Level up Zombie Chapter 4: 97, a 13 tzameti fanfic

Level up Zombie #Chapter 97 Hunters Hunt - Read Level up Zombie Chapter 97 Hunters Hunt Online - All Page - Novel Usb

With the last of his strength, it looked like Shark had left a message for whoever was to find his body, most likely the organisation that he was working for. While observing the message, Zain didn't believe Shark would leave such a message behind as a way to trick someone.

Whenever he talked or mentioned the demons, Shark's demeanour would change, and he was always serious about such a fact. At the same time, it didn't add up. Everything that Zain had seen didn't look to be the work of the military. It was definitely some sort of creature.

'Just how strong are these demons that you were so afraid of.' Zain thought. 'You were a strong fighter, and not just you, but the enemy took out the whole group, and from the looks of it, the former didn't even face any challenge.'

Upon walking out of the room, Zain went to have a look at the state of the outer area. Now that he had somewhat confirmed that it was the work of a demon, he started to evaluate its strength and how it had managed to rip Shark's body in half.n0𝗏ℯ𝓵𝓊𝓈𝔅.𝐜0𝚖

The Reborn group were stronger than regular humans, and they had the added fact they couldn't feel pain. On top of that, they had Shark, who was skilful and tactical. Zain imagined that the former hadn't shown his all in the fight against him earlier in the evening, and if Zain hadn't had the guns on him from before, maybe the whole fight would have turned into a different story altogether.

'Wait a second, Kun and Pink's bodies aren't here.'

Having realised this, Zain started to check the other rooms he had yet to go into: the one that Zain had woken up in and the one that Shark would use to train himself. Upon heading inside, he didn't find anything out of the ordinary, and neither were there any signs of a fight taking place.

'I guess the Demon or demons dealt with all of them quickly, but then how did Pink and Kun escape? Or is it possible that their bodies had just completely disappeared? Did the demons eat them?'

Even with this line of thought, it wouldn't confirm everything. Unless he knew someone who was there, it wouldn't do.

Upon heading back into the room Shark was in, Zain was hoping that he could find something, like a journal or some kind of notes as to when the people from that organisation would be coming or where their base was. However, as soon as he entered though, he soon heard a sound.

Someone had pushed open the main entrance of the club, and in the next instant, it was slammed shut.

'Skittle and Cobra are by the entrance. I have to give them a command.'

It was the first time Zain was trying this, but he thought it could work out somehow, and he had given the order of protection for one to protect the other and vice versa. So if they were to be attacked, they would fight the enemy off together.

At the same time, Zain ran from the office, jumped up backstage, went through the back curtain, walking out on stage to look at who had entered the club.

"Zain!!!" A voice. "How could you?! How could you have done this!"

There was a man at the entrance who was looking at Jelly from behind the bar. He hadn't attacked Skittle or Cobra since he knew who they were because the one who had returned was Kun.

"You damn basta*d! I stuck up for you! I knew you were crazy, but I never thought that you would do something like this!" Kun was incensed, "I told you everything we knew, we are just doing our job, but we tried our best to protect them, so then why…why did you have to go and kill them?!"

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After hearing these words, Zain finally knew why Kun was acting in such a way. It looked like the reason why Kun had survived was that he wasn't even here in the first place to witness it.

"Kun, you're wrong." Zain immediately tried to clarify, "I didn't kill them, I just arrived here like you about five minutes ago, and they were all like this."

Wiping his tears away, Kun had a confused look on his face.

"What do you mean?…it has to be you! Who else could have killed them like this?"

"Like what exactly?" Zain replied. "Look at the wounds on their body? Do you really think I could have done something like that? Do you think my gun could have done something like that?"

Quickly, Kun had a further look at the bodies again. He could see the large holes that had pierced through them and the cuts that were made on their body.

He ran over to Fingers, who was closer by the stage and looked at him as well, and the wounds on him appeared to be the same.

"You were an agent, right? So you should understand that me doing something like this is impossible." Zain added, "And if you go into the office, I'm sure you will have your answer, and again, I would never do something like that."

Kun quickly rushed into the office soon after, and a few grunts, shrieks and banging on the door were heard. Although Kun didn't know these guys for long, he did feel like it was his responsibility to look after them.

It was even the reason why he had left them here, thinking that it was a safe place, and then there was also Shark himself, a fellow agent with who he had worked together for an incredibly long time.

After giving Kun a few minutes, Zain decided to enter the room and could see Kun just staring down at the body in front of him.

He looked like a statue, not moving at all and just staring at the body.

"I'm sure you saw the words that he wrote. I don't know what happened more than you do now. The two of us can only guess." Zain replied.

A few more seconds later and Kun was coming a little bit.

"Where is Pink? Her body? We have to find her body as well and be respectful to them all."

Kun was ready to go searching, but Zain quickly stopped him from doing so.

"I already looked, but I couldn't find her anywhere. I thought she might have gone with you, but I guess that's not the case."

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"That means she's most likely alive! But then, how did she survive? Why are the rest like this, and she's not here!" Kun asked.

However, Zain didn't have the answers to that, and the two of them were just going through the same questions again.

"You…this is your fault." Kun couldn't think straight, "I went out looking for you, I wasn't here, and because of that, everyone ended up like this. And look at you know, you came back here anyway! This is all on your shoulders."

Zain started to walk up to Kun, who stepped back bit by bit.

"Was I the one that created this zombie virus in the first place? Or the one who chose to hide out in this area?

"I told everyone they were free to leave or come with me. It was their choice to stay here. In life, you can't just blame others for your own mistakes, you are in control of yourself, and no one else controls your life.

"If you were here, do you think that would have made a difference? You would be dead and on the floor just like them!" Zain shouted.

The look on Kun's face was of utter despair and defeat. He knew that Zain was right. At the end of the day, the same thing was most likely going to happen if they had met him or not.

In one way or the other, Kun had only survived because Zain had escaped and left the place.

"This world sucks," Kun said, clenching his fist.

"That is something we both can agree on," Zain said. "These demons seem pretty strong to take out, Shark. Do you know anything about them?"

"No…not anything that you don't already know. Just the Reborn organisation would always make a big deal about them. It was strange they couldn't really tell us what they looked like or their strengths and just stated that they were the most dangerous things that we could run into."

Hearing Kun's response, Zain was even more curious and went up to Shark's corpse again.

'If only I could find out what exactly happened to you.'

Just when he had this thought, a familiar sound rang in his head, and a system prompt appeared.

-Ding!

[Consume the Reborn Zombie's brain to gain access to the host's memories in the last 24 hours]

'Oh, what a jackpot this is.'

Thank you, everyone, for supporting LUZ so far, and I Hope you can continue to support LUZ in the WSA journey by voting for the story! Please continue to use your Stones and Tickets! For some reason, Webnovel Won't let me take away so many words.

There was a mistake with this chapter so just adding extra for the sake of this. Sorry for the delay in Chapters. I have been busy doing podcasts and also have been in and out of the hospital to check what the problem is with my back.

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It was the first time the System had prompted a message for Zain, and it wasn't a quest but rather a piece of information which could help him in this current situation.

'Why would the system do such a thing now when it has never done anything like this before?' Zain thought. 'And it seemed to come up when I was thinking about the problem, not when I first entered the room. Is there more to this system that I still don't know about.'

Based on the message, it meant he had the choice to do it or not. In one way or another, it was clear that the System was trying to help him in this situation.

'This System is strange, helping me out now of all times. It's like I'm still in some type of tutorial mode, and it's still taking me through all of the available features.' Zain thought as he walked over to Shark's head and lifted it.

Memories of the days when he would be playing games came up to him. Each survival game was different in how it worked, and how it would take one through a tutorial. However, this possibly would have had to have been the worst tutorial by far if it really was the case.

If he met the developers of this system, he wanted to give them a slap around the face. The least they could have done is some basic research to find out how these things worked.

Zain started to lift the head and roll it around a little as if he was inspecting it, like a detective.

"What are you doing to his body?" Kun asked.

Tilting the head to its side, Zain saw an opening.

"You want to know what happened to these guys, right?" Zain replied. "Well, remember I'm different from the rest of you? My body can heal at a fast rate, and I can control the people that I turn, but it turns out that's not the only thing I can do. There is a way for me to see the last moments of the dead."

"Really!" Kun exclaimed in excitement but seeing Zain take out a dagger, he knew what was going to come next. He looked away as the all too familiar sound had been made. Then when turning back, he could see that Shark's brain was in Zain's hand.

Although Kun wanted to respect his dead colleague's body, if what Zain said was true, it was important for them to find out what happened. For one, they could know what happened to Pink, and two, they were curious about how everything transpired, and Zain was hoping to find out something more.

Which was why Kun didn't bother to say anything, not that he believed he could do anything even if he was against Zain doing such things. It was clear from the little scuffle they had with everyone that Zain was just far too strong.

'I wonder how this thing is going to work. I have already eaten a brain a few times, so this is no different, but something like this has never happened before.' Zain thought as he gobbled down on the brain, bit by bit while keeping his mind off the action.

Once again, he thanked the fact that his taste buds were dulled, and so was the sense of touch, so the texture and taste weren't really a problem. Rather it was just the act of eating the brain itself.

Unlike with the other Brain's there wasn't a refreshing feeling, and it didn't seem to do anything to up his body functionality like human brains did. So it still didn't solve the other problem he had.

'It said 24 hours, so maybe I'll get the chance to see something else as well?'

[You have consumed a 'Reborn' Zombie's brain]

[You can now access the memories the brain has seen in the last 24 hours before its death. Would you like to proceed?]

"Hey Kun, this whole looking thing might take a while. So make sure you protect me or wake me up if something happens." Zain replied.

Zain had thought about going back to an apartment or some other place else, but it was quite clear this palace was abandoned, and whatever had done this was unlikely to return. The only thing he was worried about was the Reborn Organisation that the others worked for.

However, it had only been a day, and since it was high risk to send out a team to see what happened to them, Zain theorised that they would be moving slowly.

At the same time, he had ordered Skittle and Cobra to come and protect him once again. It was possible that he might have become unconscious for 24 hours. Whoever attacked this place was unlikely to return, but they couldn't be too optimistic, so it was as safe as anywhere.

[Yes]

Zain didn't pass out as he had expected, nor was he transported to a certain place. Instead, a system screen appeared, and it was now as if he was watching something on a large TV. In fact, there was even the option to skip and move the player bar that went on for 24 hours.

Some of it showed the tail end of what had occurred in Chinatown. Seeing this, Zain skipped through and went through all that he knew. It was playing from a Shark's perspective, like a point-of-view video.

'I wonder, is the footage stored in the System forever? Will I be able to have access to this whenever I want?'

Continuing on the video, Zain finally stopped it when Shark was in his office and had begun the call with the others. This was when Zain was standing outside the door and had only heard half of the conversation.

After a few introductions, Shark had begun speaking to a male agent on the other side. The voice was clear, and it wasn't the women that he had run into or that the others had known.

"We just found hundreds of dead Zombies, and upstairs there were Stage two zombies that were eliminated in the similar fashion that you told us the Demons would kill. You said we would be safe after the first meteor strike if we waited a few days." Shark complained.

There was a pause for a few seconds on the other end, and a few sounds of shuffling could be heard as if the man was speaking to someone before giving a reply.

"This was out of our predictions. We could only guess so much. The only thing we can state is to keep doing as you are doing. Collect the Crystals. They will help us win this in the future. You have to remember the Reborn are there for a reason, just like the evolved are there for a reason.

"Everything you are doing is for the sake of humanity's survival. Keep working hard, Agent Shark."

Shark had almost let out a laugh, and from the video, Zain could see he was also frustrated by the way he had clenched his fist around the speaker.

p "What do you mean this wasn't part of your predictions?" Shark almost shouted, "If you knew about it, then you should have informed us immediately. Anyway, have you looked into what I asked for?"

"We have checked all our files for agents that are within the Reborn group. Your description doesn't match a single one of them. We advise you to proceed with caution as, at this moment, the only thing we can confirm is that he is not one of us. He wasn't part of the Reborn program."

After that, the call had pretty much ended there, and Zain knew how the rest of the story went. Listening to this Reborn organisation talk more and more, Zain was starting to believe that they knew this was going to happen at some point.

n0𝐯𝑬𝓁𝗎𝗌𝓑.𝓬0𝐌

From the sounds of it, they knew a lot about what was happening around the world, but the question was, why were they doing such things?

Since it didn't look like he would find an answer, Zain continued to go through the video, and soon, he reached the part where he heard the mysterious visitor knocking at the Club's door.

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All of them heard the knock on the Club's main entrance, and then came a voice from the other side. Jelly, who was closest to the door, was ready to slide open the shutter. It was a small envelope-size shutter that allowed one to see outside of the place.

Before he did though, Shark shouted out to him.

"Wait!" Shark shouted. "That voice, it's not Kun, nor does it sound like Zain. Check who they are first before letting them in."

Hearing Shark shout, everyone gathered in the main room. Fingers went off to the side along with Pink as both of them continued to stare at the door. They had originally run forward, excited that Kun might be back with the others.

Listening to Shark's orders, Jelly didn't open the shutter and instead just spoke through the door.

"Name!" Jelly asked.

"Please! My name is Jerry. There are zombies outside of this place chasing me! Please let me in!" Jerry shouted as he started to panic and banged the door with his two fists. He was banging it again and again frantically, sounding desperate, and it was loud.

"He smells human," Jelly confirmed to the rest. "What do you want me to do?"

Since it was a human, letting him in might give him a bigger fright, but they couldn't imagine a human causing them a lot of trouble, especially for Shark, but there was a bad feeling in his gut that was telling him something was wrong.

'This is the first time since being here that something like this has happened, and why so late? Why are they outside?'

"Shouldn't we let him in?" Pink asked. "He'll die out there. I know that we are not the same but…but we still have a family who still might be humans as well. What if that was our family member out there?"

Due to the recent events, Pink was more inclined to try and help out others. She imagined if that man was her father, or perhaps if someone had helped out her sister during their desperate time, they would be okay.

"We can't take the risk. What happens if that man tries to attack us, then? The safest thing to do is to look out for ourselves." Shark stated.

Perhaps if this had happened before, happening a few hours before Zain had disappeared, the others would have listened to him, but their trust in Shark had been muddled. They looked at him in a different way compared to before.

"Why are you always so selfish!" Pink shouted.

"I also feel like if the banging on the door continues like this, it will attract more Zombies to this area and then the evolved ones might come here and attack us. A human is easier to deal with as compared to Evolved zombies, right?" Fingers argued, supporting Pink.

With the backup she needed, Pink felt like she was strong enough to take charge.

"Open the door!" Pink ordered.

It felt like everyone was going against Shark right now, and while in the middle of his thoughts, he hadn't given another order to Jelly for him to stop, and the door was soon opened.

A middle-aged man with black hair soon ran in, with his hands both on his knees and was huffing and panting, looking at the floor. Jelly looked outside and quickly closed the door.

"Thank you, thank you so much for saving me." The man said, still breathing heavily. "You don't understand I was so close to being bitten and eaten. A man like me can't survive out there."

The man was wearing a suit that had been ripped torn and was also a little bloody as well. It seemed like he had gone through a lot. Still, the others seemed nervous because they all wondered how the man would react once he lifted his head and saw them, finding out that they were Zombies as well.

At that moment, Fingers was the first to walk out towards the man seeing that he had no weapons on him. He didn't seem like a threat, and Fingers also had the least obvious wounds on his body which indicated that he was a Zombie.

"Ahh!" The man screamed in a frightened voice as he fell over backwards and onto his back. "You…you …you're Zombies!" the man shouted.

He twisted his head, looking at each and every one of them, noticing all of the strange marks they had, their pale skin and their slightly dull coloured eyes.

"Please, sir, we are not here to hurt you." Fingers said in a calm voice while also having his usual large smile on his face. "We have run into the Zombies outside like you, but as you can see, we are a group of people that have found ourselves immune to their effect."

"We can talk and still do everything just like a human. It's only our appearance that is like this. We mean you no harm; after all, we wouldn't have let you in and saved you from the real Zombies outside otherwise."

Fingers had been wondering what to say for a while if he had ever met another human, and it looked like his practice was working as the man seemed to calm down. Lowering his head, the man stared at the floor. However, for some reason, Fingers noticed the man's shoulders were trembling.

"Man isn't being chased." Jelly suddenly said.

At that moment, Shark's ears pricked up.

"What did you say, Jelly? What do you mean?"

"Outside...there are no Zombies chasing the man." Jelly replied.

The man who was on the ground, his shoulders started to shake more and more until he started to laugh.

"Haha, looks like I've hit the jackpot here."

"Everyone!' Shark shouted at the top of his lungs. "Run!"

n0𝐯𝑬𝓁𝗎𝗌𝓑.𝓬0𝐌

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The man's shoulders continued to tremble, and as he looked up, Fingers saw a strange smile on the former's face. He instinctively stepped back for a second, afraid of what this person would do.

'Wait, isn't this guy just a human? Then why…why am I so afraid?' Fingers thought.

Suddenly, the side of the man's mouth started to rip, the skin peeled and broke out from the top of the head, and a strange brown colour could be seen on whatever was coming out from the Skin. A strange pink goo could be seen as the skin was stretched and peeled.

Breaking out from the top of its head, a figure that was the same size as a human, with nothing but large white eyes and sharp jagged teeth, was now standing in front of Fingers.

"I said run!" Shark shouted as he leapt up with an axe in his hand that he had been carrying and swung it down as hard as he could, right on the strange Creature's head. The axe pierced its skin and moved, cutting it down the middle, but it didn't go completely through it.

The human skin that it was wearing now had completely gone off from its body, and out from its back, six strange long tentacle-like figures could be seen, and each of them had a very sharp end.

Its arms were the same size as a human's as well, only that its fingers were quite elongated than a typical person's and were pointy as well. The Creature swung its arm, trying to throw away Shark. The latter could see the attack was coming, so he let go of the axe and created a cross-shape block with both of his arms.

However, when he was hit, he felt the sheer strength of the Creature. His body went flying, hitting the tables and chairs away.

Shark continued to skid as he went across the room, and his back eventually hit the bottom of the stage.

The Creature then pulled the axe out of its head, and blood fell on the floor from its body, but the wound quickly healed right in front of them, something similar to what Zain could do.

"Pink, get out of here!" Shark shouted. "We can't win this. Warn them, warn everyone about this. Go to the Kitchen! Find a way out!"

When Shark turned his head back around, he saw the Creature had now lifted Fingers into the air. In the next instant, the sharp tentacles pierced through his body.

"ARGHH!" The Creature screamed, and the tentacles started to grow longer as it pushed Fingers back and slammed him right up against the wall, piercing him then and there. Strangely, it looked like something was happening to the tentacles as part of it grew larger and began to move down towards the Creature's body.

It was as if something out of the Zombies body was being transported to him.n0𝐯𝑬𝓁𝗎𝗌𝓑.𝓬0𝐌

Pink was stunned upon witnessing the scene in front of her. Fingers were dead before any one of them could even react to the Creature's attacks.

'This is…all my fault. I was the one that did this. I was the one that told them to open the doors. Fingers is now dead because of me.'

The strange tentacles soon came out of Fingers, and his body fell to the floor, leaving a trail of blood on the wall. After the fall, Fingers remained still, confirming the fact that he was now dead. There wasn't a third chance for this poor soul.

Just as the tentacles were retracting to the Creature's body though, Jelly had come up from behind the Creature and grabbed its body.

"Pink…run!" Jelly shouted as he tried to use all his strength in his legs and weight to lift the Demon up. However, no matter how hard Jelly tried, he couldn't budge the strange Creature for some reason.

Shark got up from where he was and noticed that the Creature's legs had changed, creating these small spikes from its body that had dug into the ground.

'This…this creature can only be one thing, what they warned us about: a Demon!' Shark thought as he pulled out two daggers from his belt. Glancing to his right, he could see Pink had escaped to the kitchen as he had asked.

However, he was going to try to take out this Demon that was in front of him.

"How can I just leave when even Jelly is fighting damn hard!"

Shark charged forward, but he was too late. The pointed tentacles had dug into the Jelly's back, instantly piercing him. Then he was lifted in the air and chucked to the bar area, crashing into it and breaking the bottles and more on the very back wall.

Using the tentacles, the Demon started to lift up chairs and tables, chucking everything it could at Shark, which was making it hard for the latter to fight properly.

When Shark avoided the chair that had been thrown at a great speed, he could see the Demon had already slashed through the bar and had taken out Jelly as well.

