1 Chapter 1

My eyes snap open to a burning sensation in my calf, a sharp, unfamiliar pain, I rip myself from the blankets, whipping my hand out in an instinctual reaction, I feel my hands collide with soft flesh, hiding bone beneath, and confusion fills me, as my eyes begin to focus, I dread the possibility that some pervert, rapist, murderer, or thief had snuck into my room in my sleep, I was always a heavy sleeper, unhealthy sleeping habits of going to bed well into the am, only to wake up soon after, leaving me constantly exhausted, my hand reaches out to my side in a practiced motion, flipping on a light, I look at my assailant.

I young man, dazed and confused, stands at the base of my bed, they recoil at the sudden light, moving in a disturbingly unnatural way, unease fills my heart, but as I see them recovering, I act quickly, clumsily pulling myself into a crouch, I toss a pillow in the mans face, hoping to temporarily blind them, I launch forwards, nearly losing my balance as my mattress sinks below me, and pain flares in my bitten leg.

 I tackle the man, falling in an unbalanced manner, speaking of my lack of experience and training in a fight, I dig a knee between the man's ribs, heaving breaths leaving the man's body, his arms flailing and scratching me in desperation I begin to notice abnormal marks covering the man's body.

 'Injuries,' I think, recognisably bites and scratches, the most disturbing of which being a missing chunk of the man's throat missing, blood pouring from the wound in a slow trickle, far slower than it should for such a large wound, I wonder how the man is even still alive, when I notice that the man's eyes are cloudy, empty, but murderous, I am reminded of a certain popular culture cliche, and a disturbing possibility enters my mind, the possibility that the man is a zombie.

My common sense tells me that's not possible, zombies are a biologically unlikely phenomena, animating a dead corpse isn't as simple as giving instructions to the body, the cells can not function dead, and as such still require food, oxygen, and energy, it is not just the mind that dies without blood, the corpse is physically incapable of doing anything once the cells die.

 muscles will not contract without living cells, but the man's disturbingly pale complexion, and the fact that he has continued to scratch at me even as his nails begin to tear from his skin paint a disturbing picture, I hear stumbling footsteps, and look to my door. 

I live in campus dorm at the college I attend, I was lucky enough to be assigned a single bed room, but I still lived in a dorm building, filled with other students, and my dorm still consists of nothing more than my bed and desk, opening into the wider hallway, I now notice the broken wood surrounding the still engaged lock in the door.

Entering my dorm, someone in similarly bad condition to the still flailing body beneath me enters, I note the new parties missing ear, bloody fingernails, chin, and foaming saliva, and realise how truly fucked I am, I move to stand.

 Quickly searching for something to grab, I keep a foot placed firmly on the tackled zombies neck, keeping an eye on the party blocking the doorway, It begins to shamble towards me, dragging a limb leg behind it, My eyes settle on my laptop, just within arms reach, it pains me to use it as a weapon, but I do anyway, grabbing it, I slam the thin edge into the shambling zombies neck, It collapses to the floor.

I take advantage of the downtime, crouching and slamming the laptop into the face of the zombie I tackled earlier, I mentally thank myself for buying such a heavy duty laptop, a durable metal construction, and 2.5 kg weight denting the zombies face, as I hear bones crack, I continue to pummel it, switching my target to its neck, I hit the back of its neck, Its spine cracks, and the corpse falls limp, like a doll with its strings cut.

 I switch targets, staring at the second zombie, now crawling towards me, I kick it in the face with my good leg, wincing slightly at the pain, Having nothing but a thin pair of socks to protect my feet, I pummel it, over and over again, as red creeps into the edges of my vision, an unnatural anger filling me, I only stop when its head is a bloody pulp, my arms burn, my bones likely covered in hairline fractures, I drop the now dented and deformed lump of metal by my feet, I breath heavily, feeling unnaturally tired, even considering the amount of energy I just expended I remember another common trope with zombies, the fact that you turn after getting bit.

I feel confused, it should be biologically impossible for a virus to act so quickly, it should take at minimum hours to reach my brain, especially considering the location of my bite, I assume its destination to be my brain as it is the only logical explanation for a virus being able to control a body, although in the course of the last few minutes it's safe to say nothing has happened according to logic.

My mind runs in circles, likely already influenced by the virus, I stumble out the door, confused, and dazed, I see other zombies, all turning to face me, and more confusion fills me, my mouth producing an unnatural amount of saliva, one begins to walk in my direction, and I stumble backwards, nearly falling, we continue, the zombie slowly approaching and I slowly backing away, when in the corner of my eyes I spot the stairs, I approach them, walking upwards, I notice more and more zombies following me, forming a morbid procession.

The zombies show no signs of decay, finally something logical in the midst of this absurdity, the movies that show corpses decaying the moment they turn not understanding the way decay works, my mind latches onto the thought, pushing away the absurdity of the situation, as my malfunctioning mind reels around in futility, I feel as if I drunk 17 bottles of wine, I never even notice as I step out onto the roof, the cold winter night bringing some lucidity to my mind, I stare out across the campus, the grounds covered in corpses, I turn to the door, watching as reanimated corpses pile over one another in an effort to reach me, I realize, In some corner of my mind, that I will die here, but I find no fear at the prospect.

