Code Collector

"This is the life," Gary moaned as he enjoyed a sip of his martini while overlooking the camp from the twentieth floor of the hotel. He smiled as the others relaxed in the suite, calmly talking with each other.

"Get their support more," Jeremy said to Allen. "I wouldn't mind living like this every day."

Allen chuckled, "Don't forget why we're here, yeah? To flip the system and create another. We don't need this life, everyone does."

"Too serious, Allen," Gwen grinned and raised her glass. "To the Snake Society."

"To the Snake Society!"

–

It was midnight but Allen was still awake. There were four bedrooms in the suite, so each one of them had their own rooms. But for some reason, this made Allen uncomfortable. 

Back in the D rank building, their rooms were so close together that they could hear each other snore. This hotel had a lot of soundproof materials, making the room feel too silent.

"I can't do this," Allen grunted and opened his door. There he saw Jeremy, also awake while leaning in the glass floor to ceiling window. "Hey."

"It feels too silent and uncomfortable," Jeremy said, making Allen chuckle and agree. "I don't like this fancy life. I take back what I said earlier. This is too suffocating for me."

"The more space we have, the tighter it feels," Allen said. "We got so used to living the simple life, didn't we?"

Jeremy opened his mouth to say something when they heard a series of aggressive knocking on their door. "Help! They're everywhere!"

"Stay here," Allen said to Jeremy as he went towards the door. He first felt the aura outside. It looks like it was a person who was in panic, like he was being chased by something horrific.

"Hello?!" the person screamed. "Please help me. There are zombies here. Please."

Allen narrowed his eyes and kneeled on one knee. He then placed his hand on floor and slowly released a ball of light that passed through the small gap below the door. The light exploded outside, Stacey showing up.

"What the–" the man gasped while another approaches.

"Who are you?" Allen asked through Stacey. He conjured the dual dagger that he assigned to the Body as a weapon and raised it defensively. "Answer me or else you'll regret it."

The other man did not respond. Instead, they saw him twitch and lean to the side. "He's a zombie!" the man begging for help yelled. "I swear to you, he's a zombie."

The zombie suddenly roared and launched himself towards Stacey. The Body spun to the side and dragged the crying man with her, letting the zombie go pass through her while she opened the door and threw the crying man inside.

Stacey then ran towards the zombie and tried to slash it when the zombie disappeared. "What the–"

Screech!

The zombie was agile and its movements were swift and calculated. Stacey could not respond on time that Allen could only recall her before he could feel the damage that the zombie might inflict.

"What was that?" Jeremy ran towards them after hearing the noise. It didn't take long for Gwen and Gary to react, getting out of their bedrooms and changed into their fighting outfits.

"There's zombies outside," Allen said in panick. "I don't know why or how, but there is. I already sent Oliver to scout and the entire camp is flooded with them."

"Zombie? Flooded?" Gwen scrunched her face. "What's happening? Is it the Fire Dragon again? How many times do we have to kill it?"

"No," Allen said. "These zombies are not aligned with any beasts. The zombies that were affiliated with the Fire Dragon had red burn marks on their bodies, these ones do not. They only have black veins travel all throughout their bodies."

"This is not normal," Jeremy said. "What if–"

Screech!

They all spun when the crying man suddenly screeched. They raised their weapons and watch it flinch as it walked towards them. "Please… kill me."

Allen was about to slash his diamond sword and cut the man's head off when it grinned and vanished. They huddled back to back, raising their weapons while waiting for the zombie to attack them.

"This is crazy!" Gary yelled. "Now he's infected? What if he bites us too? Will we get infected?"

"This infection is not normal," Allen said. "I saw a badge from the zombie earlier, he's a celebrity Hunter, but he could par the powers of Fantasia or even more."

"Fantasia?" Jeremy asked. "Are you sure? Maybe you're just hallucinating or something. That woman was a beast in itself, but a zombie the same level as her? We can't dodge its bite."

"We can," Allen said. "We just need to strike first."

It felt like his entire body shivered when he swung his sword beside him. The zombie appeared, just in time for its head to be cut off and for it to fall to the ground. Blood oozed from its severed neck, black blood that spoiled the white fur carpets.

"Eww," Gwen flinched after seeing the gorey sight in front of her. "What the heck is that?"

"A zombie corpse," Allen said without flinching. He took the celebrity Hunter badge from the corpse and raised it to their level. "This one is also a celebrity Paradise Hunter, but its speed was more than an Eternity Hunter."

"It did vanish in a blink of an eye," Jeremy added. "But why is this happening? What's the reason behind all these?"

"Barandilla," Allen whispered. He stared into the air on his original body while he focused his attention on Oliver.

The Body was on top of a tall building, one that overlooked the entire area. From his view, it was clear as day that a group of people were standing in front of the Portal House. Fantasia and Bryant were just two among several others.

Around them were only chaos. Hunters were running around and some were even fighting back but they were all in vain. The zombies received a massive boost in their stats, making them invincible to the average Hunters.

"Your reign of terror has come to an end!" a voice yelled from the building in front of the Portal House. There stood Wesley on his metal horse along with the Soul Burners that were also riding metal horses. "Barandilla, your group has commited unimaginable damage to the camp and the Hunters, the people. You are hereby sentenced to Soul Burning!"

"Let's try it then," Fantasia grinned. "You're just a measly Paradise Hunter. Where did you get the audacity to even come and challenge me, Fantasia?!"

"From the souls of the crying people," Welsey whispered. He raised his hands and rode his horse straight to the Portal House. Fantasia smirked and conjured a giant ball of flames, one that she launched towards Wesley without hesitation.

"Prepare Shield of Light!" Wesley yelled. His folks nodded and three of them rode in front of him. They raised their swords and created a shield made of aura. This shocked Fantasia, but didn't shook her. Instead, she fired several more fireballs which were all blocked by the shield.

From behind the lines, Wesley leaped over the shield and spun his lance. He slashed it to Fantasia who barely dodged the attack. One of her men was caught by the weapon and was sliced in half.

"You little–"

Fantasia conjured a massive cloud around them. They were surrounded by the fog when it started to rain inside. The water poured instantly and Fantasia who was now outside along with her henchmen placed a finger on the cloud, zapping them all.

She could taste victory on her tongue but she failed. Wesley and his peopled were inside small bubbles that protected them from the lighting strike that Fantasia struck upon them.

"Die!" Fantasia yelled. She now created a vortex which sucked in all the people from the cloud. She continued to attack them but the Soul Burners kept on shielding themselves. They were all doing their best to shield while the woman unleashes her wrath upon them.

Meanwhile, back in the hotel, Allen regained his focus. He let Oliver stay in the same spot while he tries to exit the hotel.

"The Soul Burners and Barandilla are currently fighting," Allen said. "It won't take long before Barandilla would discover our hiding place, so while the Soul Burners are keeping them busy, we need to call for help."

"But who do we call?" Jeremy asked to which Allen answered with a sigh and a shrug.

"I don't know," Allen said. "But we shouldn't stop hoping. Let's go."

They walked downstairs and were lucky enough to not encounter any zombies on their way there. It seemed to quite which irked Allen so he sent Stacey ahead. Even when everything fell in chaos, the immaculate beauty of the hotel remained.

Allen was watching the paintings when they suddenly felt a shaking action. He then felt something kick him on the side and realized it was from Stacey.

He glanced at the direction of the attack and saw one massive zombie approach them.