After resting for about thirty minutes, Orion looked at his status.
Name: Orion Vaelor
Exile Gear: Infinite Dream
Specialization: Creation
Origin Energy: 18.95 Units
Physique: 3.46
Matter Limit: 8 KG
"Almost nineteen… Makes sense. I've spent the better part of two hours constantly killing zombies. Even conservatively, I should have killed over a thousand and five hundred of them by now. Considering what Great Red said, there should be a time dilation factor regarding the dream, giving me more than enough time. This rooftop is safe enough, and I really need a technique to defend myself if the people over at the settlement end up trying to kill me. At the very least, I should have the capability to run from them."
Summoning the techniques interface again, he chose to consume ten Origin Energy to learn Foundational Swordsmanship. At the same time, he received some information directly from the Exile Gear.
Dream starting in 1 minute…
Please ensure you are in a safe location.
The Dream will last for one hour. Time can be further compressed with more Origin Energy.
"An hour, huh? I can manage that. The day has only just begun." Still, to be on the safer side, he decided to block the door with some concrete blocks and a crowbar to make it so that if anyone tried to come up, they would at least make enough noise to alert him.
As the minute passed, he found himself feeling drowsy and fell asleep while leaning against the door that he'd just barred up.
He regained consciousness within his dream, feeling it to be far more cohesive than he imagined even a lucid dream to be. As he looked at the old instructor in front of him with a wooden katana in his hand, he couldn't help but feel that this was beyond even the level of a lucid dream.
"Get ready!" The instructor said sternly, raising his katana high up.
Before he could react, the sword hit him in the head, making him wince from the pain and recoil.
"Posture, now!"
Grumbling with an annoyed expression, Orion nodded and took up the stance that he'd been using to deal with the zombies.
Immediately, he was scolded by the instructor, who quickly fixed his posture to make it work with the katana that he was using.
Slowly, he got the hang of things and started going with the tireless instructor's flow. It was as if he had an endless amount of mental energy sustaining him, constantly training with the katana as he was taught all of the most basic moves in Kenjutsu to perfection. Then, they shifted to a longsword, forcing him to perfect the basic cutting, stabbing, slicing, and other motions. He completely lost all track of time as the dream continued on and on, teaching him all kinds of different foundational knowledge related to any and all sword-type weapons. From sabres, shortswords, long swords, katanas, rapiers, and more, his foundation in any kind of sword-based weapon was honed to perfection under the pressure of constant and tireless training for what felt like months. While he didn't learn any specialized techniques, he felt that what he'd learned was far more valuable than any specific technique, considering he'd gained a comprehensive mastery of all foundational aspects of sword-based weapons.
When he was finally finished after half a year of constant and tireless training, satisfying the teacher, the dream started fading away into an expanse of white. The next time his eyes opened, he was back on the rooftop, leaning against the door as a grin appeared on his face. At the same time, his gear provided him with some information.
Dream concluded successfully. Techniques panel unlocked.
Please strive to integrate the techniques in a month, or they will start fading away from your memories.
It was the second message that made Orion frown momentarily.
Name: Orion Vaelor
Exile Gear: Infinite Dream
Specialization: Creation
Origin Energy: 8.95 Units
Physique: 3.46
Matter Limit: 8 KG
Techniques:
Foundational Swordsmanship (Integrity 100% — Integration 0%)
"Zero percent?" He frowned, trying to recall the knowledge he'd just received. It came to him immediately with nothing missing. He had spent six months single-mindedly learning nothing but sword techniques, but seeing the zero beside the technique left a bad taste in his mouth. He tried to take a standard kenjutsu stance and swung his sword vertically from top to bottom. Immediately, he understood what the issue was.
"I don't have the necessary muscle memory that I developed inside the dream. My mind knows the technique, but my body still needs to learn," he said with a helpless expression. "Can't you two just give me things? Why do you have to make me work so hard for them? Other systems directly give people techniques and masteries, infusing knowledge into their heads. Not to mention, I have a time limit. After a month, this integrity will start going down, forcing me to learn things again if I don't perfectly integrate these techniques."
Sighing at the unfairness of the situation, he moved the things away from the door. Cursing the two dragons wouldn't get him anywhere, and it would be better to blow off steam on the zombies instead. It would both help him integrate the techniques he'd learned and allow him to gather Origin Energy to improve his physique and mind. He guessed that the time limit of the integrity was impacted by the strength of his mind. If he strengthened his physique further, that time limit might even disappear.
