The zombie didn't sprint at him like the other ones did. If it had, Clay would already be dead. It moved slowly, dragging one foot behind the other and reaching out with its arms in a way that more resembled the sort of zombies most would think of.
It was a man wearing a hard hat and a reflective vest. Some sort of blue collar worker, it looked like. The noise that drew his attention had been its toolbelt falling to the ground from its waist, the metallic instruments it held clanging against each other. It caught on one of his ankles and was dragged along for a few steps more.
Then it tripped, falling face-first. The reason was obvious: one of its feet had been cut off at the ankle, making it much harder to walk when it insisted on putting its weight on a bloody, rotten stump. Between that and the toolbelt at its feet (or foot), it was a wonder it had been able to make as many steps as it did.
It crawled a few feet and finally left its toolbelt behind. Its body was blocking his view now, but Clay definitely saw a hammer among the belt’s tools.
However, there was no means for him to reach it at the moment, and even the effort he put into sitting up felt like a little too much for him. Clay's body was tired and worn down, but it wasn’t as if it had become useless.
As if realizing the situation called for a little more verticality, the zombie also started picking itself up while continuing to move forward.
Clay was faster in standing up, but was too scared of getting close to the zombie to do anything with the advantage. Wouldn't he get infected if this thing bit him? It was best not to risk it if he didn't have a weapon…
He also wasn't confident about circling around to retrieve the hammer. Even if he had it, he'd have to get close in order to bash its head in. Movies and TV shows made it look so easy once you had any sort of weapon, but an average person like him couldn't see himself suddenly getting a surge of confidence once he had something weighty in his hand. Melee range with a zombie was dangerous.
But there weren’t many options; the best he could do was minimize the chances of being bitten. An idea popped into his head quickly enough.
Slowly, like he was trying not to let the brainless monster catch on to what he was doing, Clay allowed the bedsheet draped on his shoulder to fall into his hand. He flapped it against the air a few times to make sure it was properly unfurled and took two steps back.
It would be obvious when it tried to lunge. Clay had the upper hand.
It took a lot of effort getting here. He wasn't going to get kicked out by someone who only had one foot to kick with.
The thing prepared to lunge, taking a particularly determined step that put more weight than usual on its stump. That's when Clay threw the sheet onto its head at the same time, covering its face and keeping it from being able to see him as he used a spurt of energy to duck to the side and let it run forward at where he had been standing. It clawed at empty space, ripping the sheet away from its head in doing so.
It wasn't given the moment it needed to get its bearings and attack him again. Clay ran up behind it and drove his foot as hard as he could into its back. Unable to catch itself or regain its balance, it was sent flailing over the edge and off the rooftop to the cold concrete below. He turned away to keep from seeing the aftermath.
This was the power of someone with both feet firmly attached.
After whipping his head around to make sure there wouldn't be any more unexpected surprises, he finally sank back into a sitting position on the ground.
>+10 XP
What the hell was that?
Clay had thought he'd been imagining things when he heard it earlier, but most of his focus was on the zombies then. There was no mistaking it this time.
Actually, now that he had a moment to think…
How did he even end up in this city?
The last thing he remembered before all this was sitting at his desk and wasting time on his computer.
Wait, no. That wasn't exactly true. There was something else tugging at the edge of his mind, something more. Vague recollections of important context. It refused to be remembered, like a half-forgotten dream. Pretty much all of it had vanished in the commotion of that harrowing chase, but he hadn’t been left with nothing. Two words.
He spoke real, coherent words for the first time since his arrival.
"Open window."
It appeared. A red-hued, slightly translucent window hung in the air a few feet in front of him. It was exactly like something out of one of those "I Died In a Motorcycle Accident and Now I'm a Motorcycle in Another World"-type webcomics. It had words on it, but it went through vague statements so fast that he could barely read before it moved on to the next one.
