22 On the edge
“What the hell is this?” Mathew muttered, looking at his reflection in the window.
His face was as it always had been, maybe with the slight addition of the extreme exhaustion deep in his eyes. But what sparked the young man’s interest flashed behind his reflection in a place he would never be able to normally see.
[WIVES SYSTEM HOST]
[Name: Mathew Karian]
[Age: 19]
[Level: 1/1]
[Race: Evolved Human]
[Class: System Holder]
[Status: Desperate]
[Mathew Karian]pᴀɴᴅᴀ-ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ.ᴄᴏᴍ
[Level – 1/1]
[Vitality – 13]
[Brawn – 13]
[Agility – 14]
[Mind – 0]
[Arcane – 0]
[Total – 20]
[Accumulated Levels – 1]
It took Mat a short while to decipher all the words he could see in the window, given how distorted and reversed the image was. pᴀɴᴅᴀ ɴoᴠᴇʟ
‘Are those my stats?’ Mathew asked, struggling to accept the reality before his eyes.
It was simply easier to assume it was all just an illusion, a mirage of his tired mind. It was easier, even though Mathew was already well aware of the existence of his system.
‘No, I can’t afford myself the luxury of not believing what I see,’ Mathew thought, gritting his teeth down.
‘But I can’t expect too much from those stats either,’ he quickly noticed, his mood souring down.
“Screeee!” the zombies in the class finally took notice, turning their attention towards the weird shadow behind the window. Or maybe it was the noises that Mathew made that attracted them?
It didn’t matter.
‘I’m running out of time,’ Mathew thought, pulling out his sword and bracing himself against whatever he could find on the window’s still.
And then, while hoping for the best and praying to his sinful soul’s delight, Mathew struck the window with the handle of his sword.
But the pommel of his sword only bounced off the glass, sending Mathew’s hand flying far outside of the frame of the window. And with the added weight of the sword pulling his hand down, the young man nearly lost his balance, something insanely precious when hanging for his dear life inside the narrowness of the window’s edge. ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀꪶ
‘As expected of the school’s windows,’ Mathew thought grimly, only to chuckle a little when he realized the actual benefit of this sort of construction.
‘To think that the suicide prevention would stop the undead from claiming the lives of the alive,’ Mathew thought, his lips quivering as they formed a small, fake smile.
There was nothing to be happy about in Mathew’s situation… But he still decided to press himself for a smile.
If all it took to keep up morale was forcing his body to act as if it was happy and relaxed, a small smile wouldn’t be a high price to pay!
‘But that doesn’t solve the problem of getting inside,’ Mathew thought, looking around.
He then grabbed the edge of the window’s frame and leaned out as much as he safely could.
“No windows open, huh?” he muttered to himself, disappointed by the situation.
At the current rate, getting back inside the building could prove to be a damned challenge!
A thin panel of glass… That was too sturdy and bouncy for either side to break through it.
“I guess I’m stuck,” Mathew muttered, only for the corner of his mouth to quiver as it formed a small smile. “At least I don’t have any stepbrothers or sisters to worry about, now,” he added, trying to lift his spirits with this silly joke.
And then, a miracle happened. Or maybe a disaster?
One of the zombies in its attempt to grab the shadowy silhuete on the other side of the window… Pushed the window’s handle down, allowing for the window to swing open.
‘That’s my chance,’ Mathew thought, raising his sword and just waiting as the second the window opened up, several arms reached out to grab him.
Slash.
Cutting through flesh was easy… but the same couldn’t be said about the bone. Or rather, it shouldn’t be that easy to cut the bone… But Mathew’s sword went through several zombies’ arms as if they were made from butter!
‘Did they rot away so quickly, or am I actually getting stronger?’ Mathew asked himself as he grabbed the edge of the open window and swung his sword inside, cutting right through the zombies gathered there.
This was all that Mathew needed to do to fully agitate them.
Their screeching increased in volume, and soon, the entire classroom filled with zombies to the brim, all eager to get that juicy bite out of Mathew’s flesh.
And then, with the path of the least resistance leading straight through the open window, zombies rushed towards Mathew… Only to fall right through the window, slowly clearing the classroom from the enemies.
“It makes me feel like a bully,” Mathew muttered, squeezing as far into the corner of the window’s ledge as he could. Yet, every now and then, the young man had to swing his sword. After all, with the number of zombies that constantly made their way to the window only to fall right through it, some of them were lucky enough to hook up or something and stay on the ledge.
“ROAR!” a powerful, animalistic scream came from below, shaking Mathew’s laziness off.
Even though he had no other choice but to wait for the classroom to clear before he could enter it, the roar reminded him that the clock was ticking.
It was only a matter of time before the rampaging monster or monsters would damage the load-bearing wall of the building.
‘I’m no architect,’ Mathew thought, watching how the zombies in the classroom neared the state where he would have a shot at barging inside. ‘But if the load-bearing walls go down, it will be only a matter of whether a single wing will collapse or if the entire building will go down at once,’ Mathew thought grimly.
And then, seeing an opportunity, he grabbed the vertical edge of the window’s frame and, using it as a sort of swing, he jumped into the classroom, kneeing the two zombies that were attempting to catch him in the process.
In an instant, zombies inside got even more energetic than before, their prey now right before their rotting hands.
Mathew pulled out his ax and looked up at the zombies swarming the place.
‘I need to clean this place quickly,’ he thought, swinging his heavier weapon and crushing the nearest zombie’s skull with the blade’s butt. ‘There is no telling how long this building will keep on standing!’