“Welcome to the Death Games!!!” Confetti and applause exploded around them but no one in the audience was clapping.
Most looked around quite confused at their current situation while a certain few calmly sat in their seats. Kody was part of the confused bunch. The last thing he remembered was blacking out after a night of drinking with his old co-workers. Did someone kidnap him? What would anyone want with a jobless 30-year-old man? And why the hell were they all in a gymnasium? He hasn’t been to school in over 20 years.
“Tough crowd...” A fat ass flying baby tried to joke while on stage.
“What the hell is going on here?” Kody asked, taking out a cigarette and lighting it.
“I’m all too willing to explain Mr. Aggressive Contestant! You have all been chosen from the 7.8 billion people across planet Earth to participate in our Death Games! The Death Games is where pretty much any wish can be granted for you before returning to Earth! Wealth, strength, supernatural abilities, almost anything you can think of! And speaking of supernatural abilities, why don’t you all do yourselves a favor and take a look at your brand-new selves recreated just for our games! Just think of the word Condition.”
[Name: Kody Rhodes]
[Points: 0]
[Special Points: 0]
[Physique: 8]
[Intellect: 5]
[Senses: 5]
[Ability: Life Scan (F)]
“This can’t be real...” A videogame-like screen popped up in front of everyone’s eyes.
Interacting with the screen wasn’t possible as their hands just went straight through it. However, tapping the words on the screen allowed them to find out what each one meant. Physique was the measure of one’s body. Intellect was how mana sensitive they were. Senses were exactly what you’d think. When tapping on his ability, Life Scan, it revealed the details of what it did.
[Life Scan – By spreading one’s energy outward, the user can sense any life forms near them within a 5 meter radius.]
“I’m dreaming. This can’t be anything but a dream...”
“I gotta get out of here.”
Someone tried to get up from their seats.
“Ah. I’m not done explaining things just yet. And I'm not so sure you’ll want to leave out those doors in just a moment.” It giggled.
Kody somehow instinctively knew how to use his Life Scan ability. Since he could do it just by trying to spread some unseeable energy out of him, he didn’t doubt that the other people could do the same for their abilities. He used Life Scan towards the door and could sense more than a dozen people outside that door. A lot more people than they had inside here.
“I still have to give you all your starter weapons and to explain your objectives for the Tutorial.” With a small clap of its hands, the chains and locks to the gymnasium suddenly broke open.
Everyone’s attention would’ve been grabbed by this but the appearance of multiple weapons landing on their laps took it first. The objects just appeared out of thin air while some people seemed to have pulled it out from somewhere. Kody grabbed his weapon and slowly made his way to the stage, backing away from the familiar creatures only seen in fiction.
They stumbled, groaned, moaned, and were rotting with a horrible stench.
“Yep! Zombies! We know how much you humans love your undead counterparts, so here are your objectives!”
[Primary Objective: Survive for 5 hours in a zombie-infested school and kill at least one being!]
[Secondary Objectives: 1. Kill 0/5 undead without any assistance from other contestants. 2. Kill the Zombie Speedster. 3. Find the Treasure Zombie and take his loot.]
[Objective Rewards: 1. 100 points for completing the Primary Objective. 1.1 Each zombie gives one point on kill. 2.1. 5 special points for completing the first Secondary Objective. 2.2 20 special points for completing the second Secondary Objective. 2.3 50 special points for completing the third Secondary Objective.]
“Mind telling me how in the hell I'm supposed to fighting zombies with a single stick of dynamite when there are other people with god damn swords and guns?!” Kody asked.
“Don’t worry about that my enthusiastic contestant. Some weapons generated for the contestants have an infinite supply to them for the Tutorial.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“This! Is what I mean.” The winged baby grabbed his dynamite, lit the fuse, and tossed it towards the incoming zombies.
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After a gory explosion, a loud bang, and several screams, everyone slowly looked up to see pieces of zombie spread all over the gym. Kody felt something enter his pocket after his dynamite exploded. Reaching inside his pants and taking out the mysterious object, revealed it to be another stick of dynamite.
[Tutorial Dynamite (Infinite)]
[Explosive Proficiency skill gained.]
[Explosive Proficiency Rank F]
“Huh... That’s pretty damn cool. So it’s like a video game.” The smoke from his cigarette rose above his head.
Eyes focused in on him after seeing the destruction brought by his weapon. He felt a little bit cool after that but now wasn’t the time. Zombies were still flooding in, as slow as they might be, but the terror was still there for certain people. Kody wasn’t as frightened as he was at the start anymore.
“Good luck contestants! Do your best to make it entertaining for the Sponsors! If you do particularly well, they could give you great gifts that could give you an advantage over the others!” The baby cheered before disappearing.
“It’s time to wake up. It’s time to wake up. It’s time to wake up. It’s time to wake up...” A young woman continually pinched her arm while crouching on the floor.
“I can’t kill someone! I can’t even hurt a fly!” A young man shouted as the axe he was given fell to the floor.
“Everyone calm down! There’s an emergency exit behind the stage! Women and children run there while us men hold the zombies back.” A handsome looking kid with blonde hair and a really damn good looking spear commanded.
