Leon’s heartbeat hammered in his chest.

He had barely processed his first kill before the air around him grew thick with something far worse.

A dozen red eyes pierced through the darkness.

Low, guttural growls resonated through the abandoned facility.

Then...

The shadows moved.

Figures emerged from the dimly lit corridors, dozens of early-stage infected, their twisted, half-rotted bodies convulsing as they detected fresh prey.

Leon’s grip on his crowbar tightened. He was surrounded.

Shit.

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

In his past life, the first infected had appeared in isolated cases. He should’ve had more time before an entire nest formed.

Something had changed.

The realization sent a chill down his spine. Did my return alter the timeline?

Now wasn’t the time to dwell on it. If he hesitated, he’d die.

He flicked his eyes around the room, calculating. There was only one exit, the way he came. But it was blocked by at least ten infected.

To his left, a pile of overturned medical crates. To his right, a flickering emergency light. Above him, an exposed pipe, rusted but sturdy.

Options.

A slow smirk crept onto his lips. Good.

Because unlike last time…

He wasn’t the same desperate survivor anymore.

A single step.

That was all it took.

The horde lunged.

Leon moved first.

He sidestepped a clawed hand, his crowbar sweeping out in a brutal arc. A sickening crack. The zombie’s skull caved in, black ichor splattering across the floor.

Another leaped.

Leon ducked, planting his free hand on the floor and twisting his body into a sweeping low kick.

The infected’s knee shattered.

Before it even hit the ground, Leon drove his knife into its throat, twisting.

Two down.

More to go.

A snarl to his left...

He turned, blocking an incoming attack with his crowbar. The force nearly dislocated his shoulder.

Too strong.

They were already mutating.

Not good.

Leon’s eyes flickered toward the flickering emergency light. An idea.

He moved.

Vaulting over the medical crates, he reached for the rusted pipe above.

A running start, a leap, his fingers locked onto the cold metal.

The zombies snarled, their decayed minds struggling to process his sudden movement.

Leon swung forward—momentum shifting, before he let go.

He dropped, landing in a controlled crouch behind them.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Now the exit was open.

No hesitation. Leon sprinted.

The moment his feet hit the corridor, he knew...

They were right behind him.

As he ran, Leon’s mind raced.

He still clutched the black Core he had obtained from his first kill.

In his past life, survivors only realized the potential of Cores months after the outbreak. By then, only the strongest had access to them.

But what if he used it now?

No one ever had before.

Leon had no time to think. He crushed the Core in his hand.

A burning heat spread through his veins.

His vision blurred then sharpened.

Every footstep, every breath of the zombies behind him, he could hear them clearer.

His muscles felt lighter, stronger.

Adrenaline flooded his system, but this wasn’t normal adrenaline.

This was power.

Leon grinned.

He suddenly stopped, turning to face the horde head-on.

The zombies didn’t expect it. They stumbled, their momentum throwing them off balance.

And Leon?

He attacked.

His first punch shattered a skull.

His crowbar swing was so fast that it ripped through two heads in one motion.

He felt it now, his first evolution.

He was no longer just human.

Ten minutes later, silence fell.

The facility corridor was littered with corpses.

Leon stood in the center, breathing heavily, blood dripping from his crowbar.

He won.

And yet, his instincts told him this was only the beginning.

The timeline was changing. The virus was spreading faster.

He needed to get stronger. Faster.

Because if this was the start…

What the hell was coming next?

Leon exhaled slowly, his breath misting in the cold air of the facility corridor. His body thrummed with newfound strength, a raw, untamed power coursing through his veins after absorbing his first Core.

But something felt off.

His heart pounded, not from exhaustion, but from something else.

A sensation crawled under his skin, a primal instinct he had never felt before.

His fingers twitched. His vision sharpened. He could hear the faintest of sounds, a droplet of blood falling onto the tiled floor, the faint scratching of claws from something deeper in the facility.

