A few minutes later.
Gary opened his eyes and found himself lying on the street. Next to him was his girlfriend.
“Leah!” He quickly got up and tried to wake her up. After patting her cheeks a few times, she opened her eyes.
“Gary…” she was saying, and she noticed the giant portal-like thing high in the sky and immediately sat up at once. “W-What’s that?”
“That’s not important,” Gary was looking around, but there weren’t any. There were only trees around them with blood-red leaves. Trees in the middle of the road. Trees growing out of the vehicles and buildings. A nasty revelation crossed his mind. “I think that the people… turned into trees.”
Leah covered her mouth in shock. “How can that be?” Even though she said that, she felt the same because some of these trees were almost the size of the human, though a little taller on average. Why would these trees be in the exact positions where humans were supposed to be? “What sort of magic is this? I’m not dreaming, right?”
Just then, they heard a growl. Something walked out of the restaurant. It was a cat that was walking upright and looked like a humanoid beast. It was almost four feet tall. “Humans… what in the meow did you do to me?” the cat furiously sprang toward them.
“Kyaa!” Leah screamed in horror.
Gary covered her.
The cat was about to claw at them, but a thunderbolt rang in the sky, causing the cat to be startled.
The cat flinched, then used Gary’s back as a footing and jumped over them and speedily ran away into the distance. It was so fast, it disappeared from their view in a couple of seconds.
“W-What was that?” Leah was visibly shaking. Her heart pounded against her chest like never before.
“That brown cat had a bell around its neck… I think one of the customers brought that pet to the restaurant,” Gary said. “But how did it turn so big, and it… talked.”
Leah was still shivering. She checked her mobile, but it was switched off, and it wasn’t turning on, even though the battery should be more than fifty percent. “Let’s go home. I want to see my dad.”
“Yeah.”
Their home wasn’t too far from there, so they hurried. As they were on their way, big worms the size of pythons began to break free out of the drainage holes. They came across a couple of humanoid dogs as well, but the dogs hid themselves quickly, terrified of the lightning bolts streaking all across the sky.
Soon, they reached Gary’s home first. Gary rushed in first and froze after seeing a tree grown out of the sofa, and another tree in the kitchen. Both of them were the same trees with blood-red leaves. “No, no…” he rushed upstairs to his sister’s room, and he couldn’t find her. However, the bathroom door was locked. He burst it open, and there was a tree that almost filled the space of the whole bathroom.
Gary fell to his knees in disbelief. Even his younger sister had turned into a tree.
Leah came into the room just now and was stunned to see a tree in the bathroom. “Sasha…” she couldn’t even breathe freely. “Gary..” she put her hands on his shoulders from behind while her lips trembled. “I’m sorry.”
Tears flowed down his cheeks nonstop, but he swallowed all the pain and got up. “Let’s check on your dad.”
“But… What about Sasha… and your parents?” she asked, her cheeks turning red from the overwhelming sadness gripping her heart.
Gary wiped his tears and grabbed her hand and pulled her away with him. (If they really turned into trees, what can I do with my strength? I must find out what’s going on first. But before anything, we should keep ourselves safe.) Once they went downstairs, he stopped at the door and told her, “You stay here, Leah. I’ll go and see your dad’s situation.”
“What?” Leah shook her head.
“Listen,” Gary grabbed her shoulders tightly. “It’s not safe out there! You should stay inside. If I don’t come within an hour… then, do whatever you want, understand?”
Leah’s eyes were clouded with tears. “No. Don’t do this. Let’s go together.”
“It’s too risky,” Gary said. “Stay here if you love me.”
Leah hugged him tightly. “If it’s that dangerous, then don’t go. We can… check on my dad later in the morning.”
“Your home is not far. It won’t take long, and I’ll be careful,” Gary reasoned with her and then grabbed a metal rod from the fence before leaving.
