Alley of Corpses
***
February 1, 2029
"Take care, Sarah. Goodbye, Lily!" Lucas smiled warmly at them before walking over to Lucy by the door. Spending just four days with the aunties had been surprisingly enjoyable, a refreshing change from his usual mundane life. It had been a challenge at the beginning, especially convincing Lily to progress from practicing on a deceased corpse to a moving one. Finding zombies had also become more difficult than before.
Reaching the hotel's main entrance, Lucas gently tapped Lucy's shoulder, causing her to startle slightly. "Let's get going now, and oh, don't forget to find me a new power bank."
With an enigmatic expression, Lucy nodded. "Sure, let's go."
They walked past numerous buildings, knowing that it would still take several more days before they reached the inner city. The journey was exhausting, not to mention the mutated animals and zombies that posed obstacles along the way.
"Lucas, should we use our skill points?" Lucy asked.
"Perhaps not at the moment. Skill points are hard to come by, and this is just a grade-1 skill. Who knows how many more grades there are? Let's save them for later," Lucas replied.
Checking his watch, he sighed. They had been walking for a few hours already, and it was currently 9:34 a.m. Lucas couldn't fathom where all the survivors were hiding; they shouldn't be so scarce.
"Lucas, look over there," Lucy suddenly exclaimed, pointing towards a building in the distance.
"Lucas, I think... that's where most of the nearby zombies are."
"Absolutely," he agreed, as they both discreetly put on their robes. The last time they wore these was during the chaos they caused at the hotel.
"Let's move cautiously behind that building," Lucy suggested. A structure not far from them seemed to be packed with zombies, almost forming a small colony. Even disregarding the ones on the balcony, the numbers on the lower levels were significant.
"Lucy, this feels quite risky, doesn't it? All for the sake of getting stronger, I suppose?"
With a timid smile, she whispered to Lucas, trying to muffle the sound of their footsteps. "Yeah... it's like that time. Remember when we were training and Carrie almost got infected? You helped her then. Even if it's risky, it's necessary if we want to survive longer, right?"
"Ah, that incident. Fortunately, she was the first to face the zombie during that training. Her quick thinking saved her by using the arm resistance piece I gave her. Sadly, it was the last one I had," Lucas replied.
"I'm guessing this will be just as risky, but if we're careful, we can clean them up for experience points without much trouble. The mishap from that time was because it was their first time killing a zombie, those mutated humans."
Lucas subtly nodded in agreement, gradually slowing their pace. He could hear the creaking voices of the zombies, unsure if they were guarding another orb or something similarly valuable.
The sound of a single level 1 zombie resembled a creaking old wooden door, but a group of them together created a cacophony, like a crowd of noisy street vendors selling wooden doors. The annoyance intensified as he neared the building. Even from across the road, their sounds were disturbingly clear.
Lucas gestured for Lucy to be quiet as they reached the corner of the alley leading to the road in front of the zombie-filled building. He readied his jian while Lucy unsheathed her katana, temporarily stashing both scabbards in a small pouch.
"Just focus on slicing them. Don't worry about me," Lucas said, staring at the approaching zombies and then back at Lucy. "I'll infiltrate deeper to find their leader."
Agreeing with the plan, Lucy nodded in response.
With their plan set, Lucas abruptly shouted toward the zombies as they staggered toward the alley, some moving faster than others.
"I'll draw them in. You take care of the ones coming. Keep yourself safe."
With those words, Lucas charged toward the horde of incoming zombies, swinging his jian to cut them down left and right. 'This is overwhelming!' he thought, without a moment's respite.
"Hurricane spiral!" he uttered, summoning a whirlwind in front of him using his ring, like a magician performing a trick. A grin formed on his lips as some zombies were pulled into the vortex.
"Fire blaze!" he cried out, luring more zombies into the fiery tornado created by the wind.
"Lucy, handle them! I'm heading inside!" he called out to Lucy, ignoring the notifications of killed zombies.
Entering the building, Lucas battled the occasional zombie lunging at him. He quickly surveyed the room, finding it mostly devoid of anything significant. Aside from basic living room furnishings and a decrepit TV, the space appeared average.
Carefully ascending the stairs, stepping over the corpses of fallen zombies, Lucas muttered to himself. "They just keep coming."
With a swift jab of his jian, he impaled their neck, sending them tumbling down the wooden staircase. The symphony of snapping bones filled the air as the zombies desperately tried to reach him from both the front and back. Some even attempted a sideways climb up the stairs.
"This is getting on my nerves," Lucas muttered under his breath. He drove his jian into the eye of a zombie advancing from the front, then kicked it off the stairs. Using the hilt of his jian, he repelled the zombie approaching from behind, causing the two to tumble in a heap.
Harnessing the strength of his thirty-second shield, Lucas surged up to the second floor, encountering the balcony-bound zombies waiting for him. His shield propelled them, and their outstretched hands made contact with his fire shield, their flesh gradually searing from the burns.
His gaze swept the room. "There it is." His eyes settled on an unfamiliar type of zombie, distinct from any he'd encountered before, lying on the bed.
Baffled, Lucas charged toward the strange zombie, his jian gleaming with each swing as he fended off the undead assailants converging on him from the front and rear.
'What is this?' Lucas pondered. The zombie on the bed displayed no reaction to his presence, nor did it respond to the cacophony of its fellow corpses' bone-cracking and wood-creaking demise.
As Lucy's fierce cry echoed from below, Lucas sighed. "She's attracting more zombies." Setting aside his bewilderment over the odd zombie, he gripped his jian and drove it into the gray, decaying skin of the unusual creature. Greenish blood oozed out, staining the bed.
---
[Level 0 Ghoul Killed, Awarding 100 Exp!]
---
"A Ghoul?" The system's announcement took Lucas by surprise. He scrutinized the lifeless form of the ghoul, footsteps approaching behind him. Amidst the chaos, Lucas's mind raced. 'Seriously, ghouls now? But how...?'
With thoughts swirling in his mind, Lucas made his way to the balcony. His gaze swept over the light blue sky above and the verdant road below, strewn with the corpses that littered the alleyway connecting the house to the world outside. A sigh escaped him involuntarily.
"Enjoying the view?" Lucy's voice cut through his contemplation, and he turned to find her approaching. Her eyes mirrored his curiosity as she surveyed the second-floor room.
"Not exactly sightseeing," Lucas replied, taking her hand. "But rather than an orb, I think we've stumbled upon another threat. Look at that zombie on the bed. It's different from the others, don't you think?"
Lucy tilted her head, stepping closer to the deceased creature and examining its decayed skin. "You're right. Its skin does seem rougher and more grayish compared to the other zombies. Its facial features also appear more distorted. But what's the significance? Another danger?"
Lucas nodded. "According to the system, it's a level 0 ghoul. We haven't encountered level 0 zombies before, have we? And have you noticed that despite all the experience we've gained from killing these zombies, we haven't come across a single one that's even slightly stronger than the rest?"
Lucy furrowed her brow. "You're onto something. Maybe they've gathered here because of this ghoul. But why?"
"Every day seems to bring new mysteries," Lucas mused. "I'm sure we'll unravel them eventually once we have more clues. Let's leave this place. There's nothing to gain here, nothing of interest. Plus, we can't exactly carry these corpses with us."
"Sure, just a moment." Lucy headed to one of the bathrooms, intent on cleaning her katana.
'Seems like she's grown so accustomed to the chaos that not even a ghoul can faze her,' Lucas thought, observing her with a mixture of concern and admiration.