2 2. Becoming a Vampire

___24 hours later___

Dexter rested his back on one of the racks in the supermarket as he panted for breath. In his hand was a mopstick which was broken into two halves.

'The end time has really come. I guess this is God's way of punishing humans.' Dexter thought as he remembered what happened the previous day. The sound of something falling and faint growling sounds came from nearby and he stood up to peep through the rack.

There he saw a humanoid creature with blue skin and it's teeth which were like the teeth of a saw were menacing to look at. Apart from these features the creature resembled a human.

'Cursed zombies.' Dexter gritted his teeth as he jumped from where he hid alerting the zombie. He had already expected this and he pointed the stick towards the zombie's eye.

Stacking force with his momentum, the stick pierced through the eye of the zombie and reached its brain killing it in an instant.

And Dexter fell backward in exhaustion.

'It's funny, I always wished for the world to end, to just stop suffering on earth. And the earth decided to end when I now have something to live for.' Dexter smiled bitterly.

It all started a day ago when Dexter was going back home from college as it was already summer break. Big green rocks like asteroids started falling from the sky. Any human that was touched or inhaled the gas the rock released turned into a zombie.

These zombies weren't even like the ones he saw in movies. They were stronger, and faster but they still lacked intelligence and killing was their purpose.

They didn't have a name so he just called them that. The zombies have no sense of reasoning so it was logical to kill them. It was kill or be killed ever since yesterday.

'Fuck. I've been hiding in this store for a whole day. I could make it my new home since the streets are flooded with zombies.' Dexter thought as he reached his hand towards a bag of cookies and began eating them.

'The zombies are strong. I'm worried about my brothers but... I can't fight zombies.' Dexter felt like crying.

'Well, I didn't like how the world was anyway, I've ended lives before.' Dexter said as he put another cookie in his mouth.

All of a sudden he stopped as words began to manifest in front of him. Golden words that glowed appeared in front of him.

"The hell?" Dexter shook his head and wiped his eyes and then he looked forward. The words were still there!

[You have survived 24 hours during the Tiran impact.]

[You have been recognized by the Beholder.]

At that moment a sharp pain surged through Dexter's mind. He clutched his head as he kept hearing the sound of a tyre of a car drifting.

After ten more seconds of torture, the pain finally subsided and Dexter opened his eyes to see a totally new set of words in front of him.

=====

[Name: Dexter Andrews]

[Level: 0]

[Race: Human]

[Spirit points: 0/50]

[Title: none]

[Job class: none]

[Universal level: Aborginal]

[Worldwide rank: 3,400,675]

[Heaven's tower points: 0]

----

[Stats]

[Spirit energy: 20/20]

[Stamina: 70/70]

[Strength: 10]

[Agility: 15]

[Mind: 40]

[Free points: 0]

=====

"What...?"

Dexter couldn't believe his eyes. If what he was looking at was true then he could get stronger with this... this...

"What... it's like... some kind of game. And here I was thinking judgment day has arrived." Dexter smiled happily.

When he first saw the asteroids falling with green gas coming out of it his first thought was that it was finally judgement day.

However, it turned out to be a damn apocalypse as he didn't see the skies open and he definitely didn't see any of the humans disappearing.

When the apocalypse broke out he immediately called his pastor and when he found out that his pastor was still here, on earth, he calmed down as he immediately knew that it wasn't judgment day.

'I thought it was an attack on our country but turns out it's worldwide.' Dexter thought as he got himself together.

'It wouldn't have surprised me as our president was a bastard that pissed off many presidents. Now that I know that the one who is behind this is... the Beholder. Maybe it's God.' Dexter could only try to put the pieces together as he saw the strange name 'The Beholder.'

'I wonder who this Beholder is.' He thought but he didn't ponder ad he knew no one was going to answer him.

Dexter stood up from the ground and pulled out his mopstick from the eye of the zombie and he looked at the zombie very well.

'I wonder if I can even call it a zombie. In the movies, they were not very strong. I saw one of these things outside flip a car!' Dexter peeped through the door and he didn't see anything.

'I don't want to encounter that particular one.'

Dexter sat on the floor cross-legged and looked at the screen again.

"Hm? There's no introduction." He was confused as games always had an introduction. 'Seems like this isn't supposed to be a game.'

He played with it for more than thirty minutes and figured out that he could summon and dismiss the screen at will.

'Looks like I'm not getting any introductions. It's almost night, I need to eat something.' Dexter thought, but as he was about to stand up, another screen popped up and his eyes opened wide.

[Congratulations. You have killed 9 normal zombies during the Tiran impact, surpassing 80% of the humans.]

[You have received an item as one of the top 500 humans that killed the most zombies.]

[You have received 90 Heaven's Tower points. Reach level 5 to enter Heaven's tower.]

"What..."

Before he could say anything else, an item appeared in front of him and he grabbed the vial that was half filled with a red liquid which seemed to be alive as it morphed into different shapes.

Another screen appeared in front of his face and then he saw the item details and he was beyond shocked.

