. The cold, bottomless night covered the sky, and it was hard for them to judge where they were heading. Most of the equipment on the vast ship had malfunctioned, and an unknown dreadful ominous fear clutched everyone's heart.

However, the biggest worry of the two people standing on the deck was neither the unknown fear nor the uncertainty of survival.

"We should at least be able to survive a month on this thing even if we don't find anywhere safe. We have plenty of time." The Co-Captain gulped, trying to reassure himself, "As long as no one on board is infected."

The Captain's hand trembled as memories began to flood his thoughts.

"Don't worry. I made sure we scanned everybody. We had their temperature taken before allowing them on board."

"AHHHHH!"

Both of them immediately moved their heads as they heard a frightful scream. They looked down below on one of the floors of the cruise ship and saw several shadows running in a particular direction.

The two officers' mouths fell, and their eyes widened from the shock and fear of what was happening.

The Captain's hand bled as he clenched his fists and nails dug into his palm.

'Someone save us from this nightmare.'

———

Someone on the ship...

Removing the eye mask from his face, the first thing the university student saw was the bunk bed above him.

"Why is everyone so goddamn loud tonight? It calmed down a bit, but what the hell is going on? Go on a cruise ship Kyle. It would be fun, they said." Kyle grumbled to himself. But that's when he noticed something weird.

Across from where Kyle had been sleeping was another set of bunk beds. Only, there was no one else there.

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"Shirley?... Now, where did she go in the middle of the night?" Kyle wondered. 'Did she go to check on the noise? But what about the rest? Where is everyone?'

They were staying in a small metal room that could hold four people. Yet, Kyle found himself alone in the quiet room.

Although he had always been a deep sleeper, what concerned him was that the group he had toured with had resolved to leave him alone without giving him any heads-up of where they were going.

The next thing Kyle noticed was the heavy metal door of the room which was slightly open, letting in a thin line of light reflect on the floor. Kyle decided to open it, feeling something was wrong and that the others might have gotten into trouble.

Popping his head out and staring down the hallway, the reality of the situation hit him. Directly in front of him, there was a body on the ground. It was stripped, clawed, and covered in red, marking everywhere, but the worst part was that its head was caved in as if someone had bludgeoned its head with a big hammer.

Immediately, Kyle felt his inwards twisting, and he sensed that he would throw up.

Then, as he tried to gasp for air and get a hold of himself, a thought flashed in his mind, 'That's... that's the person staying with us!'

He suddenly heard slow growls, which caused him to turn his head. Down the hallway, he saw her...it was Shirley. She looked frightened and scared. Her make-up was ruined from crying, and she had blood marks over her body. In her hands, she was holding onto an axe, which itself was dyed red, indicating it wasn't just for show.

'What the hell is going on!' Kyle's heart dropped.

Kyle took a deep breath and readied himself to run towards her, but he couldn't quite comprehend what happened next as two people suddenly leapt towards her. Shirley swung her axe and immediately hit one of them in the head, pushing him onto the other one. Regardless, the one from behind fell but managed to latch onto her leg. Then pulling its body, the man opened his mouth and bit down hard on her leg.

His teeth easily sunk through the skin, and Shirley's body suddenly froze on the spot as a warm liquid ran down her leg from the wound.

Immediately, seeing this scene, Kyle recalled the news reports on tv that he had seen so far. He knew it was too late for her. He stepped back and covered his mouth with his hand as tears blurred his vision.

'I'm sorry!' Kyle gulped, and after cursing himself, he ran in the exact opposite direction.

Heading down the hallway in terror, Kyle didn't know where he was going. As he ran, he saw more blood on the walls and came across bodies lying through the hallway, many of them with one or the other body parts missing. In particular, their heads seemed to have large holes in them.

As he was running, two more people appeared around the corner on the other end, heading towards him. However, their steps were stumbling, and their skin was ashen.

"Damn it." Kyle used his hands to hold the wall and stop himself. Then, without hesitation, he turned around and ran.

He ran around the cruise ship and soon pushed open doors to the dining room, only to find people fighting against a horde of creatures attacking them.

Kyle ran across the room, seeing a door on the other side rather than helping anyone in their struggles. He shut his eyes from fear as he ran as fast as possible. Suddenly, he heard a growl, and upon opening his eyes, he saw one of those 'creatures' on the ground.

n0𝗏𝓮𝓁𝑈𝔰𝔅.𝒸0𝔪

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Jumping as high as he could, the person tried to grab his legs but missed, letting Kyle clear him easily.

"No, they said we were okay. They said we will be fine here!" Kyle shouted as he pushed the double doors open to the front deck.

It was at this point that Kyle slowly walked out, losing hope. Everyone on the ship was attacking one another, trying to bite or eat each other.

This was precisely what the news reports had warned them about.

However, Kyle, at this moment, noticed something. With all the chaos going on around him, one person stood out. He was a large man who looked around eight feet tall.

His back was turned away, looking out towards the sea, but no one was attacking him. The fights on the deck were also coming to an end.

From the beginning, it was clear who would win.

And soon, the 'winners' began to turn towards him slowly. Their mouths dripped with the blood of someone else.

'I only have one choice!' Kyle clenched his fists and sprinted towards the man on the other end. He ran as fast as he could, but the others came after him from behind.

'Damn it, they just turned, so they're still quite fast!'

Reaching his hand out, Kyle had no choice but to shout.

"Help me!"

Hearing these words, the man turned around. It was an old gentleman with a full grey beard leaning back. But Kyle didn't pay attention to all these details because the only important thing to note was that this man was a human, just as he had thought.

As Kyle reached out his hand, hoping the old man would take it, the latter began to walk towards Kyle.

However, he didn't take Kyle's hand but walked past him and raised his hand out, signalling for the others to stop.

Rubbing his eyes, Kyle wondered if he was dreaming or not because the unhinged enemy had stopped.

These creatures, the 'winners', known as Zombies, who desired nothing but human flesh, had suddenly halted in their tracks following a human's orders!

'Why are they listening to him, and why aren't they coming close to him?' Kyle got confused with every passing moment.

"We must use evil to fight against evil. It is the only way we will survive this." The old man slowly spoke, and after a slight pause, he added, "I will not make you suffer."

Then, he turned around, and in his hand was a pistol.

The last thing Kyle heard was a gunshot before his vision turned dark, and his body fell backwards on the deck.

[Level Up Zombie, initially meant to be a webtoon, is a story that I wrote a few years ago.

I'm entering the Webnovel Spirity Award 2022 Contest with this novel. Please support this work if you enjoy it. Thank you, everyone, for allowing me to write stories. Without you and your immeasurable support, I wouldn't have reached this stage.

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A man's footsteps slowly crept across the wooden floor. Each time he placed his foot down, he prayed to the gods, if any, to not let the floor creak. Covered in ragged clothes, the man had a crowbar in his hands, and with his hunched stance, his body was on full alert.

He continued to walk down the hallway of the house, looking left-right and paying attention to every detail. Still, slowly, his movements came to a halt.

'There seem to be signs of struggle. Damn it, has this place already been raided?'

The man had already come too far not to check the place out. Turning down the hallway would be the kitchen, which would give him the answers he needed and, hopefully, the supplies as well.

'Depending on what I see, I will decide what to do next.'

Turning around the corner, the man stood upright, and his eyes widened as he found the blood-stained kitchen. It was smeared across the wall, and he could still see the pool of blood dripping from the edges of the countertop.

-drip!

'Sh*t!'

Before he could react, a head slowly rose from the other side of the kitchen counter, and now in full view, the man could see how disfigured it was. Its teeth were rotten and barely hanging into its gums, an eyeball had popped out of its head and was dangling halfway down its face, its skin was rotting, and there were deep flesh wounds.

'Come here, you b*tch!'

Grabbing his belt, the man yanked an object off and threw it straight towards the head. The next moment, a thunk sound came out of the kitchen as a small blade pierced through its skull, right between its eyebrows.

The strange figure began to fall backwards and collapsed onto the ground.

"Phew that was a close one. That would have been really troublesome if it had cried and alerted the others."

"Will you get off that game already, Zain?!" A deep voice suddenly echoed in his ears, pulling his attention from the scene in front of him.

Inside one of the many university dorm rooms, a red-haired student was sitting at his desk playing one of his favourite types of games, a zombie-survival game. He was a true Gamer in and out, and almost every moment he could spare, he would be playing one game or the other.

Although, Zain didn't look like one would expect. He finally exited the game and stood up from his seat. He was well built with muscle and was around 6 foot 2 inches tall. Some would even say he was handsome if it weren't for his boring flat hairstyle.

In fact, due to his muscular body and athletic capabilities, many of his friends advised him to try out for a few of the university sports teams, but then when would he have time for his precious games?

"I said that I would join you guys when I died," Zain replied, staring at his screen, not even making eye contact with the other two in the room.

Zain's obsession with survival games was due to his father, who loved watching zombie movies growing up. Perhaps Zain watched things a little too old for his age, but his father's passion had become his own.

As the thought entered his head, he couldn't help but think, for another time, how would he fare if the world had suddenly come against a zombie apocalypse? How long could he survive?

Because of these questions Zain had, he trained his body as if a zombie apocalypse would happen one day. It had then become a habit for him to train. That's when survival games finally came out, which was the closest Zain could experience to a real-life zombie apocalypse.

"Looking at that game reminds me of something," Skittle, one of the other two in the room, said as he sniffled a little.

Skittle was one of Zain's best friends. They had known each other since school. He was small in size and body frame, and for some reason, he always had a red nose. Along with his tiny round specs, these things made him quite an easy target to be picked on in school until Zain stepped into the picture.

As for why Zain had helped Skittle back then, it was a secret that he hadn't told the latter even now. He knew Skittle was smart, and if there was ever a zombie attack, he would be the one that knew how to survive and manage basic necessities like power and food.

"I was searching on the dark web, and there are multiple videos and forums posted about attacks happening in other countries." Skittle gulped before saying the next part. "All of the attacks, they look like there being bitten and as if by eaten alive..by-"

"By zombies!" Zain jumped up from his seat, his eyes shining as he interrupted Skittle before the latter could finish.

"Don't be so stupid, both of you." The deep voice from earlier echoed once again, and leaning up against the bunk bed in the room, with his arms crossed, was Buke.

n0𝑽𝓮𝓁𝑢𝗌𝑩.𝕔0𝑀

If people thought Zain was well built, Buke was another thing altogether. It was similar to comparing a tank and a horse. Buke had naturally been strong with a large upper body and was nearly 7 feet tall.

However, it seemed like he was unlucky in one department...his hair. He was completely bald.

"If something like this did happen, then it would be all over the news, and we would all get an alert on our phones," Buke argued. "Not on some fake Dark web sh*t."

"But it's coming from multiple sources and in different places!" Skittle argued back. "The Dark web is more reliable than the news you see anywhere else. Do you think the news channels and websites are independent? No, they are all controlled by the rich and the powerful, while the dark web is from individual users like you and me!"

"Damn it!" Buke shouted and pushed the bed with the side of his arm, shaking the whole thing and leading it to creak a bit. "You sound like those damned conspiracy theorists! Of course, if something were happening, we would see it outside, but look, everything is fine...go on, if zombies are here, then go out there and show me one right now! Don't just bring some edited video or fake posts claiming they're real."

Stepping forward, Zain stood between the two, but honestly, he was a little concerned. He placed his hand at the two of them but felt like Buke could hit him any second. It wouldn't be the first time something like this happened either.

"Look, why don't we just calm down a little? As you said, Buke, we don't know what's true or not unless we see it with our own eyes. The only thing we can do if anything happens is to be ready for it. There's no harm in that, is there?" Zain smiled.

It was clear Buke found the other two quite delusional, and although Buke was calm most of the time, if things got a little too far, Zain would always step in and take the hit for Skittle.

If Skittle were on the receiving end of Buke's fist, Zain would worry for them both. One of his friends could quite possibly end up dead while the other would be sent to prison, and although he enjoyed playing games, his life was already lonely enough.

DING *DING

"Oh, that's the alarm! The class is about to start. Let's go; we better hurry!" Skittle said, already picking up his things and getting ready to leave the room.

Buke also took his stuff and was about to leave until he noticed Zain standing on the spot.

"Hey? Aren't you coming to class?" He asked.

"Nah, not today. I'm planning to skip it. There's a new game coming out, and I want to pick it up and take the whole day to play it. So you guys go ahead without me." Zain said.

Buke shrugged and headed for the door. It wasn't the first time Zain was skipping the class.

Just then, a thought flashed in his mind, and he couldn't help but chuckle while turning around and then saying to Zain.

"Hey, if there ever was a zombie apocalypse, at least I know who to count on. You would probably be the one to survive the longest, right?"

"I hope so..."

Walking down the street with a hop in his step, Zain couldn't help but smile. Although he loved playing video games, he would not usually skip classes. However, there was an exception to this rule on the first day of a big release.

That way, he could enjoy the game for a full day uninterrupted by anyone, and today had been a long time coming.

Walking past the shop windows, he could see a large poster. It had a bloody main character on the front with a shipwreck behind him and the font with the game's name: Allies.

The game was based on a world where the ice caps have melted, causing sea levels to rise. And because of this, the land was now limited, and nuclear waste fell into the sea, creating deadly sea creatures.

"You must create your raft ships and hop island to island while fighting the deadly mutant sea creatures. I can't wait to play it!" Zain said, holding the box in his hand.

"I know, Zain. I work here. I know just as much about the game as you do, so why are you telling me all this." The store clerk replied, who had a name tag that read Ben.

"Sorry, I was just reading it aloud," Zain replied. "Where is everyone anyway? Isn't it a big release day? Don't tell me nobody's hyped for the game? How can that be? It was all over the game forums."

"HA!" Ben rolled his eyes, "I don't know what cave you're living in and what you're smoking these days. Bring some for me the next time you come. Also, people don't line up to collect their games anymore. Instead, they order it online or download it. Long gone are the days of queues and large events. Sometimes... I just wish the whole world would change, and I hope everyone around me burns." He mumbled.

Now it looked like Ben was the one to speak his mind. As he realised this, he stood up straight.n0𝐕𝓮𝑳𝑈𝑆𝗯.𝚌0𝗆

"Just go and enjoy your game."

Walking out of the store, Zain found himself with a weird feeling. Today is a big day, but the interaction spoilt his mood quite a bit.

"What got shoved up his arse?" Zain said, turning around. "Maybe he's just having a bad day, but still, what he said was strange."

Walking back down the street, Zain held the box tightly. He brought it in and started to sniff the new plastic, and then it was time for his favourite bit: the unboxing.

As he heard the clicking noise, the box opened, and the smell of the disk and foam wafted into his nose.

'Man, if anyone saw the look on my face right now, they would think I'm some kinda weirdo, but who cares? The streets are quite empty today anyway.' Zain thought.

In the middle of admiring the artwork that was imprinted on the disk, for a second, he could see a shadow cast over it, but it was too late to do anything, as the person had run straight into him.

The two collided, the momentum of that person pushed Zayn back, and his stomach winded a little, but he made sure not to let go of the box as he firmly held it in his right hand. At the last second, he had pulled the box away, taking the hit rather than crushing the game below his weight.

'Damn it, that hurts. Who the f*ck is running in this heat?' Zain squinted and opened his eyes to see a pair of long thin, slender legs on the ground.

"I'm sorry." The woman said, "I'm in a rush!" She had gotten up before Zain could do anything, ran right past him, and continued sprinting forward.

'I never got to see her face, but she had beautiful blonde hair and long legs. Damn it! she was totally my type!' Zain thought and felt he was stuck ten years in the past.

Looking down at the ground, Zain noticed something on the floor. It was clearly a pendant but not one he had seen people wear before. On closer inspection, he noticed it was silver with a blue gem in the middle. As for the design, it had several feathers all over, leading to the top.

'This looks like a game item.' Zain picked it up. 'I'll just give it back to the woman if I see her again, even though I don't know what her face looks like..this isn't stealing, right?'

Finally, the university student had returned to his room, and with how the day had gone for him until now, he really needed to get the game in as soon as possible. So he loaded it up into his PC, which still had a disk drive just for these moments. Then, after finishing the necessary long updates, it was finally time to enjoy the game.

Placing his headphones over his head, Zain got to work and started exploring the game. Whenever playing, he truly imagined being in that world and ignored everyone around him. Although it was often hard with his two noisy friends, no one was here to disturb him today. This was also why he had been looking forward to this day for a long time.

Zain's fingers were moving fast, his mouse was clicking away, and he had already set up all his macro buttons so he could play in the most optimal way. Everything was a new experience, and when entering a new world, one had to be prepared as much as possible to avoid dying too early.

BANG

'What is that? Is that in the game?'

BANG

After removing his headphones from one ear, he could hear someone banging on the door. Zain had the volume turned up while playing to immerse himself more, but the banging disturbed his whole immersion.

"What the hell? Who is it at this time!"

BANG

"Alright, cut it out, Buke! And if it's not you, then whoever it is, can just f*ck off!" Zain swung the door open ready to give whoever it was an earful, and almost instantly, a person fell onto him.

Zain held them up hands for a bit, but a rustic smell entered his nose.

'What the..'

Before he could do anything else, the head that rested on his shoulder moved, and its mouth opened wide before sinking its teeth into his skin. The next instant, he felt heart-wrenching pain around his shoulder and neck.

"You F*cking bit me!" Zain then lifted his leg and kicked the person right in the stomach as hard as he could, sending them back and hitting the hallway wall.

"I'm going to give you a new face today." Zain clenched his fist, but that's when he noticed he felt weak, his legs were giving in, and he tumbled to the floor as his body slowly lost all strength. Looking at the person he had just hit, he now noticed the latter was covered in blood.

'Wait a sec...is that...am I...am I dreaming?...were those videos on the dark web real? Damn it! I guess you were wrong, Buke. I wasn't the one to survive the longest after all.'

Just as he finished his words, something fell out of his pocket and began to shine, illuminating the whole hallway.

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Zain's eyelids twitched twice before slowly opening up. He felt them be somewhat heavy as if he was waking up from a deep sleep, and his body felt quite weak, as if he was in the middle of recovering from a fever.

It felt like he had almost run a marathon the day before and was slowly recovering, a familiar feeling for Zain since he had once attempted a marathon run to test his limits. After all, if one were in an apocalypse situation where vehicles didn't exactly work, they would need to run.

However, this feeling didn't last long as it slowly disappeared, and soon Zain stood up and carefully scanned his surroundings while turning his head left and right. He didn't know where to start and just slapped his hands on his forehead.

'Did I get robbed!' Zain assumed. Quickly, he rushed over to where his computer desk was and fell to his knees in disbelief.

'Why the hell would a robber break in and destroy my computer? What the hell did they have to get from this?'

The whole room was a complete mess. The drawers, even the bunk bed, looked to be partially destroyed. It was as if the entire room had been ransacked and picked apart, as if someone was searching for something.

After realising there was no way of him being able to restore his computer, he stood up and looked around at everything.

'Wait a second, what happened again? Was it really a robber? My head is a little fuzzy.' While trying to recall the moments before he had passed out, he rubbed the side of his neck close to his shoulder and could feel a few bumps on his skin.

Suddenly, the memories of the final moments before he lost consciousness flashed in his mind.

'I was bit...and the person who bit me, they didn't exactly look normal…it can't be…why would someone just come in and bite me?'

Thinking fast and seeing that his door was wide open, Zain first made sure that there was no one inside, and soon after, he had closed the door shut and locked the door. But, before doing anything else, he had to ensure the situation was what he thought.

Then, when he took out his phone from his pocket, the necklace from before dropped onto the ground. Looking at it, he noticed it no longer had a shine like before. Instead, the crystal inside looked more like a regular old rock. Either way, he still picked it up and, rather than placing it in his pocket, he put it around his neck for now.

Then checking his phone, all he could see was a black screen. Upon pressing the power button, he expected it to turn on, but nothing happened. Quickly, he searched for a charger and put his phone on charge, but there was still no response on the screen.n0𝑣𝔢𝓵𝚞𝚜𝚋.𝔠0𝔪

Upon clicking the two light switches, he discovered the power was out.

'I would love to think that the whole building has just had a power cut, but based on what's been happening the whole day and with the video that Skittle had shown…I don't think there's a simple reason behind the current situation.'

Without his phone and computer, there was no way for Zain to get information on the current situation. He knew he needed to learn as much as possible before leaving the room.

Of course, he would like to know if Skittle and Buke were okay, but in the end, he had to first look after himself before he could think about anyone else. While thinking of this, one pressing and worrying matter was running through Zain's head, and that was the bite on his neck.

If the current situation was really what he thought it was, and from the several movies and games he played, getting bitten was one of the most dangerous things.

