Agent 808
Location: Aldorf village, Lithurien.
Status: Operative.
The system manager just reached the office and was ready to take a sip of a coffee mug like any regular morning, but she changed her mind the moment her eyes settled on the activity log. There was a large amount of hostiles in the vicinity and the agent already received a considerable amount of damage without taking a single enemy down throughout the night.
"Your vitals are altered, try to lower your heart rate."
"Finally! I've been running all night!"
"What's the situation?"
"Zombies! They're everywhere!"
"I commend you for waiting for approval before engaging hostiles while I was offline, but on the future keep in mind that you should prioritize your own safety over the mission unless explicitly ordered otherwise." The system manager thinks I kept myself from attacking because I waited for orders. In reality, those things are scary and I don't want anything to do with them.
"Help, somebody!" A woman shouted in the distance. Sorry lady, I'm busy here running for my life. Besides, they've been handling the situation fine throughout the night.
"You are allowed to engage." The system manager prompted me to act.
"They're zombies and don't die easily."
"Are you certain it's zombies?"
"They don't stay dead, what else could they be?" I growl. The system continued in the usual monotone voice that sounds like an AI.
"The undead category is quite vast and they are weak to different things. Most are weak to fire, but others are not and you need to be careful. If they really are zombies then you need to hit them in the head."
"Hit them on the head!" I shout a command to the valiant villagers who for some odd reason are only women and children. The woman who greeted me when I first arrived at the village used the sickle and beheaded a walking corpse.
"It's not working!" The woman shouted back.
"Try fire!" I shout.
"That's not a good idea." The system said as I watched the reason why in real time. The woman grabbed a torch and lit the headless walking corpse on fire, just for it to continue walking casually like nothing happened. I want to cry.
"But you said fire..."
"I said you need to identify what kind of undead it is. Now you just made things worse."
"Then what do I do!? I don't even have a sword."
"What do you see?"
"I don't know, a village on fire. Women running all over the place and walking corpses following after anything that moves."
"I'll need some time to investigate, in the meantime try to save as many people as you can."
"That's exactly what I wanted to hear." Not. Absolutely not. How can they ask me to fight living corpses without anything to defend myself. It's easy for the system manager to blabber commands, but it's up to me to do the job. I stop running in circles around the house and enter trying to look a blade weapon or anything of the sorts. I picked up a sickle and tried to activate slash against a living corpse. Nothing happened. I tried everything from kitchen knives to farm equipment, but nothing worked. Without much of a choice, I pick up a piece of lumber and head out.
My first opponent was the corpse whose hand was detached. I took some distance and used the piece of lumber like a battery ram causing its head to fall on its back. It did not stop it. Then I bashed it to the ground and hammered it away with the piece of lumber leaving a disgusting mess.
"That was my husband..." A startled woman looked at me absolutely traumatized.
"Sorry." I shrug then proceed to find my new target. A thin corpse with more bone than flesh came at me and I used the lumber like a baseball bat sending its head right at the woman's feet.
"Father!" She cried. I bite my lip and stare at her as another walking corpse came by.
"This one?" I received a nod in reply and unleashed a barrage of lumber hits that should sent it to the ground. Then I noticed how the fleshy pulp gathered beneath its feet causing it to not just regenerate, but to become stronger.
"Let me guess, you forgot the double tap rule. When dealing with the undead you need to make sure they're really dead." They're kind of slow which may seem like they're harmless, but nothing could be further from the truth. Their numbers are great and they're relentless. They don't tire, they don't sleep and more importantly, they don't need food or water.
"That's useful," It would have been more useful if mentioned before, though. I've been running and screaming all night without so much as a gulp of water, the last thing I wanted was an enemy that could hold up combat without getting tired. "do you think it's safe to drink the water I can summon?"
"It is." The system manager confirmed and the first thing I did was find a pot to fill with water with my green thumb ability. The first sip felt like heaven, it wasn't just safe, it was the best water I ever tasted and I'm not just saying it because I was thirsty. I thought it would be tasteless like demineralized water but it's closer to spring water.
I took my time drinking water without paying any heed to the surrounding chaos. It wasn't until I fully sated my thirst that I realized the zombies were not coming after me. In fact, they kept their distance.
"It's the pot!" I exclaimed after brandishing the pot with water and noticing how the undead gave way. I wielded my pot like a club against what I thought was an undead, but turned out to be the village elder who was knocked unconscious and soaked wet. "my bad." I said, but it's not really my fault she looked like one of them.
I darted to the closest undead I could find, this time making sure it wasn't an elderly woman posing as a zombie, then strike it with all my might. But other than causing its head to fall to the ground nothing happened. I was about to lose all hope when the head rolled closer to the village elder baring its teeth at the unconscious granny, though the moment it touched the water it stopped moving as if by magic.
"Their weakness is water!"
"Think again." The system manager warned. I took a couple seconds to think as the manager suggested, then realized that couldn't be the case. If so, the villagers would have been able to handle them on their own.
"Magic!"
"That's it, go nuts." The system manager encouraged and I wasn't about to miss that opportunity.
I sprinkled some water on the lumber piece I used as a club before and started giving all corpses their rest in peace, or rather rest in pieces.
"Look! He's killing them!" A woman pointed her finger at me.
"He's a hero!" Another followed.
"My hero!" Before I could mow down enough zombies to be safe I was starting to get swarmed by women which not only made it difficult to fight, but also awkward.
"Look at the size of his lumber."
"I love hardwood." She clung to my side and started rubbing herself on me. These women seem to be thirsty, but in a different sense than I was.
"That's enough, ladies, let me do my job." It was starting to be difficult to tell undead from women, but the system fixed it by placing green dots above the heads of friendlies. It didn't work for everyone, though, as the system somehow missed the woman who commented on the hardwood and I ended hitting her by mistake.
"My bad." The system apologized.
What followed was more of a chore than a fight since now every time I hit an undead it stayed dead. I still had to soak my makeshift club from time to time, but then I realized I didn't even need to hit them, just sprinkling some water on them was enough to turn them from undead into actually dead.
When the last of them fell I was dead tired, no pun intended. I made my way to the first empty bed I could find and dropped on it face down until nightfall when everything started all over. The fog appeared followed by a large number of living corpses that besieged the place. I was able to defeat them much easily thanks to my magic and things were safe before sunrise. I didn't mind protecting the village, but if this was how things were going to be for the rest of the week then I needed to start thinking on an alternative.
I was already awake and decided it was best to help rebuilding the village, but this time with a few adjustments.