CHAPTER 07

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 did not waste a second and actively destroyed all the zombies as they were spreading disease just by existing.

[Congratulations! You’ve defeated 100 zombies and earned the title Zombie Killer. Ordinary zombies now feel fear when they see you. They will no longer come to you but will run when they see you. But the stronger zombies will see you as a threat and try to destroy you! So, beware!]

[You’ve leveled up!]

“You reached level 18!]

“Damn, I have to chase the low-level zombies now?” Gary didn’t know if this was a good thing or not. “Anyway, the stronger ones might come at me on their own, so I should be able to level up by dealing with the stronger ones.”

[If you kill 1000 zombies, you’ll earn the Zombie Hunter title.] Ai told him.

“What’s the use of having that title?” Gary couldn’t help but ask.

[You will gain ‘purity’ to your fists, which means your punches can have the same effect as that of the magical attacks of priests.]

“Oh, but I can’t be wasting my time on low-level scrubs,” Gary rushed forth and reached the hospital. “You sure there’s a strong monster here in this building?”

[Yeah, and that’s what has started creating the zombies in this neighborhood. It should be around level 25.]

“T-Twenty five?” Gary’s heart skipped a beat. “That’s like seven levels higher than me. There’s no way I can beat that.”

[Fight all the lower-level zombies in the hospital and gain more resistance. Then, it will give you an advantage against that beast.]

Ai’s words somehow convinced Gary. He entered the hospital. At first, there was nobody in sight, but when he entered one of the rooms, dozens of them swarmed onto him, and he couldn’t have asked for more. He utterly destroyed them left and right despite getting wounded. After a nasty struggle, he emerged victorious.

“You said they’ll run away, but they clearly didn’t,” Gary complained.

[They are not ordinary zombies, that’s why. They are upgraded ones and have some intelligence. That’s why they are not afraid of you and waited for you to enter this room.]

Gary’s heart skipped a beat. “This means that one who created them must also be strong and intelligent. I have to be careful, or I’ll become food.”

He explored one floor after another and killed more than 200 zombies before reaching the top floor, where it was eerily silent.

“I can feel it,” Gary said as he walked along the corridor carefully. “It’s in that last room.”

After reaching closer, he steeled his heart and kicked the door open and was almost petrified to see a humanoid tiger zombie eating from a dead person’s brain using a spoon.

The tiger zombie glanced at him and wasn’t surprised at all but instead smiled, sending shivers down his spine. In fear, Gary bolted from there.

The tiger zombie immediately chased him.

Gary put all the available 200 stat points into his speed, which suddenly boosted his speed. Just as the tiger zombie caught up, he was able to reach the end of the corridor and break his way through the glass wall from the seventh floor.

He crashed on top of an ambulance and rolled down to the ground. He suffered bruises but he didn’t break any bones.

He looked up toward the seventh floor, and the tiger zombie was staring down at him as if looking down on someone inferior. Gary felt a chill run up his spine as he saw nothing but cruelty and madness in the gaze of that bloody-lipped tiger zombie which stood eight-foot-tall.

[If you want to be a hero who can save the world, you have to face monsters like this one.] Ai’s voice rang in his mind. [If you back away now, you’ll definitely fail to reach level 100 within 24 hours.]

Ai’s words made Gary grind his teeth.

[If it makes you feel any better, then I’ve gotta tell you that the tiger zombie was formed because some other zombie bit on that tiger.] Ai told him. [So, the zombie that made this humanoid tiger was probably even stronger than this tiger. So, if you can’t defeat this little tiger zombie, then you sure as heaven won’t be able to defeat the one that created this fellow.]

Gary clenched his fists and raised his middle finger up toward the zombie tiger.

Angered, the tiger zombie squatted down and leaped forth from the seventh floor with a mighty scream that sent a shiver down Gary’s spine.

Shoving his fear into the depths of his heart, Gary howled at the top of his lungs and kicked up at the tiger zombie. “Die!”