Photograph (3)

While Lizan was a well-developed city, there were countless places that looked like slums of an old era. These were the places long forgotten by the government and the only time they ever visited the slums was during elections to give the slum-dwellers false hopes of progress and get their votes. Only to be forgotten once again after the elections. This was also the reason why the living conditions of people in the slums deteriorated with every passing day.

The streets around the slums had little to no light to guide the drivers at night. There hadn't been any maintenance of the street lights or the road that were filled with potholes. These were dangerous conditions for anyone to drive through this area, but to be honest, no one in their right minds ever went through these roads.

Jack and his buddies in their drunk state, decided to take a shortcut through the slums to reach the highway and avoid the police officers standing on guard around the main entrance to the highway.

Little did they know they were heading towards something terrible. Within moments of entering the slums, they hit someone. Akinomoto, the driver, hurriedly pressed the brakes but it was too late. All three of them jumped out of the car and rushed to check on the victim. Well, at least Jack got out with that intention, Akinomoto and Nimura got out to check the damage done to their vehicle.

"Did that fcker had to jump in front of our car to commit suicide? Fcking impoverished basta*d!" Akinomoto cursed out loud when he saw the huge dent, in front of his car, "Nimura, go and check if that bast*rd has anything of value on him. He'll pay for the damages even if he's dead."

"But Akin, we'd get into trouble if we don't help that man, won't we?" Jack mumbled as he and Nimura walked towards the assumed dead, "Moreover, you're telling Nimura to touch a dead person! Why do you want to commit another sin!? At least let's call for an ambulance-"

"Like fck do I care. People die in the slums every day. No one gives a sh*t about them." Akinomoto kept cursing, "Thankfully, there are no bloodstains on the car. If someone asks what happened we can say someone hit our car and be done with it."

"No bloodstains? How can that even be possible?" Nimura asked Akinomoto after kicking the man over to check his pockets, "Ughh! This man stinks like he's been dead for weeks. Lol, just think if we killed a zombie and-"

Before Nimura could even complete what he was saying, a hand reached out and grabbed his legs. Nimura panicked and fell on the slippery ground. None of them could believe what was happening there. The man they had crashed into... a man they thought to be dead, slowly got back to his feet. In the pitch darkness, only Nimura could see what was happening. The rest could only see the shadowy outline of the person, nothing more.

Even if the man was alive, there was no way in hell he'd be able to stand on his own after such a collision. Yet there he was, standing right next to Nimura. His limbs were twisted in weird angles. Bones from various places was protruding through his rotten skin. Yet there wasn't a single drop of blood anywhere. Not on the man's body or the road. It was as if that man didn't have a drop of blood in his body.

The three of them were stunned. Just the sight of the ghoul was enough to make them sober. Nimura wanted to get up and run back to his friends, but no matter what he did, his legs didn't budge.

The ghoul raised his claw over his maggot-infested head in an attempt to strike Nimura down. Nimura was engulfed with fear. He tried to scream but no voice came out of his mouth. He couldn't believe he was going to die like that.

Just when the claw was about to slice his chest open, someone pushed him out of harm's way. Nimura turned around to thank Jack for saving his life as he had been the nearest to him, only to realise both Jack and Akinomoto were standing at the far end of the road. All three of them looking at each other with perplexed eyes. Not knowing what just happened there.

The trio snapped out of shock when they heard an explosive sound coming from the spot Nimura was at, a moment ago. As the dust settled down, they saw a man dressed in black from the head to toe had grabbed the creature's wrist, and in his other hand was a dagger. It was unlike anything they had ever seen before. The ghoul's serrated claws were millimetres away from the man's face.

Nimura was saved but the bloodlust emanating from the ghoul had shaken him to his core. None of them knew what was going on there, and frankly, they didn't even care. All they wanted was to run away from that place as soon as possible.

The ghoul once again lashed out at Zaen and he had to let go of the ghoul's hand to dodge. The moment it was free from Zaen's grasp, the ghoul lunged at Nimura, completely ignoring Zaen.

Zaen didn't stay idle either. He was faster than the ghoul. Before the ghoul could even reach Nimura, Zaen grabbed Nimura's collar and with all of his strength, threw him towards his friends.

"Get out of here now!" Zaen yelled at the trio before blocking the incoming strike with his dagger.

The trio didn't linger around after that. They rushed to their car and drove off like professional Formula One racers. The ghoul was pissed off that his prey had gotten away. He turned his attention towards the only man within his vicinity, little did he know that the man wasn't a runner like everyone the ghoul had met before.

The ghoul snarled at Zaen, but Zaen wasn't in the mood to talk anymore. After the confrontation with Chris, he should have gone straight home but nope, he decided to open the map and saw something peculiar. The ghouls had moved from where they were previously. Then a notification appeared in front of his eyes.

[After each kill the remaining ghouls may change their position.]

Zaen vividly remembered yelling, "BS game logic!" back then. But it wasn't like the artifact was going to listen to his complaints, so there he was hunting the ghoul that was comfortably close to his location.

But now, He was glad he chose to go and hunt another ghoul down rather than going home, otherwise who knew what would've happened to those people.

"Fck, since when saving sorry butts became my hobby," He yelled in annoyance before charging into the ghoul, like a cannonball.