Chereads / Project New Era / Chapter 2 - First Horde

Chapter 2 - First Horde

Seeing as he leveled up Zeke looked for some kind of stats menu. As he was trying to locate it they heard pounding on the door and grumbling noises coming from outside.

Zeke realized it was zombies that were attracted by the noise the last fight caused and asked Sarah to walk over to the window to check the number of zombies.

After Sarah checked how many were outside banging on the door she collapsed. So frightened and thought this was the end her legs gave out.

Zeke saw her shaking and asked how many zombies were outside while he tried to see if there was another exit in the room where the previous zombies came out of.

Zeke explored the second room but quickly found that the room didn't even have a window they could use let alone another door.

With the only option to confront the zombies that are about to break in, he called over Sarah to help him rearrange the bookcases and other pieces of furniture inside the room.

Zeke set up the room in a maze to help slow down the already slow zombies. With this, they can funnel them through and slowly kill the zombies.

As Zeke killed his eight zombies his wooden bat shattered into multiple pieces all over once it connected with the zombie's head.

Sarah who was close behind him noticed his broken bat and how multiple zombies were closing in and about to attack Zeke.

She quickly grabbed one of the aluminum bats in his backpack and tossed it to him. While grabbing the other one and using it to hit their legs to slow them down even further.

Sarah found out that she was about to inspect the zombies. "Zeke if you think about looking at a certain target you are able to pull up the zombie's stats." Zeke quickly thought about inspecting the zombie in his mind and he was able to see the stats for the zombie.

[Zombie]

Level: 2

Strength: 14

Agility: 4

Skills: [None]

Zeke thought to himself 'These zombies are so slow is it linked to their agility stat? After killing over 20 zombies that made their way through the maze they finally finished all the zombies.

After Zeke had finished killing the zombies around him, he fell to his knees, feeling overwhelmed and confused.

He was struggling to process what had just happened, wondering where these creatures had come from and what was happening to the world around him.

He couldn't believe that he had just fought off a horde of zombies, and the shock of it all left him feeling disoriented and lost.

However, after a few minutes of gathering his thoughts and calming himself down, Zeke was able to regain his composure.

Zeke knew that he needed to stay alert and prepared for any future attacks, but for now, he took a deep breath and gathered his strength, ready to face whatever challenges lay ahead.

Then he thought about his condition and checked to see if there were any scratches or bites on him. After checking his body noticed he wasn't physically tired but he was mentally exhausted after the fight. Confused about why he wasn't physically exhausted after that long drawn-out fight, he suddenly remembered the notification he got about leveling up and thought it had something to do with that.

After checking the surroundings one more time he paid more attention to the notifications that popped up in his mind during the fight and he noticed he had leveled up four times.

[You have leveled up]

[You have leveled up]

[You have leveled up]

[You have leveled up]

After seeing that he leveled up he tried looking for some kind of stats menu like the zombies have and tried inspecting himself but no stats popped up. He then look at Sarah and tried inspecting her.

[Sarah Atkins]

Rank: Novice

Level: 2

Skills: [Inspect]

After seeing it worked on her, Zeke was even more confused. 'Can I not see my own stats? That shouldn't be possible right?' After thinking about it more Zeke tried thinking about some common words that would normally be used in games or books he read in the past. He tried 'stats' 'open' 'upgrade' and 'info' until finally, he got it to open trying 'Status' and it pulled up his stats page.

[Zeke Anderson]

Level: 6

Rank: Novice

Talent: None

Class: None

Strength: 40/100

Agility: 30/100

Stamina: 26/100

Health: 25/100

Magic: 11/100

Skills: [Inspect]

After resting for a few more minutes Sarah and Zeke quickly made their way to his dorm room that was nearby.

Zeke looked up at the half-destroyed dorm building. Unable to use the elevators due to the damage, they used the stairs.

Finally, they reached the 3rd floor killing the few zombies they found in the stairs and hallways.

Sarah was starting to worry as they have yet to see another living person but constant screams were heard in the surrounding areas.

Before Zeke was able to open his door a mutated dog broke it down and stood in front of the two.

[Zombie Dog/Dozer]

Level: 11

Strength: 34

Agility: 41

After using his inspection skill he realized it was his roommate's support dog. "Dozer is that you boy, calm down it's me Zeke" Zeke tried talking to the dog to get it to calm down, but it kept growling at the duo.

"Do you know whose dog this is Zeke?" Sarah asked confused because normally pets aren't allowed in the dorms.

"Yes, this is my roommate's service dog." Zeke quickly explained before Dozer jumped towards the duo. Zeke promptly dodged out of the way before getting almost getting bitten.

Zeke had to quickly put his emotions to the side at the moment and think about how to kill his roommate's dog before they get killed.

After the duo dodged a few attacks he noticed that this was not going to be an easy fight and he needed to come up with a strategy to take down the zombie dog due to the increased stats the dog had on them.

"Sarah this is risky but you need to trust me instead of dodging use the bat to hold its teeth while I get behind it!" Zeke shouted.

"Zeke, I don't know about this," Sarah hesitated. "I don't want to be used as bait. What if I end up getting hurt or worse, dying?"

Despite her reservations, Zeke insisted that this was their best chance at survival.

"Sarah, this is risky but right now it is the only chance I see us winning," he shouted. "Instead of dodging, use the bat to hold its teeth while I get behind it!"

Although she was still scared, Sarah noticed the dog was already lunging toward her. Instead of dodging she decided last second to trust Zeke's judgment and decided to follow his instructions.

Due to the momentum of the dog's lunge, she fell down and used the bat to block its teeth, hoping that this would be enough to keep her safe.

The zombie dog's strength was too much for the aluminum bat to handle, as it quickly crushed under the dog's powerful jaws.

As the creature closed in on Sarah, ready to bite her head, Zeke sprang into action.

He grabbed the dog from behind, putting it into a chokehold and using all his strength to snap its neck.

Despite the danger and the gruesome task at hand having to kill his best friend's dog, he knew it needed to be done.

Once they finished killing the dog Zeke noticed a light blue orb and picked it up then they quickly went inside Zeke's room to rest and come up with a new plan and check this system.

Once they were safely in the room Zeke pulled up all the messages he had skipped over while killing the hallway zombies and Dozer.

[You have leveled up]

[You have leveled up]

[You have leveled up]

'Status'

[Zeke Anderson]

Level: 9

Rank: Novice

Talent: None

Class: None

Strength: 32/100

Agility: 21/100

Stamina: 17/100

Health: 14/100

Magic: 8/100

Skills: [Inspect]

'I wonder how they calculated my stats when I was level one.' Zeke thought to himself.

"Do you know what that is? Sarah asked while pointing at the light blue orb. Zeke looked at the orb and used his inspection on it.

[Uncommon treasure orb]

"I think it is some type of reward based on killing the zombie. Maybe they have a chance to drop after we kill something. Did you notice any other orbs when we killed the zombies before and did you figure out your stats?" Zeke asked while he used inspect.

'Inspect'

[Sarah Atkins]

Rank: Novice

Level: 3

Skills: [Inspect]