Zeon had been asleep when the world ended, snuggling with his pillow, drool dripping from his open mouth, and staining his white pillow, when suddenly he was awoken by a loud screech within his head. Words appeared before his eyes even though they were closed: “System Initiating… Commencing End Time Protocol.” The words read as an ominous countdown began in front of his eyes: “5..4..3..2..1 Protocol activated.” At first, it was dead silent as he was waiting for something to happen, and he did not have to wait long as the screams started soon accompanied by gunshots in the distance he shot out of his bed quickly getting dressed as he listened to the chaos happening outside, his bedroom door slammed open as his friend Malcolm charged in wiping the sleep from his eyes as he looked at Zeon with confusion.
“What is happening?” he asked. “Did you see those weird words pop into your head, im freaking out man,” the distraught clear on his face as he spoke. Zeon and Malcolm had been Best friends since Primary school; they practically grew up together. Malcolm was a tall guy, standing at an impressive 6ft2. He had an athletic build with forest green eyes and dark brown hair; his impressive figure was broken a bit by his humble demeanor.
“Yeah, I saw it, but I don't know what’s happening. Whatever it is, I don’t like it.” Zeon said he was not nearly as impressive as his friend, standing at 5ft11 with a thin, wiry frame. He had curly light brown hair and grey/blue eyes with a permanent frown on his face.
Before they could react, they started hearing a thudding at the door, which quickly turned to an incessant pounding. As if on instinct, Malcolm ran to his room within their dorm and grabbed his baseball bat as Zeon himself ran to the kitchen and grabbed a knife, just in time as the door was broken down and three people barged in, they looked wrong though, their eyes were completely black and the moved sluggishly slow.
“Hey, what are you guys doing!” Malcolm yelled at the intruders, but to no avail, as they turned toward Malcolm and Zeon, charging at them.
They both got over their initial shock quickly because these strange intruders were getting close. They lunged at them, trying to scratch them with their black claw-like nails. Malcolm was the first to react as he swung his bat and hit one of them right on the head as it got in range. The blow knocked the creature back, but it did not seem to care as it got right back up and lunged at Malcolm again. At this point, the other two arrived and attacked Zeon, but he avoided one who tried to bite him by dodging to the side directly in the path of the second creature. He had no time to think and stabbed his knife right in the creature's belly, but it had no effect as the beast did not seem to care continuing its assault. Panic started to rise within Zeon as he realized these things felt no pain. Black saliva dripped from their mouths as they looked at him hungrily.
In the periphery of his vision, he saw Malcolm land a devastating blow on the creature's head, bludgeoning it to a pulp. The creature stopped moving after that, so their head was their weakness, he thought, and swiftly adjusting his approach, he angled the trajectory of his knife so it would be aimed at the eye, he struck, and to his great surprise, it worked. The zombie went limp, but he did not have time to celebrate as the other one attacked him again. This time, he was not alone, as Malcolm swung his bat at its head, causing it to lose its footing. Zeon reacted quickly and struck his knife at the throat of the downed zombie; he felt the knife sink into its flesh, cutting all the way until it reached bone. Black blood splattered all over him as he had severed a few arteries on his shoddy attempt at severing its head.
A pop-up appeared in his vision: “Experience gained for killing 2x lvl 1 undead. You have leveled up. You are now level 1. You have gained access to the system.”
“Are you seeing this?” he asked Malcolm, looking over at his friend who looked to be staring at nothing.
“Yeah, there should be a flashing icon in your peripheral; if you focus on it, a status screen appears,” he said, only half focusing on what he was saying, seeing no reason not to check it out he focused and saw a flashing bell-like icon flashing trying to get his attention he focused on it and a screen appeared in front of him.
Name: Zeon Whither
Level: 1 (exp to next lvl 10/50)
Race: Human Rank 1
Class: N/A
Profession: N/A
Health: 50/50
Mana: 80/80
Stats: Strength: 4
Agility: 6
Toughness: 5
Intelligence: 8
Wisdom: 10
Perception: 7
Active Skills: Avatar lvl 1 (Transform your soul into a weapon; you and your avatar fight as one.)
Passive Skills: Sorrowful Sight lvl 1 (Your Sorrowful eyes can see the damned.)
Zeon was left more confused than before he saw the status screen. skills, stats. Is this some kind of video game? he thought. He looked at Malcolm, and they exchanged information. His physical stats were higher than mine, and it made sense as he was more athletic while my mental stats were higher; he had only gotten one skill, ‘Raise Undead’ so it seemed he had gotten a type of necromancer skill, his skill was a lot more straightforward than mine as my skills description was very vague. We decided it was best to try out our new skills before we headed out of our dorm. Activating my Avatar skill was easier than expected as all I had to do was think about using the skill, and it miraculously worked. I felt a strange burning sensation in my stomach as the skill activated, yet I felt no different. Looking down at myself, I saw there was an ethereal shell surrounding me. Extending out my left arm, I saw the shell’s reach exceeded my own.
