In another place, far away from Gomez and Lisa
"Tch, Nicholas…!"
"Forget helping others and let's run away before more of those creepy creatures come!"
"Leslie, how can you be so cold-hearted about this…?"
Nicholas complained with a frown as he helped a woman who had fallen to the ground, probably because her legs had betrayed her out of fear. Honestly, even he was scared.
He looked into the terrified woman's face and shook her by the shoulders firmly.
"Ma'am, pull yourself together! Those creatures are slow, but if you don't move, they'll reach you…"
It seemed his words had some effect , she suddenly stood up and started running without even looking back at her savior or thanking him.
Nicholas sighed helplessly, stood up, brushed off his clothes, then lifted his head to look at his group, who for some reason had appeared here with him.
Before ending up in this hellish place, he had been celebrating with his close friends at a restaurant, and the last thing he remembered was going to the bathroom, then somehow, he woke up here, as if someone had plucked the memories between those two moments right out of his brain.
"Can we go now!?" Leslie asked irritably, folding her arms in front of her chest. She was a woman in her early thirties.
Nicholas scratched the back of his head and let out a small laugh while staring at his wife's angry sister, then turned his gaze to the short man in his forties beside her, who only shrugged.
"Liz, you know me , I can't just stand still…"
She interrupted, waving her hand. "Yeah, yeah, you and your big heart… let's just go."
He nodded in agreement, and as they moved, he glanced at the user interface floating in front of him.
[ Name: Nicholas Hilazy ]
[ Level: 1 ]
[ Points: 3 ]
[ Immunity: 22 hours, 54 minutes… ]
When his eyes landed on the points, he couldn't help but sigh in relief. Luckily, he had chosen the silver cup, which only deducted 20 points. If he had chosen the golden one, it would've cost him 100 points.
He learned the golden cup's value because one of their companions had mentioned it before turning into a zombie.
That man said that because he didn't have enough points to cover the cup's cost, his level automatically converted into points to compensate for the difference.
According to the rules, dropping to level 0 meant death.
"These things… the zombies, the floating screen, the challenge ... they're all like the games Gomy used to play…" he muttered with a frown, though his expression quickly turned to worry.
"I wonder how that kid is doing! I hope he wasn't dragged into this place too…"
"Tch! Why am I thinking so negatively? There's no way he's here…"
An image appeared in his mind , of a young man with black hair and honey-brown eyes, in his early twenties.
What Nicholas didn't know was that the young man he was thinking of was, in fact, one of the unlucky ones who had ended up here as well.
"Wow! Gael, tell me, how can you fight like that so professionally? Are you maybe… a soldier!?" Lisa asked with admiration and curiosity as she watched the man before her take down three zombies as if they were nothing.
"A soldier? , Do I look like one to you?" Gomez replied, raising an eyebrow, wiping the blood off his knife and hand onto the clothes of a zombie whose lifeless eyes had gone dim.
"Um, well, you've got a fit body and fight like the guys I see only in TV shows…" Lisa said, staring at Gomez, who was rummaging through the zombie's pockets like a pickpocket searching for something.
"Hmm, found it…" Gomez muttered as he pulled a mobile phone from the zombie's pocket. He pressed the power button, and luckily, the phone still worked.
"Tsk! It's Locked!" he grumbled, staring at the phone's locked screen in his hand. He flipped it over and smirked slightly when he saw a fingerprint sensor.
"What are you doing!?" Lisa asked, squatting down beside him. Gomez grabbed the zombie's right hand, adjusted the index finger, and placed it on the sensor.
Click!
"Perfect…" He released the zombie's pale hand, letting it drop, then began using the phone. But before that, he glanced at Lisa, frowning.
"Lisa, what are you doing!? Do you want to get us killed!?"
Her eyes widened, and she replied in confusion,
"Huh!? What do you mean!?"
He sighed. "Woman, watch our surroundings! What if a zombie sneaks up on us while we're both distracted!?"
"Oh, don't worry. I doubt they'd dare come close after you took down more than ten of them…"
He gave her a side glance, ignored her, and focused on the phone again. He went to the contacts app and quickly dialed a number. He planned to call his uncle Nicholas, who was also in Barcelona, Spain.
He pressed the call button and raised the phone to his ear.
"Is it working!?" Lisa asked curiously.
He put a finger to his lips, signaling her to stay quiet.
Call failed , please check your network and try again later.
"What!?" He redialed immediately but heard the same tone.
Call failed , please check your network and try again later.
"Are you kidding me!? The signal's clearly full!!" Gomez snapped in frustration. He could see all the signal bars filled. He entered his own number and called again.
Call failed , please check your netwo...
He pulled the phone away from his ear, a deep frown etched across his face.
"Just as I expected , no signal in this place…" he muttered under his breath in disappointment.
"Whoever brought us here made sure to cut off all contact with the outside world…" he thought bitterly.
He pushed those thoughts aside and checked the remaining time.
[ 19:03 ]
"Only nineteen minutes left… but what will really happen when the time runs out?"
Lisa heard his mumble and replied, "Maybe… we'll probably get out of this place."
"Maybe…" Gomez muttered under his breath. He put the phone in his pocket, drew his small knife, and walked toward the zombie entering the hallway.
"Yes… that's it, come closer to Papa Patrick…" Patrick shouted with joy inside his mind as he stared at the fool walking toward him instead of running away like the others. But the only sound that came from his mouth was a beastly growl.
"YES,YES, that's right… come closer, you idiot…" While screaming inside, Patrick could only curse this challenge that had turned him into this disgusting creature.
Patrick was one of the unlucky, greedy ones who had chosen the golden cup, which was why he had ended up as a zombie.
"When I find that bastard responsible for this challenge, I'll smash his face so badly his own mother won't recognize him!" he swore furiously.
"Just wait, you bastard… only a few left…" he stared at the floating screen before his eyes.
[20 / 13]
That value represented the number of people Patrick had managed to turn into zombies by biting or scratching them.
While those who hadn't turned into zombies received the challenge of avoiding getting bitten before the timer ended, the zombies , or rather, those who had turned , were given a chance to return to their human selves.
The condition was simple : infect twenty people.
A simple task! But the problem was that they had lost control of their bodies.
They were merely spectators while their bodies pmoved instinctively and mindlessly.
in other words, they were prisoners of their own flesh!
Naturally, Gomez had no idea about any of this. So when he approached the zombie Patrick, he kicked him hard in the chest, knocking him to the ground. He stepped on the zombie's arm and, without hesitation, bent down and drove the knife through the eye socket until it reached the brain.
"Haah!!" Those were Patrick's last words , he had thought Gomez was just another prey like the rest, before closing his eyes forever.
[+10 Points]
[+1 Level]
Gomez dismissed the notifications that blocked his view and pulled the knife out of the zombie's eye socket.
"Nice one…" Lisa praised him, as if he had just taken out the trash instead of ending someone's life!
"Shhh…" He placed a finger over his lips and gestured for her to stay silent. His eyes narrowed as he slid the knife back into his sleeve, ready.
" what's wrong!?" Lisa whispered seriously after noticing Gomez had suddenly become alert.
"There's a voice...I hear someone…"