The Bandage Girl

The pharmacy area didn't have many zombies, apart from a few scattered employees who had turned into zombies. There were no other zombies present. Even without the ability to transform into a bear, Arnold, relying solely on his awakened physical abilities, easily made his way to the pharmacy's cold storage room.

After searching the area, Arnold didn't find anything unusual. Even the blinding white light that had caused him to lose consciousness on the day of his awakening was nowhere to be seen.

After dealing with a few stray zombies, he began collecting various emergency and common medicines. The two tattered coats he had found served as makeshift bags. With a tattered helmet on his head and a bag full of medicines on his back, Arnold resembled a real-life version of Yogi Bear. As he happily scrounged for supplies, he unexpectedly encountered a strange girl.

Arnold's expression turned conflicted. He hadn't responded to Clark's message immediately. Underneath his feet lay a young girl wrapped in bandages, looking frail and weak. The bandages were stained crimson with fresh blood, making her appear like a critically wounded soldier on a battlefield.

What troubled Arnold was that he couldn't determine whether this girl was a zombie or a human. Just five seconds earlier, after he had spoken to her, the girl suddenly arched her back like a zombie and let out a mournful cry. After the cry ended, she seemed to be enduring great pain before falling into unconsciousness.

Arnold was taken aback. The angle at which she arched her back was something no human could achieve. Her skin was completely covered by bandages, making it impossible to discern anything underneath.

Even though Arnold wasn't using his brain to its full capacity, he had a faint suspicion that the girl might be covering up her decaying and rotting skin, as zombies were easily distinguishable from humans by their appearance.

Should he kill her? Arnold hesitated. When the girl was awake, she seemed physically weak, but she appeared to be of a similar age to his own sister. Even if he couldn't see her face clearly, through her eyes, Arnold felt as if he were looking at his sister, Marlene. Her gaze was just as clear and innocent as Marlene's, and Marlene was the softest spot in his heart, his bottom line. He couldn't bring himself to harm her.

When the girl was awake, she even begged him for help, saying that she urgently needed food and treatment. However, right after speaking, she underwent a transformation and fell into a coma.

Arnold silently pondered whether she was a human or something else entirely. Did she look like a mutant? Or had she encountered some unusual circumstances that made her appear this way?

Having witnessed zombie doctors in the past, he couldn't afford to treat someone as human just because they could speak. What if it was a mutant pretending to be unconscious? Trying to deceive him into taking her back?

Arnold remained cautious, keeping his distance from the girl, and watched her closely, unsure of what to do next.

Arnold was torn because if the girl truly was a human, he genuinely wanted to rescue her. He couldn't bring himself to ignore someone who resembled his sister. Arnold had a fundamentally kind nature, almost a bit "holier-than-thou." This contrasted sharply with his rugged appearance and fierce demeanor.

Clark believed there was a risk, and even if the girl turned out to be human, there was a high probability that Clark, once informed, would eliminate her without hesitation to avoid any potential risk.

What should he do? Arnold was at a loss. After hesitating for a moment, he decided to let Clark make the final call.

Arnold activated the team communication channel and said, "Clark, I found someone here, a 'person' who seems a bit special. Should we rescue her first? She might be a human, but..."

Arnold intended to be honest, but before he could finish his sentence, he heard Clark's furious exclamation on the other end of the communication.

"Damn it!!!"

At the other end of the communication, just from the tone of his voice, Arnold could tell how agitated Clark was. Arnold felt awkward and unsure, "I haven't even explained the situation yet! Has Clark encountered something like this before? Is this thing a mutant? There's no need to curse at me like this... I'm just asking if we should bring her back or not?"

Although Arnold hadn't known Clark for long, in his impression, Clark had always been a calm, expressionless, and cold individual. His current emotional outburst was unexpected.

Arnold couldn't help but wonder if Clark's reaction was due to their earlier conversation when Clark had told him not to trust anything that looked like a zombie. Had he made Clark angry by hesitating to rescue someone who appeared to be a potential mutant?

As Arnold pondered these thoughts and even considered whether he should take advantage of the girl's apparent unconsciousness to strike her down if she turned out to be a mutant, the situation was taking an unexpected turn.

Outside the hospital building, Clark stood frozen in place, his body stiff. He didn't react to the zombies that were approaching from a short distance away.

"Ding, S-tier Abyssal Black Dragon wishes to form a partner contract with you. Do you accept?"

"Ding, you have obtained one Orange-grade equipment, 'Hand of the Soul.'"

"Ding, the player has received an unknown spiritual power infusion, resulting in attribute increases."

"Ding, Willpower +1."

"Ding, Agility +1."

"Ding, Strength +1."

"Ding, Constitution +1."

"Ding, Mental recovery speed +20%, maximum mental power increased by 20%, mental power resistance increased by 20%."

The system notifications continued to sound like heavenly music, flooding Clark's field of vision. The slender black snake, a second before Clark was about to leave, coiled around his arm, and the Epic-grade equipment, "Hand of the Soul," which it had previously swallowed, was once again regurgitated.

However, this Epic-grade equipment had shrunk slightly, and the blood-red patterns that once adorned it had lost some of their luster, as if the inner spiritual energy had been drawn out.

Clark was ecstatic. Everything had turned around, and his future looked brighter. He had not only regained the lost equipment but had also unexpectedly gained an S-tier creature that wanted to become his summoning beast. No wonder there were two bumps on his head; he had previously thought they were festering. All attributes +1, plus a bunch of buff effects. An S-tier creature...

"Gulp." Clark struggled to swallow a mouthful of saliva, his mouth parched. S-tier creatures, like dragons, would sporadically appear about a year after the outbreak of the apocalypse. These beings from alternate dimensions were different from zombies.

While most of them harbored hostilities toward humans, they also shared enmity with zombies and mutants. Their strength was not comparable to that of awakened individuals. Instead, they were classified into five ranks: S, A, B, C, and D, corresponding to 0th to 4th Order awakened individuals.

As a result, by the third year of the apocalypse, a delicate balance had formed among zombies, mutants, S-tier creatures, humans, and awakened individuals. Human-established safe zones often faced attacks from both the undead and creatures.

Among these, zombies were the strongest, followed by S-tier creatures, with humans struggling to survive. S-tier creatures, as the top-ranking beings among the creatures, were something Clark had only seen once in a chat channel in his previous life.