Heading into the toilet, which was close to the door, Zain was surprised to see that the water supply was still operating, so he splashed his face a few times, trying to get his thoughts straight.

Although, he didn't feel a cold refreshing feeling like he usually would when using the water. Still, he pulled the hoodie he had on himself and then titled it towards the mirror to get a better look at his wound.

The wound looked precisely like a bite mark, and Zain could easily confirm that it was indeed a human bite. The strange thing was that the wound looked a couple of days old, and most of it was already healed. There was still quite the visible mark though.

'That's strange...and it doesn't hurt either.'

After observing the wound for a long time, he finally calmed down and looked at himself in the mirror. Then, in the next moment, Zain's eyes opened wide, and he couldn't help but rub them a couple of times. He blinked as fast as he could before stumbling back and almost falling on the bathroom floor.

'What the F*ck! What the…who the…who the f*ck is this! What happened to me!'

At first, Zain noticed that his general appearance had changed a bit. His skin seemed paler than usual. It was not quite snow-white like a female novel character. Instead, his skin had turned dull grey, as if there was no life in it at all.

However, that wasn't the most shocking thing for him. Instead, it was the fact that there were a couple of bars above his head and varying numbers in them.

'This is…just like a game interface...but what's wrong with my skin? Did the fall hurt my eyesight? Am I dreaming or something? '

In these sorts of cases, one would usually try and pinch themselves to wake them up, which was exactly what Zain did in his case. But when he pinched himself, using little force on the palm of his hand, he surprisingly ended up ripping through his skin. While staring at the wound in shock, a stream of blood began to bubble out of the wound, but he was even more surprised upon noticing that he wasn't feeling any pain.

'No…no, this can't be...this has to be a dream, right? Someone tell me what is going on!'

When such a strange thought flashed in his mind, and he clenched the wash basin, Zain suddenly heard a 'ding' notification prompt, and upon looking straight, he found a translucent screen in front of him.

[Name: Zain Talen]

[Current Body State: 98 Percent Functional]

[Energy Level: 100 Percent]

[Level: 1]

[EXP: 0/100]

[Race: Undead]

Notifications soon flashed in front of Zain, shrouding his reflection of his face in the mirror. He carefully read the information coming to him. Beside each stat was a small 'i' icon; when Zain focused on it, a new prompt would appear and reveal information about that particular stat.

And when he read the last line, he was once more stumped.

'I haven't misread, right? It definitely says Undead here…'

How long Zain had stared at himself in the mirror after reading that, he didn't know, but it was long enough for the value of his energy stat to drop by one point.

[Energy level: 99]

[Note: Get a taste of human flesh to restore your energy!]

[New (Bonus) quest received]

[Eat fresh flesh straight from a human]

[Quest reward: 10 EXP]

Level Up Zombie Updates daily, please vote with stones to show your support for the Webnovel Spirity Competition 2022.

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Eventually, Zain had no choice but to accept his situation. He couldn't just stare at the mirror forever. Of course, that wouldn't change anything, but now he had multiple questions going through his head that he needed answers for.

'So I'm an undead? A fancy word for a zombie, but why can I think? Aren't zombies supposed to be mindless? I can speak, and my body is also under my control. This is nothing like the zombie games or movies that I play. Although they are all different, case to case, something like this never happened in any game I have played.

'And I have this game-like interface that I can summon anytime? I need to find out as much as possible about myself and this damned zombie system. I swear if this were a novel, they would call it My Zombie System or something.' Zain tried to joke to relieve him of his situation, and it was the only thing he could do to uplift the mood.

Through a few checks, he could confirm that he did indeed appear dead. For one, there was no heartbeat, and his sense of pain seemed gone. He still had the sense of touch and pressure, but it wasn't as accurate as before.

To test it somewhat, he picked up a toothbrush. He could feel his hand holding the brush, but he couldn't sense its temperature. Just to be double-sure, he rotated the tap, and as the water flushed out of it, he put his fingers in the stream of water.

Once again, although he felt the water, he couldn't tell if it was hot or cold.

As for the other questions he had about himself, fortunately for Zain, the system had plenty of in-depth explanations. An explanation prompt would appear after focusing on the (i) icons next to the stats.

[Body function]

[An undead's body will naturally continue to deteriorate with time. As this stat decreases, the functions of the human body will start to slow down. Consuming flesh will allow the body to restore itself. Based on the freshness of the flesh the user consumes, the higher the body's functions will be.]

At the moment, this Stat was at 98 percent, and most of his body functions seemed to be working fine, mainly to be able to walk and talk. However, how bad or quickly his body would deteriorate, he didn't know, and he was just hoping it wasn't some time soon; otherwise, he would have to complete the quest sooner than he thought.

[Energy]

[Energy is consumed naturally throughout the day depending on the user's activity. User can also use energy to heal wounds. The amount of energy consumed in this will depend on the severity of the wound. Once all energy has been used, the Undead body will deteriorate quicker.]

Based on the quest he had received, Zain also knew that consuming flesh was the way to restore his energy as well.

'At least I don't have to look for two separate substances or items to help my body. But that quest stated that I needed to consume human flesh to complete it. So perhaps that doesn't mean that it's a requirement to restore my energy and body function but only to complete the quest. At least, I hope.

'I don't know how long my mind will stay sane, but while it is, I would prefer just to eat animals and such over humans.'

It was quite quick for a person to accept the position Zain was in, but due to the system interface, it helped Zain think of the whole situation like a game scenario, and there was also the fact that at the moment, he couldn't feel pain either.

'Then there's the exp bar, levels and quests.' Zain thought. 'How am I seeing this screen? Is there a chip in my brain or a server sending me updates? It doesn't make any sense. Do all of the Zombies have a system like this? Can they all think like me?'

Eventually, staring down into the sink, Zain noticed there were hand prints, his own hand prints. When in shock, he had clenched onto the sink so hard that his handprints were embedded in it. Something that, as a human, would be impossible for him to do.n0𝐕𝓮𝑳𝑈𝑆𝗯.𝚌0𝗆

Then, he let out a big sigh and looked at his face in the mirror.

'This isn't a game; I will have to keep reminding myself of that. But if I take this as a game scenario, I would try to level up as quickly as possible in this type of situation. Higher levels mean more chances of surviving with more skills, items and information at my disposal, but based on the first quest, I'm not going to like this.

'First, I need to see what's going on.'

Before leaving the bathroom, Zain wrapped bandages around his hands and his neck where the bite mark was. Although it was unlikely that perhaps Zain was the cure to all of this, the virus must have affected him differently from the way it had to the others.

Because one thing was clear, the person who had bitten him wasn't acting rationally. Clearing his thoughts, Zain lightly punched the mirror in front of him. It cracked it into several shards, and then taking a large piece of it, he placed it behind his belt underneath his shirt.

'I don't have much choice for weapons. I don't even have a knife here in the University dorms, so this will have to do.'

Back in the room, Zain could only find a piece of wood that had broken from the bunk bed, the piece was quite long, and with a rounded end, Zain didn't think it would be much use.

However, using his strength, he pushed on both ends and then, while holding it vertically, he slammed his knee into it, snapping it, creating a sharp edge. The wood log now looked like a stake that he could use to finish a vampire, but he wasn't going up against vampires.

'I can't rely on my strength to defeat whatever is out there. I have to assume that whatever I can do now, others can as well, so I need to stay a step ahead.'

Rather than heading to the door, Zain went towards the closed curtain, which had been untouched for days since he preferred to play games in the dark. Upon drawing the curtains, the view outside his apartment block finally came into his sight, and it was hard to tell if he was surprised.

'It was what I thought…the human race…will have to fight for their survival.'

He could see smoke rising from several buildings, while many buildings were even destroyed. Looking closely, Zain noticed that most of the windows were broken, and there was chaos everywhere.

'This doesn't just look like some type of attack. It almost looks like a meteor strike has hit the earth or someone has launched missiles on this city. And with how the buildings are destroyed, it almost looks like a crater is in the distance.

'Just..what in the world happened? Did this happen while I was unconscious, or maybe when I was playing the game...no, that can't be possible. I would have definitely heard the explosions since I even heard that zombie knocking on the door. Either way, I won't get my answers or complete my quest just by staying here.'

Turning around, Zain walked towards the door and placed his hand on the door handle.

'This wasn't how I imagined I would start my journey if something like this happened, but I'll just have to deal with the fact that I'm now a zombie."

Then, without hesitation, unlocking the door, Zain opened it and took his first steps into the newly changed world.

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Opening the door, Zain didn't just confidently walk into the Hallway as he would any other day. Years of preparation and playing games had taught him to be cautious, and that he was.

First, he took out the mirror shard, and using the reflection, he scouted the hallway. He wanted to see if anyone was present, and he was in for a right surprise.

'It's worse than I expected. How long was I even out for all of this to happen.'

Seeing no one, he walked into the Hallway and took a right. At least there seemed to be no one alive. The walls looked partly destroyed, with scratches and cracks, made by what was hard to guess.

Then there was blood, not just a small amount, but plenty of it. It was smeared across the wall, on the floor, and on top of that, there were a couple of bodies slumped.

Parts of their body were missing as if someone had eaten them. Walking up to one of the bodies, Zain had a good look at it. It was a girl slumped up against the wall, who was around the same age as him.

There were several bite marks around her neck, and there seemed to be a large chunk of her head missing. Zain would have indeed assumed her dead if he hadn't been through enough surprises already.

Just in case, Zain did two things. First, he stepped on her foot as hard as possible, right by her ankle. Doing this, he could tell that if he just applied the right amount of pressure, he would crush her bones.

At the same time, if she were a zombie and reacted to this, Zain would have enough time to react, which was why the second thing he had, was his self-made stake, which he pointed directly at her head.

Seeing no reaction, he jabbed her a second time and could confirm she was indeed dead unless zombies were just good at acting, which he thought was unlikely. He swiftly did the same to the other bloodied bodies lying on the floor.

'Based on the situation, these creatures aren't like me. They can't be sane if they're doing something like this. It makes me wonder, who gets turned and who gets used as food in this situation.'

Before leaving, Zain thought of carrying some dead human flesh with him as a backup. For one, he wanted to see if his system would count it and see if he could complete the quest, but at the same time, there was one of his senses that seemed to be working just fine that happened to keep reminding him that this was reality and that was the sense of smell.

An unfamiliar heavy scent had spread throughout the hallway. It was pungent yet unique enough that Zain knew he had never smelled something like this. However, although he could remember that these would be unpleasant smells to him in the past, his body wasn't reacting for some reason.

He wasn't gagging, nor did his stomach feel queasy from the scenes he saw in front of him.

'It has to be an effect of what I am now.' Zain thought.

His body was still functioning well, there was no rush in these things, and it would be harder to explain why he was carrying such things if he did meet the others, which was where he was planning to go next.

'I shared the room with Skittle, but Buke was on his own. There was not much blood in my room, so I doubt Skittle ever returned. Most likely, he stayed with Buke after class because he knew I would play games all day.'

Buke's room was only on the floor below, so Zain decided to check it out before leaving the building, but he didn't have much hope. For one, there seemed to be a lack of living or dead in the apartment block, as if the whole place had already been attacked.

At the same time, it depended on when the attack had occurred, maybe they were in the middle of class when this happened as well.

Several rooms had their doors hanging wide open while a few were shut closed, but the last thing Zain wanted to do now was get involved with a stranger, even if someone was on the other side of that door.

Buke's floor was in a similar condition to the one above. A few dead bodies on the outside, blood and broken doors. As usual, Zain made sure to check those on who were dead and who were actually dead.

Getting comfortable was what caused the death of people in such a situation. Finally, he had reached Buke's door, which was shut. Pressing his hand against the handle, he pulled down and tried to open it.

'It's locked...I don't exactly want to say anything in case I alert anyone else in the building.' Zain thought.

Instead, this was a chance for him to use something else. With the handle down and his shoulder against the door, Zain used his newfound strength to slightly push against the door, a smooth, fast action that broke the lock. It made a relatively loud sound, but it was only for a second.

Now, pushing the door open, Zain was hoping he wouldn't come across a nightmare.

"Please….please…." He heard a mumbling voice.

Walking forward, Zain couldn't believe it.

"Skittle!"

Skittle was standing at the very back of the room by the window, clutching a frying pan in his hand. His whole body was shaking. At the same time, he was looking at Zain, but it didn't seem like he noticed him.

"It's me, Skittle! I'm glad you're okay." Zain said as he walked forward.

It was then that Skittle hearing his name for the second time had snapped out of his weird daze and realised who it was in front of him.

"Zain…No, Wait!" Skittle shouted with his hand held out as if he was trying to stop something.

Just then, Zain felt a deep pressure around his chest, and blood had suddenly split onto the floor. That's when he noticed a knife had pierced his chest, right through his heart.

"Buke! What did you do…he's Zain!" Skittle panicked.

Hearing this, Buke quickly walked back and went by Skittle's side, pushing him back a little as if he was trying to protect him while also getting a look at who he had just hit.

"I know you think that, but look…look at his skin! It's pale like theirs, and his eyes are different, and from the bandages he has on him, they're probably to cover up some type of bite mark." Buke was speaking irationally, and Skittle didn't know if it was just to cover up the accident he had committed or if he really thought this.

Placing his hand over the knife, Zain felt no pain. Of course, there was no pain, but Zain was in shock. He had been careful against all the zombies, even worried about how to deal with people in the situation outside, but what he didn't expect was to immediately get stabbed by his best friend.

'He came out from the toilet, and it's quite a good plan, I have to admit. And seeing Skittle caused me to let my guard down.'n0𝗏𝔢𝑳𝓊𝓢𝗯.𝒸0𝑚

While trying to figure out the next move, he suddenly heard the newly familiar 'ding' in his head, and a prompt appeared in front of him.

[New Quest received]

[Form Your Horde!]

[Infected: 0/10]

The arrival of the prompt couldn't have come at a worse moment for Zain. He was still in the middle of deciding what to do, and it seemed like the system was trying to steer him in a certain direction.

'Damned system, so you want to push me in a certain direction, don't you? The first human's I see, and this is your suggestion!?'

Zain had taken a step back but still had the kitchen knife pierced through his heart. It had gone pretty deep from one side to the other.

'Only someone like Buke would have been able to push a knife through someone this easily, but at least I can tell from his face that he did this because of fear.'

Reaching into a bandage that Zain had brought with him, he started to wrap the wound around his chest a few times, and it looked like he was struggling.

"The bandages were to make it harder for those guys to bite me," Zain smiled while he left the knife and continued to wrap around the area. "Let me tell you one thing, it's a good thing that you don't study well because you completely missed my heart."

Zain smiled because it was a lie. Buke had done well. The only thing was that Zain's heart was no longer working anymore. Looking at the kitchen countertop next to him, Zain pulled out another knife.

It was then that Buke snatched the frying pan out of Skittle's hand and shouted, "You going to kill us, you damned Zombie!"

Holding the knife, Zain whacked the pointed bit of the blade in his body with the handle of the knife, breaking it clean off. Then continued to wrap the rest of his body.

"It's best to keep the blade in. Otherwise, I might bleed to death, but damn, it hurts." Zain lied again.

"What is wrong with you?" Skittle said, pushing past Buke. "Look, he's talking fine and acting normal, so he's clearly not one of them."

Buke had to admit that from how Zain was acting, he didn't seem like the others.

"But, he still could have been bit. Maybe he's turning slowly like in those movies and just hiding it? He could put us both in danger!"

"Right now, I'm more scared of you. I can see how you would have stabbed anyone who walked through that door, never mind it being Zain. We have to get him to a hospital."n0𝐕𝔢𝓵𝔲𝑆𝐁.𝗰0𝐌

[System message]

[You have received a deep wound]

[Would you like to use your energy to heal the wound?]

Although the system stated this, Zain felt no different from how he was before Buke stabbed him. He could still do the same things, and it didn't appear the system had an HP bar either, but that was probably because he was already dead.

'For now, there's no point wasting my energy, and it seems like with Skittle believing I'm a human, Buke will come around in a second. As more time passes, they should believe me, but I have no idea what this even is. A virus or what and how long it takes to turn people.'

[You have selected 'No']

[The User may use his energy at any time to heal the wound]

[Warning, if more wounds are inflicted on the User's body, and you choose not to heal them, the body will deteriorate quickly.]

'I should have known that it would work like that. It could not have just been all upsides.'

[Body state: 97 percent]

"Let's not go to the hospital. Depending on what happened, I guess the hospital might be the most overrun place, and besides, I'll be fine as long as we get to a small shop or something. I just need a few supplies, and I can deal with this myself."

Finally admitting he might be wrong, Buke clenched his fist and walked forward.

"I'm sorry, Zain, I… didn't know. I just saw you from behind, and with the bandages--"

"It's okay, Buke. I would have done the same, and I'm just happy to see that you were protecting Skittle." Zain interrupted. He couldn't really be angry at Buke because the latter's instincts were spot on.

"Can you guys explain to me what happened? I passed out in my room and then woke up to all this." Zain said.

"We don't know much about them ourselves," Buke explained. "On the way back from classes, we were coming to the dormitory, and suddenly we heard screams from behind us. That's when we saw a group of 'them' running after the other students, jumping on them and biting their bodies, especially the necks.

"Skittle said that they looked like the videos he had seen and started to call them Zombies. We didn't waste any time and ran into the dorms, but it looked like they had already somewhat gotten inside.

"They were behind, and in front of us, we were surrounded, so we had no choice but to enter and lock ourselves in."

"I tried to gather information, and reports were coming in that attacks were popping up all over the place. Small ones." Skittle explained. "We stayed inside, thinking that maybe the army would come or something, but then the strike came.

"Small rocks, not too big but looked covered in flames, came from the sky and struck the city. They destroyed buildings and created shockwaves when they crashed.

"After that, the internet, phone signals, and electronic devices seemed to no longer be working the way they usually would have. It felt like…it was the end of the world."

In truth, Zain would have liked to get a little more information than he had done. Especially, more details about the zombies, their speed-strength, were they like him but just crazy. Anyway, there was one thing in the story that stood out.

'The meteor strike came after the zombie attack, not at the same time. Does that mean the two events are unrelated? Can two world-changing events happen on the same day? The zombie attacks, if real on the dark web, have also been reported for weeks.

'Just what is going on, and why is this system encouraging me to make more zombies? It doesn't make any sense.'

Just then, turning his head slightly, Zain could hear something down the hallway. One step after another, it sounded like someone was running, but the most crucial thing was Zain could hear distant growls.

"Get ready," He said to the other two, lifting his wooden stake.

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Zain tightened his grip over the wooden stake and carefully stared at the end of the hallway. The other two noticed his reaction and could see that something had caught his attention, but they had no clue what it was.

"Is everything okay, Zain? What do you mean by 'to get ready'?" Skittle was the first to react.

'Hm? They can't hear it?... It's so loud. Did my hearing improve as well?'

"Something's coming," Zain continued to state in the direction of the hallway where the sound was coming from, but he couldn't see anything.

Looking more for a while, he finally saw two people reach the stairs and run straight towards them.

"What the hell! They're back?! Why have they come back? I thought all of them would have already left this place!" Buke called.

"Maybe it was all the noise we were making, or there are still some on the other floors or something." Skittle said, his teeth crackling with each other as the nerves got the better of him.

The two incoming people had blood running down their arms, parts of the flesh on their bodies were missing, and their eyes looked enlarged and bulging, blood dripping out of them.

'It's clear that these are undead, they have more traits than me, but this wasn't what I expected. These guys are quite fast...is it their body? They haven't deteriorated yet. If they are like me, and my system is anything to go by, then considering that they have just turned, it would mean their bodies haven't had time to slow down yet.'

"Zain, let's go into another room! Or let's just leave the building. We can't let these guys get to us!" Skittle said in a nervous tone.n0𝑣𝞮𝐿𝗎𝑠𝑏.𝐜0𝑚

Instead of running away or walking away, Zain walked forward, straight towards the incoming zombies.

"Running away when there's only two of them? These guys are noisy, and if we don't get rid of them, they will attract more zombies, and soon a horde will be after us." Zain got his stake ready, and one of the female Zombies opened her mouth wide, revealing a set of bloodied rotten teeth.

Her hands dangled out and reached for Zain. At that moment, he swung the stake hitting it clean in the head, and her whole body moved to the side with the head slamming into the wall.

As for the other one, Zain showed no fear as he charged in, taking out the mirror shard and slamming it down into the Zombie guy's head. It easily went through the skull, and Zain could feel the weight of the zombie leave its body as it fell to the ground.

"The best option is to get rid of them."

When he turned around, the other two were surprised to see some of the zombie blood splattered on the bandages he had wrapped around his chest wound and his face.

