3 Boundaries, Gunshots, Smile
"KYAAA! HELP!!!" "It HurrrTTTS! It Fucking HurTTS!!! Stop IT!"
"Don't Bite Me! NO! aghHH!!!" "Mom! Help Me!!!" "NO! Don't Come NEaR ME! GO AWAY!!!"
Screams could be heard everywhere from the floors below. Ray could only imagine what's currently happening; how most of the surviving people were having the scare of their lives. How the zombies should be feasting everywhere like some kind of by-hand lasagna eating festival.
As Ray began to think about the people on his school, he thought about his past life…
The people have nowhere to go. The school was on chaos, but the outside was even much more chaotic, trying to escape while having insufficient strength would just be straight out suicide. Having nowhere to go, with many zombies going on with their bloody eating festival, many people have already begun going crazy.
There were people, who barricaded their selves to survive, but still, many of them failed; some of them got broken in by the zombies, while sometimes some of them got broken from the infighting inside. Being forced to stay too on a close space with many man-eating monsters outside, with nothing to eat and not knowing what to do, despair would consume some of them, making them go crazy. Some even began raping people to distract their minds of the current reality, like drugs to drown one's despair.
There were also a few number of people who gave up staying alive and chose what they think had the less suffering to go as a way to die rather than being eaten alive or starving to death, such as jumping off the building, though some lucky fellows that jumped from the 2nd floor managed to stay alive with few broken bones.
Walking in the bloody hallway, Ray would look into the rooms one by one, to search for any H1 zombies, while he was doing so, he started hearing gunshots on the quadrangle.
The 3rd floor of St. Mary's High school's High school building is divided into three parts; the left lecturing area, the right lecturing area, and the student council area on the center, adjacent to the stairs leading to the 2nd floor. Ray is currently halfway on the right lecturing area. Classrooms were on his left and right side, but besides the slow moving zombies which were having their meals, there where nothing else in the rooms. Ray just ignored them and continued to walk towards the stairs at the center.
As Ray continued to walk silently, he saw two crouching zombies eating the remains of a person near the stairs. Ray used the 'inspect' system skill that he had on the two zombies.
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[Type Z1-zombie]
[Race] Zombie
[Lvl] 1
[Stats]
Strength: 13
Agility: 4-7
Stamina: -
Description: A zombie
______________
______________
[Type Z1-zombie]
[Race] Zombie
[Lvl] 1
[Stats]
Strength: 8
Agility: 4-9
Stamina: -
Description: A zombie
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Using the skill 'inspect' doesn't consume any mana and anyone could inspect as much as they want as long as they level up to level 1 and got the skill. Inspecting the two, it seems like there was no type H1 either. They were just your same old plain common type Z1 zombies. Ray's sight was moved to the form of their meal.
Zombies, if just in small numbers are pitiful for they couldn't eat a whole person's body for themselves, for what they were eating would soon turn into a zombie too and they don't practice the barbaric way of cannibalism. Zombies could only eat a whole body until gone when the corpse's brain is wrecked enough. So to eat a whole person for their selves, the zombies needed teamwork, for they are currently on their 1st stages for now; stupid and doing everything instinctively, they would need to luckily destroy the brain of their prey on the process, and the more allies they have, the more likely the chance they do so.
So, a fresh body's remains would most likely mean a good amount of zombies nearby during this time. Ray thought about what attracted the zombies and soon found out. Adjacent to the stairs at the center on the student council facilities, he could hear a loud banging. The sound of banging would probably attract the zombies below if not for the louder sounds of gunshots he could hear outside.
As Ray walk near the two zombies, he attracted their attention. The two zombies wasted their food and started standing up to go for the more lively prey. But as soon as they stood up and face the lively prey, two throwing knives embed their foreheads stopping their advance.
[Lvl1 Type z1-Zombie killed… Received 1 exp…]
[Lvl1 Type z1-Zombie killed… Received 1 exp…]
Starting from the inside of his classroom until he arrived on the place where he is right now, Ray took all the system's iron knives that he could see for they were really useful to him. As he did so, he accumulated a good amount of them, earning him a total of 16 knives including his original one.