With Fingers and Jelly dead and Pink hopefully having escaped, there was nothing that Shark could do, so he decided to retreat to another room. As he was running behind the stage, a tentacle came out and slammed him right through the door, breaking part of the rubble.

Shark was still alive at this point and was now in the office, but when looking at the lower half of his body, he noticed it was missing. The Creature had completely sliced off.

"I have to warn them…I have to warn anyone that comes in here." Using his own blood from the bottom half of his body, he started to write the final message, and a few seconds later, the video ended there.

——

"So…what happened?" Kun asked after a gulp upon seeing that Zain had stood up from his position.

"They ran into a Demon. They were no match and couldn't even hurt the thing. The good news is though, I'm guessing Pink is alive, or at least she was alive before Shark died." Zain explained.

"Is there bad news?" Kun asked as it looked like Zain wanted to say something else.

"Yeah, these Demon's not only are strong, but it looks like they can disguise themselves as humans as well. Which means…this world just got a lot more dangerous."

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Kun gulped upon hearing Zain's words.

"I'm guessing they didn't tell you that demons could disguise themselves as humans," Zain asked.

Kun nodded, "They didn't."

"It was quite a disgusting thing. The Creature was wearing human skin, but it looked human-like when it came out. If that's the case, then we need to be more careful with who we interact with from now on. The only information we have is the fact that they come out at night.

"I wonder if that still applies if the Demon wears human skin." Zain laid out his doubts.

Then he went on to tell Kun everything he witnessed in the footage. Honestly, it was a shame that he couldn't just show the video to Kun. Either way, he had gotten the gist of the horror and power of a Demon. In the end, there was only one Demon, but everyone was helpless against it.

Hearing Zain's words, Kun actually felt less guilty. Even if he was there, he knew that it wouldn't have made a difference, but he wondered if the same could be said for Zain. After seeing Zain defeat the Titan and Cobra's gang, the latter seemed like the type of person who could get out of any situation.

On the other hand, there was something else that also surprised Zain. After watching the video clip and fully digesting the brain, a notification appeared from the System.

[ 1 Intelligence]

[Intelligence: 12]

[Your mind grows stronger]

[Your body functionality will deteriorate at a slower rate.]

Gaining a stat without levelling up was a big bonus, and after seeing the strength of the Demon, he knew that he would need more stats.

'The video is saved in the System, and I can access it at any time. That's good, not that I think I will need it.' Zain thought. 'With the Demon, now there are two powerful enemies who can most likely defeat me with ease. I need to get stronger as fast as I can so when I go against any of them, I can at least hold my ground.'

Thinking about the Stage 2 creature that he had lost to in the training room and now the Demon, Zain's fingers were twitching slightly, and he started to think. What would he do if this was a game-like situation?

After getting an idea, he headed out of the room and went towards Fingers. Kun also got up and quickly followed him out of the room to see him use the dagger once again to crack open another Skull.

"Is there really any point in doing that?" Kun asked. "I mean, I doubt whatever you saw from Shark's memories will be different from theirs."

"You never know," Zain replied as he chewed on it.

The truth was, he was hoping for another stat increase by consuming the brain and increasing the intelligence stat. Once he finished consuming the brain, Fingers memories appeared in front of him on a screen and got saved in the System, just like Shark's.

He quickly went through them, but there was nothing new apart from realising that Fingers was a creepy guy who liked to touch things and would frequently glance at Pink from time to time.

However, unlike before, Zain didn't receive any stat points for consuming the brain.

'Is it only certain members of the Reborn group? Or is it more like an Exp thing? But if that was the case, the System would have shown something. It was for Sword Mastery and my Exp, so it wouldn't make sense for the rest.'

There was one more brain to eat, and that was Jelly's. If eating Fingers' brain did nothing, then Zain didn't have high hopes for eating Jelly's brain, but perhaps there was someone that could benefit from it.

After taking out Jelly's brain, he went on to hand it out to Skittle, who grabbed it. He wasn't sure if this would work but just said the words "Eat!" out loud, and thankfully it seemed like Skittle knew what to do with it.

After Skittle finished eating the brain, Zain heard the familiar notification sound in his ears, and a System screen appeared in front of him.

[A member of your Horde has increased a stat]

[ 1 Intelligence]

'It words. But it looks like if Skittle eats the brain, I won't have access to the footage in the System, but I already knew what happened, and Jelly just stands by the door all day. Hopefully, this means Skittle will start to fight a bit better and will begin to gain his own intelligence back.'

Zain realised that the Undead horde that he had so far created didn't just follow commands that the System allowed it to. When he communicated with Cobra, the latter could move freely and understood things much more easily compared to Skittle.

He could only assume this was because of the intelligence stat.

"Why did you do that?" Kun asked.

"I.. I'm trying to train them." Zain answered and said nothing else as he continued to check out the rest of his stats on the screen. While in the middle of doing this, a light bulb moment came for Kun.n0𝒱𝑒𝐋𝔲𝓢𝕓.𝐜0𝓜

"Wait a second, didn't you say Pink ran into the Kitchen?… Then she should still be there!" Kun almost shouted, and without waiting for a response, he ran towards the Kitchen.

Zain followed behind him. Pink was probably the person he liked the second most out of the Reborn group. She seemed like she could easily be influenced to do things, and that's what Zain needed: people that could follow his direction and orders.

Upon entering the Kitchen, Kun went up to the barricaded emergency exit, but there were no signs of damage. Zain had checked the area but didn't really think much, but now after seeing the footage from Shark, he figured she had to be in here.

That's when Kun stopped and could see that part of the vent had been ripped off.

"Did…she go through there?" Kun guessed.

Due to it being a kitchen, the ventilation system actually passed through the floor of the Club and went up to the Club's roof. From the apartment building, Zain hadn't seen anything, but it was hard to see the entire terrace.

Kun looked like he was ready to climb up when he heard a bang. Looking to his right, he saw Zain had just kicked the back door breaking the barrier.

"I think this is a bit easier, and there is no need for us to be careful anymore. I plan to leave this place. Of course, I'll give you the option again. You can either stay here or leave with me." Zain said, walking through the barrier towards a ladder that led to the rooftop.

"Arghh, of course, I'm going to stay with you, you crazy Bast*rd!" Kuns said, running after Zain.

While climbing the ladder, a new quest appeared.

[You have received a Main Quest]

[Form your own group]

[Reward: Reward cards will be unlocked]

[Additional Reward: A golden card will be received]

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Before climbing up the ladder at the side of the building, Zain put a small knife in between his teeth, ready to use it at any moment and time. The large sword was still stuck in his backpack, but it was going to be hard to access it while climbing the ladder.

Just below him was Kun, while Skittle and Cobra stayed at the bottom of the ladder.

'I… I'm worried about what we will see up here.' Kun muttered.

Finally reaching the top, Zain gave Kun a hand and pulled the latter up.

"So it looks like you are going to follow me this time?"

"What choice do I have?" Kun rolled his eyes, "Shark and I decided to follow that Reborn Organisation, and look what happened to us. I don't want to die twice."

Zain smiled, and soon both of them began to look around. It didn't take them long for them to find the person they were looking for. Covered in a large black sheet of some sort, behind a storage room on the roof, there was Pink. Her eyes were wide open, and she was spacing out while staring at the sky.

"Pink! Thank god you're here!" Kun shouted while running over. He knelt down and quickly went in front of her to see that she was alright.

"Kun.." She softly spoke as she looked at him, and a bit of life seemed to return to her eyes. "Kun, you're back, you're finally back!"

Immediately, she hugged Kun and held him tightly as her whole body trembled. The last night had been hell for her, and the fact that she could only helplessly run away upon seeing her friends get killed only made it worse. She had cried all throughout the night, and upon seeing Kun, she felt a lump in her throat but had no tears to cry.

"Kun… they're all dead, our whole group, they all died because of me!" She started to sob and make a few strange noises out of her mouth.

"I know you're upset, but it would be best if you kept quiet for now."

Pink had heard someone speak, but it wasn't Kun. At the moment, she hadn't realised who else was around, and that's when she noticed Zain standing at the back.

Wiping away her face, she tried to get rid of the tears, but there was nothing.

"Kun, you found him," Pink asked.

"Well, we kind of just encountered each other in the Club…but Pink, I'm glad you're okay. We saw everything, well, I mean, Zain saw everything, but he explained to me what happened. It's not your fault.

"You didn't even know about the Demons, and to be honest, none of us did. Our organisation never told us that they could turn into Humans like that. No one is to blame for the situation that we are currently in. And now that we're together, we have to move on…together."

Unlike Kun, who originally had blamed Zain for leaving them in the first place, it was clear that Pink had blamed herself for this whole ordeal. After a while, when it looked like she was starting to feel better, she finally felt easier to speak.

"How, how did you guys know I was up here?…I was so scared of everything that was happening. I was worried that even if I ran in the middle of the night that…that Demon would get me. So I thought it was best to just hide instead." Pink asked.

n0𝑣𝔢𝗅𝑢𝐒𝑏.𝑐0𝕞

"As I said, Zain was able to see everything that had happened. He can extract memories from the dead. So he saw what had happened. Can you tell us anything else tho'? Did you see or hear anything after the Demon left?"

Pink shook her head while thinking about Zain. The latter was certainly a strange Reborn Zombie, and it was clear he was different compared to the rest of them.

After a few moments, Pink replied, "Like I said, I stayed put. I heard the door slam but just stayed here, not even taking a peek at what could have happened or returned back to the Club. Honestly, I didn't even notice when the night turned into day."

After a while, Kun pulled up Pink, and then both of them walked around the terrace to see if they could spot anything. They talked for a little bit about what had occurred down there when he had met with Zain, and she explained in detail what she had seen as well, which had matched up with what Zain had told him.

Eventually, the two returned, and there was a firm look on Pink's face.

"Zain…I want to follow you. Kun and I have talked, and we both want to follow you. We know you are the lone wolf type, and we will give you the space when you need to do your own thing. We will take care of ourselves.

"But you should know that a group is better for survival in these circumstances. If a similar situation happens again, like what happened last night, then you will need all of us. But I have also realised the mistake that we made with Shark. There was no trust within the group, and everything was one way.

"So, before we ask to join you, or before you would even be willing to accept us, we both want to know, who are you? Who do you work for, and what are you?"

Originally Zain was planning to head out alone, but what Pink was suggesting was the best of both worlds. As long as he was the leader, he could say when he wanted to go alone and when he wanted these guys to follow him.

On top of that, there was the Quest that he had just received, and the new rewards had piqued his interest. It was just how he would spin this. Before answering, there was a smile on his face.

"I have always been honest with you all from day one," Zain replied. "I don't know why I am different from the rest of you. I really am just a university student. If we encounter one of my teachers in the future, they will confirm it.

"I was someone who always thought what life would be like if it ended up like this, so I always prepared for it, but that's it. There is nothing to hide on my end. You can believe me, or you don't, but why do you think I have been walking around with my Zombie friend this whole time.? We were good friends and attended class together.

"Does Skittle really look like an agent to you guys?"

Looking at each other, they thought Zain had a point.

"This world has changed a lot," Zain explained. "And I think all of us have changed from what we were before. So I have a suggestion as well. Let's create a new group in this world and survive this thing.

"All five of us." Zain smiled, including Skittle and Cobra in the group as well.

Placing his hand out, Zain was waiting for the two of them. The first one was Kun, who placed his hand on top of Zain's. Then, Pink did the same.

"What is the name of this group?" Pink asked.

"How about 'Level up'?" Zain asked.

"That's…a really strange name," Kun said with a raised eyebrow.

"It's what we are going to need to do. To survive this world, we must rise and level up above everyone else and all our enemies."

In the end, they all lifted their hands in the air and agreed despite the strange name.

[Quest complete]

[You have created the 'Level Up' Group]

[You will now receive your rewards]

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At first, when receiving the Quest, Zain didn't think much of it. Cards didn't sound all that impressive, but he thought there had to be a reason behind it. Everything that the System had done so far was always for one reason or another.

This was why, when he saw the opportunity, he decided to take it, even though he wasn't sure if it would be worth it or not.

[You have received the following rewards]

[System has now been updated to show Quest rewards in the form of cards]

[Different levels of quests will each have a different level of reward card]

[You have received a gold card for completing the Quest!]

Zain thought that the reward cards might be something similar to his weapon skills tree, but that didn't seem to be the case. Instead, they were more of a system change or updated to such a thing.

Based on what the System had stated, Zain quickly opened it up and looked at the ongoing quests he currently had.

[Quest: Form your Horde]

[Reward: 10 exp]

[Reward: Silver card]

[Quest: Find a live meteorite]

[Reward: Platinum Card]

[Quest: Find out the Zombie's Objective]

[Reward: Diamond Card]

Before, when checking out the System, there were no such rewards or reward cards to be obtained for completing the Quest, but now he could see them.

'If the card follows the rankings of other games that I have played, then it's based on difficulty-based quests: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Diamond, with there possibly being more as well.' Zain thought. 'The higher the card, the better the reward that I will receive. But what this also means is the Quest should be more difficult to achieve.

'When looking at this, that meteorite Quest isn't easy to achieve at all, while I thought it would be a walk in the park. As for the first Quest I received, although it is technically easy, it's not quite so since I won't turn back from my morals. Although if I met more people like Cobra and his gang, it would be a different story.'

However, perhaps there were some quests that weren't too difficult that would give him high rewards, such as creating the group, although he assumed these would be rare. Changing to his items tab, Zain could currently see two items inside.

[Return Key x1]

[Golden Card x1]

'Let's see what a golden card can even do.' Zain thought as he selected the item.

[Cards can be used to give random rewards. The level of the rewards will depend on the card]

'Then couldn't you just give me the reward, and we could avoid all of this? Who created this gaming system.'

Selecting the card, Zain decided to accept and see what the card would give him. Most likely, there were a number of different rewards in the Gold Card section, and the card itself would just be a random reward.

[You have received Tame Skill (Level 1) Skill.]

[The Tame Skill allows the user to tame Zombies into their own Horde.]

[To use the Tame Skill, the user must bite a zombie for five seconds. Chance to tame will be dependent on the level of the Skill and the Zombie it is used on]

'That's certainly interesting,' Zain thought. 'This means I no longer have to look for Humans to turn them. I can just pick a zombie off the street. However, I still don't know if a zombie in my Horde were to die, will I permanently lose that spot?

'If so, it will be advantageous to have zombies of great power. Someone like Cobra. It makes me wonder if I could also tame one of the Stage 2 Zombies. Taming something like a Titan would be good to have as well.'

Since the Skill also had a level by its name, Zain assumed that he could level this Skill up the more he used it. So far, from the first reward card he had been given, he was impressed, but it was a gold card in the first place. Silver and Bronze cards would definitely have much less lacklustre rewards.

Just as he was musing over these thoughts, another system prompt appeared in front of him.

[New Quest received]

[Quest: Use the Tame Skill to tame one zombie into your Horde]

[Reward: Bronze card]

The System was just getting better by the second for Zain. There were so many things that he wanted to try out, including the weapon skills that he wanted to improve.

"Zain, are you okay?" Pink's voice pulled him out of his thoughts, "You have been staring off into space for a while now. Is there anything you're waiting for?"

Looking at the System and the current Quests he had, Zain decided on what to do next.

"Both of you need to get stronger, and it's the same for me as well," Zain stated. "Kun, I already taught you how to absorb the crystals. I want you to teach Pink the same. All of us are going to level up to the next stage. That way, if a demon comes and attacks us, they will be in for a nice surprise."

Hearing his words, Kun and Pink nodded. The Demon was very powerful, and they didn't have any doubts about that. Hence, getting stronger was the utmost priority for them.

Both of them wanted enough strength to hold the ground on their own the next time they encountered the Demon.

On the other hand, Zain was thinking about something else.n0𝒱𝑒𝐋𝔲𝓢𝕓.𝐜0𝓜

'If this is what a Gold Card gives me, I wonder what a Diamond Card's reward will be.'

Day by day, Zain's gaming instincts were kicking in. He wanted to collect them all, rise to the top and be the best of the best.

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A few minutes later, the group stepped out of the club and walked through the city streets once again. Even though the number of zombies was still huge, the density of zombies was now far less, and their numbers had decreased a lot when compared to the state of the city a few days back.

"Shouldn't there be more zombies now? Do you guys have any idea what could be the reason behind this? Where are those zombies?" All three of them noticed the strangeness, and Pink asked the other two.

"I don't know. Maybe it's those demons. Maybe they are the ones killing the zombies?" Kun shrugged.

"It could also be that they are moving," Zain chipped in, "The zombies seem to be moving from place to place, but that could be because of lack of food as well. As in, there are not enough humans.

"We will have the same problem as well."

Before leaving, everyone had eaten the remainder of the flesh and the Brains to get their whole body function back to the peak. Unlike Shark, who was making them wait until the last moment, Zain knew that it affected their performance, and he needed the other two to be at their best.

If they were to run into humans this time around, well, it was safe to treat nearly everyone like an enemy.

For now, the group was headed back to Chinatown. Zain wanted to have a look at the weapons shop they had come across and hoped that there was a good strap and sheath to put his sword in.

While on the way there, though, they were frequently stopping.

"The one in the blue shirt." Zain pointed at a zombie with his sword.

"I guess it's my turn," Pink said as she ran forward and immediately jumped in the air, kicking the blue shirt zombie right in the head.

It was a strong hit, causing the zombie's head to crash against the ground, but it hadn't finished it off as it was attempting to get up. Before it could, though, she lifted up her leg and slammed her heel into the zombie's head, crushing its skull and killing it instantly.

Straight after, she used the knife she had on her that was strapped around her leg and stabbed the zombie. After a few seconds, she took out a crystal from the zombie's corpse.

"Good, it's Skittle and Cobra's turn next," Zain said.

While walking toward Chinatown, Zain was using his system to find every mutated zombie they could. Then, they would each take out the Zombies in turns. And whoever killed the zombie would keep the crystal.

After every hour, the group would find a place to rest, and that would also be the time when they would absorb the crystals. Pink was a quick learner, just like Kun, and the two of them said they could feel their bodies getting stronger.

So far from observing them, there were no drastic changes to their bodies, but they had only been consuming the small basic crystals. Still, Zain was also trying to get both Skittle and Cobra to level up as well.

If they took out the zombie together, they would both gain exp, including Zain. However, Zain would also fight a few mutated Zombies on his own, as he was trying to also get his Sword Mastery skill up.

Regardless of how much he used his sword though, it was going up incredibly slow for each zombie he had killed. He imagined it was because it took little effort and skill to kill them.

While walking through one of the streets, a mutated Zombie ran towards him, and in a single strike, he cut the zombie's head clean off.

The others stared in amazement upon seeing this skill. They were now getting used to Zain doing new things and things that they could never do or understand. It was to the point where they stopped asking questions.

'To think that these Mutated Zombies had given me a bit of trouble at some point.' Zain smirked.

[Horde member 'Skittle' has levelled up!]

[A skill point has been granted]

Ever since Skittle had gained the intelligence stat, his fighting ability had improved a little. He would no longer just charge in with his arms held forward. He was now throwing punches and would also try to avoid certain attacks.

Still, there was a lot of improvement to be made, and it didn't seem like he could use weapons as Cobra could. For now, Zain was sticking to his original plan.

[Strength: 12]

He would continue to increase Skittle's strength. There was something quite humorous about giving such a small guy the power of a titan, and someday he felt like he would be able to use that to his advantage.

The group had walked through half of Chinatown and soon reached the store where Kun and Shark had found weapons last time. Suddenly, Pink had a bad feeling about this, and she hoped this would be the last time they would have to come here.

In the weapons room, there was more than the Pink and Zain had expected. It made them wonder what exactly this place was used for. It didn't take long for Zain to find the strap that he could attack around his belt, which let him put the sword on his side rather than his back.

He then was able to place a bag on his back for supplies that they possibly needed. On top of that, he also put a knife belt around his waist, with numerous small knives and daggers he could use in case of emergency.

As for Pink, she had found a particular pair of boots. They had a trigger that allowed one to kick and activate a small blade to come out from the heel and toe sole. Since Pink had been a taekwondo student for a while, she was good with her legs, and this was the perfect weapon for her.

As for Kun, he grabbed some ninja stars, as well as two long curved blades that looked similar to sickles. According to him, he was an all-rounder in the first place.

n0𝒱𝓮𝗅𝓊𝓢𝑏.𝑪0𝐦

After gathering everything, they were free to leave the room, but just then, something scurried across the floor.

"ARGHH! There's something on my leg!" Kun shouted as he kicked and screamed.

