Chapter 2: Zombies Aren't fun.

*Victoria’s POV*

Maid: “Erika? I’ve brought you some food…” Said the maid before she dropped the food and ran out of the room.

Maid: “Victoria!” Said the maid hurriedly after rushing to the living room.

Victoria: “Yes, what is it? Did Erika not like the soup, Aina?” I say while looking at Aina who came rushing into the living room where I was having tea with Alice.

Aina: “She wasn’t in the room when I went into it…” Aina said with a sad tone.

Alice: “It’s okay Aina, Erika just left to a different dimension to complete tasks.” She said calmly before taking a sip of her tea.

Victoria: “You owe me a favor now Alice. I told you that she would immediately leave to complete tasks.” I proudly say.

Aina: “But… Didn’t she just wake up less than an hour ago? What if she gets hurt or worse, dies…” Aina dejectedly says.

Victoria: “She made a task pact with me. I can see her current health and status at all times. If she is about to die, I’ll just rush over to whatever dimension she is in and save her.” I said confidently.

Aina: “Won’t you incur a penalty for doing that?” Aina said with a nervous tone.

Victoria: “I don’t care about the penalty at all, especially if I incur it saving someone I love.” I said with a bright smile.

Aina: “I see…” Aina says with a slightly confused expression.

Victoria: “Please tidy up her room so that she can return to a sparkly clean room. I know that you enjoy cleaning after all.” I say after patting Aina on the head.

After I indulged in patting Aina’s cute little head for a few minutes, she left and went back to Erika’s room to clean it. Though she still had a confused look on her face.

Alice: “Aina was confused because you said that you loved Erika.” Alice said with a laugh.

Victoria: “Oh? And how is that confusing?” I say with a pout.

Alice: “As far as the rest of your harem is aware, you don’t have a lover named Erika. Although you like to pamper girls, it’s unlike you to pamper a girl that you've just met.” Alice said in a serious tone.

Victoria: “True.” I say with a shrug.

Alice: “Lana died protecting the girls in your harem, and you reward her in death by giving her body to a different person?” Alice said with a questioning tone.

Victoria: “The chance of whether or not Lana’s soul would have returned to her body was pretty low. In fact, that new soul that is in her body now is absolutely lucky.” I say before taking a sip of my tea.

Alice: “I know. The ritual you performed could have easily just failed and turned her soul to shreds instead. But don’t you think that giving her a new name and pretending that you are lovers is going a little too far?” Alice said with a tone a parent would take on when they were going to scold a bad child.

Victoria: “It’s not like any problems will occur. Apart from her height, Erika doesn’t look like Lana anymore. None of my lovers will recognize her at all. As for giving her a name without her input, yeah that was pretty messed up but, I can’t change that anymore. Erika seemed to be fine with the name either way, luckily.” I say in a remorseful tone.

Alice: “Erika kept Lana’s last name as well. Did you give Erika Lana's last name?” Alice said with one of her hands on her chin.

Victoria: “No. I only gave her the name Erika. Maybe it’s just a holdover from Lana?” I say with one of my hands on my chin as well.

Alice: “I see… I know that Lana meant a lot to you, just like all of your other lovers do. It’s understandable that you would be upset that Erika didn’t have the Demon Goddesses Lover title.” Alice said after getting up from her seat and rubbing my head.

Victoria: “If she did, then there was at least a small chance that Lana’s soul was still there. If only a small bit of it.” I say with a sigh.

Alice: “Some of Lana’s soul might be still in Erika’s soul. Even we Creators don’t fully understand the limits of titles.” Alice said to console me.

Victoria: “That idea sounds nice but, I don’t want to hold out hope for that, just to be disappointed in the end.” I say with another sigh.

Alice: “That so? Anyway, what do you think about Erika?” Alice said after seating back down in her seat.

Victoria: “Her being able to see her status was a surprise. Her being able to use an inventory was even more surprising. The most surprising thing was that she could make a pact with me.” I say after eating a cookie from the various sweets spread on the table.

Alice: “I know. I did lie to her about her being able to use an inventory. Even still, she was able to do so. In your harem, only your wives are able to see their status but, only one of them can use a spatial inventory.” Alice says while doing a thinking pose.

Victoria: “So far Erika is three for three. The only downside is that she isn’t my lover.” I say with a sly smile.

