Chapter 2- First Kill
Feeling his heart almost stop beating as the realization dawned on him, Edward tried to retreat instinctively as his body went full fight or flight mode.
However, what he didn't notice is the small rock, sticking out of the ground behind him which made him stumble back and fall. For better or worse, that fall made the Zombie pass over him and land on the other side like a dropped ragdoll.
"RAAAHH!!"
"What the hell?!" Edward quickly stood up as he created distance between them with wary eyes. Something didn't add up there.
'If that attack hit me, I wouldn't come out unscathed! What's going on here?' He thought as he frowned hard.
Meanwhile, the monster stood up again rigidly before turning around to face Edward again. This time, however, Edward had no intention of joking around as he understood whatever that thing was… It didn't come here with any good intentions in mind.
"Wait, what if it's really a Zombie? No, no, that can't be. These creatures don't exist, right?"
But, no matter how he looks at it, the man in front of him was a Zombie. There wasn't even a shred of doubt that he was facing an undead monster.
"Ugh, whatever it is, I have no time to think. I need to…"
"RAAAAAHHH!!" At that moment the Zombie dashed towards him with its hands up in the air.
"Run!!"
Turning around, Edward quickly flew away at top speed. Even though he was a NEET, Edward liked to exercise regularly. The last thing he wanted was to look like those fat pigs in anime and manga that he sees on a daily basis. He was a NEET but with elegance.
"Huf, huf… Huh? Why am I already getting tired?" He murmured as he felt his body already running out of energy.
Usually, sprinting for a few minutes wouldn't be a problem for Edward since his stamina was decent. However, not even a minute passed and he was already feeling exhausted. Also, he noticed that his body wasn't feeling like usual.
'Did my stamina drop because of fear?!'
Looking behind him, he could see the Zombie already closing the distance between them. It somehow seemed faster than before.
"Shit! Shit! Shit! Leave me alone, you monster! I'm not even worth your time! My meat must taste like cheap noodles and sugary water!" He yelled as he quickly looked around him with fright clear in his eyes.
Then, in an impulsive decision decided to change direction and barged into one of the classrooms beside him. He knew that if he kept sprinting like this, the Zombie will catch him sooner or later so he assumed that trying to lose him in one of the classes would be the best choice.
So, he barged inside the class and closed the door before looking around. The place was completely empty, destroying all hope for Edward to find something he could use to fend off the Zombie.
"Shit, I didn't think all classes will be this empty!! Why did I have to choose the most useless place to hide in?! What should I do? What should I do? Think, think!!"
Meanwhile, the Zombie had already reached him and started banging loudly on the door. The more it hit the door, the more Edward grew restless. Sweat trickled down his face and fear slowly crept deeper and deeper into his soul.
"Ugh!! Fuck! It's do or die! I have no other choice."
A few moments passed before the door finally was smashed open and the Zombie ran inside looking for Edward eagerly.
But, much to its surprise, the target was nowhere to be found.
Then, emerging from the shadow behind the smashed door, Edward picked up a piece of broken glass thrown on the ground and dashed toward the Zombie.
"AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!" He yelled at the top of his lungs before lunging the sharp piece of glass into the Zombie's body blindly.
Blood splattered everywhere, including Edward's body which made him finally open his eyes and look up. His face grew pale as he saw the place he aimed for. The shard had stabbed the Zombie in the head, right in the left eye.
Instantly, Edward felt the urge to vomit, if he had the time to do that, that is. The shard seemingly didn't affect the Zombie at all.
"Hiii!!" Feeling scared shitless, Edward tried to retreat.
"RAAAH!!"
But, the monster had already grabbed him and pushed him down, throwing all of its weight on him.
"RAAAAH!!!"
"No!" Clenching his teeth, Edward tried to push the monster away but his arms felt weak and useless.
Blood kept trickling down from the monster's torn eye socket and fell right on Edward's face.
"G-Get of me!!!"
Fortunately, with his hand still on the piece of glass, Edward pushed it further inside as much as he could. The more he pushed, the more blood gushed out, coating him completely in blood. At this point, the adrenaline in his body was making him do things he would usually would never even imagine pulling off.
The gruesome fight continued for almost 40 seconds until…
*Stab*
Suddenly, the shard of glass had fully dug into the monster's skull. At that instant, it lost all strength as it suddenly stopped moving and fell on top of Edward.
The latter quickly pushed it away with a horrified look on his face.
"Hah… Hah… Hah…" Breathing heavily, he looked at the monster from a distance with shocked eyes.
"I-I… I killed it…" He murmured in disbelief after a few seconds. Then, his eyes moved down to look at himself.
The bloodied state he was in made his heart stop for a second before he screeched instinctively. The sight was traumatizing. Edward had never killed an animal before let alone a person so seeing this much blood was terrifying.
"I… How did I…" He couldn't even dare to say the word 'kill' again.
Panic attacked him strongly.
"I'm a murderer… But, it attacked me first…" He conflicted himself.
However, at that second, something odd happened.
[You have killed a level 1 Zombie.]
[You have absorbed its power.]
[You have gained +1 agility and strength.]
[You have leveled up from level 0 to level 1.]
[You have acquired 2 free status points.]
[Zombiemancer skill has been activated.]
[Check the status window for more details.]
"Huh?" Looking up, Edward blinked a few times in confusion at the series of floating, holographic images in front of him. It didn't take him long to realize that what he was looking at was none other than the thing he had seen countless times before.
"Status window… Holographic images… This can't be wrong. It's a system!" He deducted quickly.
'A system? Wait, why would something like this appear to me? Did I…' Suddenly, realization dawned on Edward as he quickly stood up and ran toward the window of the classroom to take a look outside.
All this time he had been here, he didn't try to look outside since he thought it wasn't necessary. But, now that he took a look, he regretted not checking it first thing. In fact, what kind of normal person with common sense would completely forget about checking where they were after waking up in an unknown place? Edward had no answer to that.
"What… is this?"
The outside world wasn't the lively city he had been living in, nor a rural area. Instead, all he saw was a ruined, apocalyptic city that extends seemingly endlessly into the horizon. Ruined buildings, destroyed streets, strands of grass growing everywhere, rusty old, cars that saw better days, and finally, the complete absence of any human around.
"I've been… reincarnated." He murmured to himself in complete disbelief.
Reincarnation is a concept that Edward was very familiar with as it was in each and every medium he consumed on a daily basis. A character gets transported to another world, usually fantasy, and starts its journey to become the strongest or greatest, depending on the plot of the story.
It would be a lie if Edward said he never dreamt of experiencing such a thing first-hand. However, now that he was faced with the facts, his face broke down into a complicated smile mixed with fear and excitement.
"You gotta be kidding me… So when I lost consciousness, I was actually dead?!"
Rubbing his temple a few times as he tried to remember what happened.
"Right! It all happened after that dude 'Fiction Deity' messaged me. Was he the one responsible for this?"
Although it wasn't common, Edward felt that the mysterious player had a hand in this as his message was weird coupled with the fact that he knew Edward's name.