When they turned around to look at it, the thing turned out to be a dog. It mainly had brown fur with a white pattern around its neck.

"Is that...a corgi?" Zain asked, not helping or alarmed by the situation.

Eventually, the dog was knocked off by Kun as he kicked it with its other foot. It went off in the distance but quickly got up again, and now they had a good look at it.

Its mouth was completely red with blood, and its eyes were hollowed out in a grey colour. This wasn't just a normal dog but a zombie dog.

[You have discovered a Mutated Zombie dog]

Kun was so angry he was ready to kill the little thing because the bite made several holes through his ankle, but before he could do anything, Zain stopped him.

"Move, this Zombie dog is mine." Zain smiled.

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If the strange virus was causing humans to act like zombies, then there was also a chance that it could affect the animals as well. Not always were diseases and viruses transferable from different species of animals, but it seemed like it was the case here.

"They say a dog is a man's best friend, so it's only right that you join our group!" Zain stated, as he put his sword away. In this fight and match up, he didn't want to hurt his new companion.

Watching all of this go on, Kun was a bit annoyed, as he held his ankle.

"Damn that dog, now I'm going to have to eat more flesh for this to heal!"

The other Reborn Zombies were able to heal wounds, broken bones and such just like Zain. The only difference was that they needed to consume flesh each time and allow for their bodies to naturally heal somewhat like a human.

The healing process was a lot faster than for a human, it would take an hour or so at most to heal even a broken arm, but it was nothing compared to Zain's healing speed, and he didn't need to eat flesh unless his energy had completely been depleted.

"GRRR!!" The dog parted its lips, baring its teeth towards Zain, but he wasn't afraid, instead he was just focused.

"Come at me!" Zain shouted.

Immediately, the dog started running forward at a fast speed, then when it was close enough, Zain moved to the side, rolling out of the way. However, the dog was quick to turn, and leapt up again, straight towards Zain.

'This is going to be harder than I thought without hurting it. Guess there is only one thing I can do.'

When seeing the dog open up its mouth, rather than hitting the dog, or avoiding the bite once again. Zain shoved his forearm right into the dog's mouth. It clamped down hard and blood started to pour down Zain's forearm.

The others watching flinched, but they quickly realized that Zain felt no pain, it was just their memories of what it would have felt like were embedded into their heads.

"Why did Zain even let the dog bite him? I mean, I know he won't turn but was there a need to take a bite?" Pink asked, confused, and the next scene had confused them even more.

Lifting the dog up in the air, it hung onto Zain's arm, and then opening his own mouth he bit down on the dog's front paws.

"What the!" Kun said in shock. "Zain have you gone mad? Or are you just retaliating by biting the dog back."

[Tame skill has been activated]

It was none of those things, it was simply the requirement that was needed for him to complete his tame. Although according to the system there was always a chance it wouldn't work out.

Once again, there was a strange feeling in Zain's teeth. It was almost as if when he bit into something, he could feel something flowing out from his teeth. A strange sensation that is somewhat similar to one urinating themselves.

The dog's grip started to loosen, but Zain was still waiting for something, and that's when the familiar noise dinged in his head.

[You have successfully Tamed 'Mutated Zombie Dog']

[Would you like to keep the name 'Mutated Zombie Dog?']

Its grip had loosened and the dog fell to the ground, it then sat there as it looked up at Zain with its large eyes.

"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Pink asked.

"I think… Zain just tamed that dog, is that what he meant earlier?" Kun replied.

When they were with Shark, the others had tried a few things themselves or at least Shark had. He had stated that once someone was a Zombie, they were unable to eat their flesh to gain energy from it and it had no effect on them if they were to bite them.

However, it was clear Zain knew quite a few things. n0𝗏𝞮𝗅𝚞𝓈𝑏.𝒸0𝗆

Bending down, Zain looked at the Corgi Dog's face. He could see that it had quite the large white mane making it look somewhat like a lion, but all over its face, it was covered in a red colour. It was clear it was blood and had dyed a lot of the dog's fur.

"Let's call you Jam." Zain said.

['Mutated Zombie dog' has been renamed to 'Jam']

[Jam has successfully been tamed and is now a member of your horde]

[3/15]

[Quest update]

[Form your horde]

[3/10]

[Reward: Silver Card]

It was as Zain thought, taming zombies was also a way to bring them into his horde. Which meant there was no need to go around looking for humans. However, at the moment, a larger group would attract more attention.

'Maybe there is something that I can do… I just need to see first.'

[Horde Member Jam]

[Level 1]

[Strength: 1]

[Agility: 1]

[Vitality: 1]

[Intelligence: 2]

'Jam has better stats than I imagined.' Zian thought. 'It's not quite at the level of a super human, but it certainly is decent and with its intelligence, it should be able to follow quite complicated orders then.'

When looking at Skittle, it was strange to think that his starting stats were worse then this dog. It was either due to the fact the dog was special, or just Skittle was incredibly weak.

"Alright everyone, welcome the newest member to the group, Jam." Zain introduced, and showed that it could do a few tricks.

Saying words like, sit, stay, roll over, jump, and bite. All of these commands seemed to work, but when Kun tried them, the dog just sat there doing nothing. It seemed only Zain was the one that was able to control the dog.

"What do we do now?" Kun asked. "Now that we got our weapons sorted."

"You guys, continue hunting for the crystals and clear the streets, as for me, I got to complete something I was given a long time ago. I'm going to form my horde." Zain smiled.

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The group had left Chinatown since there was a lack of mutated zombies there and headed into the outskirts of the City until they found a residential area. An area where the land is predominantly used for housing apartment buildings, as opposed to industrial and commercial areas.

These places usually also have a large open central area with a park, a kindergarten and a few basic utility shops here and there. The idea of the housing here was to build a community where everyone could live.

Since this place was away from the main streets, there were fewer zombies, but there was still plenty for them to fight against.

At the moment, Pink and Kun were just fighting against any zombies they came across. Unfortunately, Zain seemed to be busy doing his own thing, so he was unable to tell them which were mutated zombies and which zombies were just regular ones.

Once in a while, they would come across a crystal, and while one absorbed the power of the crystal, the other would protect the former. Just in case anything was to take place. Still, they couldn't help but try to figure out what Zain was doing.

Zain was still looking for Mutated Zombies, but instead of killing them, he was trying to Tame them, just like he had done with Jam. Eventually, he did find one, and after twisting its arm and getting Skittle to hold the other, Zain bit down on the zombie's neck just like he had done with Jam.

[Taming has failed]

[You can try again after another hour.]

'That's interesting, so there's a cooldown on this, and I can try taming it again after one hour. But I don't want to waste that much time on something like this.' Zain thought as he ordered all three to get rid of it, giving Zain and every one of them more Exp.

Continuing this, Zain eventually found another Mutated Zombie and did the same thing. This time the system message was a positive one.

[You have successfully tamed a Mutated Zombie]

[Would you like to give it a name?]

"Five."

The reason Zain had called the Zombie five was simple. It was because it was the fifth member of the horde.

[Mutated Zombie: Five]

[Level 1]n0𝑣𝔢𝑙𝐮𝑠𝑏.𝗰0𝗆

[Strength: 0]

[Agility: 0]

[Vitality: 0]

[Intelligence: 0]

'That makes me feel a bit better about Skittle since the mutated Zombies seem to start at 0 as well. Meaning regular zombies are pretty much just cannon fodder. Anyway, I need to test something.'

Making the others follow him, Zain headed into one of the buildings. Upon reaching the entrance on the ground floor, Zain stopped and waited for the others. The other four also stopped upon reaching his side as Zain gave all of them the command to stay.

After a while, Zain stepped forward and began to run towards the other end of the area. He continued to run, and two to three kilometers later, when he had reached the other side of the apartment area, he ordered them to come towards him. He wanted to observe the time they would take or if they could even receive his order since the distance he had run would easily take about thirty minutes to cover by walking.

He waited and waited, and the first one to turn up out of them all was Cobra. Behind him was Jam, running with its tongue out, and at last, were Skittle and the mutated Zombie, both of them reached together.

'I guess this was as expected. Since Cobra is the fastest out of all of them for him to come first, I was hoping they would come as a group so they could each protect each other.' Zain thought. 'The good news is that the commands through the system can work no matter how far I am.

'However, more complicated commands need to be communicated through words, which they can understand depending on their intelligence. This is good...this can work, but there is just one more thing I need to try.'

Pulling out his sword, Zain slashed the Mutated Zombie in front of him. It was a clean strike that cut through the bones and sliced the zombie into two.

[You have attacked a member of your own horde]

['Five' Has died.]

[-100 Exp]

Zain nodded his head at this.

Killing a Mutated Zombie would do nothing, but if one was a member of his own horde, it would count as friendly fire, so Zain felt it was reasonable for him to lose Exp in the process of this, but there was a bigger reason why he did this.

He needed to see if the number of his horde would go back down to [4/15]

The system wasn't clear, so it was either he could turn up to 15 people or control 15 Zombies at one time.

If he could only turn 15 people, then Zain needed to be picky about who he decided to turn, and it would be best to create a team of Superhumans. However, if it was the latter, then Zain could create his horde right now and complete his quest.

At the same time, he could give them all the command to stay in an apartment, calling on them only when he needed them, allowing him to still be discreet with his current group.

[4/15 Horde Members]

'This...is perfect.' Zain smiled.

Now, all he had to do was put his plan into action.

On the first floor, Zain emptied an apartment, and every time he turned into a mutated Zombie, Zain brought it into the apartment block to keep all of them in one place. Slowly, the numbers rose, and he named each of them based on the number they joined the group.

Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, and at last, Zain also managed to tame the tenth zombie.

[Quest complete]

[Form your horde: 10/10]

[You have received Silver Card]

After bringing the last zombie into the apartment, Zain stepped out and opened his system to look at the Silver card.

'Now let's see what I get this time.'

[Would you like to use the silver card?]

[Yes] [No]

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Zain had received the Tame skill from the gold card and was quite satisfied with it. However, he wasn't sure what to expect from a Silver Card. In a way, his hopes weren't too high due to it being a lower-tier card. After taking a deep breath, he bet on his luck and used the Silver Card.

[You have used the Silver Card]

[Reward: You have gained 5000 exp]

At first, Zain thought the reward was quite lacklustre, but he soon realised the quest had been pending for a long time, and he should have expected these rewards since he had delayed the quest long enough. If he had finished the quest earlier, such a large amount of EXP would have boosted him a few levels allowing him to get a better head start, still it had done him well now as well.

[Congratulations! You are now level 6]

[Level 6]

[3,513/17,721 exp]

,m The amount of exp he needed to reach the next level was much a lot more. It had already taken Zain a relatively long time to reach Level 6. However, he knew games worked this way, and as he levels up and gets stronger, he would easily be able to hunt the Stage 2 Zombies without any trouble.

As for the stat point he gained for levelling up, he already knew where he needed to add the stat.

[Agility: 01]

After losing the fight in the strange place within the dream, Zain knew his speed was lacking. Even in this world where he was somewhat of a superhuman, he felt he would be too slow to deal with that Stage 2 Zombie.

On top of that, he wanted to make his own character quite balanced while those around him would continue to raise their powers in specialised strengths.

Now that the quest was over, Zain decided to head back to the others to see how they were doing. To his surprise, the other two had pretty much cleared out the area.

Both Pink and Kun had killed nearly all the zombies in the area, and Zain saw them tired for the first time, but they weren't resting. Instead, they were wrapping sliced human flesh in plastic bags and containers and carrying it around behind them.

It was as if they had stopped to have a picnic in the middle of everything going on. Zain soon reached them, along with Jam, Cobra and Skittle.

'There is no need for me to tell them about my zombie horde in the apartment and the fact that I can control them at will. I don't want to make them rely on me too much, or else they might start slacking and delay their evolution. They must get stronger to survive in this world.'

"You have returned? Are you done with your work? Here, have some food." Kun noticed Zain and offered some meat, handing over a plastic tub. Soon, the three of them took a break and started to eat their fill.

Before, they would look away when eating from each other, but as the days went by, it was becoming more of a common thing for them, and they were getting more comfortable with eating human flesh next to each other.

"I was just thinking, maybe what Shark said about the brains wasn't true? Maybe we can live without them?" Pink said. "There will be plenty of bodies, and if the world gets back to normal, can't we just live off eating those that have died recently?"

Pink was thinking extremely far into the future, but that was normal because she was thinking of the end, which many people do in this type of situation. They never adjust to the new world nor think that what they have now will be their world forever.

"He didn't lie," Zain answered. "We must face the fact that for our survival, we have to get rid of humans no matter what. There's a chance there are more people like us out there.

"If that is the case, then think about it, when we are stronger, we feel no pain, we don't get tired, and we can even continue to grow stronger with each other. So won't we become a species stronger than humans?

"Do you think humans will ever be able to accept us the way we are now? No, in the future, it will get worse, and they will attempt to eliminate every single one of us, which is why I want to tell you all something right now for your own survival.

"Attack before asking questions. That's how we have to live in this world."

Zain got up and started to put the plastic tubs away in the bag as they were getting ready to move.

"Then why did you go to that hairdresser?" Pink asked.

For a second, Zain paused. Before leaving Chinatown, Zain had told them there was one place that he wished to visit. It was the hairdressers. When he went inside, he searched the place and went to the back room, but there was no one.

For a second, both Kun and Pink saw it, but there was a smile. Although Zain always acted as if he was void of all emotion and feeling, that just didn't seem accurate.

"Where are you looking for your family? Was it someone you knew?" Pink asked.

n0𝒱𝓮𝗅𝓊𝓢𝑏.𝑪0𝐦

Hearing the word family, Zain touched the top of his head and looked down.

"They were-- "

But before he could answer, a loud humming noise came from above. Then, looking at the sky through the apartment buildings, they saw a plane, and not just that, the plane was dropping down what looked like care packages.

[New quest received]

[Reach the care package before anyone else]

[Bronze card reward]

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Quickly, Zain exited the apartment complex area and saw multiple military-style aeroplanes dropping off several care packages in different areas. Not just around the city but also in the suburban areas outside of the city as well.

'This means the military hasn't completely failed to control this situation. Perhaps the military bases are still safe places for people to be, regular people at least.' Zain thought.

"What is in those large crates?" Pink asked.

"Most likely food, water, supplies, medicine, and…weapons," Kun answered. "It's standard for the military to do this in times of war or when a country is supporting a resistance of some sort, without really showing that they are supporting the group.

"Essentially, by doing this, they are trying to give the people hope, but it also means you're on your own."

When Kun spoke these words, one could tell it was something he had experienced personally, and it wasn't just a guess. Kun had seen it all after working in an organisation that had close ties with the military.

"Should we go towards it then? Maybe there will be something that we can use." Pink suggested.

Both Kun and Zain turned, giving her a disappointing look.

"Don't forget what we are," Zain stated. "The only thing that could be useful to us is probably the weapons. Still, giving normal people weapons might just send this whole place into even bigger chaos. I need some time to decide on this."

There was one thing that interested Zain, and it was the quest. However, the award didn't seem too great. A Bronze Card was probably something not much, even worth less than 5000 Exp, so if he were to lose out on this one, it wouldn't really be a loss for him. However, that also meant giving humans the advantage of getting their hands on guns.

"I'm guessing both of you will now be busy absorbing the crystal you gathered, right? I think it's best if you finish that before we move any further, I'll get Cobra and Skittle to keep you company. I won't be far."

Agreeing to this, the two of them went into a convenience store across the street to absorb the crystals. While they were busy, Zain stayed on the street just outside, ordering Jam to continue attacking the mutated zombies, with him finishing them off, but rather than using his sword, Zain was throwing a small knife at them towards their heads.

After killing a few mutated Zombies, two things happened.

[Dagger Mastery is now level 1]

[Now you have unlocked three different weapons mastery, Dagger, Sword and Handgun mastery.]

n0𝒱𝓮𝗅𝓊𝓢𝑏.𝑪0𝐦

[Undead Mutated Zombie dog 'Jam' is now level 2]

[Stat point has been used on Intelligence]

[Intelligence: 23]

Jam's intelligence was already high, and Zian wanted to see what exactly one could do with high intelligence. He was hoping that he could give Jam complex orders and maybe even use him to track down things.

Dogs had a better sense of smell compared to humans. However, after turning into a zombie, the sense of smell for humans would increase greatly, so he imagined that something similar must have happened with Jam as well, and the heightened sense of smell would make it so they would never have to worry about finding humans again.

Back inside the shop, Zain checked up on the two who were sitting down. Intense energy was coming off from both Kun and Pink's bodies, to the point where it looked like steam was coming out from their heads.

Their skin colour had also changed slightly, making it look more like Zian's. Although it was pale, it wasn't to the point where one would instantly think they were undead.

"This is amazing," Pink said, taking a deep breath. "I can't believe it. These crystals really do make us feel stronger, I can tell."

Standing up, Pink started to do some kicks in the air. They were fast and swift kicks. One could tell that these were from a trained person, and as she continued to kick the air, she soon noticed the shop wall in front of her.

Spinning on her leg, she threw her other leg and performed a spinning back kick. As it hit the wall, the whole shop shook upon impact, and a large crack formed on the wall.

'They've both evolved…that has to be it.' Zain thought. 'But is there a specific path they have chosen? Is it like me, if it was the case, I would guess that Pink was the Agro-type evolution path, but what about Kun?'

"Did you see that? I think if I kick a Titan with this, it would definitely fall over." Pink excitedly said. "Kun, what about you? It looks like you have changed as well."

Kun was clenching and unclenching his fist a few times. Finally, he stood up and threw out a punch, but it looked the same as it always did, and it didn't feel any different either.

"I'm not sure...if I have changed. I mean, I can feel that the crystals worked on me, that's for sure, but I'm not a natural fighter like you. Will getting stronger make much of a difference?"

"It's okay," Zain stated. "Remember, everything is for survival, so even if your body is a little bit stronger than before, it will be for the best. Anyway, with the way the two of you look right now, all we need is some clothes to cover you up a bit."

Zain pointed to Kun's mouth and Pink's legs, where both had wounds.

"Wait, why do you want to cover us up?" Kun asked.

"Because we'll be going to those care packages where there will be people. We need the element of surprise on our side."

Just as Zain finished those words, they suddenly heard distant gunshots.

All three of them frowned upon hearing the noise. They knew that if humans got their hands on the weapons, it might get much harder.

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It was natural for humans to gather up and take hold in certain places, and in the last few days, one group had done quite well to protect itself. On one of the buildings on the main streets, there were giant pillars and sandbags put together to create barriers.

Leading up to the place was a giant staircase giving the group advantage of height over whatever was to come their way. The place that they had chosen for their protection was a museum.

It was a large area with plenty of stages, a gift shop, and even a restaurant inside. Although many wouldn't think of it as the best place to create a base, it had worked well for them. As for those who were inside, their numbers were in the hundreds.

Walking in the main hall were two males, one of them was a blonde man with a large scar going across his chin and had cut part of his lip. He was wearing a suit, and as he walked through the hallway, people would wave and greet him as he passed by.

"Thank you for all your help, Ryan!"

"Thank you for taking us in, Ryan!"

The people continued to praise the man who was known as Ryan Cook and was the leader at the current base of operations. Before the zombie apocalypse, he was the head of one of the biggest electronic companies in the city.

When speaking to others, he had this natural presence around him, and on top of that, he also had multiple resources at his disposal. Ryan always had this fear that world war three would be around the corner, so he had a large stock of food, among other things.

Due to this information, and only Ryan having access to it, from time to time, he and a strong force could go to one of these storage facilities and bring back food and more for the others to enjoy.

It was a safety net for the others that were here. He was providing for them, so they were happy to comply and oblige to his orders.

Standing by his side was a man with sunglasses covering his eyes, a gun strapped around his waist and was wearing a S.W.A.T. uniform.

"Give me a report on the current situation, Brandon," Ryan asked, while he continued to wave and eventually sat down on a round table in the canteen eating area.

"We have kept an eye on several dangerous groups that are in the area," Bradon stated. "In the city alone, there are around four. Although there are more groups than that, we are unable to determine whether they are willing to cooperate or not."

The current group at the base they were in comprised of a S.W.A.T. team, a few police force officers and general people from the public with all sorts of different skills. Brandon was a squad leader who was close friends with the Mayor, which was why the two had managed to come out of the situation and join forces together.

One had resources, great charisma and a face that people trusted, while the other would be the one to do all the dirty work behind the scenes, and Ryan was well aware that Brandon was a man who was capable of doing that.

