Chapter 9 : An unexpected outcome (2)

*slash*

A man, the same age as Bittu, was currently fighting against three zombies with a sword in his hand.

Even when he was fighting one against three, against these horrifying creatures that could turn him into one of them with just a scratch, his face held no fear or panic.

Even when he was fighting against them, his eyes remained slightly distracted. After finishing the three within five moves. He ignoring them got into the broken house at his back.

The house, a forsaken haven in the zombie apocalypse, stood as a skeletal testament to both time and terror. Its windows, shattered and vacant, gaped like hollow eyes into a desolate interior. Wooden panels clung desperately to fractured walls, a feeble defense against the onslaught that had left the structure broken and vulnerable.

Surrounding the battered dwelling, the lifeless bodies of zombies lay strewn in awkward, frozen poses. Their vacant eyes stared blankly into a sky that offered no redemption. The eerie stillness around the house contradicted the carnage that had unfolded, leaving the once-menacing undead now silent and defeated, a stark contrast to the shattered sanctuary they failed to breach.

Even though that was the case, this was the place he had chosen as his base. He, ignoring the condition of the place, climbed to the next floor.

This floor was in a slightly better condition than the one before. The furniture here, broken but still of use, were already a luxury.

He got inside a room and sat on a broken sofa with an apple in his hand, which he had picked earlier from the table beside the sofa.

Sitting on the sofa while taking a bite, he was staring at thin air before his eyes.

"... How am I supposed to do it?.. ", helplessness filled his eyes while annoyance coated his voice.

If it was before the apocalypse, people would think he was crazy to talk while no one was around him. In the apocalypse too, it was uncommon to talk while seeing at thin air.

But only he knew what he was looking at and taking about.

He was looking at the quest that he had received just an hour ago. That's right–he had a quest system, which made him more stronger the more quest he completed. This was the fourth quest given to him by the system.

He was over the moon when he first got the quest.

[Quest : A choice?!

Choice 1 : Help the forsaken individual

Reward : A dead, but loyal bodyguard, unknown.

Choice 2 : Kill the forsaken individual

Reward : Three SSS+ rank skills, two epic grade treasure orbs, five undistributed stats, a beast egg.

Difficulty : Hard

Penalty : None ]

When he first read the quest, he was sure that he was gonna be invincible after this quest. Since;

'.... This quest even has choices unlike all the ones before... ', he said with happiness filled in his voice.

'... There is no penalty in the quest too.... '

'... It's the best quest.... ', anticipation for his future clouded his eyes. He was full of expectations.

Ecstatic about the quest, he immediately acted as decided and search the area to kill the guy. He choose to kill him, so that he could become invincible. He ignored the first choice.

'... I mean, which retard will choose the first option when the second one clearly makes it so that he could have hundreds of bodyguards... '

"Moreover, will I even need one?", shaking his head he stood up and got to work.

He checked in a radius of one kilometre for half an hour, but he couldn't find anyone. No one at all.

Annoyed and irritated that he couldn't find anyone or even a clue at all, he took a big bite of the Apple.

"... Maybe I am not being careful enough... I should check it more carefully.... "

He checked the area around him once more and this time more carefully than before, but still couldn't find anything.

He angered and frustrated, almost stumbled his feet on his way back.

His thoughts, that he would finally be invincible like the novels he read, shattered like a mirror crashing with reality. He wasn't able to complete it at all; he wasn't even able to find a clue.

Just now he went down to vent his anger, otherwise he wouldn't have done it, but would have let one of his men do it.

He has saved several men and women that were doctors, pharmacist, carpenters, farmers, cooks. He saved these so that he could live comfortably in the apocalypse.

He was not that evil to let others die as he had saved some helpless men, women and children too, but he wasn't a saint too so, he had turned them into helpers for others since they couldn't do anything on their own.

Taking the last bite of the Apple, the man, this time, increased the scope of his search. He didn't before because he, just like other quests, thought that the guy would be near. At least the quests before were quite near him.

He had just stood up when he saw notifications, that filled his eyes with helplessness and disappointment.

*Sigh*

[Quest failed!!! ]

[ Proceedings with the penalty. ]

[ Found that there's no penalty. Generating a new quest. ]

[ Quest : Carnage;

Kill 100 zombies.

(0/100)

Reward : a normal grade orb.

Penalty : -1 from each of the stats permanently ]

.....

*SPLASH*

An energy orb shot out of the dead. Bittu could feel a subtle warmth as it entered his body, tingling with an otherworldly energy.

