Castle Zombies

[New Side Quest Obtained!]

[Perform Sneak Attack on one zombie! Failure to perform this will result in death from a zombie!]

[Reward: Map Feature]

“A sneak attack? Like in the game where I need to go behind the zombie and kill it?” I uttered, but the godly system didn’t reply. “Okay then… How am I going to kill this? I can’t do shit with my bare hands, you know?” Still, nobody gave me an answer. I was on my own, and this system was just ordering me around like a dog on a leash.

Anyway, I needed to assess my situation. And if I wasted any more time, that zombie would approach me and eat me. If I wanted to live, I would have to do what the system said for now.

“Okay, Kisei… I need to find a weapon… A… A… A wood, maybe. A or a metal pipe. I don’t fucking know.”

I quietly looked around, avoiding the zombie’s gaze, trying to find some sort of tool that could help me survive. All these things were just stones and bricks that once served as the foundation of this building. But I had to be crafty. If my hunches were right, that zombie would notice me in less than two minutes if I don’t act now!

When I grasped this brick, my system acknowledged it as equipping something. A picture of me flashed in front of my view, similar to the blue and transparent window a while ago, telling me I had equipped something in my mind and I could only use it once. I could even see its… pathetic stats like its damage and kill potential.

“Now, for the rest of it, I need to kill this zombie using stealth attack,” I thought, and went to the side of the hallway where the zombie wouldn’t see me. “Just like from the character of the game - distract it with this brick, go behind it, and then strangle it or kill it with another brick.”

And just like what I had predicted, the zombie was nearly reaching the end of the corridor. If I don’t do anything, this zombified maid will eat me. But I had a plan that revolved around this brick I had in my hand.

Not to mention, an arc showed up and it aligned where the brick may or may not land. This helped a lot. Thank god this system calculated the line of sight if I throw the brick onto something… or someone. I was a person who didn’t master the art of physics, so I had to rely on this power of mine called the system.

“Here goes nothing!”

I gingerly threw the brick on the right side, followed the arc, and continued hiding from the left. I needed to make a distraction. If I wanted to get out of this alive and kill the zombies, luring them and killing them one by one was my best option.

From the way I saw it, these zombies relied on their sense of sight and hearing, like any other zombie knowledge I had in this stupid brain of mine. Although their minds were already disrupted by their malfunctioning organs, they were still dead humans. What else would they use if not their five senses? Well, except for pain, of course. Pain would be non-existent from these living dead.

It would be a different story if these zombies used magic. Now, that’s fucked up.

The moment the zombie skimmed to the right and turned its back against me was the window I had been waiting for. I got another brick beside my foot and used it as my emergency weapon. I aimed for the head. “The only way to stop them is to shoot them in the head. It’s the only vulnerable spot. Don’t forget it.” A middle aged cop once said after surviving from a town infested zombie.

With one swing of the brick, a mark was left on the zombie’s head, and it cracked the hell out of it. It didn’t behead the maid. But it was enough to take it down back to its grave.

I was also expecting to snap the zombie’s head using my arms if this didn’t work out well. But my worries were futile.

“You did it, Kisei… Would you fucking look at that… You did it.”

Even though I did minimal movement, I found myself gasping for air and letting my cold sweat run through my face. It was me or the maid. Unfortunately, the maid was a zombie, so it died in my hands.

Just like that, my brick, which was once equipped, was now exhausted. So my system thought I didn’t have anything in my hands, and now I had an open slot to bring with me.

This person was once a human being, but got unfortunately bitten by the undead. And I had to remember this was a fantasy world. Thankfully, the games I played, the series I had watched, and the books I read about these zombies were still applicable to these zombies… for now. Thanks to those, I was able to survive this endeavour all by myself.

Should I feel remorse for this person? The answer was simple. This servant was already gone the moment the virus or fungi or something was attached to the neck, and she was already infected. This woman was no longer a human being but a mindless beast wanting to eat other living beings and reproduce. It was their instincts; I supposed. I was not a scientist or the like, but apparently, those were the bread and butter of zombies.

As soon as I bashed the zombie with the brick and killed it, another ringing sound enveloped my head. Luckily, this obnoxious sound lived inside my brain or else it would cause an uproar. But the fact that I hit this zombie with a brick would produce an unforgiving sound. And that became the truth. The crashing noise resonated through the hallway, and that could bring more undead creatures in my direction.

[Congratulations! You have used Stealth Attack!]

[You have been rewarded with a map]

Akin to a game, the zombie produced a faint light out of nowhere. And formed from that luminance was a blueprint of some sort floating in front of my screen. It wasn’t tangible. But when I reached out for this flying paper, the blueprint, which I assumed was the map this system of mine was talking about, absorbed it and made it on its own.

“Is this some kind of loot?” I uttered. “Who gives out maps as loot?!

As luck would have it, my system finally answered my questions as another faint glow materialised from the zombie. This time, it wasn’t a map but experience points and Credits. I had gained 33 EXP from killing a zombie and earned 20 Credits.

Experience points might be the ones I needed to level up, and the Credits were the currency used in this place.

“That reminds me… Why was I so calm when I bashed the zombie’s head as if it was nothing but a monster? And why do I feel… stronger than usual? I’m just eighteen, for fuck’s sake! This isn’t normal.”

To be honest, the maid was a few years above my age. She was a grown adult, and I was just around my teenage years. But still, I took her life. And theoretically, that wasn’t possible.

Unless that certain someone had a system. I recalled my senses and reaction time were upgraded, so I assumed my strength was also doubled than usual. And that may not be far from the truth.

My train of thought ceased to end when another growl caught my ears. Two of them, in fact. And when I peeked from the hallway, two shadows, from left and right, were visible. My guess was… there were two zombies up ahead, and I ought to move on from my original place.

Surprisingly, the map had been downloaded and showed me my surroundings. For the time being, it indicated to me the entire castle levels and the road up ahead. It turned out there was only one way for me to escape, and I needed to take a right from that hallway. However, I still needed to kill those zombies. Those two undead creatures were also marked on my map with a red dot, signalling they were enemies, like in games. I was labelled green, which indicated an ally or the character itself.

This castle had three floors, and I was at the top of it. Surrounding the castle was a gate and a garden… which was about it. The outside world was still painted blank, meaning I couldn’t get a grasp of what was outside the structure. Only the castle, a map, or the place I had been. Well, it didn’t matter. Maybe, similar to the survival games I had played, the moment I could view the outside world or step my foot outside the gates, I could already see the fog of war.