"We have made a note of the care packages sent by the military and have sent groups out to collect them. However, in order to keep this place safe as well from attack, we have had to keep the main of our attack force here. So I'm not sure how they will fare with the task." Brandon explained.

"Most of the ones you sent out are strong university students, correct? Well, they have the basic weapons on them. All should be okay unless they haven't been sent to collect the care packages in other areas." Ryan replied.

"On other news, one of the dangerous groups that we were following seems to have been completely annihilated."

Hearing this, Ryan raised an interested eyebrow. Groups had set up fake territory lines and would attack anyone who had come close with a warning or so, but there had yet to be a complete fight between any of these groups.

Of course, these were just the ones they knew about.n0𝑣𝔢𝗅𝑢𝑠𝕓.𝑐0𝑀

"Our scouts around Chinatown have reported that the Cobra gang has suddenly gone missing, and many of the gang members' dead bodies have been found."

Although the Cobra gang didn't have a large number of people, Ryan knew that they were fierce. There were two reasons for not doing anything. For one, if they attacked the latter, they would lose quite a lot of their fighters in the process, and the second reason they would be seen as an aggressive group themselves.

Maybe the others that had been silent so far would step in.

"What has the world come to? What and where is the military doing, or do they just want us to kill each other?" Ryan commented but wasn't expecting an answer. There was a time when he believed that money was power and that he would know everything, but he knew nothing of this, nothing of what was going on right now, and it was the same for his friend Brandon.

The S.W.A.T. team wasn't aware of anything that was going on, and there was no communication to them from the military or the government. It was as if the latter were telling everyone that they were on their own, and that's why they needed to act on their own.

"I think it might be best if you follow not too far behind the care packages closest to Chinatown. There could be a strong group of people that we don't know about yet."

Brandon smiled hearing this.

"Maybe... I'll get the chance to see something special again."

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Zain and his group had decided to move out, but while on the way, Zain was cautious with his followers. Although the small dog was easy to hide and perhaps easy for him to order to run away, the same couldn't be said for Cobra and Skittle.

This was why Zain would tell them to stay still every once in a while, walking ahead, and they were also walking on the streets where there were more Zombies rather than on the roads. The unique Zombie didn't want to be too far away from his friends; he didn't want to lose them, but it was the safest way to act.

The group had decided to head to the closest care package that they had seen, but when they arrived, they were in for quite a shock. From a distance, they could see that the lid of it was already open.

Getting closer, Pink carefully placed her foot as she tipped her head inside.

"It's empty. It looks like someone got here before us." Pink turned around, telling the rest of them.

"You think, or did you just happen to miss the pile of dead bodies that you walked past," Kun replied.

While Kun went to check on the large crate, Zain went down to inspect the bodies, trying to figure out who had exactly done this because, from a glance, it didn't seem like a work of Zombies or a demon.

The wounds were mostly blunt, and the bodies had yet to be eaten as well by those that were nearby. In fact, there were quite a few Zombies killed in the area as well.

"My guess is that two groups had gone after the car package and ended up like this," Zain stated. "It had to be recent as well because some of the zombies are only coming over now. Let's take what we can from these bodies and move forward."

The others knew what Zain meant. A few of them seemed to have their brains intact since they were killed by humans.

"I have some bad news for you as well. It looks like you were right. Judging by these boxes, the military also supplied the others with weapons as well." Kun remarked, which spelt trouble.

After gathering whatever they found useful, the group decided to continue to move forward to the next location. When the care packages had landed, the smoke had also lit up from them in the sky, informing everyone of where they were.

They could see that there was one not too far away as well.

"So why are we travelling by foot?" Pink asked.

"Noise," Zain replied. "The noise will attract more Zombies to the area. Unless a group is confident that they can get somewhere, hold the place for a few minutes and get out, it is unlikely anyone will use a vehicle in these built-up areas. Besides, it's easier for us to move compared to them."

"What makes you say that?" Pink asked.

"Maybe you haven't noticed it, but if you were a human, all of these Zombies that are just wandering about in the street would be going after them. They have to be careful in their movement, whereas we can go directly to the place."

As expected, it didn't take long for Quinn and his group to reach the area of the car package, and once again, Cobra and Skittle were left behind.

"GRRRR!" Jam started to crawl as they got closer.

"I guess you really can smell them before we can." Zain smiled.

When Zain's group was around a hundred metres from the car package on the other side, they could see a group of around eight people with makeshift weapons in their hands. Zain and the others had covered up their markings with clothes so as not to attract too much attention, but the moment the human group noticed their presence, they started to run toward the care package.

"There are others here!" A female shouted to the other group, and they were all running as fast as they could.

p This was a reaction that Zain wasn't expecting, and the other group was much closer to the crates. Even with Zain running forward, the others had slid the lid of the case and immediately picked out what looked like a machine gun.

"Shoot them, shoot!" One of the men shouted.

The female pulled out the gun and went to aim it right toward the others, but when she did, she failed to see that Zain was now right by her side. The sword was in his hand and had been swung down.

The strength and speed had cut right through her hands, causing her to drop the gun, but before it fell to the ground, Zain had caught the gun and placed the knife right in front of the other female that had helped with the weapon.

"Ahhh! my hands!" The woman screamed as blood continued to pour from her hands.

The others that had yet to reach the care package and were only a few metres away had attempted to come forward swinging their weapons. However, Zain easily whacked the crowbars away just with the sword.

Then with another, he stabbed them right through the thigh, causing them to fall to the ground. To them, they felt like they stood no chance, as Zain was too strong, too fast and was like a master swordsman.n0𝑣𝔢𝗅𝑢𝑠𝕓.𝑐0𝑀

Seeing him take out three of them so quickly, the others stopped their attack.

"Hey, why are you attacking us?" The man asked. "We're all human here. Why don't we share the content of the care package together."

"Share?" Zain replied back. "You were planning to take the guns out and kill me. Do you think I'm an idiot?"

The woman behind him with his hands continued to scream in pain, and she soon felt a sword being placed right on her shoulder.

"Shut up, or I will shut you up for good."

Seeing this scene, Pink and Kun realised that Zain was dead serious about this... he had already decided that he wasn't on the side of humans and would do anything to ensure his own survival.

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"What are you doing!" The other woman who was knelt down by the side of her friend said. There was sweat running down her face and her heart was thumping loudly because when looking into the eyes of Zain, she felt like she was somewhat looking at a madman.

"If we don't get her treated, then she will die from blood loss!" Ripping part of her shirt she was starting to wrap and tie them around her friend's wounds, but honestly, she didn't know how much that was going to help. "Don't worry when we go back to the base, the doctor will look after you, I'll do whatever I can to make him treat you."

The woman continued to sob as she looked at her hands, the hands she could see on the floor, but seeing them again, the shock of everything was starting to make her squeal even more. The build up in her cries was getting worse, and eventually, she started to scream once more.

"AHHHH!" The women screamed, and Zain could see that it was attracting unwanted attention from those nearby.

"AHHH!' the woman continued to scream, but eventually, it completely stopped. "Kuk...ku."

Sound was attempting to come out from her throat, but nothing was working, and she could feel a slight warm trickle coming down her neck. When attempting to move her head there was a slight dull pain and seconds later she could see the tip of the sword right through her neck. She didn't last long after that as her vision went black and her head fell down slightly.

Pulling out the sword, Zain flicked it, throwing the blood off, and held it firmly in his hand.

"What are you doing, you killed her!" The woman shouted and went to go toward Zain in anger, who quickly pointed the sword toward her now. She had stopped with the tip now just touching her neck.

"You attempted to shoot us, and then you failed to listen when I said to shut her up and now you are doing the same thing," Zain explained. "If you make noise, then we will all die! Don't any of you understand that after living in this new world for so long?"

At the moment, Zain was thinking back to his games. It was crucial to not make a lot of noise, especially in the city where they were surrounded by enemies which is why he said his next phrase.

"If this was a game you would all be dead," Zain stated.

In the game world, Zain would have no problems killing a human for him to survive, because in the games he liked to play, death meant restarting from the ground up. However, he knew the stakes were even higher here.

All of sudden, Zain's sword had been kicked out the side and it was so powerful that it made his whole arm move. When turning his head to look at who had done such a thing, he realized that it was Pink of all people.

"There were other ways you could have dealt with the situation!" Pink said with her face scrunched up, her heart hurting. "You keep talking like this, saying it's a game but this isn't a game, the people you are hurting... you are hurting in real life. They have family, they have people that care for them."n0𝚟𝗲𝒍𝐔𝓈𝐛.𝐂0𝗆

Once again, Zain felt a slight pain in his head, and pulled the sword down, holding the back of his head. It was then that the group took the chance to run away.

"We will remember you!" The men shouted as they led the others away. "The doctor won't be happy with this!"

After that, the other group left, leaving the supplies behind.

"I'm... sorry Zain," Pink said. "I know you mean well for us, I just."

Thinking about the situation kept making Pink think about her family. Her mother and father were still out there somewhere at least she hoped, and it was likely they were with one of these groups of people.

Zain for a second looked at the dead body on the floor.

"If she had gotten that gun then she would have shot us all, and it's been a long time since I've had to think about family."

Not wasting resources, Zain proceeded to do the dirty work. With the life he had just taken, he needed their brain and flesh and proceeded to put them in plastic tubs. They would only stay fresh for a few days without a fridge or freezer lowering their effectiveness, but it was still better than having nothing.

At the same time, Kun and Pink decided to go through the box of supplies that had been dropped. There were several tins, packs of food, and dry food as well as other things. They had decided to only take a small amount since it wasn't what they needed and leave it for the others who would find the crate.

There was an automatic machine gun, as well as two handguns inside. Pink had kept the two handguns while Kun took the automatic machine gun and aimed it carefully... he looked to know how to use the gun quite well.

"It was part of our training or did you forget I was an agent, but like Zain says, it's best we don't use these things unless we really have to," Kun replied.

On top of that, there were first aid supplies as well as plenty of medicine of all sorts inside the crate as well. They would be taking all of this for now. Not for themselves but Kun believed that it may come in handy in the future, at least for trading.

While packing the supplies up, Pink looked at Zain behind Kun.

"Do you think Zain is okay?" Pink asked. "I mean, I understand why he did the things he did, and it makes sense, but he seems to be detached from the world."

"That's why we need him." Kun replied. "I've seen the look in his eyes, and in the military in the Reborn group, there were guys that I saw that were just like him. You should just be happy that he's on our side. Could you imagine if he was human?"

An image appeared in Pink's head, of Zain fighting Zombies, chasing after them being ruthless not giving them a single chance, and if Zain had met the Reborn group as a human, he would have done everything in his power to get rid of them.

"I guess you're right." Pink laughed. "But I think I might have noticed a trigger of some sort to stop him."

Kun didn't ask further about this, because he had noticed it as well. Whenever anyone mentioned his past, or mentioned the world family, it seemed like Zain's mood had reacted differently. Zain had the right to keep his past to himself, but it made Kun wonder.

If Zain was telling the truth about him being a student, then what life did he live to be able to be this way, to be able to make decisions that most would hesitate with at the snap of his fingers?

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Just then, a few growls were heard from Jam. Zain had told Jam to stay close by but to hide behind some of the destroyed cars while the confrontation was going on, and he was a good mark for when other humans were coming.

Rather than using the sword, Zain placed it away and pulled out his hand gun instead, pointing it in the direction where Jam was growling towards.

'Is it the group we just chased off, have they come with reinforcements?'

Seven students could be seen coming toward them, and they were holding onto melee weapons but had nothing else on their body. Most of them looked around Zain's age but there were a couple of older ones.

"Hey there's a person pointing a gun at us, what do we do?" one of them asked as they froze standing in place.

"It looks like they got to the care package before us as well." Another complained.

"Are we going to be okay?" some of the girls worriedly said.

"Sorry, we don't want to fight." A young man with glasses at the front said. "We just came to see the care package and collect it, bringing it back together with us. Are you with any group?"

Seeing how the others had no guns on them, Zain placed his away so they wouldn't have their guard up so much.

"We are our own group, the Level Up group." Zain prepaid. "This is everyone."

The others looked at each other.

"I see, does that mean you really don't have a place to stay, we are a group of around 100. If you want, in return for letting us have some of the supplies you have there, we can bring you back. It would be safer if we were together, would it not?"

Zain thought about it for a while, these people didn't seem as aggressive as the last group that had come towards them, and by the sound of it 100 people was quite the large group in this type of situation. It meant that someone capable must be running it, and they must also have the power to make sure order is in place within their group.

"At least Zain is a bit calmer this time." Pink let out a breath of relief. "I thought that he might just shoot them all before he even let them speak."

"Zain is not that crazy," Kun replied. "I think."

"Zain, I don't think giving them some supplies from here is a bad idea." Kun replied. "Maybe if we meet them we can ask them some questions, and besides we don't really need it."

It was true, the medicine and food was useless to them, only the weapons were of interest, but it meant a lot to the humans. Someone in charge of a large group like so was most likely to know at least some details that they could piece together.

There was a large worry for Zain though, and that was the fact that they would be found out. As time went on they would be found. Right now he was weighing the gamble and trying to think what the best situation was.

"We won't agree to join your group just yet, but in return for some of the supplies, I ask for two things." Zain asked. "First, we have a meeting with your leader, so we can talk together, and second, we go to another care package that's in the area, and we get the first pick of what is out of the crate. We will still share it with you."

Kun was a bit surprised by the request form Zain, because they had no use to go to another care package, even if it was for more weapons, unless Zain just wanted a stronger bargaining position with this new group... he wasn't sure.

However, Zain's reasons for going to the crate were a lot more simpler than this. It was because he still had his quest to reach a care package before anyone else. It looked like just getting the items out of the care package wasn't enough and they needed to get to one first.

"Can I talk about it with the others first?' The man with glasses asked.

After getting the nod, he turned around to his group to discuss.

"Thats unfair, they get first pick at both of the crates. That means they will take all the weapons. We can't come back to the museum empty handed." One of them complained.

"I think it's less risky with them. They have weapons and guns and we don't. If there is another group in the area, then they will be able to help us. Besides it looks like they want to meet the leader anyway, so why not just go with them.

"They are a small group so they can't just hoard all of the weapons they find, so they will probably pass some onto us anyway."

Turning around, the leader of the small group, called Dave, pushed his glasses up on his nose and nodded.

"We agree!" Dave said. "It looks like your group isn't as aggressive as the others, so maybe it will be a nice bridge between us too."

Although Dave thought it was a bit strange to call three people a group, he didn't wish to offend the person.

"Feel free to take what's left of the crate and we will get a move on straight away." Zain ordered as he stepped to the side along with the others watching the whole group.

Dave and his team started to pile up the supplies into the bags they had, and that's when Dave had spotted something, near the crate on the floor, there was a dead body. The blood looked fresh, but flesh from the body and its head had been carved in.

'Did a Zombie do that?'Dave thought, but noticed the marking right through the neck, which caused him to gulp a little. 'Maybe we were a little too hasty.'

As the group came closer though, two towards the back turned to look at Pink, and suddenly.

"Sarah! Sarah it really is you!" the voice shouted, and immediately two of them came running right towards Pink.

As they embraced her in a large hug, she knew straight away who they were.n0𝗏𝖾𝐥𝗎𝓈𝒷.𝑐0𝗆

"Mum..Dad!" Pink sobbed as she hugged them both tightly.

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Zain's eyes stood up a little when he heard those words, dad and mum. The headache that he would get had come back once again, and it was worse than before. It hit the back of his head, to the point were his vision started to blur.

'Am I going to have another vision again… am I going to go back to that place, or will it be something else, like last time.' Zain thought.

The problem was, why now of all times, in front of all these people when they were just about to go on the move, Skittle and Cobra were still left in hiding on top of that as well. So even if they did move him, or Kun was to carry him, what about them two?

"She sure looks happy right? I never thought I would see a sight like that." Kun said as he placed his hands on Zain's shoulder. It was only then that he could feel the other was heavily breathing in deep breaths.

"Whoa, are you okay?" Kun asked, the breathing started to slow down, and the headache that Zain had went away as well. "Yeah I'm fine, I'm just worried that this is going to cause problems."

Zain didn't have to say anymore, because Kun felt the same way. With what Pink was right now, and what her parents were, she couldn't be herself, and she was unable to stay with them, at least not without hiding her secret which would also risk exposing their secret.

On top of that, Pink who was still emotional, and was unable to deal with the entire situation, she was the worst person to be put in this type of situation.

"Let's just let her enjoy this for now, and hey. Don't go stabbing them alright, you can just chill out for a second." Kun said. "I would hate for you two to get into a big argument, and if you really want to stab things there are plenty of undead walking around."

Zain smiled at the comment, it was nice to have someone like Kun who could joke to ease the tense situation.

n0𝓋𝖊𝑳𝗎𝓈𝔟.𝒸0𝗆

The group had gathered the leftover supplies and were ready to move again, Dave was leading the way, and also Kun and Zain were by his side. The young student who was leading the group felt safer this way, since the two of them had guns, and he didn't just in case they ran into something more dangerous.

Zain had asked Jam to follow them, but to do so by the side and slowly. Since Jam had a high level of intelligence he could do that with ease as well.

Meanwhile Pink travelled at the back with her parents, as they caught up on as much as they could. Pink ahd to make up some elaborate story about how she had survived, claiming it was due to the help of Zain and Kun.

In her stories she was making them out to be quite the warriors. The others nearby could hear Pink's stories as well and it was making them feel safer. When they looked at the two of them though, they felt like the stories had to be made up, because they couldn't imagine small people being able to do such things

"I see, so you met them when you went back to Chinatown to look for us, did you see Jasmine by any chance then." Her mother asked.

Pink's lips started to quiver, she was unsure what to say, and the scene repeated in her head, of her on the floor as a zombie being killed over and over.

"No," Pink replied with a painful smile she had to hide behind to say the next words. "I'm sure she is safe somewhere, just like you guys are."

——

"So, Zain right, you look quite young? Are you a student as well?" Dave asked.

"Yeah, I used to go to MT university," Zain replied.

"What no way, I went there as well. At the camp, there are quite a few survivors there, maybe you will know someone, or maybe someone will know you. I think this is a sign that your group should really join our camp." Dave cheerfully said.

Zain still wasn't sure if this person genuinely wanted them to join or to join just because of their weapons. Unlike the others as well, he seemed a bit more unafraid. The other students were cursing under their breath turning their heads at any noise that was made.

From what Zain had learned from Dave so far, several groups had been picked to go out scouting for the care packages that were dropped, and those that had been picked felt like they were the unlucky ones.

It had been a long time since Zain had talked to someone new, and it wasn't talking about zombies, so it made him relax a little. However, they had soon reached the crate in front of them.

It stayed there in the middle of the street, broken cars were scattered on the walkway, with one in front of the crate on its side. The lid was opened and there was no other group in sight.

"This is great!" One of the female members said.

Everyone got in closer, and passed the broken cars as they approached the crate. They were now a few meters away, and the female was ready to walk past and push it open.

"Wait!" Zain shouted at her. "Remember our deal. We get first pick of what is inside."

The woman wanted to complain, but when she saw that Zain had two hand guns on him, she didn't plan to argue, and just folded her arms in disappointment.

"Why don't you all just stop right there!" A deep male voice said.

Turning around, they could see a man with goggles covering his eyes, a scar across his cheek, and worst of all there was an automatic machine gun around his waist. Soon after they heard him, several clicks were heard, and from the shops on the side, and apartment buildings, there were several of them with guns all pointing toward their group.

"Damn it, it's a trap! That's why the box was left untouched." Kun complained.

Due to them travelling with humans they were unable to smell the fact that there were others and there was another thing that they noticed. They had also covered their bodies and clothes with the guts of the dead, blending in their smell even more.

'These guys are good, and they have a lot of weapons, they probably collected quite a few care packages already.'

"Alright listen up, if you want to live, then it would be best if you lis-" The man stopped his speech midway as he noticed something. "You, what are you doing? Do you want to die? I said don't move!"

The person who he was talking to, was none other than Zain who had decided to ignore him, and push the top lid of the care package open.

'I'm sorry, but I need to complete this quest.'

[Be the first to reach a care package]

[You have received a Bronze Card]

"I don't think pointing a gun at me is a smart idea," Zain said.

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With Zain being so close to his goal and a reward so close to him, he wasn't going to let it slip away. Which was why, while the crazy man was doing his monologue, Zain decided to push the crate open thus allowing him to complete his task, and in turn it had allowed him to receive a bronze card.n0𝓋𝖊𝑳𝗎𝓈𝔟.𝒸0𝗆

"Did you hear me!" The man shouted. "I said don't move unless you want your brains shot out from your head!"

