"Hey!" I yelled, banging my fists aggressively on the door. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"Just go with the plan." I heard the door lock click as she spoke. "You came up with the whole thing, didn't you?" She asked. "Since you're such a genius, I trust you'd be able to figure out something."
Figuring out something used to be an option until she took my sword from me. That was probably to convince the monster that I was intentional about being its lunch, but regardless, it was still a reckless move.
HISS! The zombie boss hissed behind me, as if trying to warn me to behave when on its turf. It was looking at me directly now, and I could see it clearly. It had a humanoid-shaped appearance, but with bulgy eyes and reptilian skin. It was easy to tell that the whole zombification of the school had started with him.
The look on its face was bland. Not exactly matching the hunger it felt. It just stood looking bored, like something that just came out of a two hour long black and white movie. Its mouth was opened in a way that made it hard to tell whether or not it was open. However position it was, the monster was definitely hungry. I could tell from the drool.
"Yeah, this is not good."
"B...B...brain?" The monster spoke, something like a question. Then he pointed at me, more precisely at my head. "B...brain?"
"Ah, no, not my brain," I said, holding my hands out. "I'm too dumb. My brain definitely can't be tasty."
Maybe the word tasty was the wrong choice of word, because the zombie boss charged at me immediately, the precise energy of an athlete with years of experience.
"Brain!!"
It swatted at me, hands attempting to reach for my head. I ducked and went down, crossing over its arms and behind it. It came at me again, with speed that I hadn't believed a zombie boss could manage. On the bright side, it was all speed and no strategy. I could keep up with it as long as—
WHACK!
The kick hit harder than anything I'd expected. Not that I was expecting it anyway. If anything, I didn't know that zombies could kick too. The moment I crashed against the railings, I felt it in my back, probably alongside a crack somewhere in my spine.
The zombie boss came towards me, eyes set on me with the same blank expression. It kept muttering the only words it knew, then took me up by the collar, lifting me just enough to meet his eyes in clear proximity view.
I almost barfed.
"Brain. Brain." It opened its mouth, and what earlier looked like an unbalanced jaw was now something else. Something as wide as the entrance of a tunnel. "Brain. Brain. Brain."
"Hey, Paula!" I yelled, gripping the monster's arm tightly. "If you're gonna be useful, now is the perfect time."
Paula didn't answer. The monster brought my head closer to its mouth.
"Paula!"
SLICE! I heard sword against flesh. The monster growled immediately in pain. It dropped me, staggered backwards a little, turning around to figure out what exactly had attacked it. And there she was. Paula. Standing in the exact manner of someone who'd accepted they'd lost a fight.
The monster towered over her, seemingly huffing out cold air from both nostrils. Then it grabbed her with an unregistered speed, full anger mode written in its bulgy eyes.
"I think I got it now, Ren." She said with a slow, distressed huff. "It's not a revival. It's a repetition. I now understand why I could never beat the monster." She grunted. "That's probably never going to change for me."
I looked at her, pure confusion written on my face.
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"The answer to your question." She said. "I only had one chance. We all did. And somehow, we all failed that chance and ended up as part of this damned system."
"We?" I tried to keep my eyes open through the blinding cold. "What do you mean, we?"
She didn't immediately answer. She raised her sword and mine in the air, in the manner of someone who was about to land an epic strike. Probably her last. Then she replied:
"The bureau has the answers. The hunters, specifically. Everyone thought I was stupid. They still think I am." She glanced at me one last time. "You have to survive Ren, find the answers. About the system. About all these. You have no idea what depends on what you discover."
I wasn't sure whether or not her speech was all part of the node setup. But it was making literal sense, which actually ended up making no sense at all. How could an NPC know about the Bureau Hunters? The system.
And the fact that she said that this wasn't a revival, but a repetition. She sounded exactly like a normal person would...
STAB! Paula's sword impaled through the zombie's left chest. And with mine, she sliced its right arm off. The arm dropping was brutal. Green blood dripped down the monster's wound, but surprisingly, it was still alive and standing. Still growling in pain instead of being dead.
"Finish it, Ren—"
Before Paula could finish, the monster flung her off like some forbidden item. Her body went over right beside me, and down the six-floor-tall building. The drop echoed.
"Paula!!"
I rushed towards the railings, peering down to a barely conscious Paula, swords clattering right beside her, eyes barely open as her blood flowed down the tiles. I felt my breathing become constricted, my chest thumping in some weird, uncoordinated speed. The same thump I'd felt when I'd watched Rowan being electrocuted the other day.
Paula was looking back at me, her mouth moving as she slowly whispered something. I could hear her from six floors away, but I sure read her lips.
"I'm...fine."
And even while the zombies on the field approached her, she still repeated those words. The zombies cooped over her like a swarm of pests. And the only thing I heard afterwards was munching and slurping.
The thumping stopped. Everything pretty much stopped. And rage came online instead. I pulled myself away from the railing, eyes directed towards the zombie boss. I equipped my sword again, and a cleaner, less blood-stained one appeared in the grip of my hand.
Kill. Kill. Kill.
Kill!
Kill!
I walked towards the monster, then raised my arms in the air, yelling with complete aggression as I drew a brutal slice down the monster's torso. Blood gushed out of its body, green and sticky— before it gave its final groan and dropped to the floor.
[Timer: 00:00:00]
[Task Complete!]
[Rewards]
[Mastery Distribution]
[Skill: ....]
The domain began its replacement, but this time, I was on the rooftop instead of in the library, where the domain had earlier happened.
The cold had dissolved into a fair amount of warmth. The sun was brighter, the kind of reminded you had a brutal afternoon on the track field. The world didn't look as interesting as it used to be hours before the tournament started.
Paula. She was a player like me. That was all I understood at that moment. Which meant that if she was a player, then I was definitely not the main player.
What was I, then?
RINNG! RINNG! The phone sounded from my pocket, interrupting the sudden moment. I pulled it out, intending to turn it off. There were already too many things to process after all. I checked the screen, then I stopped.
Doctor Emma.
I'd given her my number yesterday in case she could communicate Rowan's recovery process with me. It was the least I could do. To stay back and hope that he recovers quickly from whatever coma he was in. Except that, this was way too early a timeline for a recovery from a critical issue. It wasn't even twenty-four hours yet.
What's this about?
I clicked the accept call button and placed the phone to my right ear. "Hello, doctor."
"Ren. It's Rowan." The doctor's tone had something in it. Like controlled panic. "I'm sorry... But we lost him."