Apocalyptic Conversion System
Milo was growing impatient. The screen continuously had a loading symbol on it for minutes. He furiously tapped the screen, hoping it would help it load. Screams were erupting in the hall. He could tell the zombies had already began attacking.
As he was waiting for it to load, he kept on glancing at the clock. The screen had covered most of his view, but he could still see the clock from the corner of his eyes.
There was a theory in his past life that the more zombies you killed in the first six hours of the apocalypse, the better your profession would be. This was the reason why Milo had rushed to grab a weapon. He believed he could kill many more zombies with a tool, however, the black screen in front of him wasn't allowing him to do so.
Whenever he tried to move, the black screen would block his sight. Even though he was skilled in combat, he didn't believe he could handle the zombies without looking at them.
Finally, after a few more minutes, the Apocalyptic Conversion System finished loading.
[ Running Apocalyptic Conversion System ]
[ Scanning host's body ]
[ Data gathered ]
[ System has integrated with the host ]
Milo felt a bit peeved that the system hadn't even asked him for a yes or no in order to start, but there was also a seed of hope budding in his heart. He believed there was a small chance that the system, or whatever it was, might prove to be useful in his rise to the top.
He checked the system.
It looked similar to his storage from his status window. It had 6 columns and 4 rows, which meant in total it had 24 slots. The first slot was occupied by the armor he had gotten from the white box.
He glanced at his hands. The whole time he was so busy worrying about the black screen that he hadn't notice the armor disappear and transfer into the system. Or whatever the black screen was. He wasn't sure if the black screen was a system, since all he saw was an inventory. The 24 boxes, nothing else.
He tried tapping the tabs on the side of the black screen, but it kept on repeating the same reply.
[ Locked. Level up to unlock this function. ]
This made Milo curious how he was supposed to level up. At the top left of the screen he could see he was level 1. This made him wonder if he was supposed to increase his levels on the status window, or did the system have a separate levelling arrangement? He could see an Exp. bar at the top of the screen, which said 0/10. Maybe it was related to the levelling system? How was he supposed to increase his Exp.?
Milo, unable to find any answers to his questions, felt the little hope he had being crushed. It didn't seem like the system would come to even a bit of use.
He tried closing the Apocalypse Conversion System, just like he did with his status window, using his mind. However, the system wasn't closing.
Milo frantically tried tapping all the buttons across the screen. His sweaty hands were smashing against the screen, but it was no use. The screen wasn't closing.
Milo panicked. If he wasn't able to close the system and kill zombies, then he wouldn't get a profession and would remain an ordinary human.
At last, Milo decided to press the only button he hadn't pressed. He, however, didn't have much expectations of succeeding.
Milo pressed on the storage slot where his armor was located. It showed the details of the armor.
Name: Iron Armor
Grade: Ordinary
Ability: None
Details: Armor made from iron.
Milo sighed. He hadn't expected much anyways. He tried to exit from the storage box, but then noticed a green button at the bottom right of the screen.
It was labelled "Convert" and was the only button Milo hadn't pressed. Below it was written 100%. Milo didn't know what 100% meant. Was it a 100% guarantee, or was it something else?
Milo didn't care what it meant. All that mattered was exiting the system. He immediately pressed the button.
Swoosh!
The armor immediately vanished from the storage in the system. The system also slowly faded away.
All it left behind was a message.
[ Converted Ordinary Grade Iron Armor. Gained 1 Exp. ]
Items were graded in an order. Ordinary, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary, and Mythical, with ordinary being the worst and mythical being the best. The iron armor was of the lowest grade.
Milo was surprised. So he was supposed to level up by making items disappear? But, the system said converted? What did it convert the iron armor to? Aron shook his head as the questions in his head were giving him a headache.
He tried opening the system, but it didn't work. The system wasn't appearing. Milo didn't even try looking for the system. He, in fact, felt it was better if the system disappeared. The system had taken away his only armor and had left him with no protection.
Milo headed towards the door of the janitor's closet. He wanted to kill as many zombies as possible in the six hours. He had already wasted fifteen minutes with the system.
As Milo headed towards the door, he felt his legs bump against something.
He looked down and saw a stack of 100 dollar notes. He guessed it must have been about 2,000 dollars. Milo wondered how it had appeared there but decided not to waste his time thinking about it. He hastily grabbed the cash and put it in the inventory of his status window, not his system, since it wasn't opening. Although in his previous life, cash wasn't useful in the apocalyptic world, Milo kept it just in case.
He then turned around when he heard a loud banging from the door.
He guessed the reason for the noise was most likely a zombie, since the rhythm of the banging didn't seem quick and panicked, and instead felt as if something had been pushed against the door. Also, a human would most likely turn the door knob and not bang on the door, which would alert zombies.
Milo cautiously opened the door and let one zombie enter. Then, he immediately closed the door to not let any more come in the room. After all, he just wanted to test if his hand made spear was useful against the creature.
The zombie slowly trudged towards Milo, wobbling as it took each step. Its head was twisted backwards, but was still walking in the direction of Milo, since it could feel his thermal fluctuations.
When the zombie was about a foot away from Milo, it tried to take a bite at him. Its head twisted 180 degrees and leaned in towards Milo's arm, opening its mouth.
Milo swiftly backed away. Each footstep of his was carefully planned. He took three steps back and raised his spear, slashing it diagonally.
A dull sound reverberated across the room. Milo's hands trembled. He had greatly overestimated his strength. In his previous life, he could kill hundreds of these ordinary zombies in seconds, so he hadn't expected much. However, it was quite different from his expectations. His spear was stuck at the zombie's shoulder blade and couldn't move any further.
