Billy's first instinct was to tell her no. She shouldn't get involved. in his problems. It wasn't any of her business, but that wasn't the case anymore. He had brought her into his affairs the moment he told her everything. That was the plan, after all. The hangup was only because he was used to refusing to let other people get involved in his issues."It's good to have you," he said with a nod.Jacqueline squinted at him as she said, "I would have thought you would tell me not to get involved.""If that was the plan, I wouldn't have told you anything," he dryly said."That makes sense, so what now? Do you have a plan?" she asked as she crossed her arms."With the zombie apocalypse happening not long from now, we need to prepare ourselves. Everything I own is back at my house, so I need to go get them," he said as he started walking again.She followed after him and asked, "Are you sure you can't get them later? I don't mean to be disrespectful, but what do you have that is so importa
"What's going on here?" his wife's father demanded as he looked between the two groups.Not a second later, his wife's mother pointed at him as she said, "Could you have cheated on our daughter?""How dare you!" his wife's father snarled as he stormed up to Billy.Billy didn't react as the man grabbed him by the collar. There was a spark of annoyance that they were so quick to think he was a cheater. He had been completely faithful to his wife. There hadn't been a single moment where he looked at another woman. Jacqueline was proof that he would choose his wife first. Well, he would have."Answer me," his wife's father demanded. "I should have known that you weren't good for my daughter. I should have never allowed you to marry her."While Billy could let the man continue to rant, they were short on time. Without saying a word, he grabbed the arm, grabbed onto his collar, and pulled it off. His wife's father stared in shock. Whether it was because he was shocked by Billy's strength or
Billy was quick to react and pulled out the gun he had hidden in his pants and fired at the incoming zombies. He managed to make two headshots when something suddenly crashed into his side. Thinking it was a zombie, he was prepared to shoot, only to realize it was his wife's mother. Luckily, he stopped himself in time, or else he would have wasted a bullet."You knew about this, didn't you? That's why you were trying to run away. How dare you bring your mess onto this family," she said as she continued to hit his side.He grimaced as he tried to get the hysterical woman to let him go. Jacqueline was quick to join his side and try to pry the woman off of him. As Jacqueline tried to remove her, she wondered how many screws were loose in this entire family. No one sane would automatically think Billy was responsible for the zombie apocalypse. There was no way he could do something like that.While the three were trying to get out of the mess they were in, everyone else was panicking. Deb
"What do we do now?" Jacqueline asked as she jumped over a corpse."The first thing is getting out of the house before we can't escape," Billy said as he struck a nearby zombie with his baton.Billy hadn't put much force behind the blow, so the zombie was only momentarily stunned. He was more focused on escaping and didn't want to waste his time killing every single zombie they encountered. In his last life, he had done that, and look at where it got him. No, this time he was going to leave those still around to deal with them themselves.Jacqueline's broom broke after she struck another zombie, and she stared at it for a few moments before throwing it away. "How do we do that?Considering his options, he said, "We can try one of the other doors and head for the rooftop.""Are those the only options?" she asked hesitantly.Before he could answer, a zombie suddenly lunged at them. The duo dodged to the sides to avoid it. Billy quickly brought the baton down on his head. Jacqueline, on
Billy groaned as he was struck with a killer headache, but that wasn't what annoyed him. This was his fourth life. He had been killed three times. The first time had been because he had been caught by surprise by a zombie. The second time was also when his guard was down and was killed by his wife. As for the third, well, it wasn't surprising that he didn't see it coming when Jacqueline killed him.He couldn't have predicted any of those deaths except for maybe the last one. No one could have expected the zombie apocalypse, so he couldn't be blamed for not seeing the zombie coming. His wife had also never shown any violent tendencies around him. That's why he never saw it coming. It had also been an accident. Jacqueline, on the other hand, had been infected right in front of him.Even though he knew he should have acted quickly, he had hesitated. That hesitation had cost him his life. No, he shouldn't have helped her in the first place the moment he saw her struggling out the window.
The moment the words had appeared in front of Billy, he had gone on the defensive, thinking that the zombies had somehow arrived sooner than expected. He never expected to see a floating text box show up out of nowhere. The tension slowly bled out of his body as he stared at the message warily. He didn't trust something he had no clue about. [Greetings, user. Shall we finally begin the introduction?] It repeated its message, and Billy had a feeling it wouldn't leave him alone until he answered. "Yes." Saying yes to some unknown entity might not have been a smart idea, but rejecting it could have also been bad. There was no telling how it would react. For now, he was going to play along and see where this might lead. Instantly, the message was replaced by a new one. The contents caused Billy's eyebrows to shoot up. [Congratulations on becoming an awakened. The system will be your guide.] While he didn't know what it meant to be an awakened, Billy had a good idea what it was referri
Despite being caught off guard, Billy calmly asked, "Why do you want to know?""If I were also an awakened, I could help you out more," Jacqueline said.That was a reasonable conclusion to make. If she became an awakened, she would gain a power like he had. However, there was no guarantee that the power would be useful. The system had said it was random, so there was a chance that the power she would get would be useless to her. Besides, he didn't even know how he became an awakened.[The system can answer that. Of those that are fortunate enough to survive the initial wave, a few would spontaneously obtain a power and system.]There were a few things about what the system said that made Billy narrow his eyes. "If that's the case, explain why I got a power and you when I died right at the beginning."[Unfortunately, the system has no answer to that.]"Then can you explain in detail more about who got a power and system?" Billy asked, seeing that there was no point in pressing for answ
"You know," Jacqueline started slowly. "When you said preparations, I didn't expect this."Billy looked her way as he asked, "What were you expecting?""Well, I didn't think you wanted to use company money to go shopping," she said as she looked down at the shopping cart.She had been completely blindsided when he had told her to follow him and led her to the nearest store. With no idea about what he was planning, she could only go along with whatever he had in mind. Apparently, that involved buying several items from the store. While she could accept that he wanted them to be ready for anything, she thought they were supposed to be in a rush."Aren't you worried about zombies appearing while we are heading to your house?" she asked as she looked up."That is something I considered, but I have a theory." At her attentive gaze, he continued, "In the first two lives, the zombies appeared at the exact same time. In my third life, they arrived sooner than expected. I believe that somethin