Alice: “Yet.” Alice says with a sigh.

Victoria: “Yet, indeed.” I say with a laugh.

Alice: “If I had one piece of gold for every time you’ve said something along those lines, I would be even richer than I already am.” Alice said with a laugh.

Victoria: “That’s true. I just hope that Erika can handle the dimension that she went to…” I say with a concerned tone.

Alice: “She should be fine. Her soul was quite powerful for having such low Stat Ranks. She must have been quite the soldier in her past life.” Alice said before eating a cookie.

Victoria: “That so? Then she should be fine.” I say with a smile.

*Erika’s POV*

Erika: “Dead Globe, huh? It surely lives up to its name.” I say with a sigh.

I don’t exactly know what year this dimension takes place in but, going by the cars it should be around the 2000s… Ah, scratch that. I took a look at the cars around me in more detail, and the highest make year of them is a make and model year of 2018. After I got bored with looking at the cars so I looked around more.

So far no zombies in sight but, I did find a newspaper that had the year 2018 on it. I do doubt that it’s actually 2018 in this dimension. This city that I am in currently is in the process of plants growing everywhere. Maybe it’s 2026 or some advanced year like that…

Maybe it’s because I’ve been sneaking around and not making any noise at all but, even after two hours of walking around, I haven’t seen a zombie or person at all. All I’ve seen are ruins, plants, and human bones.

Was I too late or something? No, none of the tasks I need to complete have been marked as failed. Speaking of tasks, let me look at them again.

Erika: “Display current tasks. Omit rank, rewards, and difficulty.” I say in a whisper.

*Ding!*

Available Main Tasks:

(1) Kill five Saviors.

(2) Kill all Saviors.

(3) Find a cure for the Undead virus.

(4) Kill all Undead.

(5) Save Planet.

Available Side Tasks:

(1) Kill 5 Undead.

(2) Kill 15 Undead.

(3) Kill 50 Undead.

(4) Kill 100 Undead.

(5) Get an Undead to kill a Savior.

(6) Get a Savior to kill another Savior.

Erika: “So… I have 11 tasks to do.” I say with another sigh.

Of course, I could just leave with the bare minimum done which is just 1 Main Task or 3 Side Tasks but, I get far more benefits for doing them all. Besides, finishing each task would probably get me on Victoria’s good side.

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Problem is, how the hell am I supposed to complete even one task when I haven’t seen anything let alone doing them all…

The skyscrapers and other rotting and crumbling buildings are quite the sight to behold. Maybe there is something wrong with my brain but, I think that there is still a beauty to this world, even though it is destroyed.

It’s been six hours, the sun is setting. I decided to take refuge in a small store, that seems to be woman's clothing store. Surprisingly, the doors weren’t broken at all.

The only bad thing about them is that they are glass and despite being a little dirty, you can still see through them. With me being able to be seen through them, I shouldn't stay here long.

After locking the doors, I looked around the store. Lots of clothes still here… I guess everything happened too fast for people to consider looting a clothing store.

I found a mirror after looking around. I used a red tank top to clean off the dust from it and finally I got a look at what my appearance is. Everything I said before was correct.

The only thing that is new information is about my eyes. Having heterochromatic eyes is quite the unique trait but even so, just like Victoria my eyes are different colors.

Specifically, my left eye is a deep red while my right eye is a deep green. With this combination, I can cosplay as 70% of a traffic light… Well, at least my eyes are pretty. My overall appearance is that of a young beauty. Honestly, my cold disposition really clashes with how my new body looks…

As I stare at the mirror ogling my own body, I think about my personality. Maybe I should try to change it. New life and all that. Otherwise, I’ll probably end up with the Ice Queen title… On a side note, am I a narcissist? I just can’t help but marvel at my own body. I’m just so damn cute… I’m even smiling? I can’t remember one time in my last life that I had smiled…

Erika: “Maybe I should stop looking in the mirror for now...” I say with a blushed face.

I checked the doors to make sure they were locked. There wasn’t really anything in this store that I could use to block them, unfortunately. I also checked if there were any other exits and or entrances.

There are a lot of stores in the same building as this store. My location is pretty much just a straight path with stores on the left and right.

I didn’t see any obvious exits so, I went to the back of the store. There were four storage rooms and one room that was the main office. The last room that I checked had a ladder in it. It seems to go up to the roof of this skyscraper. This place isn’t really the best base of operations but, I’ll have to make do with it.

