Dawnshire State, Durberry City, Central District, Dawnstar Academy...
A few minutes earlier...
Damien and Finch are currently within the school cafeteria, sitting at their usual table near the large windows that offer a wide view of the academy grounds.
The table is scattered with trays of food, notebooks, and textbooks.
Damien, with his tousled hair and thoughtful expression, is halfway through a sandwich. Finch, fixing his glasses, gestures as he talks about the recent events.
Mid-sentence, Finch's words are cut off as the day sky outside increased in brightness abruptly. The cafeteria falls into an uneasy silence as the light streaming through the windows turns an eerie golden hue.
Damien's eyes widen, and he looks up, sensing something profoundly wrong.
Through the windows, the students can see the sky ablaze with the light of a descending meteor. It streaks across the sky, a fiery trail of golden and green energy following in its wake.
The intensity of the light grows, casting long, flickering shadows inside the cafeteria.
The ground begins to tremble, the vibrations growing stronger with each passing second. The meteor crashes down with a deafening roar, and the impact sends a shockwave rippling outward.
The windows of the cafeteria rattle violently, some shattering under the force, sending shards of glass flying. The shockwave hits the cafeteria, causing tables and chairs to topple over.
Students scream and scramble for cover, ducking under tables or pressing themselves against walls. The room is filled with the sounds of crashing furniture and panicked voices.
Damien, though clearly frightened, keeps a level head. He grabs Finch by the arm, pulling him down under the table to shield them from the flying debris.
His heart races, but his focus is on keeping them both safe. "Stay down, Finch! We need to wait for the shaking to stop!"
Finch, usually so confident and bold, is pale with fear. He grips Damien's arm tightly, his eyes wide and filled with terror. "Ooh my God...!" Despite his fear, he huddles close and follows his lead.
As the shockwave passes, an eerie silence falls over the cafeteria. Dust and debris settle, and the remaining light filters through the broken windows, setting an uneasy glow over the scene.
Students begin to emerge from their hiding places, dazed and disoriented.
Damien and Finch slowly crawl out from under the table. Damien helps Finch to his feet, both of them looking around at the chaos.
The cafeteria is a wreck—broken glass, overturned furniture, and scattered belongings everywhere. The murals on the walls are cracked and damaged, a stark contrast to the scene just moments before. Damien turned towards Finch.
However, before he could even say anything, several sounds and cries coming from outside made his body instinctively move to the window to see what was happening.
Outside, the whole world he knew had changed and what his eyes saw now was no longer the same thing he had seen just a minute ago.
Students were running everywhere, screaming and begging for help as they tried with all their might to get away from other students. However, the scariest thing was that there were many students eating other students as if they were beasts.
"Help!"
A pretty girl was running for her life as she looked behind her, getting as far away from one of those strange people as possible. In an oversight, she tripped against a stone and fell to the ground.
"Watch out!" Damien unconsciously shouted.
Unfortunately, it was already too late. One of those strange students, with its bloody mouth, caught the girl who had fallen and fiercely bit one of the young girl's arms, making her cry out in pain.
"Save me!" The young girl screamed painfully as she tried to free herself.
Her expression was truly pitiful; unfortunately for her, none of the people running could be bothered with her as they were too preoccupied trying to save their own lives.
Soon, her body stopped moving. However, a few moments later, the girl stood up and began to stagger slowly as she chased after the noise.
Seeing this, Damien's complexion turned pale as he suddenly realized that these strange creatures were practically identical to the zombies from the horror movies.
"Save me!"
Another shrill scream rang out in the street. Damien looked in the direction of the scream and saw a scene of horror.
He saw a girl wearing a white t-shirt surrounded by 8 other students. The 8 students were crazily biting and gnawing the white t-shirt girl.
Fresh blood stained her clothes. The girl was constantly struggling and screaming, but there was no way to escape.
"Why is this happening?" Seeing the horribly frightening scene in the distance, the inside of Damien felt like a storm.
The 8 students were attacking the white t-shirt girl, their eyes dead and without spirit. They were like mad beasts biting at her body, constantly tearing chunks of fresh meat and swallowing it.
The scene was so gruesome, it made Damien feel nauseous and overwhelmed with fear. Though in his heart he was afraid, he tried to calmly observe.
The 8 students were still biting the white t-shirt girl's tattered body. Her body was full of flesh wounds, with many missing chunks. After they finished, they stopped biting and spread out, wandering aimlessly.
Their walking speed was somewhat slow, much less than the average person, but they moved in groups; if you were surrounded, there would be basically no possibility for survival.
Damien looked at the slow students while thinking, "Are we in a horror movie?" His face turned pale.
With mouths still covered with human blood, they looked so terrifying. He suddenly had a thought, and his conjecture was soon verified; the white t-shirt girl, who had lost her vitality and was bitten beyond recognition, slowly picked herself up off the floor.
