(Katze’s POV)

You know what, fuck it! I have other priorities other than my appearance! I look down to Cassidy, gently holding her hand.

- Don’t worry, Cass! It’s still me, Katze! You’re going to be fi-?! – I was interrupted when a… what do I call it, floating square? Window? Appears in front of me.

Cassidy Redcliff Hp:37/70 Under the effect of Bleeding(-1hp/s)

What the fuck… before I could say anything else, the small creature that stabbed Cassidy start to glow lightly, its corpse disappearing in particles of light, leaving behind a small, glass bottle with a cork sealing it, filled with a red liquid. Wait, these… windows, or whatever they’re called… they’re similar to games, aren’t they? I extend my hand and pick the bottle.

Lesser Healing Potion The lowest tier of healing potion. Uncommon drop from goblins.Heals 50-60 HP.

Shit, Cassidy’s health is dropping, if this is holds true she will die in a few moments. I have to risk it. I look her in the eyes. She looks back, fear in her eyes.

- Cass, I can save you, but you will have to trust me. – She nods weakly, her complexion paler than usual. – I will have to pull out the knife. It will hurt. – I say seriously. She only looks at me. I take hold of the hilt of the blade, making her whimper lightly. I pull it out quickly, making her moan in pain. I can’t pull it out too quickly, or the wound will be worse. I throw away the knife with haste, biting off the cork of the bottle, her hp reaching 28. – Drink. – I say, putting the bottle on her lips, spilling the contents on her mouth.

Cass manages to drink the potion, and before my eyes, I see her wound closing, the window in front of me showing her health returning to full HP and the bleeding status disappearing. Her breath stabilizes, and her skin regains color. Se opens her eyes, confused, no sign of a wound or blood on her.

- What the-

She starts, as shocked as I am, but is interrupted when a light glow similar to the one that happened to me. Similar to me, she seems frozen in place. After a second, the light intensified, and she screamed in pain, but wasn’t able to move at all. I feel her getting lighter in my arms, her body getting a bit smaller and a tad bit slimmer.

After the light dies, I see a shocking vision. Straight beautiful, shiny red hair, pale and young skin with a soft feeling to it. Her face is even more beautiful, all the age previously on it gone, receding to younger days. As for her figure… well, it’s everything on it’s peak… Cassidy opens her eyes, surprised, staring at me.

- Well… that’s… you turned younger then? – She asks, completely confused. I smile back to her, relieved that she is fine.

- It appears to be the case, although I still am struggling with white hair. – I say, touching my hair. – But Cass, I have to say, you’re looking really nice. – I raise my hand, making a thumbs up. - hervorragende kurven (outstanding curves)

She looks down to her body, realizing the situation that she is in. Cass covers herself with her hands in a haste, failing marvelously to hide anything.

- Get out! – she says to me, avoiding a scream, but clearly not calm either, her face in a shade of red that I didn’t knew people could get to. I help her sit and get out of the booth, and just now I notice the sound of chaos outside.

Screams from humans and other… things. What appeared inside the booth was a monster, clearly. It was similar to one of the tv that I saw earlier before my date. More than obviously, that earthquake is related to this. And that… window… makes me think of games, mainly of RPGs that I have played in some occasions. Also, it mentioned resetting my avatar… so do I have something like a status table?

Status Name:Katze Black(fake)Level:1 Parameters Strength:15Agility:12 Spirit:20intelligence15

Unarmed Combat(“New””Bonus”) Tier:Master Since ancient times, humans have fought with their fists. The art of fighting has evolved for millennia, being mastered by man across all ages. Raises efficiency of unarmed attacks greatly.

I see, I have a status table and skills as well. Apparently, the bonus that I received from the… system? Is unarmed combat on an already high level. I wonder if I get skills that I understand about would gain any bonuses as well. I look out to the immediate outside of the shop, since this is the fourth floor, there is only the way from shop to shop, not a full floor.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

I can’t see any monsters from here, but from the dwindling screams in the distance I can say that there are still monsters inside the mall, although none in the immediate vicinity from this shop. I should get us both out from here and look for a safe place.

from the news this morning, it seems that the east coast was resisting, but if the shaking got all the way over here, and monsters started appearing out of nowhere, that means that they must have appeared behind the lines of the soldiers and it won’t be long until the entire country is overrun with monsters.

So for now, get out of the mall and head back home, I’ll need my container. It’s loaded with memories from my war times after all. As I think our next plan of action, I hear a noise behind me. I look back to see Cassidy getting out of the booth, dressed on her clothes, now slightly bigger to her body than necessary due her unexpected reducing in size.

She looks at me, her eyes uneasy as she approaches. I gently hold her arms, and she holds my arms back.

- What we do now? Is there more of those things outside? – she asks, concerned.

- Unfortunately, I think there are. – I say in a low voice. – Try to keep your voice down, okay? Did you see the news this morning?

- I only saw the last part. I didn’t believe it though… but now, I have no option but believe that. – She breathes in, closing here and releasing my arms. I let her go, and after a few seconds breathing deeply, she looks at me with resolution. – What do we do now, Kat? – Her voice almost a whisper, but still full of will.

