Silence didn't last.
It never did.
The grey space shuddered, as if something vast had shifted its weight. The paused loading bar trembled—then surged forward without warning.
⟦ FIRST TASK INITIALIZATION COMPLETE ⟧
Aarav didn't have time to react.
The space collapsed inward.
Not like falling.
Like being folded.
His feet slammed into hard ground.
Pain flared up his legs as he stumbled forward, barely catching himself before his palms scraped against rough asphalt. Heat rushed in next—dry, suffocating, real.
Too real.
Aarav straightened slowly.
He stood in the middle of an empty road.
Shops lined both sides, shutters frozen halfway down. Cars sat abandoned at strange angles, doors open, engines dead. A billboard flickered weakly above, advertising something meaningless to no one.
No people.
No voices.
No movement.
The city felt abandoned—not ruined. Like everyone had simply… left.
A translucent blue window unfolded in front of his eyes.
⟦ YEAR 1 INITIALIZATION COMPLETE ⟧
⟦ THEME: ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE ⟧
Aarav exhaled through his nose.
"…Of course it is."
Another window appeared immediately, sharper, heavier.
⟦ ABILITY AWAKENING ⟧
The text flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Then changed.
⟦ CLASS: ALL ⟧
Aarav blinked.
"…That's not a class."
The word pulsed faintly, as if acknowledging him. A second line appeared beneath it—smaller, colder.
⟦ CLASS INFORMATION RESTRICTED ⟧
⟦ VISIBILITY: SELF ONLY ⟧
Before he could process that, another warning slid into place.
⟦ DISCLOSURE PROHIBITED ⟧
⟦ VIOLATION WILL RESULT IN PENALTY ⟧
Aarav stared at the window for a long second.
Then he sighed.
"Figures."
The interface vanished without explanation.
Something changed inside him—not power, not strength. Just readiness. His breathing steadied. His senses sharpened, as if the world had adjusted its focus.
Another notification appeared.
⟦ BASIC COMBAT PARAMETERS GRANTED ⟧
• Stamina enhancement (minor)
• Reaction acceleration (minor)
• Pain suppression (temporary)
Aarav flexed his fingers.
"Bare minimum," he muttered. "Consistent theme."
Then the final window appeared.
This one didn't float.
It pressed.
⟦ FIRST TASK ⟧
OBJECTIVE: Reach designated teleport point
DISTANCE: 5.0 km
TIME LIMIT: 3 hours
NOTICE: Hostile entities detected
FAILURE CONDITION: Death
A blue marker ignited in the distance—far beyond the rooftops.
Five kilometers.
Aarav looked at it.
Then at the empty street.
Then—
A low, broken groan echoed from somewhere nearby.
Aarav slowly turned his head.
Between two abandoned cars, something staggered into the sunlight.
Its movements were wrong. Its skin hung loose, grey and stretched. Its jaw worked uselessly, as if trying to remember how to speak.
Another groan answered it.
Then another.
"…So that's how this starts," Aarav said quietly.
He took one step back.
The thing lunged.
And the world finally began to move.
No recap. No tone shift. Just survival, movement, and the first real blood.
The zombie missed him by inches.
Its fingers scraped air where his throat had been a moment earlier, momentum carrying it forward. Aarav twisted sideways on instinct, heart slamming against his ribs, and stumbled back.
The thing crashed into the side of a car with a hollow clang.
It didn't react to the pain.
That was the first real lesson.
Aarav grabbed the nearest object without thinking—a broken metal rod lying near the curb, rusted and bent. It felt light. Too light.
"Yeah," he muttered, adjusting his grip. "This is going to suck."
The zombie turned.
And charged.
Faster than it should have.
Aarav's eyes widened just a fraction. He swung.
The rod glanced off its shoulder, doing almost nothing. The zombie slammed into him, knocking the breath from his lungs. They both hit the ground hard.
Pain flared across his back—
Then dulled.
Not gone. Just… pushed aside.
Pain suppression.
Aarav rolled just as yellowed teeth snapped shut where his neck had been. He kicked hard, heel connecting with the zombie's knee. Bone cracked.
The leg folded the wrong way.
The zombie collapsed, shrieking.
Aarav scrambled to his feet, chest heaving, hands shaking—not from fear, but adrenaline.
"Okay," he said breathlessly. "Rules learned."
He didn't finish it.
Instead, he ran.
The city became a test of judgment.
Every sound mattered. Every step echoed. Broken glass was a death sentence. Open roads were traps.
Aarav moved through alleys instead, keeping walls close, using shadows where he could. When he heard groans ahead, he slowed. When he heard silence, he slowed even more.
Twice, he nearly died.
Once, a runner burst through a shop window, moving so fast Aarav barely registered it before it tackled him. He survived only because it tripped over debris mid-lunge, skull shattering against concrete.
Another time, he hid beneath a parked truck, body pressed flat against oil-stained ground, holding his breath as rotting feet dragged past inches from his face.
Sweat soaked his shirt.
Time blurred.
The blue marker pulsed steadily in his vision, distant but unmoving—five kilometers slowly becoming four… then three.
His legs burned.
His throat ached.
And yet—
His mind stayed calm.
Too calm.
He didn't think about death.
He thought about angles. Timing. Noise.
When to move.
When not to.
When to let others die.