Milo tried pulling his spear, but the zombie was pulled with it. Then, Milo placed his leg on the zombie's stomach and tried to push the zombie away from the spear. Even in his shoes, Milo could feel the sliminess of the zombie.
Finally he managed to pull the spear out. Along with it, dark blood flowed out. There was a huge gash on the zombie's shoulder and he could see the zombie's lungs through the wound.
The zombie didn't even notice the wound inflicted on it, as if it couldn't sense the pain. It continued walking towards Milo.
Milo wasn't scared. Before, he was just testing if his weapon was useful against a zombie.
Milo twirled his spear and rushed towards the zombie. The zombie didn't even try to stop Milo.
Then, Milo stabbed his spear into the zombie's stomach. Loads of dark blood spilled out and some organs fell too. Milo could see the zombie's liver and guts included in those organs.
The zombie still hadn't died and was moving towards him, but Milo had expected this.
His spear spun once again and this time the end of the mop handle came crashing into the zombie's face. Milo held on to the spear and repeatedly drove it into the zombie's head. The zombie's skull caved in, and its brain splattered into pieces. The zombie stopped moving and was finally dead.
Any ordinary person at the sight of the zombie's remains would puke and feel nauseous, however, Milo had seen this many times before to fell anything.
Instead of vomiting, Milo wanted to sit down and rest. His body was too weak to handle the true capabilities of his combat, however he still leaned on his spear and kept standing.
A notification rang in his ears. This time from the status window, not the system.
{ Ordinary zombie defeated. Gained 10 Exp. }
Zombies were also graded, similar to items.. They were graded according to their strength. Ordinary, Variant, Mutated, Second Generation Mutated, Third Generation Mutated, from weakest to strongest. In his past life, Third Generation Mutated Zombies were the strongest. He didn't know if any stronger zombies were discovered after he died.
{ Level up }
Milo was overjoyed. He had levelled up, so his stats must have increased greatly. Now, he believed he could stand on par with the zombies. All the fatigue he had accumulated immediately dissipated and he got up to fight more zombies.
Before he left the room, however, he reached for the zombie's remains and dug out a small crystal from its head. It glowed in a blood red light. As soon as Milo touched the crystal, the black screen appeared once again.
This time, the system had the crystal in the first slot of the storage.
Milo felt like crying because he knew the only way to exit the system was to give up the attribute crystal. He placed his finger on the slot with the crystal. Its details popped up.
Name: Ordinary Zombie's Attribute Crystal
Grade: Ordinary
Ability: Increases strength by 1 unit
Details: Glows in a red light. Found in an ordinary zombie's brain.
Milo's hands trembled in anger as he pressed the "Convert" button. He wondered whether the system was a blessing or a curse.
When he was done pressing the button, once again, a notification popped up.
[ Converted Ordinary Zombie's Attribute Crystal. Gained 1 Exp ]
A stack of cash fell in front of him. This time it was double the amount before.
Milo finally understood what convert meant. The system turned items into cash. Milo was now sure the system was trash. Money wasn't even useful during the apocalypse, strength was. This system didn't even allow him to use items to increase his strength.
Milo begrudgingly put the money in the storage space in his status window, and the system had once again vanished. He didn't waste any time looking for it and immediately rushed out the room.
Milo looked at both sides of the hall before he walked out. He felt disappointed that he couldn't consume the attribute crystal. If he had eaten in it, he would have gotten a strength point.
Milo had expected there to be a horde of zombies, but instead, he found a pile of human body parts. He guessed that a huge battle must have taken place, and the zombies had clearly defeated the students.
Milo walked down the hall, not minding the body parts spilled on the floor, and searched for zombies.
At last, after a few minutes of searching, he found a group of zombies surrounding a girl in the hallway. As the zombies closed in, the girl looked as if she was going to faint. Milo didn't mind the girl, he instead licked his lips and looked at the zombies which would help him get a good profession.
Milo ran towards the group of three with a spear in his hand.
He swiped his spear across the ground and hit each zombie's leg. The zombie's immediately fell to the ground. Milo felt pleasantly surprised that his strength increased so much from level 1 to level 2.
Then, Milo pierced each zombie's head, and brain matter flew out. The girl didn't seem disgusted by the blood that got on her legs and was instead heaving huge breaths of relief.
Milo immediately left the girl behind and went to search out for more zombies. He didn't spend any time grabbing the attribute crystals because he knew they were going to change into money.
As he was running to search for more zombies, a group of notifications rang out throught his head.
{ Ordinary Zombie defeated. Gained 10 Exp. }
{ Ordinary Zombie defeated. Gained 10 Exp. }
{ Level up }
{ Ordinary Zombie defeated. Gained 10 Exp. }
He was searching for zombies and then abruptly remembered the height and voice of the girl. In the back of his mind, he could remember a close friend, who he treated like a little sister, before the apocalypse. In his previous life, she had died in the first few hours of the apocalypse. She used to be in the same orphanage as him, and alway sticked to him all throughout his life. She had even decided to leave the orphanage with him, when the officials of the orphanage were kicking Milo out.
Milo realized that he had been so caught up in his motive to rise up to the top that he had forgotten his reason for doing so. His reason was to survive and protect the ones close to him. Many even gave their lives to save him. Milo felt disgusted at himself for forgetting their grace.
Milo immediately ran towards his little sister, Isabel Becker's, classroom, which was located in the freshmen section at the first floor of the school. He hoped he could save her this time.