5 First Encounter

Marco brought a decorative katana and a kitchen knife with him. The plan was to get to the back of the building stealthily and get some stones and sticks from the plants nearby.

Getting out of the room was simple. He just had to open the door and take a step outside. However, to Marco, going outside was a big no-no. To be honest, he just acts tough and is actually afraid of the outside world.

He resigned from his job? No, he was let go when the company needed to cut down on costs. He was one of the irrelevant people kicked out to save the sinking ship.

He became too afraid to go outside that even his groceries were done by someone else.

Marco trembled as he went outside. His legs went noodles as his back perspired like evaporated water on the side of the hot soup.

This one step outside took a huge amount of his will power.

"I'm out," he muttered quietly to himself. The past experiences buried in the back of his mind resurfaced. Inside the office, he would be constantly bullied, day in, day out. No one bothered to help him. No one bothered to console him. That's what led him to live in his own world, where he could help fix other worlds.

Why does no one watch his stream? Because he's too conscious whenever other people were watching. Whenever someone comments, he would immediately play badly as if trying to shoo them away.

Trauma was something that can be caused easily but can only be healed gradually.

I'm just doing quests. Big M is going for a gathering task. Go down, sneak to the back of the building, and collect resources. I can do this!

Marco was facing the metal railings of the second floor after he stepped outside of his door. With a simple turn, he now faced the hallway and he regretted it a lot.

In the opposite end of the hallway. a silhouette of an adult woman twitched awkwardly while walking from the side of the hallway. If he doesn't know that the world changed, he would have probably thought she was drunk after drinking all night and was probably having a hiccup.

In that kind of situation, he would leave immediately without looking back. For other men, that would be a godsent opportunity to get closer, but it was different for him. Women, they're much worse than men.

As if sensing his loathing towards her kind, the woman's neck jerked upwards and stared straight at him.

'Fuck!'

"Graah!" the lady's black hair swayed with the wind as she screeched loudly before running towards him.

The flesh from her cheeks was missing and blood trickled down to the floor while she was running. After getting a clear view, Marco recognized that the lady was a tenant from the first floor. She probably got bitten by another zombie but he doesn't know when and where she was bitten.

One thing was clear, the first floor was already compromised. There should be several zombies down there considering that one already managed to wander up here. It is also possible that the first floor was clear and this one just got lucky to stumble up here by itself.

The closer the zombie got to him, the calmer he became. He felt like everything was normal and if the outside world was like these, he could readily go out anytime.

Was his thinking wrong, or was his thinking corrupted to become wrong? He doesn't know.

The female zombie charged at him with her hands at the side. Marco used this opportunity to finally test some things regarding combat.

He waited for the forward lunge before dodging to the side. This commonly works as dodge-attack maneuver in regular games. You bait the target to attack you, dodge the attack, then counter-attack. This maneuver is often used on monsters with high damage but low attack speed and could also be used when your character don't have enough health, but can't lose the target.

Thankfully, the hallway allows two people to walk simultaneously, giving Marco some space to move around. After sticking himself to the wall, he tried to stab the knife on the zombie's head but it failed miserably. The blade edge slipped from the hair when the zombie turned its head.

The female zombie got up close and personal to him, but was stopped by the decorative katana. She bit the katana and gnawed on it, trying to break it.

He brought the item for pushing and distraction purposes. He never intended for it to become an offensive or defensive weapon.

Her breath smelled of blood with the gaps of her teeth having pieces of flesh, which finally disgusted Marco. The close-call increased the adrenaline in his body, further increasing his limited strength.

He forcefully brought the kitchen knife upward. Unfortunately, the zombie wasn't staying still and only got grazed on her face. The knife sliced the chin and cut through the lips, finally cleaving the left part of the nose, fully destroying the amiable face of the zombie.

Dark blood seeped out from her face and spilled on his clothes. The jacket he just wore got stained with infected blood.

Pissed off, he forcefully pushed the katana away and shoved her off the railing. His hand touched something soft which caused him to blush.

"I promise it wasn't intentional!" he peeked over the railing, and whispered, "Sorry~"

After getting back his composure from his first fight, Marco repeatedly rubbed his palms, trying to remember the sensation, before continuing with his mission.

Collecting the required resources.

The day has already started and sunlight has already illuminated a small portion of the building. From his knowledge, zombies become weaker at night while regaining all human abilities in the morning.

That's right, zombies can use basic knowledge during the day. Mostly path-finding, target priority, and risk evaluation. It's like they become dumb when night comes, while becoming genius babies in the morning.