Using his transmutation skill, although he could only transform the knives a little bit; Using 15 points of mana for transforming one iron kitchen knife into an iron throwing knife, he made 4 of these throwing knives. Earning his transmutation skill 1 experience point for every 2 throwing knives in the process, for a total of 2 experience points.
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[Type] Weapon
[Name] Common iron throwing knife
[Level] 1
[Quality] white
[Durability] 50/50
Option 1: Penetration enhancement + 25% when thrown
Description: A somewhat bigger than your regular throwing knife
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Because of consuming 60 points of mana from transmuting, Ray needed to wait 8 hours for it to be full again. The basic mana regeneration was a full fill every 8 hours, no matter how large of mana you had. So right now, Ray would recover 1 mana every 8 minutes. And currently, Ray has recovered 2 mana points in total. Ray took out an iron kitchen knife to compare it to the throwing knives.
______________
[Type] Weapon
[Name] Common iron kitchen knife
[Level] 1
[Quality] white
[Durability] 50/50
Option 1: Cutting enhancement +25%
Description: A jealous girlfriend's best friend.
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Besides their descriptions and their specialties, the two are about the same. Putting them back on the storage, Ray came near the two dead zombies to take back the throwing knives. Ray then continued walking near into the adjacent intersection point of the student council facilities and lecture areas.
Turning into the adjacent road leading to the student council area, Ray could see about 7 zombies crowding the door of the student council office, pounding the door with their hands, signs of breaking were already showing, the ones holding the door are just probably the barricades.
Seeing the zombies with their backs facing him, Ray took out 4 throwing knives and threw 2 throwing knives at a time, managing to kill 4 of the zombies, earning him more than enough experience points to level up.
[Lvl1 Type z1-Zombie killed… Received 1 exp…]
[Lvl1 Type z1-Zombie killed… Received 1 exp…] …
[Lvl up! Lvl 1 -> Lvl 2!... Received 2 stat points and 1 skill point]
Receiving the 2 new stat points, Ray immediately put them into stamina
[Consume 2 stat points available to increase stamina from 23 -> 25] Y/N
'Yes'
Achieving 25 stat points in stamina, a new kind of system message appeared. But Ray ignored it for now for he still has something to do.
When the 4 zombies drop into the floor, the remaining 3 zombies were attracted by the sound and started turning around slowly to check the surroundings. Seeing Ray who was behind them, they started to come towards him crazily.
Seeing the three zombies walking towards him, Ray summoned a wooden bat and started smashing their heads down. Earlier when he was storing the system's weapons into his storage bag, not just iron knives, but Ray also took three wooden bats in his classroom for he needed the wooden bat's long reach in cases when being surrounded by multiple zombies. Thinking about the earlier black boxes, too bad he didn't receive a sword. During his past life, he managed to get one making his life on the early days easier. But even though Ray didn't get a sword, getting a silver quality skill book is already worth it.
Taking back the 4 throwing knives on the previous four zombies, Ray turned around and began going for the stairs. Thinking about the student council room earlier, he was reminded once again of his past life.
On his past life, when he waited for the remaining unconscious girls to wake up by themselves in fear of them turning into fast moving zombies, Ray waited an hour for them, by then he already killed the zombiefied Jake. As they checked each room for supplies and Ray took his time to clear the rooms of zombies, when they arrived on the student council room, what they got by then were just a room full of zombies, and the remains of the student council officers.
Because he couldn't lead the people here, they needed a new leader. The student council might be hiding right now but that didn't erase the fact that they were still brilliant people or at least the president was, they just needed a little courage. On the past, they died before they were given a chance to develop because of bad luck. Killing the zombies trying to break in earlier changed their fate, everything else then will be left on their hands, whether they remain hiding or not, that's up to them. If they couldn't survive this easy trial then they don't deserve to be alive during this time, because they would probably just suffer… for the apocalypse would become much more brutal the longer it goes, for there are many things much more scary and horrifying than being eaten alive slowly.
When Ray arrived in front of the stairs leading down stairs, he put his thought again on the system message he received earlier.