Leah clenched her fists. She wanted to go with him. The sky outside was still rumbling with hundreds of lightning streaks lighting up the sky like never before. It was so scary to behold. “Please be safe, Gary. Please be safe, Dad,” her hand was still slightly shivering.
About five minutes later, Gary reached Leah’s house. It was a smaller house compared to his house, so it didn’t take him long to find her dad who had become a red-leaved tree in the swinging chair in the back verandah. Only Leah and her father Jericho lived here, so it couldn’t be anyone else but him.
Gary touched the tree emotionally and leaned on it. “Sorry, Uncle. I’m sorry, Leah. Your dad…” He had a few fond memories with Jericho, so his heart ached even more.
Thunderous explosions shook the sky, and two streaks of light—one bright and another dark—came shooting and spinning down at a great speed. The bright streak of light crashed on the lawn in front of Jericho’s house and created a massive crater. The shockwave sent Gary flying back into the wall. “AHHH!” This was much more physical and destructive compared to the shockwave he had experienced not long ago.
Gary coughed blood. His sight turned bloody. His head felt utterly dizzy. The ringing noise in his ears made it all the more worse. It was more intense than any headache he ever had. But luckily, it didn’t stay for long.Gary was able to get back to his feet and look at the crater with a forty-feet diameter. At the center of it was an old man who looked like he was cosplaying some kind of fantasy cultivator character from one of the games he used to play. His body was leaking lightning every other second.Naturally, Gary didn’t dare to approach.But, soon, the lightning shrunk and eventually dissipated. The old man was making a pain-filled noise. He seemed badly wounded and was not in a position to get up.“Come here, Boy.”A voice rang in Gary’s head. Somehow, he knew that it was the old man calling him.“W-Who are you?” Gary asked in a shaky voice. “Did you crash down from an airplane?” even though he asked that, would people who fell from airplanes create craters like this old man
Gary was leaving Leah’s house in a hurry, but then something appeared in his path. With a rotten physique and disgusting smell, this humanoid creature with gray skin looked scary, to say the least.“What the hell is this?” Gary found his heart beating faster with every fraction of a second.[It’s a ghoul.] Ai quickly responded. [People who have eaten human flesh when they were alive will become ghouls when they are woken up.]“A-Are you saying the dead are being brought out of their graves right now?” Gary was stunned to hear that. His heart pounded against his chest as the ghoul screamed and jumped at him.Knowing and believing that he was now strong, Gary instinctively threw his fist at it.His fist and the ghoul’s claws clashed. A shockwave of translucent energy leaked out of Gary’s fist and destroyed the ghoul’s claws and hand, but the ghoul didn’t care much. It greedily bit on his shoulder and dug its sharp teeth into his flesh.“Ah! Let go of me!” Gary pulled the ghoul’s head by
Gary looked around for Leah in that neighborhood but didn’t find her. He waited for a few hours at his house, hoping Leah would return, but she didn’t. So, he had no other choice but to go looking for her. He roamed the streets which were already getting quite dangerous at this point. He saw a dead dog rise out of the tar road and madly growl like a maddened zombie beast.He couldn’t help but greatly worry for Leah, not knowing what she was doing or where she went, let alone how she’d survive in this doomsday-esque day, where anybody could kill anybody without giving any reason whatsoever.There were trees everywhere, and he was yet to meet a single human even though he had walked many miles.“Everyone seems to have turned into trees, so why didn’t Leah and I turn?” Gary voiced his mind, not at all expecting that the system would answer his question.[You’re wearing an energy crystal, aren’t you? That thing saved you and your girlfriend.] Ai responded.“What?” Gary was pleasantly surp