Lifting his hands up, Zain slowly turned around and now was looking at all the people that were around them. The group of university students were frightened. They were shaking and had dropped their weapons on the ground.

"Everyone just stay calm," Dave said, trying to get a hold of the situation, but Zain could tell his voice was shaky and he truly feared the situation that he was in at the moment.

'These people, what do they want? They obviously could have just taken the contents of the care package before we reached here. It looks like this was set up way in advance.' Zain started to dart his eyeballs around the area.

There were two people on the second floor of the apartments on either side. One of them holding a handgun, the other what looked like a sniper rifle as well. Which meant they either found the weapons or there are different weapons in each crate.

Then on the ground floor, there were three on either side with hand guns, hiding in the shops or behind the cars as well. Still, based on the uniform and the way they were holding the guns, they looked somewhat like amateurs.

'That sniper rifle probably will have a lot of kickback, he most likely won't be able to hit his target, but then again there are a lot of people to hit. It will be the same with the handgun. I will be able to move fast enough, but not the rest… What is the best way to solve this?' Zain thought.

It went back to figuring out why these people had ambushed them, because if they really wanted their supplies as well, then they could have just killed them and gathered their belongings, unless it was due to them having somewhat of a heart, but Zain felt like it was unlikely based on the leader he was looking at… he had crazy eyes.

"Alright, so I want everyone to drop their belongings on the floor, and drop their weapons. I see a few of you have guns over there. Please don't try anything, otherwise, I'll have to shoot a bullet in your head." The man stated.

Kun looked at Zain, for confirmation, and so did Pink. The two of them didn't act straight away, because they were hoping Zain had some plan to get out of this. The thing was, guns were still a very dangerous thing for them.

One shot to the head, and they wouldn't be getting up again. When they saw Zain take both hand guns and place them on the floor, the others did the same as well, and eventually Zain had done the same with his sword as well.

'Let's see, while I'm doing this, let's have a look at that bronze reward shall we.' Zain thought.

After accepting the Bronze reward, Zain started to smile inwardly. This was more so a blessing than he thought, and he was somewhat happy that he had pushed the crate of that lid.

'I can see why this would be classified as a bronze reward, but to me right now, this is just as good as a gold reward.' Zain thought.

"Alright, I'm happy to see that you are all listening to our orders. You guys are loyal little sheep which is what we like to see! The name is War, you should remember if from now on, as the days go past you will all learn to curse the name under your breaths as you follow me back to camp." Opening his mouth, his teeth showed as he smirked. "As you all become loyal slaves."

Zain had predicted that this might be the reason. A wild group like this, with high power of weapons. In this type of world, they would force those to work with them.

"Slaves… what do they mean by that?" The girl said.

The men on the side started to lick their lips and cheer, as they looked at the women.

"Don't worry pretty darling, I promise I won't go so rough on you, but I can't promise what the others at the camp will do!" a man said.

"As long as you spread your legs. You can live quite a comfortable life at ours." another commented.

The sheer look of horror had set in for the females as they dropped down to the ground and on their knees. They had it so well at the museum and now it had turned to this, just from one simple mission, and who could possibly be here to save them?

"Alright, everyone take off your clothes, and check for bite marks!" War shouted, "We don't want anyone turning on us."

Once again, Kun and Pink looked towards Zain, they would surely be found out now. Once taking off their clothes, it would mean the end for them, and for Pink to do such a thing in front of her parents… how would they look at her, when they found out what she really was.

However, instead of replying, Zain stood there, with all ten of his fingers spread out, not saying a word. Then he placed one finger down making it 9, then 8.

'Is he counting down… does he want us to act?' Kun wondered. 'Zain I'm not a freaking mind reader, what do you want us to do, when you get to 0!'

Zain continued to put his fingers down, one by one, until he was down to the last three.

"3…2..1!"

"ARGHHH!" A man from behind a car screamed at the top of his lungs.

"I've been bit, I've been bit!" the man shouted, as he looked down and could see a dog on his leg.

Soon, the others could hear the sound of growling, and when turning around, they could see a group of zombies running their way.

"Let the chaos begin," Zain whispered.

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A group of zombies had appeared from behind them, but the sight looked quite strange. Because it was a group of seven or so that were running towards them, while the other zombies that were far off in the distance were doing nothing of the sort.

But they didn't have time to worry about why this was the case, instead the people began to panic as they saw them, and instead of pointing their guns towards their captives, they moved and pointed them towards the Zombies instead.

Meanwhile everything that was happening, was exactly how Zain had envisioned it. His original plan had stayed the same, but due to the nice Bronze reward card, he had been given a little bit of help.

He didn't think the Bronze card would amount to much, especially after the silver card had given him 5000 exp. The reward should have been less than that, but with the situation he was in right now, it was as if the heavens were watching him from above.

[Bronze card has been used]

[Reward: Basic System upgrade]

Zain somewhat knew why this was a bronze card because it didn't outright help him in any way. It wasn't a new skill that he could use, nor did it increase his strength in any way. Instead it had given him the ability to locate roughly where all his horde members were.

A map could now be displayed. It wasn't detailed and didn't show where the city was, but did display the distance between where his horde members were to him in the middle. Each member appeared as a dot.

As soon as the attackers had arrived, Zain had given the order to his Horde members to come and attack. It was the break he needed, and due to the system, he knew exactly when they would arrive.

There was something else as well though, due to this upgrade, giving orders from the system to his individual horde members was easy, as he could look at the map and give orders to the ones he wanted to attack… ordering each individual to specifically go to a certain area.

"Shoot them all and let's get the F*ck out of here!" War ordered.

There was a problem though, Jam was strong, he had good stats and was stronger than the average person. The one he had bitten on the leg earlier, after letting go it had leapt up into the air and bit on the man's neck ripping it out.

His teammate that was closest, grabbed his gun ready to shoot Jam.

"If they're going to make some sound anyway, then this is just what we're going to have to do!" Zain rolled onto the ground picking up his two hand guns in the process, as he shot several times hitting the man in the shoulder first and the next bullet going through his head.

At the same time an order was given to Jam to get out of there and head into the alleway to hide for the time being. This was one ally he didn't want to lose.

n0𝑣𝞮𝗅𝐮𝗌𝔟.𝕔0𝐦

At the same time, War was expecting some support from above, but there wasn't any fire at all. That was because Cobra had already entered the building and reached the second floor and took out the one with the sniper rifle, the one that would make the most noise.

As for someone else, they would need a bit more help, so Zain turned to the other side and started firing away. Even though Zain was a good shot, it was hard for him to hit a target so far with such a small opening, but that wasn't his aim anyway.

Because a second later the man was hit, breaking through the window and falling and landing on the ground, killed by the hit and the fall.

'Looks like your extra strength has done you well, Skittle.'

The gunshots were just a distraction. Cobra he knew was fast enough to succeed without help but Skittle, there was no way Zain wanted him to be hurt.

"Now's our chance, we have to act!" Zain shouted.

Hearing this, Kun picked up his automatic gun and held it firmly.

"Everyone down!" Kun shouted.

Dave, and the others listened to what they were saying and took cover on the ground. The whole thing was complete chaos, but what they had witnessed was Zain's amazing skill and the look on his face of no fear as he had acted.

If they didn't know better, they would have thought they were in a movie, or at least that he was a trained soldier, it was hard to believe that Zain was just a student.

Getting behind one of the cars, Kun started to fire towards those in the shop. He did so in short bursts and quite accurately as well. Everything that was going on was reminding him of his days when he worked for the reborn group.

'Zain… did you plan all this, are those zombies that are attacking right now yours? This is beyond what I imagined you could do.' Kun thought.

The reason why Kun was thinking this wasn't because he could do this, it was because Zain had done this. Even if another person had the same set of skills as or talents as Zain had right now, it didn't mean they could utilize it like this, or pull off something like this either.

This was the act of someone who was experienced, but how could someone be experienced in warfare like this with zombies.

Shots were fired out, from War and the other side of the shop. In doing so, two of the Zombies had instantly fallen to the ground as they had been killed. Zain could tell they were dead because the system had given a prompt.

Although most of the people were bad shots as Zain expected, especially in a panicked situation. War was a different story, he was good, and if Zain didn't do something, then all his new followers would be dead before they even reached the group.

There was just one more thing he needed before he could act in a proper way.

"What are you doing!" Pink's mother said as she gripped onto Pink's arm.

"I have to help, I have to get rid of those guys that are shooting!" Pink replied.

"But, they are killing the zombies that are coming towards us, if you get rid of them then we will all die!" Her father replied.

"You think they are the bad guys in this situation?" Pink started with a serious look on her face. Right now, even though the zombies were helping them in their current situation, her parents still saw the humans as their protectors. "We would have been made into slaves. I'm sorry but I need to do this."

Pink pulled away. She kept low and crouched… kicking the guns that she had put on the floor over to her parents, in case they needed them. No matter what, they were the people that had raised her, looked after her this whole time, so she would protect them, even if they were no longer willing to protect her.

'Zain is worried that these guys will start shooting at him the second he goes after War, so I need to do my part as well.'

When in a good position, Pink sprinted to the shop and kicked the door down with her strength, snapping it off its hinges. For a second the person closest turned around, but before he could act, a kick had been delivered right to his head.

The other person had turned and went to fire a shot toward Pink, but slowly she could see it, see where the bullet was going, and moving to the side she had avoided the shot. It wasn't that the bullet was too slow, but the user was unable to predict where Pink would be next.

While in the shop, which looked like a type of restaurant, Pink kicked a chair that went flying and, in doing so, it had hit the gun out of his hand. Before he could recover, Pink was already in the air, and delivered a kick straight to his head.

Dave's group, who had kept low to the ground, could hear that the shooting was lessening, and had seen what Pink had done. She was fearless, and extremely skillful in a type of martial arts, it looked like.

While at the same time, Kun had dealt with the other side professionally, moving from cover to cover and having the perfect timing when shooting back.

'Three people… were able to take out nearly a whole group with weapons, just like that. Who are these people, what is this group?' Dave thought gulping, and thankful that they didn't attempt to take them on.

War had turned around to look at the chaos, he had killed one more Zombie of Zain's but what was starting to happen due to the gun fire, was more zombies were coming toward them due to the noise that was being created.

So even though War had killed perhaps around 20 or so zombies, most of them were just the regular types. Knowing this, Zain had finally ordered his Zombies to go hide along with Jam, making it so four of them were still left alive.

"You useless b*stards!" War screamed, and pointed his gun now to the people. "Before I get out of here, I'm taking you all to hell!"

"You stop F*cking shooting!" Zain said, as he shot a single bullet.

War had seen this and moved slightly, but he was too slow to act causing the bullet to hit his shoulder.

[Handgun mastery is now level 3]

Zain wasn't planning to level up his handgun mastery any time soon, it had just turned out that way.

"Pink, Kun, take care of the zombies that are coming towards us, but stop using your guns!"

There were still a number of Zombies that were heading to the area, but hopefully if they dealt with the ones close, then the people would be okay, and the others would stop coming due to the no noise.

"The rest of you… I suggest you pick your weapons up off the ground and get to work as well." Zain said, putting his gun away and now holding onto his sword.

He could see that War was now hiding behind a car, waiting to shoot back, but at the same time from the other side of the car, zombies were coming towards him.

'This damn kid is trouble. Who is he!' War thought.

The second he went to lift his head to shoot, a clang was heard, but it wasn't a bullet, it was due to Zain having thrown a knife at the car. The fear of what it could be had caused War to stay under cover.

He wasn't thinking straight, if he was, he could have easily been able to tell that it wasn't the sound of a bullet. Another clang was heard, and soon a loud crash came, as Zain stood on top of the car.

Zain immediately kicked the man in the head, and dropped down, holding onto his gun. Zain had dropped the sword and then proceeded to knee the guy right in the gut.

Spit came out of his mouth and his eyes were bulging.

'I feel like I've been hit by a bulldozer! I can't win… I need to get out of here.'

As War thought this, he could see that the strange person had opened his mouth wide, and had bit down right on his arm, ripping through the clothing that he had on.

"Arghh… you bit me!" War shouted.

After a few seconds, Zain stopped biting and held onto both of War's arms, as he smiled.

"You seem to be quite skillful with guns and you got rid of some of my Horde, so I could do with a replacement."

It was at that moment, as War could feel something changing in his body, he understood. It was unbelievable, but now it made sense. The only way for this all to happen… the Zombie horde that attacked, the fearlessness in his eyes, and the extreme strength.

"You're a Zo…" His voice trailed off, as War had been turned.

It was a tough battle, but it looked like they were experiencing the tail end of it, or at least that was what Zain had thought. Because suddenly on his system, he could see that four of his Horde members had disappeared just like that, and a loud bang had come from the alleyway.

'They're dead… what was that?'

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All of the Zombies that Zain had in his possession were mutated Zombies. If they were to go up against an average human there was a fifty-fifty chance of them winning out of the fight. They were stronger than an average human but still had next to no brains.

So a skilled fighter or one with experience would still be able to take one down. However, Zain had placed all four of his remaining horde down one of the alleyways nearby in case there was the need for them again.n0𝑣𝑬𝑙𝗎𝔰𝔟.𝑐0𝓂

The whole group was together, making him wonder just what was able to take out all four of them. It was a shame really because now it meant Zain would have to go through the whole taming process again.

The saving grace was the fact that Jam, Skittle, Corba, and now War were all okay. The main cast of his horde.

As Zain turned to have a look at what was coming around the corner, he had a somewhat bad feeling as he heard several heavy thumps that sounded like the footsteps of an elephant. When seeing what had turned around the corner, it appeared that his guess was right.

"That's… that's one of those large zombies that attacked the base!" Dave shouted out. "We have to… we have to get out of here."

The others were in agreement and didn't need to be told twice. From time to time, the base would be under attack from zombies such as this, and they had all seen how much firepower and people were needed to deal with such a thing. Without the base's help they could never kill such a thing.

As they all began to run though, they noticed that their new allies hadn't come with them.

"Pink, what are you doing, let's get out of here and head back to the base!" her mother shouted. "They will help deal with this thing."

It was interesting to hear that the base had enough firepower to deal with a Titan, making him want to see it even more.

[New Quest received]

[Defeat the Titan using the power of the Level Up Group (Do not get involved)]

[Reward: Silver card]

It made sense now how something like the Titan had killed Zain's horde. If they were just standing idle, a single hit from such a thing would have crushed them all. Still, Zain wasn't worried because he had defeated one before.

That was when he was on his own, with no help from Skittle, Cobra, and wasn't the same level as he was now. On top of that, he now had the sword mastery as well. It was almost as if the system knew it would be too easy for him, which was why it had given him such a task.

"It's good that you two stayed." Zain said. "You guys have been absorbing crystals and getting stronger, so it's time to see just how strong you've gotten, take out the Titan, and try not to use any guns."

Both Kun and Pink looked at each other… before they would have never dreamed of doing such a thing, but for some reason after the events that they had just experienced, there was a new confidence that was growing in both of them.

"It's best if you guys get out of here so they can focus." Zain said without turning his head.

Dave wanted to stay, he wanted to help out but didn't know how he could, and since the others had left, they needed someone to help them, so he decided to run off with them in the end.

Looking at the Titan, Zain was wondering if using Cobra or Skittle would count as help, it would be interesting to see how much strength stats Skittle would need to be able to match a Titan, but just for the sake of the reward card Zain wouldn't risk it.

Besides if they looked like they were in some sort of trouble, then he could always get involved and just lose the quest.

——

As Dave and the rest of his group ran down the streets, back in the direction of the museum, they soon ran out of breath, and started to take in a breather. Pink's mother and father wanted to turn back, but the father reassured his wife that Pink was a strong person who knew what she was doing. They had seen how she had dealt with those in the group of people.

"The supplies!" One of the females shouted. "We left the supplies back there…"

When being ambushed they had taken off the supplies and left them on the ground after seeing the Titan. They were all too afraid, too young, and it was their first trip out without supervision from the attack force of the museum.

"I'm glad to see you are all alive." A voice said walking down.

Turning their heads they could see a man wearing sunglasses, a full swat uniform with a submachine gun around him, as well as two large daggers attached to his belt.

"Brandon!" They all shouted, and Dave immediately rushed over to him.

"Brandon you have to help. We left the supplies back there, and these three guys… they helped us, they saved our lives and are now facing off against one of those large Zombies that attacked the base!"

Hearing this, Brandon's heart started to thump. He knew exactly how dangerous those Zombies were. He had lost two of his precious men to them as well.

"They stayed back to fight." Brandon said thinking about what to do. "I know you want to help your saviours but… I would have to go back to the base and ask for more help."

Dave clenched his hand, feeling useless, because he knew by the time they went back to the base, and came back it was most likely that those three would be dead.

"I think… with you they can do it. They're strong." Dave argued.

——

After around 10 minutes of running back together as a group, Brandon had turned the corner entering the street that they were on, but it seemed quiet. When reaching the area, Brandon could see a dead Titan on the ground and three people surrounding it.

"Oh, who's this?" Zain asked.

[Silver Reward card received]

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Brandon was at a loss for words as he looked at the three in front of him, and there were several reasons for it. For one, the fact that they had been able to take out a Titan themselves. On the way here there was no sound of gunshots. Which meant they either had taken the thing out at an incredible speed, or they hadn't used weapons at all.

Judging by the blood on their clothes and the female's legs, it looked like it was the latter. Even for Brandon, who was a former swat team member, with several other trained men by his side had to use a number of weapons and coordinated focused attacks to take out such a thing.

Then, there was the fact that they all looked extremely young. University students just like Dave and the majority of his group, there was also a lone adult with him but he didn't look like much either. None of them looked like fighters, nor had the bodies of one, so just what had happened?

"It looks like you all came back." Zain said, as he motioned for Kun to hide the crystal that they had just extracted from the Titan. The two had yet to choose which one of them would use it, and Zain didn't have time to claim the Silver reward card yet either.

In all honesty, Zain wasn't expecting the others to come back... he thought they would have run from fear, and luckily Zain didn't have to use Cobra or Skittle either, otherwise them being there would be a problem. The new addition War had been sent away as well into one of the apartments nearby. This way they were all safe especially if another Stage 2 zombie appeared like last time as well.

"I guess you wanted your supplies right? Don't worry, I will still keep our side of the deal, you guys are free to take what supplies you wish."

Hearing this, Brandon was wondering what Zain was talking about, because he was unaware of the deal that had been made, or the situation the group were in beforehand. He had just rushed over here after hearing Dave's plea.

Dave gave a quick low down of what had occurred, and how they had come to meet Zain and his group. It was an interesting tale, and even more so now Brandon was interested in these guys.

"Thank you for looking after this group, we are in debt to you." Brandon said as he put out a hand for a shake.

Zain didn't hesitate and shook it firmly as well. The man seemed respectable and it was clear he was different from the others.

"Honestly, it's a shame that we live in a world where we have to send people out to gather supplies, but we are low on attack power, and most of the men at the base have to look after the rest. I was sent out just in case things would... happen, just like this.

"Honestly, I don't doubt that if you weren't there, that any of these would have survived such a thing. So thank you again."

"Hey, do you really think you should be saying that in front of us!" Dave joked as he complained.

Zain and his group went through the box of goods. They had mainly taken ammunition for their weapons but didn't take any of the other weapons. There was only so much that they could carry in the first place.

Honestly, there was no need for Zain and the others to take anything else from the care package, they had already gotten what they needed from the last one, but just so things didn't look suspicious, they took some food as well.

After that, it was time for the others to pack the rest of the things from the care package up. While doing so, Brandon kept taking glances at Zain.

'I wonder... should we invite someone like that back with us. If everything that has happened is true, then these people could be very dangerous, but at the same time they saved Dave and the others. This could be the power that we need in our group.

'If only I could contact Ryan and ask for his opinion.'

While thinking this, Brandon saw that Pink was talking to her parents. He could hear the conversations between the two of them slightly.

"What's going on with them?" Brandon asked.

"Ah, it seems that they are related. What a coincidence to meet up in a place like this." Dave replied.

Now, Brandon had found his collateral if anything was to go wrong.

After gathering everything, Brandon walked up to Zain.

"I'll be honest, I would like for you three to come back with us. If there is anyone else in your group they can come back as well. Our group is doing well, we treat each other well, and we could really do with people like you. You have already helped us enough by leaving these weapons and much of the supplies with us, I can tell you have a good heart."

