I Will Survive

Suddenly, as if out of thin air, a metal rod appeared in my hands. It was around the length of my forearm and looked akin to a police baton yet with no handle.

Infront of me, a scene my mind refused to process unfolded. At the far end of my room, a creature was summoned.

Accompanied by square system-like particles, something– No, a zombie appeared. How could I not recognise it.

Rotten flesh, grey skin, disfigured body, and its characteristic groaning. My body weakened and my grip on the baton felt like it could be blown by the wind.

The tears I had managed to stop came back. I thought I used up all my tears yet I guess there's still some left in there huh.

Mom. Dad.

What will I say when I meat you, how will you react to hearing all this, haha, you might not believe me.

Are you watching? Will you watch as I simply sit here and get killed? You sacrificed yourselves to save my life but I simply wasted my life away? How am I going to face you.

I clenched my teeth.

No.

If I'll die, the least I can do is try fighting back. Summoning all the strength I had, I stood up, only to fall back down halfway through.

Eh.

My legs are giving out on me, no no no no. Work! WORK!! PLEASE FOR ONCE WORK!

As the zombie inched closer, my heart felt like it was about to break out of my chest.

"Hiyah!"

Smack

I punched myself as hard as I possibly can. This will definitely leave a bruise, but it seemed to have worked. I finally stood up.

The sheer amount of adrenaline in my system seemed to numb my pain as I stood there. Facing a human eating carnivore.

My first instinct was looking at its claws and teeth, one scratch from those and I'm as good as dead. Glancing at the bed next to me, an idea popped up in my head.

With the zombie no more than two meters away, I held the metal pipe tightly, and lept onto my bed next to me.

I now got the vantage point. The high ground is almost always an advantage. My body temporarily seemed to forget all about it's previous fear as I swung the baton clumsily yet as hard as I could towards its head.

Bang

The sound of metal colliding with a skull rang out. Yes! This should be enough for a decaying zombie–eh.

The zombie it...it was barely affected. It simple turned it's head back toward me. I tried retreating but it was already too close to me.

Its hand latched onto my left leg, its grip was iron, how was a zombie this strong. Thankfully, I wore long trousers today, so it didn't manage to scratch me. But that wouldn't be the case if it bit me.

Knowing time was against me, I swung frantically at the hand gripping my leg, it appeared that was enough to fracture the fingers as the grip lessened enough for me to yank my leg out.

This time, I held the rod with both hands and retracted my hands, taking on a stance I saw baseball strikers take.

And I struck, targeting an area that seemed damaged on its skull. This time, a text box appeared next to my strike as I felt the zombie's head cave in

[Critical]

Oh. It seemed I hit a critical attack. If this works like a game should, then I don't actually need to kill it, I just need to inflict enough damage for its HP to hit 0.

I struck once more, only managing to strike its hand this time. Doing it this way will take too much time, plus, this is too dangerous. It's already getting close to me and this room isn't spacious enough for me to go around it.

If its head is already damaged, all I need is an opportunity for a super c- and lo and behold, as if God himself was listening to my thoughts, the zombie tripped on the messy wiring connecting my PC to the only charging port in the room present on the opposite side.

With the zombies face kissing the floor, right infront of me, this golden opportunity couldn't be missed.

Holding the pipe well above my head as far as I could manage. I used all the momentum I could to swing down at exactly the same spot I previously cracked its skull at.

[Super Critical]

My weak strike, seemed to do way more damage that humanly possibly thanks to the super critical as I watched the skull of the zombie crack like a watermelon, spraying its blood all over my trousers.

[You have defeated a Zombie (lv.1)]

[+10 XP]

I-

I won...

I won?

I WON!!

"Hahaha...haaa"

The exhaustion caught up to me as I collapsed, although an hour seemed to have passed, the cruel reality was that only a minute did. But it sure didn't feel like it.

Strangely enough, all my fatigue disappeared, but something caught my attention before I could dwell on that.

The zombie corpse infront of me disappeared shortly after, being replaced with two items. Although my breath was ragged, and my body in a mess from the strain I just exerted on it, I still managed to reach out to grab the items.

The first was a katana, with a corporate grey handle and a shiny iron blade.

[Iron Katana–F–] is the message it displayed as I touched it. Next were 2 Golden coins that disappeared as soon as my hand got near them, and a strange ash-grey book.

As soon as I touched it, a message appeared in my vision.

[Active Skill: Power Strike, Learn?]

The answer was obvious. I chose to learn it. The interface returned, this time a status section appeared. Displayed were my stats, some free stat points, and 3 skill slots. On the top right was a small section named Coins, with 2 next to it. So that's were those Gold Coins went.

