The kick came before Ren could brace himself.
Thud.
His ribs hurt a lot. The cafeteria floor felt cold against his face, and it was sticky with something disgusting.
"I'll ask one more time." Vance's voice was calm. "Where is it?"
Ren tasted blood in his mouth. His chest hurt every time he tried to breathe. Three other students stood in a behind Vance, watching like this was entertainment.
"I don't—" Ren started.
Another kick landed, this time hitting him in the stomach.
Crack.
He curled up on the floor, gasping for breath, but his chest felt stiff. The viral core in his pocket felt heavy. It was just a small, glowing crystal. He'd found it while scrubbing out the bio-waste bins.
And now Vance knew.
"Search him," Vance said.
Rough hands flipped Ren onto his back. Someone pulled his arms out while another boy searched his jacket. They were all at the cafeteria. Other students were busy eating, pretending not to notice. Nobody helped. Nobody ever helped.
In Zone Zero, you kept your head down or you became the example.
Marcus's hand stopped at Ren's pocket.
"Got it."
He pulled out the core. It shone in the light, pulsing with a soft blue glow. This tiny crystal was worth more than food or safety. In their world, you had to be strong to survive, and this little crystal was the key to changing your life forever.
Just not Ren's life.
Vance took it and held it up to the light. His skin started to change, turning gray and rough like a rock. This was Stone Skin, a Tier 3 mutation. The kind of power that made you untouchable in a place like this.
"You know what this is worth?" Vance asked. "Three days of hunt rations. Maybe a spot in the scavenging teams."
"And you thought you'd just... keep it?" Vance crouched down, bringing his face close. "You. An F-rank Carrier. You thought you deserved this?"
The thing about being called a Carrier was that it wasn't even an insult. It was just true. After the Red Rain fell and the world went crazy, everyone either died, turned into zombies, or awakened. Most awakened people got powers. They became strong or fast, or they could turn their skin to stone.
Ren got nothing.
His only job was to carry stuff for important people. He got to clean up the messes. He got to be useful in the same way a mop was useful.
"I found it," Ren said. "It's mine because I found it."
That was the wrong thing to say.
Vance's expression didn't change. He just stood up, rolling the core between his fingers.
"You know what I think?" Vance said. "I think you are getting too comfortable. I think you forgot your place." He looked at Marcus. "Teach him."
Marcus grinned. He was Tier 2, Enhanced Strength type. His punch could break walls. Ren had seen it happen before.
This was going to hurt.
At that moment, Ren reached a breaking point. It could have been the pain, hunger, or the fact that he'd been treated like shit for months. He stared at the crystal in Vance's hand and thought: If I give this up, nothing changes. Tomorrow I'm still worthless. Tomorrow I'm still getting kicked.
His hand shot out.
Ren grabbed Vance's wrist and snatched the crystal back. Before anyone could react, He put the crystal in his mouth and swallowed it.
The cafeteria went silent.
The core went down hard.
Vance stared at his empty hand. Then at Ren.
"You... you idiot."
"That was mine," Ren managed to speak. His mouth was full of blood. But the core was inside him now. Where they couldn't take it.
"Do you have any idea what you just did?" Vance's voice became louder. "That's a raw viral core! Unrefined! You just swallowed a virus! You're going to turn into a zombie, you piece of shit"
Marcus grabbed Ren by the collar and pulled him up. "Boss, what do we do with him"
"Beat him until he stops moving. Then dump him in the basement with the rest of the infected."
The first punch came fast.
Crack.
Ren saw stars as another punch landed. He felt and heard his nose break. He tasted more blood in his mouth.
They kept kicking and punching him. After a while, he stopped feeling the pain. Every hit just felt like something heavy pushing against him.
"That's enough." Vance's voice. "He's out. Grab his legs."
They started dragging him across the floor. His head bounced on each step as they went down the stairs
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Darkness.
Then nothing.
Ren felt like he was floating in the darkness. He heard voices and footsteps coming from far away. Then, he heard a door slam shut.
His body felt wrong. He was burning up as if he was beside a fire.
This was it. He was becoming a zombie. Everyone knew the signs. You get a bad fever, lose your mind, then your eyes went milky white and you started craving human flesh.
He'd seen it happen to a girl in his class. One day she was fine. The next day she was trying to bite people's throats out.
But something felt different.