[You have killed a mutated Lv. 2 Zombie Dog. ]

[You have absorbed a mutated Lv 2. zombie dog. Stamina +1, Constitution+1]

[Stamina : F -> E ]

[Constitution : G -> F ]

[Soul power : 23/ 50 ] -> [Soul power : 48/50 ]

Bittu witnessed these notifications flashing before him just before being engulfed by the river below.

*SPLASH*

Bittu watched as the sky above grew distant by the seconds. As he delved deeper into the river, the cold sensation of the water on his skin sent chills down his spine, but he couldn't do anything because of the pain his body was in.

As Bittu tumbled into the murky river, remnants of the recent confrontation clinging to his battered form, an otherworldly transformation took hold. Submerged in the chilling waters, this pain had nothing to do with the two wound on his chest but related to it. The pain was because he felt himself turning into something else something... wrong.; it was an ethereal struggle that echoed through the currents.

Amidst the swirling chaos of the river, Bittu's essence became a canvas for change. Fear, like a relentless undertow, clashed with the tentative ripples of hope. The water seemed to carry the weight of his internal battle.

The river witnessed a silent struggle as Bittu grappled with the currents of transformation. It wasn't just the stinging cold that bit into his skin, but an existential chill, the anticipation of a new, uncharted existence.

In the dance between the river's flow and the whispers of his evolving self, Bittu's very identity became a fluid, ever-shifting narrative into something corrupted. Something that he would never would want to be, that he despised to its core; a zombie. One he despised and hated the most. The race he wanted to wipe from the face of earth. The one and only one that he came to hate in all his life. What an irony that he was turning into that himself.

But,

'No!'

Bittu was done being a coward. He could handle all the things, in fact he did, but he couldn't let himself turned into someone and something that he hated for the first time in his life.

'No! No! No!'

He fought back in a way unknown to him. He showed his unwillingness.

'I won't let this happen!'

He couldn't let out a sound or else he would have roared to express his unwillingness, but now he could only show it in his thoughts. This continued for a while as he felt his left shoulder decaying with an absurd amount of pain.

Alone in the river, struggling to survive, his brain surprisingly functioned well. It was unknown how it managed to function fine. Maybe it was because standing off on the edge of death or because of his changed self; from a coward to a fighter. But the first thing it experienced once again was,

Disappointment!

Utter disappointment!

He finally realised that he was abandoned by the gods, by fate and by the world. Because, NO one was there for him, in his last moments when he was about to die, being turned into something that was neither a living nor a dead. His eyes were being clouded by the cloud of despair.

Amidst his pain and despair, he failed to notice two orbs of light approaching him. Unknown to him, these were the orbs of the first two zombies he killed or rather re almost killed. They only died after all this while.

But he saw a new notification that brought a shed of hope in his despairing eyes.

[You have killed a normal zombie. ]

[You have killed a normal zombie. ]

[Soul power : 50/50 ] -> [Soul power : 0/75]

[Congratulations, you have gained enough soul power. You have been promoted to Lv. 1.

[You gain two undistributed stat. ]

'... With this new hope.... '

'... I will definitely survive this.... I WILL!!!... '

Bittu hurriedly opened his status to look at what stat could help him in his situation.

[Bittu sah –Lv.1

[Soul power : 0/75]

Race:Human (changing )

Class: Jocker

Bloodline: None

Strength-> E

Agility-> F

Stamina-> E

Constitution-> F

Perception-> G

Spirit-> G

Unassigned stat: 2 ]

Bittu hurriedly looked at his status.

'Strength... No!... '

'... Agility... No!... '

'... Stamina... No!... '

'... Constitution.... Hmmm... Let's check others first... '

'... Perception....Uhh... No... '

'... Spirit.... No?... '

'.. Since my Constitution is changing, I should enhance it to escape from this condition.... '

He immediately used the first one on his Constitution.

[You have used an undistributed stat. Your Constitution increases; Constitution : F -> E ]

The next moment when he was about to do the same with his other undistributed stat. He felt his heart race, blood run cold and goosebumps all over his body.

He felt that sensation once again. The sensation of death! that he had felt once before. This made him hesitate. The earlier sensation proved to be true. That dog was a death threat, but because of its overly cautious and dumb action it was killed and right now he was feeling the same when distributing his stat.

His hesitation led him to check once again on the last two stats, because he was absolutely sure that the first three couldn't help him at all, and if his senses told him otherwise, he would still rather use the stat on his constitution.

Amidst his pain of his genetics changing, He used his determination to survive, to fight and to escape the clutches of destiny, fate. He decided to gamble with the other two stat.

Since the death sensation was there, it means that one of the stat was his saving grace or else his skill wouldn't have activated in the first place since he would have died regardless of his choice.

He closed his eyes and imagined taking a deep breath and, amidst his racing heart filled with worries and tension, choose one.