"Michael… son… help me!!!"
Michael woke up to his father's terrified voice, only to find himself standing before the ruins of his home, watching countless zombies surrounding his parents in a corner.
"Mm… mm…" Michael tried to moveto screambut his body wouldn't respond.
forced to watch unable to look away—as they were torn apart.
Amid their desperate screams and pleas for help from their only son, Michael was breaking apart as his tears flowed, mixing with the rivers of blood.
"No—!""Hah… hah…" Michael's scream startled everyone in the library.
"Hey, Michael, Michael… it's just a nightmare." Sean rushed over to calm him down.
"What time is it now?" Michael's face was drenched in sweat as he asked.
"The sun just started rising a bit ago, I think it's around four or five in the morning," Sean replied. Michael stood up to wash his face, only to find that the water had also been cut off.
"I'll go out and get some air… it's suffocating in here." Michael left the library, taking his staff with him.
He needed something to focus on.
Whoosh… whoosh
When Michael arrived, he found Yu-Min practicing his sword style, so he used his new skill on him.
Yu Min Hanz
Level: 2 {45/50 xp}
Class: None
Mana: 24
Strength: 13
Stamina: 11
Vitality: 9
Agility: 14
Intelligence: 12
Skills: Ji Nia Swordsmanship / Mana Slash (lvl?)
Michael was surprised by Yu-Min's stats, as they were higher than his own despite being a full level below him. Michael's stats were:
Mana: 26 +10
Strength: 10
Stamina: 10
Vitality: 10
Agility: 13
Intelligence: 13 (+5)
Then Michael noticed the sword Yu-Min was swinging a black-bladed katana with a gold-decorated handle.
{Samurai Katana: Rank 1 Weapon}
(A thin sword made from high-quality iron, forged using flames from a Rank 1 creature by a skilled blacksmith.)
[Quality: Very rare]
[Effects: +3 Agility +1 Strength +2 Intelligence]
"That explains why his stats are this high…"
"…lucky bastard."
Michael thought to himself as he began training on forming fireballs.
each cast felt smoother than the last
he continued until he exhausted all his mana, then repeated the process.
And so, the two trained until the sun reached the middle of the sky.
"This staff… it's amazing!" Michael exclaimed when he discovered that using the staff helped improve his skills, as the red crystal seemed to always guide the best way to control mana.
"You were really lucky… the next one is mine," Sean said, looking at Michael with jealousy.
"Alright then, what's the plan now?" Marcus came over and asked Michael.
"Call everyone. I'll explain." and so Michael explained their escape plan to the others.
"What are we waiting for then? We should start clearing the zombies now," Marcus spoke immediately after Michael finished.
"We need to secure the library first."
"Everyone with combat abilities comes with me to clear, the rest will lock the doors tightly and wait for our return," Michael nodded as he chose who would stay.
"I'll come with you, I have a skill too," Marcus stepped forward, holding a shield in his hand.
"Huh? When did you get a skill?" Sean interrupted, surprised.
"When you left and we were cleaning the library, I found a skill book near the zombies I killed," Marcus confirmed.
"We move in fifteen minutes, everyone get ready."
After fifteen minutes, five people stood in front of the library, and the metal shutters were closed behind them.
"Are you sure you want to come?" Michael asked Angela,
Angela stood there hands shaking.
"Yes… don't worry about me. I have a skill too"
"I… I can handle myself."
Angela tried to steady herself, but the fear in her voice was obvious.
"Sean, first we help Angela and Marcus level up."
"We'll cripple the zombies and let them take the kills" Michael turned to Sean, raising the newbies levels was the best for the team.
"Where are we heading first?" After helping Marcus and Angela reach level two, the team arrived at a group of residential buildings they had to pass through to reach the mechanical engineering building.
"Michael, look there," Angela pointed toward a window.
There was a large piece of cloth hanging with the words
"Save me."
"We should just lock the doors of these buildings and pass."
"It's not worth the risk clearing them."
Yu-Min spoke for the first time since the journey began. He had done nothing except kill two random zombies.
"I understand your reasoning, but we can't do that for two reasons."
"First, there are people who need help inside"
" Second, those doors won't stop evolved zombies," as soon as Michael finished speaking, everyone's expressions changed—except Sean.
"What do you mean by evolved zombies??" Marcus shouted in shock, and Michael told them about the giant zombie he and Sean had faced.
"I guess we have no other choice," Yu Min shrugged, drew his sword, and walked toward the building with the help sign. The others followed behind him.
"The plan is as follows: Marcus and I are one team, Yu-Min, Angela, and Sean are another. We move together and clear the floors from the first to the sixth gradually,"
once inside, Michael divided them to speed up the search.