The two gulped at the scene in front of them because it was frightening to them, and for a split second, they thought that Zain was scarier than the Zombies themselves.

Zain realised in this small scuffle that, unlike the game character, he now had something that wouldn't be possible in that case. For one, he was supernatural, had extra strength, hearing and more.

Then there was another point that worked greatly in his favour, and that was the fact that he was already a Zombie. So there was no fear of becoming a zombie in case he got bitten. This decreased his fear factor and gave him a huge advantage compared to everyone else who now had to live in this world.

'Seeing those zombies, I noticed something else as well, it's the smell. Both Buke and Skittle smell a bit sweet. While the zombies smell like whatever they are covered in. If others are like me, then it will cause a problem.'

Thinking about this, Zain started to use his stake and hit the dead on the ground, making more wounds, so their blood and guts would spill. He knew what he was doing was strange, but since the smell and the sight weren't making him feel sick, the only thing that was trying to stop him was his mental state, his mind telling him it was wrong.

And by now, the will to survive was taking over.

"What are you doing, Zain? They're already dead! Stop it!" Skittle shouted.

Zain finally stopped, not because skittle asked, but because he had already finished beating the dead body into pulp. Then without hesitation, he started smothering the blood and guts all over his clothes.

"The zombies, it's most likely that they can smell us as well. We smell alive to them, so if you want to live, I suggest you do the same." Zain explained. "Just make sure you don't have cuts and wounds that the zombie blood can get into, and don't let it get into your eyes. Just rub it on your clothes."

Once again, Zain's actions were freaking them out a bit. He was acting as if someone had been in this situation for years even though it hadn't been an entire day yet for them, and Buke was concerned about how easily he could kill those two Zombies.

'Was he always that strong and fast? And how could he do that without any hesitation...he wasn't scared of them? Is that something I would be able to do too? No, at least not yet. I guess I should be happy that he's on our side.'

Before moving ahead to the other floors, Zain wanted to check something out. It was the message he had received just after defeating those zombies.

[Detected, User has eliminated Two Zombies]

[Penalty will be applied]

[-4 exp]

[Current exp: 0]

'Hm? That's not how the script is supposed to go. No, this is not good.'

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After receiving the message prompt, Zain quickly decided to check the system to see if he could make sense of what had happened, but other than the previous screen and his current stats, he didn't have much to go on.

'It's almost like those games that don't allow friendly fire on teammates, and if one does it, the player is penalised.' Zain thought. 'It's quite clear that this system also has a clear direction of what it wants me to do. Don't hurt zombies and turn others into zombies.

'But I can't figure out what the creators' goal is or who the creator is. For now though, the penalty doesn't really affect me since I have no exp in the first place. Losing exp has just kept me on 0, though it might cause a problem in the future. I can only guess that I'm not the only one like me, and perhaps there are more willing to tune others and level up to get stronger.

'If I was to face them, it would become a big problem, but for now, before thinking about any of that, I just need to focus on me.'

"Alright, we're done." Skittle said, gagging slightly as the odour wafted into his nose. While Zain was checking out his system, both Buke and Skittle had done as asked and covered themselves with guts and blood.

The zombie guts parts didn't stick on their body, but it had achieved what Zain wanted: it had somewhat diffused the human scent. From a distance, it was at least hard to tell where the sweet smell was coming from due to the other odours mixed in.

But up close, they still would have a problem, so they couldn't just pretend to be a Zombie.

'Being a Zombie is almost a cheat since I know all the ins and outs. This means we'll make fewer mistakes, and there will be more chances of survival.' Zain thought.

[User's body has deteriorated to 96 Percent.]

Upon getting this message, Zain clenched his fist. But he still couldn't feel any difference, and it still was a worry at just how fast that had occurred though. Maybe it had been a couple of hours since he had checked his stats.

Knowing that a sudden horde wouldn't be coming after them due to the smell of his two friends, they could start to move, but the two prepared themselves before leaving the place with Zain.

For one, both of them had thick clothing on and even multiple layers. Buke had even wrapped several shirts around his forearms since there weren't a lot of clothes that would fit him in case he got bit.n0𝑣𝞮𝐿𝗎𝑠𝑏.𝐜0𝑚

As for his choice of weapons, they were mainly small blades. This was why he needed some armour. Zain explained that it would be better if he had a longer weapon, but Buke said he felt safer with the long kitchen knives.

Then, Skittle persisted in holding the frying pan. As for why it was due to it being more of a defensive item than anything. And was meant to stop the others from hurting him if he got in a tricky situation.

They went down the dormitory floors and checked the hallways to see if there were any other undead creatures. This was just because Zain didn't want to end up in a situation where they would get trapped in both directions.

He would rather deal with them now if there were just one or two instead of ignoring them and letting them regroup, but they hardly saw any undead moving about or living. That was until they had reached the third floor.

The banging noise this time was so loud that even Buke and Skittle could hear it. Turning their heads, they saw a lone Zombie banging its arms against one of the doors.

It was relentlessly hitting it repeatedly, not caring about what happened to its body, not that any of the three was surprised by this.

"Why is it doing that?" Skittle asked.

"Does it matter? We're now on the third floor, just two more floors, and we're out of this place. So let's just make a run for it and head outside!" Buke shouted.

"I'm not sure if that's the best idea," Zain replied. "For one, We don't know the situation outside. On top of that, at least in this building, the places they can come to us from are limited."

Then, after a pause, Zain glanced at Buke while asking, "Do you mind if I borrow something?"

Buke had created little slots where he could hold plenty of knives around the waist. In this situation, Zain wanted to test something, so he had asked for one. Then without saying a word, he signalled the other two and told them to sit where they were.

Meanwhile, he walked toward the Zombie. The knife was in his dominant right hand and the wooden stake in the other.

'I noticed something back then when those two Zombies attacked me...I need to check out if it's true.'

Zain was tiptoeing almost, so his feet were silent, and the other two watching were nervous because he was getting closer and closer. They imagined what Zain was attempting to do, throw the blade at the Zombie or charge in and finish it off quickly, but he did neither as he stepped closer and closer.

Eventually, Zain was now only a metre away.

"Hey! I'm right here...don't you see me?" Zain said loud enough for the Zombie to hear but not the others. Not that he expected the latter to understand his words, it was more of him trying to attract its attention. However, the Zombie ignored him, continuing to punch the door.

'It's as I thought. Those other two weren't trying to attack me, but Skittle and Buke. These guys see me as one of them.' Zain thought while lifting the knife and throwing it as hard as he could, accurately hitting the Zombie in the head.

The blade had cleanly hit the side of the temple, and went right through to the other end and snapped a bit upon exiting the hard skull.

[- 2 Exp]

'This life... I'm not in danger like everyone else, it seems.'

After he finished dealing with the Zombie, the two came rushing over, and Buke stared at his broken knife on the floor while also looking at the wound, wondering if he could have done the same thing.

"You broke my knife," he finally said.

"There are plenty around. Just head to another room, and you'll probably find one." Zain replied.

"Hey, Hey, I think there are people outside!" The three suddenly heard a voice, and it was coming from the other side of the door.

Looking at the door, Zain knew that the Zombie was punching at it because he could smell it too.

'More people at this point and time while I still don't know everything...are just going to be a headache.' Zain thought. 'People's true colour comes out when the world is like this, and there's a higher chance of my secret getting out if there are more people in the group. But it might bring an opportunity...to test out this system.'

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"Did you guys hear that?" Skittle asked, and there was a faint smile on his face. After facing a life and death situation in a scenario like today's incidents, it was normal for a person to seek others' company to rely upon.n0𝑣𝞮𝐿𝗎𝑠𝑏.𝐜0𝑚

At the same time, knowing that they weren't the only ones going through it and that others were experiencing the same thing brought them comfort. "We should see if they're okay!"

Skittle's hand was already reaching out towards the door, ready to pull on it, but it was stopped seconds before, being grabbed by none other than Zain.

"This event has just started, so it might be okay now, but I want to warn you, Skittle," Zain said. "In the future, there will be those who will attempt to trick you, use you, or even attack you after seeing you for no reason whatsoever. So just because you hear someone else's voice, don't rush in to help them."

If Zain were alone, he wouldn't have opened the door. If one was to think with their head and try to survive, meeting a person in this situation wasn't the best, but he knew how the others would think if he told them to walk away, and he knew how his old self would have thought.

Maybe it was because he had changed, but he could think a lot more with just his head and not be driven by certain emotions.

"I'm already injured, so let me go first, in case they have something planned like you two," Zain said, ready to push the handle.

'Yeah, you're so injured but still able to move as you did before?' Buke thought.

As for Skittle, he also thought something was strange as he looked at his hand, realising something.

'Zain's hands, they were cold… they were literally freezing.' Skittle thought.

The door was locked, as expected. Zain was ready to use his previous trick but thought it might attract attention if there were more zombies on the lower two floors.

Just as he was about to force it open, he heard a click from the other side, and the door swung open as someone pulled the handle down from the other side.

"There are people.. there are other normal people." A woman shaking voice entered their ears, and as the door opened, they saw a young woman with tears running down her face.

There were two young women in the room, one brunette with long hair and dark smooth skin, while the other had slightly red-dyed hair tied up in a ponytail.

Skittle and Buke ran into the room to comfort the two, going past Zain while he stood there for a few seconds, holding his weapons in his hands.

"Hey, it's Jade and Tanisha, right? Are you two okay? Are any of you hurt at all?" Buke asked, mainly focusing on Jade, while Skittle went to see if Tanisha was okay.

The two could talk to these women frankly because the latter were also students at the university and were in the same class as them. In particular, Jade, Zain knew her well.

For a long time, Zain had somewhat of a crush on Jade, but being his antisocial self, it was a bit hard for him to talk to girls, never mind the one he liked. On top of that, he always believed, from the movies he saw and other things he read, that there were certain types of girls that would just cause trouble.

Too often, people have sacrificed their lives for the one they loved or tried to look brave and put themselves in situations they wouldn't have been in.

However, seeing Jade in this situation, there was no feeling at all for some reason. His stomach didn't churn, nor did he feel embarrassment just from looking at her.

"So you two have had bad luck as well and were stuck in the room," Buke said after listening to their story, which was similar to theirs.

"Anyway, we can't stay here forever. There's no food in the dorms, we should leave while we have strength, and with more people, it should be safer, right Zain?" Skittle asked.

Both Jade and Tinisha felt comfortable due to the boys' presence, but one of them was seriously freaking them out, and it was the one standing by the door, not letting go of the weapons in his hands the whole time.

They could see that it seemed like he was somewhat the decision-maker or leader of this small group.

"Being in a group only is safer if we stay put in one place, but as you said, we have to move, so if we move together, I'm going to have to set some rules that we should all follow," Zain said and then staring at the two girls, he added, "Cover yourself in the dead's blood and guts, just like these two. We won't be taking you if you can't agree to that. Take a weapon, one that won't make much noise.

"We look after each other's backs, and we have signals to inform one another without making noise if we see something. Then finally, this is important for you two, don't stick your neck out for others.

"Don't ever put yourself in a situation where you would be the one that suffers, even if it's only a small chance."

After hearing the rules, everyone was silent for a moment, the two boys had nothing to say, but he knew that they would be compliant, which was why he was looking at the two girls in the group.

"Wait… can't we stay in here and wait for the army, or the police or anyone to arrive?" Jade said. "I mean, it hasn't been a day yet. I don't think we should go out and explore. Why don't we just wait a day or so? If another Zombie comes, then you guys can help us fight it off, right?"

"She does have a point," Buke chimed.

"You're going to trust the ones who hid this situation from us for a while now to solve this? If the military or police could have solved this, they would have done so before it got to this situation. The longer we wait, the weaker and less energy we have and the more mistakes we will likely make." Zain replied. "So get some blood on you, and let's get out of here before it gets dark."

Zain said, already turning around and looking out the window. The sun was still out but at most for another three hours.

"Wait!" Jade almost shouted but quickly put her hands over her mouth, trying to quiet down. "I mean, what he said is true, but you really think that we won't be saved? Our country's military is robust enough, and we will all be risking our lives unnecessarily by going outside.

"I understand if you want to go out there, but you shouldn't be dragging your friends and us with you, no? So if you want to go, then just go on your own, don't force these two!"

Jade said as she stood closer to Buke, almost hiding behind him.

'This bi*ch is trouble.' Zain was irked.

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In certain situations, a natural leader within the group arises when they have to make a big decision. The person becomes the decision-maker, allowing the group to move on a certain path.

The group could choose a leader based on several things due to their expertise in a certain field or their situation. For example, being the strongest in the group, maybe even having the confidence to get things done, or just being the overall peacemaker who is the most trusting.

However, there would be times when problems arise, often, there would be a troublesome one in a group or those with conflicting views, but that wasn't what Zain was worried about. It was when someone believed they knew better and felt like they should be the ones leading.

Zain couldn't help himself as he scorned when looking at Jade. It caused her to flinch back and hide even further behind Buke.

"Jade...do you even know my name?" Zain asked.

This unexpected question made a few in the room tilt their heads, including her friend Tanisha.

"Why does it matter? How is this going to prove anything?" Jade replied.n0𝐯𝔢𝓁𝑢𝑠𝒷.𝑪0𝓂

"It does matter. What is my name? Your name's Jade Padda, and that's Tanisha Burns." Zain replied. "It's a simple question. What's my name?"

For a second, Jade paused, and it looked like she was wondering what to say, but she bit her lip when nothing came to her mind.

"You don't even know my name, and I bet you don't know the ones you are trying to convince either. Of course, when push comes to shove, you're not going to care about them, but for me, it's different.

"I've known Skittle since Primary School, and we had each other's back whenever one of us was in trouble. As for Buke, Skittle helped him when he almost dropped out of school, upping his grades, and the three of us have been through our fair share of trouble together.

"I'm not forcing them to do anything, and they don't ask me to do anything either, and it's the same now. So I'm not requesting, but I'm telling you, I will be leaving this place, and they can choose to follow me or stay. It's up to them.

"But I will say something before I go. I won't do anything that would put them in danger. What I'm about to say might contradict some of my previous statements before, but I realised something when playing those games.

"If the world has gone to sh*t, what's the point of surviving if you have no one to enjoy it with?" Zayn smiled, and with that, he turned around, already heading out of the door.

Hearing these words, Buke shook off Jade from his arm and walked forward, and Skittle did the same and the three of them left the room, leaving the two girls behind.

Seeing this, Jade was grinding her teeth.

'Who the f*ck is this loser!' She thought, only to see another person go past her.

"Tanisha, what are you doing?" Jade almost shouted at her friend.

"We would have died if they didn't come. I don't know if you noticed, but the door is already almost broken. I'm sorry, Jade, but I want to live." Tanisha said.

Clenching her fist, Jade was so furious that a vein appeared on the side of her head.

'You...you used to follow me everywhere. It was only because of me that you were able to get into our group! And look at you know, you are abandoning me just like that!'

Tanisha hadn't left the room yet, as she was covering her body in the blood of the dead Zombie just like the others asked. Walking up behind her was Jade. The latter stood directly behind her for a few seconds.

-- --

"Wait!" Jade called out, running down the hallway and catching up with the others. They were now on the second floor, below where they had met the two girls. The others noticed she had blood all over her clothes, and more, just like the others.

The two boys turned around and were somewhat pleased that she had decided to come with them. Sure Jade was being stubborn, but in their eyes, she hadn't done anything bad and was just thinking what was best, even if they knew that Zain might have felt differently,

"Wait, where is Tanisha? Wasn't she with you?" Skittle asked. "Or did she choose not to come?"

"That...damned Zombie that you guys took out was still alive. While she was trying to cover her body in its blood, it suddenly got up and grabbed her. It started to bite her. I tried my best and eventually killed the Zombie, but Tanisha was already gone." Tears began to roll down her face, and she pulled away, looking in the other direction.

The two boys didn't know what to say. They felt somewhat guilty and had their heads lowered. Because they had left, a person had died. They had seen a few deaths already when running into the apartment group. However, this was the first one where they felt they could have genuinely prevented it.

"I just...I just didn't want you guys to leave!" Jade said out loud once again.

"Stop crying!" Zain said in a quiet but stern voice, going right up to her. "If you make any more noise, I'll shut that mouth of yours myself. They're here, there, underneath us."

Not knowing what he meant, the group moved to the staircase which would lead to the reception room. The first large open space didn't have a narrow staircase. Reaching here, they could see at least fifteen Zombies were walking around, and then there was the exit.

The exit had been barricaded, and it looked like someone had put a chain on it with a lock.

'Someone was trying to block the zombie, but this has caused a problem for us.' Zain thought. 'But there's a bigger problem...Jade, she's lying. I confirmed that Zombie was dead. Otherwise, I wouldn't have got the Exp loss for killing it.

'So what did this woman do to her friend?'

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Everyone in the group gulped upon seeing the huge number of zombies flocked together in one place.

So far, they had only seen a couple or so zombies, other then when they had originally left their class. Now, seeing that the exit was chained and locked, they were even more nervous.

The group retreated to the second floor, where they had confirmed that there were no zombies but still kept their voice down in case there was one in some of the locked rooms they hadn't checked or the ones downstairs could hear them.

"What about the emergency exits? or any window or something?" Skittle asked.

"I checked them out on the way down. This is an old building." Zain explained. "The emergency exits lead to ladders. Some of them were locked like the entrance, so I didn't want to say anything.

"Most likely, all those on the second floor, maybe even on the third floor, are locked. Also, if we go via the ladders, the zombies will see us and start to gather."

There was silence as everyone thought about a way to get out. Honestly, Zain was wondering if, with the whole group, they could take out all of the zombies. However, doing it without getting hurt was a different thing altogether, and he didn't want to take any chances with a certain person in their group.

'Jade would just throw the other two under the bus the moment she gets a chance.' Zain thought.

"I thought you made us cover ourselves in blood so that the zombies won't notice us?" Jade asked.

"That's to cover up our smell. We don't know if their eyes work or not. I don't know much about them, so I didn't want to take that risk. Imagine going down the ladder, and they start piling on top of one another. We must sneak out if possible or fight if it's our only choice."

In the end, it looked like no one in the group could come up with a good solution other than attempting to just jump from the third or fourth floor from a window, which seemed to be the only option.

"If that's the case, then let me try first." Zain volunteered. "Once I'm outside, maybe I can find a way to break the lock or something."

For a second, Zain thought that he might have to argue his case to Buke and Skittle as to why he should be the one to go, but none of them said anything. However, this didn't surprise him. In this situation, no one wanted to risk their lives.

And, if Zain weren't what he was right now, maybe he would have been the same because, in the end, the risk for him was a lot less than theirs.

"Wait by the reception area. You can hide near the desk, it looked like there were no zombies in that spot. They seemed to be hovering around the glass on the outside. Also, be alert because you might have to sprint to get out of here any time."

After Zain passed those instructions, the rest went downstairs. At the same time, he stayed on the second floor, but rather than jumping out of the window on the second floor after the others had disappeared, Zain continued to go up, heading back to the third floor, where they had first met the other girls.

The others had successfully reached the large oval desk in the reception area. As Zain had informed them, there were no zombies, apart from those around ten metres away. It was frightening, but they stayed with their backs facing away from the entrance while Skittle was on the lookout.

"Hey, I was just wondering, why do you listen to that guy so much?" Jade asked. "I mean, you're big and strong. You could probably break the door yourself. Don't you think we should listen and hear what you have to say instead of him?"n0𝐕𝔢𝓵𝔲𝑆𝐁.𝗰0𝐌

While saying these words, Jade once again grabbed Buke's arm and pressed her breasts against his arm. He could feel the softness of her breasts clad around.

"I guess you really think I'm an idiot, all muscle and no brain, don't you?" Buke replied, shaking Jade off of his arm, "You have no idea what we have been through together."

—

Reaching the third floor, Zain carefully walked and peeked from the corner of the windows to have a better look at the situation outside. There were zombies outside, but they seemed to be just strolling around instead of targeting anyone. This was In the university area, which was the only area Zain could see clearly. Either everyone had already left the place, hiding or was already dead.

Either way, the situation was not good for his group. If there were others, at least they could be used as a distraction, and if they were all dead, that just meant more zombies would be coming after them.

Walking down, Zain eventually stopped and tightly clutched his stake as he noticed a certain dark-skinned girl come out of a room. She was Tanisha, Jade's friend, who was allegedly attacked and killed by a zombie. She didn't look like she used to. Her skin looked paler and less alive, and her eyes were slightly different.

"She's a zombie now...I should have seen this coming. I should have kept an eye on her." Zain thought. "I'm sorry, I left. I just thought that girl was at least half a decent human being. I don't even know what she has done to you."

