ROAR—!!!
A foul wind hit me in the face.
The "Data Zombie," possessing only an upper body, let out a shriek like fingernails scratching a chalkboard. Its hands slammed against the ground, launching itself like a catapulted meat projectile, straight for my throat.
Time seemed to stretch out in this moment.
By the weak light of my phone's flash, I could see every disgusting detail on its rotten face: the eyeball wobbling on its cheek from inertia, the black data residue stuck between its teeth, and the green mosaic code flashing frantically at its severed waist.
It was fast. Faster than any normal biological creature.
Two meters. One and a half meters. One meter.
The aura of death was like a pair of cold hands, choking my neck tight. My brain was screaming "Run," but my legs felt as heavy as lead, nailed to the spot, unable to move.
This is the instinctual fear humans face when confronted by an apex predator—the Freeze Response.
But I couldn't run. Once I turned my back to it, I was truly dead.
"Steady... Lynn... You're a tester... Finding bugs is how you put food on the table..."
I chanted frantically in my mind, biting my lip until it bled. The metallic taste of blood spreading in my mouth awakened a shred of my sanity.
I stared dead at the AR vision on my phone screen.
On the floor between me and the zombie, that red dotted box was flashing like crazy.
[WARNING: Collision_Mesh_Missing]
Simply put, that was an invisible deep well.
"Come on! You discarded file!"
I used all my strength to let out a roar, both to draw its aggro and to embolden myself.
The zombie obviously didn't understand my taunt, but it understood my fear. Its hideous mouth grinned wider, revealing jagged fangs inside, its body blurring into an afterimage in mid-air.
Closer. Even closer.
Its sharp claws were less than twenty centimeters from the tip of my nose; I could even feel the cold wind from its fingertips stinging my face.
In this instant—
It landed. Or rather, it "thought" it landed.
According to the laws of physics, its hands should have slapped heavily onto the marble tile, using the recoil to bounce up again, then accurately pin me down and snap my neck.
Its movements were standard, its prediction perfect. Unfortunately, it didn't understand program logic.
Zzzzt—Woom!
An extremely bizarre electronic noise—like a mix of microphone feedback and a short circuit—rang out abruptly in the lobby.
No impact sound. No point of contact.
Under my gaze, the zombie's withered, powerful gray ghost hands, along with its hideous head, passed through the floor as if passing through a holographic projection, "clipping" right through without obstruction!
That visual dislocation made my brain spin with vertigo.
My eyes saw solid floor, but the object sank right into it.
[Physical Collision Anomaly Detected.] [Subject stuck in Terrain Bug.]
A green prompt box popped up on my phone screen.
"Gotcha!"
I shouted in excitement, my adrenaline instantly maxing out.
The zombie clearly hadn't anticipated this situation. Its AI logic probably only contained "Seek Enemy," "Charge," and "Bite," with absolutely no option for "Floor Suddenly Disappears."
The sensation of weightlessness caused its offense to collapse instantly.
More than half of its body instantly sank into that black void.
However, things didn't go as smoothly as I imagined.
It didn't fall straight down to its death.
The moment before it completely fell into the void, its sharp claws instinctively grabbed out to the sides—
Skreee!
A tooth-aching friction sound rang out.
It actually managed to dig its claws into the cracks of the "normal texture" floor at the edge of the hole!
At this moment, it was like a rock climber hanging off a cliff. The mosaic of its lower body was glitching out wildly in the void, emitting zzzt electric sounds, while its hideous head and two arms were still in the lobby.
It looked up, that eyeball hanging on its cheek staring dead at me, and let out an angry roar from its mouth.
"ROAR!!!"
Muscles on its arms bulged as it actually tried to use brute force to pull itself out of the Bug!
"Holy shit! That didn't kill it?!"
My scalp went numb with fear; my excitement instantly turned into terror.
This isn't a game; this is reality! Monsters have a survival instinct!
I watched it climb up inch by inch, its nails scratching sparks against the floor. Once it climbed out, fully alert, it would definitely tear me to shreds in a second.
"Can't let it get up!"
Fear reached its peak and transformed into ferocity.
Without any hesitation, I lunged forward. I raised the heavy red fire axe high with both hands. The insulating tape on the handle was a bit sticky, but I gripped it deathly tight, my knuckles turning white from the force.
In this moment, many images flashed through my mind.
I thought of that bastard lawyer who threw me the key and ran off into the rainy night. I thought of my Great-Uncle who ran away from a buttload of debt and made me take the fall. And that despair-inducing "Debt: 100 Million" on my phone.
All the grievances, all the anger, all the despair converged into my arms at this moment.
"DIE... DAMN YOU!!!"
I let out a hysterical roar, swung my arms in a full arc, and brought the fire axe down. It drew a grim red afterimage in the darkness, carrying a whistling wind, and chopped down viciously.
Target: That head stuck on the floor, straining with all its might!
Splurt!
A dull, sickening sound.
There was no blood splatter as expected. Instead, a thick, fluorescent green slurry sprayed out, splashing all over me, even into my mouth.
