Lets Be Superhuman
Rowan froze as the words floated through his vision, while they slowly faded and in the lower right corner of his vision a word flashed over and over, which caused him to unconsciously say it out loud. "Status."
Name:Rowan Raid
Title: Silent Surgeon
Level:0
Race: Human
Bloodline: Dormant
Exp:2/10
Class: None
Attunement: Storm
Strength:5
Agility:5
Mind:5
Luck:10
Skill Points: 0
Passive Skills:
Silent Surgeon Lvl 1 (+10% Hand speed when Not Speaking)
Early Bird (+50% drop rate until full system awakens for all humans in 24:00 +5 luck permanent)
Tier Zero Soul Lvl 1 (Heavenly Gifted +5 to all stats on a level up +5 skill points on level)
Rowan's eyes went wide as for a second he tried to process everything that he was seeing but at the same time he realized that he had at some point run out of time as several people all fell over and began to convulse on the floor, the final stage before turning into a zombie. He looked to Camille who had secured the child and was slowly walking towards the bleachers to not garner any attention.
The seizure stopped, and the people began to rise in the new state of undeath. Rowan noticed was going to go for the big zombie when too many zombies surrounded him at the same time. He was still kneeling next to the female zombie and chose to dive. He tightened his grip on the scalpel and dove through a rapidly closing gap before sliding across the auditorium floor and into a space free of zombies. He shot to his feet and looked at Camille. "Run!" She broke into a dead sprint towards the bleachers as several zombies shuttled after her. He was able to get his bearing quicker than he thought as he dashed towards the same entrance.
The cops were hurrying them both on while he overtook the majority of zombies. The last one swiveled back and widened his stance like he was going to grab Rowan while he could now see words above the zombie's head. [Lvl 1 Parasitic Zombie] Rowan ducked the grab and despite not realizing why or how, his body swiveled and his hand moved faster than he had ever seen it before as the scalpel in his left hand moved with an almost unnatural speed as it swiped past the back of the zombie's neck.
Severing the brain stem at a supernatural speed without ever breaking his stride. His path now clear, he shot into the opening as both officers opened fire on the encroaching zombies. The bodies quickly began to stack up, but Rowan saw the eyes of the cops glow after they shot the first one. He had no doubt that they had got the same message that Rowan had just received. The zombies began spilling over after they blocked the two passages with bodies, while Rowan scanned the whole room and turned to Camille. "Do you remember my earlier words? Take a scalpel from your bag and prepare yourself. Move fast and cut at the brain stem. The parasites die when the brain is disconnected. They must latch onto the stem."
Rowan coughed to get the police officer's attention. "The zombies need to climb the bodies to get through now. Allow me and the EMT to handle the rest." Rowan toyed with the idea of having the child participate as well, but he knew that was not doable in this case. The others would look at him like he was crazy. The officers had a gleam in their eyes, but they nodded in understanding and walked to the side. The zombies climbed the mound of bodies and fell over at the top while Rowan moved before they could even gather themselves as Camille did the same on the other side of the bleachers.
He swiped again and again each time he got the message [Exp +2] while after the fourth zombie, the message changed. [Level Up! Congratulations!] He continued and leveled up two more times before the zombies stopped coming. His status page changed and now read as such.
Name:Rowan Raid
Title: Silent Surgeon
Level:3
Race: Human
Bloodline: Dormant
Exp:0/30
Class: None
Attunement: Storm
Strength:20
Agility:20
Mind:20
Luck:20
Skill Points: 21
He decided to keep the skill points in reserve for when he would need them but he focused on each of the stats and got a more thorough breakdown as everyone got a necessary breather and Camille calmed the child that had awoken to the sound of gunshots and the splatter of blood. Rowan went over strength first while a dialogue box popped up that read. [Determines the physical durability and fitness of the body.]
Rowan could feel that after he leveled up twice, his body had changed, but his current situation did not allow him to evaluate the differences. He did press the scalpel to his arm to see if he could open a wound just as easily as before, but the blade that should have typically pierced his skin instead just left a white mark, like he had dragged his arm across cardboard. He then moved on to agility. [Determines the flexibility and acceleration that can be exerted.]
The agility stat really needed no in-depth explanation. He had assumed something along those lines even before he got the extra information. He finally moved down to mind and read its description. [Determines the development of the mana center and flow of mana within the body, as well as the overall mana pool. Unlock mana stat at a certain level.] Rowan stared at the information for longer than he liked as he realized that he had no clue what mana was, but he would confirm his suspicion after he unlocked the stat. He moved on to his passive abilities, which were already unlocked.
