Zombie Survival System

Chapter 2: People with the same fate

Outside, the sound of zombies pouring into the street rumbled like an earthquake. In the dark house, only the dim moonlight from the boarded-up window shone in.

After a while, it seemed like the outside was quiet, and the three of them breathed a sigh of relief. Liam got out of the motorbike and stood panting, his hands on his knees, his body still trembling. Only then did he realize that his whole body was drenched in sweat.

“Mike, what about you?”

Mike - the guy driving the motorbike threw a look at Liam, smirked, and introduced his name. Liam looked up, his eyes still dazed but tried to calm down and said:

“My name is Liam, thank you two for saving my life.”

“Try to check if you have been scratched by any zombies, you might be transformed later.”

Mike said while taking off his jacket. Liam's face changed color after hearing that, he quickly raised his hands and feet to check if he had any injuries. Seeing Liam's panicked appearance made the platinum-haired girl smile slightly, saying:

"You scared him, Mike. Don't worry, if you were injured by a zombie, you would have transformed in 5 seconds, not incubating for that long. My name is Lena, I'm glad you're still alive."

Lena winked at Liam. Hearing that, Liam breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Mike with reproach. Then Liam remembered something important and said:

"I... I think I was dragged into a game called Zombie Survival System. Is everyone like me?"

"Me too." Lena nodded.

"How unlucky, just because of curiosity I was dragged into this mess."

Mike sat down on the worn fabric sofa and sighed. Lena raised her left hand to start her system. A transparent status panel appeared.

[Level 2]

HP: 200/200

VIT: 190/200

SAN: 4.5/5

EXP: 60/ 250

Skills: [None]

Weapon: Pistol

“Sigh, just a little exercise consumes so much stamina.”

Lena sighed. Seeing this, Liam raised his left hand and opened his system panel.

[Level 1]

HP: 100/100

VIT: 85/100

SAN: 4.2/5

EXP: 0/100

Skills: [None]

Weapon: Iron Bar

“Why am I even worse off than you? What do the VIT and SAN stats mean?”

Liam asked, frowning. Then he saw an information item on his left hand, next to the system screen. Liam clicked on it and a transparent status board appeared before his eyes.

BASIC STATS TABLE

HP: Health. Lose all will die. Can be recovered by medicine, rest, or special skills. HP limit will be increased when upgrading the system.

VIT: Physical strength, affects endurance, running time, climbing, light damage resistance, and natural HP recovery speed. The VIT limit will be increased when upgrading the system.

SAN: Mind, mental stability. Decreases when witnessing horror, panic, or being pressured by the system. If it drops too low, it can lose control or be assimilated. SAN does not increase the limit.

Skills: players can collect skills from zombies; the zombie level and skill rarity correspond to each other. Players can use multiple skills at the same time, depending on the player's own proficiency and conversion.

Weapons: players can collect from the surroundings or craft. Players can only equip one weapon on the status board.

“What should we do to get out of this damn place? Does anyone know?”

Liam looked at Lena and asked. She crossed her arms and shook her head, not to know. Mike spoke up before Liam’s loss of composure:

“We were just sucked into this game disc the other day, we still don’t know how the system works or how to get out of it.”

Lena glanced at Liam’s system, then frowned and said:

“You haven’t completed the first mission, right?”

Lena’s words stunned Liam because he didn’t know about the missions she mentioned. He fumbled to find the Mission section. Lena saw Liam’s confusion and then told him what she knew:

“The Mission section is on your right, along with your Inventory and the Game Map. Missions are divided into 3 types: Main Missions, Personal Missions, and System Missions.”

Liam heard that and raised his right hand, and sure enough, there were 3 icons on his right wrist. He pressed the Quest icon. A transparent status board immediately appeared in front of him.

[Quest Board:

Main Quest: Survival

Personal Quest: Defeat a zombie +100 EXP

System Quest: None]

“So I need to defeat a zombie to gain EXP and level up, right? The zombie’s weak point is its head?”

Liam asked after looking at the Quest board. Lena nodded and added:

“For now, that’s all we know about this system. I think we should rest now and go out tomorrow to find some food reserves.”

Mike nodded in agreement. Then he stood up and rummaged through the cardboard box next to him, he found a box of cookies and threw it to Liam, saying:

“After you finish eating, find a place to lie down and rest. We will split up to guard, me first, then you and Lena.”

Liam grabbed the box of cookies and said thank you. He watched Mike cautiously approach the door and observe the outside, while Lena had already fallen back on the cardboard and was slowly falling asleep. He lowered his head to look at the box of cookies and sighed, no longer in the mood to swallow anything.

Everything happened like a dream. The zombies were no different from the movies and games he had seen, but here they were a hundred times more terrifying. It was true that he loved the horror survival game genre, but it was not his forte. Especially when he confronted it and had to pay with his life, Liam could not help but feel scared.

Outside, the screams of the zombies still echoed. Liam's real battle for survival... had just begun.

---------------------------- Peaceful memories -------------------------

Liam sat in the university library, the pale yellow light shining down on the messy pile of documents in front of him. A heavy sigh sounded as he closed the book, his eyes bored glancing at the phone screen.

10:00 pm

"So boring."

Liam sighed to himself. He leaned back in his chair. The essay was still unfinished, but he had no mind to continue. Lately, Liam felt that his life around him was quite boring, he was looking forward to finding something special to do. When asked for advice, his friends showed him a few favorite survival horror games, but he didn't have enough skills to pass the level. Even so, he still loved this genre of game.

Maybe he was a stubborn fool.

Liam thought to himself. As if by a joke of fate, at that moment, Liam's eyes accidentally stopped at an old bookshelf in the corner of the library. The wooden shelf was rotten, covered with thick layers of dust, looking like it had been forgotten for many years. Liam frowned as he searched his memory for this shelf, he had never seen it before.

Liam curiously stood up and walked over, he walked past the rows of empty tables in the library. The closer he got, the faster his heart unconsciously beat, the musty smell of wood and old pages rushed into his nose, making Liam even more excited. Standing in front of the wooden shelf, Liam quietly observed the neatly arranged books.

Nothing was interesting, just books and books. Liam thought to himself and was about to turn away, but his eyes accidentally bumped into something. It was a game disc that looked quite old. On the cover of the box, the words "Zombie Survival System" were printed prominently on a dark background. There was no publisher logo, no description, not even a barcode. This game seemed like it had never existed on any platform.

Interest arose, Liam picked up the game box, his fingers lightly brushing away the thick layer of dust on the surface. A cold feeling ran down his spine, but then he shook his head, telling himself that he was just imagining it. This was exactly the type of game he loved.

"There's a game disc in the library? How strange."

Liam raised his eyebrows hurriedly gathered his books and went to the librarian to check out the game disc, but there was no one on duty. After standing for a while but still not seeing anyone, he had no choice but to sneak out with the game disc in his backpack.

Returning to the dormitory, today was the weekend so his friends were all out. Liam felt happy, he quickly turned on the computer and put the game disc in the drive. The dormitory room was pitch black, only the faint blue light from the computer screen reflected on Liam's face. The clock was almost midnight...

Zombie Survival System

The text appeared. An old interface with only two simple buttons:

[START] — [EXIT]

No trailer, no instructions, no installation options, just two buttons. Liam frowned a little confused but then he pressed Start.

BOOM!

The screen suddenly lit up violently. A sharp pain felt like thousands of needles were piercing his skull. Liam screamed, but the sound was sucked into the void. Liam felt his body being pulled forward, everything around him shattering into swirling pieces of data.

The world around him flashed with a blinding light and then went out, returning to a quiet black night sky…