What the hell is happening to me?

He had expected strength. But this? This was different.

His muscles felt denser, his reflexes quicker. Even the dim emergency lights seemed brighter, their flickering patterns more defined.

Did the Core do more than just enhance my body?

Leon clenched his fists. He had no time for doubts.

A sudden noise snapped him out of his thoughts.

A deep, guttural snarl.

This wasn’t the weak, half-formed groans of regular infected.

This was different.

Leon’s breath slowed. His instincts screamed at him to move.

He barely managed to leap aside when a blur of motion ripped through the air...

BANG!

The concrete wall shattered, debris flying everywhere as something inhuman crashed into it at terrifying speed.

Leon rolled across the floor, coming up to his feet in an instant. His grip tightened around his crowbar as his eyes locked onto the new threat.

It was huge.

A seven-foot-tall figure stood in the wreckage of the broken wall.

Its body was lean yet grotesquely muscular, its skin stretched tight over bulging tendons and sinew. Dark veins pulsed under its flesh, and jagged bone-like protrusions jutted from its shoulders.

Its head… was wrong.

The creature’s jaw had split apart, revealing rows of needle-like teeth. Saliva dripped from its maw as it slowly tilted its head toward Leon, its glowing red eyes locking onto him.

An Elite Variant.

Leon’s stomach twisted.

This was not supposed to appear so soon.

In his past life, the first Elite Zombie wasn’t discovered until two months into the outbreak. Survivors had barely managed to kill it back then.

And yet, here it was.

Right in front of him.

The realization settled like a lead weight in his gut.

This timeline is accelerating.

He barely had time to process that terrifying fact before the creature moved.

It was fast.

Faster than anything Leon had fought before.

In a blink...

The Elite closed the gap, its elongated claws slicing through the air toward his throat.

Leon dodged.

The attack barely missed, cutting through the fabric of his jacket. A fraction of a second slower, and his head would’ve been gone.

The creature didn’t stop.

It moved with inhuman fluidity, twisting mid-lunge, using the momentum to swipe at Leon’s ribs.

Leon raised his crowbar, blocking.

The impact sent shockwaves through his arms, forcing him back. His feet skidded across the blood-slick floor.

Too strong.

His mind raced. He had enhanced strength now, but this thing was on a whole different level.

He needed a strategy.

His eyes darted around the ruined facility, taking in every detail.

His past experiences screamed at him...

Analyze. Adapt. Exploit.

The overhead pipes. The collapsed ceiling beams. The exposed electrical wires hanging nearby.

A plan formed in seconds.

The Elite lunged again, this time going for his legs.

Leon reacted instantly.

Instead of dodging sideways, he jumped.

The Elite missed by a hair’s breadth, crashing into a stack of metal crates behind him.

Leon used the moment to act.

He grabbed one of the hanging electrical wires and yanked it loose. Sparks flew.

The Elite turned, its glowing red eyes narrowing.

Leon grinned.

“Come on, then.”

The bait was set.

The creature roared, rushing him again.

At the last second, Leon sidestepped.

The Elite lunged straight into the live electrical wire.

BZZZZT!

A burst of blue-white light lit up the entire room as thousands of volts surged into the creature’s body.

It screamed.

Its movements spasmed violently, the electrical current locking its muscles in place.

Leon didn’t waste a second.

He moved in.

His crowbar swung in a brutal downward arc...

CRACK!

The metal pierced straight through its skull.

The Elite twitched once, then collapsed.

Silence.

Leon stood there, panting.

His hands were shaking. Not from fear, from adrenaline.

He stared down at the Elite’s corpse.

Then, his eyes locked onto something.

Its Core.

Unlike the small Core he had obtained earlier, this one was bigger, pulsing with dark energy.

Leon crouched down, gripping it tightly.

He knew what would happen if he absorbed this.

This was an Elite Core.

This was evolution.

And in this new world.

Only the strongest survive.