Gary DID NOT like the way Ai was threatening him.“Fine. If I’m not able to find Leah within 24 hours, then you can go where you want,” Gary bluntly said. “I’m not going to think about anything else until I know what happened to Leah.”Ai liked his resolve, but she blurted. [You misunderstood me, Gary. If Leah had actually touched the dark witch’s body, then she’s probably already being infected by parasitic energy. If you don’t find her within 24 hours, then she’ll have completely gone crazy or will have become a completely different person. Then, you won’t be able to save her, not with the strength you have now. Maybe, if Chun Fu was alive, he would have done something, but Chun Fu is no more. Do you get what I’m saying?]“You are not lying to me, are you?” Gary inquired. “If you have the ability to do a wide-radius search, then do it right now and find where Leah is.”[For me to be able to do that, you should at least cross level 100 as your senses will sharpen from then on.] Ai an
The sky was still bright with the thunderbolts criss-crossing crazily with no end in sight. A brother was carrying his wounded sister of 16 and brought her to the hospital, hoping someone would be there to help her.But what awaited him were zombies that jumped onto them and devoured them alive. Soon, the siblings soon turned into zombies as well. And they roamed the neighborhood with half-eaten bodies. Both of them still had energy stone pendants hanging around their necks.Hearing the sound of footsteps, they ran toward the source, and what awaited them was Gary.With his fists, he destroyed their heads. The brother and sister were killed with one punch as their levels were weak, whereas the higher leveled zombies required multiple punches.One of the other zombies managed to bite on Gary’s fist, but having already absorbed the energy of zombies, he had developed the resistance to the parasitic virus flowing through zombie’s saliva as well as their sweat and their very breath.He di
There were many reasons why Gary ran away after seeing the tiger zombie. Ai had told him that he would be able to level up faster than others, so when he himself was level 18, how could there be a level 25 tiger zombie?Did this mean that the levels of animals were built differently compared to humans? Or was there something else that Gary didn’t know about.There were so many questions running through his mind, and the downright scary appearance of the tiger zombie didn’t help that either.Despite how he felt, he had to attack this monster for the sake of reaching his goal. He jumped and kicked up at the tiger as it came down at him.Before his leg could hit the tiger, its long paw struck his chest and sent him packing down to the ground. The tiger zombie landed on the ground and sprang forth to pounce upon him while he was still on the ground.[Get up!] Ai shouted. [You can’t fight that monster on the ground!]Gary, however, clenched his fist and readily threw his fist at the tiger
After defeating the tiger zombie, Gary received 20 free stat points. He didn’t use them but kept them as available so he could use them all when needed.[Name: Gary Lennon.Title(s): Zombie Killer.Age: 27.Level: 20XP: 110/200HP: 1204/2100STR(Strength): 759STA(Stamina): 380DEF(Defense): 330SPD (Speed): 352AGL(Agility): 301Available stat points: 20Energy Pot: Ghoul, Spider beast, lizard, zombie]Though he killed more types of beasts, he didn’t absorb their energy as per Ai’s advise.“I lost more than sixty percent of my health in the fight,” Gary thought. “After I leveled up, some of my health recovered, but it’s not much. Still, I can’t believe that even with my abnormally high strength stat, I was still overpowered by the tiger. If I hadn’t striked the spots that you told me to, I probably would have lost. The zombie’s defense was also stronger than me, how did I exactly win?”[Simple. The thigh has joint points, and I made you strike there from the side, and the tiger zomb
[You fucked up! Run!]“Where to?” Gary asked. As far as his eye could see, the streets and rooftops were full of monsters of all kinds. “Running away will not help me find Leah. Didn’t you say I shouldn’t run away if I want to think about saving the world?”[That’s…] Ai couldn’t find words at the moment.Gary turned around and walked to the center of the rooftop. It was a building with a little over 10,000 square feet in area, so there was plenty of space on the rooftop. It should be enough for a battleground.Gary stood there and waited for the monsters to come to him. The first monster that came upstairs was a land bird that resembled both ostrich and kangaroo, but it looked very terrifying.Gary instantly remembered the Terror Bird he saw in games. This was like a terror bird with arms as well. And its scream was ear-piercing.[It’s level 31!] Ai hurriedly said. [If you get hit by its beak once, you’re dead!]Gary clenched his fist as the monster bird furiously flapped its little w