2024-01-14 16:24:10This time, Billy was ready for the thing that lunged at him. Before it could tear into his face, he stabbed it right between the eyes with his knife. He grimaced as he felt blood splatter across his face. It was only a tiny amount, but it wasn't a pleasant feeling. Raising a hand to wipe some of the drops from his face, he calmly ripped his knife out of the thing in front of him.
It dropped to the ground, and he finally noticed the screaming behind him. Looking back, he saw that everyone had gathered and was looking fearfully at him. They had never expected him to kill someone. That was if they could call the thing that attacked him a person. The way it was acting made him think of a zombie.
Billy would have normally thought that the idea was ridiculous, but he had died and woken up in the past. He would believe anything at this point. However, this wasn't the time to be idle. Dropping down to his knees, he searched the body for any clues to what was going on. A zombie couldn't just appear out of nowhere. There had to be something on the body.
"What are you doing?" he heard someone demand, which he ignored.
Suddenly, he felt someone pull on his shoulder. Billy immediately retaliated by holding up his knife, ready to stab someone. His wife's lover's arms shot up in surrender as he backed away. The man was dumber than he thought. No one in their right mind would approach and make demands of someone with a weapon.
His wife rushed over to the man's side as she pleaded, "Wait. Don't hurt us."
Seeing the look on her face made his heart waver. Despite how she betrayed him, he still held affection for her. They had been together for six years. It wasn't that easy to throw those feelings away. He lowered his knife, but he wasn't dumb enough to discard it. They could be attacked again any minute now.
"I'm not going to hurt you," he said as he returned to check the body. "Take a good look around before you decide I'm the enemy."
With his back towards them, he had no clue what kind of expression they were making. Instead, he chose to devote his energies to checking on the body. This time, he was able to find something in the pocket of the body's jacket. Pulling it out, he saw it was a wallet and looked inside. There was an ID, several cards, and some cash inside.
This told him that this zombie used to be an actual person before something turned them into a zombie. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything else he could decipher from this. The ID gave him information that wasn't going to help him in the long run. What was the point of knowing the name and age of a dead person? At least he had money.
He pocketed the cash, feeling slightly guilty. However, it was only slightly. The dead man wasn't going to need it anymore. It seemed like a waste to leave it behind. Someone else would have taken it if he hadn't. Returning the wallet back into its place, he stood up and glanced back at everyone else.
Seeing his stare, his wife's father finally gained the courage to demand, "Get out, you murderer. I should have never let my daughter marry a monster like you."
"Leave," his wife's mother added as she clung to her husband.
Billy glanced towards his wife, who was hiding behind her lover. The man looked uneasy about the whole thing, but Billy didn't care about that. Instead, he hurriedly closed the door. Just as the door shut close, he spotted several figures in the distance rushing towards them. He cursed as he hurried and locked the door. He should have done it sooner.
In the background, he could hear his wife's family screaming like bashees now that he had locked the door instead of getting out like they demanded. There was no way he was going to listen to them. He wasn't going to throw his life away just because they said so, but he wasn't even sure they understood their current situation. Well, they were about to find out.
He had barely gone a few steps before a couple of guards rushed to block his path. "You can't go past this point."
Glancing between the guards and the others in the room, he grimaced as he realized he needed to deal with this issue fast. "I suggest you stay out of the way unless you want to die."
The guards stared uneasily at the knife pointed at them before glancing at each other. They seemed to be trying to decide who would handle him. Seeing how uncertain they were, Billy could honestly say he wasn't surprised. This was the first time he had done something like this.
Since he had wanted to be a good husband for his wife, he made sure to clean up his act and act like a gentleman. That meant he couldn't attack anyone he didn't like or say anything that would make her look bad. Now he no longer had to behave for her.
"I said move," he said as he motioned with his knife for them to get out of the way.
"What are you doing?" his wife's father demanded. "Get him."
It seemed that they either feared his wife's father or cared too much about the money to go against him. They lunged at Billy, who had resigned himself to defend himself. The first guard swung his fist straight at Billy's face. He sidestepped the blow before grabbing the guard by the arm.
