Chapter 2: The Awakening
It wasn't just the students in the Palflic Stadium that heard the cold and chilling voice.
The same event happened all over the world, one second the sky was clear and in the next, a blinding light engulfed everything.
Following the blinding light was a massive headache that struck everyone.
Cars crashed into buildings, some rammed into people, planes in the sky at that point all went down, whether it was on water or on land, they all fell back to the ground. Trains rammed in each other or fell to the side at the point of turning. Buildings went up in flames, and people who couldn't bear the headache directly exploded adding to the already occurring disaster.
The chaos that unfolded in a blur plunged the world into pandemonium in the span of mere seconds.
And, just as suddenly as it began, it all stopped.
The silence that followed was surreal.
The headache that rammed everyone suddenly disappeared like a lie.
Everyone immediately started looking around to search for the cause of the massive headache and they saw it.
The streets, once bustling with life and activity, were now littered with broken vehicles, dead bodies, burning buildings, it was really like they were transported to a different area. The sky was now empty, the highways were in chaos.
…
In the Palflic Stadium,
Jon's face was one of pure confusion. He suddenly had a terrible headache that disappeared like a lie.
He turned around to see if it was only him, and from their fearful faces which were also turning around in search for the cause, they too experienced it.
And the next moment, as if compelled by an unseen force, every single person in the stadium spoke in unison.
"Open."
The word echoed through the arena, reverberating in the air like an ancient incantation.
And like magic, a white translucent screen appeared in front of their eyes, hanging in midair like holograms.
Jon blinked in confusion at the sight in front of him.
[ÊÞÖ¢ᎨᎨᎨᎹᎶ]
[EnᎶ***Ꮹ EMBRYINIEL M**Ꮫ]
[EXPOSING CORE TO UNIVERSAL FORCE]
[SIMPLIFYING LANGUAGE]
[START STATUS]
[SCANNING STATUS]
[STATUS]
The alien like script flickered and shifted until finally, it resolved into something Jon could read.
[NAME: JON WHYTE]
[AGE: 19]
[LEVEL: 0]
[CLASS: NONE]
[TITLE: NONE]
[STRENGTH: 5 AGILITY: 4 STAMINA: 3(7) MANA: 20 HEALTH: 10]
[SKILLS: NONE]
"What the hell?" Jon whispered, staring at the strange display in disbelief.
Everyone, not only in the stadium glanced dumbfounded at the screen in front of them.
At first, or what felt like an eternity, no one moved.
But then, as if someone had hit a switch, the world continued.
The chaos that unfurled in seconds was too much for them to bear. Screams, cries and tears began flowing, their faces displayed pure panic and fear.
Just what type of disaster were they suddenly thrown into.
Some collapsed to the ground, some released whatever waste that was in their body due to the tension and some just started running away.
Amidst all that, something caught Jon's attention.
His screen flickered again and showed,
[PASSIVE SKILL: COMPOSURE (THIRD CLASS) LV MAX]
And before he could make sense of what that meant, a blood-curdling scream pierced the air.
Jon immediately snapped is head toward the source of the scream. A group of girls, who had been jogging when he entered the stadium, stood frozen on the track.
Well, one of them was lying in a pool of blood with her body unmoving. She was dead.
The second girl stood motionless with her hands stained with fresh blood staring at her dead friend.
The last girl in the group who first screamed, screamed again. Her legs gave up beneath her as she collapsed to the ground in terror.
Then the girl with the bloody hand took a step towards the terrified girl, she didn't say a word and walked forward with staggering steps, her eyes were just blank.
Upon reaching the terrified girl, the girl with the bloody hand raised her hand and swung it down.
"Uwahh..." The terrified girl scrambled backward, her hands shaking as she tried to dodge the bloody hand.
However, she couldn't dodge in time. The hand swiped through the air and sliced through her skin drawing blood.
"No..." Jon tried to shout for the girl to stop her actions, and strangely she stopped attacking and turned around. It was like she had lost interest in the terrified girl.
There was something strange about the situation. The girl who was cut was meant to be crying louder from the pain; however, her sobs grew quieter.