“Are you seeing this?” he asked, the bewilderment clear in his voice as he looked at his Avatar.
“See what? You're just looking at your arm?” he asked, looking confused at his friend.
“So you don’t see the ethereal shell surrounding me?” he asked his friend, but Malcolm just shook his head.
Only he could see it; now that was interesting. He was struck with inspiration as he moved to his friend and grabbed his shoulder with his Avatar. Malcolm flinched back as he felt something grab his shoulder, even though his friend never touched him.
“Damn, that is actually pretty cool,” Malcolm remarked as he was inspired to try out his own skill he activated it while looking at one of the corpses he felt the same burning sensation in his stomach as Zeon had said and just like that the zombie started to rise again.
Zeon was jumpscared as the zombie stood up. He tried attacking it again, but Malcolm stopped him, saying, “No! He is the one I just raised,” he yelled.
This causes Zeon to stop mid-swing as he realizes his friend has used his skill. The tension left his muscles as he relaxed, but it did not last long as Malcolm’s yell attracted the attention of more zombies. Three of them barged through their broken door, charging toward where they stood. Zeon was the first to react as he activated his Avatar, the ethereal shell covering him just in time as the lead zombie was just in range. Using the talon-like claws of his avatar, he slashed out toward the jugular of the zombie, not realizing the strength of his attack ripped its head right off its shoulders. For a second, he was in shock at his own strength, he was lucky Malcolm had stepped in; otherwise, that slip-up would have cost him his life. Malcolm had sent his undead charging at the two zombies to distract them as he moved in behind it and swung his bat at the head of one. Snapping out of his stupor, Zeon charged at the other zombie, but there was no visible opening to its head, so he slashed out his claws to its legs. Using the zombie's momentum, he cut right through the bone, severing its legs and causing it to fall down. Even without legs, it still tried to bite Zeon on his ankles, so he stepped back to avoid it and used all the strength he could muster and stomped down on its head repeatedly till there was nothing left but blood, mush, and grey matter. Zeon’s blood was pumping so hard he could feel it in his ears. He was short of breath and started to grow tired as the adrenaline left his body. Looking over to Malcolm, he saw that he had also finished off his zombie and had raised it as another undead.
“We need to leave. I don’t think it is a good idea to stay here; gather what you can and what you think is useful,” Malcolm said in a stern voice, a serious look on his face as he went to his room.
Zeon agreed with what Malcolm had said. They had been friends since Primary School, so they knew each other extremely well, and he rarely saw his friends this serious as he was usually a laid-back guy. So he moved to his room and grabbed his camping backpack. He and Malcolm would always go camping on their vacations, so they had some basic survival tools. He shoved it all in his backpack, as well as an extra set of clothing. Taking out a leather jacket from his closet, he put it on, thinking back to all the zombie apocalypse movies he had watched. The infection was spread via bite and scratch, so he tried to leave as little skin exposed as possible. After he had put it on, he moved to the kitchen and took a simple pot as well as all the canned food they had. Being broke college students, they practically lived off of canned food, so that wasn’t a problem. They also bottled some water because they had no idea how long it would take before everything would collapse, as the power stopped working the second the apocalypse began.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Having finished gathering everything useful, they moved to the front door. Zeon stuck his head out, looking to the right and left of the hallway. He spotted five more zombies, two to the left and three to the right. Okay, this was doable, he thought; the zombies were clearly attracted by sound, so they could lure the closer ones and take them out one by one. With his mind set on his decision, he told Malcolm his plan as he started banging his knife against the wall, not too hard as that would attract all of their attention. The two zombies on the left were the closest, so they were attracted to the sound first. Seeing he had gotten their attention, Zeon stopped banging his knife against the wall and got into a position ready for the battle to come.
Malcolm stood to the right of the door, and Zeon stood to the left, waiting for the zombies to enter their dorm. As the first zombie entered, Zeon stuck out with his avatar, removing its head in a swift motion, and he quickly stepped back as the second zombie entered as well. Malcolm sent his two undead to restrain it as he swung his bat with all his strength. It took three more swings before he managed to bludgeon its head, and its body went still. Breathing out a sigh of relief, Zeon wiped the sweat from his brow as he stood over the two corpses, but he could not stop himself as he quickly ran to the bathroom and vomited out the contents of his stomach, he started hyperventilating as he realized what he had just done, he had taken a life, it was just a zombie if he had not killed it, it would have killed him he tried to justify but his body did not care as he vomited again. Finally, having calmed down to some extent, he tried distracting himself by looking at the notifications he had received. “Experience gained for killing 4x lvl 1 undead. You have leveled up. You are now level 2. You have gained 4 stat points to invest. You have gained the skill ‘Analyze’ .”
