Before Kaan moved to the door, he grabbed the wooden box which contained his cards and his phone along with the headphones standing on the table next to his bed and then placed them into his bag. After that, he reached for the door handle and quickly opened it and moved back warily.

He was holding the bat in his hand ready to swing if a zombie appeared in his field of view but what welcomed him was an empty corridor. It was… quiet and isolated. Even though it was weekend you wouldn’t expect to find the dormitory like this. He moved slowly on the empty corridor and checked two dorm rooms that had their doors ajar. Both were empty like he expected but he could see that some people gathered items before they left.

He then checked one of the doors which were locked. He knocked it lightly a few times, but the answer never came. It looked like everyone decided to leave the building, but he didn’t hear that much of a crowd move, maybe he was so sucked into the moment when he was perceiving the situation outside and checking the system.

He moved to the end of the corridor which opened two other separate corridors, one of them headed to the stair and the other to the more dorm rooms. He listened for any noises coming from the side of the stairs for a few seconds, but he didn’t hear anything. After that, he moved to the staircase.

When he reached the staircase that headed to the first floor, he saw two bodies lying there without any movement. One of them was a student, he saw this guy a few times in the building. His head was hanging from the stairwell and considering that half of his neck was gone it was safe to assume that he took a bite on his neck which caused his death.

A few steps up the stairs was the corpse of the zombie, he was sitting on the stairs, his back against the wall. Its body was already rotten in most parts, its hair was gone, and its clothes were ripped. Something had hit it on the chest causing its rib bones to break and collapse inside. Both were standing there lifelessly as the blood flowed from their body and stained the stairs.

Kaan cautiously walked down and poked the zombie’s corpse with the bat to see if it was going to give a response, but it didn’t. He thought passing it by but there was no need to risk it. He raised the baseball bat and had it down two times on the head, breaking the zombie’s skull.

With the force of the hits, the body of the zombie fell to its side. It was easier than he thought it would be, it just felt a little bit weird and was messy. In the end, it was just a monster even though it had a humanoid shape. As for the student… he thought it wasn’t needed, him still looking like a very human being also helped him decide this way.

Now the path leading down looked clear he began to descend to the first floor where one of the areas which were frequently visited by many, was the entrance. It was leading upstairs, the rooms on the first floor and to the cafeteria.

When he reached it, he stopped instinctively because of the view he saw. There were dead bodies spread around on the ground, at least twenty from the first look. While some of them belonged to the zombies he was sure many of them were the people who stayed in the dormitory.

The ground was fully painted with blood which slowly flow out from the teared-up bodies lying on the ground. The traces of blood even reached the walls. It looked like some people tried the run away from the threat, but they were not that lucky as Kaan saw their touches on the walls which left stains of crimson blood leading to their dead bodies.

When the smell of blood and death hit his nose, Kaan felt a little bit taken aback, especially after seeing the deformed flesh of the dead bodies and some limbs torn apart, whatever happened here was not moral, it was brutal and savage. Yet he quickly got used to the sight and observed the entrance thoroughly.

‘How I haven’t heard what happened here. Are there any other monsters than zombies?’

Considering the number of people in the room he thought it was not possible for zombies to take them down, then what was the thing that took their lives? He needed to examine the bodies to have a brief idea and for that, he needed to take down the two zombies which were feeding on the death.

He slowly moved toward the zombie which was the closest to him. Kaan could hear his heartbeat getting a little faster, but he insisted on keeping himself calm, high-level emotions would only lead to mistakes. He knew it was easy to take one zombie down, but he couldn’t stop himself from thinking about the worst outcome. Moving slowly, breathing lightly, moved behind the unsuspected zombie which was tearing the body of a man that was unrecognizable now.

He remembered visions of hunters sneaking up on ice trolls, using the snowy territory to their advantage to blend in, and quickly, without giving the trolls a chance to respond, they would kill them or if they failed the initial attack, they would fight to survive or meet their end. It was the life of a hunter, between life and death, and though it was Kaan’s first time that he was going to kill something, even though it was a very insignificant monster he was facing, he felt a little strange.

Although the life of a hunter was a little too much between life and death for Kaan, there were many things to learn from their lifestyle. One was to never underestimate your opponent, even if it were a zombie which possessed very little threat alone, and second, even though some would just give in to the thrill of the hunt, you needed to be cold-blooded whatever the situation was with a mind which was always ready for rapid actions for the changes, or you would meet with your demise as many did.