Erika: “I’m tired from walking around all day to no avail.” I say after yawning.

Gathering some clothes together, I made a makeshift bed and used the bigger clothes as a blanket. I thought that I was pretty smart doing this but, I had a feeling that they may be emergency supplies in this store and I was right.

There was a sleeping bag in the utility closet as well as a pillow… Once again I have wasted my time today. Whatever, I need to get some sleep before I give myself a stress heart attack.

*Four hours later.*

Erika: “What’s that sound?” I say after waking up.

I had set up my bed in the office of the clothing store. I was having a decent sleep since as a soldier, I slept in far worse conditions. In comparison, this sleeping arrangement was luxurious.

My good sleep was interrupted by the sound of rapid banging on what I assume is the front door to this place. Either it’s a person or a zombie. I’m betting on it being a zombie since the sun has long since set. I doubt that a person would move around in this darkness with the threat of zombies around.

Erika: “No use just worrying about it. I have to check out what made and continues to make that noise.” I say after stretching my body after I got up and out from my sleeping bag.

Walking through the small hall of this clothing store, I opened the door of the back rooms and saw a horrible sight. As well as a horrible smell…

There were zombies blocking the windows and doors. It looked like the entire shopping center was filled with zombies. There must have been thousands of them…

Erika: “Will the door and windows hold with all of them pressing up against the glass?” I say without a hint of certainty.

There were already cracks forming on the door and windows. Any minute from now I will be swarmed. These aren’t the slow moving easy to deal with zombies either. They’re more like raging fast moving animals.

The banging sound was from them hitting the glass with their fists. Hearing their howls and gargles, that they continuously made was truly unnerving.

Even so, I didn’t freak out. Freaking out would only leave me open to making a mistake of some kind. I can’t risk getting bit by a zombie. I have no idea if I am immune to the virus as a benefit of being a Dark Savior. I really should have stayed back at Victoria's longer and gotten more information from her...

I calmly walked back to the employee only area of the store and locked the door behind me. My best bet is to climb the ladder up to the roof. And that is what I did. This building had about 50 floors so, it took me 10 minutes to climb up the ladder fully.

I didn’t bring my sleeping bag or the other emergency supplies. There was no way to know how long the door and windows could hold out, so I wasn’t risking it. As such I climbed up the ladder.

The night was still dark and the sun was long off. Although it was dark, I could still make out some things such as buildings, cars, and most importantly, zombies.

Erika: “I got my work cut out for me, it seems.” I say with my first sigh of the day, or night in this case.

This city was covered in zombies. Hundreds, thousands no… There might as well be millions of them… Do they not like the sunlight? That must be why I didn’t find any of them during the day. They must live underground. Maybe in a subway or something.

No sane human would camp out in a city filled with zombies like this, which is why I couldn’t find a single living soul around. Going by the newspaper that I read yesterday, this should be America and the state I’m in is California. I’d wager that this city is probably LA.

The population of America in 2018 was over 326 million. Assuming that 99% of them became zombies, that’s 322,740,000 zombies that I have to kill in America alone… Well, I’ll figure that problem out when I get to it. Right now there is another problem that I have to deal with. One that really confuses me to no end. That being, did I lose my intelligence?

Why I say this is quite simple, I’ve made many mistakes these past two days. Mistakes I would have normally never made. For example, even though I was in a building with various different types of clothing, I was too entranced with my own body and I didn’t think to change out of this almost see through night gown.

How am I supposed to kill zombies and maybe even people while wearing something like this? It offers me no protection and other people would probably think that I’m some kind of apocalyptic pervert…

Erika: “System, explain my INT stat to me please.” I say to no one after I sat down on the roof of this building.

*Ding!*

System: “INT is your ability to think through things as well as your grasp on concepts.”

The System, as it called itself, talked to me through text on the transparent screen in front of me. Now that I think about it, rather than a fantasy like thing, it feels more like a sci-fi thing.

I wonder why that I thought the situation that I find myself in is fantasy. At least to me, it's very real. Though the System does feel out of place regardless of what world that I am in.

Erika: “Are there any problems with my INT?” I say in a monotone voice.

System: “Yes. As you might have guessed. Due to the circumstances of your soul, your original INT stat rank is conflicting with your current Rank.”