One of the skill slots was now taken by the Power Strike skill while the others were empty. It seems we only get 3 skills. A peculiar trait was also the stats, they weren't numbers, instead, they were graded.

Mine were all at F-. Aka, the weakest at everything. Only my intelligence seems to have ditched the minus, becoming a higher rank, at F.

Of my 2 free stat points, I didn't have a hard time choosing. Strength wasn't a priority as power strike seemed to cover for that, Vitality didn't matter now as one bite from those things was enough to off me, if anything, it'll be Stamina and Speed.

Like so, I added the stats, immediately feeling more energised, yet contrarily, no change occured in the status interface.

Oh, so it takes multiple points to change even a sub grade.

That wasn't all though. Back when I landed the supercritical, a message appeared that I dismissed before.

[You have Leveled Up (1) -> (2)]

[Status restored]

So that's why all my exhaustion disappeared.

[Congratulations for becoming the 99th human to defeat a zombie! As such, you will be granted a perk ! Choose on from the following:

(1): A random C rank skill.

(2): An additional free stat point per level up.

(3): Qualitative, mana change to Dark mana. (Permanent) (Unique) ]

It seems mom and dad really are watching over me. I'm guessing the achievement must have gone to only the first 100, but that's only a guess. Either way, this is an opportunity.

It has barely been a minute though, and 98 people already killed a zombie? Impressive indeed, but if I could do it, I'm sure others could.

Picking the first option is out of the question. While it's an immediate power boost, it comes with two major drawbacks. Not only will this skill be worthless in the long run when C rank skills are more common and more easily obtainable, I'm not even sure if I'll get a useful skill!

I'm currently on the working theory that the monsters we'll face won't only be zombies for long, and so the loot dropped will also be better. If so, I won't waste an opportunity like this on a random C rank skill.

A bonus stat point is obviously the best in the long run, but I'm not certain of my survival until then.

Dark mana. My highest stat is intelligence, which seems to also effect my mana capacity. Mana is essentially my best stat currently, and Power Strike uses mana as the cost, it would pair up well, how might the dark mana effect the skill I wonder.

Not only that, it's Unique to me and only me. The other 98 people must have also gotten unique options, that means I'll seriously be wasting an opportunity here if I let this go, I'll fall behind.

But Dark mana seems ominous, I don't know how that'll effect me...no. It doesn't matter does it. I already commited myself to surviving, and I will do so, even If I have to become the devil himself.

[You have chosen option (3)]

Thump

"Ack!! AAAAAAHHHHH"

I clenched my heart as I collapsed.

I couldn't help screaming, this pain was unlike anything I've ever experienced before. It seemed something was being ripped out of me and replaced, I can feel it. Slithering through my veins and infiltrating every fiber of my being.

Looking at my hand, my nails turned dark, glossy black, and my skin turned pale. Thankfully, the pain only lasted a few seconds, otherwise I was sure to pass out.

I hurried to my mirror and what I saw shocked me.

My black hair now had streaks if white along its length, and my black eyes now had a reddish hue, but people wouldn't be able to tell unless it's really dark. My bust grew larger, now a size C, and my body seemed more flexible and lighter.

Taking a deep breath, it...feels different. In a good way.

I couldn't help but form a smile. I like how I looked. A new me for a new world.

All my stats stayed the same, but I was sure I was stronger than before. I won't lie, this gave me some confidence in facing what's out there.

No matter what happens, I won't be like you.

As I said that, I looked up, towards the source the screaming was coming from. If I remember, it was a family of 5...oh no. If every individual had to face a zombie, that means they had to face 5 if those things?

Wasn't this a deathtrap for families? How does this God expect children to fi- Oh I get it now. Survival of the fittest huh. This is cruel...

Come to think of it...I ran to the room's thick windows and opened them, immediately, I was bombarded by the desperate screams of hundreds of people. Those damn noise cancelling pads I hung on my wall for a more gaming aesthetic really worked huh.

[Author: If you hadn't noticed, The only reason she heard screams from upstairs was because she didn't hang those pads on the ceiling :) ]

The apocalyptic scene left me speechless, fires, blood, gore, all in abundance. Pleas for help rang out far and wide. And in a dark twisted way, I was excited.

Closing the windows back down, I changed clothes to something more sportsy, and made sure to stuff as many of my manga collection as I could underneath them. The clothes were mostly black, and didn't show an inch of skin.

But my face is still exposed I guess.

Holding my brand new katana, I think I looked pretty damn badass. And with no idea other than anime references on how to use this thing, I opened the door to my one room apartment. As prepared as I could for whatever was outside.

It was a race against time. The zombies will get stronger. And I absolutely, can't fall behind.