Into the Zombie World

Sweats formed on Nile's forehead as he and his pets took a walk around the Village of Kahoy. The sun was still far from noon, yet Nile was already sweating bullets. In just a few hours, Nile had already realized how convenient it was for him to wear the Level One° clothes. He already missed their functions.

He was riding on Maximo's back while Croco followed behind them. Most of their wounds had already healed. The only thing that remains as the evidence from the fight yesterday was their pinkish scars.

Maximo had a scar on his eye and some parts of his body. Nile had also obtained numerous scars all over his body due to the fight yesterday. The scars mostly came from those deep wounds, as the minor wounds were healed easily by the rejuvenating lollipop. Croco had only obtained minor injuries, as his metalized scales blocked most of the attacks.

After strolling the Village, they had now arrived at the other part of the place, which was supposed to hold Bruno's base. Nile was not planning to go there and be bothered again by some remaining survivors. He just wanted to take a look and see what Bruno's base looked like.

From afar, Nile could observe that the base's wall was made of thick logs. Based on their thickness, Nile guessed that the logs came from the mutated trees. He doesn't know the actual appearance of the base's inner parts, and he doesn't want to know either.

Nile flicked the reins to urge Maximo to leave. He was still feeling guilty about what had happened to Max, but he did not put it too much on his head.

It is what it is.

It had already happened, no need to sulk over those mistakes. Nile believes that he learned something from that experience, and he never made the same mistakes twice.

Maximo made a sharp turn and sauntered back to where they came from. He then made a turn to the left, following Nile's order.

Since the time they left the house, they had only killed one Level One° zombie. The fight's conclusion was pretty dull as Croco killed the zombie with one slash from his arm-blade.

The direction that they were taking was the direction towards the Village Hall. The bitch woman did not mention about the Village Hall from her not-so-fake report yesterday. She only mentioned that Bruno's base was previously located at his own department store, which was on the other side of the Village opposite the Village Hall's direction.

Traveling the path towards the Village Hall, Nile spotted various corpses. He guessed that the bodies had died long ago due to their unrecognizable appearances. Nile didn't even know if the corpses were dead survivors or dead zombies. Well, the only thing Nile's could guess about them was that, inside the bodies, squirming maggots would surely be present, nibbling on their rotten flesh.

A few minutes later, they arrived at the front of the Village Hall. It was littered with humongous trees all over, and the only reason Nile could recognize it as the Village Hall was because of the worn sign that was hanging on the finger thick vine.

Nile doubts if there were still zombies inside the Village Hall. He assumed that the reason Bruno did not choose the Village Hall as his base was because of it, hiding a monstrous zombie inside.

Shrugging his shoulders, Nile flicked the rein and urged Maximo to circle the Village Hall first. After circling the Village Hall and not finding any things that were worth mentioning, Nile gets off Maximo's back as he strolled towards the Village Hall entrance. His two pets followed behind him, walking side by side.

The door or the Village Hall's entrance was already broken, so Nile stepped inside the Village Hall immediately without any obstruction. The sight inside of the Village Hall was a first for Nile as it was covered by green leaves all over. The thick vines also covered even the entire floor.

Nile was now even hesitating if he should continue inside or to just proceed towards the next Village. The System had already stated that plants would not regain sentience just like those zombie novels he had read before. Still, after seeing the vines all over the place, Nile could not help but think of them being alive.

Gulping a mouthful of saliva, Nile decided to be brave and took a step forward. After seeing no reaction from the vines he stepped on, Nile heaved a sigh of relief and continued to step one at time.

Nile finished searching the entire first floor, and it was cleared of any zombie. The broken stairs were already replaced by a thick tree trunk and green vines. Nile climbed the 'stairs' and went towards the second floor.

As his foot stepped on the second floor, Nile heard a muffled noise up ahead. Nile traced the noise and found out that it was coming from the meeting room.

Pushing the partially opened door, Nile hurriedly examines the meeting room's interior and finds the origin of the noise.

At the wall opposite the door, there was a figure hanging on the wall. It was a bearded man with its body laden with holes; the most obvious of the holes was the one on its throat. His right shoulder was impaled with what seemed like a spear. His arms were spread wide as the thick and green vines bonded both of them.

The man's face had already started to rot. On the man's throat, Nile could see a deep wound. Under that deep wound was a maggot that shone like a metal wriggling as if enjoying its breakfast.

Nile inspected the man using the stats function. Nile already knew that the man was already a zombie. What he wanted to check was the zombie man's strength and level.

After seeing the stats, Nile was confused and surprised at the same time. The confusion comes from the fact that its status was stated as 'deteriorating.' Nile then recalled that maybe it was due to the zombie consuming its own Apocalypse Virus to survive.

The surprise came from the fact that even though it was already deteriorating, the zombie's stats points were still 9.8.

Based on the vines coiling on the zombie's arm, Nile deduced that it was impaled to the wall, longer than a week. The reason for that was simple; the vines would not be able to coil on the man's arm that firmly and quickly if it had only happened a few days or a week ago. After staying there for more than a week, the zombie still had 9.8 of stats. It shows how strong this zombie was before it got impaled on the wall.

He didn't know who impaled the zombie man on the wall, but he wanted to thank him/her for that.

Nile drew out the Katana of Liberation and threw it towards the zombie's head. With a strength of 9.8, Nile decided to play it safe and killed the zombie from afar. Based on the System evaluation, Nile could confirm that it was not faking by being embedded in the wall. What worried Nile was that the zombie might become restless and break free from its binding if he gets closer to it.

The zombie gives him 5 Apocalypse Points and 0.05 worth of stats. After confirming the kill, only then Nile decided to come closer to retrieve the Katana.

Pulling the Katana of Liberation, brain matters were pulled along as dark, and dead blood streamed from the wound created by the Katana. Nile was just about to store the Katana on its sheath when he noticed the maggot on the man's throat squirming aggressively.

Nile felt disgusted as he almost wanted to vomit his expensive breakfast earlier. And due to that, Nile decided to kill the maggot and end its exciting life. Nile then flicked the Katana's blade to get rid of the blood staining it, before sheathing it on its Saya.

Taking off the mask, Nile spits out a mouthful of saliva in disgust, before wearing it again. Even with the mask on, Nile was still able to smell the rotten flesh that comes off from the zombie's body.

Nile did not want to stay there any longer as he beckoned for Maximo and Croco to follow behind him.

They circled the inner part of the village before going back towards the village's entrance. It was already nearing noon, and Nile wanted to leave the place immediately.

He urged Maximo to run faster so that they could arrive at the next Hamlet before noon arrive.

They passed by the houses again, and not a long while later, they also passed by the dead bodies that Nile killed yesterday.

Nile's heart beats like racing horses after seeing the numbers of dead bodies around. He killed numerous men yesterday but only now did it sink to him that he was already a killer.

A while later, Nile realized that something was off from his perspective. He didn't kill them wantonly. He killed them because they wanted to kill him too. His actions were justified, and he noted to never think of something like this again.

Nile no longer thought of those useless things as Maximo proceeded to run swiftly.

Maximo then made a slight and stepped on Ellie's disfigured head, squashing it entirely. Maximo did not stop there and proceeded to kick Ellie's waist.

The woman's body was now bent at a ninety degrees angle.

Nile smiled and let Maximo do as he wished. Nile believed that Maximo also wanted to perform his own revenge. What was a few minutes of waiting for Maximo's happiness?

However, contrary to his expectation, after Maximo made another kick, he actually stopped and continued to run swiftly towards the Village's entrance as if nothing had happened.

After getting out of the Village, Maximo produced a triumphant 'moo' as he strode towards the next Hamlet.