Chapter 2: Campus
After looking at his status, Erix tried putting 4 stat points into his Health with a thought, and it worked.
Upon assigning the stats, the wound on his arm from the zombie bite started healing. In just several seconds, the wound completely disappeared as pale skin replaced it.
However, he was still slightly exhausted because of life orb deficiency.
He killed several zombies on the street but gained nothing from them. Not even mystic essence.
He got two before from two zombies, but no more after that, even though he killed a level 4 zombie.
*Bark!…bark, bark!*
Erix suddenly heard the sound of barking and followed it. 'I need to kill more and also need to drink blood.'
After walking a bit more, he noticed that barking was coming out of an alley.
The nearby zombies were gathering towards the alley because of the barking sound, but Erix killed them by crushing their heads.
Soon, he arrived at the alley but didn't enter and just peeked inside.
In the alley, two giant mutated dogs were attacking a burly man wearing a coat. The man was trying to hit the dogs with his hammer, but the dogs had taken a few chunks of meat from his legs, and the struggle was real. If nobody helped him, the man would soon succumb to the mutated dogs and get killed.
Erix waved his hand as he manipulated his dagger with his metal control skill and quickly slashed two dogs after rushing into the alley.
[You have killed a level 4 mutated dog. +1 Agility, +1 Health].
[You have killed a level 4 mutated dog. +1 Agility, +1 Health].
[+2 Mystic Essence. 7/100 Mystic Essence]
[You have reached level 3. You have acquired 2 unassigned stat points]
The burly man was shocked and quickly noticed the silhouette of Erix standing at the end of the alley. "Thank you, thank you so much."
In the next second, the burly man threw his hammer towards Erix, grabbed the palm-sized white patterned treasure chest that one of the dogs dropped, and started running.
"Stop!" Erix was dumbfounded as the hammer almost hit him if not for his quick reflex. He quickly ran after the man and manipulated his dagger with his Metal Control skill to slash on his leg.
[You have killed a level 2 human].
[+1 mystic essence. 8/100].
The poison of the dagger quickly killed the man even though the cut was shallow and on his leg.
Erix slowed down and walked beside the fallen burly man before picking up the white-patterned palm-sized treasure chest.
"Bad choice, big guy," Erix muttered as he looked at the dead man. He didn't feel much emotional upheaval despite killing a human, though it wasn't first time he had seen deaths. He had seen and witness live plenty, and seen enough of dark world as one of the residents of it since early age.
"Well, at least I got the needed blood to fill up my life orb."
But first, Erix opened the treasure chest.
[Common grade Treasure Chest]
After opening the treasure chest, Erix got a full-face black mask with eye holes covered by dark green glasses.
[Bright Night Mask: You can see everything clearly in the dark after wearing this mask]
Erix wore the mask, and he could indeed see things clearly despite it being the dead of the night.
He then looked at the burly man and took out his coat before wearing it.
"All set. I guess other humans wouldn't think I am a zombie with my face and body skin hidden behind a mask and the coat."
'Rin, she didn't stay at my place last night since she had something to do...' Erix fell into thought about what to do next while looking at the dead man.
…
[-Life Orb: 100/100]
After three minutes, Erix came out of the alley. A trail of blood was dropping to his neck, but he cleaned it with his hand. 'I need to meet up with Rin.'
He was feeling better than ever before, and after thinking about what to do next and where to go, he first started killing the surrounding mutated insects and animals in the area to check a few things and learn more about the phenomenon occurring.
Erix killed eighteen mutated creatures like mutated rats, mutated dogs, mutated feral cats, mutated beetles, mutated cockroaches, and such.
However, he couldn't gain any stat points from killing creatures below his level.
He also discovered that it wouldn't count toward his leveling up, which was why he only leveled up to 5 despite killing 18 creatures. However, he got another white-patterned treasure chest and a black robe with silver patterns.
[Black-Star robe: It can defend against physical attacks of creatures below level 15].
Erix also found that he could put things inside an inventory; A black hole would appear if he thought of inventory, and he could put items inside.
After experimenting a bit, he found that he could only put items like Black-Star Robe, his dagger, and the Mask he got from the treasure chest inside the inventory. He tried to touch a rock and a vending machine and thought to put them inside the inventory, but it didn't work.
'6 stat points. I guess I'll save them for now,' Erix thought while walking towards a nearby bike and trying to spark its start with an ignition wire since he didn't have the keys. He knew this stuff, so he quickly started the bike and drove towards the college campus.
He saw many zombies on his way but didn't kill them because it was not beneficial.
'This area became empty, huh…' Erix thought while driving the road before his eyes caught sight of something otherworldly.
Erix was looking at a giant tower whose peak was not visible. 'What the heck is that big tower? How tall is that?'
'Is it near Phoenix City?'
