"I swear I was just a few steps away from reaching the top, but suddenly the wall grew taller…" Gomez explained to Liza, whose focus was still on the zombies.
"Probably some kind of illusion… or maybe it actually happened…"
He gave one last look at the end of the wall, then dismissed the idea of climbing again. It would likely happen the same way.
Climbing was clearly not an option, so Gomez redirected his focus to the problem in front of him.
The fifth zombie had joined the group ,three men, one of them an old man, and two middle-aged women. One of them had a chunk of flesh missing from the left side of her neck.
"I just need to make sure I don't get scratched or bitten…" he recalled what he knew about zombies from the manga stories he'd read.
"Sh-should I run at them like last time…?" Liza asked, trying to gather her courage even though her body betrayed her, she was trembling so badly that even her words faltered.
"No, just stay where you are. I'll handle them…"
"You'll handle them!? Gail!! Are you saying you're going to kill them!?" she stared at him, eyes wide in disbelief at what she'd just heard.
Gomez shrugged. "First of all, they're already dead…" He pointed to the woman missing a large chunk of flesh from her neck her throat clearly visible.
He turned his head toward her and added coldly,
"It's simple ... either them or us…"
He inhaled deeply, exhaled all at once, and pulled the small knife from his back pocket, detaching the keys that were connected to it.
"Just don't get scratched…" he muttered under his breath, then started running toward them. When he was just a few steps away, he jumped onto the right wall, using it as a platform to vault behind the horde of zombies.
Without hesitation, with a quick sweep of his leg, he knocked down the first zombie, an old man , then grabbed the female zombie with the silky black hair.
He hesitated for a moment, but still drove the knife into her ear. Luckily, the knife was long enough to reach the brain.
He targeted the head because, in most stories, that was the zombies' weak point.
And fortunately, he was right, once he pulled out the knife, the zombie collapsed lifelessly to the ground.
[ New Achievement Unlocked ]
[ +10 Points ]
[ +1 Level ]
His eyes widened as he stared at the notification before his eyes, but he quickly snapped out of it when the old zombie grabbed his leg tightly and bit down.
"No, no, no…" he shouted in anger and fear, kicking the old man hard with his other leg until he broke free. He backed away quickly and checked his leg right away , he could feel his heartbeat pounding like drums.
Luckily, there were no bite marks.
"Phew! That was close…" he sighed in relief and glanced at the old zombie who was getting back up, he couldn't help but laugh when he noticed there were no teeth in its mouth.
"Gotta love my luck…" he let out a short laugh, exhaled, and refocused on the situation.
"One down, four left ... "
"Hmm , Better be careful this time…" When he said that last part, he remembered what had distracted him earlier.
[ New Achievement Unlocked ]
[ +10 Points ]
[ +1 Level ]
"Got 10 points! And a level up! The more I think about it, the more it feels like a game…"
He lowered his head, staring at the knife now stained with zombie blood.
"I didn't even feel anything, even though I just killed that zombie who was human minutes ago…"
He looked at the zombies staggering toward him slowly , they completely ignored Liza and focused only on him, as if killing one of their kind had made Gomez their enemy.
Gomez stared into the yellowish-red eyes of the zombies, then charged again.
The nearest one was the old man , Gomez used his momentum to shove the zombie against the wall with his arm wrapped in the jacket. Without hesitation, he plunged the knife into the ear until it reached the brain, ending its life.
[ +10 Points ]
This time, he didn't make the same mistake. He ignored the notification that appeared before his eyes.
Fortunately, the system worked through thought, so the interface vanished as soon as he willed it.
He pulled out the knife and let the old zombie's corpse fall to the ground.
"Three left…"
He quickly took the jacket that the old man had been wearing and threw it over the male zombie in front to obscure its vision.
Dropping to one knee, he swept the zombie's legs, bringing it down fast, then did the same thing as before , stabbed deep into the ear, ending its life.
[ +10 Points ]
"Only two left…" Gomez thought, gripping the jacket and stepping back. But he quickly charged again because the other male zombie had tripped over his fallen comrade. He threw the jacket into the female zombie's face, then swiftly ducked down and finished off the male.
[ +10 Points ]
He kicked the remaining zombie , the woman missing a piece of her neck, knocking her to the ground, then finished her off like the rest.
[ +10 Points ]
[ +1 Level ]
He looked at the lifeless corpses of the zombies, then lowered his head to stare at his hand holding the knife , it was covered in blood. He hadn't noticed the smell before, but now he could sense the metallic tang of iron, the stench of blood.
Dark thoughts began to flood his mind.
"Gail! Are you okay!?" Liza asked anxiously, approaching him cautiously. Gomez stood still, his back turned to her.
He took a deep breath, pushed away the dark thoughts, wiped the blood off the knife on the shirt wrapped around his arm, and put it back in his pocket.
He turned toward Liza, who was watching him warily , and he didn't blame her for that.
"Are you okay!?" she repeated.
"No need to worry, I'm fine…" he replied calmly, which made her breathe in relief.
"For a moment, I thought you turned into one of them…" she said with a nervous laugh, lightly hitting his arm.
Gomez decided to share his discovery. He looked at the corpses and said,
"It's like a game. I got points when I kil..." He stopped himself, searching for a softer word. "When I took them down…"
"huh ! You got points!?"
"You're right, it really is like a game, getting rewards for taking down monsters…" Liza remembered one of the games she used to see her brother play.
She had tried it once but got bored quickly , she had never been much of a fan of video games.
Gomez ignored Liza's chatter, tilted his head back, and stared at the pale white ceiling. "How much time is left…?"
[ 58 : 56 ... ]
"Tsk, time moves so slowly…" he thought with frustration.
Liza put on the jacket that had played a big role in helping Gomez.
Although it was much bigger than her, she didn't mind. She had only been wearing a sleeveless shirt before, so this jacket offered some protection from scratches.
She approached Gomez, who seemed lost in thought.
"Gail!... Let's get out of here before more come."