[Item: Vampire blood]

[Rank: second class]

[Use(s): Drink the blood to obtain powers capable of letting you kill zombies and monsters easily. However, be ready to struggle for your humanity afterward.]

The first thing that came to his mind when he read the description was that he would become a vampire. After seeing that he would have to fight for his humanity he immediately stopped to think about it.

The rank on the item said 'second class' so he thought that it was probably the ranks of items.

He looked at the vial carefully and then he hesitated.

'You're seriously thinking about not drinking this godsent power potion. I doubt anyone will be able to keep their humanity intact after all the turmoil yesterday.' Dexter thought as he opened the vial and he sniffed the blood.

"It doesn't smell like blood though." Dexter furrowed his brows.

In fact it was scentless and the color was so clear that he couldn't believe it was real blood. He closed the vial and decided to drink it later. If he was really going to fight for his humanity then he would do that later.

'In all the movies I've watched. The vampires often struggle to keep their sanity or they become deadly bloodsuckers.' He thought hard. 'But those are just movies, I don't really know how vampires are in real life.'

Dexter sighed.

'There's that large zombie outside. I can't face it so I'll just stay here for a while.' Dexter thought as he wanted to sit down but then he picked up his dead laptop. He threw the laptop in the trash as it had no use in this apocalypse.

'Although it cost me a lot, all the power has been cut off.' He sighed. The laptop was basically useless to him at this point.

He took out his phone from his pocket and when he turned it on his heart quivered as he saw his wallpaper. It was him and a beautiful girl hugging on the wallpaper.

"I haven't even called her." Dexter began sweating and his hands began shaking as he dialed the girl's number.

The dialed number began ringing on the other side and Dexter's heart started beating faster and faster as the seconds went by.

The line was suddenly picked up and he immediately began talking.

"Hannah. Are you okay?" His voice cracked.

"Dexter? Oh my God you're okay." The feminine voice on the other end of the call seemed to calm him down and tears flowed down his cheeks.

"And yes. I'm okay but we can't leave the house. The weird blue humans flooded the streets and we can't go anywhere." Hannah sounded scared on the other end.

"Okay, don't worry. I'm coming to get you." Dexter calmed down. "How long will your foodstuffs last?"

"About one and half months."

"Okay. Don't worry about me okay. Just take care of yourself and watch your roommates. I'm coming for you." Dexter said and he hung up.

Seeing that his phone was about to die he switched it off and put it in his pocket.

He grabbed all the foodstuff he could carry and packed them into his bag and then he wore it. He clutched the vial in his hand tightly.

'There's no way I can face that thing at level zero. But this...' Dexter looked towards the vial in his hand. 'This could help me if it boosts my strength.'

"And about my humanity or whatever... I'm not sure anything is strong enough to affect my mind." He encouraged himself as he opened up the vial.

As his lip touched the bottle the blood immediately shot down his throat and his insides immediately began squirming as his insides began changing.

"Fuck." Dexter groaned, bearing the pain coming from his stomach, his chest, and every other organ.

After three minutes, the pain finally stopped and Dexter breathed a sigh of relief as he stood up slowly and read what was on the screen in front of him.

[You have now become a 'failed one'. Strength +10, Agility +10, mind +5.]

'Failed one?' Dexter was confused as he had never heard anything like that in movies.

[Your worldwide rank has increased. New rank: 100,060]

Dexter was quite shocked as with just a few numbers, he got shot upwards from less than three million to a hundred thousand.

...

Dexter decided not to ponder over the fact that his race changed from human to 'failed one' and instead went to grab a radio on the bloodied counter where a female zombie's body lay on the other side.

He didn't flinch and just grabbed the radio before walking to the back of the store. The lady tried to kill him so it was justified.

'All electricity are down. Although I've never used a radio by myself, I know how they are operated.' Dexter began to change the channel on the radio.

Most of the channels were cracked and he searched for a while until he found one that was inaudible but still a little bit clear.

[The power station has been brutally attacked by these weird humanoid creatures. It was blown up and a lot of these creatures are dead now. The authorities have yet to give a word about the situation.

The civilians are advised to go to the military base close to the southern district as it's the only safe place in Lagos. Good luck to you all. I can't live like this so I'll end it right here. *BANG!*]

A loud banging sound came from the radio and Dexter turned it off as he knew what happened clearly.

'The reporter commited suicide.' He felt sad for some reason. "I guess he didn't have enough to live for."

Dexter scoured the entire shop and the only things he could find which would be a little bit lethal were kitchen knives. Lucky for him there were sharpening stones and he sharpened the six knives and put four inside his bag while he clutched two in his hands.

Dexter breathed out as he was ready to leave this store.

His bag was now filled up with food stuffs for his small trip and he held two knives in both of his hands in case he encounters the beast he encountered before.

'That thing was twice the size of a human. I'll avoid it, but if it comes to a confrontation...' Dexter paused his thoughts. "I'll just have to kill it."