- Firstly, we need to get out of the mall. After that, we’ll go to my house, I have some things that can help us to survive.

She nods to me.

- We’ll get your truck?

- No, it’s too risky. According to the news, the monsters appear out of nowhere, so they I’ll assume that they’re all around the town. We’ll go on foot, it will take some time to get to my house but we’ll be alright as long we keep our heads down.

She nods again.

- Why your house though? It isn’t better to get to a police station?

I shake my head, denying her words and walking to the booth. As I walk with her on my heels, I tell her:

- Although it would be a good decision, everything is probably too chaotic outside at the moment. We should go to my home, where I have stuff that can help us defend ourselves. – I enter the booth, picking the dagger that was stabbed on Cassidy earlier. – We can lay low there for a day or two and then get out to find other survivors.

I look at the dagger, wondering if another window would appear, when it surprisingly did.

Worn Iron Dagger Damage:7-10 A worn iron dagger used by a goblin. It can break at any moment.

I look at Cassidy, standing in the entrance of the booth.

- Did you see anything different while you were… changing? Like a floating blue screen or something?

She raises her eyebrows, surprised.

- Well, yeah, I did. Something about welcoming to the system or something.

- Well, - I extend the dagger to her. – take a look. Something… fundamental changed about us or even this world.

She picks the dagger, hesitant. She stares at it for a moment, before making a surprised face and looking at me. I nod to her as she gives it back to me.

- We have some things to talk about when we get to my house. Let’s go, keep your hand down and stay silent at any cost, ok?

- Ok, I’ll follow you. – She said, a bit nervous.

I nod to her again, walking to the entrance of the store, crouching cautiously to avoid being seen from the outside, helped by the several mannequins on display. Cassidy crouches behind me, staying silent. I take a cautious look on the corridor outside, and there seems that are no monsters on sight.

Thankfully, the clothes store is on the back end of the mall, allowing us quick access to the stairs. The lights seem out, creating some darkness in the day which will help us to hide. The screams have mostly stopped, and I can feel the faint smell of blood in the air. Before we proceed, I turn back to Cassidy.

- How you are with gore? – I ask suddenly. She looks at me stunned for a moment.

- I’m good with it… I’ve never seen anything graphic live before.

- ok, whatever happens, don’t scream, and try not to vomit. – It takes a second before she nods back.

I turn around and while crouched, walk out of the store with care. I remember seeing a sports store and a variety store in the way here, on this floor. I’ll probably be able to find something better than the dagger. I check the side stores, making sure that there are no monsters inside before proceeding.

After confirming that we are safe, I approach the guardrail to take a peek at the lower floors. Umm… it seems that the second floor is occupied. I can see monsters that aren’t goblins, they’re tall, black skinned, green-skinned and yellow-skinned humanoids. They’re dressed in better equipment than the goblins, some shabby armor and swords.

I can see the first floor, completely infested with monsters and corpses of several people, and these corpses start showing from the third floor onwards where most people fell dead to the monsters. The smell of blood is getting stronger. The monsters are guarding the fontal exit, so that exit is completely scrapped. I look back to Cassidy who has been following me in silence, whispering to her.

- Cass, we’ll go to the sports store and the variety store that are close. There, we’ll try to get some weapons, ok?

She nods back to me. We sneak to the other side of the mall, and unfortunately have to walk to the middle section of the mall, where the sports and variety store are. The variety store is full of military trinkets, even some knives that usually are sold already sharpened.

I make sure to take a peek inside and see no monsters. I use my hand to indicate to Cass to stay put and go inside, taking care to net alert any unseen monsters. After a quick check, I see nobody, so I get up and fetch Cassidy.

- Take anything you want, but don’t overload yourself.

- Okay. I’ll just get some knifes.

I nod to her and we raid the store. I take two military knives and Cassidy takes three. Since they’re the same model, they look the same and have the same stats. I also take a pair of fingerless combat gloves and a flashlight if needed. I also take a belt from the store to put the knives and a pouch for the belt.

US Military Bayonet(black) Damage:20-30 This knife in a discreet black is made to be attached to the end of a gun for close combat, but works fairly well in heavy duty tactical work or close quarters combat. It’s quite sharp.

Combat Gloves Damage:10-15 Gloves made for close quarters combat, enhancing punching damage.

I’m, ready for combat if it comes to that, but I don’t have the confidence of fighting several of them at the same time. Maybe four or five, but more than that will be lethal for me. Next target, the sports store. We crouch again, sneaking out from the store and going to the store not far from here, when I hear some noise coming from inside the store. I stop, raising my hand so that Cass stops at the same time.

I make her stay put again, hiding inside the variety store, and then sneak inside the sports store. The noise came from the back… I take out a knife from its scabbard, ready to slit a throat when I hear whispering voices.

- Is it safe to go out? – Asks a female voice.

- I don’t know. We should stay here for some more. – Answers a male voice, also whispering.

It seems that I found other survivors hiding inside the store. Doesn’t seem that there are monsters here, so I’ll talk with them. I sheath the knife and get up, saying a bit louder so that they can hear me.

- Hey, you two, it’s safe to come out.

After a startled sound of one of them hitting something, a head peaks out from the back of the store from behind the counter. It’s the woman.