Dream Infinite: A Multiverse Adventure

[Day 2]

The unexpected notification flashed in Asahi’s sight, as surprising as the presence of the hulking strength-type zombie charging towards him. He had rushed over with his group, only to find Saya stumbling and nearly being trampled by the monstrous undead. Its grotesque, half-burnt face twisted in rage as it stomped the ground, sending tremors through the earth.

On the other side of the spectrum, Komuro Takashi and Rei Miyamoto were engaged in a desperate, all-out brawl with the undead horde. Sweat glistened on their skin as they fought, muscles straining with each swing of their weapons. As weak as a single undead might be, in a horde they could have easily overwhelmed the two inexperienced high schoolers.

The faint golden aura surrounding Komuro’s bat was the apparent proof of his Vision awakening — an ability that strengthened his bat to the point he could kill the undead with a simple swing. Rei, too, was favored by fate, a translucent aura enveloping her as she battled the undead.

It seemed the world itself wanted to save them after they showed the courage to resist the undead, most likely intending to use them as defenders against the undead.

‘Why are they here though?’

Events had unfolded so differently from his expectations. Right now, Saya should’ve been drilling some undead with a drill, but some unknown event had forced her to end up accompanying Komuro’s group instead.

‘Butterfly effect?’

(Very much.)

Asahi scooped Saya in a princess carry and leaped over the charging undead. He dashed towards his sister and quickly passed Saya over to her.

“Nee-san, take everyone back to the Faculty Room. I’ll join you after killing this thing.”

He couldn't go all out if he had to protect others. Against such a terrifying opponent, he had to give it his all and finish it quickly. So, he handed out the stern order and drew out his ax, preparing to stall until everyone had withdrawn to safety.

“No, we can kill it together.”

“Saeko is right. We can help you.”

Saeko and Shiori looked ready to assist him, but a nudge from Kyoko and Shizuka forced them to retreat. Raised in a strict household, they simply couldn’t go against the adults.

Shizuka gave Asahi a long, meaningful glance. “Aa-kun, if you don’t return in one hour, I will overdose on the sleeping pills.”

Asahi chuckled, while leading the undead around. “Got it.”

Shizuka nodded, her expression grave, and led everyone towards the faculty room.

The monstrous undead couldn’t care less about the leaving prey after Asahi showed the willpower to resist its destruction. It swung its massive fists at Asahi, each one possessing the power to crush any normal human to a pulp.

Yet Asahi effortlessly ducked and weaved around the destructive attacks, his body moving with incredible speed and agility. The abomination was fast, but he was faster, smarter, and simply more powerful.

Every hit that didn’t crush bones or rend flesh made the undead slightly more agitated. It was raised from the ground to cause mayhem and destruction. When it couldn’t do that, its frustration piled up, making its movement even more frenzied and erratic.

Asahi weaved around a power charge from the undead, which caused it to crash into the stairs, sending debris flying. It stomped the ground in frustration, its half-burnt face twisted into a menacing scowl.

“You’re like an angry bull,” Asahi remarked with a smile. “Except you’re dumber.”

“Arghhh!!! I’ll kill you, HUMAN!!!”

The massive undead approached Asahi with terrifying speed, intending to run over the damn human. Asahi channeled elemental energy into his ax, the magical power peeling off its disguise and revealing an ancient ax that was almost one and a half meters in size.

One would not expect such a powerful-looking ax to cost less than a damn spatial ring.

Ready to end the game, Asahi waited until the last possible instant to dodge the undead’s furious charge. As though aware of Asahi’s trick, the creature abruptly halted its charge and swung its fist in his direction.

Asahi leaped into the air, using the undead’s knuckle as a springboard to launch himself even higher. His ax cleaved through the air with a sharp whistle, the falling momentum lending even greater destructive force to his attack as it descended upon the undead’s skull.

The ax sliced through bone and brain matter with sickening ease and split the undead’s skull from center. As the creature crumpled to the ground, lifeless, a system notification flashed before Asahi's eyes, Klyscha deeming it more critical than the rest.

“Ravager of Destruction…” Asahi muttered under his breath, as he meticulously cleaned up the grimy fluids from his ax. “The Walmart version of Hulk.”

It was a sobering thought that no ordinary human could have hoped to take down the Ravager without resorting to extremely powerful firearms. If the undead possessed such strength on the first day of the apocalypse, Asahi shuddered to imagine the heights of their power after a month or a year.

‘They were like the Apostles of Harbingers, right?’

(Yeah, the slaves of Harbingers. The Ravagers… you’ll fight many of them in the future. Decay is your average undead. Destruction is this giant undead. We’ll meet the rest of Ravagers sooner rather than later.)

‘Yup, they will destroy every civilization.’

(Not if my love has anything to say about it.)

‘Hey, I’m just here for my XP and waifus.’

He threw the cloth aside and finished the few undead who wanted a bite of him.

Asahi felt the invigorating, refreshing sensation wash over him once more, his body and mind energized by the level up boon.

(Your ninth one so far.)

‘Geez, I’m on fire.’

He began walking towards the faculty office, leaving a trail of fresh undead meat in his wake. “I wish the weapon had an auto clean function.”

(You can buy an automatic weapon cleaner… for just 1999KP!)

‘How the heck is that more expensive than my magic ax?’

(I don’t make the rules, my love. My system does. It categorizes records according to importance as well as how far they deviate from the laws of ALPHA EARTH, which is your planet… and yes, your world is important to us gods since it’s the only universe that exists outside of Records.)

‘That’s a lot of information at once… I guess my world is a data bank of records for you.)

(Correct. No cosmic being would’ve been born without the vast imagination of humans.)

‘Heh.’