Survivor group

'Damn, now I have more to worry about. There's a monstrous dog. I can't imagine what other strange things will appear.' Ethan was thinking about what the police officer had said. There would certainly be many challenges ahead.

"Thank you for the information, but can you tell me one more thing? How many levels did you gain by killing all these zombies with these weapons? Of course, you don't have to tell if you don't want to."

The group fell silent, looking at each other as if they had heard something strange.

Ethan soon noticed their strange looks.

'Don't tell me they didn't level up at all, even though they killed so many.' he began to think that they hadn't leveled up because of the looks they were giving.

The police officer looked at Ethan again and asked what Ethan was waiting for.

"I'm sorry, but what do you mean by leveling up?"

Ethan sighed.

"So, I don't know why you didn't level up when you killed those zombies, but you should have gained an interface right after the big flash, right?"

They all looked at each other and nodded in confirmation.

"So, right after killing any of those zombies, you should have leveled up, because somehow everything turned into a game after the incident. But I don't understand why you couldn't level up," Ethan finished explaining, while scratching his chin, trying to find the reason they hadn't gained any levels.

The police officer was thoughtful; he clearly knew something about games, at least a little.

After a few minutes of silence, he decided to put that aside.

"Well, all we want is to survive. We're trying to get to a military base; they're probably helping survivors. Do you want to come with us?"

"No, thanks. I can manage better on my own," Ethan replied politely.

"Alright," the police officer turned to his group and talked to them, and they all decided to start moving.

"Thanks for the information. My name is James, and the two firefighters here are Richard and John. While they are Emily, Emma, Lily, and Hannah," the police officer introduced himself and his group.

Ethan looked at them and smiled. "Haha, I'm sorry; I haven't introduced myself yet. My name is Ethan."

James also smiled and called his group to come down.

Watching this, Ethan also walked to the stairs and descended.

As he descended, he found his skeleton guarding his bag.

"A great security, waited until only the bones were left, hahaha," Ethan smiled at his own joke while the skeleton stared at him blankly.

Ethan picked up his backpack and gave his skeleton the order.

'How must my other two skeletons be? No notification has appeared yet, but I believe they must still be attracting the attention of the zombies.'

At that moment, James and his group had already arrived in front of him and were all scared by the skeleton standing there.

Ethan noticed the fearful expression. "Relax, as I said before, everything seems like an RPG game, and this, well, my summoned companion, is part of an ability I gained," Ethan explained, and the expressions of everyone changed. The men understood what Ethan implied by saying that, and three of the women looked puzzled. One of them, named Hannah, seemed to have caught on to something, as her eyes lit up.

The three men understood that they might have supernatural abilities. All men, from childhood to adulthood, have always dreamed of having powers, like flying, super strength, heat vision, and so on, and now they might have that chance.

"Cough! Alright, so you only killed these zombies and leveled up?" James was the first to ask while coughing slightly to hide his excitement in his voice.

"Yes, I killed them with this baseball bat," Ethan took out the baseball bat that was tied to the side of his bag. At that moment, everyone looked at his bag and noticed a bunch of white blades. Seeing their gaze, Ethan explained that it was another one of his abilities.

When he showed the baseball bat, you could see various marks of use and bloodstains, clearly indicating that it had been used many times.

"Well, I have a quick theory, but I'm not sure. Maybe, just maybe, you need to fight directly to gain experience... but it's just a theory. We need to test this," Ethan explained the theory he had been thinking about.

"That might be it. I think we'll have to defeat one to find out. Could you lend me the bat?" James asked, hesitating. He had already stored his weapons in a backpack, all of which were unloaded, and they had no weapons now.

"Sure, but I'll do you one better. I want to find out how this system works, so I'll accompany you until you kill a zombie, and I'll lend you this weapon here," Ethan said, taking one of the blades from his bag and handing it to James, who was intrigued by the blade.

The moment James picked up the blade, the interface appeared.

Item: Bone Blade.

50 damage

80 durability

Description: A blade made by a Necromancer, using bones. Very sharp and durable.

James' eyes widened a bit as he saw that. Everything really seemed like a game now. He passed the blade to everyone in the group, and the same interface appeared for all of them.

Richard and John were quite excited as they held the blade.

"Can you lend us one too?" John asked, representing both of them.

"Of course, here," Ethan handed two more blades to them, and they looked like boys receiving new presents.

At that moment, Ethan heard a hesitant female voice.

"I... I also want to borrow one, can I?" It was Hannah who spoke, a woman with brown hair and eyes, standing at 5'2". She was the smallest in the group, but Ethan was amazed because she also asked for a blade, showing that she must be willing to fight.

"Sure, but are you sure?"

"Yes, you said everything is like an RPG game, and I used to play a lot. I'm quite used to it, but I hadn't paid much attention because of the panic. If everything really is like a game now, of course, I'll have to get used to fighting," Hannah said.

Everyone in the group looked at her in surprise, especially the women who didn't expect this from her, but the men nodded in agreement with her thinking.

"Alright, I'll lend one to you as well. Well, let's go hunt some zombies now," Ethan said. He distributed his borrowed weapons to the people because the remaining women didn't want any.

As Ethan was about to turn to hunt zombies with the group, a notification appeared in front of him.

*Your skeletons defeated 10 zombies +100 exp*

*After an intense battle, your skeletons lost strength and were disassembled.*

*Your skeletons use the talent 'To the Bones' and return to battle.*

*Your skeletons defeated 5 more zombies +50 exp*

*Your skeletons were defeated by a giant dog.*

Ethan got excited to see the notifications appear before his eyes, but then he was surprised and trembled a bit when he read the last line.

