Once again, Hiroki opened his eyes. His eyes were bloodshot and gave off an aura of tiredness as if Hiroki had just run a Marathon or something.

But this time, Hiroki's eyes weren't full of vigor. No, they were dull and seemed to be pondering about things. Their dull yellow color looked as if his eyes belonged to a corpse and not an alive person.

Hiroki felt a ripple go through his chest as he remembered what had put him here; overuse of his Hardening ability. But as he remembered why he overused it, his pained heartbeat with anger just like before.

However, this time the anger was cold and calculating, rather than hot and impulsive. Looking back on his actions, he couldn't help but reprimand himself for being so stupid. What if there were more Brute Zombies? What if the horde pushed passed him and stormed the house?

"You fucking idiot, Hiroki..." Hiroki whispered to himself as he slowly pushed himself up and looked about where he was.

Surprisingly, just like before, he was back in his living room but this time the sky was slowly getting brighter and currently had a light purple coloring to it. Hiroki figured that it must have been a whole night since he went on his short rampage.

Again, thinking about what he did, Hiroki shook his head in disdain for himself. He had the right to be angry over his brother's death, nobody could take that from him, but he should have acted on the anger when he was sure he'd be the only one hurt if something went wrong.

He looked down at his hand and willed it to harden into the familiar black clawed hand.

Looking down at it, Hiroki felt that the stamina usage had reduced by more than half and he couldn't help but rejoice at this small bit of good news among such bad news. Hiroki guessed that his [Adaptive Metabolism] Trait wasn't just for show and was indeed allowing him to improve at a quicker rate.

Thinking of his traits, Hiroki released his skill and brought up his Status.

[Name: Kurosawa Hiroki]

[Title: The One Who Adapts Survives]

[Race: Modified Human]

[Virus Mutation: 6%]

[Rank: 0]

[Unique Traits: Accelerated Metabolism(?), Adaptive Metabolism(?), and Superior(?)]

{Skills Gained: Body Hardening}

Hiroki looked at his status and saw the previous question marks had become the place for his skills, which solved a few questions in his head. But more questions seemed to fill their places as he saw that his Virus Mutation had increased.

As he thought about this, he slowly stood up, cautious of hurting himself. But surprisingly, Hiroki didn't feel any pain, in fact, he felt better than before.

"Oh my God...Is this Adaptive Metabolism Trait forcing my body to become better to keep up with the Hardening skill? Does that have something to do with the Virus Mutation?" Hiroki spoke absentmindedly as he looked into the distance, lost in thought.

What Hiroki didn't expect, however, was for his questions to be answered.

[Awakened, Hiroki, your Adaptive Metabolism, and Accelerated Metabolism feed off each other. Your Accelerated Metabolism makes adaptation to conditions quicker, while your Adaptive Metabolism helps make your Accelerated Metabolism heal even quicker if you sustain enough injuries. So, these two traits, together, are helping you rapidly adapt to the Body Hardening skill. Your Virus Mutation is also getting greater because of your Traits becoming more refined]

Hiroki was a bit shocked but his thirst for knowledge helped him recover quickly, "But how am I making my Traits more refined by using Body Hardening? Aren't I just making my body stronger?" Hiroki spoke in whispers, not wanting to attract anyone and make them think he was some kind of mad man.

The screens reply came almost instantly.

[Awakened, Hiroki, you are using your Traits to achieve the Body Strengthening, no? So, in the end, you are refining your Traits constantly, as long as you exercise you will refine your Traits. You are the One Who Adapts, Kurosawa Hiroki, one of the Seven. Look at your Title and you will know your power]

"Wait--What do you mean?" Hiroki, expecting a reply, instantly asked another question. But there was no reply to Hiroki's confusion, it was as if the screens were taken over by a mysterious entity who would answer some of Hiroki's questions.

Having nothing to go off of, Hiroki simply did what the screen last told him; he checked his status and saw that there was a (?) by his title which wasn't there before. So he clicked on it and a new screen popped up.

[Due to Adaptive Metabolism, Accelerated Metabolism, and Superior have such synergy, Kurosawa Hiroki's ability to adapt to danger and intensity have been enhanced by many folds, and has allowed him to take the Mantle of one of the Seven,--@#?!&%@>ERROR#?&@!%--!]

Instantly, Hiroki's vision was full of multiple characters that were just gibberish in his eyes, his head ached for a while and his eyes seemed to close themselves on their own. Hiroki lifted his hands to his head as he felt like his head was being crushed by a hydraulic press.

His eyes, that were once dull were now back to being full of vigor and if it weren't for the pain, Hiroki would feel much better.

This wasn't because he'd forgotten about his brother's death, and especially not because he didn't feel sad about it. It was because Hiroki had realized he had the power to eventually avenge his brother, to eventually start killing as many Zombies as he wanted and once he was ready, he would kill all the Brute's he came across.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

It seemed slightly childish but there was no way Hiroki would ever let the hatred caused by his brother's death fade away into nothing.

If he needed any more reason to kill Zombies, he had one; He was Alive and they would kill him if he didn't kill them.

Hiroki's mentality was slowly warping into a 'kill or be killed' sort of mindset but this way of thinking was perfect for the times of peril he would soon be going through. As his mind became like this, the pain suddenly stopped and Hiroki could fully stand up without hunching over in pain.

"Ah, so you're awake, my idiot little brother," Hiroki casually turned around and saw his sister, Mai looking at him with a gentle smile, "You realize how much of a bastard you were last night, right?"

Hiroki let out an awkward laugh and scratched the back of his head, "Yeah, I guess I was a little bit of a bastard, huh?" Mai scoffed when he said 'a little bit' but her happiness at his maturity over the situation overruled it.