The words 'good heart' rang in Zain's head, because he didn't think it was true at all. The whole time, he was just thinking how useful Brandon and his group could be to him in this situation. The problem was, if they were to join the group, then Skittle and the others would have to be kept outside nearby.

It wouldn't be too much of a problem, but was still something to think about, and of course there was always the worry of getting caught, about them finding out who they were.

"Before that, I want to ask, do you know anything about the Reborn Group?" Zain asked.

There was a pause while Brandon was thinking.n0𝒱𝓔𝑙𝐔𝓈𝐛.𝗰0𝗆

"The Reborn group, I can't say I have, but our leader Ryan is a well connected man. Enough to know someone like me. So maybe he knows something."

Thinking about it for a while, Zain currently had no leads, and he wanted to wait a little before attempting the higher reward quests as he believed they would be more difficult.

"Alright, our group will come along for now. We won't be joining but I would like to meet your leader before making a decision." Zain answered.

It was an expected reply, and Brandon nodded accepting the request.

[New Quest received]

[Spread the name of the 'Level Up Group']

[Reward: Gold card]

'Spread the name? How far and wide does it want me to spread the name of our group? Well, no better time than now to get started.'

"Oh by the way, this is the whole group, this is all we have, and we are known as the Level Up Group." Zain said, which was random and seemed out of nowhere, but the smirk still managed to put a smile on Brandon's face.

"I think you and our leader will get along just fine."

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Care packages had been distributed to every part of the city. The government believed that this was where most survivors would be and, at the same time, the areas where the Zombies were concentrated the most.

,m However, something like this had never happened before, and the military was believed to have been stretched incredibly thin, which was why a solution was suggested, to arm the local people with weapons and give them a fighting chance to survive.

To the cities, they were unable to reach or help. They had dropped more care packages compared to the rest. What they didn't expect was that after just two weeks, humanity and society would completely collapse compared to what it was, turning into a lawless zone with everyone doing whatever they could to survive.

And one of the groups had been quite unsuccessful so far. They had a member of their team killed right in front of them. Their hands were chopped off, and they were also stabbed right through the neck.

The woman was unable to get over the scene, and it was vividly flashing in her head. It wasn't just her though, the whole group was demoralised after experiencing their first care package, and unknown to them, they had taken these feelings into their second one.

When the group reached another care package, there was another group in front of them. After what happened last time, they were frightened and scared, and in the end, the girl known as Nay, the one that had recently lost her friend to a red-haired crazy swordsman, acted rashly.

As soon as she had pulled a gun out of the care package, she attempted to kill the other group's members. Even though they had agreed to split the rewards, she ended up firing a few shots and had done well in killing them by surprise, but one of them had a knife and, in a last-ditch effort, used it to stab one of the men in the group before being shot to death.

Because of this, with the supplies they had managed to get, they had decided to rush back to their base. The man held tight onto his stomach in great pain.n0𝑣𝗲𝓵𝔲𝑠𝔟.𝓬0𝓂

"This is all your fault, Nay!" one of the men shouted. "Because of you, Chris has been seriously hurt!"

"I already said I'm sorry!" Nay retorted back. "And we had no clue what the other group was going to do. What if they were like that last person and suddenly turned on us? In the end, they're the ones that are dead, and we are alive. Only Sky was the one that got hurt out of all this."

The others didn't have the same thoughts as her, and she could tell from the look in their eyes of the others that they were all blaming her for this.

"Fine, I will speak to Dr Ricky…I will do whatever it takes to get him to treat Chris. Are you all happy now?"

Hearing this, they no longer looked at Nay but instead continued to track forward.

'Why am I getting the blame for all this? I wasn't the one who stabbed Sky. I wasn't the one that dropped the care packages or sent us all out to get them!' Nay clenched her jaw in frustration.

Eventually, the group reached their base, which was surprisingly a medium-sized hospital. It wasn't a general hospital but a private hospital of a dermatologist who specialises in Skin treatments. It was also one of the reasons why they hadn't suffered as much as the other hospitals when all the mess started, and as well as due to Dr Ricky's quick thinking, who was the leader of the current group.

Each one of them hesitated before walking in, but after a few groans from Sky and seeing the pale look on his face, they had to go inside. By the door, there were two large baskets, one that would be used for the hospital's laundry. There were also somewhat armed people standing on the outside of the door.

Nearly no words were spoken as they dropped their bags inside before entering the hospital. This included all of the supplies that they had. After going through the entrance, they continued forward down a hallway and entered the reception waiting area of the hospital.

While walking around, once again, they came across some people with weapons on them. When heading to the reception, they handed all their weapons to the person behind the desk, the receptionist of the group.

"Tell Dr Ricky that we need his help immediately!" One of the men shouted.

"I will book you in for an appointment once you have filled in these forms and contact him straight away." The receptionist said her hands were shaky as she went to reach the phone, and she was doing her best to keep up the way she was currently acting.

The group was beyond frustrated but knew there was nothing they could do. As they placed the Sky down, they went to fill in the forms as quickly as possible and handed them back. Arguing would only waste more time.

'That damn, crazy Doctor, what is wrong with him? This world has gone to crap, and he's still roleplaying like this is a real hospital…but what choice do we have if we want Sky to live, we have to follow his stupid rules just like everyone else!'

The phone rang a few times, and eventually, the other end answered.

"Yes..yes…the group has returned….One of them is missing. It says they died, and another is injured…yes..okay."

The phone call ended there.

"The doctor is free to see you now. Please head up to the fourth floor, and he will be waiting for you."

The entire group turned towards the double doors, and each one of them gulped as they were about to meet with the doctor once again, something they would never look forward to.

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A group of around fifty stayed at the hospital. It was quite a large group for the area, but they weren't a threatening group. In fact, there had been some cases where other nearby groups had approached the one known as the Doctor and asked him for help.

There would be times when injuries would occur, or there would be those that got incredibly sick and needed treatment; however, there weren't many left in the world who knew how to treat wounds and attend to the sick.

When the attack began, the hospitals were rammed with patients, and at first, whatever was being passed on by these zombies had a delayed effect on humans. It would take a while for them to activate, and it was also the reason why the hospitals were some of the most overrun places, filled with zombies.

This meant that most of the doctors and nurses that were working in the hospitals at the time were killed or turned. Even most of the doctors who were having an off day were asked to come in on a busy day, and they, too, had been dealt a bad hand.

However, even though this was the case, it was strange how lacking the city was of those with medical knowledge, and the popular opinion amongst the groups was that the military or police force was rounding up those with medical knowledge and using them to try and find a cure for this thing.

In the end, what this meant though was that Ricky, the Doctor, had become a well-known figure in the nearby groups, and if someone asked him to treat them, then they better have something in return for them.

This was how the group were able to get supplies of weapons and more, and it was why there were those that worked for the Doctor and chose to stay with him. Some felt like it was their best bet to stay in a group with a doctor because they could be treated if anything happened.

n0𝑣𝑬𝑙𝗎𝔰𝔟.𝑐0𝓂

The only thing was, only those that actually stayed at the base knew how strange and weird the rules were in the group, and no one outside of the hospital knew why they themselves feared the Doctor that they worked for.

After putting Sky on a hospital bed, the group then started to wheel their friend through the doors. Soon, they reached the director's office. Pushing the double door down once again, they walked into a large office space.

There was a single large desk with a chair at the end, and the side was filled with countless books and awards. The back of the office also was made fully of glass, allowing one to look outside at the front of the hospital and out to the street in the distance.

There was a car park and entranceway to the hospital where ambulances would pull up, so the hospital wasn't directly on the street.

"Please, you have to help. Sky has been stabbed, the knife was pulled out, and because of that, it won't stop bleeding. You can do something, right?" the man requested.

Slowly getting up from his seat, the man was wearing a white robe. He looked to be in his fifties with grey hair here and there and a small white beard. On top of that, he had square-shaped black frame classes. This man was Ricky, the Doctor.

As he got up, he walked towards the group and took a glance at the injured man.

"I heard you did well. You received the items from the care package. Each of you has proved your point.

"I would like to hear more about what exactly happened at one point, but I see we have another matter to take care of."

Walking up, the Doctor inspected the wound even more. He lifted up the shirt so carefully as not to directly touch the wound.

"I have conducted my evolution. With my skills, he will be able to live, but you all know the rules here. With the treatment, there will be a price."

Everyone's face sank when they heard these words, and they looked to the ground as if to avoid eye contact with Ricky, and this was what they were dreading. A certain person, in particular, was shaking, but eventually, she spoke out.

"I…I will do whatever you wish in order for treatment." Nay proposed.

The Doctor looked Nay up and down, she was a young woman in her twenties, and she had a good figure. She didn't have the face to be a model though, that was for sure, and it was a bit bruised up from the encounters she had been in before.

"Very well. I will proceed with the treatment for now, and the rest of you can leave. As for you, Nay, you can stay in my office, and I will collect treatment from you later."

Pushing the bed with Sky on it, the doctor was going to get to work. The others felt guilty, but with everything done, all they could do was leave the place and leave it all to Nay.

In a way, they were thankful that they weren't the ones paying the price because they had no clue what they would have to even offer the Doctor.

——

An hour or so later, outside the hospital building, two people arrived at the entrance. The guards on the outside could see this but saw them as no threat, as there was a tired woman holding onto what looked like a teenage boy.

"Please, is there a doctor inside?!" the woman asked. "I need help, he's had a fever for a while now, and he keeps getting hotter; his body is burning up. We need help."

The two looked at each other and nodded towards the other for one of them to head inside.

"Just wait here for a moment." The man said.

While waiting, the woman was anxious and looked at the teenager.

'You have helped me so many times, I promise I will be here for you, I will help you as well. So please, Cody, pull through, and I know you can get through this!'

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Zain had agreed to travel with the others, and unlike the last group, no one in the group was too curious to see if there were any wounds on their body. Instead, they simply just asked if they had any.

To be honest, although it was favorable for their situation, Zain would speak to the leader and felt like it was best to force a check on whoever they brought into their group.

At the end of the day, when life or death is on the line, people would lie about these things. Being so trustworthy in a world like this wouldn't get one far, but it did make Zain want to meet this interesting leader even more.n0𝑣𝞮𝗅𝐮𝗌𝔟.𝕔0𝐦

What type of person was he to lead such a large group, and how was such a person able to survive so long?

They soon reached the Museum, and it was in the same state as they had left it in. There were sandbags on top of the large staircase, and behind them were people guarding the building with weapons. Observing from outside alone, Zain noticed at least ten of them with weapons on them.

'These are different from the last group. That time, I could tell, maybe it was their first time holding a weapon, but these guys, they have either been trained pretty well in this short time or knew how to use weapons beforehand.'

After passing all the guards and Brandon giving a bit of a nod to one of them, the double doors began to open, and they entered the main hallway of the Museum. Once again, he noticed that there were sandbag barricades even in the hallways as well, and there were more people with weapons.

It was set up in a way that would delay whatever walked inside without them putting all of the forces in one place.

"It's important to protect this place. That's why I was sent out to try and look after this scout team. The rest were to stay behind."

Going through the hallway, they finally reached the first main exhibit area, and a large model of a tyrannosaurus rex was placed there. It was a huge, fake bone model of the creature, with several other different things scattered around the side.

It looked like this was where most of the people were staying for the time being. As there were clothes, sheets, and sleeping bags all placed inside of the room, and along with that were all of the civilians inside as well.

"Everyone, you must have been tired. You are free to rest up. Please remember to give your reports as well." Brandon ordered the group that had returned with him.

After saying thanks to the saviors, each of them went off, including Pink's parents, to join the others, and immediately, the people began to ask them questions about what they had been through, the state of the outside world, and what they had witnessed outside.

The group wasn't shy at all and began to tell the tales of how they had narrowly escaped the clutches of death. First, they revealed the state they were in, and finally, they talked about the new group that had saved them, the Level Up group, and their display of skills.

"I will need to speak to Ryan first, and we should be able to meet in around thirty minutes to an hour. I hope that's all okay, and in the meantime, I will have Dave show you around the entire place.

Before leaving, Brandon had pulled Dave in and whispered in his ear.

"Treat them with extreme courtesy, and make them feel so welcome that they never want to leave this place."

Dave was the lead student of the group from before, so Zain didn't mind since the young student seemed to be an amiable person. After Brandon left, Dave gave the three a tour. While they were walking around, Zain was looking out to check if there was anyone he knew.

Dave told them that there were quite a few students who had arrived and were from the same university. Among the civilians, there were a few faces that Zain did find familiar, but none of them was from his classes, so he doubted they would know him or anything about him.

"And this is our canteen!" Dave said with a smile as they walked into another hall. "Food is already being rationed in this place, so everyone is asked to come here and eat at a certain time of the day. Since you're our special guests because you helped bring back that food from the care package, I'm sure Brandon won't mind if I let you guys grab something to eat here first."

There were a few people who hung around in the canteen. Even though they weren't eating due to the tables and chairs, often they would just come here to play cards or just chat with each other, and they had overheard this as well.

"Dave, I think it might be best that you wait before doing that." An older gentleman said. He had a skinny status, and as he came up from his seat, around four other older gentlemen walked with haste and bare belly and stood in front of the two. They didn't look like the kindest bunch.

"This food was gathered all with our own hard work. Our very own blood was split to gather that food, and you want to give it away to some newcomers?" The man asked.

Dave looked a bit nervous because, of all things, he didn't want to start a fight, and on top of that, the way they were acting wasn't exactly welcoming. There was a high chance that Zain wouldn't join this group after meeting the leader and getting what he wanted.

So Dave had figured that Brandon wanted them to stay.

"You don't understand, Roy. These guys saved the scout team. We would have died if it wasn't for them, and they had even brought back a lot of food from the care packages for us." Dave explained.

"Just these three? And are you talking about the care packages that were sent from the government to help all of us that didn't give us diddly squat?" Roy, the old man replied.

Although no one said anything out loud, it seemed like a lot of those in the canteen agreed with what Roy was saying. This was typical to happen in a group. Judging from their reaction, it was unlikely that they had new people joining them for a while.

Since this had been the group dynamic with everyone's roles during that time, they had grown close together and were now territorial over any new person that was to join.

"It's okay." Zain sighed. "We don't need to eat anyway, and none of us is hungry. Let's just continue on with the tour,"

Zain was the first one to start walking.

Seeing this, Roy thought that they had managed to win, but the truth was Zain, and his group didn't really eat that type of food anyway, and there was no need to cause a mess. If the two of them were to fight, and Zain accidentally cut one with his finger or something like that, then there was a chance that the former could be turned.

When they reached the doors on the other end and pushed through. Dave apologized.

"I'm sorry about all of that. I promise you that sort of the people here are few and far between. Everyone has been through tough times, which I'm sure you can understand."

"Don't worry, we understand. All sorts of things happened when we first met Zain, so we definitely understand." Pink replied, remembering that Zain had almost strangled Fingers when he woke up after passing out on his first day with them.

The group soon entered another large exhibit room, but it looked like it had been cleared of all items that were on display, and instead, they had three different training sessions going on.

There were three men in swat uniforms similar to the one on Brandom. One of them was teaching them how to use guns, reload, take the gun apart, maintenance, and to do a whole bunch of other things.

Then, another part of the room was teaching hand-to-hand combat. Here, the instructor was demonstrating how to fight by throwing your opponent and more. It looked skilful, but it was hard to tell how well it would fare against a zombie. Frankly, it seemed like it was more so something to be used against humans.

Then finally, there was also a weapons section, where the instructor was teaching how to use knives, daggers, and large lung blunt objects such as poles and baseball bats that the group had accumulated since the beginning.

"If you haven't guessed, this is our training room. Ryan has been trying his best to get it, so everyone reaches a certain standard, including us...but of course, we still aren't anything compared to you three." Dave scratched the back of his head because he thought their group had done quite well, at least well enough to be trusted with getting the care package but then this had occurred.

Just as Dave was going to introduce Zain and the others to everyone, the doors behind them opened again, and Brandon stepped inside the hall.

"Our leader Ryan is glad to meet you," Brandon smiled as he walked toward Zain and his group.

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When Brandon entered the room, it had turned somewhat quiet. The people who were practicing hard, letting out yells and grunts, had also come to a halt. This was because of their instructors.

They had noticed Brandon and lifted their hands as a sign of silence. There was a reason for this, inside of the Museum, there were technically two leaders, Ryan, the smart and caring businessman who was in charge of electronic companies in the past, and Brandon, the captain of his previous swat team that was protecting the building.

The two of them had different roles in the place. To the public, they saw Ryan more as their leader. He was the one that gave them orders and gave them food and Shelter. He would also be the public speaker at times to calm down their worries.

Then there was Brandon, the one with combat experience and who protected the place from outside threats. Along with instructors, who were part of SWAT, he taught the others how to fight and survive in the current world.

Inside the Museum, many people were more in line with one leader compared to the other, and it was also why they all showed great respect to Brandon as he entered the room. However, what surprised them, even more, were the words that came out of Brandon's mouth when he stepped into the room.

"Our Leader Ryan is happy to meet you." He had said.

Almost everyone in the hall was shocked and was looking at each other in surprise. Ryan didn't just meet up with anyone, he seemed to be a busy man, and the way the group worked was that only certain people could approach Ryan for requests. Everything else would have to be moved up the chain of people.

This was to stop people from bombarding Ryan. Of course, there were still times when he would go around the place, wave hello, and make conversation with the people, but they too knew that if they wanted to speak to him, they would have to report it to their group leader, who would then send the message upwards in the chain of command.

When the group was initially created, and more people started to join, this was just something that had to be implemented, and now with more than a hundred people and non-stop growth, the hierarchy had become essential within the group.

"Oh?" Brandon said, noticing the look on the instructor's face. "It seems there are some people that aren't exactly happy about the decision I made. Stu, Max, Tod, guys, feel free to speak your mind. You know I will always listen to you."

The three instructors had been called out, and there was a guilty look on their faces. Stu was a thin man with light blond hair, he was one of the instructors for the weapons class and also one of the higher ranking people in the group who could talk freely to Ryan.

This was the same for the other two. They had the same privileges to make decisions and form their current groups and squads if need be. Then there was Max, a larger gentleman who stood at 6'6". His figure reminded Zain a bit of Buke. Only this man looked quite a bit older with a rough gray beard over his chin. He was in charge of the hand-to-hand combat classes.

Then there was Stu, a fairly round-faced man with small eyes and short hair. He looked more like the silent type and was the weapons instructor. He himself currently had two short swords by his side as well.

All three of the instructors walked forward, stepping away from their students, and looked at each other because it seemed like they all had the same opinion, and Max was the first one to speak.

"We don't like it," Max stated with his arms folded as he looked down at three. "We have all been protecting this base for a while now, and not just us, but the people that have been here every day as well.

"There are many in our groups who have requested to meet up with Ryan, and each time it has been denied. There has even been a plea put in for a fifth squad on top of our four to help with the current situation.

"Ryan decides to ignore everything and then suddenly has a meeting with these new guys? There will be people who complain. If they are going to join the group, then they should just join the normal way like everyone else."

Brandon let out a smiling sigh and decided to lift his sunglasses to the top of his head as he rubbed his eyes with his fingers showing how stressful the situation was. These were his people, but at the same time, he understood what Ryan was doing.

"Look, the situation isn't the same as it was in the past. We can't just keep making squads willy-nilly. We have to trust the people, and before you say anything, trust me, I don't trust these guys.

"They might not even join us in the first place, but they did save one of the scouting groups, and they had the power just with three of them to defeat that giant Armored Zombie. Is that not a good enough reason for them being here?" Brandon asked.

Whispers started from behind the instructors. Everyone in the room knew what giant Zombie they were talking about, but to hear that just three of them were able to take it out seemed like a bit of an exaggeration.

"These three? I can't believe it. Most of them just look like students," Max replied. "Did you see them beat the thing with your own eyes?"

Brandon hadn't done it, he had only seen the Zombie down and out for the count, as well as the words for the others, but it seemed too hard to fake such a situation. Besides, what else could have happened even if he didn't see it?

"What, are you saying we're liars?" Pink asked out of frustration because it had taken a lot of effort for her and Kun to defeat it. It wasn't a walk in the park, and they were proud of this fact, so for someone to deny them, just infuriated them.

"Then prove it," Stu commented. "If you really were able to defeat such a thing, surely you can prove your skills to all of us here."

Pink looked at Zain, wondering how they could exactly prove their skills, it was then though that Kun was the first one to act, as he went ahead and picked up a pistol from one of the tables.

