Donald groaned as he opened his eyes. What happened? It felt like he had been zapped with electricity. As he sat up, memories from before he lost consciousness hit him like a truck. That had actually happened. It was a miracle that he hadn't died from being zapped with all that electricity. The thought that followed was of the zombie that had come after him.
At the sight of the zombie lying mere inches away from him, he scrambled away to put some distance between them. When it didn't move, he grabbed his ax and poked it with it. It didn't even flinch, and he poked it even harder. Seeing it still frozen, Donald breathed a sigh of relief. The moment passed quickly as he slapped his cheek to knock some sense into him.
Just because the one zombie in front of him wasn't moving didn't mean that he was safe yet. His head spun in all directions, searching for signs of other zombies, but there was not a single trace of them anywhere. Well, at least the moving ones. There were several bodies or pieces of bodies strewn throughout the office. Keeping himself from vomiting, he clutched his ax close just in case.
[The user has awakened. Proceeding with the introduction.]
He wasn't ashamed to admit that he screamed at the sight of the message popping in front of his eyes. Given the situation, to a certain extent, anyone else would react in the same way. Placing a hand over his heart, he stared at the floating message in front of him. His mind worked over time to process the appearance of the floating message as more popped up in front of him.
[Greetings, new user. Congratulations on becoming the first awakened before everyone else.]
[For this achievement, you will be given a gift box as a reward.]
The moment he finished reading the text, a blue gift wrapped box appeared right in front of him, floating in the air. Staring at it, Donald refused to come anywhere near it. Who ever heard of such a thing happening in the midst of a zombie apocalypse? It was outright unbelievable and suspicious. This might be some kind of ploy to kill him or something.
[This isn't a trap, user.]
[To survive the zombie apocalypse, a rare few have been given a system and powers.]
[You happen to be one of the few fortunate ones to survive the initial wave.]
Donald studied the message warily as he asked, "Did you just read my mind?"
[In order to better support the user, the system has been given access to your mind.]
[It's mandatory.]
That answered his next question. "Why should I believe you?"
[This system is bonded to the user.]
[If the user dies, the system also dies.]
Frowning, he considered the system's words. If it was really telling the truth, then it was on his side and would do its best to make sure he survived. Unfortunately, he had no way to confirm this. It could be spouting out lies to trick him and leave the moment it got tired of him or after it managed to get him killed. However, he had a feeling that he didn't really have a choice.
Lowering his ax, he said, "Okay, I'll believe you for now, but you better explain everything."
[Of course, dear user. The system will do its best to support you.]
[What do you wish to know?]
"Where did the zombies come from? What did you mean by awakened? What powers? Initial wave? What's in the box?" Donald asked as the questions flowed out.
[Someone was given a system and powers to infect as many people as possible. The system is unsure of the reason or how it happened, but in order to stop the zombies, the user will have to find this person and kill them.]
"What?" he blurted out, but the system continued on as if it didn't hear him.
[An awakened person is someone who was lucky to receive a system and powers. This increases their chances of survival and the possibility of killing the source of the zombies.]
[The system will help you grow stronger and possibly provide benefits essential in the current situation.]
[Everyone is given a random power based on several factors ranging from personality to the environment.]
[There will be several waves of zombies, which will get stronger the longer the source is alive.]
[The gift box has a random reward that can help you survive.]
Digesting what he just learned, Donald studied the floating box. It was a lot to swallow, but he got the gist of it. Basically, someone decided to start the zombie apocalypse for some unknown reason, and the only way to stop it was to kill them. He also had superpowers, which he apparently needed to figure out. Taking a deep breath, he tried to keep himself from freaking out.
After several moments of internal screaming, Donald asked, "What's my power?"
[You have the power to manipulate electricity.]
Donald blinked. Then he chuckled before it erupted into full blown laughter. Of course, of all the powers he could have gotten, it was to control electricity. All it took was getting electrocuted. Did that mean if he had been set on fire, he would have gotten fire powers instead? When he finally calmed down, he reached out to claim the gift box.
[Congratulations.]
[You have been rewarded with the power to manipulate fire.]
Gaping at the message, he could only say, "Seriously?"
[Error. Anomaly detected. Patching through to the administrator.]
[Connecting...]
[Correction. There is no error. The reward will be distributed as expected.]
[The user will obtain the power to manipulate fire.]
He couldn't believe his luck. Just moments before, he had been thinking about having fire powers, and the system handed them out to him as a gift. However, he didn't like the message from earlier stating it was an error. The system obviously didn't expect him to obtain fire powers when he opened the gift box. Was it rare to receive another power?"
[The user is correct.]
[Everyone is entitled to only one power. Having multiple powers is strictly forbidden. However, it was determined that the user can have two powers as long as the user focuses on one of them.]
Donald couldn't believe his luck. This was like winning the lottery. With electricity and fire at his fingertips, he was certain no one could lay a hand on him. It was unfortunate that he had to decide which power would be his main one, but it was better than nothing. Carefully considering which would be the better power, he came to a decision.
"Make electricity my main power," he declared.