Hmm, seems he had gained another level. He had even gained a new skill, and on that thought, he opened his status window.
Name: Zeon Whither
Level: 2 (exp to next lvl 0/100)
Race: Human Rank 1
Class: N/A
Profession: N/A
Health: 50/50
Mana: 60/80
Stats: Strength: 4
Agility: 6
Toughness: 5
Intelligence: 8
Wisdom: 10
Perception: 7
Stat points to invest 4:
Active Skills: Avatar lvl 1 (Transform your soul into a weapon; you and your avatar fight as one.)
Passive Skills: Sorrowful Sight lvl 1 (Your Sorrowful eyes can see the damned.)
Analyze lvl 1 (By focusing on something, you can gain more information.)
He had an idea and tried to use Analyze on his stats, and to his surprise, it worked.
“Strength - Strength consists of the density and strength within the muscles.”
Okay, so that was pretty much what he had expected. He moved on to Agility. “Agility - Agility is tied to the speed and precision of one's movements.” Yet again, it was pretty straightforward, so he went down the list to Toughness. “Thoughness - Toughness is tied to the health pool and stamina regeneration.” He moved to the next one on the list, intelligence.
“Intelligence - Intelligence is tied to the size of your mana pool and purity of your mana.” This was where things started to get interesting as mana was a new concept to Zeon; his only reference was what he had seen in fiction. That was where it hit him; his world had forever changed. He knew it was silly as he had fought zombies and used magical abilities, but this was where the reality of his situation really set in, and it was very daunting to think about.
“Wisdom - Wisdom is tied to mana regeneration and the precision of your control over mana.” This was also very intriguing as it suggested that some work together in tandem; he tried to think of the possibilities this would bring, but he could not really think of anything at the moment as his base of knowledge regarding the subject was still quite lacking. On that thought, he moved to the final stat, Perception. “Perception - Perception is tied to your senses. By increasing your perception, you heighten your five senses.” Having read through all the stats, he had gained a basic understanding of what they do, he felt more confident in deciding where to invest his points. He decided to invest 1 point to Agility, thinking that it would be better to avoid being damaged than having greater Strength. He also invested 1 point to Wisdom and 2 points to Intelligence as he was intrigued by magic and wanted to explore it further as he already had two magical skills.
He pulled up his status screen to observe the changes.
Name: Zeon Whither
Level: 2 (exp to next lvl 0/100)
Race: Human Rank 1
Class: N/A
Profession: N/A
Health: 50/50
Mana: 75/80
Stats: Strength: 4
Agility: 7
Toughness: 5
Intelligence: 10
Wisdom: 11
Perception: 7
Stat points to invest 4:
Active Skills: Avatar lvl 1 (Transform your soul into a weapon; you and your avatar fight as one.)
Passive Skills: Sorrowful Sight lvl 1 (Your Sorrowful eyes can see the damned.)
Analyze lvl 1 (By focusing on something, you can gain more information.)
Looking at his improved stats, he nodded in approval of his decision and closed his status as he had been by reading his stats. He had forgotten that they were planning to leave. He moved back to Malcolm and told him of his discoveries.
“Damn, you are already level 2, I still need 20 exp,” Malcolm remarked in a thoughtful tone as he stroked the stubble growing on his chin. “I have to kill two more zombies to get the level up,” Malcolm said, thinking out loud.
Zeon moved back toward the door and stuck his head out into the hallway, he looked to his right at the three remaining zombies. On a whim, he tried to Analyze one, and to his surprise, it worked. “Undead lvl 1. The Curse is transferred via bite or scratch.” The zombie he was looking at seemed to have been an athletic guy before he got infected, or should he say cursed? He was not sure, but the zombie had black ichor dripping from its mouth, its eyes were pitch black, and so were its blade-like claws. It looked very menacing. Cold sweat covered his back as he realized how many times he had come close to death. He quickly retreated into his dorm and told Malcolm of what he had found.
