The team found the iron door Zola had mentioned.
What surprised them was that the iron bars had been broken and scattered across the stairs.
"Wait, something feels off here. Let's turn back." Michael felt the strangeness of the surrounding place; an eerie silence, the strong scent of blood coming from the other side of the door.
a suffocating atmosphere that made it hard to breathe.
Michael didn't want to risk exploring, so he made a decisive choice and told Marcus to stop and not enter.
"Are you serious? You want to turn back now?"
"No way, we have to finish what we started." Marcus rejected Michael's strange decision. The whole team looked at Michael strangely, puzzled by this sudden decision.
"Fine but be careful. Something feels strange here." Michael sighed helplessly.
maybe he was overthinking it.
One by one, the team slipped through the hole in the door, with Yu-Min at the back.
"Hey, guys, look!" Upon entering, Marcus pointed to the end of the corridor.
A human-like shadow moved back and forth at the end of the corridor.
"Hello, is there anyone else here besides you?" Marcus shouted at the shadow, searching for a response.
The shadow suddenly shot forward like an arrow from a bow. As soon as Michael saw the shadow, he immediately activated his Observation skill.
{Rank-1 Runner:
A zombie who reached Rank 1 and somehow survived its trial. Its main focus is speed, and its intelligence has been slightly enhanced.}
[Level: ????]
[Skills: ????]
"Run!!!" Michael shouted to alert everyone, but the zombie had already reached Angela.
"No, you won't!" Marcus moved from his place, moving so fast it left afterimages behind
He appeared between Angela and the advanced zombie, blocking its strike with his shield, pushing both backward.
The impact caused Marcus to stumble and fall onto Angela.
His face turned pale as he saw, his shield had been torn apart like paper and there was a small scratch on the back of his hand.
Everyone got a good look at the runner zombie.
its grotesque swollen thighs, the contrast between its muscular lower half and skinny upper half created a terrifying image, its pus-filled, decayed face, and claws resembling talons made the scene even more horrifying.
"How the hell are we supposed to fight this thing?" The visual impact of the zombie overwhelmed Angela, who started staggering, her body shaking uncontrollably.
"Running isn't an option, we have to fight." Michael realized that if they turned their backs on this monster, the last thing they'd see would be their friends' corpses before they themselves get killed.
"Angela, cast the curse to slow it down quickly." Michael shouted and shook Angela to wake her from her shock.
her eyes were blank, completely unresponsive.
At that exact moment, Yu-Min took advantage of the chaos to flee, leaving the others to face their fate alone.
^Marcus POV^
"This damn zombie wants to attack Angela, and there's no way I'm letting that happen!" Marcus activated his only skill and dashed to save his beloved.
imagining her running to him after this was over.
"Strong… very strong." Upon collision with the monster, he felt its true strength. It was different from any zombie he had fought before.
At that moment, he understood why Michael was so afraid of the advanced zombie.
"Did you get hurt anywhere?" He quickly stood up after the fall, checking Angela and then his shield.
Well, you can't really call it a shield anymore; it had split into tiny pieces with a single strike, which was frightening.
But what really scared him was the scratch on the back of his hand.
"Huh? I got scratched, I guess this is the end then." He smiled wryly and mocked himself.
He had been scared of death terrified just thinking about it but perhaps it was the adrenaline that made his feelings for Angela even stronger.
All he could think about now was saving her.
Since fear wouldn't help him now, and he was likely going to die anyway, he figured he could at least drag that monster down with him.
Many thoughts rushed through his mind.
He regretted not doing anything remarkable in his life.
He wasn't the child his parents had hoped for, nor the smartest or best at anything he had done. Even his love for his life-long crush had remained unspoken since middle school.
He had only been watching her like a pathetic shadow
The reason he was in the library was just to see her, as he knew she came here often.
In a few seconds, all these thoughts and memories flashed before his eyes, and he resolved to do the best thing he had ever done in his life.
"Michael, I have a way to restrain it for a short time. Attack it at my signal with all your strength."
He pushed all his strength and used the last drops of his mana to strike the beast and knock it down.
Marcus held on tightly, wrapping his hands around the zombie's thin waist.
ignoring the pain, the stench, and the disgust of hugging a zombie.
The zombie began tearing his back with its metal claws; flesh tore apart, his back nearly ripped open
The only thing remaining was his scream repeating the same word over and over:
"Kill it! Kill it!