Zain was saying this because there didn't seem to be any visible wounds on her. No bite marks, or injury, only a large blood mark on her head that looked like someone had whacked her.

So as for how she was turned into a zombie, Zain didn't know. Maybe Jade had killed her or something else, but one thing was for sure, he would get his answer.

"I will make sure you pass on," Zain said in a low tone, but as soon as he took a step forward, a prompt screen flashed in front of him as a notification sound chimed.

[An anomaly has occurred, a mutated zombie has appeared]

[You will not lose Exp for killing the zombie]

[Quest: Survive]

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Lately, it seemed like nothing was going Jade's way. And because no one was falling for her innocent nature, she did what she always would in this situation. She pulled out a pack of cigarettes from the inside of her bra.

Then, from her pocket, she pulled out a lighter as well. Jade avoided smoking in front of others to keep her image, but what image was left to keep up here? The two boys weren't fawning over her.

Just when she started to press down on the lighter, Skittle had turned around, seeing what she was about to do

"Stop!" Skittle said in a hushed voice. "Don't do that. Not here. Don't you know, there is a no-smoking rule inside the dorms?"

Moving and sitting across the floor away from Skittle, Jade pulled a face and took the cigarette out of her mouth.

"Are you crazy? Do you think I would give two f*cks about that right now?" She said in an annoyed tone before putting the cigarette back in her mouth, ready to pull the lighter again. But, before she could do it, a large hand had grabbed over the whole thing.

"Listen to him," Buke said with his head towering over Jade, and he didn't exactly have a nice-guy look on his face.

"What I mean is the smell. The new smell could attract the zombies and bring them here. Also, don't forget the smoke alarms. They're very sensitive to help catch the defaulters. So if you smoke, it could cause the fire alarm to go off, and we might really be in trouble. So it's best if we do nothing to try and attract their attention and just wait." Skittle explained.

Jade didn't feel like she had a choice because if she didn't listen, the giant muscle head would surely snatch the lighter, and she would end up getting hurt.

'What the hell did I do to end up with these weirdos!' Jade thought in her head. Then, out of frustration, she put her lighter and pack of cigarettes away but decided to try and explore the reception area.

"Just leave her be," Buke said. "She's the selfish type and would never put her life in danger. Now that you have explained it to her, we won't have to worry."

Keeping an eye on the entrances, Skittle continued to wait, hoping that Zain would send the signal soon.

'This is a surprise, a mutated zombie? Well, if I won't lose exp for defeating her does it mean I might gain exp?' Zain thought. 'And what exactly is different about her? She looks the same as any --"

Before Zain could finish his thoughts, Tanisha started sprinting toward him. She wasn't running like a normal human, but her legs moved just as fast. She had also let her arms loose, allowing them to dangle in the wind while running.

'I see. Although the normal zombies won't attack me, these mutated ones will. That's why the system doesn't mind if I smash their head in!' Zain swung his stake like a baseball bat, aiming straight for Tanisha's head.

,m Before it could hit her though, the Zombie raised her arm, covering her head. Then, as the stake slammed into her arm, Zain heard a cracking of bones, but in the next moment, the stake instantly snapped into two as well.

Pushing through, Tanisha had leapt in the air and landed right on Zain, pinning him to the ground with her knees. Immediately, she attempted to bite Zain, but before she could, he shoved the half of the stake he had into her mouth sideways.

'Her strength and speed, she's just as strong as me!' Zain thought

Then, he noticed that the stake was starting to break in her mouth. Using her good arm as well, she wants to claw toward Zain. With his hand free, he stopped her by the wrist, and a power struggle began between the two.

'The other zombies didn't seem to have extra strength, but it's clear that she does...was it because of how she was turned?'

He was trying to muster his strength and had somewhat pushed her off him. After all, Zain was already stronger than your average person, and now with his zombied self, he could beat another zombie.

n0𝐕ℯ𝑙𝑢𝑠𝔟.𝔠0𝐦

Next, he stepped away from her and pulled the mirror shard he had put away behind him and held it firmly in his hand. In doing so, the edge of the glass had cut into his hand, and blood started to trickle. It didn't hurt, but he needed a firm grip for what he was about to do next.

Then, he ran forward and slashed right towards the mutated zombie's neck. Seeing the incoming attack, Tanisha leant back a bit, avoiding the blow, and a cracking sound resounded like she had broken her back because of the pull.

Now, her torso and body bent backwards had created a right angle.

'Does it have intelligence, or is it just doing whatever it can to survive the attack no matter what?'

While trying to figure out what was happening, the strange-looking Zombie's body kicked up and hit Zain's hand. This time he felt the fingers in his hands break, and the piece of the mirror was thrown into the ceiling.

It almost looked like he was fighting against just a pair of legs since it was hard to see the body. Now, the legs had attempted to kick him, but Zain, stepping back, could easily avoid it.

'I have no weapons, but I can still do this!'

The hallway was narrow, and using that to his advantage, Zain jumped on one side. He wouldn't have been able to do this easily before, but his new body gave him a big advantage. Jumping off from one side of the wall, Zain lept to the other, and then in the third jump, he had leapt over the Zombie and now was on the other side.

Quickly, he spun around and went for a kick.

"Let's hope this is enough!" Zain thought as he slammed his leg down, right into the zombie's head as hard as he could.

He felt the heel of his foot hitting the skull, and on impact, Tanisha's leg convulsed, and the head had dented the floor a little as the whole body dropped on the group. There was no need to check if the Zombie was dead because the notification screens flashing in front of him were more than enough.

[Congratulations, you have managed to survive.]

[You have defeated the Mutated Zombie.]

[You will now receive the following rewards...]

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[Rewards will now be given]

[1 Mutated Zombie defeated: 10 exp]

[First time Kill bonus has been rewarded: 50 exp]

[Note: You are not the first person to kill a mutated Zombie. No additional rewards will be given.]

[60/100 EXP]

'It's a shame. I was hoping to level up from that quest and get help from the system.' Zain thought. 'Still, ten exp is a good reward because I lost only two exp for killing one zombie. So this means the system thinks the mutated zombie is worth around five zombies? I guess strength-wise, this should be about right.'

Zain knelt and looked closer at Tanisha. He was in a rush, but he needed to know how Tanisha was turned. The mutated zombie was similar to him in many ways, but it was clear that the two weren't the same.

For one, Zain could talk and think straight while the other, still seemed like they were possessed or infected by something. It couldn't have been a time thing because Tanisha was clearly turned after Zain so there had to be something else.

In the end, the only thing Zain could find on her body was a deep bruise on the head. It wouldn't have been enough to kill someone, perhaps just knock them out or keep them dazed for a few seconds.

After having no success in solving the mystery behind the mutation, Zain decided to focus on his fractured hand.

[Would you like to use your energy to heal the wound?]

[Yes]

After selecting the option, Zain found his fingers and hand twitch and crackle as his fractured bone began to mend. It was as if someone was magically healing his hands.

[You have used 6 points of energy.]

Looking at the cut on his hand from holding his mirror shard, Zain decided to heal that as well. If someone saw him with the wound, they might suspect it was a zombie bite.

[You have used 2 points of energy.]

There was one last wound that could give away that Zain was bitten, the one on his neck. Since he couldn't see it, he just tried to focus on where the wound would be just like before and was hoping the system would pop up another message. It did indeed prompt a screen, but not the one he was expecting.n0𝐕ℯ𝑙𝑢𝑠𝔟.𝔠0𝐦

[This is not deemed a wound by the system]

[The user is only able to heal his body to the state it was when first turned into an undead]

It was a shame, but it looked like there was nothing he could do. He would just have to keep the bandages around his neck for longer until he found some tools or make-up to cover it up.

[Energy: 76/100]

[Body Functionality: 93 percent]

Not just healing but also the fight itself had caused Zain to expand a lot of energy. Although he didn't feel tired, the energy count was something he would have to keep his eye on. Otherwise, he could be lunging on his two friends at some point.

His body still didn't feel different or slowed down, but it was most likely due to the slow decline that he wasn't feeling much different. So, from now on, to keep both numbers up high for a while, Zain would have to try to avoid getting severe injuries.

...

Tanisha's body was mostly intact as Zain lifted her arm. He stared at it, and honestly, it didn't look appetising at all.

Then shutting his eyes, he tried hard to imagine, envisioning that there was something else in his hand, something tasty.

A steak, a burger, that was all it was--then clenching down with his teeth and his strong jaw, Zain bit through the flesh. Once again, he didn't feel sick, but his mind was what he needed to focus on, to handle his mentality and do something like this.

It helped that he practically had no taste buds, or the body itself tasted of nothing. Finally, he swallowed and gulped down whatever was in his mouth.

[Undead creature's flesh detected]

[No energy has been gained]

Wiping his mouth, Zain stood up and stared down at Tanisha's hand.

'Didn't the system say it was fine to eat old flesh and that it didn't need to be fresh? Is it because she's a zombie?' Zain thought.

Upon looking carefully at her body, he finally noticed some change. Tanshioa's skin had turned paler. While the others that had died, although their skin had changed colour, it wasn't as drastic. The zombies looked like someone had put them in a chiller for a few months.

'That means there is a difference between those that become zombies and those that end up being zombie food. Either way, if I can, it would be best if I restore my energy here before meeting with the others.

Turning his head, Zain was looking for someone easier to eat. The mental image in his head of what he was going to do kept halting him, and it didn't help that all of the dead lying on the ground were fellow students.

'I have to be careful from now on. Killing zombies will lower my exp now that I have some. I need to know what levelling up will do. What the system said before was interesting as well. I am not the first to kill a mutated zombie. The zombies existed before today's events, so that's no surprise, but I wonder how much exp I would have gained if I was.

'And it makes me wonder if there are other things out there besides zombies?'

While musing in thoughts, Zain had found someone. As he knelt to brace himself again, he suddenly heard a loud bang, and upon raising his head, he began to hear loud, non-stop alarms throughout the building.

'This is...the fire alarm!' Zain thought.

Immediately, he stood up and ran forward. He couldn't afford to waste any more time, and he leapt towards the window, tucking his knees and raising his arms to cover his face. His momentum and weight allowed him to smash through the glass.

This was the third floor, so it was pretty high. But as Zain closed into the ground, he moved his legs and rolled on the ground to decrease the impact. But still, the force was too much, and he heard a crack in his right foot just before rolling.

'I think I broke my ankle!' Zain thought.

But the situation around him required most of his attention. And when he looked around, he found his worst fear coming true: Zombies from all over the university were now sprinting towards the dormitory building, heading straight towards its entrance, where his two friends were waiting for his return.

'Buke! Skittle!'

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The whole situation was frustrating beyond belief for Jade. She had a perfect life, was doing well at university, and was popular with boys, girls and even the teachers. If things continued the way they were, she would have found a husband to look after her, and she could live the rest of her life in luxury, enjoying a better life than 99 percent of others of her age.

However, right now, it was as if her whole world had come crashing down, and it had only been half a day at best. Jade wasn't stupid. She knew whatever was happening in the city, neither the police nor the military had a grip over the situation, and it didn't look like anyone was coming to save her. Jade just wanted to hold onto the hope that her life would return to normal.

'Everyone is just treating me like I'm a nobody and a waste of space…they won't even listen to what I have to say.' Jade thought as she crept around the reception, trying to find a way out of the building.

In the end, her searching had led her to the reception toilets. Pushing the door slowly, she opened it and wondered if there was anyone or anything in the toilet. The first thing she saw as soon as she stepped on the floor was spilt blood all over the floor.

Some of the stall doors were broken, and she also noticed a hand lying outward from one of the stalls. There was clearly a dead body inside.

'I am sure most of those Zombies left the dormitory block after they ate nearly everyone in the building.' Jade thought to herself. 'And then some sicko locked us in this place...I bet it was a guy. They're always running around thinking they're the boss of the place, and I bet he didn't even think of checking the girls' bathroom. Stupid boys.'

After making sure there were no Zombies in the bathroom and almost throwing up due to what she had seen in one of the stalls, Jade went ahead to one of the windows. It was a little high up, but on her tiptoes, she grabbed the handle, twisted it and pulled, opening the window.

'Yes!' Jade thought.

Although the window could open, it was a narrow exit. It was designed to not be fully open and only left a small gap. Jade was a thin and petite girl, so the gap was just big enough for her. Perhaps Skittle could fit through the thing as well, but he was shorter than Jade. Unless someone helped him up, it would not be easy.

As for Zain and Buke, there was no chance they could fit through the gap without breaking the window, and not to mention, breaking this window would create noise, and that's the last thing one would want in the current situation.

Jumping up, Jade managed to hold onto the edges. Then, in a desperate situation and remembering her old gymnastics classes, she started to pull herself up and lead her elbow on the small ledge.

Then peeking her head under the window, she now could see a clear view of the outside, and it wasn't the one she was hoping for.

Around five zombies were just wandering around lifeless on the other side. They were walking back and forth as if they were patrolling the area, and there was no assurance that these five were the only ones.

Getting off of the ledge, Jade began to bite her nail.

'The whole Uni was under attack. There are thousands of students here. Sure, some might have escaped, but many died, meaning there are almost as many zombies here… I can't just run out. Damn it! I need some distraction.'

Jade slammed her foot on the ground.

'I could really do with a smoke right now, but I can't.'

Just when she was tempted to smoke, an idea flashed in her mind. She walked into the stalls and grabbed a load of toilet paper. She piled it up as big as she could, and a smile appeared on her face as she stared at it. Then, she took out the lighter from her pocket and clicked it.

'This is what you guys get for not following me. Go follow your useless friend.' Jade smirked as she pulled the lighter to the pile of tissue papers, and it quickly went up in flames. Just for extra measure, Jade had also thrown in a few of the body parts and the corpses' clothes.

Then, going to the window, she pulled herself up and squeezed out, eventually falling onto the ground. But fortunately, the zombies who were still outside didn't pay attention even after the noise from the fall.

'They're not coming after me. I was expecting to have to run for it after landing...wait, is it because of the smell? Was that guy right? I guess he knew one or two things.'

Either way, Jade started to carefully walk away from the building, avoiding the zombies as best she could, and that's when she heard the loud fire alarm coming from the dormitory behind her.

The zombies' heads turned as they looked at the building, and in the next instant, they all started running towards it. Some of them even began banging on the outside wall where the girls' toilets were, but most were heading to the front reception, which was made of glass.

Before entering the woods around the university, Jade looked one last time at the building. 'It's a shame none of you will live to see me build the best life for myself in this world.'

——

With the fire alarm going off throughout the building, Zombies from all over the campus sprinted toward the dormitory. They pushed each other and began to bang on the glass.

For now, the chain seemed to be holding, and Zain was witnessing it all.

'I have to do something. Come on, leg, heal!'

[You have used 6 points of energy to heal your broken ankle]

Once Zain's leg was back to its original state, he stood up, but by now, there was a swarm of zombies at the entrance, and more and more were gathering.

The zombies inside the building were spinning around, confused about where to go. There was great disarray for them. At the same time, looking at the glass, Skittle had resorted to praying.

"Hey, that isn't going to help us! We need to use our brain to get out of this situation!" Buke said. His voice was quite loud, but the zombies didn't hear him due to the noise of the alarm.n0𝐕ℯ𝑙𝑢𝑠𝔟.𝔠0𝐦

It was then that they both heard a crackling sound, and turning their heads, they could see a crack through the glass entrance.

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The glass door was thick and hard, so a few Zombies pounding it didn't worry the two, but a few zombies soon turned into many, and even more Zombies were running towards the glass.

The force of the Zombie horde could have pushed open the door, but the chain around it seemed to be holding out. The chains were also thick and strong, and now Skittle and Buke were thanking whoever had placed such a thing.

It was then that the two boys heard a cracking noise and upon raising their heads, they found the glass door had started to break.

"This isn't good!" Buck gulped, his breathing quickened. "The crack will weaken the whole door. They're going to get through any second now!"

Buke tried to regain his composure and use his head in this situation. The only thing he could think of was to go back into the building and either start running up or lock themselves in a room again, but if the Zombies could break through this chained door, then a normal door would be nothing.

Turning his head, Buke could also see that the zombies which were originally in the reception hall, had spread out, going a bit crazy due to the fire alarm's noise. And some were even by the staircase, thwarting his plan to hide in the rooms.

'What..do I do…Zain.' Buke thought of his friend at this moment. The latter was the only person who might have known best but he wasn't even with them.

"Look, it's Zain!" Skittle's sudden shout pulled him out of his thoughts.

Through the glass, and past the Zombies, both could see Zain standing there, watching the scene in front of him.

"He must have managed to get out." A smile appeared on Skittle's face, but the short ray of hope doused when reality set in. What could Zain even do in this type of situation?

There was a horde of zombies at the glass door, and if he got close, he would be eaten alive. That was when they saw Zain turn around and run in the other direction, going out of sight.

"He's doing the right thing," Buke sighed as he stared at the spot where Zain was standing a few moments ago, "There's no reason for him to risk his life."

"No.." Skittle said softly as his throat swelled up, and he could feel tears down his cheeks. "He will come back. Zain will help us...he has to!"

"You need to accept it, Skittle. He's abandoned us and we're on our own. We have to get out of here!"

Just then, they heard a resounding slam, and upon turning their head, they saw the glass collapsing on the floor. The impact had broken it entirely, and the zombies tumbled on each other. However, the ones at the end ran over the fallen and began to head towards Skittle and Buke.

The noise spooked the zombies around the reception area, but it looked like those coming from outside had a clear target in mind. Just when Skittle thought they would meet their end, and at that moment, he heard another loud noise.

Initially, he wanted to ignore it, afraid of seeing the zombies, but curiosity got the better of him and looking up, he noticed a flashing red and blue light behind the zombie horde and the rattling noise of a car soon resounded throughout the area.

The car soon crashed into the Zombies from behind. Several of them went under the wheel or were thrown backwards. There were even a few cracks on the windshield because of the impact, but it was still holding up because it wasn't just any car, rather, it was a modified police car.

The car spun on its side just in front of the Zombies, almost blocking their way.

"Buke, Skittle! I'll distract the Zombies, you two head into the forest and wait for me there. I'll find you!" The two in the building heard the words coming from the in-car speaker, and without a doubt, Skittle and Buke knew it was Zain's voice.

After sending the message, Zain stepped on the gas pedal and spun the wheels for a few seconds. He had blasted the siren as loud as he could while also shouting words through the megaphone. It didn't take long for him to get what he wanted: the attention of the zombies.

Many of them latched onto the car and held on. At the same time, Zain drifted the police car away from the building and did a couple of round drifts just outside the dormitory to ensure he had gotten most of the Zombies' attention. Then, when he knew they were finally following, he decided to drive off towards the University field, opposite the forest surrounding it.

Although Zain had aggroed most of them, there were still a few left from the horde of zombies in the reception room. And some who were following the car had a plodding movement speed, so they returned to the dorm building as soon as the car had reached a certain distance.

Amongst the zombies there were those that were crushed or injured by the car, a few had half of their bodies mangled, but they were still moving and clearly alive, or at least moving undead.

"Come on, Skittle, we need to move!" Buke shouted as he lifted Skittle with one arm and held him above the ground with his hand around the latter's body. Thankfully, Buke was a large and muscular young man, and Skittle being much lighter, was easier for the former to carry.

Buke then ran as fast as he could, and upon exiting the dorm building, the pair headed straight for the forest. He ran pretty deep but ensured they stayed in a primarily wooded area to avoid trouble.n0𝐕ℯ𝑙𝑢𝑠𝔟.𝔠0𝐦

Buke kept turning his head around, trying to see if anyone was following them. He hadn't seen anyone in a long time but continued to run.

"What are you doing? Put me down!" Skittle tried to get out of his friend's grasp now that they were in a safe location. He hit Buke in the stomach, but his hands bounced off the latter's tight abs.

Buke put Skittle down, and the two hid behind a large tree. He then took this opportunity to catch his breath. The adrenaline was starting to wear out, and he could now feel how tired he was.

Now that he could think a little clearer, Buke kept replaying a particular scene in his head.

'When Zain was standing there, the zombies, they all just ran straight past him…was it the noise...or was it because he had covered himself in blood?...or maybe..'

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Buke was still tired and panting, but he had recovered enough to at least be able to speak.

"Once I'm better, we will continue to run towards the town. Maybe we can find someone that can help us?" He said, taking deep breaths. Honestly, he was pretty amazed at what he had done.

He was an athlete, but carrying someone in a single arm and running this far and fast for that long, was almost inhuman. But after some thought, Buke credited this to his desperation in the situation. It wasn't strange for the body to accomplish extraordinary feats when it senses danger.

"What are you talking about? You heard Zain. He told us to wait for him in the forest." Skittle replied.