He knew greater monsters, some vicious and some strangely merciful so it was just the beginning so he shouldn’t falter as it was just the beginning, even though he felt adapted in his mind with the knowledge he acquired from the visions, he was lacking his own experience.

So, it was time to gain hunting experience. When he reached a place where he could effectively hit the zombie he stopped and raised the baseball bat in the air. The zombie was not able to detect his presence, so Kaan hit the zombie on the head. With the attack, the zombie tried to move towards him to fight but without giving it a chance to react he hit repeatedly until it stopped moving with a smashed head. Its body collapsed onto the body he was feeding off.

‘Good, one is down.’

He quickly turned around to find the other zombie raising its head and beginning to walk towards his side because of the voice of the bat’s impact. The zombie was swaying its head and hands threateningly around as it moved, trying to catch anything it could come into contact with.

Kaan quickly moved a few steps to the side and waited for the zombie to reach where he was standing before. When the zombie reached where the other zombie’s corpse was, Kaan swiftly moved to its back and hit him on the knee. Of the power of the impact on its knee, its balance was broken down and fell to its knees.

Now standing on the ground, like the first one it tried to catch Kaan, but Kaan was already out of reach. Having it in the place he wanted, Kaan hit its head making him meet with the ground. Kaan once again raised the bat to finish it off, but this time zombie caught the bat before it could hit the target and tried to drag Kaan to its body.

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As his hands were busy with the bat, Kaan quickly raised his foot and stomped on the head to finish it off. His foot caved in its already damaged skull rather easily and finished the job. Zombie's hands lost their power and fell off the ground, setting the bat free. Kaan withdrew his foot and tried to shake off the gross substance stuck to it.

'It is easier like I thought, even this shows there is no chance that only zombies caused this massacre.'

It was simple to see it. Kaan didn’t even use any skills to deal with the zombies and looking at the number of dead people at least a few of them should’ve acquired classes and skills and even if they didn’t there should be at least a few survivors.

‘Is there a monster lurking around capable of this massacre or was this a show of a lunatic?”

It was the thing that got his mind busy as he examined the bodies. He counted thirty-three corpses on the entrance which he thought fifteen belonged to the zombies including the ones he killed. When he looked around the room, he saw that there were some pieces of furniture on the entrance door and the door leading to the kitchen, serving as barricades.

From the look of it, they decided to use this place as a safe ground for a while. Then Kaan began to inspect the corpses thoroughly after the initial look. Some of them were really in an unrecognisable state, whatever caused this didn’t hold anything back. After nearly ten bodies he saw a following pattern of cuts in the bodies alongside the bites and claws.

'…'

He continued to look at the bodies and all of them had traces of cuts which looked caused by the same weapon.

'Yeah, these are definitely the job of a weapon like a sword or a knife, if we don’t have a monster who's capable of creating these fine cuts with its claws that is. The question now was it done by one person or by a group of people?'

If it was the latter, it was an understandable situation. It was not unexpected that some people would choose to walk on this path even though Kaan couldn't understand why they would choose this part without any valuable reason. Was it for the fun of claiming life and knowing you were putting an end to someone's future, seeing how desperate and weak people were under their domination or simply they acquired something in return?

If it was the former, he thought it put the situation even more troublesome state. It meant there was a psycho out there who was capable of doing this massacre alone in a very limited time without much noise. While a group of people needed to follow one collective will together it was easier to think about the reason why they might have done this but when it was only one person the possibilities of reason really increased.

Was it because of the things the system brought or the culprit simply had hatred for humanity and now with tools it acquired by the system in its hand where it can perform the things it confined in its twisted mind?

'Or maybe they are following the will or the contract of a god, I hope this was not some kind of personal quest they sacrificed these many lives.'

If it was a personal quest, Kaan wondered what kind of maniac they were living together, he thought the culprit must've been someone from the dormitory, in this building who was capable of acquiring this kind of quest and fulfilling its requirements without even thinking about it much as it was normal. You really couldn’t know what maniacs would do when they got a hold of power.

