120 If its stupid and it works, its not stupid
‘I hope it will work,’ Mathew thought, watching after the ax he just threw while his vision started to turn blurry.
He could see his ax flying through the air, perfectly aimed for the evolved zombie’s head…
Only for the blade to miss just by an inch, cutting into the zombie’s shoulder instead of its skull.
‘It’s over.’ Mathew thought, closing his eyes to give himself some rest.
“Mat!” Nadia shouted, ignoring the fight and danger all around her to back out and reach Mathew’s side right as the young man could no longer hold himself upright. “You are injured all over!”
‘How the hell did this happen?’ Mathew thought. His consciousness continued to fade away as his body entered a desperate struggle to ward the zombie virus off. ‘Judging from how we can’t see a lot of people with zombie marks walking around, I’m likely to lose this fight,’ Mathew thought, clenching his teeth.
‘What will happen to them?’
Only a single thought remained in Mathew’s mind when he realized that he likely reached the end of his road.
‘To die during a simple, scouting mission, how anticlimatic,’ he thought, gritting his teeth while having no other choice but to let Nadia support him from the side.
“We need to get you out of here,” Nadia whispered only to raise up and turn around, ready to run back towards the safety of the fortress.
‘Will they keep their abilities and powers even if I turn?’ Mathew continued to analyze his options. ‘What’s important is that they will still be able to access the merchants with Daniel’s help.’
In theory, even if the girls were to lose the strength they gained from Mathew’s system, they should still be able to make it in this new, brutal world.
‘I don’t like it,’ Mathew thought as Nadia started to drag him away from the fight.
During his first attempt at surviving the apocalypse, Mathew achieved a pyrrhic victory. He managed to keep Nadia safe even though it came at the cost of his own life.
Right now, though, his result would be even worse. Because while Nadia would still be able to survive, Mathew would practically waste his life for nothing.
‘If only there was some way to revert the situation…’ Mathew thought, his eyes falling down as he could no longer control his eyeballs.
And in the tiny window of time between his eyes looking ahead and his eyes not seeing anything at all, Mathew saw one of the several zombies that he cut into pieces but didn’t finish.
“Just die already,” Nadia thought when she stomped on the zombie’s skull, stopping it from grabbing her leg.
‘Wait, didn’t I survive a lot more zombie attacks than I should?’ Mathew thought.
In this moment of desperation, Mathew’s mind reached the absolute peak of how quickly it could spin. Or rather, it reached past Mathew’s usual limits, analyzing the information at a rate that Mathew never expected his own brain to be capable of.
‘I need to level up.’
It was a simple realization but it struck Mathew like a truck. And then, for the very first time since the morning came, Mathew checked his system out.
[Mathew Karian]
[Level – 2/2]
[Vitality – 35]
[Brawn – 42]
[Agility – 42]
[Mind – 5]
[Arcane – 25]
[Total – 149]
[Accumulated Levels – 14/14]
‘I’m just a single stat point from what would normally be a level-up,’ Mathew thought.
He then gritted his teeth before pushing his weakened flesh to its limits.
[Mathew Karian]
[Level – 2/2]
[Vitality – 35]
[Brawn – 42]
[Agility – 42]
[Mind – 5]
[Arcane – 25]
[Total – 149]
[Accumulated Levels – 14/14]
[Overdrive skill activated]
His system changed a tiny little bit. But while the change in what Mathew could see was minuscule, limited to just a single line, the reality turned itself on its head.
“No!” Mathew shouted, forcibly freeing himself from Nadia’s help.
Strength brimmed in Mathew’s muscles, making it surprisingly hard to make any fine adjustments to his movements.
He fell down to the ground, only having his hands to thank for saving his face from striking the concrete pavement.
“Mathy!” Nadia screamed out in shock and worry, only to lean down and instantly reach out for her man’s shoulders, eager to help him raise.
“No, I can’t leave yet,” Mathew muttered, using all the patience that he had left in himself to slowly raise up from the ground.
“Stop overexerting yourself!” Nadia protested loudly and stomped her foot against the ground. “I thought a good night of rest would allow you to regain your strength, I’m sorry I didn’t realize how tired you still were!”
Tears appeared in Nadia’s eyes as she could only see how Mathew ignored her calls of worry.
“It’s not like that,” Mathew managed to squeeze those few words through his mouth. “If I leave now, I will die,” he added only to slip on the bloody asphalt and almost knock himself out by striking the asphalt road with his head.
“Wait, what?” Nadia’s eyes widened as the meaning behind Mathew’s words slowly made its way to her mind. She then looked down at all Mathew’s injuries and then twitched. “I understand,” her tone turned surprisingly calm as she grabbed Mathew’s shoulders and helped him to stand up. “How can I help?”
There was no fear in the girl’s eyes. And after eliminating the possibility that she didn’t care about Mathew in the slightest, only a single explanation for this phenomenon remained.