[The power to manipulate electricity has been designated as the user's main power.][From now on, whenever the user defeats a zombie, the user will be able to earn points that can be used to boost the user's electricity powers.]That was both great and not so great news for him. Donald could become stronger by defeating zombies, but that also meant he had to actively seek out zombies to fight unless he chose to wait for them to come to him. He grimaced at both ideas, but the lesser of the two would be to confront the zombies himself. At least then it would be on his terms."What about my fire powers? Will I be able to boost them too?" he asked.Unfortunately, the user has chosen electricity to be their main power, so the user can't boost their fire powers.]Donald scowled at the lost opportunity. While he wanted to argue the fairness of the situation, he bit his tongue. The system did say he was lucky to even have two powers when everyone would only get one. On the bright side, he cou
Donald didn't get a chance to complain about the results before the other two zombies came lumbering towards him. Raising his ax again, he swung at the closest one with the same result. However, he had to shut his eyes to prevent the bits of zombie flesh from getting into his eyes. Wiping it away from his flesh, he opened his eyes in time to see another message and the zombie about to bite him.In a panic, he stumbled back to get out of its range, only to trip over his feet. He fell on his back with a grunt as the zombie lumbered towards him. Donald scurried on all fours to put some distance between them. His ax had fallen out of his hands and was just out of his reach. Glancing between the zombie and ax, he took the risk of lunging for his weapon again.The zombie threw itself at him as he grabbed the ax. It crashed into his back, and he grunted from the weight. Thinking quickly, he managed to flip them over so the zombie was on its back with Donald crushing it on top. His actions sl
Donald apparently lucked out, as there were no zombies on the next floor, or at least none he could see. He took a moment to survey the scene as he considered whether he should check the floor before moving on. It was the fourth floor, so he had to go down three more flights of stairs before he could leave the building. Then he could finally see how bad it was outside.He could try checking the situation by looking out the windows, but he had avoided them. While he would like to have a logical reason behind it, the truth was that he was just afraid of heights. As long as he didn't see how far away the ground was, he was fine. Deciding to forgo searching the floor, he headed straight for the stairs, heading for the third floor, when he heard noise.Immediately, he spun around with his ax swinging. His axe hit nothing but air. With a frown, he studied the surrounding area again. It might have been his imagination, but he didn't want to die just because he decided to ignore a possible th
Teaming up with another person had been the right idea because, as soon as they got close to the third floor, they could hear a lot of movement ahead. Immediately, the duo stopped and covered their mouths to keep themselves from being heard. Hesitantly, they tiptoed to get a closer look and froze when they saw zombies everywhere. It was a literal death trap.The duo instantly rushed back up the stairs while keeping quiet. Since nothing came chasing after them, they must have escaped detection. However, this posed a huge problem for them. There was no way they could even attempt going through the third floor unless they had a death wish. From what they saw, there had to be at least over thirty zombies, and that was only what they could see."What do we do?" Amanda whispered in case the zombies might hear them."What's your power?" Donald asked back.At her confused look, he realized that she didn't know what he was talking about. That meant she didn't have any powers. Why? He got his p
When the hour passed, Donald nearly breathed a sigh of relief. However, it was too soon to celebrate. It was just the first hurdle. They still had to see if Amanda received any powers. The two waited with bated breath to see if a system would pop up and inform her that she had powers. Several moments passed, and as time passed, their hopes got smaller and smaller.Amanda looked at him with a panicked expression. "Am I not going to get any powers?""You might have to do something to get them," he said."Like what?" she hissed. "You can't expect me to electrocute myself like you did."In response to her words, Donald stared blankly at her. She was immediately cowed by his expression and fell silent. While he understood she was frantic, she should know how to speak. He really shouldn't have teamed up with her, but there was no helping it. Maybe he could somehow ditch her somewhere and go solo or find someone else to work with."My system said that it's random," Donald started when a mess
The problem was that they might not be able to make it back up to the second floor without being seen unless they ran. Would the zombies hear them running back up the steps to go in from the second floor? Donald couldn't imagine their retreat would be quiet, especially as there weren't really any other noises nearby. There was a high chance the zombies would hear them if they didn't see them.However, staying on the steps wasn't an option. It was just asking for trouble if they remained out in the open. Even if these zombies couldn't see them, what if they decided to stop near the fire escape? Then they would be stuck, just like what happened on the fourth floor. There was also no guarantee that other zombies that could see wouldn't pass by right after.Descending the rest of the steps wasn't an option either. The zombies might still be far out, but they might not find a place to hide from the zombies before the zombies reach them. It was too risky to attempt going down the steps only
Donald rushed down the stairs just as he saw the first zombie reach the second floor. Luckily, the sounds of the zombies banging on the fire escape door drew their attention. However, he wasn't going to take the chance they might find him, and he hurried away quietly before they knew he was there. Reaching the first floor, he immediately scanned the area for any zombies.He should have checked before descending, but the zombies didn't exactly give him a choice. They didn't even give him a chance to pull out a backup weapon. While keeping an eye open for any zombies, he reached into his bag for one of the box cutters. As he rummaged through the bag, he couldn't help cursing himself for losing Amanda's bag.There was no way he could have saved it, but he still mourned the loss of all the supplies she carried. They could have helped him survive through this mess. Finally, finding the item, he pulled it out as he slowly inspected the area. Strangely, there were no zombies here either. The
"What's going on?" Donald muttered to himself as he didn't fail to notice that he didn't get any notification about defeating the zombie. "Is there some kind of error?"[The system detects no errors.]The only possibility that Donald could think of was that some zombies weren't worth a point. What else could it be? He grumbled at the unfairness of the situation when he heard movement. Immediately, he spun around as his eyes darted around to pinpoint where it was coming from. It was silent, but Donald refused to accept it at face value.Donald got off the zombie while remaining in the squatting position. Holding the knife in front of him, he moved slowly away as he searched for the hidden figure. Since they weren't outright attacking him, it couldn't be a zombie. It had to be a survivor. The question was if they were on his side or not. He really hoped they weren't an enemy.Suddenly, he saw a sudden movement out of the corner of his eye. Snapping his head in that direction, he was sta