With that, he continued on his way to the apartment building while taking a slight detour that would get him to go through more zombies. Since the street in front of the apartment was practically cleared, he wanted to stock up on some more Origin Energy before going there and also get a hang of all the techniques that he'd learned in the dream.
As he went down, his speed and efficiency of killing zombies almost immediately improved by more than three times. Not only that, his movements were consuming far less energy than before. With each swing of his katana, he was getting more and more proficient and experienced, as if he'd spent years training with it. Of course, that was mostly because of his robust fundamental knowledge regarding the technique that allowed him to quickly correct every little mistake in his movements.
As another hour passed, he was already in front of the apartment building, having left an almost endless number of zombie corpses in his wake. He'd killed far more zombies this time, netting him more than forty-four points within an hour, bringing his total to 54.38 units. He stood outside the building for almost five minutes, hoping that someone would come down to see him. He didn't want to shout and attract zombies, so he simply waited outside. Unfortunately, he wasn't exactly known for his patience and decided to use the fire escape to climb up to the third floor and enter through an unlocked window. It had taken him some maneuvering, but with his current physique, he needed minimal effort to pull himself up with even a single arm.
The first thing he noticed upon entering the room was that the room had been ransacked of any useful items. Having expected that someone lived here, he nodded and started going through the apartments one by one, looking for any supplies and also any survivors.
Almost two hours passed as he continued going through the building apartment by apartment, and he neither found any survivors nor any supplies. By now, he was under the full assumption that he had been one step behind the group and they had left today. Still, for the sake of completing the search, he came up to the top floor, with the more luxurious apartments. Searching through the first and second units gave him no results, but the third unit was different. Before he even opened the door, he heard a peculiar sound from the inside, very similar to a zombie's groans.
Tightening his grip on his katana, he tried to open the door. This was the first locked door he'd seen in this entire building. After a few more attempts, he decided to brute force it and shoved his katana between the door, directly slicing through any locking mechanisms. As the door swung open, he stepped forward cautiously. Looking at what seemed like a stocked kitchen on the side and a half-opened bag of potato chips, he was forced to revise his conjecture of the group having left. Not only that, he was starting to doubt whether there was a group here in the first place.
Stepping forward, he noticed a light coming from under the door of the same room where he was hearing the zombies' groans. He raised his brow in surprise at the possibility of electricity. Flipping a few switches, he realized that there was indeed power in the building as multiple lights turned on.
"Probably a generator for emergencies. This is clearly a higher-end complex than the other ones that I came through," he said, turning off the lights. "Still, no need to waste the power."
Finally, he entered the room with the light shining through. At the same time, he froze in place at the view in front of him. On the bed, a beautiful woman with blonde hair was tied up with ropes that wrapped all around her body. He had seen enough in his life to know that it was a type of shibari bondage that was made to specifically emphasize the curves of a woman with ropes that compressed just the right places. Her arms and legs were both tied together as well, and there was a metal collar attached to her neck, the other end of which was drilled into the ceiling, leaving no chance of escape even if her hands got free from the ropes. While she was still fully clothed, Orion felt a sense of disgust erupt inside him as he came to his own conclusions.
"What kind of sick freak would do this… To a zombie, no less. I get that she's beautiful…more so than most normal people. Fucking humans…"
The zombified blonde noticed him, and her groans grew louder, with a hint of hunger in her eyes. Unfortunately, the ropes were tight and seemingly unbreakable. He tightened his grip on his katana and approached the restrained zombie, intent on freeing her from her misery. Still, he couldn't help but notice the fact that she barely looked like a zombie like the ones outside. Her skin was pale, but far from the rotting, bloodless kind that zombies had, but more from a fair complexion. Even her hair seemed much more vibrant than what he'd seen on zombies. The only physical feature that could identify her as a zombie was the yellowed sclera in her otherwise blue eyes.
A thought appeared in his mind that killing her might just net him more Origin Energy than the other zombies.
As he raised his sword to put an end to the zombie, a cold item pressed against the back of his head. He instinctively knew that it was a gun.
"Mōichido kōdō shitara shinu," he heard a woman say something in Japanese from behind him, followed by the cocking of the gun as it stayed pressed against his skull.
***
If you like the story, follow it and leave a review, and whatever else, it motivates me a lot. I try not to leave any mistakes in the chapters, but if you find something glaring, let me know, and I'll try to fix it.