But just as soon as her happiness came, it disappeared and was replaced by a solemn expression of hatred. Hiroki could guess what she was about to talk about. It was at this time that Hiroki noticed that his sister's eyes that used to brown were now an ice blue and her pupils were like his; slightly elongated vertically.

These icy eyes added more coldness to her voice as she spoke, "Now, we must talk about how we're going to avenge Kentaro. We're both Awakened, so we have a chance, unlike most people," Mai's softened as she looked into Hiroki's, "From what I've gathered you have shield ability and your physical prowess is higher than mine. So you should be a close quarters fighter, which balances well with my--" before she finished, she and Hiroki heard three equally shocked yelps.

Looking at each other with worried looks on their faces, both Hiroki and Mai shot into the hallway and into the Kitchen were the three voice came from.

Inside they saw Daichi, Ino, and a pale Keiko looking into the air in front of them, obviously dazed. Hiroki took the initiative and walked up to Daichi before poking his shoulder, "Himura, what's up?" Daichi, hearing Hiroki, snapped out of his stupor and seemed to have an excited gleam in his eye.

"All of the Humans, except the Awakened - which I'm guessing you and Mai are - have been granted the System. It allows us to kill the Zombies and gain Prana from them. If we gain enough of this Prana, we level up and gain Stat Points which we can use to improve any of our stats," Daichi paused for a moment before smiling at Hiroki, "It pretty much works like a game."

Hiroki widened his eyes as he looked at the excited teen in front of him. His surprise faded as a smile spread across his face, he clapped down on Daichi's shoulder, "Well, it's settled then, let's get stronger together!" after seeing Daichi take on the Brute Zombie with just a sword despite just being a non-enhanced Human, Hiroki started to respect the school idol and knew he was someone he could trust.

So when he learned that Daichi could become strong like he could, albeit, through more hard work, Hiroki resolved himself to stay with Daichi as the two could watch each other's backs and help each other through the apocalypse.

Daichi smiled at Hiroki's proposal, "Sure, it'd be my honor to fight alongside the "Tiger" of Green Meadow Highschool!" Daichi put quotations marks in the air and laughed teasingly at Hiroki.

Hiroki didn't blush but he still felt a bit embarrassed about the nickname people gave him based on his eyes. He also realized he was living more and more up to that nickname as time went on; He'd gained the ability to use claws and his eyes had turned yellow like a Tiger's. This caused Hiroki's face to become a bit more embarrassed.

He let out a small sigh but he wasn't upset or annoyed at Daichi, in fact, he was happy that Daichi felt relaxed enough around him to tease him like he just did. Most people would shit themselves saying 'Hello' to Hiroki, let alone teasing him, so Daichi's attitude was a real breath of fresh air.

"Yeah, same thing for me, "Prince" of Green Meadow Highschool~!" now it was Daichi's turn to get embarrassed over Hiroki's teasings.

While the two boys were busy messing about with each other, Mai went over to Ino and Keiko and spoke to them about what exactly the message said to them.

Through her questions, she found out that the System also came with a Class System that would be unlocked at level 20 and that the 'Game System', as Ino called, wasn't the only system out there but the message didn't elaborate on anything else about these various other systems.

She also found out that despite being users of a game-like system, they could still instantly die no matter their health if they were hit in a vital spot like the heart or brain with enough lethal force.

Other than that she found that they had a small inventory system and they could only carry as much as they could actually physically carry; so it scaled off of their strength attribute.

Before Mai could ask any further questions, Ino looked worriedly behind her causing her to look behind herself as well. When she looked behind her, she saw Hiroki and Daichi both walking toward the kitchen door, Daichi with his Katana in hand and Hiroki barehanded.

With one look she could see what they intended to do and instantly shut them down, "No, you're not going out there. After your stunt last night it's too dangerous!" Mai's voice was firm and Hiroki could sense an immovable will in it.

Hiroki and Daichi's expressions dropped as Hiroki stepped toward his sister to persuade her, "But Sis! Daichi needs strength as soon as possible, just like we do. Besides, I can kite the Zombies over to him and if anything life-threatening occurs, I'll pull him out of it instantly!" Hiroki's impulsive side showed again but he wasn't doing this purely because he wanted to be a brat.

No, he was doing it because he knew the sooner Daichi became stronger, the sooner the two other System Users in the house could become stronger and before they knew it they would have a pretty solid team to go and explore the neighborhood with.

Yes, Hiroki knew the dangers but he sensed that if they weren't willing to do something dangerous they'd die, purely because they let themselves get weak while the Zombies might be mutating further.

He didn't say any of this because his sister would take it as him worrying too much and despite all that's happened she wouldn't believe he could sense with his instincts. Especially after losing their older brother, Mai wouldn't want Hiroki to risk himself in any way.

Mai went to storm up to Hiroki and slap him but Ino put a hand on her shoulder, "Kurosawa-san, your Hiroki-kun is right, we all need strength as soon as possible if we're going to survive this...whatever this is," despite being usually soft-spoken, Ino wasn't timid or a coward, no she was an incredibly strong-willed person and would always rationally think about things. So even now when she was scared of the outside, she could see the benefits of taking the initiative on using this System.

But she wasn't done talking, "So that's why I'm coming to get stronger with you, Daichi," Daichi, who heard this, seemed to have expected this from her as soon as she stopped Mai from admonishing them. He knew how stubborn his sister was, so he just accepted it. Besides, just because he was worried about her, Daichi would never stop his sister from trying to get strong, mainly so he knew that she could protect herself when the times comes when he's not there to protect her.

Mai seemed worn out as she looked at the three teens before her. In the end, she sighed and informed them that she would be coming with them to look over the entire thing.

So, after all that, Hiroki and the others - even Keiko - walked to the front door, set on becoming stronger.