After she used that power, Alicia feels her body turn weak as if she has run for several hours straight. Even her newly strengthened body doesn't help with the exhaustion she feels.

The surrounding people slowly stood up after stumbling backward due to the pushing force Alicia released before.

Even Edward who suggested it is shocked once he saw Alicia could indeed release a supernatural power. "Holy shiet, it worked!"

Right after he cursed, Berth reprimanded him. "Watch your words. You're a teacher and an example for the students here."

After the small banter, everyone started to guess Alicia's newly gained supernatural abilities while she sat on the floor with exhaustion. As she is still dead tired, Alicia merely listens to them. Soon, they've concluded that her ability should be either an ability related to wind, a telekinetic ability, forcefield like ability, or an ability related to gravity.

It is mainly because when she took a massive dum- *ahem* pushed her force outward, the form it took is a repelling force which pushed everyone away.

Within a short time, everyone can only place those few abilities as their guess. As for the exact ability, it needs to be slowly experimented once Alicia regains her energy. At that time, they can slowly eliminate the wrong guesses.

"Now then, it is time to ask the most important thing." Edward pushed his glasses as he said. His words were continued by the student council president who pushed his glasses too. "Miss Alicia, do you have a guess on how you gained that power?"

Everyone also stared at Alicia who had barely regained her energy and slowly stood up.

She answered their question and said, "Yesterday, I found a small bite mark on my ankle. It must have been caused by the frog I met in the biology lab before. I guess the ability I gained should be related to that."

The student council president asked. "So, when someone is bitten by the zombified animals they will awaken a supernatural power instead of being zombified? Should we try it?"

Edward shook his head. "It's too dangerous. Perhaps the whole getting bitten is just a coincidence, and Alicia hasn't turned into a zombie because she suddenly awakened. Instead of being awakened because she got bit by a zombie frog."

They continued to chat about it for a few dozen minutes. After the excitement from someone awakening a supernatural power went away, everyone started to plan for the future.

Berth said, "Although awakening supernatural powers is amazing and all. But we still need to care about several more important things. Currently, the amount of food inside the school is only enough for everyone to eat for another three days. Mainly because there are some students who secretly left, which decreased the burden on our food storage."

One of the teachers called Renald whispered in a soft voice. "Should we just leave most of the students? With only a few of us combining our forces, we should have a higher chance to survive."

During the discussion before, Renald rarely spoke. But, the moment he spoke, everyone was a bit surprised by his words. Even Alicia almost stumbled while trying to stand up.

The student council president is the first one to disagree, which is immediately followed by Berth who shook her head. "I disagree. Although I indeed wanna leave the school grounds and gather with my husband, I'll at least try to save as many students as I can. Otherwise, it will leave a bad taste in my mouth. The students will be hard pressed to survive without us."

With Berth's mention of her family, it's like a dam suddenly burst open as the others followed suit.

Glenn said while sighing. "Although I also wish to gather with my parents. I knew the chance they haven't turned into a zombie already is quite low. Based on the data we have gathered, the people who initially turned into a zombie when the crimson meteor fell are either old or sick. My parents are already quite old."

Lisa glared at Glenn before her eyes turned red as she cried. From the words that occasionally left her mouth, it seems she has panicked because her son should still be inside his elementary school when the zombies first appear. On her side, Berth tried to calm her down.

Finally, Edward spoke. "Even if we leave, the city is most likely much more dangerous compared to the school. Just like Glenn said, the ones who turned into zombies are those weak or sick people. Even inside the school where most of the people are teenagers or young adults, almost a quarter of us have been wiped out. Furthermore, inside the school ground, even if there are others awake like Alicia who tried to fight us for things like food, they will think twice upon seeing the amount of people inside."

"Understandable." Renald nodded at Edward's analysis. "Then, we'll need to form a group to forage for food outside. As an apology for suggesting that idea, let me join the first group that will go out to forage for food."

Alicia must say she is in awe at Renald's ability to save the situation. Although his initial suggestion to leave the students is logical, from how the others greatly reacted to that idea, he immediately went back down and apologized. Furthermore, he coupled that apologies with a real act by willing to join the foraging party.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

She could see the student council president, Berth, and the other's face softened with Renald's apology.

Everyone continued to discuss for another dozen minutes until a plan was finally created.

Berth spoke. "Alright then, we'll separate into three groups. The first one will go and look for food, the second team will go and imprison the zombies inside the school, and the third team will calm down the students and control the situation."