"Skittle, are you still not facing reality? Did you see how many were chasing after Zain? No one can get out of that situation."

Standing up, honestly Skittle had enough.n0𝐕ℯ𝑙𝑢𝑠𝔟.𝔠0𝐦

"Just like you said Zain wouldn't come back for us? You always act like I'm being stupid, but you were the one that was wrong about those videos not being fake, you were also the one who was wrong about Zain being a Zombie, and you were again wrong about him not coming back to help us. So don't you think you could be wrong now?!" Skittle said while falling to the ground on his backside.

It had been a tough day for both of them, and they were tired. All they wanted to do now was sleep, but they couldn't. They hadn't even thought about food or realised how thirsty they were.

Ultimately, the two of them didn't say anything and chose to lay in wait for Zain. Finally, the sun was about to set, and the sky above had a beautiful orange hue.

Just then, they heard the noise of dried leaves on the ground rustling as someone approached them.

Immediately, Buke picked up a large stick from nearby and had a knife in his dominant hand, ready to attack.

"Hey, you're not going to stab me again, are you?" It was Zain. He walked up to them with a smile on his face.

Standing up, Skittle ran over and gave Zain a big tight hug.

"Zain, you're alive...I knew you would make it back alive!"

Buke stood there in disbelief as if he was looking at a ghost. Every situation he went through in his head, he couldn't imagine how someone would get out of something like that, yet here Zain was not only with them, but there wasn't even any injury on the latter.

"Sorry I took so long," Zain said. "It was hard getting rid of them, and I needed to ensure that no one was following me when I met up with you guys."

"How did you find us?" Skittle asked, finally letting go. It was another worry Skittle had. Even though they had entered the forest as Zain asked, the area was big. Even if Zain survived, there was a good chance they wouldn't run into each other.

"It was a lucky guess. I assumed you guys would run from the Dorms to the closest side of the forest and just keep heading straight. Also, this is the way to Town, so I just guessed you two would be heading this way too." Zain answered, but it was a lie.

Although everything he said sounded logical, there was only a slight chance of it being possible. It was also likely that the two could have run into some zombies in the forest, which would have made them take a detour or even run into other people.

There was even the chance they would have thought Zain was dead and continued to head into the town without him. Either way, Zain could only find them because of his enhanced sense of smell, especially against humans.

Another thing he realised was that the blood of the other dead they rubbed on themselves had started to fade with time, and their natural smell was beginning to come through.

After some time of entering the spot, Zain had eventually locked onto their smell and headed here.

"Anyway, that's enough talking, we need to find a place to stay for the night, and it would be good if we could get some food," Zain stated.

,m "Yeah, let's head to the town then," Buke replied. "There should be plenty of shops and other people as well. Also what happened to the car you had, how did you even find it."

"The car makes too much noise and is beyond working. I can explain the rest but I suggest we get moving soon. Heading into town might not be such a good idea." Zain looked back behind him. "Remember what happened the last time we ran into someone? I'm guessing that it wasn't one of you two that set off that alarm."

These words instantly angered the two boys as the truth dawned upon them. Due to the circumstances, they didn't have time to think about who could have caused the fire alarms to go off. They were more focused on their survival, but now, the answer was quite evident.

Seeing their expression, Zain also added some more words.

"I saw Tanisha...she wasn't the same as before, she had turned. I don't know what happened, but I can only guess that Jade was the one responsible. Although I don't think everyone we meet will turn out like this, as time goes on and the situation gets more desperate, there will be fewer people we can trust.

"At the same time, towns and cities will be the most overrun places. So it's best to find a neighbourhood or a house and look for some food there. So if you guys are ready, we should start moving."

Without waiting for a response, Zain began to walk, and the other two stared at his back for a moment before promptly running and catching up to him.

They had a strange intuition that if they continued to follow him, they would survive this apocalypse.

While walking, Zain decided to check on a few things as he had received some notifications while distracting the zombies.

[Exp: 48/100]

'My experience went down for killing a few of those guys. The car didn't kill as many as I thought, but it's still a blow to my Exp.'

[Energy: 68/100]

'I also healed my wound and used up quite a bit of energy, although I'm still above fifty percent, but then there are two things I'm worried about.'

Zian tried to clench his fist, and he could feel a difference for the first time since waking up in the room. It was a contrast in control over his body.

[Body Functionality: 90 percent]

'And what am I meant to make of this?'

[New quest received]

[Survive your first night]

'I must find a shelter before it gets dark, but since I'm now an undead, is it me who should be worried, or them?'

Thank you for reaching 800 stones here is an Extra chapter.

1200 stones for another extra chapter and to help me in the WSA.

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The university grounds covered quite a large area, including the forest within the University boundaries. It was mainly to give a more aesthetic feeling to the students, so they could relax or take a stroll, although, for the group of boys right now, there was nothing relaxing about walking through these woods.

"Not being able to use any car sucks, man. Maybe we should have seen if there was a bike or something. That wouldn't have been too bad." Buke complained as his feet were starting to get sore.

Zain was keeping up a quick pace, the sun was about to set, and soon it would be dusk, but they had yet to get out of the forest, never mind find someplace to stay for the night.

"It makes me wonder, how about finding electric cars? They don't produce a lot of noise, and maybe we could also use one of them? And can keep the sound system off. But then, the problem would be charging such a thing once the grids are offline, although they are working right now." Skittle mumbled, recalling the fire alarm, which was actually hard-wired throughout the campus.

It was an interesting idea, Zain thought. Sometimes in survival games, they just disregarded things for the convenience factor, but in real life, something like an electric car would be useful, but there was one more problem.

"It would be hard to drive through all the wreckage," Zain replied. "Remember, it's not just a Zombie attack, but many of the town's buildings were also destroyed, and I am pretty sure the Zombies alone can't do that. At the same time, I think many cars must have been abandoned or are now unusable.

"That was how I found the police car as well. There was more than one of those cars where I found it. Their front doors were open, and although I didn't get a good look, it looked like there were empty shells all over the road. Luckily the key was still in the ignition, which is why I was able to save you guys." Zain explained.

The mood had turned a little sombre. Hearing that the police had shown up, the group could only imagine that they had attempted to control the situation but had failed even with the use of weapons.

Buke wanted to ask if Zain had seen any weapons or guns, but knowing Zain, if there was one, he might not have picked it up. They had already seen how frightening the situation turned when the fire alarm rang, and firing guns could lead to something similar. Although, Buke would have liked to have one in an emergency, at least.

Finally, the group exited the forest. They were surprised that they hadn't seen any zombies wandering through it, but then again, there was not exactly any food for them, so why would they stray into it.

p It was at that moment they got a view of the city in the distance. Most tall buildings were half-destroyed, and a cloud of smoke had covered half of the city. There were even several alarms that they could faintly hear from here.

"I guess you were right. Heading to the city or a town would be a death sentence." Buke gulped.

If Zain remembered correctly, once they had exited the forest, not too far from where there was a little neighbourhood that consisted of around fifty or so houses. They were designed for the University teachers and their families to move into, so they could work close to home.

There was also a local supermarket, a park and more in the area. So as they continued to follow Zain, it looked like he was right.

Knowing the surrounding area and where to get resources from was key to survival. The map and layout of the area were well-plotted inside of Zain's head. Another thing was, by now, it was already nightfall, and within minutes, it would be dark.n0𝗏𝔢𝗅𝑈𝒮𝐛.𝑐0𝓂

By the time the group of three reached the neighbourhood, it was pitch black. They didn't even have the advantage of the moonlight because of the smoke-covered sky.

"Be cautious from this moment. We can't see that well, and we don't know what's out there," Zain whispered to the others. "There are likely to be at least some Zombies around here, don't make any noise and take your steps carefully."

The other two nodded, and they saw that Zain was looking through the back fences of the houses. He was trying to see if he could spot something. Fortunately, it didn't take long for him to find what he was looking for.

Leaning up against the fence, Zain motioned the two of them to jump over the fence as Zain would push up their leg. Buke found it laughable as he couldn't imagine Zain pushing him up.

Skittle also looked nervous, but in the end, Zain picked up Skittle, and it looked like he just pushed his legs up and almost threw him over the fence. Skittle had a rough landing on the other side, hitting his shoulder but made sure to make no noise.

"How will you get to the other side without help?" Buke asked.

"I'm going to go through the front door and see if the house is empty. If it's all good, we can stay here for the night. In the garden, this house has a shed. Try to look for a wrench, a crowbar or anything we can use as a weapon. Longer weapons would be better, so you keep your distance while attacking and just wait for me in the garden." Zain explained.

"Hey," Buke replied. "Look, I know you're into all this survival crap, and I admit you know a lot more than us, but that doesn't mean you should be the one risking your life all the time, alright?"

It was nice to hear that Buke cared for him, but Zain was doing this because he had already turned, so there was no risk since the normal zombies would ignore his presence. Pushing Buke's leg up, he managed to push him over the fence, though, unlike Skittle, Buke landed on his toes without getting hurt.

The two entered the shed while Zain ran around the fence towards the house's front entrance. The shed door was open, and a treasure trove of equipment was inside.

Immediately, Buke saw a trusted bat that he could use. It was a metal one, and immediate, he tried swinging it in the air. As for Skittle, he had grabbed a tool belt, which he would wrap around his waist.

It had several different items, but one of the more noticeable ones was a Hammer. Still, knowing he needed a long weapon, he grabbed a rake from the back. There were several other tools, like shovels and things used for gardening, but most of them felt too heavy for Skittle.

Instead, Buke had picked up the large shovel and found some tools that allowed him to strap it to his back. It wouldn't be easy to get hold of it in a tough situation, but if he lost his bat, he would at least have something to protect himself.

Just then, they heard a door sliding, and upon turning around, they saw Zain was slowly opening up the glass door that led to the back of the garden.

"So, is it empty?" Buke asked.

Zain shook his head as he walked up to the others and inspected their weapons. Maybe there was something nice inside for him too.

"There are two zombies inside, one in the kitchen and the other in the Living room. Upstairs looks clear, and from what I could see, there seemed to be some food." Zain replied.

"Two?...you didn't take care of them." Skittle said nervously.

"No, because I thought about what Buke said, and now I have a job for both of you. I want you two to take them out. It's time for you two to level up a bit."

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For a second, Skittle and Buke thought that Zain was kidding. However, from the look on his face, it was clear he wasn't.

"You guys can't keep on relying on me. You need to learn the best way to beat them by yourself." Zain explained. "There might come a time when I'm not even around you. How will you fare then? There's still a lot you guys need to understand."

Zain placed his hand around his chest, which was still bandaged, and his dark red blood was soaking through.

"First of all, aiming for the heart is useless. It won't do anything. You have to keep in mind that these Zombies are already dead. The best way to stop them from biting you is to go either for their head or attack their spine."

While talking about this, Zain recalled when he fought against Tanisha and how she could still move despite her broken spine.

"Actually, scratch that. I have noticed that those who didn't get turned after being bitten had an injury to their skulls. So that's our best option. Attacking the spine will mainly stop their movement, but it won't kill them.

"It's a strange feeling. Even though these guys are monsters, it still feels weird hitting someone, hitting flesh, so it's something you will have to get used to."

Everything Zain said was true. Of course, he wanted his friends to be able to fend for themselves. They would have stood a better chance at survival if a similar situation, like the one at the dormitory, happened again.

However, there was another reason. For every Zombie they killed, it meant less exp loss for Zain himself.

Soon, they had a plan to enter the house. They were both to work together to take on one Zombie at a time, with one person being the main attacker and the other to finish off the Zombie.

While keeping an eye on the two, Zain would stand between the Kitchen and the living room in case they caught the other Zombie's attention and it tried to attack them. The clothes they were now wearing were thick enough to block a bite or two if the zombies got hold of their hands or legs, so they were safe.

Entering the house, each of them took their position. The first person who was designated the killer was Skittle. Instead of the pitchfork, he was wielding the hammer since it could deal a powerful, decisive blow to the head.

Just then, the Zombie sniffed the air, and it soon noticed both Buke and Skittle. However, its movement was slow. Upon closer inspection, the three noticed that the zombie's body was beginning to decay.

'Is that why that Zombie is slow? Has its body function started to go down? Is that what will eventually happen to me as well? Maybe the Zombies will all naturally start to slow down, and along with the mutated ones, only those that have recently been turned have closer to full body function,' Zain thought.

At this speed, the Zombie was no trouble for Buke. The first thing he did was swing the baseball bat hitting the knee of the Zombie. He stayed far and clear, and a cracking sound reverberated in the room as the Zombie almost collapsed.

'That was a bit easier than I thought... their bones are a bit softer..not that I know what it would be like to do this, but it just seemed easier.' Buke thought.

Zain noticed it as well. Although Buke had put a bit of strength behind his swing, the bones had broken far too easily, which meant one of two things, Either the zombie's bones were indeed weak in this weekend state, or Buke was stronger than he thought, but this strength seemed a little inhuman if that was the case.

With its knee shattered, the zombie was struggling to move forward. Buke just held out the bat and pointed it towards its chest. It continued to reach out with its arms moaning a little, but it could not do anything.

Now it was Skittle's turn. His hands were shaking as he approached the Zombie. He lifted the hammer with both hands.

"I'm sorry!" Skittle said as he started to heave it down while looking away. He couldn't even dare to see what he was doing and continued hitting the Zombie repeatedly.

In fact, the first few hits seemed to do nothing, but eventually, the hits got stronger and cracked the skull, finally killing the Zombie.

"What have I done...what if there was some cure for them...I mean, not all of them have missing body parts, right? So it has to be some infection!" Skittle argued.

His panicked voice was loud enough to draw the attention of the other Zombie in the living room and was now moving down the hallway towards them.

"Don't worry, Zain. I got this one." Buke said as he moved past Zain and swung the bat again, hitting the Zombie clean on the head. Then, they heard a snap, its head tilted backwards, and after a moment of silence, the zombie's body fell back and slammed to the floor.

p "Skittle, either they kill us, or we kill them. It's simple. Killing us is the only thing on these zombies' minds, so it should be the only thing you have on yours when fighting against them." Buke headed towards the kitchen, looking for some well-deserved grub.n0𝑽𝗲𝓵𝑢𝓈𝐁.𝐜0𝓂

The group managed to find quite a lot of food in the house. Most of it was fresh in the fridge and perfectly with-in date. Everyone decided to eat up, having as big a feast as possible. They didn't bother to cook anything as they were worried the smell or sound would attract more.

Skittle didn't say anything after the previous incident. He seemed lost deep in his thoughts, and as for Zain, he didn't eat much. He could eat food, but it would do nothing for him. He wasn't feeling the urge to eat. Neither was he feeling hungry, at least not yet.

But he still took a few bites, and after eating a few things, he confirmed it did not stimulate his stats, so it was better to leave it to the others. Meanwhile, he decided to set up a few traps in the house. They weren't traps designed to hurt the zombies but tools that would make a sound if someone tried to intrude the house through the window, back door, or front door.

Everyone decided to stay in the master bedroom. In this situation, sleeping in one room seemed like the right thing to do.

"Everything has been set up, so have a good sleep tonight. We might not get these often in future." Zain explained.

Both Skittle and Buke were fast asleep almost immediately. Zain thought they would have a lot on their mind or be too scared, but their bodies seemed too exhausted even to do that.

Or they felt pretty safe with Zain in the room. However, Zain pretended to be asleep because he realised another thing. He had lost the urge toward not just food but sleep too. Turns out, his body didn't need it. Sleep was unnecessary for his body to function, and his energy would go down even during this time.

Standing up, he glanced at the other two.

"I guess this means I can only do one thing. I need to go out and get my energy back. Hopefully, as well, I'll find some other Mutated Zombies. If there are others like me, then I need to get ahead. I need to Level up."

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With the help of his newfound strength and athletic capabilities, Zain got out of the room through the window and balanced his body by putting his toe on the pipeline on the wall. Then, putting his feet on the ledges, he got on the fence and jumped on the street and was soon out of the house.

Even before turning into an undead, Zain wasn't an average joe and used to be an active person, regularly maintaining his physique. However, the extra strength and pain-free body allowed him to surpass his previous limits, which was one of the reasons he could quickly get out of the house without any stress on his body.

And now that he was standing in the street, his next task was to set his priorities straight.

'There are two objectives to this night trip. The main priority is to find some flesh to eat and refill my energy, and the second is to, if possible, level up and see what I can do.

'You know what, let's add a bonus objective, if I happen to run into Jade, I'll make her my first test subject. I never thought of ruining anyone's life, but she is a different story. She murdered her own friend and even put the lives of my friends in extreme danger. With such crimes under her belt, she has already given up her right to live.'

With these objectives in his mind, Zain began walking toward the one place where he might get the most benefits in a short time. This place was the main light source throughout the whole neighbourhood, especially at this time of the night. It was the Supermarket. This was also where any survivor would try to get in to find any kind of supplies or just anything that could help them, survive for longer.

Zain knew that the building would most likely be full of corpses and zombies, and he might even encounter some humans.

Walking to the supermarket, Zain first went past a few zombies, and as expected, they paid him no attention. And finally, he entered the car park. There were several abandoned cars, some of which had even crashed into each other.

Looking at one of the cars, Zain found a woman's corpse lying on the driver's seat. He first noticed that its head was caved, and all of the brain matter was missing.

'Oh, another one,' Zain thought. This wasn't the first corpse he had come across, and he had found one thing common in them.n0𝒱𝔢𝗅𝑈𝚜𝔅.𝗰0𝓶

'So the zombies are going for the brain.'

However, the rest of the corpse mattered the most to him. The Zombies hadn't fully eaten the flesh on the victim like how they did the brain. Sure there were bite marks and missing parts, but it was enough for him to get closer to one of his objectives.

"I'm sorry, but I will use your body for a good reason. At least for me, the reason is good," Zain thought before he bit his teeth into the arm of the corpse. It was a lot easier for him this time, having done it twice.

[You have consumed flesh]

[Flesh is around five hours old]

[You have recovered 2 Points of energy]

[Body functionality remains the same]

[Note: Consume fresher flesh to gain more energy]

[Note: Certain parts of the human body consumed are better for recovering body functionality.]

Honestly, Zain wasn't satisfied by the energy points he gained. He had eaten quite a bit of the arm of the poor woman before the message appeared. But one thing was clear, he either needed to eat fresh flesh, or he needed to eat a lot more meat.

'There is one good thing though. Eating the flesh would reveal how long ago the person died. It can give me an idea of how much I have to worry about, but there's another thing. This corpse is five hours old. Isn't it around the same time the University was attacked?'

p Usually, if Zain imagined this type of scenario, it would be like a plague swiftly spreading out from its epicentre. The police and the military would try to contain it, and humans would be able to hold up in certain places fighting against it.

However, if the city off in the distance was anything to go by, perhaps this whole Zombie attack started in multiple places simultaneously, making it nearly impossible to contain.

After some more thought, Zain put this matter back in his mind since he still didn't have the whole picture of what was happening.

In the end, Zain checked a few more cars and found more dead humans that he could somewhat eat. However, they all had one identical injury. Their brain would be entirely missing.

By the time he finished, Zain had recovered some of his energy.

[Energy: 78/100]

'My body functionality is still at 90 percent though. I feel the message from the system was trying to give me a hint. I've tried a few body parts, but it hasn't helped. The most vital body part that's left is the brain...and with other Zombies going for the same thing...finding enough won't be possible. Maybe that is the only way to get some of my body function back to a 100 percent.'

While walking through the car park, Zain was around two more rows until the front entrance. That was when he noticed something unexpected. He found some corpses on the floor, but these were actually zombies.

Some had bullet marks on their heads, a few were stabbed or beaten to death. And upon raising his head, he found the shutter of the main entrance closed as well.

'It looks like there are people inside.' Zain smiled.

"Hey, hey!" A woman with glasses was running into the supermarket. She wore a blazer with a name tag stating 'Substitute Teacher: Kelly'.

"There's someone outside. It looks like a person!"

There were around five others in the supermarket, people of different ages and gender. Hearing the woman's words, they all turned their heads with hope in their eyes.

"What did they look like? Is it the police or military? How many people?!" A large middle-aged woman asked.

"It...looks like it's just one person...they just look like a normal person, maybe a student from the university?" Kelly replied. "I'll go to the shutters and let him in when he gets close."

But just when the substitute teacher turned around, she felt herself knock into another person.

"If you open those shutters, I'll throw you out and close them again. You can't risk the lives of everyone in here for one person.

Hearing these words, Kelly couldn't help but gulp, but she stood up for herself.

"If we carefully watch him from the camera room, we can see if there are any zombies outside and safely bring him in. That's what we did for you as well."

The man in gym clothes had his arms crossed, and silence descended on the group.