That last thought startled him.
Aarav shook his head once and vaulted a low fence, landing hard but upright. The plaza came into view moments later—wide, open, dangerous.
The teleport point hovered in its center.
A ring of pale blue light, rotating slowly above cracked stone.
"Of course," Aarav muttered. "Right in the open."
Zombies were already gathering.
Not many. Five. Six.
Enough.
Aarav picked up a loose brick and threw it hard—far to the left.
The sound echoed.
Four zombies turned immediately and shuffled after it.
Two remained.
Aarav sprinted.
One lunged.
He ducked under its arms and slammed the metal rod upward with everything he had.
This time, it connected.
The skull caved in with a sickening crunch.
The second grabbed his shoulder.
Teeth grazed fabric.
Aarav hissed, twisted, and slammed his elbow backward. The zombie staggered just long enough.
He shoved it away and dove into the ring.
The world folded.
He landed on stone.
Clean stone.
Aarav rolled once, came up on one knee, metal rod raised—
And froze.
Three men stood around him.
All young. All breathing hard. All holding improvised weapons. All staring at him with the same expression he was probably wearing.
Shock.
Relief.
Suspicion.
For half a second, no one moved.
Then one of them laughed—short, shaky, almost hysterical.
"Oh thank God," the guy said, running a hand through his hair. "I thought I was the last idiot alive."
Aarav slowly lowered the rod.
"…You too?" he asked.
Another guy snorted. "Buddy, I ran through half a city full of dead people. If this is a dream, I want a refund."
Tension broke.
They didn't exchange real names. Only usernames hovered faintly above their heads, glowing with that same System-blue.
They talked anyway.
Fast. Messy. Overlapping.
Zombies. Running. Almost dying. How stupid the task was. How unfair everything felt.
Complaints turned into jokes.
Jokes turned into familiarity.
They were strangers—
But they'd survived the same nightmare.
A System window appeared above them all.
⟦ GROUP FORMATION CONFIRMED ⟧
⟦ TEMPORARY MALE UNIT ESTABLISHED ⟧
Another followed instantly.
⟦ NEXT TASK ⟧
OBJECTIVE: Reach secondary teleport point
PURPOSE: Partner convergence
TIME LIMIT: Until sunset
NOTICE: Failure will result in separation penalty and difficulty escalation.
One of the men looked up at the sky.
The sun was already tilting west.
"…We don't have much time," he said quietly.
Aarav adjusted his mask, eyes narrowing slightly as he studied the others—not their weapons, not their strength, but how they stood. How they reacted.
How scared they really were.
"Then we move now," he said lightly, like this was a casual decision. "Together."
No one argued.
They stepped off the platform as a unit.
Behind them, somewhere deep in the city, something roared—louder, deeper, angrier than the rest.
Aarav didn't turn around.
But he didn't joke either.
They moved.
Not in formation. Not with confidence. Just close enough that no one vanished into the streets alone.
The second marker pulsed faintly ahead, hovering beyond a cluster of low buildings. The light was weaker now, filtered through the orange haze of a dying afternoon.
A crash echoed from the right.
Too loud.
Too close.
"Down!" someone hissed.
They dropped behind a row of abandoned scooters as a pack spilled out of a storefront—four at first, then two more, drawn by the noise. One of them moved differently. Lower. Faster.
A runner.
It locked onto them instantly.
"Fast one," a voice said, tight.
The runner charged.
God moved before thinking.
He stepped into its path, hooked an arm around its shoulder, and twisted, using its momentum to slam it into a concrete post. The impact cracked bone—but it didn't stop.
The runner clawed back, shrieking, fingers tearing at fabric.
"Name!" one of the men shouted, panic breaking through. "What do we call you?"
God drove the metal rod through the side of its skull.
The scream cut off mid-note.
"God," he said, breath steady. "That's my username."
The body dropped.
No one questioned it.
They didn't have time.
More were coming.
From that moment on, the name stuck—spoken once, then carried silently.
God waved them forward, not commanding, just moving. They followed because stopping meant dying.
They cut through a narrow passage between buildings, vaulting trash bins, skidding on loose gravel. A hand caught at God's sleeve—he tore free without looking back. Another lunged for the man on the left and caught air as a crowbar came down.
The marker flared brighter ahead.
Iron gates.
A wide courtyard beyond.
A university.
Zombies wandered the grounds in loose clusters, drawn by nothing and everything.
"Straight through," God said quietly.
They ran.
The courtyard erupted.
Groans turned to shrieks. Shapes converged from every direction. One tripped and nearly went down—hands grabbed his collar and hauled him forward. Someone screamed. Someone swore. God felt teeth brush past his shoulder and didn't slow.
The teleport circle ignited beneath the gate, light spiraling upward.
"Now!" someone shouted.
They crossed together.
The world folded.
Stone replaced asphalt.
Cool air replaced heat.
God stumbled once, then steadied.
They stood inside a wide university courtyard—academic buildings rising on all sides, windows cracked but intact. Emergency lights glowed faintly along walkways. Torn banners written in Korean fluttered overhead.
No zombies.
For now.
A System chime sounded.
⟦ LOCATION CONFIRMED ⟧
⟦ EVENT ZONE: KOREAN UNIVERSITY ⟧
God exhaled slowly.
They had arrived.
Chapter 2 end