After some thought, Alicia decided to join the team that went out to forage too. "Then, I'll join the team that went outside. I've awakened my superpower. With me around, the average power of the team that went outside will be stronger.

Berth once again said. "As for Lisa and I, we will be the one to keep the students calm. We'll also help gather suitable people to bring the foods that the first team found. After all, the food needed to feed so many people will be quite considerable in terms of size."

Edward also said. "I'll be going with Renald, Alicia, and several other students in a group of fifteen to forage for food outside. As for Glenn and the others, please clean the school ground from zombies."

Everyone followed the grouping and started their daily life in a zombie apocalypse.

***

Soon, It's been a month since the first zombie appeared.

Except for Alicia, twelve other people have awakened. Four of them are teachers while the other eight are students from varying grades. Five of those students are the one who often went to forage for food outside with Alicia, which also included the student council president. It seems killing zombies will increase the chance of someone to awaken.

By gritting their teeth and repeating what Alicia has done before, those people could release fire, water, cause surrounding metals to tremor, create a small dust storm, and create a sort of healing area that pushes plant growth and living creature's recovery. Of course, just like her, those people immediately plopped down to the ground after activating their ability.

After some discussion, everyone concluded those abilities should be related to the five elements of fire, water, earth, wood, and metal. Everyone has also finally concluded Alicia's power as a sort of telekinetic ability, which is the only kind among the people who has awakened.

The people who have awakened also gained increased physical ability, with those who can control different elements obtaining different enhancements.

The one capable of summoning fire got an enhancement in strength; those that can summon water gained increased flexibility and some strength; those awakened who the power to control metal gained enhancement in defense; the one capable of causing a small dust storm gained enhancement in strength and defense; while those that can push plant growth gained increased flexibility, recovery, and some attack power.

As for Alicia, her enhancement can be said to be an overall one. Of course as it increases every stat, the increases aren't as considerable as those with min maxed stats. She is basically a jack of all trades in terms of physical enhancement.

She seems to be getting sidetracked. The last month has been frickin difficult.

Eleven people have been zombified or killed while they went outside to forage for food in the city. Just like what everyone guessed, the city is much more dangerous than inside the school. Compared to the school where more than half people survived, the city's casualties are most likely several times higher.

This month, she has only met with less than a hundred people from outside the school.

Alicia's group that went to look for food has also taken every food from the school's surrounding area. Nowadays, everyone must go slightly further to seek for food.

Not only that, the internet and electricity finally crashed a few days ago. It also caused the situation inside the school ground to start turning chaotic. There are more and more students who secretly left the school grounds to look for their family members. Many students have also had a panic attack and caused further disorder.

Food has also become a problem once more. The group that went out to forage merely consisted of 15 people. Meanwhile, even after some students secretly left the school grounds, there are still almost 200 people inside. To be honest, Alicia started to doubt whether everyone inside the school ground could survive for much longer.

Nowadays she occasionally thinks of Renald's suggestion before.

Luckily not everything went pessimistic. After one month, everyone has concluded several things in regard to those zombies.

First, the people who got turned into zombie-like creatures when the crimson meteor fell are those who are too old like the principal, too tired like some middle aged teachers, or sick just like some students who forcefully entered school even though they're ill. Which means, hospitals and retirement homes have turned into a hellhole.

Second, the zombification seems to be irreversible as those zombies kept in the classroom don't show any sign of returning to their senses even after all this time. Some of them have even rotted.

Everyone decided to destroy those zombies who had rotted extremely badly. After all, when their eyes have started to fall and some brain liquid seeped through their orifice. Even if a medicine that can revert zombification is created, they most likely won't be able to survive.

Third, Zombie's weaknesses are their brains. To be exact, it is a certain specific part of their brain which slightly differs from one zombie to another. That seriously sounds cliched, but reality is just that weird.

Lastly, zombies who haven't eaten or infected any other living creature are only as strong as their initial body or even weaker. Meanwhile, those who have infected or eaten some humans will be incredibly strong.

The strongest zombie Alicia has ever met is almost as strong as an awakened person like her. She meets that zombie in a food street, which has turned into hell on earth.

***

Today too, everyone from the first group will be leaving to look for food.

While Alicia's group walked towards a small restaurant and going to check their food storage, she saw a flashing light appear in front of her.

[Ding! Host detected. Binding the /#?%√! System.]

[First mission: Collect the system's core.

Reward: Activate system function.

Punishment: Losing the system.

Time limit: 1 day.]