Looking for a place I

The situation was dire. The people who followed Jon from the stadium all gasped in unison, their breath catching at the sight before them.

The zombies in the stadium had only walked—slow, so it made it easier to kill. But now, one of them was walking faster, its bloated body moving with unsettling speed. It was clear this one was different.

Jenny's eyes widened in alarm as she saw it too. She moved closer to Jon and shouted, "JON, MOVE!"

It was obvious that despite barely knowing him, she already considered him a friend. Trust was going to be a precious commodity in times like these, and in this chaos, she'd chosen to start placing hers in Jon.

As for the others—whether they'd been fighting alongside him or not—he had saved them, intentionally or not, and now they didn't know how to feel as they watched what seemed to be his final moments. They hadn't even thanked him.

But Jon, the person they were all so worried about, looked unnervingly calm. It was as though he wasn't the one about to be slashed or bitten, facing death or infection.

That serene demeanor came from something deeper, something no one else could understand—yet. A third-realm trait, far beyond anything they'd yet encountered.

But that was a story for later.

Instead of trying to dodge the attack or slow the zombie's movement, Jon did something unthinkable.

He raised his spear, moon energy swirling around it, and met the zombie's incoming claw. There was no tension in the moment; no drawn-out suspense. His spear connected with the claw, and it exploded on contact.

BOOM

Without hesitating, Jon followed through, slashing horizontally across the zombie's bloated head, still coated with moon energy.

SLASH

But it was a bit shallow as the zombie had tilted it's head at the last second.

But it couldn't dodge the second slash. And then with a loud thump, the head separated from the body and hit the ground, followed by a burst of radiant light that filled his body.

[YOU HAVE OBTAINED LEVEL 13 POWER ZOMBIE REMAINS]

[YOUR LEVEL HAS INCREASED]

[YOUR LEVEL HAS…]

"Phew," Jon muttered, the only sound escaping his lips. He scanned the area. About thirty zombies remained, and the ones he had already taken down glowed faintly, with white orbs shimmering among the bodies.

He hadn't yet noticed the eyes on him yet—everyone watching, both those beyond the zombies and the ones who had fought alongside him.

Jenny reached him just as he was gathering his breath. "Hey, what was that? It was dangerous."

"Yeah, sorry" Jon replied, catching his breath. "That zombie was different—it was jogging. I had to deal with it a little differently."

"Yeah, I saw. But you need to be more careful. Maybe after this, we'll get a chance to rest a bit."

"Hopefully."

The remaining zombies started moving towards them, but this time Jon and Jenny weren't alone and the zombies were walking slowly.

The female survivors they had gone to assist found a second wind, moving to attack from the rear. Unleashing their skills from the rear made them easier to defeat. Some even charged directly at the zombies, inspired by Jon and Jenny's boldness.

From the front, Jon and Jenny unleashed their full strength after catching their breaths. And after about ten minutes which seemed like eternity, it ended.

The silence that followed as the survivors collapsed on the ground and released sighs of relief. Every single moment of the fight was a tense one because, a scratch was all it took to become a monster.

But Jon didn't relax yet and walked over to the glowing orbs left behind by the zombies he had slain. Of the about ten bodies, only four orbs remained.

After collecting the orbs, he slowly made his way back to where he'd left his bag. Once the orbs were safely stored, he collapsed onto the ground, head hung low as exhaustion washed over him.

Seeing Jon slump down made them sigh another one of relief. But that didn't change the fact their heads were darting around once in a while.

The messages now came again in all it's glory,[YOU HAVE OBTAINED LEVEL 8 ZOMBIE REMAINS]

[YOU HAVE OBTAINED LEVEL 7 ZOMBIE REMAINS]

[YOUR LEVEL HAS INCREASED]

[YOU HAVE OBTAINED LEVEL 7 ZOMBIE REMAINS]

[YOUR LEVEL HAS INCREASED]

Jenny also sat beside Jon after collecting he orbs. Only after seeing did the remaining survivors, cautiously approached, as if unsure how to interact with the two who had so clearly led them to survival. But not before picking up the orbs from the zombies they killed.

When all the survivors finally approached, some sat down due to sheer exhaustion-mostly female fighters, while others remained standing and looking around.

However, when they looked at Jon, he still looked like he was deep in thought, head lowered. They all turned to Jenny, hoping she would break the silence, but she merely glanced over at Tunde, the communication rep, her eyes pleading for help. Tunde nodded, understanding her unspoken request, and stepped forward.

"My name is Tunde Edun," he began. "W-We were at the stadium when all this started." He still couldn't really understand what was going on.

"Our plan was to find refuge in one of the hostels tonight—we don't even know what is happening and the hostel will be a good place to figure it out and," he didn't need to more and just looked up.

Everyone instinctively looked up. The sky was darkening quickly, so they understood the point.

Then a soft voice broke the silence from the female fighters. "My name is Cynthia," said a girl with creamy hair and striking green eyes, her gaze fixed on Jon. "We too don't know what happened and would like-."

"I-I want to go home." A voice interrupted her. When the voice finally got it's wanted attention and stepped foward. He continued, "D-Do you people know something about what the hell is going on?" He pointed especially at Jon.

"What?" Cynthia frowned at his words. As she was about to reply, Jon who had been silent until now, slowly lifted his head.

And the first thing he saw was someone pointing a finger at him, looking at his side, he was Cynthia with her green captivating eyes that captivated him for a moment.

Snappilut of his daze for a moment, he looked at the person still pointing at him.

"Eiiikkkk" the boy dropped his finger and ran away, surprised eyes were watching him as he ran away. And to where, no one knew. And they couldn't do anything about it.

Shaking off the thoughts of the crazy person, he had heard everything Tunde had said and agreed. It was a sound plan, but he still didn't quite understand why they all looked to him for his opinion. 'Did I do something to warrant attention.' he wasn't a fan of attention seeking and clearly wouldn't do anything to attract it. Little did he know.

And as for what he'd been doing with his head down...He decided to check how far he had gotten, from the stadium till now.

'So do I say status or something, let's try it.'

"Status," Jon thought, and a window appeared in front of him:

[STATUS]

[NAME: JON WHYTE]

[AGE: 19]

[LEVEL: 9]

[CLASS: NONE]

[TITLE: NONE]

[STRENGTH: 20 AGILITY: 25 STAMINA: 24(7) MANA: 120 HEALTH: 20]

[SKILLS: INSTANT CALCULATION (FIRST REALM) LEVEL 5, MOON (FIRST REALM) LEVEL 5]

[TRAITS: COMPOSURE (THIRD REALM) LEVEL 5]

[STATUS POINTS: 24]

'Wow, my status,' Jon thought in surprise, the first time they had all been forced. 'But it how can they calculate this things.' Now thinking about it, he could understand the strength a little but how were the rest calcuated.

He didn't have the opportunity to start looking at everything one at a time, so he focused on the most unique thing on his status: Composure. Suddenly, a screen appeared,

[COMPOSURE (THIRD REALM) LEVEL 5: THE MORE DANGEROUS THE SITUATION, THE CALMER YOU WILL BE. EFFECTS MULTIPLY BY 2 FOR EVERY ENEMY ABOVE THE USER'S LEVEL.]

"So it works like that too?" Jon thought tilting his head. "Is this the reason I've stayed calm about everything." He wanted to at the descriptions for the rest but he couldn't remain here.

With a sigh, he stood up. It was time to leave this place and face whatever came next.