>FIRST TIME OPENING OF KANFISK WINDOW
>MEASURING [TRAVELER] APTITUDE
>RANK ESTABLISHED
>FINISHING SETUP
>ERROR - MODIFIED SYSTEM DETECTED
>ATTEMPTING AUTOMATIC SYSTEM FIX
>PERMISSIONS DENIED
>VERIFICATION STATUS OF TRAVELER PENDING
>[TRAVELER] VERIFIED! WORLDS BEYOND THIS ONE AWAIT!
>THE LOMION SYSTEM WELCOMES YOU, (Clay)
The fact he saw those first few messages had probably been incidental. It only lingered on the welcome message a few seconds longer before the window expanded in size to accommodate a slew of new content.
---------------------------------------------------------
You are Clay
HEALTH: 0/0 | STAMINA: 0/0
---
LEVEL: 1/10 | EXP: 20/1000
|
SKILLS: 0/1
---
STAT POINTS: 5/5
|
SKILL POINTS: 5/5
---
BODY -
Strength: 0 | Speed: 0 | Resilience: 0 | 🔒
MIND -
🔒 | 🔒 | 🔒 | 🔒
HEART -
🔒 | 🔒 | 🔒 | CIDURAC
---
-SKILLS-
CURRENT WORLD: Dead and Dying
OBJECTIVE: Survive
TIME REMAINING: ???
---------------------------------------------------------
Wait, was this stuff actually real? Was he some kind of video game character now?
There was a lazy, slightly bewildered smile on his face as he looked over his 'stats'. It was probably best if he just skipped to the part where he accepts this reality and does his best to take advantage, lest this world be the one to take advantage of his skepticism and make an example out of him. This wasn't a dream or a hallucination, at least as far as he could tell. It was in his interest to keep it cool and keep an open mind about these impossible windows.
Hmm…
Well, the first thing that jumped out at him was the fact that he had no health. No stamina either, for that matter. Looked like it was a little different to him having just run out, too. He apparently had 0 maximum on those stats to begin with.
0 health logically meant death, so maybe it was meant to be more of a buffer between him and actual lethality? If his thinking was right there, it would definitely be useful to get those numbers up. Clay gave the Health stat an experimental poke.
A smaller window popped up within, giving him more information.
>HEALTH: Resilience x ???
Was this meant to be helpful?
Okay. He recognized Resilience as one of his stats, at least. Did this mean his Health had something to do with one of the stats he couldn't see?
It probably had something to do with the small assortment of Stat Points he possessed. He tapped the Stat Points box in the same way he'd done his Health.
>STAT POINTS (StP): Spent on upgrading or acquiring new Stats - You will gain 2 Stat Points per Level
Now he was beyond interested. If putting these points into something like his Strength could actually make him stronger, then this whole zombie apocalypse thing would become so much more palatable. On the other hand, it was more of a priority to make himself survivable. Being able to take hits or stay on the run faster without falling over in a sweaty heap became pressing after he had to experience what it would be like in this world with his physique as it was.
Figure out things like Health and Stamina first - and if his hunch was right…
Clay tapped his finger against the lock symbol underneath his Resilience stat.
>Spend 1 Stat Point to unlock a mystery Body stat?
>Yes
His choice was followed by the lock dramatically opening, accompanied by an equally showy clicking sound.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
>ENDURANCE: Longevity of the body
Clay swiped the sub-window away and returned his attention to the Health stat.
>HEALTH: Resilience x Endurance
Ah-ha! So his Health would be decided by multiplying his Resilience stat by his Endurance stat. It was tempting to just go ahead and make both stats a little more substantial, given both of them being at 0 meant he still had nothing, but he thought he should learn more about the system before rushing into anything. This was good information…Oh, what about his Stamina?
>STAMINA: Endurance x Strength
Still 0 as well, but this was also good to know.
There was also a passing thought of spending more points on unlocking the other hidden stats, but he already didn't have that many left to waste. Maybe some other time…
Getting more information about his objective and the charged listing of his 'Current World' would have been nice, but pressing them didn't yield any enlightening sub-windows. It was disappointing, but he would have to just ignore his lingering questions about them for now and move on.