The taste... bitter, foul, with a hint of burnt plastic.
"Ugh—"
I suppressed the urge to vomit. The web of my thumb went numb from the massive recoil, nearly causing me to drop the axe.
That chop had indeed hit home, embedding deeply into the back of the zombie's head.
But it still wasn't dead!
"ROAR—!!!"
The zombie let out a shrill scream. The eyeball trembled violently from the pain and actually popped out of its socket, rolling to my feet and staring at me like a glass marble.
It struggled frantically, its claws digging into the floor, even trying to grab my ankle. Its strength was terrifying, shaking the axe along with it, nearly throwing me off.
This was a tug-of-war. The loser dies.
"Still not dead?! Why are you so tanky?!"
Looking at those sharp claws only centimeters from my ankle, I felt a chill run down my spine.
I tried to pull the axe out for another swing, but the blade was stuck in its skull (or some kind of hardened data shell) and wouldn't budge.
"Since it won't come out... then GO DOWN!"
I let go with one hand to brace myself against the counter for balance, then raised my leather-shoe-clad right foot and stomped viciously, madly onto the back of the axe head!
Once! Twice! Three times!
"Percussive Maintenance! Do you understand Percussive Maintenance?!"
I cursed as I stomped, putting my entire body weight into pressing it down. "Turn into data! Disappear for me!"
Crack!
With a crisp snapping sound, the zombie's cervical vertebrae (or core data link) finally couldn't withstand this brutal destruction and was completely severed.
Its movements stopped instantly.
The flailing claws dropped limply. The hideous mouth remained frozen in a roaring posture, but the red light in its eyes dimmed rapidly.
Its body lost its support and, along with the fire axe embedded in its head, slid toward the void pit.
"The axe!"
With quick eyes and hands, I reached out and grabbed the end of the axe handle.
This is my only weapon; I absolutely cannot lose it!
The moment I grabbed the axe, the zombie's corpse fell completely into the void.
But there was no sound of impact.
A magical scene unfolded.
Starting from the severed neck, its body began to disintegrate rapidly.
No rotting corpse, no flowing organs.
Its flesh, bones, and even that tattered blue uniform turned into countless green light particles in an instant. These particles were like fireflies scattered by the wind, or strings of forcibly deleted code, drifting slowly in the void.
Less than three seconds.
Only a faint green trace remained on the floor, along with the red fire axe I had pulled back, covered in disgusting slime.
Even the eyeball that rolled away had disappeared.
Everything was as if it never happened, so clean it was scary.
Ding!
Just then, the phone I had been clutching in my left hand suddenly vibrated.
I scrambled to pick it up. A golden prompt box popped up on the screen, looking exceptionally dazzling in the dark lobby.
[Kill Confirmed!] [Subject: Low-Level Data Residue (Zombie_Type_C)] [Trigger Passive: Administrator Mandatory Recycle.] [Combat Rating: D (Messy Victory)] [Reward: Computation Points +5.]
I looked at the top right corner of the screen.
That blood-red "0" that was originally despair-inducing finally jumped.
It turned into a green "5".
Huff... huff...
I collapsed onto the floor, not caring if it was dirty. Gasping for air, sweat had soaked my shirt, sticking it clammily to my back.
My hands were shaking violently—a side effect of the adrenaline overdose. My stomach was churning; that weird taste splashed into my mouth earlier made me dry heave twice.
This was my first time "killing." Although reason told me it was just a pile of data, the sensation of the axe chopping into flesh and the strength of its dying struggle were terrifyingly real.
I survived.
Leaning against the cold counter, I looked at the small number "5" on the phone screen.
5 Points.
Although it was little, pitifully little. In the Main God Space exchange list, 5 points probably couldn't even buy a pack of hardtack.
But in this moment, these insignificant 5 Computation Points looked more dazzling to me than five million in cash.
Slowly, my heartbeat calmed down. The urge to vomit disappeared.
In its place was an unprecedented, stronger emotion.
Greed.
Yes, greed.
The monster that nearly killed me just now... in my eyes, it was no longer an invincible Grim Reaper, nor simply a source of fear.
It had turned into... Walking Money.
It was a pile of data. It was an asset. It was a resource that could let me survive, pay off my debts, and reach the peak of life!
As long as I kill them, there is money. With money, I can modify code. With modified code, I become stronger. Become stronger, and I can kill more monsters and earn more money!
This is a perfect loop.
"Great-Uncle..."
I struggled to crawl up from the floor, picked up the heavy fire axe, and disgustedly wiped the green slime off it with a tissue. The look in my eyes changed from the panic when I first entered, becoming sharp.
"Although you pitted me and gave me this mess... I think I'm starting to understand how to play this 'Game'."
This isn't a horror movie. This is a Tycoon Game. And I am the only player, and the only Administrator.
I turned to look at the main door.
There was still a large hole torn open by the zombie, cold wind whistling through it. In the fog outside, rustling sounds could still be heard; it seemed more things were attracted by the commotion here.
I knew tonight wasn't over. This was just the beginning.