Michael kept thinking of a strategy to win, when all of this suddenly happened
He didn't react until Marcus's grip on the zombie began to loosen and the zombie showed signs of breaking free.
hurled fireballs at the zombie's head until his mana was completely exhausted.
"I'm sorry."
Silence filled the corridor; all that could be heard was Michael's heavy breathing and low whispers before he fainted from mana overuse. He didn't even notice the message that appeared in his mind:
[You killed the Runner Zombie (Lvl 10 of Rank 1) +120XP]
[Congratulations! You reached Level 4. You have 3 free stat points.]
[Congratulations! You reached Level 5. You have 3 free stat points.]
"Are you okay?" When Michael woke up, he found himself lying on the floor in the library, Sean sitting nearby, watching over him, handing him some water.
"Yes, just a bit tired. How long have I been asleep?" Michael nodded to Sean, took a few sips of water, then held his head from a mild headache.
"About two hours. The sun is almost setting outside. Don't worry, we brought everyone back safely. Nothing happened while you were asleep. Take some rest."
"You deserve it." Sean let out a small sigh and reassured Michael that what had happened wasn't his fault.
"Did you bury him?" Michael looked into Sean's eyes, who lowered his head, unwilling to meet his friend's gaze.
"Yes, I made sure he got a proper burial." Sean massaged his forehead before standing and leaving Michael to rest alone.
Michael sighed as he remembered how he had lost control at that moment; they must have destroyed what was left of his body
"Yes, and before I forget, this fell from that advanced zombie…" Sean tossed a metal chest to Michael and walked upstairs where everyone was gathering for food.
Michael held the chest tightly in front of him:
[Metal Treasure Chest:
A chest containing equipment and Rank 1 skill books, with a small chance to get rare items.]
[Do you want to open this chest?]
[Yes] [No]
Michael chose to open the chest immediately.
{Skill Book: Low Magic Resistance (Negative)
Over time and with practice, this skill improves the user's magical resistance by long training sessions soaking the body in mana.}
[Quality: Rare]
[Mana Consumed: N/A]
[Cooldown: N/A]
Michael learned the skill immediately and opened his status screen to distribute his points as follows +1 Strength ,+1 Vitality ,+1 Endurance ,+3 Agility
[Name: Michael De Von Santos]
[Level: 5 {5/200 XP}]
[Class: None]
[Mana Points: 36]
[Strength: 11]
[Endurance 11]
[Vitality: 11]
[Agility: 16]
[Intelligence: 13 (+5)]
[Free Points: 0]
[Skills: Fireball (Lvl1) – Mana Shield (Lvl1) – BasicObservation (Lvl1)]
"Michael, have your lunch. You haven't eaten anything since morning." Lina handed Michael a bowl of hot vegetable soup with a smile, sitting next to him to check on him.
"Where did you get this soup?" Michael raised his eyebrows, surprised to see something cooked instead of chips or canned food.
"Uncle Paul, the cafeteria cook, wanted to use the vegetables before they spoiled, so he made the soup." Lina's smile widened as she saw Michael's surprise, then she remained silent while sitting next to him, waiting for him to finish.
"Umm, Michael, do you mind telling me what happened? Angela hasn't spoken since you returned, and I couldn't ask the others." Lina waited until Michael finished eating, then asked, but she didn't know that she had fired the hot trigger.
Michael got up and ran upstairs.
"Yu-Min, you coward!" Michael remembered what Yu-Min had done, leaving them in desperate need. He ran at full speed, jumped on him, knocked him down, and started punching him in the face.
"Michael, Michael, calm down!" Sean quickly stopped Michael before things escalated, grabbing him and pulling him away.
"If only you were brave enough to face that monster with us, Marcus would still be alive! You bastard, you're the killer here!"
When Yu-Min got up, he wiped the blood from his lips and didn't respond to Michael's shouts. He simply turned his back and sat in place, not caring.
"Just calm down. Yu-Min did the right thing." After several attempts, Sean explained that Yu-Min left to save the rest.
Once he departed, he took Zola and the others, closing the building's entrance so the zombie wouldn't follow.
In that circumstance, he did the right thing to minimize losses.
"So? You're going to forgive him that easily? We would all have died there if it weren't for Marcus's sacrifice! Don't you understand?? He ran to save himself."
"All he did was survive. Open your eyes, man." Michael couldn't control himself anymore, about to explode, blinded by guilt.
"Michael, I know." Sean looked at Michael with understanding.
Just those two words calmed Michael completely and extinguished his anger…