The second guard came up from behind, also throwing a punch. Billy almost scoffed at the thoughtless move as he used the first guard as a shield. The second guard punched the first guard in the face with a crunch. Letting go of the first guard, Billy hurried to tackle the second guard, who was distracted. They landed on the ground and grappled with each other.
Billy managed to put the guard into a chokehold as the first guard recovered from the punch. The man was absolutely fuming as he rushed towards them. As Billy was thinking about his next move, there was a loud bang at the door that caused everyone to stop and stare.
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Rise of the Desperate: Billy Wood's Save and Restart System Chapter 14: The Fourth Time
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Author's Note
Hello everyone. I just want to thank all my readers who have been following along because it sure has been a doozy. Also, there are several things that I want to let you know.Billy's story has ended, and I'll have to admit that I didn't think it would end so soon. I had a lot of things planned, but after some careful consideration, I ultimately decided to end it early.Just like with Rise of the Demon King: Caleb Gonzales's Rat Race, I might do a rewrite or remake of it.If I do go through with this idea, then I'll just immediately go to eBook and paperback, and it would be very different from the one here. We will have to see, and I'll let everyone know.For now, I'll be focusing on finishing Johnny's story in Rise of the Commoner: Johnny Burns's The Lost Heir, which can be found here: https://www.meganovel.com/story/Rise-of-the-Commoner-Johnny-Burns-s-The-Lost-Heir_31000695378 .It's also going to be ending early. I'm not sure by how much. It might even be shorter than this one. We'
Chapter 117: Conditions
After hearing what the woman had to say, Billy released her. She took the chance to elbow him in the face, making his nose bleed, before putting some distance between them. There was a dark look on her face. He scowled, but he didn't retaliate for it. Instead, he went over everything he had learned from her. It had been a lot, and that had only been the surface."Well, what are you going to do now?" she asked."Well, I'll be accepting that proposal of yours," he said as he stood up and brushed the front of his pants.The woman huffed. "See. I told you. I don't know why you insisted on picking a fight when there was no need to fight.""However, I have some conditions," he said.She stared at him in disbelief before blurting out, "What?""You heard me. I won't accept your proposal without my own terms," he said."You can't be serious. You can't just add your own terms. You're already lucky enough to be spared in the first place," she said."It's not like you wanted to. You're only doing
Chapter 116: The Truth
"Hold it," Billy said as he held up a hand."Yes?" she asked."Why are you doing this? Why are you preparing to unleash a zombie apocalypse?" he asked."Why?" She took a moment to consider his question before saying, "It's for entertainment."Billy felt the veins in his head bulge from sheer anger. "What?""All of this is meant for entertainment for our followers. Unforunately, we've been having issues making it work, hence the number of tests we performed," she said."Followers? What are you talking about? Are you saying this is a game?" he demanded."A game? No. I guess you can view it as a game, but it isn't. You don't really need to know the details since you don't have the clearance for that information," she said.He gritted his teeth. "Then what can you tell me?""As stated before, we were running tests when we noticed some things were not progressing properly. One of them happened to be you," she said as she poin
Chapter 115: Death(?)
Billy coughed up blood as he struggled against the giant zombie's grip. He could hear the others screaming as they fought off the other zombies that surrounded them down below. Unfortunately, he was in no condition to help them as he fought to stay alive. Billy couldn't believe how quickly things had gone horribly wrong.One moment, they were trying to stealthily sneak away. Then the next day, the giant zombie was rushing towards them like a maniac. They had tried to run away when they realized the giant zombie was coming for them, but it easily outpaced them. Whether it was because of its long legs or because it was simply faster than them, it easily caught up to them in no time.If Billy hadn't shoved Jacqueline away, she would have turned into paste beneath the giant zombie's foot. However, the force from its mere step had knocked everyone off their feet, giving the giant zombie time to grab him. The giant zombie's grip tightened, and he could feel his bomes creak i
Chapter 114: Moving On
A sound caught everyone's attention, and all eyes turned to the doorway. They didn't see anyone or anything, but after what they had seen from the system, none of them were calm. The tied up woman was even more frantic to get out of the ropes. Unfortunately for her, they held fast, keeping her from getting away. Billy vaguely wondered why she didn't use her power."We're going," Billy declared."Wait," the woman wailed. "Don't leave me."Billy didn't give her a second glance as he walked away from her. He didn't want to stick around to see if the noise was actually something to be worried about. Jacqueline's gaze shifted between the two of them. She clearly didn't want to leave the woman behind, but she could also tell that Billy wasn't going to do that. Then the last person any of them expected to protest spoke up."I think we should let her go," Joshua said.Everyone turned to him as Billy said, "What?""We should let her go," Joshua said.
