O, Your Holiness!

Chapter 5: The First Victory

O stopped all his movements and pretended to be dead (even though,techincally, he was already dead). This creeping zombie must had moved here because of the noise from his struggles a while ago. 

O tried to find a way out in this tight circumstance and time. Opponents surrounded him from the front and the rear. His weapon was still far away, and O wasn't sure what resistance he could put up with his condition now. 

""Danger alert! Your left calf has been fractured. The damage rate is getting higher. Assimilation rate used to restore to perfect state: 0.03%."" 

O didn't have time anymore. Act now or die in vain. If he fought back and died, at least he tried, right? 

O collected all the information he got so far. First, these undeads were aiming for him, but they couldn't distinguish the vital parts. This was proven when the zombie that O first encountered did not specifically target the core crystal, but the closest body part. Second, these undeads could see and hear their prey, but lacked the intelligence to discern priorities. That meant, O could distract them and use the opportunity to recover, then fought back or escaped to the previous room. 

"Narrator, how do I get my body back to normal? And how long will it take to do that?" O whispered very softly. 

""You can do it with your mind. The time it takes depends on your speed and thinking skills." 

More or less, O understood the Narrator's explanation. He tried to focus his mind and could feel his lower body, which was being eaten by the first zombie, were moving slightly. It’s like putting together an imaginary puzzle in your head, O thought. 

"Narrator, if I take my head off, how much assimilation percentage will be lost to get my whole body back to how it was?" 

It took a moment for the Narrator to respond to O's question. ""... 0.08%."" 

"Okay. This really is the last chance!" 

O did not hesitate anymore. He gripped his skull with both hands, then with all his might, separated it from the collar bone. O throwed his head as far as he could to the end of the hall. 

"Hey! Stupid zombies! I'm here!" O screamed at the top of his lungs, calling out to the two undead in the hall. "It's useless for you to eat my feet and hands! I'm right here! My head is here!" 

O's strategy ran smoothly. The two zombies turned their attention to his head which was now at the end of the passage. The first zombie rushed over immediately, while the zombie that was crawling towards his body also changed its course. O waited anxiously, hoping that his whole scheme would work out. 

Fortunately, O's trick worked. The first zombie tripped over the crawling zombie on the ground. The opportunity O hoped for finally came. As the two undeads rolled on the ground, he focused his mind on bringing his lower body back together. O had purposely not joined his head with his body as he still had to distract the zombies with his voice. He knew that the zombie whose head rotated 180 degrees could get back up quickly (he learned from his experience). 

O’s core crystals glow. The lower half of his body floated towards the crystal. His broken left leg was also reconnected. Meanwhile, O's jaws kept screaming to distract the two undeads. 

O continued to scream and watched the movements of his opponents while his mind was focused on putting his body parts back together. Actually it was very difficult to share thoughts like that, however O had been trained through his experience as a private school teacher in his country. Just imagine a teacher being required to educate students; fulfill parent’s demands; complete administrative works; take care of school facilities; curry favor with superiors; ensure that their students are good enough to go to heaven after death; and so on, while their minds are constantly in a state of stress because another problems such as their economy, mental health, and so on. Well, fawning over the boss and making sure the kids go to heaven sounded like a bit of a stretch, sure, but for teachers fated like O, that's just how it is; small mistakes could ended in harsh punishment, while good performances was only rewarded with low wages and little to no appreciation. 

GraaUauU! Grah! Hrggh! 

The undeads made incomprehensible noises. They continued to move towards O's head slowly but surely. Luckily for O, as a result of the clash between the two corpses, the zombie which could run fast got a shift on his sole bone, making it difficult to balance its body. Meanwhile, the legless zombie rolled over and ended up on its back, which meant it would take more time to return to its prone position and crawl again. 

"Ha! Got you!" 

O's body was back intact as before, except for the head which was still lying on the ground. O's headless moving body then quickly picked up the long stick lying on the ground and swung it towards the legless zombie that was still trying to turn over. 

WHAMM! 

Like a golf ball, the entirety of legless zombie flew toward the first undead that was only a few steps away from O’s head. The two zombies collided again and then fell to the ground. Without waiting any longer, O's body moved towards the two struggling undead and swung his weapon many, many times. 

BAMM! BUMM! BAMMMM! BUMMM! 

Nobody knew how many times O swung his weapon. Learning from previous experiences, O would not let his guard down again. He wouldn't stop until the zombies were crushed into a pulp. Moreover, his current immortal body would not feel tired. 

BAMM! BUMM! BAMMMM! BUMMM! BUAMM!! 

The two undeads were now completely reduced to paste. The shards of their black and rotting organs scattered everywhere. 

""Congratulation! You have finished your first battle!" The Narrator's voice distracted O, who was focused on making rotten meat dough. 

"Eh? Really? They really died, right?" Technically, they're dead, but O didn't care. O danced. "Ha, ha, ha! You see that? Cool, right? Look at me, I was like a Dullahan!" 

O called himself a Dullahan. Like Death Knights, Dullahans were undead with physical advantages. Though Dullahans moved around without their heads, just like O did just now. 

O finished his victory dance and put his head back. He checked his status. "Narrator, display my assimilation level!" 

Name : O 

Assimilation rate : 0.02% 

"..." O's mood suddenly changed. He couldn't get carried away. After all, he almost died (again) earlier. "Narrator, how do I increase the assimilation percentage?" 

""You can absorb the remaining energy from the enemies you have defeated."" 

O stared at the rotting meat mixture on the ground. The dough no longer looked like meat, but was like a thick, pitch-black liquid. But strangely, the liquid glowed; like phosphor but black in color. 

""You can absorb the energy by focusing your mind."" 

O nodded. He then focused his mind on the black liquid and imagined himself absorbing them. The black, glowing liquid then shattered into countless droplets, like splashes on a windowpane after a heavy downpour. Then the grains were immediately absorbed into the core crystal located in O's chest cavity. 

"Hooo, I feel more energized ..." O patted his bloated chest. He used to have good pectoral muscles and often boasted about them. Now that muscle was gone, but not with the habit of puffing out his chest.

"Narrator, display my assimilation level!" 

Name : O 

Assimilation rate : 0.05% 

"Eh? That's it? Only 0.03%? Aaaargh!" 

O sweared again. He wanted to sue the system for doing this, but there was nothing he could do. O kept cursing and cursing; to the extent that he forgot that he was not the only living corpse in the catacombs and they could hear his voice echoing along the hall ... 

~To be continued~