"This is disgusting… these damn zombies," when they reached the first floor, they were met with a horrifying sight.
The corridor looked like something out of hell—rotting black organs and clotted red blood stretched across its entire length.
Just looking at it, you could imagine the massacre that had happened here.
"Angela, are you okay? Can you continue?" Michael turned to
Angela who frozed in place.
"Y-yes… I'll continue," she bit her lip and forced herself to keep moving.
"Each team picks a room and clears it," Michael nodded to Sean, and both teams got to work.
After half an hour, the entire first floor was cleared, and they found nothing but zombies.
"Let's go up to the second floor," Michael climbed the stairs and began clearing it.
...
^Zola Jose POV^
"I failed again…"
"I should've studied more for that exam." I kicked a stone as I walked back to my dorm after failing the programming exam again. I mean seriously, what's the point of studying an outdated language like C++??
We live in a time where operating systems use AI and program themselves.
"Hey Zola, did you fail another test??" Suddenly, a girl with beautiful purple hair, black eyes, and an attractive figure stepped in front of me.
I knew her well—actually, everyone in the university knew her.
"I'm not in the mood for jokes, Selina," I shrugged and kept walking, ignoring what people called the "number one beauty of the university." I knew her well enough not to be fooled by that stupid title.
If I had to describe her in one word, it would be… "devil."
"Oh, don't be like that, poor Zola. Your dear older cousin is here to help you," Selina continued to annoy me despite my obvious attempts to ignore her.
"Selina, that's enough, please." I couldn't take it anymore and turned to beg her to leave me alone. It must've looked ridiculous Zola, the nobody student, rejecting Selina Rodriguez.
"You broke my heart, Zola… all I wanted was to help you," Selina held her chest dramatically, continuing to mock me.
"Alright, I'm leaving now. You're too boring," when she finally seemed tired of bothering me, she left, giving me the chance to breathe as I finally reached my room and collapsed onto my bed.
"Noises… screams…"
"What is all that screaming, you idiots!? Don't you realize there are people trying to sleep down here!?"
I woke up angrily because of the noise and went straight to the window to curse those bastards upstairs.
'What… is happening? How did the world turn into this hell?'
When I opened the window, all the insults I had prepared got stuck in my throat.
The horror before me shocked me completely the clean university streets were dyed with crimson blood.
Students were running everywhere, fleeing from each other. A boy tried to help a girl who fell, only for her to bite his hand, knock him down, and start devouring him as he screamed.
"This is a nightmare… yes, just a nightmare. I'll stay here until I wake up,"
I shut the window as fast as I could and sat beside my bed, waiting to wake up. And so, a whole day passed.
Every now and then, I heard noises coming from the upper floor, but I ignored them, waiting to wake up.
A whole day passed… now I started accepting that I wasn't dreaming.
The noise upstairs stopped completely. The only thing I could hear now was the roars of those monsters at the end of the hallway.
Boom… boom
I started hearing doors breaking, getting closer to my room. I didn't have the courage to open the door, so I armed myself with a kitchen knife and waited.
If they broke in, I would at least take one of those damned monsters with me. I wouldn't die without a fight.
...
Sean broke the wooden door open as usual, and to his surprise, someone rushed at him waving a kitchen knife.
Luckily, Sean reacted quickly, dodging and causing the person to fall to the ground, the knife flying away.
"Hey, hey, watch it! I'm not a zombie," Sean helped the young man up, seeing the terror clearly on his face.
"Thank you… thank you… rescue finally came," the boy started crying, thinking the nightmare was over.
"Calm down, and tell me what happened," hearing the commotion, Michael and Marcus rushed over to see Sean calming the boy.
"My name is Zola… I'm a computer science student. I returned to my dorm exhausted after lectures like any normal day, then I slept… when I woke up, this hell was all I saw," Zola stuttered, his words sometimes unclear.
"Alright Zola, tell me… are there any other survivors in this building?" Michael approached and asked him.
"Yes… yes, there are people on the sixth floor. I think they locked themselves behind the iron door. I saw them hanging a sign from the window,"
Zola spoke like a child who had just learned how to talk, his words broken due to shock.
Spending two full nights alone, hearing zombies chewing flesh and people crying around you… it would be a miracle not to go insane.
"Zola, stay here. We'll rescue the others and come back for you," Michael stood up and continued clearing again.
And so, they cleared the third, fourth, and fifth floors, killing all the zombies.
Things went smoothly, and they rescued three boys including Zola.
And this continued… until they reached the sixth floor.
What they saw there… was something they were not ready to face.