Skill Points, it was!
>SKILL POINTS (SkP): Spent on upgrading or acquiring new Skills - You will gain 2 Skill Points per Level
>Would you like to open the Skill Shop?
Uh, yeah?
Then he was bombarded. A series of smaller, card-shaped windows absorbed his view.
---------------------------------------------------------
[SKILL STORE]
[IMMUNITY] (1SkP) - Passive
Some people can shrug off the influence of dark forces on their biology. Now 'some people' includes you!
You are immune to the (Plague) of [Dead and Dying]. You also gain a 20% resistance against all other forms of disease and infection.
Upgrading this Skill makes you more resistant to diseases of all kinds.
[A GOOD FEELING] (1 SkP) - Active
In times like these, it’s important for people to stay positive.
You gain a 5% bonus to ??? when attempting to do so. Any allies that can hear you gain a bonus equal to half of your own.
Upgrading this Skill increases your bonus.
[VEHICULAR FEEL] (1 SkP) - Passive
Can't drive if you don't know how.
You are (Intermediate) with any vehicle you drive.
Upgrading this Skill increases your level of competency
[SWEEP AND CLEAN] (2 SkP) - Passive
It is difficult to survive on your own, especially in times like these.
You gain 20% bonus in ??? when working with a group, though only in respect to that group.
Upgrading this Skill increases your bonus.
[WHAT RECOIL?] (2 SkP) - Passive
It can be hard to keep those guns when they buck around like that, right? Even if you're a stronger sort and have no problem with recoil in normal situations, you can't get very creative or one-hand higher-caliber weapons, right?
You experience 10% less recoil when using mundane weapons.
Upgrading this Skill increases the amount of recoil it reduces.
[SCORE!] (2 SkP) - Passive
Someone up there really likes you.
Gain a 5% bonus to Luck. Gain a further 10% when searching areas for supplies.
Upgrading this Skill increases your bonus.
[NICE SHOOTING] (3 SkP) - Passive
If you want to survive in this world, you’re gonna need a lot more than just your fists. Weaponry, after all, is the great equalizer, especially guns.
You are (Intermediate) with any mundane firearm you pick up.
Upgrading this Skill increases your level of competency.
[SOUND OF SILENCE] (3 SkP) - Active
How many times have people in this world died because they carelessly made just a little too much noise?
You have the ability to silence any sound in your line of sight, which is then saved up and deployed at your leisure.
You can store up to (2) sounds at a time. You must empty a sound slot by deploying it in order to store up a new sound.
Upgrading this Skill increases the amount of sounds you can store.
[TAGGING] (3 SkP) - Active
Losing track of people in a world like this is all too easy. Try not to do that.
By touch, you can tag entities with invisible markers. You can feel the general direction of those you've tagged.
You can tag (1) entities at a time.
Upgrading this Skill increases its usefulness and increases the number of entities you may tag.
[STRANGE BODY] (4 SkP) - Passive
A human with an ability that makes more sense for a zombie would be a curious thing. Even more curious is that you possess an ability that no zombie in this world does!
The connections of your form have grown stronger. You can move your body parts and sense things through them even if they are disconnected from the greater whole of your body.
Upgrading this Skill increases its usefulness.
---------------------------------------------------------
There was a lot going on here…
Clay took his time going through each Skill in order, soon forgetting the throbbing of his body in favor of putting his focus on the variety of new possibilities that had just opened up. With the amount of Skill Points he’d started with, he could buy any one of these! He could even buy more than one if he decided to go for the cheaper options.
The only problem was that some of those cheaper options, save for [Immunity], started off weak. He was meant to invest more points into them in order to bring out their full potential, so spreading himself too thin by splurging on the lower cost Skills would just be a waste. Clay reasoned that his best option was to make the most out of one or two Skills and work his way up to buying other ones later.