'Just what the hell happened to this world while I was sleeping?'
After ten minutes of driving on Ravinfox Highway, he arrived at his college campus. It was built on a barren land 800 meters across the main highway leading into Ravinfox City.
As Erix entered the road leading to the campus entrance, he saw three zombies with burst brains. 'It seems that other people also had the same idea and arrived at this campus since it's a safe area without population at this time of the night.'
…
Behind the campus entrance gate, two students and two grown men with guns stood guarding. They heard a bike's sound and soon saw a motorcycle approaching them.
"Stop!"
The two grown men wearing police uniforms pointed their pistols toward Erix and shouted.
"I am a student of this college," Erix said plainly.
"Name and ID! Also, remove that mask!" one of the policemen demanded.
'It won't be wise to show them my face and eyes...'
"Hmm? Don't you recognize me from my voice, you shitheads?" Erix said in a deadpan voice as he turned his head towards the two students.
"Y-You… Senior Erix? Sir, let him in, let him in! He can also help us."
"Yes, yes. He is Mad Devil Erix, a powerful martial artist master of our university. Even teacher Rin can't beat him."
The two policemen were startled at the fanatic speaking of those two students.
"Open the gate, policemen. I am a student," Erix indifferently said as he revved his bike.
"Fine. Since it's confirmed that you are a student, you may pass through," one of the policemen said with a nod as he opened the gate. "But we still need to check if you have any zombie wounds on your body."
"I drove a bike here from over three miles away. The zombie couldn't keep up after I left the semi-urban area, and the main road in this area was also empty. If I had been bitten, I would've already turned into a zombie, and my speech wouldn't be this smooth. Is that enough proof to save both of our time?"
"..."
"..."
The police officers looked at each other before turning to Erix. One of them wryly smiled and nodded. "Alright, enter."
Seeing Erix entering, the other policeman snorted.
"What he said made sense, so just forget it," said the other policeman while shaking his head.
After entering, Erix parked the bike at the side and looked at one of the two students, "Kenal. Follow me, I want to ask something."
"Sir, I will send someone else," Kenal said to the policemen quickly before he followed Erix and walked beside him.
"Mad devil, hahaha. Welcome back here. Everyone had the same idea of coming to the campus. We managed to make this campus a safe place since it was already empty in the dead of night," Kenal said with a smile.
"Wait… So Ralph and Peter are also here?" Erix asked as he stopped walking. Ralph and Peter had seen his zombie-bitten wound on the shoulder. If they were here, it would be troublesome.
"They came here but left an hour ago. They went to search for their family members in the city," Kenal said while shaking his head.
"When did the police arrive here?"
"Police force came here half an hour ago. But Felix and his father, who called them here, arrived more than an hour ago."
Erix and Kenal continued moving while talking. But as they neared the gymnasium where everyone was gathered, Erix stopped and grabbed Kanel's shoulder before turning him to his face.
"Now tell me, Kenal. Is Rin safe? Did she come here?" Erix asked.
Kanel started sweating, and his eyes darted around instead of looking straight at Erix, "Teacher Rin, she…she came here leading a group of people an hour ago, I was with her. Y-You know she is a strong martial artist, so she also helped us greatly. She easily cleared several mutated insects and animals on the campus with a pole staff weapon and kept everyone safe.
"But…but, she was bitten before arriving here."
"Bitten?" Erix repeated with a deep frown as he saw Kanel's expression. 'Is this idiot lying to me?'
"How was she bitten? I fail to picture that. Where is her body?" Erix asked.
Kanel trembled. "Her body… s-she…"
Erix narrowed his eyes as he tightened his hand grip on Kanel's shoulder. "Where-Is-Her-Body?!" he asked, his tone utterly cold.
Kanel shivered.
"I'm sorry! I lied," He bit his lips and quickly looked around before grabbing Erix's hand and leading him away from the gymnasium. "Come with me."
Soon, both of them hid behind an entrance wall of another building beside the gymnasium.
After hiding behind a wall, Kanel took a deep breath and said, "She… She is alive, but Felix... he... In this chaotic situation, he tried to corner Teacher Rin and threatened her to sleep with him since he has his backing here with his father, but Teacher Rin knocked his brains out."
Taking a breath, Kanel continued.
"I mean, she terribly injured him with a ruthless hit on his head. For now, Felix is resting and receiving treatment in the infirmary, but Felix's father told police to attack Rin and locked her in the C building's faculty room with cuffs."
Feeling Erix's grip on his shoulder tightening, Kanel quickly said, "Don't do anything stupid, Erix. The police have guns, and they obey Felix's father like dogs."
'Those pieces of trash!'
Fury bubbled inside Erix as he wanted nothing more than to kill Felix and his father after saving Rin as soon as possible.
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