He was using his weapon pretty well too. Spinning the damn thing and slashing it out like some hero or something. It was like he’s been trained or something. Not like the other guys who were using it like normal people. Using the sharp end to poke at the zombies and that was pretty much it.
“Where’d you get that spear, kid?” Kody asked. Its quality was far better than the rest of theirs.
“Huh? Who are you? Why aren’t you helping us defend?” The kid thrust out with his spear and wrenched it free from the zombie’s skull by pulling it out of the side of its head.
Kody stepped back a bit as he didn’t want blood on his jacket.
“Us? Kid, look around you. You and me are the only ones still here. Everyone started running for the emergency exit as soon as you pointed it out.” Kody tossed his cigarette butt on the floor and grabbed another one to light.
“What? Really?” He looked back to see knocked over chairs and no signs of anyone. “Awh man... I thought I was being cool...” He embarrassedly rubbed his head. “Why are you still here then, old man?”
“You call me old man again and I'll knock your teeth out, kid.” Kody warned. He was only in his 30’s.
“Sorry!” The two of them slowly walked away from the zombies coming after them.
“I’m here to blow shit up. Before those 5 hours are up, I plan on blowing most of these zombies in this place into bits. That little baby said this was the Tutorial, didn’t he? I can have a little fun this round. Especially with these dumb ass slow zombies.” Kody kicked a chair into a nearby zombie and watched it fall to the ground.
“I didn’t think anyone would be brave enough to do something like that. We can still die in the tutorial, you know?” He responded as if he had more knowledge on the situation than him.
“Kid, what the hell do you know that everyone else don’t?” Kody’s eyes squinted in on him.
“It’s my ability.” He explained and said no further.
“Alright then.” Kody knew he was full of shit.
“See you around, kid.”
Kody walked out the front door, easily avoiding and knocking the zombies in front of him out of the way. His first plan was to find the place with the most zombies and toss a stick of dynamite at them. There were plenty of zombies in the school’s courtyard but they were spread out. In the courtyard there was a big statue of some old guy in the middle, benches, and some small trees here and there. He needed to find a way to gain all of their attention after climbing that statue.
“Oi! Zombie bastards! Come get some!” He yelled after making his way to the statue.
The yellow-eyed rotting creatures made their way over to Kody. They could definitely see him with their eyes and hear him with their ears. Kody used his lighter to light the fuse of the dynamite and tossed it at the biggest group. With how slowly they were moving, he barely needed to time when he lit the fuse. In a few seconds after throwing the stick, body parts went flying in the air with a loud boom.
“Holy shit! What the hell were those guys smoking to give me something as fun as this to mess around with?!” He exclaimed.
Bits and pieces of zombies flew across the courtyard as Kody enjoyed himself with a damn good show. His laughing and coughing were almost as loud the explosions from his explosives. The sound of the explosives also attracted many of the zombies from farther away and inside the school to come out and investigate. Giving him even more zombies to blow up with his dynamite. Eventually Kody had to force himself to come down off the statue. There was still another objective he planned to do and that was searching for the Treasure Zombie.
Since most of the zombies were outside because of his back-to-back explosions, it probably wouldn’t be that hard to find the hiding bastard with his Life Scan. In a way, it could be seen that finding the Treasure Zombie was an objective made specifically for him because of his ability. Kody carefully climbed down the statue after blowing himself a bloody path to the school made from a bunch of dynamites thrown in a specific direction. His legs weren’t as tough as they used to be when he was younger, so, he doubted he could handle jumping from the statue’s shoulders all the way down.
Kody jogged his way inside the doors and immediately used his ability. He spread the energy placed inside himself 5 meters above, left, and right. In doing this, he could feel several life forces inside the school building. Each one distinct from one another in some way. One person had a cold chill to their energy. Someone above him had a warm feeling to theirs. Kody didn’t know what this meant but knew it had to mean something. That was something he planned to find out after meeting face to face with one of the others.
“So, everyone is hiding for 5 hours?” Kody figured after seeing most of the life auras stationary. “I wonder where the damn cafeteria is. I’m getting hungry.” Kody didn’t sense anything similar to the zombies’ aura outside from where he was standing.
That probably meant it was in another wing of the school. On the wall next to the staircases leading up, he took note of a map. It looks like the cafeteria is on the right wing on the second floor. Kody didn’t plan on finding the Treasure Zombie or running into the Zombie Speedster on an empty stomach. So, he started walking to the cafeteria. Hopefully those Sponsors or whatever were kind enough to leave them food. Surviving 5 hours on an empty stomach was something Kody did not want to deal with.
On the second floor, Kody used his ability again. This time he sensed something that was pretty fucking weird. He didn’t feel this life aura back on the first floor. It was similar to the zombies outside but this one was more unique. And it was stationed right in the cafeteria. Whatever was in there, he couldn’t use his dynamite on it if it was in the kitchen. He’d blow up all the food he was planning to eat! Kody would have to find some way to lure it over to him.
“Alright you undead, bastard. Come on out and I'll blow up you nicely.” Kody kicked the doors leading into the cafeteria open and shouted.