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 did? He didn’t think so.
“Your world is under attack,” the old man spoke while bleeding from the mouth. “Do you want to save it?”
“W-What are you talking about?” Gary was confused as well as shocked. “I can see that something’s happening all around me, but there’s nothing I can do. I couldn’t even save my own family, so how can I save the world?”
“You CAN, if you take my power,” the old man said with great effort. “The dark forces have already infiltrated this world and are preparing this place for the Immortal King. You should stop his arrival no matter what, or that will be the end.”
“H-How can I stop this Immortal King?” Gary couldn’t help but ask.
“That portal you see up there… you should close that Heaven’s Gate,” the old man said and pulled a ball of light out of his navel. He flicked his wrist, and the ball of light flew in and entered Gary’s body through his navel.
Gary screamed in pain as a lot of energy spread throughout his body, changing it at a cellular level. Not only did he grow three inches taller, making him 6 feet 1 inch tall now, his hair also grew long and thick. His abdomen developed abs, and overall, he had a chiseled body now with just the right amount of body fat.
Gary couldn’t believe all the changes happening to him. The painful process was surreal.
“What have you done to me?” He asked angrily and painfully.
“What I gave you is the power to devour energy,” the old man said with his last breath. “You need to devour all the keys that opened the gate to this world. Find them and devour them before the Immortal King comes through that gate you see in heaven.”
“A-Are you an outsider?” Gary asked, huffing and puffing. “Did you come from another world?”
However, the old man didn’t reply because life already left his eyes.
“He died?” Gary went closer. The land was still hot,but he was able to bear the heat. “I don’t know you’re, but you gave me some kind of power before you died, and you wanted me to save my world. I think you’re a good guy who deserves to be properly buried. But I wish I knew your name…”
[His name is Chun Fu.]
A female voice rang in Gary’s mind.
“Oh…” Gary said and then blinked twice. “Eh?” He looked around but couldn’t see anyone.
[I’m in your mind, dude.]
“My mind?” Gary’s eyes widened. “What do you mean?” He touched his head. “What are you?”
[I’m the power that Chun Fu gave you. I’m the Hero Cultivating System.]
“Hero what?”
[Hero Cultivating System. You can just call me Ai. I’m the one who made Chun Fu, who used to get bullied by his friends, into the strongest person in his realm. I can make you strong as well, as strong as you can imagine.]
“We’ll worry about that later. Help me bury this man first,” Gary said.
[Start digging.]
Gary raised his brows. “I know that, but aren’t you going to use your power to create the grave or something?”
[I can, but you’re still too weak for me to do it through you. So, start digging now.]
Gary shook his head. He felt like he didn’t have time for this right now, but he couldn’t just leave the old man’s body like this, either. He then picked a shovel and quickly got to work. He was able to dig much faster than a human could. In just ten minutes he was done burying the old man. He placed a wooden board on it that read the words: Chun Fu.
What surprised Gary was that he barely sweated even after doing so much physical labor.
[Now, let’s go and destroy the Dark Witch’s body.]
“Dark Witch? Who’s that?”
[Didn’t you see two lights come down from the sky? The white one was Chun Fu. The black one was the Dark Witch. She’s like a right hand man to the Immortal King. She’s his dearest concubine, and Chun Fu managed to kill her. But her body must be destroyed before anyone touches it.]
“Alright, but let’s go and pick up my girlfriend first,” Gary said. “I left her at home.”
[Hurry up then. You can run faster now than you used to.]
“Yeah.”
At the same time, in front of Gary’s house, there was a huge crater.
The dark witch was at the center with many cracks all over her body, and black blood seeping out.
“Can you hear me?” Leah came closer to the woman whose body was burned very badly. “Hello,” she hesitantly touched her, and the black blood suddenly became alive. She moved back in shock, but the black blood moved through the air and seeped into Leah’s body through the pores in her skin and cooked her body from the inside and brought her terrible pain. “AHHH!” she screamed in horror.
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
A group of humanoid spider monsters were sniffing and searching everywhere as they roamed the streets.Through two small holes in a wall, a young lady was observing what was happening outside. She had a long thick brown braid that reached all the way below her bum. “These spider monsters are everywhere. They are in dozens,” she looked at the people behind her, most of whom were injured.“Can’t we escape without being seen?” an elderly man asked. “If we leave this city, then maybe, we’ll get to a safe place. There’s a mountain in the west. The monsters probably won’t get there.”“Unfortunately… these monsters are not that easy to fool,” she said. “They are leaving tiny threads everywhere. Those threads will probably send them signals if we touch them. Even I will have a difficult time crossing these roads without alerting them. Once I get spotted, I’m done for.”Her words didn’t help them at all. “You’re level 34, aren’t you? Even you can’t do anything, Sesi?”The brown-haired woman Se