'So, there's a giant dog in that direction. Damn it. We'll have to go somewhere else. I don't want to face a monster like that head-on.'

He continued to read the rest of his notifications.

*Congratulations, you leveled up.*

*Congratulations, you leveled up.*

*0/300 for the next level.*

*Congratulations on reaching level 5.*

*New mechanism unlocked, skill acquisition by level locked.*

Ethan's mouth made an "O" when he read the last notification. What did it mean that he wouldn't gain more skills by leveling up?

*Notice*

Upon reaching level 5, you have acquired enough skills to avoid death, allowing the user to grow through their efforts.

Ethan sighed as he read up to that point. He had no idea how he would strengthen himself from now on.

'Well, I'll figure out how to get stronger later. Now let's see my rewards.' As soon as Ethan thought about his reward, the interface appeared.

*Level up reward 2x:

Bone Armor

Negative Emotions

Skeletal mount

Description:

Bone Armor: Creates a bone armor around the user. -50 MP

Negative Emotions: Uses your negative energy to shake the enemy's emotions, making them enraged or very scared. -10 MP

Skeletal Mount: Summons a skeletal mount, excellent for long-distance travel

*+10 free attribute points*

Ethan already knew which abilities he would choose.

*Congratulations, new skill learned: Bone Armor*

*Congratulations, new skill learned: Skeletal Mount*

Now, he would distribute his attribute points.

Name: Ethan

Age: 20

Race: Human

Level: 5

Class: Necromancer

HP: 200

Mana: 240

Strength: 11

Agility: 10

Resistance: 10

Vitality: 10

Intelligence: 12

Wisdom: 10

Luck: 6

Free Attribute Points: 15

Ethan began distributing the points, resulting in the following statistics:

HP: 200

Mana: 240

Strength: 11

Agility: 10

Resistance: 10

Vitality: 10

Intelligence: 12

Wisdom: 10

Luck: 6

A powerful shockwave coursed through Ethan's body, leaving him paralyzed with pain. It felt like his body was undergoing a tremendous transformation.

*Congratulations on surpassing all physical attributes above 10 points; you now have a superhuman body.*

The pain overwhelmed Ethan's mind, and his entire body felt like it had been run over.

The people around him were startled when they saw Ethan's face contort in pain, and he fell to the ground, curling up.

"Ethan, are you okay?" James asked as he quickly approached Ethan.

Ethan's pain gradually subsided until it stopped.

"Now I'm fine," Ethan said as he got up from the ground, sweating all over his body, and explained what had happened to him.

James and his group listened attentively to what Ethan was saying.

"So, when we reach level 5, we won't receive any skills from the system, and we can only rely on SP?" James asked.

"Well, that's what the system said," Ethan said uncertainly.

Hannah approached Ethan.

"Don't you have any missions or something to do?"

"Up until this point, no. I've just been killing zombies to level up," Ethan nodded to Hannah.

After talking among themselves for a while, they all began to walk in search of zombies to defeat.

...

Ethan and his group headed towards the shopping mall, avoiding the location where his skeletons had been defeated.

Along the way, they finally found some zombies in their path. Ethan had summoned his skeletons again, so there were now five of them. Ethan ordered his skeletons to hold the zombies, leaving them defenseless for attacks from the people in his group.

Ethan discovered that although they also gained experience by killing zombies, they only received 5 experience points per zombie killed, not 10. Also, everyone had their classes that Ethan asked them to check.

Hannah was an assassin, a very good class, while the rest had gained quite normal classes, Richard and John were warriors, and James was an archer.

...

After a few hours.

Ethan and his group had finally arrived in front of the shopping mall, and they could see many zombies wandering around inside.

At this point, all four members of the group had reached level 2, unlocking their first abilities.

While the other three people were still following along, they were still terrified when it came to dealing with zombies.

Surprisingly, Hannah adapted the best, even gaining an assassination skill that allowed her to use two shadowy strikes after her initial attack. It was a great skill to have, enabling her to quickly kill the zombies she encountered on her own, without needing any assistance from Ethan.

After leveling up, everyone started attacking zombies on their own, leaving Ethan to hunt zombies alone with his skeletons. As it was getting dark, they decided to leave the shopping mall aside and search for a house to spend the night.

"I think that house looks empty and intact. It should be enough for us to spend the night," Ethan suggested, and everyone nodded in agreement.

Ethan ordered his skeletons to search the house for any zombies. The five skeletons entered through the unlocked door and searched the entire house, but found no zombies or people. They returned to Ethan to report their findings.

After seeing his skeletons return, Ethan called the group to enter the house. Once inside, James closed the door with a heavy piece of furniture he found, while Ethan left his skeletons to guard the door and windows.

"We can finally rest peacefully now," Ethan finally relaxed.

James and his group also felt relieved.

"It's finally time to rest. Man, this feels so unreal. We killed zombies, and now we're stronger. Damn, this is so cool," James said, looking at Ethan.

Richard and John also smiled and were excited.

Hannah was standing next to Ethan, also excited about the strength she had recently acquired.

"You guys have some issues; we're in the zombie apocalypse. We could die at any moment, and everything around us is falling apart, with no communication. Emma complained, speaking softly for fear of shouting.

Ethan and the others who were excited looked at her but didn't respond, as she was somewhat right. However, they were no less excited about it, but they didn't show it physically.