"Fine, let's have a look."

Following the large man, everyone went to the camera room, and when they arrived, they found that the student was now in a tricky situation.

Standing in Zain's way was a single Zombie, who had a black hat on, and was wearing a white shirt with a baton in his hand. His attire indicated he was most likely one of the security guards of this place before he lost his life to the horde.

[Mutated Zombie has been discovered]

[You will lose not lose exp for killing the zombie]

'Excellent.' Zain thought to himself.

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n0𝑽𝗲𝓵𝑢𝓈𝐁.𝐜0𝓂

The six people were hiding in the security room of the supermarket to monitor what was happening at the entrance. It was pretty safe inside since there were cameras throughout the building, and not just on the outside. Because of this, they had their eyes everywhere even if something unexpected occurred.

"This is ridiculous. Are we really just going to watch one of our students fight for his life out there?!" Kelly complained.

"Should I remind you that most of the zombies who attacked us were also our students when the sun rose this morning?" The larger man in gym clothing replied in a cold tone, "The world isn't the same as it was before. We can't afford to trust any outsider."

"Yes, but we're the adults in this situation... we've lived long enough, can't we all show some empathy and be mature?" Kelly frowned. Although she was annoyed that no one seemed to be backing her, what annoyed her even more, was that the only other teacher with them, the Gym teacher Mr Clark, was the one going against her.

Zain looked at the security guard, and he was pretty glad he had come across a mutated Zombie randomly. It meant he was closer to achieving one of his objectives for the night.

'I guess it's time for me to test a few new weapons I bought.' Zain thought.

While his friends were getting ready to attack the zombies inside the house, Zain didn't waste his time and entered the shed to look for possible tools that he could use and found something to his liking.

From his behind, he had pulled out a large pair of shears tied to his back. It was a tool that one mainly used to trim hedges and unwanted branches. It wasn't an ideal weapon as it was just a pair of giant scissors, which also needed two hands to operate. And even with a strong force, it was unlikely to cut through matters like bone. Maybe with Zain's strength, it would work, but that wasn't why he had picked this tool.

Zain gripped the two handles and pulled them apart, and after a moment, he heard a snap as the centre of the shear broke and now in his hand, it looked like he had two strangely bent long swords.

'These shears are good quality and usually quite heavy, but I can barely feel any weight with my strength. It feels more like I'm holding a stick.'

In front of him, the mutated Zombie had charged. It ran forward a bit sloppily as if he didn't have complete control over his body but was holding the baton with his hand raised, ready to swing it down.

As soon as the Zombie got close to Zain, it swung down the baton with an almighty force, and Zain did the same swing with the shear in his left hand. As the two weapons clashed, a clang rang out as they both countered each other.

'It seems like all the mutated Zombies have extra strength, and this damn security guard is a bit stronger than Tanisha.'

Moving his weight to the side, forcing the Shear onwards, Zain pushed back the zombie, stumbling. Then, seeing an opening, Zain attacked with the other Shear making a large cut across the guard's back. Blood splattered everywhere, and it looked like it would have been a severe wound, but for a zombie, it was nothing, and even Zain wasn't expecting it to get defeated just like this.

The attack didn't even stagger the guard, and at that moment, the guard spun its body, swinging the baton behind himself. It managed to hit Zain on the shoulder, and he could hear his bones cracking as he fell to the ground.

The Zombie didn't give up as it swung the baton again and tried to hit Zain lying on the floor, but the latter quickly rolled to the side and pushed off the ground. Then, since he was close to the Zombie's feet, he swung his shear, slashing at the Achilles tendon. Then, he swung the other half of the weapon, hitting the back of the knee.

'Even though you don't feel pain, the tendons, your achilles, and everything in your body still work the same!'

At the same time, Zain knew he needed to fight like what he was. He was a zombie, someone who didn't tire quickly and had great strength. So after the first two attacks, he continued swinging, this time aiming for the arm that the security guard was using. This attack cut the arm, and as it fell to the ground, Zain thrusted one of the shear's right through the zombie's head, killing it on the spot.

[You have killed a Mutated Zombie]

[10 exp has been granted]

[Exp: 58/100]

[Energy: 74/100]

[Body functionality: 88 percent]

'The weapons significantly increased my chances, but that fight was still harder than against Tanisha. So I guess not all Mutated zombies are the same, and it also depends on what they were before.

'Or it might be the fact that my body functionality is not the same as it was before. My movements, even if slower, will greatly affect me. I should heal my shoulder.

[Energy: 70/100]

'After I just got my energy up it's back down again. I guess fighting has its risks of injuries, which means I'll have to eat more, the more I fight as well.'

Looking at the Zombie he had just killed, Zain pulled out half a shear from its head and swung off the blood from it. The baton it used was quite sturdy and effective, so Zain thought it would make a good addition to the rest of his weapons.

Bending down to pick it up, Zain noticed a crackling sound coming from the shop.

"There's one behind you!" A voice boomed out from the supermarket's megaphone system.

Heeding the warning, Zian rolled out of the way, and he heard another baton hitting the ground. While slashing out his weapon simultaneously, Zain had managed to get it lodged in the attacker's throat.

It was another Zombie, also dressed as a security guard. Pulling out the shear, Zain put one in his belt and then, gripping both hands on the other, swung it like a baseball bat, slicing through the guard's neck with a clean cut.

[Exp: 68/100]

'Another mutated Zombie, that's a jackpot. So now I'm even closer to levelling up. And thanks to that voice, I could avoid getting a bad injury.'

Looking around, Zain could soon hear several moans. Due to the sound of the megaphone, it seemed like the zombies in the car park were now heading toward the supermarket.

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"Look at what you've done, you stupid bitch!" Clark yanked the mic out of Kelly's hand and gave a slap across her face so hard that she fell on the floor. And staring at her with bloodshot eyes, he shouted, "You are so concerned about a random student that you have just attracted all the zombies here. Now not only will he die because of your stupidity, but you have also put everyone here in danger! How can you be so careless and make a loud noise, alerting the zombies of our location?"n0𝒱𝔢𝗅𝑈𝚜𝔅.𝗰0𝓶

Kelly had lowered her head, and her cheek had turned red and was stinging with pain. She could even taste blood in her mouth. In fact, Clark hadn't held back his strength when slapping her. And even though she was in this situation, everyone looked at her with the same angry, murderous expressions as Clark.

They were approving of his reaction.

——

Outside the entrance, Zain had already noticed the incoming zombies moving slowly towards him, or to be more precise, towards the noise source. Fortunately, there were only four of them because the speaker wasn't loud enough to attract too many of them, and whoever had spoken through the microphone had apparently been careful not to draw too much attention.

'Whoever it was, although they risked themselves to help me, they were also aware of the consequences of their action in a situation like this. A kind-hearted fool.' Zain thought. 'But sometimes, kindness should be rewarded, and I'll reward that kindness!'

Stepping forward, Zain ran up to the first zombie and slashed the shear on its head, instantly killing it in a single hit. He then targeted the next one and hit it with his other shear before throwing the first shear at the third. However, the attack missed, and the shear struck it in the chest instead of the head.

Seeing this, Zain pulled out the baton he had taken from the mutated zombie and whacked the third zombie on the side of the head. After that, he also dealt with the last one effortlessly. Everything transpired instantaneously, and Zain defeated the zombies without fear or hesitation in his attacks.

"Whoa!" An involuntary exclaim resounded within the group watching the live video feed in the security room. It came from a young man in the supermarket staff uniform. He stared at the screen in amazement, "Did you see that? Who is this guy? Is he from the special forces or something? He killed them so easily and wasn't scared at all. Maybe we should let him in? He can be a great help."

[60/100 exp]

'I lost some exp, but the end result is still positive, and I am sure the people in the supermarket are observing me, so losing a small amount of exp to show strength is a good deal. Now...how do I get them to open this door.'

Zain thought, standing in front of the shutter. Then, just as he was looking for the cameras, he noticed the shutter shake and then went up as it rolled open. And when it finally rose, the six people huddled together inside the security room nervously stepped out and stood in front of Zain, on the other side of the entrance.

There was a glass door between them and Zain. But he could clearly distinguish their faces, and he even recognised two.

'Huh? Isn't that the gym teacher at the university and the clumsy substitute teacher?'

He also noticed the red slap mark on her cheek, and it didn't take a genius to understand its possible reasons.

Not to mention that the warning from earlier was in a female voice. Honestly though, Zain didn't blame these people's reactions. It was rational to not risk your life for others in a situation like this. Still, however, since this woman had helped him, if he could, he would try to return the favour as well.

"Come inside quickly before any more of the undead come!" Clark gestured at him to enter while speaking in a hushed voice.

Zain nodded and rushed inside, and as soon as he entered, the shutters rolled down once again. Now in the store, the first thing he noticed was the appearance of the store, and although he had expected it, the scene in front of him turned out to be much worse.

It looked like the inside of the supermarket had already been attacked and ransacked. Shelves had fallen over, several food jars were spilt across the floor in the grocery aisle, and on top of that, there was blood splattered across the floor. However, the place seemed void of Zombies, and these six looked to be the only ones inside the building.

'Well, at least they don't have a food shortage.' Zain thought.

"Wait, aren't you Zain Talen?!" Clark suddenly exclaimed, now noticing the former's face up close.

"Yeah, I go to Westfield University. I have seen you two as well." Zain replied.

Hearing this, the other three were a bit disappointed. Zain could see the look on their face, and they didn't even appear to hide it.

"You did a good job protecting yourself, Zain," Clark said, placing his hand on the former's shoulder. Zain had heard a lot about the gym teacher, and one of the most prevalent rumours was that he was always the touchy type with his students. "We couldn't risk stepping out of this place, so we don't know what the situation is like. Hopefully, you can help us out? but before that, let's introduce ourselves."

Everyone introduced themselves to Zain and revealed who they were before the attack. First, there was Mark, a young man who worked at the supermarket and was still in his uniform.

Next to him was an old woman who was quite round and had white curly hair, her name was Barbara. Next, there was a man in a suit named Ben, who looked to have just come out of a meeting, and the last one was a teenager in a tracksuit with a backpack on his back.

Zain wondered how this group of people of all people managed to survive and why the situation was what it was in the supermarket. Still, even more so than that, while everyone had their introductions, Zain noticed something off about one of them. To be more precise, it was the scent of one of them.

'Now…this is interesting.' Zain thought straight away, concealing the smile he had within. Because the situation he was in now reminded him of the many movies, games, and books he had read and it was clear that this group had no idea.

'One of them is already infected.'

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"Now, there are some things that we want to ask you, Zain," Clark said, folding his arms and puffing out his chest as if he was trying to intimidate Zain. Maybe this might have worked before, but an over-muscular gym teacher was the least of Zain's worries after what he had been through.

"How did you survive out there so far? What's the situation? What have you seen?" Clark asked.

"What have I seen?" Zain replied. "I don't think you will like my answer. The University was already run over by the zombies when I woke up, and from my dorm room, I saw destroyed buildings, many of which were engulfed in flames. And, ultimately, I decided to head here hoping to find someone."

For now, Zain thought he didn't need to tell this group of people about Buke and Skittle. At least not until he figured out what they were like and who they were.

From the answer, Clark clicked his tongue as if he was disappointed, and the older woman seemed to express it more openly.

"You mean you're not military and haven't seen them. Is no one coming to help us? What about the police?" Barbara asked.

"The police? I saw a few cars outside the University, but there was no one. And honestly, if you want to get out of this place, you're on your own." Zain replied.

Hearing these words, the old woman put her nails on her cheeks and started to pull them down, revealing her under eye, and it looked like her eyeballs were about to pop out. Then, turning around, she began to chew her fingernails as she ignored everyone and headed to one of the food sections, most likely to stuff herself--something the others had seen her do a few times whenever she got anxious.n0𝗏𝐞𝐿𝓊𝐒𝓫.𝗰0𝓂

After hearing that Zain was just a university student and knew nothing, most of the group members just shook their heads in disappointment and decided to go off and do their own thing. In the end, only Clark, Kelly and Mark, the young adult who worked at the store, were left.

"Sorry about them. They just haven't been able to sleep well." Kelly explained. "You should know how it is, and after seeing how skillfully you dealt with that Zombie out there, well, we thought you might have been part of a special operations team or something."

As soon as Zain heard her voice, he instantly knew it was this woman who had saved his life by alerting him about the other mutated zombie.

"I owe you one," Zain said without any context. Kelly looked confused, but then a smile appeared as she figured it out and mouthed the words 'You're welcome.'

"Alright, I better head to the CCTV room," Clark said. "It would be my shift anyway. Just so you know, we take three-hour shifts in turns so everyone can get a good sleep. As a group, we have decided to stay here and live off the food that should last us a few months until help arrives. So go and sleep, and we'll wake you up when it's your turn."

Inwardly, Zain was laughing at this comment because if he hadn't arrived, the most likely case was that they would last only a day here, with what he knew.

Kelly and Mark took it upon themselves to show the newcomer around and explain a few things. The two of them seemed to be the only ones interested in helping. On top of that, they couldn't get any sleep in the first place after what they had seen.

While walking around, Mark organised the shop and rearranged stuff by date of expression. For example, the food that would go out first was placed at the front, and they were allowed to eat these items, slowly moving back to the things that would last a long time, such as food cans.

Zain was really impressed that he could do this in such a short amount of time, but there were still a lot of holes in their plan. For example, what would they do when the electric grid shuts off? Then, all the frozen food, light, and cameras would be useless.

At the same time, he noticed none of them were holding weapons, even though they were in a supermarket full of things they could use to defend themselves in an emergency. But in the end, Zain had to remind himself that it hadn't even been a whole day since the start of everything, and since they hadn't expected it and were still hoping that the government would come and save them, they weren't fully prepared for it.

Eventually, the group came across a large blood stain on the floor. It was not just at one spot as Zain noticed blood trails, indicating someone had dragged the bodies across the floor.

"What happened here? And I don't just mean here in this aisle. What happened to the whole store when the attack started? Where are all the workers and dead bodies?" Zain asked.

Mark and Kelly looked at each other for a second, their eyes wide as if they were reliving a particular moment. They then gulped before one of them started to explain.

"You said you came from the University, right? Well, we don't really know what happened here either." Kelly explained. "There was an attack, and it seemed like it started in one of the houses. At least that is what people say happened.

"A woman ran out of her door screaming for help. The neighbours heard her and opened their doors to have a look, and the next second, who everyone thought was her husband, pounced on her and started biting her neck with her teeth and digging into other parts of her body."

"However, after speaking, we learnt that multiple people seem to have seen other events around the same time," Mark added. "So we have no clue where or when it started. We know that we had it somewhat under control until a whole wave of them came running out of the forest from the direction of the University. Thousands of Zombies were running in this direction, which was a total massacre."

What Mark was describing was commonly known as a Zombie horde. Zain knew of it well, and the closest thing he had come to experience it was at the University when he went to save his friends, but that horde was too small.

'I was wondering where the zombies went. So they headed towards this neighbourhood, but it's clear they're not here anymore, which means they must have left somewhere else...but why, is it just for food? Or is it something else?' Zain thought.

[New Main quest received]

[Find out the zombies' objective]

1000 Stone goal for 2 chapters

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Seeing the quest prompt in front of him finally raised the questions that Zain had ignored all this time. For instance, who had created this system in the first place and what was its use? There was also a chance that whoever designed the system might have also been responsible for the Zombie outbreak.

And judging by the quest title as well, it didn't seem like an accident. This whole thing wasn't some disease that got out of a lab or an experiment that had gone wrong. Or maybe it was but if the system was anything to go buy, it meant someone did it on purpose, but why?

'Well, I guess that's what the system wants me to find out. Anyway, I was interested in it before it even sent the quest.' Zain thought.

Hearing the whole story, Zain came to know that the Zombie horde from the University had overwhelmed the few people that lived here, and there were only a couple hundred people in the neighbourhood. So it was not hard to imagine how defenceless everyone was.

Everyone had a different story how they had managed to survive, locking themselves in a basement or hiding in the trunk of a car, but as far as they knew, everyone in this store was the only survivor.

"Before you, the last person to arrive was Mr Clark," Kelly explained.

"Yeah, and he has been acting like he runs the place. Although the others seem to be happy to just sit there and nod." Mark complained, clenching his fist, but just looking at Mark, Zain could see why he didn't try to say what was on his mind.

Judging by the red mark on Kelly's cheek, there was an apparent reason. In times like this, people, who are physically superior to others, believe that in this type of situation, they're the most critical part of the group, an Alpha, but that's always their delusion.

Those that survive these types of situations are the mentally strong ones.

"I see, but then what about the blood?" Zain asked.

"That was me…let me show you something," Kelly said as she led Zain and Mark to the back of the room. They soon reached a large door, and from underneath it, Zain noticed cold air coming out, in fact, there was frost covering the door's edges.

The other noticeable thing was a large bar had been placed over the door handle, although that isn't an accurate description. Actually, someone had twisted the bar, creating a type of knot over the door handle so no one could open it unless they could bend metal.

"When we came here, there were a lot of dead bodies, and that was not long after the horde of zombies had gone towards the city centre," Kelly explained. "So I decided it was best if we got a pair of gloves and moved all the dead bodies inside.

"We weren't sure what turns the dead into zombies and how long after death would they rise and turn into one of them. In the end, the freezer was the largest place I could think of."

Once again, Zain was impressed. Kelly seemed to be a person that was thinking straight and what she had done was right. Based on what he had observed in the case of Tanisha, there was a chance that those that had just died could rise from the dead, perhaps as long as their brain was kept intact.

Taking a step forward, Zain pressed his ear against the metal door, wondering if he could hear something, and after a moment, he pulled away, walking away from the storage freezer section with the others.

"Who did that..the thing with the metal bar?" Zain asked as they headed back towards the food aisles.

"That was Mr Clark," Mark answered. "I must admit, even though I hate the guy, it was pretty amazing. He broke a piece of a metal rod from another room, brought it over, and then started to twist it with his bare hands after putting it through the door handle...I couldn't believe it!"

Now Zain understood even more now why no one decided to go against Clark, but that was twice now that he had experienced human's doing something out of the ordinary. The first instance was with Buke.

'Maybe I could bend that thing since I am now a zombie with my extra strength, but it shouldn't be possible for a normal person like Clark, even though he is a big guy. So there must be something that's also bringing changes in normal humans.'

"The door already had a lock on it. So why did he need to use the metal rod?" Zain couldn't help but ask.

"Do you remember the man in the suit, Ben?" Kelly replied. "Well, his wife was shopping at the time and was one of the bodies we put in there. He was acting strange. Once in a while we would see him standing there.

"Once Clark learnt of it, he decided to act."

Although this Mr Clark didn't sound like the nicest person in the world, Zain agreed with most of his actions.

"Thank you for everything. You two should get some rest. I will talk to the others and see if I can get more information. If you need anything, then don't hesitate to come to find me." Zain said, already walking away, but before exiting the aisle, he turned around. "Oh, and just a tip for both of you, if I were you, I would be carrying a weapon on me at all times."

——

Walking through the aisles, Zain eventually spotted another person who was completely on his own. It was the teenager who had his hood up at all times, and currently, he was stuffing his backpack with essentials.

"Are you planning to escape this place? or-" n0𝒱𝞮𝐥𝗎𝑆𝐛.𝒸0𝑚

Before Zain could finish the question, he saw the teenager turn around with a knife in his hand. It was aiming straight for his head, but before it could reach him, Zain had stopped it, grabbing him by the wrist.

"What are you doing?" Zain asked and threw the latter's wrist down forcefully.

'The kid was quite fast...if it were someone else, that knife would have been in their head by now.'

Grabbing his wrist as if it was in pain, the teenager was rolling it.

"Sorry." The boy replied, "I thought you were one of them. It was out of reflex...and it's none of your business whatever I do."

The teenager turned around, continuing to pack his bag full of things like snacks and treats. Zain also noticed that he was the only one with weapons, mainly knives, but most of them were well hidden.

"You know, that Clark guy wouldn't let you out if you asked. Didn't you all vote to stay in here?" Zain asked, ignoring the latter's previous comment.

"They voted to stay, and I voted to leave. This place will be the death of us all and is dangerous." The teenager picked up his backpack, and it looked like he was ready to head somewhere else.

"I actually agree with you, you know. I don't plan to stay here myself either." Zain said. "But for now, I will stay here. You're skilled, but I don't think you can take out that P.E teacher, not alone at least."

The kid had stopped as if he was slightly interested and finally turned around.

"Why are you telling me this? What do you want?"

"I would say nothing, but that's not true." Zain explained. "While we're here, I just want you to do one thing, keep an eye on that Ben guy. Let me know if you see anything strange."