The weapons were not loaded, just in case there was a misfire by accident in the place, but that's when Kun started to strip down the weapon bit by bit. He released the slide on the weapon, the slide spring, and the barrel, taking apart each of the weapons bit by bit, completely stripping them down, and laying them out on the table.

It was then that he put it back together again, bit by bit. It was smooth, with no trouble at all, as if a person had done this for years.

"You… you're trained," Stu was surprised. It was without a doubt that Kun was trained.

"Still, just knowing how to use weapons wouldn't work against the Armored Zombie, what about the rest of you?" Todd asked. "The bullets can't pierce the zombie, so you had to have used weapons of some sort. I see you have a sword. Do you know how to use it?"

The question was directed at Zain, and the thing was, Zain wasn't so sure how skilful a level 2 mastery in sword actually was. In the first place, it was due to his strength that he had taken out such a thing.

"Hey, you don't have to test him," Pink said, "He's the strongest out of all of us. If you really want to test someone, then big guy, why don't you take me on in a one-on-one fight?"

The students were excited by the proposal, and at the same time, Max didn't think he would lose to a small girl like so in front of him.

n0𝑣𝗲𝓵𝔲𝑠𝔟.𝓬0𝓂

"Fine, if you can't even take me out, then I doubt that you would have taken the Armored Titan out. If you can beat me, then I will not stop you from meeting Ryan." Max declared.

The two of them stood side by side, around five meters apart, and everyone around was watching. Brandon didn't stop it because he, too, was interested in what was going to happen and their skill, but before the fight started, Zain whispered something in her ear.

"Seriously…alright," Pink replied, somewhat disappointed.

When Zain went to join the crowd, Brandon stood next to him.

"What did you tell your friend over there, some tips to win?" Brandon asked.

"No, there was no need to. I just told her to hold back a little." Zain smiled.

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The bystanders, or anyone who wasn't aware of Pink's ability, looking at the two that were ready to fight, imagined that it was a complete mismatch.

Max easily weighed at least three times that of his opponent. On top of that, he was professionally trained and older, which meant he was ahead in terms of experience as well.

If there were bets going on, not a single person would bet on Pink to win the fight, at least not one that didn't know about who she really was.

'After absorbing those crystals, Pink must have levelled up, but not just that, it seems like if she had received and followed one of the paths which I received as well, then she would be an Agro type which excels when it comes to physical ability.'

"Fight!" One of the men at the side shouted, and it was the sign for both of them to begin. Pink got into a fighting stance spreading her legs out and stood there waiting.

"I see. You have trained in some type of martial arts, right? But this is not a movie. I will show you what a real fight is." Max cracked his knuckles as he spread out his hands and went in for a tackle.

With the size difference between the two, as long as he didn't get hurt in a vital area, Max was sure that he could slam her and continue on to tackle her to the ground. And then, he could restrain her and easily win the fight in doing so without making himself look like a brute.

Although Max wanted to prove himself, he didn't want to hurt the woman either, just wanted to prove that the feat that they had claimed was impossible.

When Max was finally in range, Pink lifted her foot up, delivering a kick right to his side.

'Zain told me not to use all of my strength, but I don't think this guy will feel anything if I don't put in a little bit of strength!'

The kick slammed right into Max's ribs before he could block it, but it wasn't what she was going for. For a second, he had squinted as the kick was heavier than he thought, but he soon went to grab the leg, blocking it under his armpit.

Before Max could hold it, though, Pink pulled her leg out quickly and spun her body. She delivered a side kick right into Max's stomach.

Max suddenly felt an excruciating amount of pain and found it hard to breathe. The woman in front of him was a lot faster than he had imagined, and getting a hold of her was proving difficult. And even though Max was more of a grappler than anything, he was finding it hard to use his strengths.

Due to his big size, he was already slow, and in order to slow down a person, even more, Pink knew it was best to hit them in the stomach.

The natural reaction for one when in pain and to be hit in the stomach was to bring their head down as they curled up their body and held down. Max was trained. But the pain had caught him off guard, and in that brief moment, he leant forward and brought his chin down ever so slightly.

Seeing this as an opportunity, Pink threw out a kick, but it missed, brushing just past Max's nose. The others let out a breath of relief seeing this. They didn't want the teacher to lose. They didn't want some outsider to beat the one who had been looking after them this whole time, so naturally, they were rooting for Max.

However, the kick wasn't done there. The first kick was just to build up momentum. As the first leg came across her body and touched the ground, she raised her other knee. With a slight hop, her right leg had come back again after doing a complete spin and landed right on Max's neck.

The power of the kick had put great pressure, bringing his head down even further. He stumbled to the side but somehow managed to regain balance as well.

"I'm not just a fighter. I'm a champion." Pink declared with confidence as she brushed her hair away from her face.

"You have managed to gather some impressive people," Brandon commented.

"I have to admit I had no clue she was this good either," Zain replied. But this did make Brandon wonder, what did he mean by the fact that Pink was holding back? In what way was she holding back? Because she was clearly demonstrating all her skills.

"Your might has worked on me, but if you tried that on those big zombies, you would have been done for, and in a real fight, I can use weapons as well," Max complained while rubbing his neck.

Honestly, it was quite embarrassing for the others because it was clear he was just making excuses.

n0𝒱𝑒𝗅𝓊𝚜𝓑.𝑐0𝚖

Noticing the others wince, Max took a deep breath and grumbled, "Alright, now I really will pound you!"

Hearing these words, Pink tapped her foot in a certain way, and a small blade came out from the tip of her boot. These were the special boots that had been retrieved from Chinatown, but after tapping them away again, they had disappeared.

"That's enough." Brandon suddenly called out, interrupting the fight. He stepped forward and said, "We don't need anyone to die, and this is your loss, Max. If this fight had happened in the real world, then you would be dead.

"You tried to use your natural advantages, and it didn't work, but on top of that, Pink would have been able to use the weapon in her boots at any time. And with a knife behind that devastating kick to the neck, it would have ended your life."

Hearing this, Max stayed silent. He wouldn't argue with Brandon and knew that the latter was right in the end. The truth was, his neck was throbbing even now. The woman looked small, but she sure packed a punch in her hits.

Still, it was hard for them to imagine, even with the two of them, that they were able to take down a Titan Zombie.

"Alright, with the show over, let's get going. Stu, Max, and Tod, you three are asked to be in the meeting as well." Brandon claimed.

"Wait!" Tod said as he pulled out his two swords and started to wave them in his hands. He had done so effortlessly and started to swing them around through the air at a great speed. "You have a sword, so surely you should be a swordsman, right? Or at least know how to use that thing.

"We still have yet to assess your skill,"

It was the second time that Tod had called out Zain, this time, his friends weren't there to stop the fight from happening.

'This guy is clearly more skilful than me with his swords. If I was to go up against him, without using my strength and the other Zombies that are around me...it would be a hard fight.'

[New quest receive]

[Defeat the man named Tod]

[Reward: Silver card]

To be honest, Zain knew that this was going to be a challenge, and he didn't need the system to give him a quest because he was already going to accept the chance. The quest was just the icing on the cake.

"Alright, sure," Zain said as he pulled out his single sword as well. "I do have to say though, I'm kinda a jack of all trades. My sword skills aren't that great, and neither are my weapons, but I can do a bit of both."

Brandon didn't know if Zain was just being polite with his words because the other two were extremely strong, yet they were following him and even called him their leader or at least acted that way. He doubted that anyone would follow someone who was weaker than them in the current world.

At the same time, regardless of this fact, Tod was incredibly skilled at weapons. Before joining SWAT, he didn't reside in a western country but in a place where swords were used quite frequently.

Brandon doubted that there was a single person more skilful than him when it came to using weapons.

"Fight, Begin!" a man shouted.

Tod immediately went in and was running low, and when he was close enough to Zain, he struck with both of his swords, swinging them out in an outward direction. At that moment, Zain swung his sword forward, hitting the attack in the middle and stopping it.

The two struggled as they pushed together in a battle of strength. Zain pressed forward and eventually managed to push Tod back, but instantly, the latter changed his position and was now attacking from the side with another swing.

Lifting his sword up, Zain blocked it just in time but was unable to make another attack.

"This whole fight, you won't ever get to make an attack like that again," Todd claimed.

Strangely though, there was a smile on Zain's face, and Tod didn't understand why.

[Sword mastery has increased]

[Level 2 (32.6/100%)]

Squinting his eyes, Tod swung the swords once again, but Zain managed to block it just in time as well.

[Level 2 (35.8/100%)]

'This is perfect.'

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While watching the fight, it was clear there was one that was better than the other, and that was Tod. He had more refined skills and swiftness in his two swords that were unmatched, and it was true here as well.

The fight was slowly turning one-sided as the faster opponent pushed the other back. All that Zain could do was awkwardly block each incoming attack, and it looked like, at times, he would get hit but barely manage to just deflect the sword away at the last moment.

"Will Zain be alright?" Kun asked. "I thought he was good with a sword, but this guy is on a whole other level."

"That's what you're worried about, whether he will win or lose this match?" Pink replied. "If Zain gets hit, then won't his body do that extreme healing thing? If that happens, then everyone will find out who he is. I think that's the main reason why he's blocking each of those strikes, as if his life depended on it.

"Because I don't think even Zain could get us out of place with over a hundred people holding weapons."

When agreeing to engage in the challenge, Kun had failed to realise that point. Perhaps just like him, Zain had forgotten as well. They had gotten out of plenty of tough situations due to his skill, and even Kun thought it would be the same this time, but that didn't seem to be the case at all.

"Is this how you managed to take out the large Zombie, by just blocking the entire time?'' Tod swung the sword below, aiming for Zain's leg.

Zain had just blocked a strike from hitting his chest from the top, and due to that, he was lightly stepped inward. Since his sword was busy, he now had nothing to block the attack from below.

Rather than retreat or attempt to block though, Zain shifted his weight forward and pushed with his strength on the sword, causing Toe to lose balance and fall back slightly. His swung sword had ripped through Zain's trousers and made a surface mark on his skin.

Blood trickled while Todd managed to regain his balance.

'This guy, once in a while, he will show a strange surge in strength, but for some reason, when he attacks, there isn't the same strength in those attacks.' Tod thought. He was trying to figure out his opponent because, despite the barrage of sword attacks, there was still confidence on the person's face.

It was why Tod had avoided doing anything risky during his attacks. There was a fear of something telling him in the back of his mind that if he went for a large attack, it would be he who would be the one suffering and not the other.

Seeing the cut, Pink was concerned and had brought both of her hands toward her chest. Kun was looking at all of the exits trying to make some sort of escape plan in his head, but the cut continued to bleed like it would have any other cut.

'Those two worry too much.' Zain thought of catching them out of the corner of his eye. 'Do they really think that I would join a fight that had so much risk on my end?'

In the first place, the super healing was something that Zain had to activate, using up his energy points. Keeping a wound would only make it, so his body deteriorates quicker, and in this case, such a small attack wouldn't do anything. Besides, he was getting a lot more from this fight than the others realised.

"Come on, keep going," Zain said as he held his hands firmly.

After sending consistent strikes, Tod felt that his hands were getting a little numb. The constant pressure of Zain's sword clashing against his sword was taking a toll on him, and yet the person in front of him wasn't suffering from the same thing, and they didn't even look tired.

Tod didn't give up though, as he charged in again. He would just have to wait for his opponent to tire out, or if that didn't work, then he would have to take risks before he himself got too tired.

A block from above, to a block from below, and finally, Zain had blocked the third one to his rib and jumped back soon after. It was the first time he had jumped back rather than just blocking.

'1….2…3, that's all I needed now let's see!' Zain jumped in and kept his sword down by his side.

This was the opportunity that Tod had been waiting for. The time that people left themselves the most vulnerable was when they attacked. During the fight, Tod was able to block a couple of attacks with ease which was why he decided to go on the offensive, but Zain was still able to block them.

'Now, where will he strike?'

The swords continued to stay by Zain's side, and just as they got within range, it was a strike directly from below at a diagonal angle. Leaning back, it had just skimmed Tod's face and to top it off. The sword strike wasn't done yet.

While it was in the air, Zain was able to control the momentum, and with the strength in his hand, he was able to strike down again. At the last second, Tod rolled to the ground, and the strike had missed him completely, but his heart was racing, and his body was sweating.

'What happened, the strikes were so clean, and they weren't telegraphed at all. I had no idea where they were coming from. Was he hiding his true ability this whole time?'

The attacks that Zain had just made, he was pleased with them himself. Never did he expect his skills to improve this much. Not for a single moment other than his strength was Zain holding back during this fight. He just had levelled up.

[Sword mastery is now at level 3]n0𝑽𝓔𝔩𝓊𝓈𝒷.𝓬0𝕞

Based on how much his sword experience was rising, Zain could guess how many more blocks he needed to level it up further. Tod, being so skilful in using the sword, had to send only a few more hits until Zain would eventually level up, and with three more blocks, Zain had become a level three swordsman.

'As much as I would like to continue this fight for a bit longer and continue to level up off this guy, I think that the others might get suspicious when I'm not getting tired, and I don't trust my acting skills enough to take such a risk.' Zain thought as he ran forward towards Tod once more.

He then quickly pulled out a dagger from his belt and threw them right toward Tod. He did this twice, and Tod was once again surprised at how accurate and fast the throws were, but he was still able to deflect them.

He was ready for a counterattack. That was until a large sword came swinging at him and slammed into both of the swords, thrusting his hands off to the side. For the first time in the fight, Zain had used his strength to the max to end this, yet the swords were still in Tod's grasp.

Still, it was enough for Zain to do what he needed to do next, and with his free hand, he grabbed onto the scruff of Tod's neck.

"The fight is over!" Brandon shouted. "You have proven your skill enough already. There is no need for either one of you to get hurt. We are all on the same side in the end, and neither of us is the enemy. I hope these people have proven their skills to you all, and you won't second guess them again."

Zain, at that moment, let go of Tod. It was time for them to see the person they had been waiting for and to get their answers, but before that, he wanted to tell Tod something.

"Your skills are better than mine, but you fight too clean. You fight only using your swords and nothing else. The only reason why I got the advantage was that I was prepared to do anything and everything to win. You need to get into that mindset, and then I think you will find it pretty hard to lose to anyone."

Hearing these words, Tod smiled. For someone he hated at first, there was now a degree of respect for him. Putting out his hand, he shook hands with his opponent and just then, the familiar system prompt alert reverberated in Zain's mind.

[Quest complete]

[Reward: A silver card has been obtained.]

"Alright, Stu, Max, Tod, all of you follow me. Let's meet him." Brandon ordered.

Although Tod was satisfied, the same couldn't be sad for Stu and Max, who were staring daggers into the back of Pink and Kun.

'That Kun was the least impressive out of the lot…let's see how long he will last here.'

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The museum actually had two floors, although the general public, as well as the trained swat members, stayed on the bottom floor. However, Ryan had his office placed upstairs, and this was also where the supplies for the group were kept as well.

It was a strange room with a lock to which only he and Brandon knew the combination to. Of course, a simple lock wouldn't stop someone with a gun from shooting at the door and opening it, but something like this would alert the others, and this fact alone was a good deterrent.

While heading upstairs, Brandon continued to talk about what they had done to the place, including the troubles they had faced and was also giving background to the groups in the area.

He also told them that there were some groups who ideally weren't the best to work with. At the same time, there were natural territories that they respected. However, how long this would keep up, they didn't know.

Ryan's main concern was with the zombies and just wished to protect as many people as possible, at least according to Brandon.

The truth was, Zain didn't really listen too much, and that was because he was too busy checking out the new reward card he had received from the system.

[Would you like to use the Silver Reward card]

[Yes]

[You have received 1 Horde Stat point]

[The stat point can be used to upgrade the stat of any member of the Horde and on any stat]

'This is quite good for a silver card reward. The system is quite focused on improving the Horde, not just me. Making a strong undead army would be good.' Zain thought.

The problem was not what stats to upgrade but who to upgrade. Out of all his horde members, he wanted to improve Skittle or Cobra. If it was Skittle, he would increase his strength, and if it was Cobra, he would improve his speed.

This did also give him time to look at his newest member of the Horde, War.

[Strength: 0]

[Agility: 1]

[Vitality: 1]

[Intelligence: 4]

War wasn't classified as a superhuman like Cobra was, but he had good stats to start off with. Out of all of them, he seemed to have the highest intelligence, and although Zain was unable to test it, he was hoping it meant his skills with a gun would still come in handy.

It was a good decision to turn him in the middle of it all, but at the end of the day, a stat point wouldn't improve him much.

'I want to improve Skittle's stats to increase his survival rate, but at the same time, if I increase Cobra, then it will be better for the Horde as a whole. Having someone fast to get to situations when needed is quite good to have.'

There was a conflict in Zain's mind, whether to focus on the survivability of his Horde group or that of his friend. If it was a game, he would have picked Cobra without a second of hesitation, but it was the first time that perhaps his heart had ruled over his head.

[Strength 23]

The group finally reached the office and was now standing in front of two large doors. Brandon knocked on them before pushing them to open, and a large table could be seen inside the room. Ryan was staring at a large whiteboard with a map stuck on it. On the map, there were pins placed in certain areas and a pen in his hand.

'He seems like a busy guy,' Zain thought. 'The map, has he circled all the territory areas, the areas of the other groups?'

Looking at it, Zain could see that Chinatown was also circled, and on top of that, there was the hospital as well as many other locations. There was a red mark over Chinatown, which Zain guessed meant it was a dangerous group.

There were some that had a green coloured marker next to them, and then finally there was another one, a question mark next to the hospital. According to the notes marked on the corner of the map, there were conflicting rumours as to whether this was a good group or not.

,m "Ah, sorry, my mind was in the clouds. Please, everyone, sit." Ryan greeted them with a large smile. Ryan was wearing a suit which seemed strange with what was going on at the moment. One would think that a person would wear clothing that was a bit more relaxing.

"It is great to meet the people who saved our people's lives. Although I would love to see all your faces a bit clearer but with the current situation at hand, I understand."

His words were directed towards Kun, who had a black scarf covering his face, of course, because he had to hide the marking that would reveal exactly who he was.

"It is a pleasure to meet you as well," Zain replied. "You have a good operation going on here. But let's cut to the chase. I have my reasons for wanting to see you, but I am also curious about what are your reasons for wanting to meet us?"

Ryan was surprised by how straightforward the university student was. This one was the most confident university student he had seen, that was for sure.

"Well, the situation is getting dangerous. More and more groups are pushing the borders they have, and not all of them have good intentions. With a strong group like yours, you three are a large asset in a time like this, and I wish for you to join our group.

"You will be given a high position in the group, with your own squad to lead and with whatever you wish to request. There will also be a supply chain granted to you."

Clear signs of anger were visible on the faces of the other three upon hearing this. A group of strangers were being treated as if they were some sort of messiah. Their group had only struggled slightly. Why did they desperately need these three?

"Don't you think you're giving them a bit too much?" Stu asked, clenching his fist. "I mean, I understand asking them to join. They are skilled, I will admit that, but to give them positions as high as ours when you don't even know them? That's too soon."

Brandon was also confused by how much Ryan was giving them, but with everything, he was sure that there was something that the latter was planning.

"Before I answer, I think you should give us a reward for protecting your people and bringing back the supplies," Zain replied. "Have you ever heard of the Reborn group?"

Ryan tapped his chin for a few seconds and eventually shook his head.

"I can't say I have. It's not one of the groups in the area, that's for sure, or at least not in this city. Nor was it something that I knew within my time. If I did know, I would certainly tell you, and if you stay with us, you will also be able to perhaps find out information about them."

"Okay, then, do you know anything about the military and what they plan to do with the meteorites they are going after?"

Once again, Ryan was surprised by Zain's questioning, surprised that a student would have any interest in the meteorites in the first place. This certainly wasn't a normal kid.

"The military, I don't know much about their movements. However, I have asked Brandon to try and set up a meeting with them. We have been following their movements and plan to ask for a meeting between the two of us."

The answers were disappointing, but Zain didn't expect he could get much from this group, and he wasn't planning on staying. He had his Horde of zombies. Those were his strength and skills he would use to survive this world, not a bunch of untrustworthy humans.

"I'm sorry, but we plan to stay as our own little group," Zain replied. "I thank you for the information, and truth be told, I was hoping you would have answers, but it looks like you don't. I hope you understand, and I also hope that the relationship between the two of us doesn't sour over my rejection."

The others on the table felt a bit offended, although they didn't want Zain to join, to easily just say no to an offer like that. It was almost as if Zain was claiming to be above them all.