Aptly, the strangest one was the [Strange Body] Skill. It was expensive enough that he'd have thought it would be incredibly useful…but didn't it just suck? It didn't say anything about keeping him from bleeding out or having the option of popping them back on. The only thing it would be good for was as an incidental contingency in the event he lost a part of his body. Even then, there's no way something like an amputated arm would last long in a world full of flesh-hungry ghouls.
[Strange Body] was an easy write-off. The part about upgrading it increasing its usefulness had at least caught his attention, though.
The Skills that boosted stats he hadn't unlocked yet were a little annoying, but they also narrowed down his choices. There was no reason to spend Skill Points on something that he couldn't even use, especially when he wasn't interested in blowing the rest of his Stat Points on locked stats.
[A Good Feeling], [Sweep and Clean], and [Score!] were out.
[Tagging] requiring physical contact hampered its usefulness enough that he didn't feel the need to invest in it right now. Out.
Half of them were pushed out of his mind for now in only a few seconds of contemplation, but he wasn't done yet.
[Vehicular Feel] was out. Clay hadn't gotten his license, but he knew enough about driving to say that he could skip over this one for now. Maybe if he was expecting to get into a chase or needed to parallel park.
[What Recoil?] would definitely be useful. However, Clay had never even held a gun before; if he were going to buy it, it would have to be in conjunction with [Nice Shooting]. This was one to come back to.
That only left [Immunity], [Nice Shooting], and [Sound of Silence]. Speaking honestly, he didn't think he could go wrong with any of these.
[Immunity] instantly making him immune to the zombie virus was enough to justify the purchase by itself, even if he never ended up putting more points into it later. Looking at the Skill with an analytical eye suddenly made him feel vulnerable: if he'd been bitten before he had a chance to acquire it…wouldn't that have been the end for him? Maybe even just being scratched by their filthy fingernails would have been enough to doom him.
It was a must-buy.
>Would you like to spend 1 Skill Point to purchase [Immunity]?
>Yes
>You have acquired the Skill [Immunity - LV 1]!
If increasing survivability was the aim, then being immune to zombification was a big win. Now the only thing left to do was choose between [Nice Shooting] and [Sound of Silence].
Actually, was it wise to spend all of his points right this minute?
He only started out with 5 of each, and he'd only get 2 more every time he leveled up. With the amount of XP received from killing two zombies, leveling up wasn't going to be easy.
But that was why he needed another Skill! Being immune to the virus would keep him from turning into one of them, but it wouldn't do much against being ripped apart. Increasing his aptitude with guns at least made it so he wouldn't be useless once he found one.
Ah, no, maybe that was the incorrect way to look at it.
Clay was absorbed in thought. When was the last time his mind had been so clear?
Being decent with guns wouldn't mean anything if he couldn't survive long enough to find one. On top of that, any gun he found would be useless once it ran out of ammo.
His eyes drifted towards the [Sound of Silence] card.
This one would increase his options, always be available, and provide options for him to avoid combat. That last part was the most important to a coward like Clay. The idea of a rugged badass powering his way through the zombie apocalypse had its appeal, but that wasn't him. The window said all he had to do was survive, a gaming objective cliché that wasn't lost on him, but something he supposed would be made easier if he had this Skill. A large part of his previous ordeal had been caused by attracting the horde with loud sounds, after all.
This was the right choice.
Clay tapped [Sound of Silence].
>DENIED! User may not exceed maximum number of Skills!
Clay's face drooped.
What?
He became a lot more cognizant of the amount of sweat that had accumulated on his skin as he backed out to his stats page.
---------------------------------------------------------
You are Clay
HEALTH: 0/0 | STAMINA: 0/0
---
LEVEL: 1/10 | EXP: 20/1000
|
SKILLS: 1/1
---
STAT POINTS: 4/5
|
SKILL POINTS: 4/5
---
BODY -
Strength: 0 | Speed: 0 | Resilience: 0 | Endurance: 0
MIND -
🔒 | 🔒 | 🔒 | 🔒
HEART -
🔒 | 🔒 | 🔒 | CIDURAC
---
-SKILLS-
[IMMUNITY - LV 1]
---
CURRENT WORLD: Dead and Dying
OBJECTIVE: Survive
TIME REMAINING: ???
