*ring**ring*ring*
As the phone continuously rang, Zein, who was sound asleep in his bed, didn't notice that outside his house, the whole world was experiencing an apocalyptic event.
.....
In the park near the residential area, the place is now in chaos as hundreds of people are running around. Some are chasing after other people and some are biting and eating those they grabbed.
The screams of the people, as well as the growling and snarling that can be heard from the creatures that were once normal humans.
In one city, where every day there are thousands, if not tens of thousands, of vehicles are slowly moving all day long, the traffic can no longer move as people are now trying to get out of their cars to run as fast as possible.
This situation is happening everywhere in the world. People turning into disgusting creatures that bite and eat other people are everywhere.
.....
*gasp*
Suddenly, Zein shot straight up in bed as if waking up from a nightmare.
After a few moments of staring blankly, he got up and went straight to the bathroom sink to wash his face.
Staring at the mirror opposite him, he murmured. "Impossible. But... how?"
That's right, the Zein now isn't from this timeline but from 7 years in the future.
In the year 2025, the Apocalyptic System suddenly appeared, causing chaos in every part of the world. In the first 7 days of the apocalypse, at least 70% of the world population had been infected, and the remaining survivors around the world awakened their Apocalyptic System.
It suddenly appeared before them, and no one else but them could see their system. It had a level-up feature that allowed them to grow stronger, but unfortunately, as they grew stronger, other creatures also evolved. The infected evolved into mutants, the animals evolved into larger and fiercer demonic beasts, and the plants grew faster and became sentient, some even growing toward the cities, enveloping the buildings.
By the year 2032, although many humans had almost reached level 100, they were still too weak for the mutants, who grew faster as they ate other mutants and humans.
Zein, who had only reached level 50 and hadn't undergone his 3rd awakening at the time, was easily killed by a mutant so fast that he only saw a shadow pass by him before finding himself in his room.
As Zein recalled his experience, he saw the calendar on the wall. "July 2025"
"No way. Today's the day it all started! Damn it! And from the looks of it, it already started a few hours ago." Anxiously, Zein checked his door if it was locked and looked up on his phone and found many missed calls and messages from his brother.
His brother, Zack, is 17 years old this year, and he himself was 20. Fortunately, his brother was still at home and hadn't gone to school early today. From the messages he received, they were okay and still inside their home.
He sent a reply and said that he will come back to find them and they shouldn't go out to avoid the infected. He waited for a few minutes for a reply but there was none.
Zein, in his past life, never saw his brother and their parents again after the infected and the system appeared, and even before he died.
This time, Zein will try his best to go back to their hometown as soon as possible and make sure they won't be separated again like in his past.
After Zein thought of all this, he planned to search all corners of his room for items and food on his way back home.
However, as he got up, he saw a transparent screen in front of him.
System?
But he was confused.
How did the system appear already? It was supposed to be 7 days later.
Then, he noticed something from the system. The outline was silver with shiny gold stars twinkling from the corners.Â
This is different from the system I used before.
*ding*
Lottery System Activated!
Host, would you like to see your status now?
Zein looked at this message and said, "Yes."
*ding*
Lottery System
Host: Zein Sebastian
Level: 0, 0/100
Talent: Bear's Grip(D), Upgrade(E)
Title: Returner, System Host, Blessed
Skill: Swordsmanship[Intermediate], Hand-to-Hand Combat[Intermediate], Driving[Advanced], Parkour[Intermediate]
Physique: 13(average human is at 13)
Soul Power: 10
Soul: 0
[Inventory][Lottery]
Zein saw his status and exclaimed at what he saw.
"What the...?"
"How did I get another talent?"
"And the inventory, I think it's just like a personal space like those space-attribute talent awakeners. But lottery? Is it the same lottery as I know?"
*ding*
The host can use the lottery function using the souls you collected from killing mutants.
The lottery has different categories: Iron box costs 10 souls, Bronze box costs 50 souls, (reach level 25 to unlock more boxes)
I see...
"Alright. System, show me my talents."
*ding*
Bear's Grip(D): Upon activation, physique increases by 3% for 30 seconds. Cost: 10 SP. Cooldown: 60 seconds.
Upgrade(E): Upgrade your chosen skill by one stage. Cost: 100 SP. Cooldown: 12 hours.
"What?! I can upgrade my skills with this talent?"
"I heard of talent upgrade stones before, but... a talent that upgrades a skill? but with 100 SP every time... that means I won't be able to use it right away."
Soul... I need to kill mutants as soon as possible, but the mutants will only appear after the seventh day, Will these infected give me souls?
Looking at the foods he collected from his room there should be enough until tomorrow noon. Zein took the long kitchen knife and prepared to go out and see if he can really get souls from the infected outside.
.....
At this time, there were still a lot of humans trying to run and survive from the infected, they are called infected because they can infect other humans and turn them into human eating creatures.
It was only after the seventh day that they can no longer infect through bites or scratches because the surviving humans awakened their talents and they can level up to get a stronger body immune to whatever is infecting them before.
*thud*
Suddenly, a head dropped on the floor.
*huff**huff*
Damn it, although my physique is at 13 it's not a good idea to face three at once, I also can't avoid them properly.
As Zein walked near the head of the infected, he sliced through the forehead and checked.
After a moment, he pulled out a semi-transparent crystal.
"It's possible..."
He stood up, put the crystal into the inventory, and looked it up.
*ding*
Untiered Soul Crystal: Can be used to collect Souls and increase Soul Power.
"It's untiered. Fair. Since ordinary mutants form tier-0 soul crystals, these infected ones that are much weaker than mutants can be classified as untiered."
*ding*
Using Soul Crystal, [1 Soul], or [1 Soul Power]?
Since he can't get experience with untiered soul crystal, and he can only get 1 soul power with it, it's better to choose 1 soul for now and try the Iron Box.
Zein continued through the corridor.
Since his room is on the fourth floor, it'll take a while before he gets out of the building, so he might as well search the unlocked rooms for items and extra food.
Along the way, from fourth floor to the third floor, there aren't many tenants inside their rooms as they might've been on their way to work or school at this time of day. So he only encountered 6 infected and got 6 untiered soul crystals. When he reached the second floor, he saw a long kitchen knife and put it inside the inventory as a back up in case the one he has breaks.
Although Zein can use his talent of Bear's Grip, he still chooses to use a knife since it is much easier to kill the infected without touching them.
After clearing the second floor, he now had 13 souls. He entered an unlocked room and opened the lottery.
*ding*
Would you like to use 10 souls to open the Iron Box?
"Yes."
The lottery displayed a small iron box in the middle of the panel, and it shook lightly.
Several seconds later.
*ding*
Congratulations, you have won 1x bottled water!
"Bottled water from the iron box? Could it only contain items of similar value as this or with a chance for a better item?"
"I hope it's the latter."
He closed the lottery window and saw a +1 on the inventory button. He opened it and saw the bottled water in it.
The inventory had no slots like what he saw from the games he played before. Instead, it displayed the bottled water in a large sized icon occupying most of the panel with a "1x" beside it showing the quantity.
Could it be... It has no limit on the quantity of items?
Earlier, he hesitated to put all of his items in the inventory since he didn't know if it has limited slots, but after seeing how it works, he immediately poured out all of the items and foods from his backpack and put it all in the inventory. Seeing that the icon of the items and foods got smaller and smaller to compress all the items he figured there might still be a limit to the type of items but the quantity didn't matter.
After closing all the panels, he got out of the room and continued down to the first floor.