A lone man was standing in the middle of five cold, unmoving corpses.
'Early days are the best!'
The man is Erza, holding five Evolution Nectars on his right palm.
After cleaning the aromatic pink beads, he swallowed all five beads at once.
The reason humanity was on the brink of extinction is that they never leveraged in the early stages of the apocalypse.
Although Strain 1 Infected has twice the strength of an average adult, their bodies are also as weak as the average human adults!
Coupled with the lack of intelligence, they are the easiest type of prey.
They are literally the weakest mob monsters if the apocalypse were to be compared to a game!
Alas, fear has gotten the best of human ingenuity.
The Infected's grotesque appearances and the panic it caused has held back humanity's potential.
'100% boost! I'm as strong as a Strain 1 Infected now!'
After consuming 10 Evolution Nectars, it puts him on the same standing point as his enemies.
After disposing of the five lifeless bodies, he headed towards the emergency stairs.
'Let's see if it's still the same as before.'
There is another special property of the Evolution Nectars.
"Hupp!"
Boom!
A loud bang followed from Erza's single punch.
The steel pillar at the corner of the hotel wall had a fist print embedded on it!
'It's exactly the same!'
Besides enhancing a human's overall strength, the Evolution Nectar's main purpose is in its very name: to enable evolution.
'Sigh. I'm back to being a Class-10 Awakened again.'
An evolved human would be called 'Awakened' as they would awaken their unique 'Talent', an ability that stems from the hidden potential in each individual's genes.
For Erza, his 'Talent' is quite straightforward, yet very powerful.
The 'Super Strength' ability!
…
Climbing back up to his suite, Erza clicked on his walkie-talkie.
"Guys, it's me, open up."
Kzzt!
The walkie-talkie responded.
< How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? >
Although it sounded funny, it was to ensure the safety of their group.
"Bucky, Mum's Chicken Curry smells delicious."
They assigned a question and an answer everybody needs to remember every day because the answers and questions would change the next day.
Kzzt!
< You passed! You may now enter, sir.>
Di-dit!
The heavy suite door opened.
"How was it, big bro?"
Feera was standing next to Bucky at the entrance area of the suite.
"Quite good. Check this out!"
Whoosh!
A punch appeared out of nowhere and hit the air in front of the two younger brothers.
A breeze was pushed from in front of them and made them stepped back a step or two.
"W-What the hell?"
Out of amazement, Feera cursed out.
Although Erza's punch didn't hit them directly, the wind pressure was terrifying.
'How did big bro got so strong? Is it because of those pink beads from the zombies?'
Both brothers thought to themselves with their frozen expressions.
Click!
"Haha, the looks on your faces!"
Erza snapped a picture of his younger brother's faces with their eyes and mouth wide open.
"Let's have lunch, guys!"
He took off his combat gear and walked to the dining area with both his brothers' shoulders wrapped around his slightly muscular arm.
…
"Son, are you okay?"
Mrs. Numee quickly checked her son's face and body for any sign of injuries.
"Mom, big bro is super strong now! You wouldn't believe what he could do!"
Bucky blabbered to his mother with excitement.
They sat down for lunch that Mrs. Numee cooked.
When everyone was done, he made everyone gathered in the movie room.
"Guys, here is what happened today."
He replayed the recordings of his activities this morning.
It was a first-person view from the Fo-Pro camera he mounted on his helmet.
As they have already calmed down from Erza's 'demonstration of strength' yesterday, they have passed the stage of denial and became a little bit desensitized.
Instead, his family members are utterly impressed by his ingenuity and his meticulousness.
"Son, how much did you spend for those weapons?"
When Erza said that he spent more than 100,000 dollars for everything, his father jumped out of his chair.
"How could you be so wasteful?! What about your savings and-"
Despite his scolding, Erza just smiled at his father.
In his previous life, he did not even have anyone to scold him. It was truly a lonely life.
"Dad, would money even worth anything right now? Everybody would kill for these resources, not to mention selling them!"
Feera backed up his big brother.
Mr. Zayf somehow knew about this, but he is just angry and frustrated about the whole situation.
