Edited by: Kuro and Lille
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The zombies outside the base stopped attacking the walls and slowly walked away. Those who were protecting the base were finally able to rest, collapsing to the ground. As much as they wanted to chase all the zombies and kill them, they knew that they were all running on the last of their strength. Even Ability Users needed to rest.
But Morgan could not rest. He wanted to check up on Adam 1 to make sure that the man was safe and sound. He kicked down the gates, with the promise to fix and reinforce them, and ran to Adam 1, who he could feel was in the central plaza.
When he got there, he saw Adam 1 dragging a giant, mutated zombie-looking thing behind him. He had no problems lugging around the 3-meter tall creature, but he definitely wasn't courteous towards it.
Morgan ran over to Adam 1 and brought him into a hug. He needed to feel that Adam 1 was alive. He needed to feel that he was safe and unharmed.
"Were you worried about me?" Adam 1 smiled as he embraced the other man back.
"Of course I was. I know you are very strong, stronger than me, but I can't help but worry if you even get a scratch on your skin."
His God System was still as cheesy as ever.
"Don't worry. Now we are able to travel the world and try new foods."
"You remembered." Morgan loosened his embrace so he could look at Adam 1's face. He could see the love oozing from his eyes, and reflected in those eyes was only him. Like Morgan was the only person in Adam 1's world.
"Of course I remembered. I promised, didn't I?"
It was a heartwarming moment for the two as they ignored everything else around them.
It was fine though. People let them have their moment.
*****
After rebuilding MI base, Morgan, Adam 1, Cooper, Jeremiah, and the three Homo Zoms set out on a journey around the world.
They found other Homo Zoms along the way, expanding their family, and rescuing people in trouble. They traveled across the world with the goal to eradicate all the zombies and to find other Homo Zoms.
Adam 1 had long told humanity of the Homo Zoms and their evolution. At first, people were disturbed, but as they saw how powerful the Homo Zoms were, they couldn't argue. They couldn't even tell them apart except for their speech. Adam 1 had figured out how to train the Homo Zom's vocal cords, so even though they took their time speaking, it wasn't hard to understand what they were saying.
Shockingly enough, as they grew stronger and reached tier 8, their memories of their life started to come back to them. It was as though a shackle had been lifted. They still remembered their time as a Homo Zom but they couldn't remember what life was like as a zombie. This made Adam 1 even more interested in the new species of humans. Well, he knew he had a whole lifetime and more to study them, so he took his time.
Also, when Homo Zoms and Ability Users found out they were able to mate with one another, he completed the main mission of saving humanity.
It was a relief that it wasn't to eradicate all the zombies. He would still do as much as he could though.
Once Adam 1 and his family had gone to every inch of the planet, Morgan's life came to an end. He and a lot of Ability Users had extended life spans. He lived to 257 before finally passing away.
Most Ability Users died around 230, but he was a stubborn man who wanted to stay by Adam 1's side. The regular humans died at 150 and the Homo Zoms lived up to 300 years old. The count of their ages started when they had first turned into a Homo Zom.
Cooper actually achieved his dream of becoming a cat dad. He found a colony of feral cats that didn't mutate into zombie animals and he took care of them for the rest of his life.
As for Jeremiah, he got married to a wonderful woman, who was also an Ability User. She didn't mind his extra arm and actually thought he looked like a superhero with it.
Jerald, William, and Lily also found partners that they would love for the rest of their lives.
Once Morgan died, Adam 1 self-destructed on a continent they cleared out of humans and Homo Zoms. The explosion took out all the zombies on the continent. It didn't reach any of the surrounding continents, but it took out a good 1 billion zombies that lived there.
With the death of Adam 1, the Homo Zoms and the Ability Users continued on their quest to rid the planet of the zombies. It took several hundred years, but humanity was finally safe from that threat.
*****
The Host regained consciousness in the System Space after his death. He felt a bit better, but he had many questions and thoughts after this world.
Arisa and System 505 were still in another world, so it was just System 225 and the Host.
System 225 smiled and set up a table with some tea. [I know you have a lot of things to talk about, so let's sit down and enjoy some tea.]
The Host sat down across from System 225 and took a sip of the tea. It was milk tea, his favorite. They sat in silence for a bit before the Host put down his cup and sighed.
"You said that the worlds get higher rankings when it is difficult to change the world plot, right? Do you know why the worlds are so dead set on following a world plot like so?"
[I do know why. When we become systems, we are told about each ranking. F and E-ranked worlds are easily influenced worlds. Have you heard of the butterfly effect? It's kind of like that. Small changes will change the bigger picture, sometimes even completely changing the bigger picture. These worlds have low energy and sometimes have terrible management. The reason for the world's energy is due to the ranking of the Gods. The UniOrb gives energy depending on the rank of said Gods.
[The higher the rank of the God governing the world, the more powerful the world. The higher-ranked Gods have realized that if they assign roles to the people within their world, and they follow through with them, they get an immense amount of energy. Those with assigned roles are called the children of the heavens. But villains are also a part of the children of the heavens. It just depends if they are favored or not. Gods can pick favorites too. The heroes and the heroines are the favorites, the golden children. While the villains are kind of like... the middle child they don't like.
[Hosts are created not only to heal the souls of the unfortunate but also to minimize the amount of energy these Gods get. Gods can get energy in many ways, like having their children play these roles, or by having people suffer. We get some of the energy that they were supposed to get, so they hate the Hosts that come in. Higher-ranked worlds will do everything possible to make the plot extremely difficult to change. Some will even create new plots every so often so that they will always get energy. Can't get energy if the souls are dead…
[Anyway, If the Host is unsuccessful in changing the fate of the world, they get double the energy to maintain their godhood and their world. This is very different from the lower-ranked worlds like the F and E-ranked worlds. They receive the minimum amount of energy from the UniOrb to maintain their world. These low-rank Gods usually don't care for their world. Even if they assign roles to others, it is easy to change their fate as the Gods do not manage them properly.]
The Host immediately understood why these worlds were so... obnoxiously persistent to keep the plot. They get energy from these children of the heavens, more energy than the UniOrb would provide for them. Even the villains who suffer will give them energy. It was cruel but it wasn't surprising that these Gods wanted to be more powerful as there were even rankings among them.
"What happens if there is no Host capable of changing the plots to the world?" The Host asked but he felt as if it was something eerie.
[Host... The UniOrb will destroy the God or Gods of that world along with the world and the souls in it. It is because they are deemed parasitic. This has only happened to one world and its Gods though. The Gods all learned from that lesson and have not tried to go further than the maximum limit set by the UniOrb.]
Most people were curious as to how Gods were created and he was too. He also wanted to know how the UniOrb was created and why they eliminated that world and its Gods, but some things were better left unsaid.
[Do you have any more questions, Host?]
"No, you answered everything honestly..."
He knew the worlds were only getting more and more difficult to change. It was troublesome, but he had to stay strong and keep pushing through.
[Would you like to rest or go on to the next world?] System 225 said as he put away the tea.
"I would like to rest a bit."
[Understood. Please tell me when you are ready to leave.]
The Host nodded and then stayed seated in the chair. He closed his eyes and gathered his thoughts.
He had to mentally prepare for the next world. He could only wonder what the next D-ranked world would be like.