“Hmm, so it is basically like any other depiction of zombies. This just means we have to be more careful.” he was interrupted by a yell in the hallway. They quickly rushed into the hall and saw a man and a woman, both barely dressed, as it seemed they had been involved in some extracurricular activities when the apocalypse began. The two had been cornered by the three zombies in the hallway as the guy tried to fend them off. Zeon looked to Malcolm, who only nodded. They knew what they had to do. Malcolm sent his two undead to distract the zombies. As Malcolm started banging his bat against the wall to draw their attention, Zeon moved in behind the undead. The zombies turned toward the noise, but they did not move from their positions. Zeon, who had reached them at this point, waited till Malcolm's undead had garnered their before he made his move, slashing out with his claws to the neck of one zombie, but he missed and severed its arm from the shoulder instead. He dodged back as it swung forward with its clawed hand. He narrowly avoided getting hit, but it was close as he stepped back in, and this time, he did not miss as he stabbed the clawed fingers of his avatar into the eye of the zombie. Reaching the brain, its body went limp.
Serra had been an average college student; she went to classes during the week and partied on the weekends. She had been hanging out with her boyfriend and having fun when words appeared in her mind. She was confused at first, but then the screaming began, accompanied by the sound of gunshots, and she started to become afraid. Her boyfriend Liam was the first to react as he grabbed her hand and told her to get dressed. She was only halfway done when they started hearing sounds of struggle from one of the rooms close to them. Liam took her by the hand and led her out into the hallway. Unluckily for them, three people were waiting outside. Liam tried to talk to them, but all they did was grunt. Their eyes were pitch black, with black ichor dripping from their mouths, and their nails looked like black claws. She started to get afraid as they started to approach them. She screamed as they got close.
That was when they appeared. She heard a banging sound as Liam tried to fend these things off. The creatures turned around but did not move. She saw two more of the things approach, but they looked different. Their eyes glowed a sickly green, and they did not have the black stuff dripping from their mouths. Behind them was a man with curly light brown hair and piercing grey/blue eyes and a frown on his face. As they drew near, the things with the green eyes attacked the ones that surrounded them, drawing their attention away from Liam. The man with the frown on his face leapt forward and attacked out with his left hand before he even touched the creature. She saw the splatter of blood as the man ripped off its arm. Serra was afraid. ‘How did he do that?’ she thought, as he made another move, lashing out with his hand and severing its other arm yet again. He never touched the creature, but it would still get hurt. She was confused, but hope grew in her heart that maybe they would be okay. After the frowning man cut off both of the things legs, he moved on to the next one that was fighting the green-eyed things, he moved forward and with a swift motion he removed its head from its shoulders, a fountain of black blood sprayed everywhere and a thud was heard as the head fell onto the ground and the thing stopped moving.
Serra had been drenched by the spray of black blood, and she became nauseous and vomited where she sat on the ground. The frowning man moved to the last creature and ripped off its limbs in quick succession. As he was done, another man approached. He was tall with dark brown hair and green eyes. He looked to the frowning man.
“They are all yours,” the frowning man said. The other one he nodded in response and moved and started bashing in the heads of the downed monsters.
The frowning man approached them and bent down, extending out his hand. “Are you okay?” he asked as he helped her to her feet.
Zeon helped the girl to her feet and took a step back as the guy had taken a step to stand between him and the girl. “Ho… how did you do that?” the girl asked in bewilderment, staring at Zeon like he was some kind of unicorn.
“You haven’t killed a zombie, have you?” he asked as more of a statement as he already knew the answer.
“Wha… what do you mean?” the guy stammered as he finally spoke.
“If you kill a zombie, you get experience and unlock your first skill,” Malcolm stated from the side as he had finished distributing his stats and decided to join in on the conversation.
It was clear that they did not understand, so Zeon explained it in greater detail until they finally got it. “We are going to try and leave the city. It is not safe here; whether you want to follow or do your own thing is up to you,” Zeon said with a shrug as he looked at them expectantly waiting for an answer.
The girl was the first to respond. “What is your name?” she asked Zeon, mentally face-palming as he had forgotten to introduce himself.
“Zeon Whither, it is a pleasure to meet you. The tall guy is called Malcolm Myers. We were biology majors before the fall,” he said, giving a semi-bow as he had always had a flair for the theatrics.
The guy gave him a weird look but introduced himself nonetheless. “My name is Liam,” he said, motioning to the girl. “And this is Serra.” The girl awkwardly waved at them as she was introduced.
Liam seemed to be in thought as he stood with a furrowed brow. It took a few moments before he spoke again. “I have thought about your offer, and we accept,” he said while looking at Serra.
“That is good and all, but you guys might want to get properly dressed first,” Zeon said, looking down at their barely clothed forms. His words caused Serra to blush in embarrassment and Liam to nervously scratch his head as they quickly excused themselves to get dressed.
