The sound of an explosion shook the air not far from the shelter. Sparks burst outward, followed by black smoke rising into the sky.
The remaining hunters ran alone or in groups. Not a single one looked back at the figure standing in the middle of the explosion. All they knew was to run and survive.
Kael stood at the center of the chaos, drawing all nearby zombies toward him.
"Damn it," he cursed, continuously unleashing his power without pause.
No, he wasn't playing a hero sacrificing himself for others. He simply had no choice. He had been pushed into the middle of this chaos. You could say he had been sacrificed. And the ones who sacrificed him were none other than his own best friend and his lover.
Kael tried to break through, but zombies came from every direction, closing the gaps like a wall of living rotten flesh.
"Bielle… Thorn…" his teeth ground together harshly, his voice full of hatred.
"…I want to see how long you'll last without me."
At that moment, the highest-level zombie appeared, something that almost never happened. A single slash was enough to completely overwhelm Kael.
Yet that slash also shook the surrounding area. The ground cracked, trembling like a small earthquake before finally collapsing.
Pain exploded through his body. Kael groaned and shut his eyes, but then he saw a burst of blue light before he jolted awake. His breathing was ragged, drawn in greedily like someone who had just been pulled back from death.
Cold sweat soaked his temples and terror flashed in his eyes, ignoring everything around him until something struck his head and the angry voice of an old professor echoed.
"Kael Mercer, once again you're sleeping in class and causing a disturbance!"
Kael didn't immediately come back to his senses. He stared at the professor on the classroom podium in confusion. His expression invited laughter from the other classmates, but only made the professor even angrier.
He swept his gaze around and saw faces that seemed unfamiliar, yet not unfamiliar at the same time. They stared at him with various expressions.
Before he could finish processing the situation, the professor threw something again.
"Get out right now and stand in front of—"
As if blown by the wind, the board eraser that had just been thrown toward Kael suddenly reversed direction. It flew past the professor's head and slammed into the wall behind him, creating a loud sound and a thin crack in the wall.
The classroom instantly fell silent and tense.
Kael frowned. Just now he had swatted the object away and thrown it back purely by reflex, a reflex formed from the days of surviving the apocalypse.
"KAEL MERCER!" the professor's roar echoed again.
"Get out of here. Wait in my office!"
"Alright," Kael replied flatly, without the slightest bit of a student's courtesy.
The professor grew even angrier at his reply, so when Kael walked past him, he tried to kick his leg. Somehow, Kael reacted instantly and avoided it.
Ignoring the professor's fury as well as the stares and snickers of his classmates, Kael walked out quickly.
Right now he truly didn't care about the people in this room. There was something far more important he had to confirm.
Kael walked quickly out of the classroom, his head still slightly dizzy. He took the phone from his pocket and looked at the time. His eyes immediately widened.
The year 2099.
Mid-year.
That meant… half a year before the apocalypse.
Kael stared at the screen for a long time, then muttered indistinctly, "I… I really came back?"
"Amazing… I really came back. Half a year before the apocalypse."
He could start stockpiling supplies and preparing a mini base.
Oh, first he had to return to his parents' house and repair their relationship so the countryside villa could become his.
Kael suddenly burst out laughing, almost like a madman. He turned around and walked out of the campus without thinking about the professor's order earlier. College? Grades? The future?
He didn't care about any of that.
In half a year, the world would collapse. There would be no more school, jobs, or normal life. There would only be survival and becoming stronger.
However, his steps stopped when someone called out to him.
"Kael, where are you going?"
Kael frowned. In front of him stood a girl with a gentle and sweet face. If this were the past, he would surely have felt happy to see her. Now there was only coldness and immense hatred.
Bielle.
The girl he had protected desperately throughout the apocalypse, the one he had always prioritized above himself. He had even been willing to sacrifice his entire family just to save this girl.
Working twice as hard just to keep her inside the base, even though this girl was merely a survivor without power, without any useful intelligence.
And this girl was the same girl who had pushed him toward death without hesitation just to save another man.
Kael's gaze turned sharp, almost frightening.
Bielle unconsciously stepped back again and again.
"K-Kael… what's wrong with you?" her voice trembled.
Kael didn't answer. He kept stepping forward until Bielle was cornered. His hand lifted, gripping the girl's neck.
His anger exploded. For a moment he forgot that this was not the apocalypse. This was the past.
What remained was only one wild urge inside him to kill her and vent his hatred.
"Kael… let go!"
Voices from the people around began to be heard, one by one, but Kael seemed not to hear them.
Just when his anger was about to cross the limit, a mechanical voice suddenly echoed in his head.
[Emotional state exceeds tolerance level. System initiating intervention.]
A blue light lit up in front of him, making Kael's vision tremble, then everything went dark. Only that cold mechanical voice echoed.
[Host identified: Kael Mercer]
[Status: Irregular variable detected]
[System core downloading... 12%]
[System core downloading... 48%]
[System core downloading... 100%]
[Welcome to the System.]