[You have achieved the 1st degree boundary in Stamina by reaching the required 25 points. Please choose one of the following options as reward]
[A. Gain + 5 points in stamina]
[B. All stats + 1]
[C. Gain passive skill Stamina growth 1: + 1 stamina each time you gain a level]
[D. Gain active skill 'Stamina drain': use 50 mana points to drain a unit's stamina in a pointed direction]
Looking at the system message, Ray thought about stat boundaries. Every time you reach a stat's boundary, you will be given options of rewards to choose from. And the stat's boundary starts at the 25 points. There's no time limit in achieving the boundaries, and there are no number limits too in what stat you would like to develop to reach it. But focusing on all stats would obviously take time, and it's not advisable.
Examining the options of rewards to choose from, Ray chose the option C immediately. The options A and B are certainly attractive for they gave a huge amount of bonus stat, but it was just a matter of choosing the short term or long term arrangement. On the short term, they are an attractive option for they would give him strength to kill more zombies right now which would enable him to grow faster, but thinking about the long term, he will obviously reach a very high level in the future, and the total of stats he would receive by then would probably compare to having a gold passive skill book. Option D was obviously a no, for not just that this active skill gave an ambiguous definition, but he always needed to use his mana as much as possible to level up his personal skill, and the most obvious of reasons is that zombies has unlimited stamina so it doesn't matter how much you drain, making the skill really useless right now.
[Selected Option C] y/n
'Yes'
[Passive system skill 'Stamina growth 1' gained!]
After receiving the skill, Ray receives no obvious changes besides receiving the former system message, for he still needed to level up to experience its effects. Finished choosing the reward, Ray decided to start going down.
Holding a Lvl1 common wooden bat, Ray started to walk down the bloody stairs. As Ray slowly came down the stairs, he started to see some zombies dazing around in the area, they were starting to look like real zombies you could see on the movies; pale skins covered with blood traces, with bloody wounds everywhere, and some were even missing limbs. Looking carefully you could see some meat on their mouths. These zombies should be the zombies who were eating on this area; for they weren't attracted by the noisiness he could hear earlier, the gunshots on the quadrangle. They probably started dazing around after they finished eating. Looking at their stomachs, they were already bloating. One of the female zombies even looks like a pregnant girl.
Counting the heads of the zombies near the stairs, there are about 11, some more are probably nearby too. Attacking them now with the bat, he would attract the zombies on the lower floor, and the zombies left on the 3rd floor. No matter how strong and skilled he is, he would die if he got surrounded by a horde right now.
As he thought so, gunshots began being heard again on the outside and the zombies on the area began walking down on the stairs, while they did so, zombies nearby too from the lecture areas on the second floor began showing up, and there should be many more coming. All of those who are finished eating would now go after the direction the sound is coming. Including those above he saw earlier, those zombies eating bodies should probably be attracted right now, if he continued to stay here, he would be surrounded.
Ray waited a few more moments until the zombies showing up began to be fewer, but not too long and any time soon and the zombies above would probably appear too. So he started going down. With the gunshots right now, he remembered that this will be a long one. Because of the sound of the gunshots, if he began fighting now on the second floor, it wouldn't attract the zombies on the first floor, he would only attract the ones on the second floor and the one's coming from the third floor. Thinking about this, his eyes shone with light, he needed to become strong as fast as he could, and this is no time to be cautious.
With a huge step down, a huge swing of his bat swung into the air as it smashed a zombie's head like a watermelon into the side, painting blood into the wall. After smashing the zombie's head on the left, his bat then arched into the air as it hammered a zombie's head down on the right, crushing it into a bloody mess. After he killed the two zombies, his bat then disappears and got replaced by a knife on each hand. The knives then flew as his hands danced into the air, two zombies walking side to side nearby were then brought down by two throwing knives. As the zombies fell down, many more appears...
His mind was now very focus on the current battle ground; each time there was a zombie, he would try to destroy its head with a bat's single swing. Each time two zombies where near each other, his flying knives would then flew into their brains. Each time when a zombie gets really near, a knife would stab its skull stopping it from continuing any further. With each move, he would try to move near where the throwing knives are, and for the throwing knives to be more accessible, he needed to become more calculative with his every throw. As more zombies began appearing, he didn't even have time to grab back his iron kitchen knives; he would leave them sticking out into their foreheads and summon other knives on his storage to use. Sometimes he would even use the abandoned weapons on the grounds to kill, even using kitchen knives as throwing knives. With the gunshots outside as background music, he was dancing with the zombies inside. And as blood continues to paint the surroundings, a smile was present on his face…
