Chapter 25- HAPPY Labs (Part 3)
"What the…" Asher jumped back in surprise when he saw the expression on the man. He had a wide, inhuman grin splitting his face in half. Nothing about the smile was normal so much so that his lips were bloodied beyond recognition after being stretched for that long.
His cheeks were distorted and his eyes were pushed so high that he can barely see through them.
'It's the same man…' Asher quickly recognized the smile as the same one that he saw on the skull.
"Hehehehehehehe!" The man laughed maniacally as he extended his hands to his face and started rubbing it slowly.
"Hahahahahahaha!" The more he laughed, the more the intensity of his scratching increased. His nails dug deep into his flesh and moved up and down, ignoring the hellish pain that comes with that.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" His laughs increased again and again until his throat was unable to handle it. His vocal strings were cut and his laughs finally went silent again.
But, the scratches never stopped until the man's face was now without any skin on it. Even his eyes weren't spared as they were turned into blind, bloody messes. The sight was chilling, to say the least.
Asher felt his heart rate increase as he watched a man seemingly dive into insanity gradually in front of him.
'"W-What is this? What's wrong with this place?" He murmured in complete disbelief.
"Let's leave." Rain suddenly spoke from behind him, waking Asher from his thoughts.
Looking back, the boy could see that Rain had a solemn, cold look on her face.
"No, hold on a second." He said as he stood up. "Do you really think this is normal? We are witnessing some kind of human experimentation that turns people into monsters. What is even happening in this place?!"
"I don't know." She said, turning around as if not to face Asher.
"These HAPPY Labs aren't made to find a cure for the Zombies. You did say that there are still many of them scattered around the world, right?" He asked.
"As far as I know, yes."
"..."
'To think this world had this cruelty in it and yet the novel never mentioned any of it. Am I even in 'Zombie Highschool' at this point? Where was I transported?' Asher felt his head swirl with thoughts bordering on an existential crisis.
"Let's just leave." Rain said as she walked toward the door.
Nodding his head, Asher followed after her in silence. Both of them had no reason to talk and neither do they need to after what happened. This place was completely rotten from the inside out.
'I need to be more careful than ever. This world is potentially completely different from what I expected.'
Asher's initial plan was to meet the person Rack told him about and then try to gain as much strength as possible until the start of the story. After that, he would either try to follow the events of the novel while searching for the people that killed his sister or diverge completely and try to pursue the culprits immediately.
However, now that he was faced with this possibility, he had to scratch everything and rebuild his plan.
'I need to know two important things. What changed in the story and how deep that change is? For now, Rain seems to be the same as the character in the story. However, her background is completely different from before and that could pose a problem in the future.'
As he watched Rain's silhouette secretly, Asher made up his mind. 'For the time being, I will keep our relationship as superficial as possible. The events of 'Zombie Highschool' are already troublesome as they are. My own problems are enough.'
Asher had no intention of trying to get entangled with the main cast and the reasons are many. First of all, he read enough books to understand how dumb trying to get involved with the protagonist and his group is. Second of all, the protagonist and the harem are basically walking disasters and easily stand out like soar thumbs which attract bad people that try to pull them down and crush them.
'I have a system for god's sake! That fact alone is a formula for disaster. If my weak self ended up facing someone way stronger, I will be crushed like an ant.'
The kid inside Asher wanted to show off and boast his strength, but that wasn't something possible at the moment. Except if a miracle happens and Asher becomes extremely strong in a mere few months to the point where he can crush every canon fodder and idiot that try to mess with him, otherwise, he can kiss his protagonistic dreams goodbye.
'Sigh, this is such a hassle. Why does the story have to change like this? Is the deity messing with me? Do you think I'm your fucking toy, you shit-for-brains of a god? You can go fuck yourself!!'
*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*
Suddenly, a loud explosion occurred that shook the whole building violently.
"Woah!!" Asher and Rain found themselves swaying from the impact but they quickly readjusted themselves.
"What was that?!" Asher asked.
'Wait, don't tell me! Did the deity hear my curses and decided to punish me?! No, I'm sorry, I was just joking. Come on dude, you know how humorous I could be. So, don't take it to heart, ok? I actually like you a lot, you know?' Asher said in his head.
*BOOOOOOOOOOM*
Another explosion hit again which made the walls and the ceiling crack.
'Oi, please no! I'm sorry!! Have mercy on my poor soul!'
Rain looked around with a frown before she quickly dashed toward the window and took a look inside.
"Shit!" She cursed.
Asher was a second late to reach the window and when he took a look himself, his face paled.
"Holy shit!!"
The building they were inside… was falling down.
"We need to leave… NOW!!" Rain then turned around and dashed at top speed.
"Hey, wait!" Asher ran after her quickly.
At the same time, the ceiling behind them started crumbling as rocks and debris hit the ground, destroying it completely.
The more they ran, the more rocks fell on them which were hard to avoid.
"This is bad! This is bad! This is really bad!! We won't make it!!" Asher clenched his teeth as he quickened his steps.