Level up Zombie

Putting on a shirt after wiping himself down, Zain was getting everything else ready. Next, he placed his belt on, his two serviceable guns, two knives, and the one good baton he had left. After that, he wore a tight-fitting sports shirt from the closet that allowed him more unrestricted movement.

However, he still had a piece of what looked like black cloth tied around his neck to cover the bite mark.

“I had a dream,” Zain replied as he went past Kun to get a few other things, such as his bag that he left in the main room.

“Wait, what? So, you had a dream? I thought you were about to make some grand speech about wanting to be a soldier or something when you were younger.” Kun followed.

“No,” Zain replied, putting the backpack back on Skittle, who could carry things more conveniently now that his strength stat had increased.

“I learnt how to use a gun in a dream.”

“But, Zombies don’t have dreams, at least I haven’t since the day I have been bit.”_.

There was no more response from Zain, so it meant there was not much Kun could do.

Either way, he still wanted to introduce him to the others. He couldn’t wait to see their faces when he told them about them taking out a Titan, although, without the crystal, it would be incredibly hard for them to make others believe their story.

Before heading out to the streets to follow Kun, Zain had requested to search the upper floors. In doing so, he wanted to find some more flesh. Since he had been working out throughout the night to keep his mind occupied, his energy was a little low.

Kun was fine with this since he wanted to eat as well, only this time Zain wasn’t holding back. He went on to eat until he was full, and seeing him eat so much flesh made Kun feel a little queasy.

‘Why does he eat so much? After just a bit, I feel full. He’s not that much bigger than me either. But he is different, especially with that super healing as well. He reminds me of Boss. I hope the two of them can get along at least.’ Kun thought.

When entering the streets, they noticed the usual zombies roaming around, although the streets looked a bit emptier than before. Regardless there was enough for Zain to test out what he wanted.

While looking around, the system had prompted that there was a mutated Zombie in the distance. Immediately, Zain ran past the other two and went towards it. Leaping up in the air, he held his baton and whacked the mutated zombie on its head.

A single blow had cracked the skull and killed the zombie on the spot.

‘That one point of strength feels like it’s made quite a difference.’

[+10 exp has been gained]

“Hey, what are you doing? Why are you just killing Zombies randomly, you know that doesn’t help us at all, and it could attract others,” Kun shouted.

“You said last night that these guys sometimes have crystals, right? Well, do you mind checking?” Zain asked.

The chances of someone finding a crystal in a zombie were incredibly rare, so Kun felt like it was useless, but he decided to do it just this one time anyway. Carving out the body and searching in the end, Kun could not find anything.

“It’s empty. As I said, it’s only some Zombies, and it’s impossible to tell which ones,” Kun replied.

‘That’s strange. Was I wrong? I thought that the Mutated Zombies and the stage 2 Zombies would have crystals inside them. In fact, we can even look at the Mutated Zombies as a type of Stage 1, and the regular zombies a stage 0. Unless…’

“Do you mind if we try something else?” Zain smiled.

Walking through the city streets again, with the parked cars, the trees on the sidewalk and zombies just walking around. Zain eventually spotted a zombie woman holding onto a tree.

“Alright, can you kill that one?” Zain asked.

Kun looked a bit nervous and didn’t see the point in this, but he had done things like this before. He got closer, sneaking up to the zombie, and then suddenly sprinted from his position. He was using his advantage of speed and surprise.

When getting close, he stabbed the knife right through the back of her head—killing the zombie woman in one hit.

‘Oh, he’s quite good. I guess he had to be to survive all of this, even if he is a Zombie.’ Zain thought.

Since Zain wasn’t involved in the kill, he didn’t get any system prompt regarding gained exp, and once again, he had told Kun to search the zombie for a crystal.

“Look, I’m telling you, you can’t; just pick out and choose… there’s a crystal inside!” Kun said, pulling it out from the zombie’s stomach and lifting it in the air. It was small, about the same size as a ring. It was almost see-through with a tint of green as well.

“You lucky guy!” Kun said, coming over to Zain and patting him on the back.

The thing was, it wasn’t luck, and Zain somewhat understood now. The crystals were not appearing in the dead Zombies’ bodies because they were the ones he had killed. So for one reason or another, he gained Exp instead.

Maybe the crystals were the things that were causing him to evolve as well? Just like it did other Zombies? But why was it automatic for him? Maybe it was because he had the system? Looking at the crystal closely, Zain felt like it looked familiar, and looking down at the necklace around his neck, everything had hit him.

‘Is it this, is this what gave me my system? The thing that stopped me from turning into a zombie? That woman I bumped into had this on her.’ Holding the crystal around his neck, he didn’t know whether to be thankful or not.

It was only a theory, but it was also the only one he had and was quite convincing at that.

‘So who was that woman? And what does she have to do with this whole thing?’

****

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