Chapter 113: New Feature
"Are you kidding me?" the tied up woman shrieked, voicing what was on everyone's minds.What was the system thinking? This was basically telling everyone to die. Billy had no clue how many awakened there were, but their group had three awakened, if he still counted as one. That meant the zombies would receive a boost three times greater than if none of them were awakened, and what did they mean by boost? It was so vague that it could mean anything.Were the zombies stronger, faster, smarter, or what? It was impossible for anyone to counteract it without more information, which the system didn't seem to care to give. Billy could feel everyone's gaze on him, as if looking to him for answers that he didn't have. He could understand why Jacqueline and Joshua were doing that, but why was the tied up woman also looking at him?If anything, he should be the last person she should be looking to, considering how he had just threatened her. Well, he supposed that there we
Chapter 112: Interrogating the Prisoner (2)
Billy studied the woman's face as the others stared dabsmacked with their jaws hanging. He was just as shocked as they were, but he was better at keeping it off his face. Out of all the things he expected her to say, he didn't expect the woman to tell him that things had gotten off the rails for everyone who had gotten a system and power."Are you really telling the truth?" Billy asked.The woman frantically nodded her head. "Yes, I am. You've got to believe me. I have no reason to lie. When I realized that I could hide from everyone, a screen appeared in front of me, telling me I was one of the awakened."Something had seriously changed this time. In previous lives, no one could receive their power until after their first wave was over. He wasn't sure what had made such a huge difference, but that meant the system had no right to take his power away from him. If anyone could get their power before the first wave ended, he shouldn't have his power removed.<
Chapter 111: Interrogating the Prisoner (1)
"Billy?" Jacqueline called out.Billy frowned as he recalled telling her to stay quiet and out of sight until he said the coast was clear. She must have heard his knocking out the woman and got worried, but that didn't change how dumb it was. Jacqueline was basically announcing her presence to whoever was nearby. If he had been the one who had been taken out, she would have been in trouble.Even now, it wasn't a guarantee that they were in the clear just yet. He remained silent as he dragged the unconscious woman away while keeping an eye on his surroundings. After dragging her into another part of the house, he found some rope to tie her up with and searched her for anything valuable. Unfortunately, she didn't have anything on her except for a knife.He narrowed his eyes. It didn't make sense for someone to only go around with a tiny knife. Just imagining someone trying to fight a bunch of zombies with it was ridiculous. Even against another person was a joke.
Chapter 110: Escaping the Zombies
Billy stared as his mind whirled with indecision. A morally good person would run back to save them because that was the right thing to do. Leaving a woman who was someone close to him and two children to the zombies would be a monsterous thing to do. On the other hand, a realistic person or someone with self preservation would immediately leave them behind.Honestly, if it wasn't for Jacqueline, he would have hightailed out of there without even looking back. However, this was Jacqueline. If he left, he didn't think she would follow him. As she was now, she wouldn't abandon the kid to save herself. She would die. There would be no second chance for her since this was his only life left. On the flip side, because it was his only life, he had to be even more careful."Billy!" Jacqueline screamed again as she knocked another zombie away.He gritted his teeth and made his choice. Billy rushed over and grabbed Jacqueline's arm before shoving her away. She stumbled b