‘She trusts that I have some sort of plan,’ Mathew thought, too scared to bring the blade of truth and cut down Nadia’s hopes. ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀꪶ
He allowed the girl to help him raise up. He even managed to make a few steps forward in a relatively autonomous manner… Only to stomp his foot at the head of one of the zombies that he left behind before.
Then, Mathew glanced at this system again. ‘Not enough,’ he thought, moving his eyes to another target.
“Okay, I see,” Nadia stated, leaving Mathew to his own devices as she hurried away. “Leila!” Mathew could hear Nadia shouting before her voice disappeared into the noise made by all the zombies remaining in the area.
Mathew couldn’t keep himself standing. And when he slipped again, at the very least he used the momentum of his fall to smash his fist into the head of yet another zombie.
[Host can now donate a level!]
An announcement appeared before Mathew’s eyes right as he looked to check his system.
And for the very first time, instead of his points getting added to his statistics on their own, he could see the option to choose which statistic he would want to use that point on.
[Accumulated Levels – 14/15]
[Avaible points: 1]
This time, two lines of Mathew’s system changed. But while the aspect of donating his level could wait, Mathew didn’t hesitate even for a second over what to spend his free statistic point on!
[Mathew Karian]
[Level – 2/2]
[Vitality – 36]
[Brawn – 42]
[Agility – 42]
[Mind – 5]
[Arcane – 25]
[Total – 150]
[Accumulated Levels – 14/15]
The moment Mathew’s mental order brought a small change to his system, the young man could feel his sickness alleviating.
It was only a small change, a tiny dent in the prowess of the zombie’s virus… But it was enough, as it proved that Mathew’s idea was correct.
‘We need to keep Daria alive, stop this evolved zombie from growing even stronger and then let me last hit some of the zombies to bring my vitality high enough to stop the sickness,’ Mathew counted all the current objectives for their group.
‘Donate a level to Daria!’ Mathew thought, instantly acting on his earlier realization.
And just like would develop a character in a game to play to its strengths, Mathew dumped all ten statistics points offered by his donated level into Daria’s arcane.
BOOM!
Right when Mathew confirmed the changes he wanted to bring, a huge explosion shook the air and all the buildings in the vincity.
‘Fuck,’ the young man thought. ‘Now there will be no end to them!’
The zombies reacted to all sorts of stimuli. But the sound was historically their greatest strength when it came to detecting the enemies.
‘No matter what that explosion was, a horde will soon form and storm this place,’ Mathew thought while crawling forward to smash his fist through the skull of another zombie.
Nadia was nowhere to be seen. Mathew’s two other wives didn’t appear to be anywhere close either. And in the short time since Nadia left, quite a few zombies managed to start gathering around Mathew’s nearly powerless body.
‘I don’t think I have a lot of options left,’ he thought, opting to stay by the corpse he just made instead of looking for another zombie to finish.
Mathew plunged his hand into the disgusting brain matter of the zombie he just finished before plucking out the core that he was after.
‘Come, you fuckers,’ he thought, getting ready to squeeze the stone in his hand before smashing it against the ground in hopes of activating one of his few abilities.
“Here!” Nadia suddenly shouted, right as she landed by Mathew’s side before dropping a bundle of severed yet still moving heads by her man’s hand.
Nadia then lowered herself to her knees before sneaking the handle of her own blade into Mathew’s palm.
“Here, let me help you,” she stated before raising Mathew’s arm with her hands only to then drop it down on the nearest head.
‘That can actually work,’ Mathew thought, feeling how his momentary boost of strength quickly vanished.
Yet, bit by bit, head after head, his killing continued, quickly bringing a few more points for the young man to distribute.
‘Dump it all into vitality,’ Mathew muttered in his mind, doing his best to stay awake
[Mathew Karian]
[Level – 2/2]
[Vitality – 36] > [Vitality – 39]
[Brawn – 42]
[Agility – 42]
[Mind – 5]
[Arcane – 25]
[Total – 153]
[Accumulated Levels – 15/15]
[Avaible points: 3] > [Avaible points: 0]
A massive wave of relief washed through Mahtew’s body, finally freeing him from the overwhelming burden of the sickness.
‘I’m still slightly sluggish,’ the young man thought as he took a deep breath. He then prompted himself off the ground and stood up only to turn his head to the side and take a deep look into Nadia’s eyes.
“Thank you,” he said, refusing to move his eyes away. “You literally just saved my life,” he added.
“Here, finish this one!” Leila burst the bubble of intimacy that appeared around the couple, only to throw the head of the only zombie that Mathew could remember right at his legs. “It’s an evolved one so it’s bound to make you even stronger,” she explained her way of thinking before bringing one of her hands from behind her back…
Only to present Mathew his very own ax.