“Shit, shit, shit, shit,” a poor choice of word, but the man kept on muttering that word cursing his own choice of life. Antonio survived the brutal attack from the zombie gigant.

He heard one of his goons screaming, a testament that he was done, eaten by some voracious zombie still lurking in the dark.

“Boss,” the last of his goons stayed loyal and escaped along with Antonio.

They ran further away from the scene, bringing themselves in a desolate part of the factory. Antonio closed the door behind him and flashed the light around this tiny room. The smell of detergents was pungent, stinging the nose, and he saw a few brooms and mops hanging on the walls. They were inside the janitor’s closet.

Antonio’s body slumped on the floor, leaning behind the door.

“Boss, what should we do? We’re the only one left,” the goon asked.

Antonio was biting his lips with his brain trying to come up with a plausible plan. Tonight was a bad night for him. Everything went downhill the moment he went inside this abandoned factory.

“Damn it,” said Antonio. He had become an Awakened and gained levels by defeating these zombies he found in the earlier days. He thought he struck rich, and thus he planned to increase the number of zombies to further his level at a higher number. His next step went according to plan, as his rival gang took over the factory with no fighting over the territory. Yet, every one of them descended into madness, becoming the decaying living death.

Some might ask how did a man like Antonio manage to kill off a zombie who was frankly much stronger considering its level higher than ten. For someone like him who lived in the underbelly of society, he learned a few ruthless tricks that made him came on top over these mindless zombies. Taking the higher ground was the basics of handling against a zombie and it proved to be an effective one.

But everything had fallen apart and now he was at the brink of losing his life. He bit more than he could chew and now he had to pay the price.

“Fuck!” Antonio said punching the cement floor with his fist.

The cement easily cracked showcasing his increased strength. The zombies which he thought he could easily handle turned out to be an utter pain when their numbers overwhelmed him and his crew. His plan backfired and now he was forced to abandon his dream of conquest.

“No, I can’t,” Antonio said.

He knew the condition of the world right now and he knew the collapsing of society was not that far in the future. This was his only chance of stockpiling his strength before crude strength dictates who control the streets and the whole world.

Antonio stood up and raised his sword above his chest. He stared at the blade as he vowed in his heart that he won’t back down. The blade glowed in a reddish light.

“We’re going to kill those zombies no matter what,” said Antonio.

The last goon didn’t dare to refuse as he furiously nodded.

With a renewed determination, Antonio took the leap. He opened the door and slammed the pommel of his sword onto the metal pipe. The sound echoed and soon snarling, and growling of zombies approached them.

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Meanwhile, Jason was scanning the dead zombie gigant’s body. The look of dissatisfaction was apparent on his face.

“Woah, you really overdid yourself,” said Hakeem as he ran over to Jason after the fight was all done.

Hakeem flashed the light at the unmoving corpse of zombie gigant. The thought of him winning against this thing alone was foolish. Yet, what this friend of his had done was enough to cement something in his heart that he still had a long way to go before reaching the same height as Jason.

“The thing is dead, let’s bail man,” said Hakeem. He didn’t have a single thread on him and felt the coldness breaching beyond his skin. The only thing in his mind was to get back home and covered himself up with his blanket.

“There’s something wrong,” said Jason.

Hakeem stopped on his track, and hearing that something was wrong from Jason’s mouth was enough to alarm him. The grip on his mallet tightened.

“What is it?” Hakeem asked.

“There’s no loot,” said Jason.

“Loot?” Hakeem relaxed. Hearing Jason’s reason made him thought of how he overreacted.

“It’s just loot man, even in-game you won’t get it every time,” said Hakeem.

“No, that’s different,” said Jason as his eyes didn’t stop wandering around the corpse.

Something feels fishy, there’s no loot, and why I didn’t get a level after defeating that freak of a zombie?

“Hey Hakeem, did you get a level up?” Jason asked.

“I’m at level eighteen right now…” Jason cut Hakeem’s words.

“No, what I’m asking is, after I killed that big zombie did you get a notification about leveling up?” Jason asked.

Hakeem thought for a while, and he remembered.

“Nope, I didn’t get any,” said Hakeem.

Then both of them felt a bad foreboding.

“Shit, it’s still alive,” said Hakeem.

“Technically, it’s undead so…” Jason said a few words, but Hakeem cut him off.

“That isn’t the point, we have…” Once more Hakeem’s words were cut short and not by Jason.

A loud echoing screech filled up the air of the abandoned factory. Jason traced down the source of it and saw the head of the zombie gigant hanging on a metal chain in mid-air.

There wasn’t a normal thing in what he saw, and what came next dumbfounded him even more. Loud footsteps came from afar rivaling the echoes of the head of zombie gigant’s screech.

Jason looked everywhere, and to his astonishment every path that he looked, zombies were rushing over.

“Hakeem, incoming,” said Jason as he threw the steel shield at Hakeem as his friend picked it up and ready for a fight.

But much to their surprise, these zombies went passed them as if they were invisible. Some even clashed shoulders against the duo, and yet they continued their path not bothered by the two living humans in this factory.

Jason took a swing of his sword, cutting one of its arms. The arm dropped on the floor, but the zombie didn’t pay attention to him as it rushed at a certain point.

“The heck is going on here?” Hakeem asked.

Then Jason remembered a tidbit of information about zombie gigant.

It can regenerate.

He turned his head back to the head of the zombie gigant. With his night vision aiding him, he saw the head of the zombie gigant eating these zombies up in its huge mouth. It sickened the stomach of Jason to see these, but rather than calling it eating, it was as if these zombies were volunteering themselves to went inside the mouth of zombie gigant.

The zombie gigant engorged itself over the self volunteered zombies, and soon enough, its body began to regenerate.

Hakeem flashed the light and saw the grotesque scene of a zombie regenerating. Fluids of all types dripped on the floor as the body grew in size, and soon limbs started to sprout, and yet it didn’t stop. It was seconds away from returning back to its former glory, devoid of any damage that it received.

But Jason was a prudent man.

A single leap and he was in front of the regenerating zombie gigant. Thanks to Wind Clad, his agility and movement capability rose another notch. Jason didn’t wait long as the crimson dyed blade slashed the zombie gigant without a second of hesitation.

Yet the zombie gigant didn’t die. Its head fled, and the screech returned, the zombies ran towards the head as the process began once more. Jason didn’t stop as he hunted the head down. He obliterated the head time after time again, and soon what left of them were the partial head of the zombie gigant with corpses of zombies lying on the ground.

Jason took the easy route and dismantled the enemy before it could return to its shining glory. The zombie gigant, although a mindless creature, its instinct was telling that this man was an obstacle that needed to be eliminated.

It screeched and leaped towards Jason. Sadly, a blade struck it down, and many more slashed appeared one after another as Jason cut it up into bits and pieces.

In the end, Jason stomped every bit of the zombie gigant head until it turned into mush. Then the thing he sought appeared in front of his eyes.

A scroll emerged along with a necklace that resembled a military dog tag.

“Hey, my level went up to nineteen,” said Hakeem.

He wasn’t surprised since he too experienced the same thing with a smile on his face.

Jason’s level increased to level 28