Riku woke up to the sight of Eliza sleeping in front of him. Albeit he was slightly shocked, a few moments later an expression of realization can be seen on his face.
The guilt and every other emotion Riku felt last night was still there. The pep talk last night helped him, however, no matter how many times Eliza encourages him in the end it'll all depend upon himself.
If Eliza saw Riku at that moment she'll see determination and ambition on the man's face.
Riku thanked Eliza in his heart and he made a decision as he went to Stephen's room, seeing that Stephen was still asleep. He looks for whatever he can write on and taped it to the handrail where it was easy to spot.
Riku went to the storage room in the hallway and searched for something he can use. There were various tools such as a hammer and saws, but a hammer was too small and saws aren't exactly made for piercing into things. What he needed was a baseball bat and lucky for him one was right there at the corner.
Baseball is one of the most, if not most popular sport in Japan. It wasn't therefore, that odd that there'll be one baseball bat. Regardless of the gender of the kid, the only thing they'll do is to have fun, even if a parent teaches a kid that a specific toy are only for a certain gender, they'll still play with it as long as they deemed it to be fun. For a kid, a person's gender doesn't matter at all.
A baseball bat with nails, the common melee weapon in almost every zombie-themed shows, games or movies. While it sounds simple to make there are actually certain factors to consider when making it, such as how long will the nails be and how can a person cover a wooden bat with nails without breaking the wood.
Riku decided to save the battery on his phone because who knows when there'll be no electricity or water but he had no choice. Weirdly enough, despite the fact that it's a weapon there were still tutorials on the internet.
By the time he was done it was around 7am and it isn't exactly bright outside, due to the dark clouds in the sky.
Riku's plan was to find out whether he'll be able to use a skill point earned through level up in the Skill Section or if it was some sort of a newbie gift. This will also serve as an evidence if the system is real or not.
Before he went outside, he tried his best to increase his chances of living, he wore long sleeves and filled area of his forearm cotton and then tied it tight enough that the cottons won't flow either to his arm or hand. He did the same to his nondominant hand, but since there were not enough cottons he decided to fill it with handkerchiefs. He could've used the cottons inside the pillows, but it's the only source of material comfort he could have so he decided against it.
Before going out, he double checked his equipment, unable to find anything he can improve on. He left his backpack and hid it inside the house. He didn't think that the two will leave him alone and take his food, but he didn't want to risk it.
" I only have two goals, first is to determine whether the system is real. Second, if it is real I need to level up as much as I can in an hour."
He looked at the clock.
"It's 7:10, I should probably set it so that my phone will vibrate after an hour, while I'm at it, I might as well try and see whether there's nothing else that changed in this world."
He peeked through the spy-hole in the door to see whether there's any zombies in front of the door. Aside from the streets splattered with blood there was nothing else to see so he slowly opened the door ready to use his bat if something suddenly attacks him.
Riku slowly went outside and saw a scene much worse than before a few cars were burning crashed either into buildings, houses or other vehicles. There were no signs of a zombie in the street so he bent his knees a little as he walked, he was ready to run the moment he sees a group of zombies. The streets were eerily empty as if they all disappeared, that's what Riku thought as well for a moment before hearing screams and loud groans.
They were coming from around a corner and the source of the sounds seems to be quite close to his current location. The house where his group was can barely be seen already. He first looked around him, he looked at the street, across and he looked at the street on it. This is the dangers of walking through the streets, especially at intersections, a zombie could pop out of nowhere.
He didn't see a sign of a zombie so he slowly walked to the corner of the street. He looked at the ground to make sure he won't hit anything that might make a noise.
When he reached the corner, he peeked at the street on the left where the screams and groans were coming from. He saw a scene out of a horror movie. There was a bus in the middle of the streets and the screams seems to have come from the inside of the bus.
Riku couldn't tell properly, how many were alive inside the bus, it's not like they were hiding. The issue was the large number of zombies surrounding the bus. There were so many that the whole bus was covered with zombies, some were on the roof trying to get inside.
The survivors were lucky that the bus wasn't the type where the windows were huge, but their luck doesn't seem to last longer as the amount of zombie increase the pressure on the bus increased as well. The sounds of metal creaking could be heard and the sound of what seems to be the windshield cracking could barely be heard.
Riku managed to take a glimpse of a human inside the bus, she looked like a high school girl. They only managed to stare at each other's eye for a second, but Riku was able to see the despair in her eyes.
He couldn't imagine how she felt. A few moments before the girl might've thought that the bus was her haven and she'll be safe, but right in front of her eyes, she watched her haven slowly turn into hell and she's trapped in it.
Feeling guilty despite not being able to do anything to save her. He braced himself as he prioritized his life over strangers.
There were lone zombies slowly approaching the group, and Riku made a tough decision. He'll use the bus as bait.
"So the zombies can't run after all."
He realized as he watches every zombie try to reach the source of the screams. Steeling his resolve and remembering his goals.
He approached a lone zombie. Just as he reached the range where he could hit the zombie he swung with all his might.
"Let's see if I'll be able to kill it in one hit and if the group will hear us." Riku thought as he aimed the bat to the head of the zombies.
The sound of a skull and bat hitting each other was quite disturbing. The zombie fell on the ground so he took a second to look around him. It doesn't seem like any of the zombies heard it as they continued to approach to try and tear it apart.
The zombie he bashed in the back of the head slowly tried to get up. Knowing that the zombies won't approach him, he once again swung the bat with full force. The sound of the skull hitting the bat followed by the sound of a skull bouncing on concrete resounded in Riku's ears.
He puked a little bit, but determination can still be seen in his eyes. He was just about to approach another zombie when he heard a ding sound in his head.
*Ding! *
[ Congratulations! You have proven that you're a real survivor. The difference between someone who survived and someone surviving is the former by accident the latter by choice]
[You have gained the skill "Psychological Distress Immunity level 1"
Description: You have managed to overcome one psychological burden after another, you're now immune at a certain level of emotions such as fear, anxiety etc.]
Riku unintentionally smiled as he realized that he now has a chance of overcoming every difficulty that he'll meet in this chaotic world.