After that, the kid just huffed and walked off, whether or not he would do it was another story. On the other hand, Zain had more pressing matters because, at the end of the day, whether people listened to him or not wasn't his concern. He would survive this whole thing no matter what.

Finally, after walking in the shop for five minutes, Zain found himself at the butchers, following the smell from his nose. It looked like a normal counter with meat displayed, and it wasn't an ideal place for one to be.

Zain also noticed a door behind the counter, and when Zain was about to pass by, he heard some strange noises.

Quietly, Zain looked around to see if there was anyone, but he didn't find anyone. Then he stared at the door for a moment and slowly stepped toward it. Upon reaching the door, he carefully opened it and peeked inside. Then, seeing the scene on the other side, a smile appeared on his face, and he quietly stepped in and shut the door behind him.

There he could see a carcass of what looked like a cow slowly moving. He then heard the sound of slurping and chewing from behind and noticed two hands hugging it.

"I thought you would be here," Zain said.

Suddenly, the slurping and chewing noises stopped, and someone moved their head from behind. In the next moment, a bloody-faced Barbara pulled her head out of the carcass.

Then, seeing Zain, she panicked and tried to explain herself.

"This...is not what it looks like!"

"What? You're saying that you weren't just eating a dead cow?" Zain smiled, not bothered by her state. "Don't worry, I already know you're infected, and I'm not here to oust you to the others."

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When Kelly introduced Zain to everyone, the latter had found from the scents in the air that one of them was infected. However, what surprised him was that this person was fully functioning and had control over their actions.

They could speak and weren't going after the others to eat their brain. Thinking of this, Zain doubted that he might have encountered someone exactly like him.

"What do you mean?!" Barbara shouted upon hearing his words, "There's nothing wrong with me, I just eat when I'm stressed, and this food will go off!"

While explaining herself, Barbara stepped back with the help of her hands and legs, and eventually, her back bumped into the large wooden table at the back of the room.

"You can trust me, Barbara. I already knew your secret and kept it from the others." Zain explained, trying to calm her down. "Don't you think there has to be a reason for that? Do you have a system, a screen in front of you that you can see?"

The easiest way for Zain to get Barbara to trust him was to show the bite mark on his neck. However, he had yet to reveal it since he wasn't entirely sure that he and Barbara were the same, and if she found out what he was, there was a chance she would alert the others, which would put him in a difficult spot.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Barbara said again and looked to her right, and her eyes found a cleaving knife. She immediately stretched her hand and grabbed it.

"You want to kill me, don't you? Don't you?! But I'm telling you, I'm not one of them! I'm not one of them!" She shrieked and charged forward.

It was clear to Zain she had lost it and was in denial over the whole thing, and since she hadn't reacted to his words, it was most likely that they weren't the same. So Zain lifted his leg and kicked the cow's carcass hard.

It swung where it was hung and hit Barabra. She stumbled face-first on the floor, and the cleaver in her hand got latched into the carcass.

When she regained her composure and raised her head, the first thing she saw was the tip of the shear blade just a few millimetres away from her.

"It was only a scratch...that's all it was...I wasn't bit or anything...so why...why is this happening to me!!" Barbara wailed.

Based of her smell, Barbara was already one of them to Zain, but perhaps whatever the cause behind the outbreak was, it was spreading slower in Barbara. But there were so many variables that he couldn't pinpoint the exact reason.

Maybe it was because it was only a scratch instead of a bite, or there were various reactions, or it could just be that she had a strong will. But, in the end, it was hard to tell without having the clear picture.

"I won't kill you, not while you can think properly," Zain explained. "But you have to be honest with your answers. What changes have you noticed in your body and mind? And most importantly, when? Lastly, I might also need to do a few things with you.

"As long as you agree, I won't tell the others. However, that's on the condition that you're still like you are now and don't start attacking others. The second you go crazy, I will end it. You understand?"

Barbara nodded.

Zain asked many more questions, using his gaming experience and determination to discover why he was different. He interrogated her for any possible clues, but in the end, he wasn't any further than he believed.

Barbara stood up off the ground and continued to stare at the carcass.

n0𝐕𝗲𝑳𝓊𝓈𝔟.𝓒0𝓶

"Is it okay if I eat that?" She asked.

"If it stops you from eating people, then be my guest," Zain replied while still thinking about her answers.

Barbara knew next to nothing about Zombies, and from what she had seen, people who just died didn't rise from the dead. Although this was unconfirmed, if it was true, that those that just died didn't turn into a Zombie straightway or at all, this confirmed that Jade must have done something to Tanisha to turn her.

According to Barbara, the scratch started to itch but looked no different to anything else, and it even had scabbed over it just like any scratch would have. After that, however, she started having certain visions in her head, felt a lot more irritated when talking to others, and had a hunger that wouldn't go away.

At first, she could eat just fine, although she ate more than usual. Then slowly, the only thing that would fill her was meat. Now, she had reached a stage where she had an urge to eat raw meat.

She said something was drawing her to the flesh, the colour and the smell. After hearing about this, while Barbara was distracted in her thoughts about describing the urge, Zain secretly took a small bite of the cow meat to see if it affected him, but nothing happened.

After that, Zain asked if there was anything else, other than her hunger. Was there a job or task that she needed to do, maybe a message in her head telling her to go somewhere, but there was nothing. So he got no closer to completing the recent quest he had received.

'Unfortunately, it looks like, with the way Barbra is going, it won't be long before she can get full from eating raw meat, leaving her nothing but one thing to control her hunger.' But Zain didn't tell her his thoughts. She was already too startled, and it would cause her to tip over the edge.

Instead, he wanted to test one more thing.

Looking around, Zain found pieces of raw meat everywhere. Putting the blade back on his belt, he then grabbed the cleaver from the cow's carcass and made a small cut on his hand. His blood started to drip onto the meat, coating it.

'I know I can turn other people, but I don't know what they will turn into if I do turn them. Will they become undead like the ones outside, or more like me? Right now, I can't test that, but I can test something else.'

"Eat this," Zain said, holding the piece of meat with his blood on it. "Let's see if it will help with your hunger problem."

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Barbara didn't hesitate to feast on the piece of meat offered by Zain. She now somewhat trusted Zain since he didn't seem bothered or scared of her actions, which was one of the fears that had been racing through her head at the time. It made her feel normal, despite her uncontrollable urge to eat raw meat.

Zain carefully observed Barbara devour the flesh covered with his blood to see if there were any reactions.

"I still feel a bit hungry. I don't think it worked." She said, standing up to look for more food, which there was plenty of here, in the butcher's back room. She had ignored the carcass and was looking for something else.

'I know Barbara is already on her way to becoming a Zombie, but I thought my blood might overwhelm whatever the others have, considering the mutation I have gone through.

'And it's safer to test what my blood can do on someone like Barbara, who is halfway less than a normal human, before I think about testing it on others. But, since there is no reaction, I'll continue to observe her for some time longer.'

"Where are you going?" Barbara suddenly asked. She could see that he was already at the door and had opened it slightly, ready to leave this place, but her hunger had yet to subside.

"I am going back to the store. You know I can't just stay here, and it's nighttime, I need some rest too. But in your case, it would be best to stay here until it's safe. If others found you like this, they might not react as calmly as I have." Zain replied.

Looking at her own hands, Barbara found herself in a mess. If there were a small amount of blood on her clothes, it wouldn't have been a problem. But when she lowered her head, she saw so much blood and the mess in all her clothes and mostly below her chin. Underneath her mouth, it looked like she had a bib made of blood.

Even if she was a normal human, seeing this sight would make one think twice. In the end, she relented and resumed her search for more meat.

Stepping out of the room, Zain slowly closed the door behind him. He looked left and right before continuing to look around the supermarket to see if he could find anything.

'Maybe, I should head to that control room. I know that Clark is there, but I can't just avoid him. I don't want to stay here too long after all.' Zain thought.

Unbeknownst to him, someone was hiding behind one of the aisles taking a peak and had seen him come out of the butcher's room.

——

The supermarket had a camping section with a few sleeping bags, quilts and pillows for customers to buy. Mark and Kelly had set up a little camping area for everyone just at the end of the aisle, but they were the only two, and neither of them could sleep.

"So what do you think about the new guy, huh?" Mark said, giving her a nudge on her arm.

"Huh?" Kelly's face turned red in embarrassment. "He's a student, and I'm a teacher. I don't think anything about him."

"Isn't every guy's fantasy to hook up with a good-looking teacher?" Mark joked before shaking his head and adding, "Anyway, I wasn't even asking about that. I was referring to his skills. You saw that, right? He's quite a good fighter. I don't think we could have done what he did against those two Zombies.

"I mean, he said he went to the same university you teach at, right? Are you sure he's a normal student? Because it's a little hard to believe after seeing that," Mark explained.

"Well, I'm just a substitute teacher, and I only recently joined," Kelly replied, hugging her knees and placing her head on them. "I just cover certain subjects when needed, so I don't know most of the students on a personal level."

"Really, well, I wonder how he learnt to fight like that, and he gave us a good tip by telling us to gather something to defend ourselves." Mark picked up a broom and thrust it forward in the air.

Meanwhile, Kelly was left deep in her thoughts with a memory of when she first joined the university flashed in her mind.

——

A few months back, Kelly had successfully passed the interview process and was having her first official meeting with the Principal. The two of them were in the latter's office for the meeting before she would begin her first day as a substitute teacher.

"You seem like a pleasant person, and I'm sure the students will love you here, but there is just one thing I need to warn you about." The Principal pulled out a fat file and placed it on the table in front of Kelly.

Then, he added, "There's a student here who is a bit complicated. All teachers need to be informed about him. There hasn't been any trouble yet with him, and he seems like a perfectly normal student, but I'm required to give you his file since there is a chance you could be dealing with him sometime in the future."

She picked up the file, and as soon as she opened it, there was the admission form of a student, with his picture and the name, Zain Talen,

———

'There's nothing to worry about.' Kelly told herself. 'I thought his face looked familiar.'

———

Inside the security control room, Clark paid attention to the security footage. However, since he didn't have to worry about the people inside the store, and with nothing going on outside, he decided to watch the recordings, especially of the fight between Zain and the zombies.

'The kid is good, and he's fast as well. He would have made a great sportsman, but I never saw him apply for any clubs.' Clark thought.n0𝐕𝗲𝑳𝓊𝓈𝔟.𝓒0𝓶

When rewinding the clip to the fight, Clark wondered if there were any other incidents in which Zain had to fight? It didn't seem impossible, considering the number of zombies outside. Maybe he fought before when he tried to enter the car parking area?

Rewinding the recording while following Zain, Clark switched to the cameras that showed the very end of the car park. The cameras mainly recorded the main four at the front of the store and would rotate every so often.

So it was the first time Clark saw this recording; however, while rewinding, he suddenly stopped the footage when he saw Zain do something unexpected.

'What...is he doing in that car?' Clark narrowed his eyes and came closer to the screen to have a clear look.

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When heading to the security room, there was more than one objective in Zain's mind.

He wanted to see if there were more mutated zombies he needed to deal with, either in the parking lot or around the supermarket.

As for the normal ones, they wouldn't react to Zain, and not to mention that if he takes them out, he will end up losing exp instead of gaining more. This was why he was only concerned about the mutated ones so he could level up and increase his stats.

'If I just say I want to do my part and look at the security room for my shift, he will agree, right?' Zain thought.

Although if he didn't find any zombies, there was still one place where he was sure to come across something, and that's the freezer where Kelly and others had moved all the bodies. Although the doors were tightly shut and made the freezer soundproof, he heard something move inside when he pressed his ear against the metal door.

Just then, while walking through the aisles, a figure dropped down directly in front of him. It had startled Zain a bit and caused him to step back, but noticing the hood, he realised that it was the teenager from earlier.

'Where did this guy come from? Did he climb over the aisles? Without making any noise?' Zain thought.n0𝐕𝗲𝑳𝓊𝓈𝔟.𝓒0𝓶

"I followed that suit guy as you asked." The teenager broke the silence, "For a while, he was just walking up and down the aisles, but then, I saw him head down the cutlery section and grab a few knives.

"After that, he stayed behind an aisle, as if waiting for something. Then, while hiding, he would peek in and out, acting as if he was in a spy movie or something."

'Hiding himself?' Zain thought.

"Thanks for the help. If you could continue to keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn't do anything, that would be good. When you saw him hiding, where was he? Do you know what he was looking at?" Zain asked.

"Yeah, he was staring at the Butcher's Section."

Zain's pupils constricted upon hearing this. There was no reason for someone to act like that if they didn't want to be seen, perhaps following someone, and he knew quite well who had been to the butchers recently.

'Was he following me? If that's the case, he would have seen Barbara and me enter...Damn it! I will have to go and check on her and see if she's alright. Maybe I should tell her to move to another location? I didn't think someone would be following me.'

Turning around, Zain exited the aisle and headed back to the butcher room, but just as he did, a large figure in a red sports outfit was standing behind him. It was none other than Mr. Clark, clutching a tennis racket.

"Excuse me, I just need to check something," Zain said, walking past him. But as soon as he walked past the former, he suddenly heard something whip through the air, and before he knew it, he heard a resounding snap.

[Your leg is now broken]

[Would you like to use your energy to heal?]

Zain collapsed onto the floor, falling on his knee. One of his legs had completely given up on him, and when turning around, he found the tennis racket in Clark's hand was now bent, and the latter was already beginning to tie Zain's hands with the help of some rope.

'He broke my leg with a tennis racket...damn, this guy has some serious strength..but why? What happened? Did I mess up somewhere?' Zain racked his brain as he realised that the games were far more effortless than real life because people were unpredictable.

"Come on, kid! Help me tie him up!" Clark instructed the teenager while handing one end of the rope to him. The latter looked a bit confused, but in the end, he did as Clark told him, and they had tied both of Zain's legs and arms in no time.

A short while later, they put Zain on a garden chair. Not only were his limbs restrained with a high-duty rope that one would use for rock climbing and such, but he was also bound with the chair, with his leg still broken. On top of that, Mr. Clark had shut his mouth with duct tape, so he couldn't even say anything.

Looking around, Zain found himself near the closed shutters of the front entrance. Mr. Clark had pulled the chair here, had taken away all his stuff, and piled them on the other side of the hallway.

After double-checking the knots, Clark called everyone to the entrance to tell them what was happening.

"Where the hell is that damned old woman and that office guy!" Clark shouted, but the others shrugged their shoulders. They hadn't seen the other two either.

"What happened? Why have you tied up Zain?" Kelly asked as soon as she noticed him, "And his leg...what did you do?"

Straight away, Kelly had an assumption as to who had done this. There was no one else that could have possibly done something like this.

"Before you start shouting at me for saving your life, I think you should see something because I am sure you'll be thanking me," Clark interrupted her, walking into the security room, which was not too far off.

The others stared at Zain in confusion for a few seconds before following Clark.

'They're heading to the control room... Wait! No! It can't be...'

Once everyone entered the room, Clark rewound the video, and soon, Zain appeared on the screen. They mainly saw him looking into the vehicles in the area, trying to find something, and he continued to inspect each car.

Zooming in on the video, Clark showed them all a clip of a certain individual in a car. His body was blocking what he was doing, so it was hard to see, but then an arm came into view flopping out from the driver's seat onto the ground, and they saw him picking it up and moving it towards their mouth.

"This damned kid is a cannibal!" Clark said, pausing the video. "He might be human, or he might even be one of them!"

Walking back to where Zain was after seeing the clip, there were different looks toward him. He could see the look in all those eyes. It was a look that Zain had seen a few times before and started to stir some feelings inside him.

'These guys!!! What are they looking at! I'm trying to help you...I'm the one that stopped you from rotting in here!' Zain thought as he scooted forward in his chair with his strength and the others took a step back.

"Oh...you want to explain yourself, huh? Explain to us what you were doing in those cars? Very well, but I doubt you can say anything that will change our minds." Clark said as he pulled the tape off of Zain's mouth

Over at one of the houses in the neighbourhood, one could hear the sound of loud snoring, and it had eventually woken up Skittle.

"Damn it, this guy's snoring will attract Zombies from the whole street!" Skittle said, lifting his head. Although he said this out of frustration, it was also partially true. Getting his glasses that were on the side table, Skittle started to look around the room.

He was displaced for a second, not noticing where he was, but then all the events from the day flashed in his mind.

"That's right...so it was all real." Skittle murmured, and then looking to his right, he found something strange.

"Hm? Zain? Wait, where's Zain?"

Suddenly finding his friend missing, Skittle panicked and turned to his other friend, "Buke! Buke!"

But Buke was in a deep sleep. Skittle threw away the rug he had on himself and ran up to his friend.

"Get up, Buke! Zain, he's gone. He's not here! wake up!" He shouted while trying to wake up his friend.

Buke's eyes shot open, and he stood up. "What happened?"

"Zain!"

"Zain what?"

"Yeah, he's not here!"

Buke frowned, "Did you check the other rooms?"

"...no."

Buke shook his head, "Go and check. No wait, let's look for him together."

The two of them walked out of the room and searched the house but couldn't find anything.

There was no Zain, so now they needed to decide what to do themselves.

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The whole stage was set for Zain, and if he wanted to get out of this situation, he would need to give the performance of a lifetime. The only thing was, like most who would do this for the first time, Zain had gotten a bit of stage fright.

Mr Clark removed the tape, and now all eyes were on him to hear his explanation about what he was doing in the parking lot.

'I...I don't know what to say...how do I get out of this situation.' Zain was nervous. He tried pulling his hands, but he could feel that his strength wasn't enough to break free from the ropes.

His life at the moment was at the mercy of the people in front of him, and the way they were looking at him, it was as if they had already made their judgement even before knowing the whole truth.

"Speak up then!" Clark said, stepping closer. "I guess you don't have an answer. Don't you know we're teachers, Zain? We know when someone is guilty, and the fact that you can't say anything proves your guilt. This means we need to decide what to do with you.

"Should we kill you? Throw you back outside? Or just leave you here to starve, so you don't eat anyone else?" Clark then got close to Zain and looked directly into his eyes. Now up close, Clark noticed his eye colour was quite strange and even seemed somewhat hollow, which furthered his suspicion.

"If it was up to me, I'd smash your head until I was sure you couldn't get back up, but then these people behind me would think I am the monster here," Clark whispered, walking back to the others.n0𝓥𝚎𝗅𝑢𝑠𝑏.𝗰0𝗆

While Clark turned around and walked back, Zain made eye contact with Kelly. Although she had saved him before, there was something inside him that thought she would save him again. However, after a few seconds, Kelly looked away. Her hand was clutching her other arm.

'I'm sorry... I want to help, but after seeing that, and thinking about your file...I just can't.'

The group discussed for a while, and it looked like they had come up with a decision. Then, Clark started to pull out the duct tape once again.

"Don't do this!" Zain finally spoke. "I was just trying to help you, I was trying to help you all, and this is what you do!" When speaking though, rather than words of fear, it sounded as if Zain was angry at them for making this decision.

"You're going to mess up. You're doing the wrong thing, trust me!"

"Just be quiet," Clark retorted as he brought the tape close to his mouth. Zain looked toward the teenager since Kelly wasn't being helpful.

"Kid, remember the job I gave you. If you want to live...Keep doing it!" Zain shouted. He wanted to say more, but his mouth was already tied up, and his words just turned into incomprehensible muffles.

With the help of all of them, Clark then checked the knots once again and called the others over. Everyone then lifted Zain's chair and moved him to the back room close to the freezer section.

There was a supply closet where the staff put the cleaning equipment and trash. The room wasn't the largest, but it was effortless to put Zain in the middle with a single light bulb above his head.

Everyone left the room, and Clark was at last to shut the door.

"It seems the decision was to lock you in here for now, but don't count on us letting you out."

'F*ck!' Zain wanted to yell out. 'F*ck, f*ck, f*ck. You screwed up, Zain...just like you always do, just like back then. I screwed up this time too. F*ck!'

He tried to calm himself, but his anxiety increased, and even his mind went blank for a moment. He knew the longer he stayed here, the lower his chances of survival were.

[Body Functionality: 84 Percent]

Clark quickly returned to his post as if he was doing a regular job, while the others were left feeling slightly uncomfortable with what they had done. If they couldn't sleep before, they surely couldn't sleep now.

While left in their thoughts, though, a certain teenager named Cody was thinking about Zain's last words.

'I saw the video and what he did, but I still feel that Clark guy is more dangerous. I don't like the fact that he's forcefully bossing us around as if he owns the palace either. Anyway, what did he mean by telling me to keep following Ben? I've lost track of him for a while. The last place I saw him was heading towards the Butchers, and when I told Zain about this, his reaction was quite strange.'