They had adequate description, so he had nothing to ponder over with that. The only one he really had a question about was the tier zero soul, which gave him extra skill points as well as stats on each level. He focused on it, and it took a while for more information to load. [Redacted level too low to access information. The highest tier of soul, a mark of a truly special individual.] Rowan looked at the line of text and finally looked up, wiping the text from his vision and returning to a clear sight. He looked at the two officers and realized that, unlike the zombie, he could not see their information. The same went for Camille and the child. It wasn't that they had no information, but that it was blocked or blurred would be the better term. Maybe he would be able to find something that allowed him to see other people's status and their names, but it seems like other players were naturally hidden for some reason.
Rowan began to approach them when he paused and pondered how easily he had accepted the change of the system. His body made a series of popping sounds, and he felt a surge of strength within him. He sat down with the two officers and Camille. "Now that the inside zombies have been handled, we need to make it out of this place. The front door isn't a viable option from the horde that is out there." The officers nodded in tandem while the one that Rowan had called the taser guy spoke up. It's not that Rowan could not see their names, it's just that after this he had no plan to stick with these people. They were officers they could fend for themselves.
"There is a back door we can leave out of, but before that, shouldn't we talk about the elephant in the room? We have all killed those zombies and know about this early access to the system." Rowan and Camille both nodded. The officer that was not the taser guy then spoke up. "I've been talking to Jim about it and we both started with five points in each stat and a zero in luck." Camille nodded along. " I as well, and each level gives me 1 point in each stat every time I level due to the effect of a skill called tier five soul."
Rowan paused as the officer's eyes went wide. Taser guy added after that, "We both have a single passive, and it's called police training. It adds one to our strength per level, but nothing about the soul. Also, we only get skill points when we level."
They all looked to Rowan at the same time, but he knew better than to just be open. The world was changing, and some things needed to be kept secret to ensure his own survival. "I have the same passive as Camille with tier five soul. Nothing else, though." The cops looked envious, but they nodded.
They quickly made a plan that involved moving the bodies to get a clear path, then making their way to the back door. Rowan had been wearing a full suit at the time, so he took off his blazer and used the scalpel to cut it into strips before tying it around his hands so that he would not touch the bodies directly. Without the info of whether they could still spread this after the parasite was dead, it wasn't known to him at the time, so instead, he opted for safety. Camille did the same while the cops sat around. It took more than an hour to move all the bodies with just the two of them, but Rowan realized that despite moving around bodies that were bigger than even him, at times he had zero difficulty, nor had he broken a sweat. It was the only reason he wasn't annoyed at the cops who had sat around.
Taser guy checked his equipment as Rowan cut the cloth from his and Camille's hands and she took the young child that Rowan could now identify as a little girl in her arms. They slowly made their way from under the bleachers with the cops in the lead, when Rowan felt the ground start to shake. His head snapped to the left and the fat Zombie that he never got to take care of had come barreling towards them in a full sprint. Its name appeared a sickening red that seemed to drip blood. [Cannibal Zombie Lvl 10]. Rowan's eyes went wide, and he pushed Camille and the child backward, back under the bleachers with too much force, causing her to slide across the floor, but to safety, nonetheless.
Rowan moved left and sidestepped the massive zombie as it widened its arms in a massive grab. The officers pulled their pistols and fired several shots, but Rowan, at level three, was nearly impervious to a scalpel. The bullets broke skin and pinged off the zombie's skull and their inability to move caused the non taser guy to get caught and before any of them could do anything, the cannibal zombie popped him like a grape.
It slowly began to swallow the mush and lick its hands clean when a milky brown light appeared around it. Taser guy swallowed audibly as the cannibal zombie began to transform in front of them. Some of his fat transitioned to muscle, and the ground began to tremble. He stomped his foot, and a spike impaled the taser guy and the zombie licked its lips in satisfaction. Its name had changed over its head [Earthen Cannibal Zombie Lvl 11].
Rowan had toyed with the act of engaging the zombie. Martial arts had been a part of his conquest, albeit a small one. Right when Rowan was going to dash away to distract the zombie and tell Camille to run, words flashed across his vision in bright rainbow lettering. [Urgent Quest! Let's be Superhuman] He never even had to focus on it as the surrounding time slowed to a crawl and a full description of the quest unfolded in front of him.
[Welcome to the world of superhumans! Slay the zombie to live and reach further than your peers. Prove yourself worthy of the tier zero soul and jump levels to slay this scourge. Reward: +2 Levels. Active skill box. Passive skill box.] Rowan smiled at the rewards and an excitement that he had been looking for his entire life settled in front of him as the room returned to regular speed. Rowan flexed his limbs and lowered his ready to move at the first instant. "Fuck it. lets be superhuman then!"