He tries to think about it.
He didn't know what his powers can do, but he can make conjectures base on it's name.
Upgrade means turning something into a better one. So he thinks his ability might have something to do with turning things more better.
As those thoughts takes root into his mind, he decided to test it.
He looks at the rotten metal pipe and decides to test his powers in it first. He tries to think of using his powers on this pipe. Then suddenly, a prompt occurs.
[Would you like to upgrade (Rotten Metal Pipe)?]
That prompt makes his eyes go slightly wide, though this confirms his suspicions. He answered "Yes" mentally and suddenly, he felt something within him being spent. He can't explain it clearly other than he lost something weird inside him.
The rotten metal pipe shines for a bit before it dims. The rough and flaky feeling of the cold metal became a smooth and polished one. Squinting his eyes to see it carefully, he is surprised to see the pipe looking like brand new again.
[(Rotten Metal Pipe) upgraded to (Metal Pipe)]
That prompts surprises him, before his surprise turned into satisfaction. His smile turned into grin before he finally let out a chuckle.
"Haha! With this, I can survive!" He exclaimed in excitement.
Why won't he become excited?
Other than having the option to keep himself safe, he also found out that he have powers. People dreamed about getting powers since they are a child, so it is no surprise that he is excited.
He didn't if there is a limit, so he decided to look into his status first.
[Status]
Neil Howard (Human/Male)
Upgrades : 9
'I knew it!'
His suspicion hits the mark. His upgrades seems to decrease everytime he uses his powers.
'Can I upgrade this pipe again? Will it cost more if I upgrade this again?'
He decided to try it out and upgrade the metal pipe.
[Would you like to upgrade (Metal Pipe)?]
[(Metal Pipe) upgraded to (Sturdy Metal Pipe)]
[Status]
Neil Howard (Human/Male)
Upgrades : 8
"Again!"
[Would you like to upgrade (Sturdy Metal Pipe)?]
[(Sturdy Metal Pipe) upgraded to (Super Metal Pipe)]
[Status]
Neil Howard (Human/Male)
Upgrades : 7
His eyes shines in glee as he sees it. It only uses one of his upgrades to turn something into a better one.
The pipe he is holding looks very polished, and it seems like it is emanating some sort of aura that he can't describe.
He would like to test this one, but he didn't want to destroy the walls here. If he tries breaking the debris on the third floor, the ceiling might collapse along with this building.
His mind turned to the zombie below before shaking his head. Even if he have this pipe, he is not confident that he can defeat the zombie. Even if he can, he might get overwhelmed by some of the creatures below, like those demonic looking rabbits.
He is still a normal highschool student. He have some experience getting into fistfights and he goes to gym on a weekly basis, but he is not confident leaving unscathed on a horde of creatures. Even a normal dog manage to bites him in the past when he turned on the wrong corner of the streets, and this causes him to go to the hospital just to check up on rabies. He is not so sure about abnormal beasts.
He looks at the unglazed window, and thought of an idea. He goes to that place and touches the corner of the window before thinking of using his powers.
[Would you like to upgrade (Deteriorated Unglazed Window)?]
He squinted his eyes before nodding.
The window shines for a bit before it changes, into a bit smoother window without any glasses in it still.
[(Deteriorated Unglazed Window) upgraded to (Unglazed Window)]
"This is not enough!"
He tries again.
[Would you like to upgrade (Unglazed Window)?]
[(Unglazed Window) upgraded to (Poorly Glazed Window)]
The window finally have a window covering, though he can see that it seem easily breakable. He knows breakable glass, he have seen it a lot of times on the neighborhood. So he knows this won't do.
[Would you like to upgrade (Poorly Glazed Window)?]
[(Poorly Glazed Window) upgraded to (Glazed Window)]
[Status]
Neil Howard (Human/Male)
Upgrades : 4
The glass finally looks like it is decent enough. It can cover him for a bit for now.
"Ugh... I only have a few upgrades left. I also still don't have food and water."
While moping, he looks at the door to his room, before realizing something.
This room only have one unglazed window, but there are other windowless openings on the other room. If those birds decided to enter this building to attack him, they can easily get on those windowless openings. The door is loosely opened and it seems like it is impossible to close it.
With those thoughts, he quickly moves to that door and upgrades it.
[Would you like to upgrade (Broken Wooden Door)?]
[(Broken Wooden Door) upgraded to (Wooden Door)]
[Would you like to upgrade (Wooden Door)?]
[(Wooden Door) upgraded to (Padded Wooden Door)]
He is finally satisfied. It seems like the wooden door didn't have any locks in it, so he was forced to upgrade it once more until it got a lock mechanism.
After locking that door, he finally got the time to contemplate about his situation.
"I don't have any water and food. My family is not here, and I don't know where I am!"
"I also don't know if I'll ever have any upgrades later on. How can I even accumulate upgrades?"
"This power is useful, but I hope it would have given me any user manual!"
He laid on the cold, dusty, and cracked floors and look at the faded and dark ceilings, his mind wandering.
'I am hungry, and right now I am also feeling thirsty. I don't know if there are any people on the outside. I only see those scary creatures.'
'Still. I have to think of something. Anything will be useless if I just die here!'
He spend his whole day just going around this room, thinking of anything and trying and hesitating to use his two remaining upgrades on anything else.
He hopes his upgrades can recover after some time.