Thinking about this, Cody found himself heading towards the butchers' section.

'Was this his hint? To check what's going on in here? What did he mean if I don't keep an eye on Ben, we would all be in trouble?'

Approaching the counter, Cody soon noticed the door behind it was slightly open. He narrowed his eyes and slowly stepped towards the door. He then pushed it with one hand while the other was already holding a blade, ready to react to whatever was inside.

However, once the door was open wide enough, Cody saw something that made him grip around his blade harder. He slowly walked forward, and he found his feet stepping on something wet.

The whole place reeked, but he didn't have time to focus on that as he followed where the pool of liquid was heading, and this liquid wasn't water. After he took a few more steps, a body appeared directly behind a devoured cow carcass.

'What... Why is Barbara...dead?'

In the control room, Clark whistled while keeping an eye on the cameras. After what he had done, he was in a bright mood, but suddenly his whistling stopped, and he leaned toward the monitor with a frown.

"More guests?"

Just outside of the supermarket, two young men stood next to each other.

"Are you sure he would go here? Wouldn't there be a crap load of Zombies inside?" Buke asked.

"I'm sure. This is the most likely place he would go to." Skittle replied.

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A cranking sound resounded throughout the supermarket. When turning around, Mark and Kelly noticed someone pulling up the shutter. Seeing this as a worry, they had rushed over to the front entrance to see if something had gone wrong,

After all, there were two ways the shutters worked. One by manually moving them up and down after hitting the lock switch or using the computer system. When the two arrived, they saw Clark standing there with his hands by his side, looking at the door.

"What's going on?" Kelly asked. "Why is the door opening?"n0𝓥𝚎𝗅𝑢𝑠𝑏.𝗰0𝗆

"There were a couple of people outside; they looked like students. I even know one of them because he's on the wrestling team." Clark said with a proud smile. "He should make a good addition to this group."

Both Mark and Kelly looked at each other for a brief moment. They had discussed how slowly Mark was changing. The face Mark had on currently was a 'I told you so.' expression. With how things were going, it was only a matter of time before Clark just decided that he was the leader and would do things without talking to the others about it.

Clark should have discussed this with everyone before letting someone in, just like when Zain arrived.

'Well, Clark isn't a complete idiot. He wouldn't have opened the shutter unless he knew it was safe. Still, with what happened last time with a student...I'm a little worried.' Kelly thought.

A skinny, bespectacled student stepped into the store as the shutter fully opened. On him, there was a backpack and tool bag strapped around his waist. It was hard to imagine a small student like him had survived for so long.

But upon noticing the size of the young man behind him, it was understandable. He had a shovel on his back and a baseball bat in his hand. After the two were inside the store, the shutter immediately started to fall back down, and soon, the entrance to the supermarket was once again closed.

"Buke! My star wrestler!" Clark said, stepping forward with open arms. "If anyone would have survived, I knew it would have been you."

When he came close to Buke, the latter lifted his bat and pointed at the former's chest, making sure Clark couldn't get near.

This made the look in Clark's eyes change.

"What do you think you're doing? Pointing a weapon at your teacher."

"Sorry, but we have had a few run-ins with bad people and a few zombies, so we are not exactly the trusting type right off the bat." Buke chuckled at his joke a little.

After what Jade did, Skittle and Buke felt they could only trust each other and Zain. They had a plan when entering this place. They would just come in, and if there were people here, they would ask about Zain.

"We don't want to fight or cause any trouble. The zombies are our enemy, not each other." Skittle said, trying to defuse the tense situation. He saw Clark had also lifted his hand and gripped the edge of the baseball bat in Buke's hand.

"We were just wondering if you saw another student? He's our age, has red hair, and is lean and quite tall." Skittle described while doing a few actions.

No one said a word, but the change in all of the three faces there had told both Buke and Skittle that they had seen him.

'They're looking for Zain.' Kelly thought. 'Are these his friends? But then why didn't he tell us about them? Why was he travelling on his own?'

"We haven't seen him," Clark answered before anyone else could. "Sorry, but maybe we can look for him when the sun is out. Why don't you guys stay inside here for a while? Buke, we could use some muscle like yourself."

Scanning the room, Skittle noticed the unsettled faces of the others. He knew something wasn't right, and just then, his eyes fell on something past them, and he spotted two blades from the pair of shears on the floor, near the wall.

"That's Zain's weapon!" Skittle shouted out. "He's here! You're lying!"

Immediately, Skittle pulled out his hammer. Although Skittle wanted to know what these people were hiding, he trusted Zain more than them and felt like he was in extreme danger.

At that moment, Clark gripped the baseball bat in Buke's hand and threw it off into the wall. Buke instantly went to grab the shovel from behind, but he was tackled and sent to the floor before he could take it out.

"Why is a sportsman like you hanging out with a monster? I thought you were like me! I thought you were better than this!" Clark shouted.

Buke had a large figure, and this was the first time someone tackled him so effortlessly and swept him off of his feet.

Seeing this, Skittle threw the hammer towards Calrk, it was perfectly going for his body, but with a swing of his hand, Clark slapped the solid hammer away, sending it flying faster in another direction.

Doing such a thing would have broken a human's hand, but it had done no such thing.

'There it is! That superhuman strength!!' Mark thought, wondering what was about to happen. He was semi-okay with what they had done to Zain. After all, the latter was a monster, but as for these two, they looked just like regular students.

In that brief moment, when Clark had used his hand to whack the hammer away, Buke had a hand free, and he punched Clark directly in the face, sending him tumbling off to the side.

"I see, you're quite strong. Well, how about this?" Buke frowned as he pulled the shovel from his back and swung it at the gym teacher.

Clark had raised his hand to block, and as the shovel hit him, he could feel the bone in his shoulder shatter, but the shovel was also now bent.

As the others stood by, it was as if they were watching a fight between two super-brutes with superhuman strength.

"You're strong, Buke. I knew you were like me!" Clark said, getting ready to fight back as he slowly moved into position to tackle Buke, but the latter was ready this time.

"Everyone!"

A sudden shout attracted their attention. Everyone turned their heads to find the hooded teenager running out from one of the aisles.

"It's Barbara! She's dead, and Ben is missing...I think...we are in some serious trouble." Cody said, revealing to others what he had seen in that room.

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Cody's sudden arrival caused the quarrel to cease. Although they had already witnessed many deaths the previous day, death within their small group in a place and just when they all felt they were safe was a big deal.

As everyone followed Cody around the supermarket, Clark was close to the front, clutching his shoulder, which seemed to still be in pain. Buke had used all his strength to attack him with the shovel. It was a wonder he could still walk after the hit.

On the other hand, Buke walked up to the front, and since the shovel was now bent and useless, he had picked up the baseball bat and was carrying it on his shoulder. And he wasn't going to put away after the fight, that was for sure.

"Look, I really don't care what's going on here. We just want you to take us to Zain!" He said in annoyance.

"I will. But I think everyone needs to see this first, and it was Zain who told me to come in here, and I'm not sure what to make of it." The teenager replied while quickening his pace.

While walking with all the others, Kelly couldn't quite believe how the situation had taken such a turn. A few moments ago, Clark was leading everyone, and now they were following this other teenager.

"Hey..so I'm guessing you're friends with Zain, right?" Kelly eventually asked. "Does that mean you know about what he did?"

"About what? The car?" Buke shouted, "About how he's eating people? The damn coach won't shut up about it, just like how he would never shut up about being number 1 back in the day."

For one, Kelly was surprised that the two didn't seem to care about this fact. Maybe they were good at hiding their thoughts, but she wasn't sure. However, she wasn't talking about his cannibalistic actions. Instead, she was talking about Zain's past.

As they arrived at the Butcher's section, Cody's steps slowed down as he looked around with caution. Then, he climbed over the counter easily, using one hand to vault himself, showing a normal level of athleticism.

They eventually entered the dimly lit cold room with a dull red shade coming from the small bulb in the ceiling, and they soon found what Cody was talking about.

Barbara's corpse was lying there on the floor.

"Was she killed by a Zombie? Does that mean there's another one in here? What if she turns into one!" Mark shrieked, holding Kelly by the arm.

"I don't think she will turn into one. She was already like this when I got in here, and she still hasn't moved." Cody replied.,

"I don't think this was done by a zombie either." Skittle said as he got closer to look at the body but stayed far enough away so that he could jump out if something happened.

"Look at the body, there are wounds all over. But they all look like stab marks." Skittle explained. "And then you have the head and the body, there are no visible bite marks. Also, I noticed something before. Nearly every corpse we have walked past, the zombies had taken out the inside of their heads."

Noticing the things that Skittle had pointed out, it made it quite clear to everyone that someone had murdered Barbara, but the question was who and why?

"Why were you in here? I mean, how did you even know Barbra was here," Kelly asked the teenager.

Cody stayed silent for a while because he knew that some of them might jump to conclusions from his words.

"Zain told me to follow Ben," Cody answered. "I didn't think much of it, but I decided to do it anyway since there was nothing else for me to do, and it looked like he was either following Zain or Barbara, who had come into here.

"When you locked up Zain, he told me to keep following Ben, but I couldn't find him, so I decided to go back to the last place he was."

From this, the others could conclude that there were two most likely suspects, Zain and Ben, who had killed Barbra.

"Zain didn't do anything!" Skittle immediately defended his friend, "All we need to do is speak to Zain or find this Ben guy."

"Ha." A loud chuckle came out from behind. "After knowing what your friend has done and him possibly killing another one of us, no way in hell would I let you free him. I'll fight you all to the death, and you can take him over my dead body!"

From Clark's actions and words, Buke and Skittle could tell he wasn't joking. And from what they had heard so far, at least they knew Zain was still alive, which gave them hope.

"Why don't we get Zain's side of the story? You don't have to set him free. Just let us speak to him." Skittle said with a gentle voice.

When Clark looked like he was about to say more, Buke started to pat the bat in his other hand, ready to rumble at any second. Since this was a solution with the least risk and everyone, for now, was being civil, they decided to do this, heading toward where Clark had locked up Zain earlier.

But just as they were halfway through, everyone's steps suddenly stopped when they spotted someone.

"Ben!" Kelly called out.

The man in a suit was standing right in front of the freezer. His hand was on the door. At the same time, the bent pole used to keep the door locked was thrown to the ground.

"Ben, what are you doing?!" Clark yelled.

"Are you trying to open the door? Are you crazy? You'll kill all of us if there are zombies in there!" Mark shouted.

On closer inspection, Skittle saw blood all over his suit, mainly dripping from his arm.

"He...he was the one that killed Barbara!" He immediately called out.

"That's right." Ben pushed his glasses back onto his nose. Something strange had happened to him as his veins started to bulge slightly. "It turns out the lord has answered my prayers.

"Did you know..she was a Zombie? Or at least turning into one. When I figured this out, I had to end her, but in the struggle, I was bit. And I don't want to cause any harm, I just wish to spend the last moments of my life with my wife.

"My lord has given me the strength to open this door, as he too wishes for us to be together." Ben turned the lock, and everyone heard a clicking sound.n0𝓋𝓮𝓁𝐮𝑆𝒃.𝐂0𝑀

The others saw this and ran towards him to try and stop him, while Skittle pulled Buke to run back instead.

With a push of the door, Ben opened it, but the smile on Ben's face quickly disappeared. The next second, one hand came out and held him by the neck. Then, before the others could react, Ben was pulled inside.

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Zain had lost the sense of time. He had no clue how long he had been in that room, bound to the chair. His head was looking down at the floor, staring at his feet, both tied to the chair legs.

'I messed up. Once again. Even though I was only trying to do the right thing over and over.' Zain thought to himself. While staring down, a memory flashed in his head, and images of a dark room appeared in his mind, just that it was much smaller than the current one.

His legs weren't tied, although they were much smaller. It didn't take long for him to reckon that he was in his much younger self.

"Just stay in here, hero." A voice resonated inside his head, and the door knob's clicking sound came as if someone had closed the door. "Try and get yourself out of this one if you want to help her."

The younger Zain struggled as he tried to get out of the chair. Muffled screams could be heard as he tried with all his strength to get out, and then there was a strange sight. Blood slowly crept from below the door, spreading across the room as it got closer to his feet.

His heart began to beat rapidly, his whole body was sweating, and his wrists were bleeding as he continued to struggle.

"What is that?! Get away!" Strange voices appeared in his ear but seemed different from the voice from before. The voice from before had resounded in his head, whereas this one sounded as if it was not far from him but just on the other side of the door.

Zain frowned and blinked a few times. Just then, the entire room changed. He found himself in the storage room again, with his heartbeat calm, he wasn't sweating, and his legs looked like they were the normal size again.

'That voice...was that Skittle?' Zain thought. 'Am I losing my mind, or is it really him?'

He pulled his head forward and tried to listen carefully. Soon, he could hear several voices and the sound of the familiar grunt from the undead creatures, the Zombies.

'What are you doing, Zain…why is that nightmare repeating itself? You are not the same person you were once. You got yourself out of that situation on your own but failed to get someone else.' Zain thought. 'I won't let that happen again.'

Looking up and staring at the door, Zain was determined to get out of the room. He couldn't just sit here and do nothing. If he knew his friends, they most likely had woken up and come here looking for him, and now it sounded like they were in trouble.

Using whatever force Zain could build up, he started to twist his body. There was a slight movement in his feet, and perhaps a normal human wouldn't have been able to do anything, but Zain could.

From the little strength in his toes, Zain continued to twist his body and push off, turning the chair slightly. He continued to do this until his body was now facing a completely different direction.

That was when Zain started using his toes again to push himself off the floor. His chair rocked backwards slightly, and then leaning forward and back, he began to build momentum.

n0𝗏𝞮𝑙𝑢𝑠𝕓.𝕔0𝗆

He continued this, and the chair's hind legs were eventually the only thing touching the ground, and when the chair rocked forward, just as he was about to fall, he used all the strength in his toes to push himself off.

It allowed for Zain to head straight into the shelves of the storage room, and his face and whole body crashed into them, causing several tools and all sorts of equipment to fall off the ground.

Zain was now lying on the floor but still bound to the chair, although he had his fingers slightly free. He reached behind him, looking for anything that could be useful. He picked up the first thing that felt like a screwdriver. He tried to twist his wrist and began chafing it on the rope.

'Come on!!! Come on!!! Work!!! Let me out. If I don't get out there in time, the same thing will happen again!' Unsure if the screwdriver was working, he threw it away and started to reach around for something else. The next thing he touched was sharp and thin. If he was to guess, it felt like a piece of glass that had broken from the fall.

Holding it tightly, he started to use it on the rope. He could feel liquid falling from his hand, which was most likely blood, but there was no pain, and Zain didn't care because his mind was focused on just one thing.

'Come on break! Cut it! Cut the damn rope!' At that moment, he could finally feel the tension decrease as one of the ropes snapped, and now there were only a few more to go.

With the reduced tension, Zain could work on it a lot quicker. He had more movement, and it didn't take long for Zain to completely free himself from the chair.

The first thing he did was grab a mop from the corner and kick its end off with his feet to snap it and create a sharp-pointed pole.

'It isn't as good as my other weapons, but it will do.' Zain thought.

As he walked towards the door and put his hand on the doorknob, he thought about his earlier vision. 'That voice...I thought I had forgotten about it.'

Then clearing his thoughts, he pulled the door knob towards himself and broke the lock.

As soon as he walked out, Zain saw the open freezer door, and there was a dead body in the freezer. It was unrecognisable, but a familiar suit was on the body, which made Zain quickly realise who it was.

'I knew he would be the one to cause all of this trouble. I should have acted on my instincts…but I wanted to test a few things with Barbara.'

Just then, two system prompts appeared in front of him.

[Warning: A stage 2 Evolved Zombie has appeared]

[New quest received: Survive]

1000 Stone goal for 2 chapters (Goal reached!)

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The group members reacted differently when they found Ben standing by the freezer door. Clark, Mark and Kelly ran toward the freezer to stop him from opening the door.

As for Skittle, he had pulled Buke away, and they ran in the opposite direction past the open area and toward where the aisles would start. Skittle had an intuition that was just telling him that whatever was in that freezer was terrible news, and at that moment, when something had pulled in Ben, it had confirmed his fear.

Shortly after, a group of zombies emerged out of the freezer. They were walking fairly slowly, but there were many of them. Kelly recognised that nearly all the corpses they had dragged in from the supermarket floor were now coming out, although parts of their body were frozen, making their movements awkward.

'I thought they were all dead, and we decided to put them in the freezer just in case. How come they can still get up now.' Kelly thought.

"Give me that!" Clark shouted as he snatched the broom in Mark's hand and snapped it in half. "Their bodies are frozen, so they're slower than normal. So let's go, we can finish off these damned zombies."

Clark snapped the broom in half with his bare hands as he went forward and whacked the first one right across the head, causing its neck to twist and break. Then, he went towards the next one, thrusting the broom right through the zombie's mouth.

However, the zombie continued to move and tried to grab Clark with its hands, even with the broom right through its head.

"It's not dead…even though I hit it through the head?" Clark thought as he kicked the zombie off from the end of his broom, as more and more were coming towards him.

"Are you guys just going to stand there, or do you have some guts to help?!" Clark shouted at the others.

At that moment, the teenager threw one of his blades directly at the zombie's head, but once again, it took it like nothing as it continued to move forward. Now holding two knives in his hands like daggers, Cody was wondering what to do next.n0𝒱𝚎𝗅𝓤𝓈𝐁.𝗰0𝔪

Skittle and Buke were taking cover in one of the aisles, watching everything.

p "What should we do? Should we help them get rid of those guys? Look for Zain? or just get out of here?" Buke whispered.

Honestly, he had the same idea as Clark. There weren't many zombies, and just around fifteen zombies had come out from the freezer. But due to their incredibly slow movements, he believed with his baseball bat, he could take them all out. After all, the supermarket was an excellent safe haven for them, at least that's what Buke thought.

"We can't leave without Zain, and once we press the shutters, it will attract the zombie's attention. As for fighting them…I'm not sure. Can't you tell these Zombies are different?

"Before, I thought that Zombies needed their brains to function. And based on the bodies we have seen so far, the ones without a brain wouldn't rise from the dead. But these guys, even if we attack the brain, they are moving around. In fact, some of them don't even have their brains intact."

Just then, the first one that Clark had hit had come up from the floor, and the group soon got tired as they realised that these Zombies weren't dying no matter how hard they hit them, be it on their head or somewhere else.

"What's that?" Skittle asked, pointing at one of the Zombies from behind.

Looking closely, Buke noticed what Skittle was talking about. It was a strange red substance that was stuck onto that zombie. It looked like a flat octopus that was pulsating. Then looking at all the other zombies, they found the other zombies had the same thing, just in different spots.

During the fight, Clark whacked one of the Zombie's legs, breaking them. However, the Zombie was still alive and began to crawl toward him across the floor.

"Buke, try attacking the strange red spot on their bodies…I think something is causing them to act like this." Skittle suggested.

The two moved at the end of the aisle and soon reached the open area in front of the freezer where the others were fighting the zombies.

Clark and the others were in a circle with their backs against each other as they fought the zombies. They were scared and worried but not in huge danger due to the slow movement of the half-frozen zombies.

When Skittle and Buke reached the zombie crawling on the ground, Buke lifted his bat and slammed it on the strange pulsating red thing on the Zombie. This one had it on the back of her hand.

As Buke whacked it, strange red fluid began to spew out of the marking, it was similar to a large boil being popped, but in the next instant, the Zombie had stopped moving.

"That's great! Now we know how to get rid of these guys. We can just beat all the zombies, get Zain and head on out of here." Buke said.

"I don't think it will be that easy." Skittle replied. "Something or someone must have put these weird markings on the zombies in the first place…."

He turned towards the freezer, and that was when Skittle noticed a strange green hand on the large door. It pulled itself out, revealing its entire body. It was the same size as the other zombies, only its entire skin was green in colour.

All over it were these strange red boils that could be seen on the other zombies. They were pulsating in size, but what was most sickening about this creature was its mouth. It resembled nothing like a human's as it had spread open wide like a blossomed flower, revealing hundreds of razor-sharp teeth with blood oozing from its mouth, dripping over its already drenched shirt.

"What is that?! Everyone, Get away!" Skittle shouted, noticing that the others were yet to see it. Buke and Skittle were still the furthest away from the freezer, with the others in between.

The creature's mouth became even wider, and it started vibrating all over. The boils on its body grew larger, slightly like a balloon, and as it swung its head, something had flown out of its mouth.

A bright red liquid flew through the air, landing directly on Clark, covering his upper body.

"What is this?" Clark was alarmed, and suddenly all of the Zombie's eyes were on him.

2 Chapters today for reaching the goal, next will be out later.

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