"Then please, could the three of you at least stay the day? I will try my best to gather the information for you about the Reborn group and see if anyone knows anything. Besides, it should be safer to stay in here for the day than go out there, right?"n0𝐕𝓔𝒍𝓤𝔰𝒷.𝒞0𝔪

Zain looked at the hostile people in the room, but then he caught the eye of another, a certain person that had been acting somewhat strange after the questions. It was Brandon.

'It looks like he might know something. Maybe it's best just for one day.'

"Okay, we will stay for one day," Zain answered. "But we will do our own thing. However, you don't have to worry. We won't cause any trouble. Oh, and by the way, you can cross off the Cobra gang in Chinatown from that map of yours."

The smile on Ryan's face widened upon hearing these words because he knew he was right. These guys were the ones responsible for defeating the Cobra gang. He must do what he can to keep these people.

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After Zain and the other two had left the room, Ryan had a few words for the squad leaders who were still in the room.

"Look, I know you guys might not like the situation that we are in, but in the coming days, things will only get worse. I imagine what we see at the moment is only the beginning of everything." Ryan sighed, "Which is why I want you guys to bite your tongue and do the best you can to make these guys feel welcome, and I promise you won't regret it later."

However, despite the careful words that Ryan had chosen and because this was coming from Ryan instead of Brandon, Stu, who was the angriest out of the squad, was unable to hold back his tongue.

"You're going to get us all killed!" Stu almost shouted, "First of all, these guys aren't as impressive as you think they are. We tested them before they came up here, and secondly, that damned Kun guy even knows how to use a gun.

"I don't mean I am the only one who should know how to use one, but I am professionally trained. You know what that means, right? He's probably a spy from other groups."

It looked like Stu wanted to say more, but it was at that point that Brandon had stepped in and raised his hand, gesturing for the other to stop.

"I don't doubt that they could be working for someone else, or maybe in the past that they were, but there are two things you need to keep in mind. They saved Dave and his group for whatever reason that be. In this world as well, I feel like there is always a chance to change someone's mind. Besides, if I'm right, you think they're the ones that took out the gang from Chinatown, right?"

The others were taken aback by this comment. They had known the stories of those from Chinatown and the Cobra gang. Although that gang didn't have many guns, their groups had run into them before, and they had certain difficulties when facing the former.

There were even rumours of them keeping their own horde of zombies to use them as bait and attack. In the end, Ryan decided to just mark them as a dangerous group and avoid any confrontation.n0𝑣𝐞𝑙𝗎𝐒𝔅.𝕔0𝗆

"The Cobra gang has been eliminated. Almost all of their members were found dead. So they haven't just simply moved. This information was something that we received just recently and based on Zain's words at the end. It looks like he figured out we were keeping an eye on them." Ryan replied.

Still, Stu and Max couldn't believe that just three people were able to take out an entire gang, not one like the Cobra Gang. Even the accounts that Dave had told them, it seemed unbelievable for just three people to do such a thing, and if the zombie horde didn't come when it had done, they would have certainly been unlucky.

However, Tod, who had fought Zain, felt differently about the whole thing. During his fight with Zain, there was something he noticed in the latter. Even though Tod was more skilful in every way, it felt like no matter what he did in that fight, he would have lost.

He didn't know why but he couldn't shake off this feeling that Zain was extremely dangerous and was not a person he wanted to cross.

Since Brandon had ordered it, the leaders decided not to argue anymore and left the room.

——

Seeing the three return from upstairs and join the main hall, Dave and his group had come rushing over, including Pink's parents.

"We didn't get the chance to say it before because we were all in shock, but we just wanted to say thank you, thank you so much for saving us." The people weren't shy in saying their thanks, and as they said it loudly, the others around them wondered what had happened.

Dave and his people had already told some around them, and the news was spreading about the feat these three had in helping and saving their group.

"So, are you staying with us? Did Ryan allow you to stay with us?" Pink's mother asked.

Pulling an awkward face and scratching the back of her head, Pink didn't know what to say. It wasn't that Ryan was letting them stay, they had asked them to stay and were trying to convince them, but it was whether or not they would stay.

"We don't want to disrupt what you have here," Zain replied. "We will be staying here for one night and then making our own moves, however, we would like to keep up relations with your group. You have a good family here, and we have our own family."

Hearing those words, Pink's mother shook her head, and it looked like the three of them went off to allow Pink more time to explain. Zain gave her a final look as if to say whatever you do, don't tell them who we are.

While Zain was talking to Dave and the others, there was another group of people that had approached Kun, and they were the ones that had been in the training hall earlier. They had finished their training and were relaxing for the rest of the day but were still impressed by his skills with the gun.

"I think you did that faster than the instructor. Do you mind showing us how you did that?" One of them asked.

"Yeah, does that mean you're a professional? You should be good at shooting, right? Maybe you can give us a few tips."

Just as all of the people were gathering around Kun, the squad leaders started to walk down the stairs, and Stu could overhear them all, a vein popping out from the side of his head, and his hand hovering over the gun.

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Hearing all of the students asking him questions about guns and more, Kun's shoulders started to shake up and down.

"Finally! After all these years, being a gun freak has made me popular! Haha!" Kun laughed out loud.

"Whatever you guys need, I will teach you and show you my secret ways, but remember that the great Kun Magnus was the one who taught you."

Pulling out the submachine, Kun started to show off as he did a number of different hits, aiming down his sight, rolling on the ground, putting his gun in certain positions and more.

No one had asked him to do these things yet, so it was quite embarrassing just watching the gun rolling and shooting at imaginary targets making gunshot noises with his mouth, but it was entertaining for the young ones.

Most of those that were at the base were young in the first place, and since Kun was closer in age to them, it was easier for them to look up to him. On the other hand, their instructor was more hard-headed and tough on them.

At the end of the day, they were just normal people and not the ones that Stu would be used to teach. However, as Stu came down the stairs, he witnessed and heard everything.

Standing behind Kun was Stu, with a certain heat coming off his body. The students looked guilty as they were unable to make eye contact, and their enthusiasm had completely snapped.

"It's fine. Follow this idiot into battle and see what happens!" Stu shouted. "At the end of the day, I am taking my time to train you every day, and we are the ones that are on the front lines to protect you. While these people won't even stay to protect you.n0𝒱𝑒𝗅𝓊𝚜𝓑.𝑐0𝚖

"They're happy to take these weapons and protect themselves."

Kun was clenching his hand around his gun. The thing was, if Kun was still like them, still a human, and had arrived at this place, he would quite happily use his skills to help protect them, but it was impossible for them to stay here, at least not at the moment while everyone was scared of the said zombies.

Which was why he was unable to argue back, because it did really look like he was just abandoning all of these guys.

"Listen to your instructor," Kun said. "He is right. He is the one protecting you, not me."

"Hmph, spineless."

Despite everything that happened, it seemed like the people got along with Zain and the others. They continued to talk to them and wanted to ask them about their stories of how they had managed to survive so long.

Seeing this scene and how calm and happy everyone was, was still annoying Stu. His anger had been bottling up for a long time now, which was why he had decided to head out of the hallway and out through the entrance of the museum.

"Sir, where are you going?" The front two guards stationed at the sandbags said.

"Outside, I need to clear my head. If anyone needs my help with anything, tell them to talk to that Kun guy." Stu grumbled.

As he left the museum, the sun was starting to set in the place.

Stu had grabbed a blade and was taking out his frustration on the zombies in the streets. Slashing at their heads and stabbing them again and again.

One zombie he had taken down an alleyway and kicked it right in its stomach, causing it to fall and trip to the ground.

"Why!" Stu shouted. "Why does no one respect me in that place after everything I have done? Even before the world went to shit, I risked my life to save and protect people, and this is how I got treated?!"

Stu stabbed the zombie in the stomach, again and again, cutting part of its arms, so it was unable to strike him. He knew it wouldn't kill the zombie, but he needed something to take out his anger on.

The zombie attempted to get up, but as it did, Stu whacked its head with the back of his gun, sending it back down.

"You stay still, damn it, or I'll shoot you in the head!" He shouted.

Stu was huffing and panting with the gun pointed at the zombie, but of course, it didn't listen and tried to attack him again. Turning the blade around, Stu was ready to finish the zombie off.

While doing this though, distracted by his anger, what he didn't notice was a zombie that was climbing out of the window. It had smelt the scent of a human for a while now and had dropped down and latched right onto the back of Stu's back.

"You weak piece of shit, get off me!" Satu shouted as he wiggled and did everything he could to stop the zombie from biting him. When it opened his move, Stu quickly ran backwards, slamming the zombie into the wall behind him. Eventually, the grip of the zombie weakened, and turning around, Stu gave it a powerful kick to the face.

Before getting his blade and stabbing it at the top of the head.

"Ha ha, that was a close one. Dman, those guys, they nearly made me turn into one of them!"

It was then that Stu could feel a slight stinging pain in his neck. When using his hand to brush against it, he could tell that there was a scratch on his neck, not just a small one either. It was bleeding quite heavily and was a deep one.

"Why does the world f*cking hates me?!" Stu cried out loud. "All of this, all of it is those guys' fault. If they had never turned up, none of this would have ever happened to me!" Stu's eyes were bulging with anger, and it was then, pulling out the guns he had on him, he walked out onto the street.

"Well, it looks like I will soon turn into one of you guys. Let's see if those damn students can protect the place without me and how good that Kun guy really will be for those annoying shits."

Lifting his gun in the air, he let out several gunshots, attracting the attention of the Zombies, and now, Stu was making his way back to the museum.

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Opening the System interface, Zain ensured that his Horde members were safe. He observed that they were still on the map, their hunger levels were good, and it looked like there was no trouble in sight, at least at where they were.

Since they were in the city, there were plenty of apartments and rooms that one could hide in, making the area somewhat safe for them. Food was the only problem when leaving them for a few days like that. However, Zain knew that making the stay for one day wouldn't be a problem.

And the main reason why Zain had agreed to stay with Ryan's group for the day was that he wanted to speak to Brandon. There was a reaction he felt or sensed, it was very minute, but Zain had caught onto it when he had asked questions to Ryan.

Whether Brandon reacted like so because of the Reborn group or the military, Zain wasn't so sure, but there was something he was hiding for sure, and it seemed like he was keeping it a secret even from Ryan. On the other hand, Ryan seemed to be telling the truth, which meant if Zain wanted his answers, he would have to take his questions to the group's other leader.

But the problem was, there didn't seem to be an opportunity so far. The group were relaxing in the main hall, where they had been provided with sleeping bags like the others. There were also tin cans of food distributed to them, but of course, they did not need to eat that.

Brandon was going back and forth, talking to the different guards, and even now, reports were coming in as groups joined and left. He also had to discuss other matters and plans for where people would need to go next.

It honestly made Zain wonder what Ryan did, as Brandon was the one who seemed to be most of the work. Then, as it got closer to night and the sky began to turn dark, the people returned, and the movement started to slow down.

'Do they also know about the Demons? It was something that I didn't ask, but it could just be the fact that it's smarter if they don't move at night. It's easier to make mistakes.'

p "Where is Stu?" Brandon suddenly asked, frustrated, putting his sunglasses on the top of his head again. The lights were always on in the museum, and whenever Brandon was stressed, he would rub his eyes and move his sunglasses about.

"The front team reported that he left about an hour and a half ago, but we haven't received any report about his report." One of the squad guards reported.

"That damn fool, when he returns, I'll kill him myself. How could he leave at a time like this?" Brandon replied in frustration and stormed off into another separate room.

It was a room where Zain had seen a few people enter but had yet to come out.

'The people who have gone inside, are they...'

As time passed, Zain continued to watch everything that was going on, and he was starting to think his guess was true.

"Man, there sure are a lot of people coughing," Kun commented, snuggling into his sleeping bag. Just then, there were a few more coughs going around the room, it echoed slightly due to the large hall.

"I think you might be right...and it could be quite serious," Zain replied.

"Wait, surely it's just a simple cough, right?" Kun frowned. "If there is something even more severe spreading other than that zombie virus, I mean, then isn't everyone in here in serious trouble? I mean, we are so close to each other, so we are bound to spread it to each other."

"I don't think we have to worry about anything." Zain quickly corrected the other. "There were medical supplies in that crate, they should be able to use them, but depending on what's being passed around and how bad it is, it could seriously weaken their group and soldiers."

"Somebody help! Her body's burning!" A familiar voice shouted, and it was coming from Pink of all people.

She had been staying with her parents since it could possibly be the last time she would see them in a while, and while talking to them, her mother suddenly collapsed on the ground. She was short of breath, and her cheeks were flushed red.

When Pink went to touch the top of her head, she was unsure if she was burning up or not because she couldn't really feel, but her father could.

Immediately, a few guards ran over along with Brandon, and Ryan also exited his room as he came downstairs. The guards carried her mother and moved her to the other room where others were staying, and Ryan quickly went to join them.

In the other room, there were a total of six people that were in a similar condition to Pink's mother lying on the floor and were being looked after by a single person.

"It doesn't look like anything we are doing is helping. I have also given them anti-inflammatory painkillers, but their temperature isn't dropping. We have isolated the worst ones inside here, but I'm afraid that others outside are also starting to show signs." The man explained.

"Do you have any ideas?" Ryan asked with his finger on his chin, thinking about the situation. The problem was creating a lot of trouble for the group, and they wanted to resolve it as soon as possible.

"We could isolate everyone who is beginning to show symptoms and bring them away from the others. It will stop the spread of whatever this is, and then if anyone is showing similar signs, we will just place them inside here as well." Brandon suggested.

Ryan thought about it for a while and eventually shook his head.

"Our group is still very new. Just because we're the leaders doesn't mean our words are a law for them. They just follow us out of respect. If we start forcing people or splitting them up, it might cause an uproar, which will only worsen the situation because the people are already on edge as it is.

"Something like this, or treating others differently, could cause a big problem. On top of that, what about the guards? If they are part of the sick ones, we might not have the manpower to defend this place if there is an attack."

"Then what do you suggest?" Brandon asked, agreeing with Ryan, but what solution was there? How would they solve the problem?

"There is one thing we could do. The Hospital. That group has a doctor there. If we send out a small group, then we can ask them to help us in our current situation." Ryan replied.

There was an uneasy look on Brandon's face when he heard Ryan's suggestion.

"But...can we trust them? If we were to do that, I would only be comfortable with sending a somewhat strong group, but if we did that, then this place won't be well protected either."

That's when a smile appeared on Ryan's face as if he knew that was the question that was going to be asked.

"There are quite a few strong people that recently joined us, are there not? If we sent you along with them, I think that your group would be a capable enough team. If the doctor is unwilling to help us or strike a deal, then there may be a chance that you might need to force them."

It was a good choice. Honestly, it was the best choice, but Zain and the others were already reluctant to join their group, so why would they do a favour like this for them? However, Brandon looked at one person in the room, and he was looking at the one reason that group of three would help.

A few moments later, Zain, Kun, and Pink were invited into the room. The situation was explained to them, and honestly, Ryan had said the condition of the others was worse than what they really were. He had practically told them that they wouldn't get better without seeing the doctor, even though he didn't know if that was true or not.n0𝑽𝔢𝗅𝑢𝐒𝗯.𝗰0𝓂

In the end, Ryan requested as per the plan, and now it was time for Zain and his group to respond.

"We have to help, Zain, it's my mother...I need to save her." Pink asked, pleading with her voice.

Kun didn't say anything because he was unsure Zain would accept. After all, it wasn't his mother that was in trouble.

"We don't know anything about this hospital," Zain replied. "There are a lot of risks, and the reward for us is nil."

"You damn robot, can't you see I'm trying to help my family!!" Pink shouted. "What if this was your family?!"

When he heard those words, the ringing in the back of his head started again, and Zain rubbed it, wincing in pain.

"You won't be the only ones taking the risk. We will send Dave and Brandon with you. It won't just be your burden alone," Ryan explained. "And I promise we will owe you a great favour for this."

Zain was still rubbing the back of his head due to the excruciating pain he was feeling, and that was when the doors burst open behind them.

"Sir, it's an emergency. There is a horde of zombies coming our way!"

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Brandon and Ryan had decided to immediately rush outside, while telling one person to keep an eye on the sick. Both of their eyebrows frowned as they were worried about what this could mean on the camp.

"Why now of all times!" Brandon said with an aggressive voice, the veins on his hand were bulging as he walked quickly out form the room and into the main hall. He could see the look of worry on everyone's faces as they looked towards them, and all of the guards getting ready with their weapons.

"We can't predict everything that is going to happen in these times." Ryan replied. "That is why we just have to do our best and why I was so worried about sending a large group out."

As they got closer to the exit, several bangs were heard which was strange. The guards on duty knew not to act, and even if they did see zombies coming toward them, they would have at least a bit of leeway before they reached the front doors of the museum.

Yet the familiar sound was clearly a gun but sounded off in the distance which was making Brandon worry that the attack could be not just from Zombies but someone else as well.

In the meantime, rather than follow the rest of the group, Zain asked the others to follow him and had decided to head up to the second floor. If he remembered correctly, there was a balcony overseeing everything which would allow them to get a better look at the situation.

——

Standing out in front, by the large staircase, Brandon was outside with ten guards that each had guns on them. They also had melee weapons on standby, close to the sandbags.

Immediately, he could see straight ahead, down the street that there were hordes of zombies coming towards them, but due to how far they were they looked like ants. However, every once in a while along with the loud bang, a small flash could be seen, a flash coming off from a gun.

"What started this, does anyone have any idea?" Brandon asked.

One of the men had binoculars and was looking out at the zombies off in the distance, he was trying to predict an estimate for the others as to how long it would take them to reach their current position.

The good thing was the large staircase that led up to the museum. It was one of the reasons why the museum was being used as a holdout because the zombies found it tricky to climb up them.

They would just push and shove climbing over each other making it easier for their group to deal with them.n0𝑽𝔢𝗅𝑢𝐒𝗯.𝗰0𝓂

"Sir, I don't think you're going to like what I'm seeing." The man gulped with the binoculars in his hand.

Immediately, Brandon snatched it out of his hands and took a look for himself from where the flashes were coming, and that's when he could see standing in front of the zombies was a human, but not just any human, one that they recognized well.

"What is that B*stard doing! Has he gone mad!" Brandon was at a loss for words. Stu had been in the squad with him for a while, even before this whole mess and although he would sometimes have a bad temper, he couldn't imagine what would lead someone to do something like this.

"The zombies, they aren't attacking him, my best guess is he has a few hours until he completely turns. Maybe he blames us, or me, for what has happened to him and he is wanting to get revenge, either way it doesn't matter. He is the problem now and we need to deal with it as quickly as we can."

After saying those words, Ryan turned around and headed back into the museum. Brandon didn't know what Ryan was planning to do or why he had gone inside, but it was his job, with the squad members to protect this place, that's what they had agreed.

Looking through the binoculars again, Brandon had predicted that they had two minutes… two minutes until the zombies reached the staircase of the museum.

"Alright, Max, Tod, we have been preparing for this day for a while now, we knew something like this was going to happen. From the looks of things, there are some of those giant Zombies within the crowd that are coming towards us as well.

"None of this is going to be easy. Since Stu is using his gun to attract the attention of the zombies around, that means it doesn't matter if we use our own firepower. You are permitted to use guns.

"However, the main task is to eliminate Stu and stop the noise. Once Stu has been eliminated we are to switch to standard protocol. Weapons are not to be used unless absolutely necessary, and we are to get rid of the zombies… do you understand!"

"Yes sir!" They shouted back, but they were unsure.

The amount of zombies were in the hundreds perhaps even reaching around a 1000 Zombies that were coming. The entire squad, their truly trained members, numbers were around fifteen.

With just them, they were unsure they would be enough to deal with this attack.

Back inside the place, there was one person who had already predicted all of this, and that was Ryan.

"What we have feared has finally come," Ryan stated. "It looks like the Zombies have chosen to attack this place. However, I truly believe that we can protect this place, that was what this place was built for, and why we all trained every single day.

"Everyone here is worth something, everyone here has a role. Those that have been training, those that are ready to fight… pick up a weapon by your side and protect the people you care about." Ryan said, as he bent down and took off his suit jacket and threw it on the floor, before picking up a bat that had several nails hammered into it, and turning around to head back out.

Ryan's eyes were focused, and right now, the others looking at him felt like he was a general from the past, one that led by example rather than from behind. They were about to go into a war zone.

Thank you everyone for supporting LUZ so far, and I hope you can continue to support LUZ in the WSA journey by voting for the story! Please continue to use your Stones and Tickets!

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