Her head suddenly dipped downwards, her entire body slumped downwards as though life had been drained from her.
Then, unexpectedly, she stood up.
Her eyes, once filled with fear, were now cold and lifeless; just like the girl that attacker her.
And like machines, they moved in eerie synchronization, side by side, scanning the stadium for their next victim.
"What the hell..." Jon whispered, his mind struggling to comprehend the nightmare before him.
The screams and tears from the students behind him grew louder. They were simply unable to comprehend the situation, it was one of terror for them and the pressure of it all was too overwhelming
They had to do something about it, and fast.
"EVERYONE ON ME!" a voice boomed from behind Jon.
Turning his head, he saw a tall and trembling figure standing in the upper stairs of the platform. After getting his wanted attention, he continued, "M-My name is Tunde Edun and I'm the representative from the mass communication-"
"T-THAT THING!" Someone else interrupted with a shout, immediately pointing to a student on the ground floor close to them who had just turned into one of the white-eyed creatures.
The creature had been staggering towards them, and no one had realized it until now.
Panic surged through the students present.
They had all been too focused on the creature far away from them, not realizing one was among them.
"Kyaa..."
"Move"
"H-Holy-"
They all scurried away from their positions and retreated back.
Two particular boys scaled over the platform to the tracks and kept running.
"L-Let's follow them." a girl shivering all over was pointing towards the direction the boys scaled through, however she didn't have the mind to move.
However, not all of them panicked.
Strangely, Jon, against every instinct in his body was forced to stay calm. A strange sense of clarity washed over him, and without thinking much, he searched his bag for something, anything—to use as a weapon.
Upon finding nothing, he looked around and he found something on the floor; a ball pumper.
It wasn't much, but it would have to do.
Jon picked it up and moved towards the white eyed creature. His knuckles were white as paper as he gripped the handle of the pumper tightly. Each step of his toward the creature was like a death sentence, however he didn't stop.
He could hear people around him shouting at him to stop, but their voices were drowned out by his focus.
Ten meters. Five meters.
As the creature's dead eyes locked onto him, his stomach churned.
He could tell immediately, that wasn't human anymore. Whatever it had been before, it was gone now and replaced with something far worse.
Jon's breath caught in his throat as immediately he got close to the creature, he ran to the second step of the platform and stepped back to the first step. He was trying to flank the creature hoping it would give him an advantage.
But then, the creature did something that froze the blood in Jon's veins. It twisted its head, fully backward, to look directly at him.
Jon almost recoiled in horror, however the calming feeling wafted over him again. Then he lunged forward and shoved the creature's back with the pumper to knock it off balance.
The creature then staggered forward, however it didn't fall. Jon then kicked the back of its knees, forcing it into a kneeling position.
As one knee fell to the ground, the creature still tried to move.
'Doesn't it feel pain?' Jon couldn't help but ask. The way the creature moved was totally not human, but that didn't stop his next movement.
With a new wave of calmness washing over him, he whacked the face that had twisted a full back.
Krrr...
It didn't even make human sounds again as its head stumbled backwards.
WHACK...
He hit its face again.
And the creature fell to the ground, however he raised up the pump again to hit it.
'Can I really do this? Can I kill something that was once human?' Those thoughts didn't linger as a familiar calmness washed over him. With a now determined mind, he raised the pumper high and brought it crashing down on the creature's head.
However, it still didn't die, it still twitched and convulsed on the ground trying to find its way back up.
Jon whispered an apology under his breath. "I hope you can forgive me, wherever you go."
And with one final brutal swing, he crushed the creature's skull.
SQUISHH...
Jon's body staggered and his body trembling. That moment was so intense for him and before he could even sigh in relief, a warmth surged through him.
"W-What is this?" He could feel something flooding his body.
It was pure energy was entering him, his entire body suddenly felt stronger and more powerful than before.
And with it, a new message flickered before his eyes.
[YOU HAVE ABSORBED LEVEL 3 ZOMBIE REMAINS]
[YOUR LEVEL HAS INCREASED]
Jon stared at the glowing words, barely able to comprehend them. "Zombie?," he muttered, the reality of his situation crashing down around him.
And this was only the beginning.