---------------------------------------------------------
Skills. 1/1.
1/1.
1/1.
Clay was silent. He stared intensely at his maximum number of Skills, as if he were attempting to intimidate it into going up.
He blinked first, running agonized fingers through his hair.
Fuck! God damn it! Look closer before you do anything, you fucking idiot!
Clay wasn't the type to openly rage when he got angry, but he definitely would have cursed out loud if he wasn't being careful about alerting any more zombies. The rooftop had been safe so far; no reason to tempt fate.
If he'd known that he only had one Skill slot, he would have been more careful! Ughh, now his remaining Skill Points were basically useless! It would be a waste to throw them all into leveling up [Immunity] just because it was the only Skill he had! If he was playing a video game like this, he'd make a new character just out of principle!
Wait. Stop. Stop. Don't lose your head.
Clay cooled down before long and thought about his situation.
Yes, it sucked that he didn't pay attention and ended up filling up his one Skill slot. It also sucked that his probing didn't reveal any means for him to take it out to switch with a new one.
But it's not like his one Skill Slot had gone to the wrong one, right?
…
Fuck! It totally did!
Thinking about it, if he ended up in a situation where a zombie was able to cling on and bite him…wasn't he doomed anyway? Not getting infected wouldn't matter if a zombie bit into his windpipe or slowed Clay down enough to let his stupid zombie friends catch up to him. It would have been better to use his Skill slot on something that kept him out of danger in the first place.
I’m so retarded!
All of these thoughts ran through his head in only a few seconds. Within a minute, Clay felt he'd caught his breath enough to stand up.
Alright, so he only had one Skill slot. These were game mechanics, so maybe he'd get more once he leveled up?
Clay took a closer look at everything to avoid any more nasty surprises, even if what he noticed still didn't make him feel any better. Just like his number of Skill slots, his Level had a maximum as well.
>1/10
Did this mean he'll just stop leveling up once he gets to 10? If that was true, then this game was over before it had even begun.
Unless a single point in his stats made him grow in leaps and bounds, there was no way he'd get anything done with a maximum potential spread of 25 Stat Points. Having 25 Skill Points felt even more pointless since all he had to spend them on was his [Immunity].
He didn't have a means to fight, so how was he supposed to level up and figure out how any of this stuff worked? And what about food? He'd have to scavenge for supplies in this hellhole all by himself.
Clay looked to the horizon as the sun gently lowered itself. He had a decent view of the street and a few blocks beyond, though everything else was obscured by taller buildings from this angle. The system window followed him while he approached the edge of the rooftop.
Even if he'd chosen a better Skill, this was sounding like a lot of work. Maybe he should just kill himself.
He didn't have access to any of his old stuff. No internet. No music. All of the numerous games, movies, and TV shows he'd downloaded onto his external hard drive were useless now. These sorts of things weren't usually touched upon so much in isekai anime, but it all seemed so obvious.
That he sounded like such a baby to be thinking this way wasn't lost on him. Getting to be in a zombie apocalypse was some people's dream, whether it was because they were bloodthirsty psychopaths or because they spent their time envisioning the freedom that society collapsing would provide. Clay had definitely been shortsighted enough to think that a situation like this was preferable when he was younger, but his adult mind buckled after less than an hour.
He was blankly staring down at the street. Yeah, if he made sure to fall head-first--
Clay glanced at the system window. Its red hue matched the shade of the sky as day turned to night, an eye-catching sight he couldn't help but partake in when he remembered it was there.
He took a step back.
Think it through.
He hadn't just been stranded in this world to fend for himself, not completely.
Someone (or something) had given him an opportunity, left him with options that could potentially let him survive here. One could see this like a second chance, a gift from God!
On the other hand, the brutal nature of this system left him with a different impression.
Clay contemplated.
Okay.
Clay decided he'd suffer a little bit longer. There’s a chance the five-story fall wouldn't kill him instantly, anyways.