Pain was the first thing Victor noticed.
Which was strange.
He was pretty sure dying was supposed to prevent that.
His eyes opened slowly.
The world looked… wrong.
The sky was gray.
Not cloudy gray.
More like ash smeared across the sky gray.
Victor blinked.
His vision struggled to focus.
"…Why do I feel like I got hit by a truck…" he muttered.
He tried to sit up.
Something squished beneath him.
Victor frowned and looked down.
"…Oh."
He was lying on a pile of bodies.
Some fresh.
Some very not.
Victor stared at them for a moment.
"Well," he sighed.
"Could be worse."
He pushed himself upright.
His arm bent the wrong way.
Victor froze.
"…That's not good."
He grabbed his forearm and twisted it back into place.
CRACK
"Yep," he said calmly.
"Definitely not good."
Then something appeared in front of his vision.
A glowing blue screen.
SYSTEM INITIALIZING
Victor stared at it.
"…Oh great."
The screen flickered.
Twisted Zombie Evolution System Activated
Victor blinked.
"…The hell is that?"
A mechanical voice echoed inside his head.
System:
Good morning, Victor.
Victor looked around.
"…Who said that?"
System:
Correction. I am not "who." I am what.
Victor rubbed his face.
"Fantastic. I die and come back schizophrenic."
System:
Correction.
A pause.
System:
You are no longer alive.
Victor frowned.
"Yeah I noticed."
System:
Correction.
Another pause.
System:
You are now classified as Zombie Variant: Conscious Type.
Victor blinked slowly.
"…I'm sorry."
He looked down at himself.
Torn clothes.
Grey skin.
Blood all over his chest.
"…What?"
He stood up quickly.
That was when something else hit him.
Victor looked down at his body.
Then froze.
"…Wait."
He checked again.
Then again.
Victor stared in horror.
"…Where the hell is my dick?"
Silence.
Then the system spoke again.
System:
Scanning…
A pause.
System:
Confirmed.
Victor looked up.
"CONFIRMED?!"
System:
Penile structure not detected.
Victor stared into the sky.
"You're telling me…"
He gestured angrily at himself.
"…I died, got reincarnated, turned into a zombie…"
He looked down again.
"…and they didn't even give me my dick back?!"
System:
Statistically speaking, reproduction is unnecessary for undead organisms.
Victor pointed upward angrily.
"IT'S NOT ABOUT REPRODUCTION!"
System:
Emotional instability detected.
Victor sighed deeply.
"…You know what, forget it."
He rubbed his face.
"Still better than my uncle."
The system paused.
System:
Psychological coping mechanism detected: dark humor.
Victor looked around the ruined city.
Burned buildings.
Crashed cars.
Blood everywhere.
"Alright," he said.
"What the hell happened to this world?"
The system flickered again.
WORLD HISTORY FILE UNLOCKED
Victor groaned.
"Oh great, a tutorial."
System:
Approximately eleven years ago, an extraterrestrial meteorite struck Earth.
Images appeared in Victor's mind.
A massive rock falling from the sky.
The object was named Excidium.
Scientists studying the meteorite discovered unknown elements.
Elements not present on the periodic table.
Governments rushed to study it.
The system continued.
Four scientists led the primary research program.
Names appeared.
Ye Fan
Edward Lockswood
Rajbir Singh
Damien Lucifer
Victor raised an eyebrow.
"…Lucifer?"
System:
Correct.
Victor sighed.
"Yeah that name should've been a red flag."
The system continued.
After years of experimentation, the scientists discovered Excidium produced a mutagenic energy source.
However, containment failed during a large-scale experiment.
The resulting explosion spread Excidium particles across the planet.
Victor watched the images.
Cities burning.
People mutating.
Animals transforming.
Plants growing monstrous.
System:
Approximately 72% of humanity perished during the first six months.
Victor whistled softly.
"Damn."
System:
Remaining humans evolved into two categories.
Images appeared again.
Category 1 – Mutants
Humans who adapted to Excidium.
They gained supernatural abilities like,
Fire manipulation.
Telekinesis.
Enhanced strength.
Lightning.
Regeneration.
System:
Mutants grow stronger by harvesting Excidium Cores.
However, human bodies cannot directly absorb raw cores.
Victor scratched his head.
"So what do they do?"
System:
Cores must be processed into liquid solutions through specialized biochemical procedures.
Images appeared of laboratories.
Scientists experimenting.
Many failures.
Many deaths.
System:
The core absorption method was successfully developed after extensive trials by Ye Fan, Edward Lockswood, Rajbir Singh, and Damien Lucifer.
Victor nodded slowly.
"Alright."
"Smart guys."
Category 2 – Zombies
Victor stared at the second image.
Rotting bodies.
Dead eyes.
Hungry creatures wandering ruined streets.
System:
Zombies can consume cores directly.
Victor raised an eyebrow.
"…Really?"
System:
Yes.
Victor smirked slightly.
"So I just eat them?"
System:
Correct.
Victor cracked his neck.
"Well that sounds easy."
System:
Incorrect.
Victor frowned.
"…What?"
System:
Mutants are significantly stronger than you.
Victor looked at his rotting arms.
"…Fair point."
System:
Additionally, evolved animals, monsters, and plants also possess cores.
Victor sighed.
"So basically everything wants to kill me."
System:
Correct.
Victor rubbed his face again.
"Fantastic."
He looked down at his decaying hands.
Then he smiled slightly.
"Alright."
He looked out at the ruined city.
"Let's see how long I survive this apocalypse."
The system chimed again.
New Objective Unlocked
Consume your first core.
Victor cracked his neck.
"Well…"
He glanced at the nearest zombie shambling nearby.
"…it's feasting time."
And somewhere…
Far away…
The Devil smiled.