Erika: “How is it conflicting?” I say with a head tilt.

System: “From my general understanding of your soul, your original INT stat rank was at least S. Most humans tend to have all of their stat ranks at null or rarely F rank. From my viewpoint, your INT stat is flipping between an Error Rank and F rank.”

Erika: “That’s really annoying. How would I go about fixing it?” I say with a sigh.

System: “Answer, rank up your INT Stat.”

Erika: “Sounds easy enough, thanks.” I say before flicking away the screen in front of me.

As much as I detest having to funnel my Stat Points into my INT, unless I want to flip flop between an idiot and my standard intelligence, I have to at least get it to S rank. I've been lucky so far that I haven't made a fatal mistake... I should make increasing the rank of my INT a high priority.

I heard the sound of glass and wood breaking from the entrance of the ladder. They must have broken into the clothing store. I just hope that they can’t climb…

My fears were quickly made real as after I opened up the hatch that is above the ladder, I could see several zombies in the small ladder room. They were taking turns climbing up the ladder… or not.

They were constantly fighting each other so it was rare for one of them to make any progress on the ladder. At least they aren’t a part of a hive mind… I wasn’t going to take a chance and just hope that they couldn’t stop fighting and couldn’t climb up the ladder so, I moved a bunch of boxes and storage crates as well as any other random object, and put them on top of the hatch. There was no lock on the hatch so this was my best bet.

Erika: “This is going to be a long and sleepless night…” I say after sitting down on the roof of the building once again.

It took six hours for the sun to come out. The banging on the hatch didn’t stop until 45 minutes before the sun was up. I had no idea whether or not they had all left so, I took out the steel dagger from my inventory.

Once again did I realize my stupidity. Why didn’t I just put those supplies and my sleeping bag in my inventory? I could use the excuse that I didn’t have the time but, the thought of using it never crossed my mind until now…

With the light of the sun giving me confidence, I dismantled my makeshift barricade and opened the hatch once more. There were no zombies in sight. The door to the ladder room was smashed in so, I made sure not to make any sound while climbing down the ladder. Once down, I scanned through the building once more. No zombies at the entrance or any of the other rooms but, there was one in the office.

It was just standing or rather slightly shambling trying to remain upright while looking at a wall. Is this how they sleep during the day? There was only one, it must have gotten separated from the main pack. Rather than mindless drones, they act more like aggressive animals.

I slowly and quietly walked to the zombie. I then used my dagger to pierce his skull. Normally, I would grab someone by their neck with one of my arms before stabbing them but, I didn't want to get bitten by the zombie. That was all it took to kill it. Before I left the office, I put the sleeping bag and the emergency supplies in my inventory. I made sure to berate myself for my own stupidity while doing so.

I did say there was only one left but after leaving the office I notice that a zombie was in the room with the ladder. The zombie only had half of its body left. Just the upper torso and the head.

I assumed it was just a corpse but, looks like even though it’s missing half of its body, it can still be alive. Alive in some sense… It must have smelled the blood from my dagger and woken up. I just left it there since it couldn’t really move. Once I was a few meters away from the remaining zombie, I heard a sound in my head.

*Ding!*

Monster killed!

The monster, Zombie, dropped no rewards.

Another screen appeared before me with those words on it before I quickly dismissed it. I guess that getting drops is pretty rare. I don’t really care since, it really feels nice to be finally able to use my skills as a soldier after so long. I was honestly beginning to think that I’d become useless.

The rest of the store was pretty damaged. The entire front entrance was completely broken with shards of glass everywhere. I really need to get the hell out of this city. I don’t know if I am lucky enough to survive another night here. I mean, my luck Stat is at F…

I looked around the clothes store for a new outfit to wear. I settled on a casual women’s business suit. I also took a few more sets of casual clothes and put them in my inventory. I have 6 slots left. Luckily, the inventory counts each clothes set as one item. I also used the tank top from earlier to wipe the blood off of my knife.

There were lingerie sets in this store but, none of them could compare to the quality of the ones that Victoria gave me. Both the nightgown and the lingerie were of luxurious quality.

They even had a special feature where they would clean themselves so, I just kept the lingerie on and didn’t bother to get another set. With my new, no longer risqué clothes and weapon in hand, I set off to hopefully make it out of this city before the night falls again…