Joseph felt like he would never wake up again but to his surprise, he opened his eyes and saw that he was still in the same room where he passed out Joseph tried to pick up his phone that he placed next to him before passing out.
Joseph tried to pick up the phone but it was hard his body was sluggish and heavy after dropping his phone several times Joseph finally managed to pick it up after trying as hard as he could he finally was able to open his camera he switched to selfie mode and hold the phone right against his face to his horror he looked like those people that became Lesser Zombies with the only difference being that he didn't have any blood on his face.
Joseph had no choice but to accept the reality and how he had died but what shocked him the most was that unlike the description of the lesser zombie he previously read he still retained his sanity and memories as a human not only that he wasn't bloodthirsty like those monsters.
Wondering what to do and asking himself if this was the reality he recalled that he had the status window that previously had shown him his stats.
Joseph tried to call it out by saying Status window but he would only make some grunting noise he couldn't talk so he start thinking about it as hard as he could and it finally happened the status window came out in front of him but the silent game-like system wasn't silent anymore it started talking with an eerie robotic voice
[AnOOOMaaaaaLY Deeeetetetected REEeeEeeEBoOOOoTiiing]
hearing this Joseph couldn't help but feel like this was the end of his life as if that eerie voice wasn't enough a count down appeared right in the middle of the status window
counting from ten to zero.
These 10 seconds were the most nerve-racking 10 seconds of his life he thought as soon it hits zero his brain will explode and he will die.
After the 10 seconds were finished status window disappeared and Joseph was still alive after seeing that nothing had happened he heaved a sigh of relief even though he was a zombie Joseph was still young, and he was hoping that since he is still sane there might be some sort of cure for his condition and then he would be able to live the normal life that he so wanted, well considering that the world had just ended it wouldn't be that normal.
After a few minutes, the status window appeared once again this time instead of being blue it was a pink lavender color this time Joseph felt like something has changed although he didn't know if this was for better or worse.
His train of thoughts was suddenly interrupted by a nice and gentle voice that he couldn't help but for some reason be reminded of those yandere characters from anime that would sound nice but turn out to be terrifying psychos, his doubts were soon answered.
[Hi my name is Godiva from now on I will be your companion in this apocalyptic world..~]
Joseph couldn't help but feel that this was the most gentle voice that he had ever heard in his life but deep down he couldn't help but feel like he can't trust this voice.
After several minutes of silence Joseph asked the system what it was and why did she suddenly start talking to him.
Godiva answered Joseph with a nice and gentle voice telling him about the circumstances.
[Previously you were a normal human like others and you were supposed to die after being bitten by zombies but due to some turn of events that even I can't figure anything out about you didn't lose your sanity and you still retain your intelligence as a human so the gods decided to see how things would play out and they gave me to you the most intelligent system in the universe you should be grateful~]
It answered Joseph with a playful yet gentle voice Joseph had met countless shady people in his life from scammers to females that wanted to take advantage of him so he could distinguish a person's personality based on their voice and the way they talked, talking with his system Godiva he couldn't help but feel like she was like a kid who had just got their hands on the newest toy that was recently released. after several minutes of small talk, Joseph start asking serious questions starting with asking if there was any cure for him.
after getting his answers he had a grasp of the situation outside.
The first is that although there was a cure that could stop people from becoming zombies there was no cure that could turn a zombie into a human reason being that they had already lost their souls same could be said about Joseph his soul had already left his body but all of his memory was still attached to his crystal core keeping him sane and capable of thinking like a human.
knowing that he couldn't be cured he asked if there was any way for him to be able to regain his senses Joseph had already verified that he couldn't feel anything from pain to taste he had lost all of his senses which made Joseph feel sad.
The second thing Joseph learned was that he could Evolve as a zombie and reach a higher existence in which not only he would regain his senses but he could also become stronger.
The third thing he learned was something that made him feel a lot of different mixed emotions it was that earth was used in some sort of ceremony and people who died were sacrifices but due to the high population of earth and 50% of it being sacrificed the amount of mana that was poured into the earth was so dense that it turned the people that were sacrificed into zombies and previously earth's harmless animals were also turned into monsters as if those were not enough due to dispute between some of the gods that led to them fighting each other a high portion of Pure mana used in their fights was observed by the core of the earth which turned many different places on earth into dungeons, 7 world wonders being the biggest dungeons created.
Hearing all of this made Joseph feel like that earth was already F*cked as it was and now that humans could become more powerful than they previously were, was not something Joseph was happy about by living a life of an underground illegal fighter he had seen many disturbing things such as people being shot, stabbed, tortured to death and many more things, he couldn't help but feel a deep hatred towards humans his whole life.
and in this new world majority of people who would survive and adapt would-be criminals and people as such, good and innocent people would be part of the minority that would survive
being a zombie he couldn't care less about the situation of the world so he asked Godiva what he should do even though he couldn't completely trust Godiva it was the only thing that he had left in this world.