THE END

"The panel seems to be real but I'm not sure the message it contains is real." Shiro sighed.

The time on the message had gone down by six hours since the first time he saw it.

"I'll just sleep like I normally do and wake feeling all better tomorrow morning." He climbed onto his bed and lay on it. He covered himself with a blanket and closed his eyes.

*****

Beep. Beep.

Shiro's alarm went off.

He jumped out of sleep and found out it was just the alarm.

"Damnit, I overslept." He rushed out of the bed and into the bathroom to clean up.

A few minutes later, he was out of the bathroom and seconds later, he pulled a stunt common to most boys.

A few seconds later, he was on his way to school.

He just whistled as he walked to school.

*****

He finally arrived at school, a minute late.

The moment he entered the class, teacher Nero stood there looking at him. "You're late Shiro."

"I'm sorry, I overslept." Shiro apologized and walked to his seat.

The first period of the class was quite peaceful and normal. In fact, Shiro had forgotten about what had happened the previous day.

The quiz went as the teacher had informed them before.

With every passing period, a new set of quizzes would take place and Shiro would often participate just like the rest of the class.

He was at peace until…

Ding.

The bell in his head rang again and the transparent panel popped up.

Reality dawned on him and he remembered the previous day.

The details on the panel were the same as the day before but Shiro was sweating and tensing up.

The timer had five minutes left and it was slowly and steadily dropping.

He couldn't focus in class and all his attention was buried into the transparent panel in front of him that only he could see.

Slowly, the timer counted till there were twenty seconds left.

Shiro was now sweating visibly.

"Shiro, what's wrong with you?" The teacher asked but Shiro just kept counting down with the timer.

'ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.' Shiro counted all the way to one but nothing happened.

"Shiro! I asked what is wrong with you!" The teacher raised his voice this time.

"Sorry, sir. It seemed like I had eaten something bad leading to a running stomach. I was about to fart but I had to hold it in, which resulted in me sweating profusely. I'd like to leave the class for a moment." Shiro explained and walked out even before permission was granted.

The moment he left, another bell rang.

Ding.

The panel was in front of him but he refused to glance at the details till he got into the restroom.

He entered one of the toilets and only then did look at the panel in front of him.

{The countdown has ended and the END has begun. Your primary mission at the moment is to survive and make contact with Takashi Komuro, a second-year student at Fujimi Academy.}

"Again with the useless messages. It says the end has started but I haven't noticed anything different. Isn't Fujimi Academy a long way away? This is all bullshit."

Once again, the details didn't care what Shiro had to say and continued.

{Your secondary mission is to get a kill count of twenty.}

"Kill count? I'm gonna kill? This has to be it. Whoever is doing this is a psychopath." Shiro couldn't yell.

{OK}

A new icon was below the details of the panel.

"Ok." Shiro read the word and the details vanished, replaced with another weird panel screen.

»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»

PLAYER NAME: SHIRO KISUKE

PLAYER LEVEL: 1

PLAYER TITLE: NONE

EXP: 0/100

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

HP: 22 STAMINA: 35

STRENGTH: 05 AGILITY: 08

INTELLIGENCE: 10 SENSE: 07

VITALITY: 10

POINTS LEFT: 00

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

MISSIONS:

YOUR PRIMARY MISSION AT THE MOMENT IS TO SURVIVE AND MAKE CONTACT WITH TAKASHI KOMURO, A SECOND-YEAR STUDENT AT FUJIMI ACADEMY. {PRIMARY MISSION}

YOU HAVE TO REACH A KILL COUNT OF 20. {SECONDARY MISSION}

»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»

"Now I'm a player? The hell is all this?" Shiro flared up despite trying to keep calm.

"Close." He ordered and the panel disappeared.

"I'm heading back to the class. I've spent ten minutes out here. Gotta return."

He walked back to class after washing his face and pouring water all over his head.

Shiro entered the class and walked back to his seat.

He sat down and rested his head against the window. He listened to the quiz going on, but he took no part in it.

He stared out the window.

Their class was on the second floor so he could get a wider and longer view than normal.

As his eyes moved around, glancing at objects, he spotted someone walking toward the school. The person walked very weirdly and his back and head were bent.

Shiro thought he had seen it wrongly so he turned to face the window to get a better view.

Truly, he had seen it correctly. Although the person was quite far away from him to see his face, Shiro was sure it was a male.

The fire alarm in the school rang and someone rushed into the class. He was breathing like someone chased by a jaguar.

"We need to evacuate the school right now. I was just coming from the rooftop and I saw someone outside the school get bitten and a few seconds later, he started acting weirdly. These weird people are approaching the school from all angles." The boy reported to everyone.

Tension spread around the class.

"I've seen such in movies. They were called uhm… Zombies. Yes, Zombies." He spoke again and a few classmates fainted.

*****

• Stamina drops the more he fights and stresses himself. The limit also increases as he levels up.