The burning feeling in his veins had a pattern to it. Like his body was breaking old parts down and building new ones. Even though it was very painful, he realized his body wasn't failing. It was changing into something else.
Light bloomed in the darkness.
Ren's eyes snapped open.
Words were floating in his vision. They had the same blue glow as the crystal he swallowed.
[VIRUS DETECTED]
[ANALYZING...]
[GENE-FORGE SYSTEM INITIALIZING...]
[SYNCHRONIZATION: 1%... 15%... 47%...]
Ren tried to move, but he couldn't. The words kept changing, scrolling past like a video game interface.
[SYNCHRONIZATION COMPLETE]
[GENE-FORGE SYSTEM... ONLINE]
[HOST STATUS: CRITICAL]
[INITIATING EMERGENCY REFINEMENT PROTOCOL]
Then the real pain started.
His whole body felt like it was on fire. He tried to scream, but he couldn't make any sound. The burning feeling started in his chest where the core was and then moved through the rest of his body.
He could feel his blood starting to boil. His temperature spiked past 105 and 106 degrees, reaching levels that should have killed him. But instead it was working. Doing something.
Images flashed through his mind. The day the Red Rain fell and the sky turned dark red. The raindrops hit the school windows and looked just like blood. Students were screaming. The cafeteria becoming a war zone in minutes. The lockdown. The barricades. The new world that came after.
It all played in fast-forward.
Then it stopped.
Suddenly, the burning stopped. Ren breathed in deeply, taking his first real breath in a very long time. His whole body finally relaxed.
Something dripped from his arms. He looked down.
He was covered in a thick, black slime. It was coming out of him. His body was sweating this stuff.
[REFINEMENT COMPLETE]
[VIRAL IMPURITIES EXPELLED]
[EVOLUTIONARY ENERGY ABSORBED]
[UPDATING HOST STATUS...]
The text changed. New information appeared.
[HOST: REN VALE]
[RANK: F → D]
[TIER: CARRIER → AWAKENED (TIER 2)]
[STRENGTH: 0.7 → 3.5]
[SPEED: 0.8 → 3.0]
[DURABILITY: 0.6 → 2.8]
[SPECIAL ABILITY: GENE-FORGE (UNIQUE)]
Ren stared at the words. He read them again and again because he couldn't believe it.
He was now a Tier 2 Awakened. The kid who couldn't even open a stuck jar without help.
He raised his hand. It moved smoothly.
He made a tight fist.
He could feel the strength there.
Slowly, Ren sat up.
He started to see the basement clearly. It was dark and cold. This was where they put the infected students who were turning into zombies. He saw piles of old desks, broken chairs, and cleaning tools in the corners.
He stood up. His legs were strong and didn't shake. He didn't feel any pain at all.
A broken mop handle was on the floor next to his foot. He picked it up. The moment he touched it, text appeared floating above the wood.
[ITEM: MOP HANDLE]
[DURABILITY: 12/100]
[GRADE: TRASH]
[GENETIC DATA: NONE]
He looked at the desk. More text.
[ITEM: WOODEN DESK]
[DURABILITY: 34/100]
[GRADE: COMMON]
[GENETIC DATA: NONE]
Everything had information now. He could measure and study everything he saw. He understood it all.
A sound came from somewhere in the basement. It was a dragging, moving sound. Then he heard a moan.
Ren turned.
Two glowing eyes stared at him from the dark. They looked hungry. A figure stumbled into the dim light. It used to be a student, but the virus had completely changed him. He had gray skin, a broken jaw, and his fingers all bent the wrong way.
A zombie.
The thing attacked.
Ren moved without even thinking. He stepped to the side quickly. It felt easy and natural. The zombie missed him and crashed into the wall.
Thud.
It turned, hissing as it attacked again.
This time Ren didn't dodge. He gripped the mop handle and swung.
Crack.
The handle hit the zombie's head. The hit shook his arms, but he liked the feeling. The zombie fell straight to the ground
Text appeared above its body.
[DEFEATED: INFECTED STUDENT (TIER 0)]
[GENETIC MATERIAL DETECTED]
[ABSORB? YES/NO]
Ren stared at the words and at the dead zombie.
He finally understood everything. He realized the truth about this new world and his place in it.
He wasn't prey anymore.
He was the predator.
And every zombie in this school was now a fuel for his evolution.
Ren looked at the text floating in his vision.
He smiled.
"Yes," he whispered to the empty basement. "Absorb."
The body began to glow.