"Keep tabs on our relatives. Remind them, again and again, to stay at home! The army should be on the move now."
He told his family that he is going back out to hunt more Infected.
To occupy their time, he instructed them to record every information, keep track of their relatives' and friends' conditions, and make a setlist of people whom they couldn't contact.
"I'll be back before dinner!"
…
Descending to the 18th Floor, he detected six Infected.
His end goal is to clear the whole building and make it his own private fortress.
'Six, eh? Let's headshot three of them and test my 'Talent' against the remaining three.'
He activated the portable alarm and all six ran towards the source of the noise.
The moaning and howling of the undead were channeled to a little black toy car.
Siu! Siu! Siu!
Three Infecteds dropped to the floor.
Erza then folded his black crossbow and strapped it behind his slightly wide back.
Ka-Cha!
With a click of a button, the portable alarm was turned off.
Regaining back their bearings, the remaining three Infected started slowly smelling the air.
The scent of fresh human blood!
Roar!
They turned around, and instinctively rushed to Erza!
With unprecedented calmness, he took out a mountaineering ax.
It's a pointy ax usually found in common sports goods store, designed to pierce stones to ease mountain climbing.
The closer they came, the more vivid their details are.
Complete madness was seen in their cloudy black eyes.
Lips turned black with clear greenish liquid dangling on its sides.
Pale, paper white skin with black veins crawling over.
Fingernails in a dark green hue, signifying its poisonous state.
"Hmph!"
Upon contact, Erza gave a roundhouse kick to the first Infected.
His steel toe combat boots made a deep crevice on its chest!
The other two pounced on Erza without even turning their head to their fallen comrade.
He rolled to the front, making the Infected missed their attack upon landing terribly.
Before the first Infected could get back up, Erza appeared right on top of it.
Squelch!
The mountaineering ax was driven inside the Infected's skull!
As if he had done it a thousand times, he stepped on the dead Infected's head and pull out the ax.
The remaining two monsters shrieked while charging again towards Erza's direction.
Swack!
The ax impaled one of the Infected's forehead.
Erza threw it with accuracy from several meters away.
The last Infected reached Erza in a few moments.
He then parried and dodged every single strike from the infected.
'Were they always this easy? I mean, they are Strain 1, but I remembered it so different when I first fought them…'
In his previous life, he only got the courage to fight the Infected after the 3rd month of the apocalypse.
He was late to discover the news, and other Awakened has advanced so much ahead of him.
Despite that, he still managed to reach Class-2 Awakened status before he 'died'.
After testing and toying with the Infected for a few minutes, he decides to end its life.
With a swift but simple move, he pinned down the Infected to the floor, leaving its back exposed.
"It was a good practice, buddy. Rest well."
Crack!
One punch the back of the Infected's head.
His punch was crazy fast and strong.
The floor was devoid of noise.
Erza's superhuman strength made the Infected's hard skull look like an eggshell.
'Phew! I can't wait to get my full strength back!'
He proceeded with the usual routine of collecting the Evolution Nectars and disposing of the bodies.
He continued to the next two floors and killed another nine Infected.
…
'7.12 pm.'
His Apple Watch alerted him of the time.
The Infected are more active after dusk, so it would not be a good period to hunt them, especially an Infected horde.
He climbed back up the stairs through the emergency stairs.
Upon entering, an aromatic smell wafted the suite.
'Mom must be cooking that dish.'
He took off his combat gear and left them at the entrance.
After a day of killing, he went to take a shower.
Blood and grime get washed off his slightly built body.
Upon wiping himself dry, he noticed a considerable change in his physique.
What used to be a slightly flabby body, has reduced to having lesser fat and slight bulges of muscles.
The Evolution Nectar has a side effect of curing, re-adjusting, and re-aligning the body's physical aspect to be at its prime.
Wrinkled skin regains back its elasticity.
Greyed hairs turn back to its original youthful color.
Old injuries healed up and body parts could function normally.
What modern medical science could not do, would be possible with this little pink bead.
In the future, resources and commodities would be traded with Evolution Nectars as currencies.
It is the age of strength!
Only the strongest rules, and the weak dies.