With both of her eyes deathly white, she staggered aimlessly around the street.
"D.. Damien... L.. Look..."
Turning away from the window, he saw Finch pointing towards the front.
The second floor of the cafeteria was now filled with scattered remains of broken glass and wooden frames. But that was not what caught his attention.
A few students within the cafeteria now possessed similar features to the wandering zombies outside; they lunged towards the students closest to them, crazily bitting and gnawing their flesh.
"Aaarrrrggghh"
"Stay away from me... Aaarrrggh..."
Screams echoed through the building.
A few of the zombies began moving towards the duo. Although they were staggering and felt like they'd fall at any moment, their steps stood firm as they approached the duo.
Damien quickly looked around for any tool; he found a few broken wooden frames lying on the floor. Gesturing to Finch, they both picked one up and slowly moved to a rather open space.
The three zombies advanced rather slowly in their direction. Although the creatures eyes were white as if they were blind, they seemed to be able to smell life emanating from their body since their movements had a fairly clear direction.
Looking to his side, Damien suddenly had a thought; he said to Finch, "Use the broken chairs to trip them over." Finch stood hesitant, gritting his teeth; he nodded.
He moved to the side and kicked a broken chair with enough force as it moved towards the approaching zombies. Just as they advanced, two of the three mindless zombies suddenly tripped over the broken chair, falling flat on their faces.
Damien's eyes flashed as he shot forward at full speed, unwilling to pass up the opportunity. Reaching in front of the zombie, he mercilessly stabbed the head of the now helpless creature with the sharp end point of the broken wood.
The broken piece of wood was strong enough so it easily pierced the zombie's head, crushing the brain and killing the creature. Before the second zombie could react, Damien quickly stabbed it's head ruthlessly, killing it in a second as well.
But before he could regain balance, he felt danger as a shadow loomed over him. Looking up, he saw the bloodstained grotesque feature of the third zombie. Unable to react in time, he could only look on in despair as it lunged towards him.
Bang!
But before it could make contact with him, a heavy force collided with it, sending it reeling backwards as its head separated from its neck.
"Are you alright?"
Glancing at the side, he saw Finch breathing heavily, slowly bringing down the chair he used a moment ago.
"I'm fine...Thank you" Thankfully, Finch's timely reaction saved him from certain death. Recalling the previous event, he felt lingering fear as cold sweat ran down his back.
Damien suddenly felt something strange inside him, as if he had been punched hard in the stomach. He wasn't the only one who felt so; every human in the Evermoon World experienced the same thing.
His face turned pale, barely suppressing the urge to vomit. After about ten seconds, everything seemed to return to normal. The chocking and suffocating sensation he felt a moment ago disappeared.
However, he could no longer be bothered about that.
[The Primal Chronicles has arrived on Planet Evermoon. Only by continuously becoming stronger will you be able to survive. Otherwise, you will die! You can now view your status window whenever you wish. The first time, the window will open as a test]
"What's this...?" He muttered as he read the strange golden message that had appeared on his retina.
[Name: Damien Quinn]
Race: Human
Level: 0
Class: None
Tittle: None
Attributes:
Strength: 12 (10)
Dexterity: 11 (10)
Stamina: 10 (10)
Intelligence: 11 (10)
Health Points (HP): 10 (10)
Primal Energy: 120 (10)
Primal Constitution: Grade 4: Expert (Grade 1: Basic)
Damien's body was slim, but under his clothes were hidden fine muscles due to his constant work as well as training.
Considering that the number in parentheses shown in his status window was the base for a normal human being, the condition of his body was quite decent.
"Primal Energy...?" He looked at the word primary energy with wide eyes.
Primal Energy! A classic element of fantasy movies and novels!
Now, not only had a strange widow appeared that seemed to display his physical attributes, but the attributes, Primal Constitution and Primal Energy, had also appeared on him.
Suddenly, three white orbs flew out of the dead zombie bodies, with two entering Damien's body and one into Finch's.
[You have acquired Primal Energy of Level 4 Normal Zombie, Strength + 2, Dexterity + 2]
[You have acquired Primal Energy of Level 2 Normal Zombie. You get stamina + 2]
[You have reached level one. You get 2 status points to distribute freely.]
Three messages flashed before Damien's retina. He was surprised to discover how that strange energy seemed to nourish his muscles and bones, making his body more powerful quickly.
Damien quickly turned towards Finch. Their eyes met, and the same feeling of astonishment was apparent on their faces.
He clenched his fists, noticing how much more powerful it had become compared to before. He took in a deep breath with a sharp glint in his eyes.
Taking a quick look around the 2nd floor of the cafeteria, he noticed that there were the only ones present. The other students had fled already.
"What's this?"
Finch's voice drew back his attention; he glanced forward to see Finch picking up something from the body of the zombie he killed.
"What's that?..."
Damien asked as he stepped forward to pick up similar objects from the bodies of the two zombies he had killed.