Coming to this conclusion Kaan felt a chilling sensation on his back and quickly turned around to examine the area. His mind was playing with him, warning him as if the culprit of this scene were near him, watching him in the shadows of the corridors, ready to add him to corpses lying on the ground without anything more to tell and it made him want to get out of this place quickly.

‘Not now, I don’t need this shit coming from you right now.’

Even though he tried to stop his way of thinking he simply couldn’t. Not that it was a wrong thought that the maniac who did this could be around, he, of course, was thinking about it and was cautiously checking around in a state ready to react, but his mind was trying to put him in the worst scenario in all outcomes, making him paranoid.

But checking around and acknowledging that there was nothing that could cause immediate danger to him did the deed of stopping his mind from trying to be paranoid and create more monsters for himself out of nowhere.

There was nothing else left but to look at what the corpses had on them, he thought about it for a while and decided to go with it, it was not going to help them anyway so no need to think about ethics. He didn’t find many but a very much appreciated flashlight from a bag and a few more rations.

After putting them in his bag, Kaan was done with the entrance area and moved towards the cafeteria door to check how things were going in there. When he passed a corpse, a white mask standing next to it caught its attention and stopped his steps.

'Is he?'

Kaan moved to the corpse and looked at it carefully. He saw a man with blonde hair, his face had a deep claw wound, making it hard to recognize who it belonged to yet when he looked with focus, he knew who it belonged.

'Usher…'

He crouched down next to the lifeless body as he looked at his deformed chest with a clean cut. He was a… friend. Kaan didn’t know how close they were, but they had a good relationship. Usher was interested in making masks, which was the first subject that brought them together actually, and also interested in games and their lore which Kaan was also happy to talk about.

He had a friendly personality, one of those people who were easygoing and would try to do well most of the time, trying to be helpful towards people around them. Though they both were busy for a few weeks they were still in touch, at least having a rich small talk when they could to keep each other updated.

'Damn it, Usher. Why haven’t you come to find me?'

Seeing someone he had known lying dead in front of him was a very strange thing. He felt angry but the sadness and gloom of the situation quickly beat it. It just felt unjust for someone like Usher to die like this when he could create more good in this life for others.

Yet wasn’t this what the system brought, like that woman who tried to live a simple life in the midst of a magical world full of danger with her children and met her demise by some kind of twisted monster parasite? Was it really like that, the system…?

Kaan gave his last farewell to his friend and grabbed the mask on the ground. When he inspected it, he found out it was surprisingly clear than he expected. Kaan tried to make a mask for himself after the courses he had taken together with Usher, but he quickly found out he was not particularly good at handcraft, in contrast to him Usher was very good at it.

He had offered Kaan to make a mask for him, but Kaan declined it with a thank, he wanted to be able to make it himself. Now looking at the mask on his hand he could see Usher even improved his skills.

The mask was made from wood and polished well. Its base colour was white, there was no carving for the mouth and a little protrusion for the nose; there were also little horns on both of the upper ends of the mask. Other than that, there were these two eye holes and little black sword carvings on both cheek areas. Though it was simple it was a work of excellent quality.

Kaan got up and gave it a few sways before looking at it again. Kaan turned the mask and placed it on his face, it suited his face quite well. He decided to take it with him as a reminder of a friend who he spent good times with and also it was good to have secrecy if it was needed. He once again gave his thanks for this gift and after placing it carefully on his backpack, walked towards the cafeteria door.

His mind was in a hazy state right now, so he decided to stop thinking about the maniacs or the maniac who massacred people and the body of his friend he’d just found. Kaan appreciated and valued having a clear mind in all situations and these things he experienced at the entrance... normal, yes. Death was not as far as it once had been to him now. While the system brought amazing things it also brought darkness and filth alongside its appearance.

Seeing Usher’s dead body brought other names and faces he thought he was close with to his mind who was tangled in the system like him, and he wondered if they were still alive or if the embrace of death which was perceived in an ever-changing way for humans, had already got them into its grasp in a twisted way like Usher.

His thoughts were pointless, considering there was nothing he could do. He just hoped they were able to survive the first minutes of this new world in a relatively good state and adapt to it. Leaving his thoughts lingering in a part of his mind, he focused on what lies beneath him now as reached the cafeteria door.

Things proceed in the will of the system every passing second and death was even closer to Kaan than he thought.