I have never feared death, seeing it as a natural and unavoidable phenomena, I knew it would come for us all eventually, It always confused me why people placed so much importance on life, to me, life was only as valuable as the enjoyment you find in it, and the moment life became boring, and torturous, was the moment I had vowed to kill myself, but now I found myself, standing at the edge of a building, a 30 meter fall onto concrete on one side, and a horde of bloodthirsty monsters on the other.

Briefly my mind entertained the concept of joining the horde, becoming one with the monsters, as I spent my miserable life shambling around, my sole purpose in life to spread, infect, and devour, but I drowned the thought, the idea disgusted me, I refused to bend to this infection, to become just another shell, repurposed to fit the needs of a parasite.

 I had always despised parasites, both the literal and metaphorical concepts of the word, I held a deep contempt for the people that exploited others, stealing credit for themselves, despite never working a day in their lives, and a hatred for any and all species that made their livelihoods through harming their hosts, contributing nothing to their hosts, and doing nothing but actively stealing resources, it was a common joke of mine that I would be willing to destroy the world's ecosystems if it meant getting rid of any and all parasites.

I held great pride in my independence, and had sworn myself that I would never give it up for anything, that I would kill myself before becoming a slave to others, and now I had a chance to test my resolve, be torn limb from limb by a horde of mindless entities, enslaved to an unknown illness, submit to the infection myself, or leap from the precipice behind me.

 I chose the least painful of the three, stepping backwards from the edge, I felt as the air rustled through my clothes, the cold breeze cutting through my thin sleeping clothes. As I smiled to myself, content that I had denied the infection even one host, I laughed to myself. 'I really am quite petty aren't I,' I barely felt the collision, my mind already dying to the infection, I fought for dear life, Ironic considering my dying body, refusing to let it be what kills me, the human will was an impressive thing, and while it obviously had no esoteric effect on the world at large, and could not save someone from a fatal injury, studies had showed that losing one's will to live made them more susceptible to illness, and so I fought, refusing to let the disease win, even as my mind slowly died of asphyxiation, my cells deprived of the oxygen required to live.

And So I fought, even as pain wracked my soul, and demonic screams filled my senses, promising eternal and painful torture, and the seductive whispers of angels, promising salvation if I just let the virus take me, that it would let my mind live eternity in a true eden, the only cost being my submission, I laughed in its face, the action translating to painful wheezing in reality, I laughed at the virus, 'to bad im an atheist' I thought.

Finally, as if the disease had finally given up on infecting me, the red left my vision, and I felt some clarity return to my mind, I could swear I heard an annoyed huff somewhere far away, coinciding with mocking laughter, but I simply dismissed such notions as the hallucinations of a dying mind, and I wheezed a laugh. "I fucking won." but it mattered little, I still lay dying, and the fact that the disease had fled me changed nothing, but even as my mind died, I heard a strange voice, ethereal. It spoke no language I could Identify, and yet I understood it nonetheless.

[System message: Human, Name: Sebastian, has achieved the impossible, and has successfully beaten the Zombie virus through sheer will alone. The system recognizes the humans Ironclad will, and has granted the Achievement, Indomitable spirit.]

'Wonderfull, now I'm hallucinating systems, not that it matters, I'll be dead in moments anyway.'

[System message: Due to your outstanding achievement you have attracted the attention of numerous constellations.]

'Yeah cool, doesn't matter if I'm dead though now does it?'

[System warning: vital signs unstable, you will die in 0:17 seconds if the host does not take preventative action.]

'Yeah I fucking know, not like I can do anything about it.'

[System error detected, a third party has tried to access the host's soul, do you wish to let the action through? [Yes] [No]]

'No of course, I doubt this is real, but if it is I refuse to let someone touch my soul.'

[System error: third party has tried to contact the host interrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…]

{######: even if it will let me save you?}

I laugh in my mind, no longer having air in my lungs, 'Fuck no, I don't wanna have to live in an apocalypse thank you very much, to boring, to much stress, plus I'm not an idiot, without some op power I would just be stuck fighting for my life as I slowly starve to death, plus at what cost? My soul? No thank you, I'm not some stupid anime protagonist, go find a weeaboo if you want one of those.' 

{######: PHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAH!!! You I like you, how about this, I reincarnate you in another world, but I get to chose, and I'll give you a power to help you in your journey, don't expect it to be free though, you'll have to work hard for this, I'm no charity worker after all.}

[System notification: third party influence has allowed title "Indomitable will" to evolve into title "Survivor". Warning, title "Survivor" requires host to complete a trial. do you accept? [yes] [no]]

'Yeah no i'm good, just let me die in peace thank you very much.'

{######: you seem to be mistaken, that wasn't a choice.}

[System error: outside influence detected, Choice [yes] is being forcefully enacted, attempting to intercept…. Error, third party authority outranks system authority, welcome administrator.]

'OH FUCK YOU YOU PIECE OF SHIT!'

{######: wow, language much?}

'... Go fuck yourself.'

{######: Great so you agree! Don't worry, I'm sure you'll love what I have in store for you, So have fun!}

'Anyone ever tell you you're an asshole?'

{######: oh yeah all the time, it's kinda my thing.}

'God damn it why did I have to attract some weirdo ROB.' and then the world turns black.

I hear a small voice in the distance. no longer reading from the system, "HEY! I resent that notion!"

(an, not quite sure what anime world to send the mc to yet, I'm thinking Danmachi, but I might change my mind, Idk, will decide before writing next chapter.)

(edit, yeah i'm doing Danmachi.)