NOVEL WEB Chapter 4: Weapons
"Preparations for what?"
"Nothing much Alex. Just keep up."
"No! First tell me what this 'emergency' you were talking about is."
"Alex Jackson! You better stop asking questions and get you skinny a*s over here right now!"
Almost the instant those words left Merlin's mouth, Alex stopped talking completely and ran to Merlin's side without saying another word.
"Good! Now let's go."
With this, they were off, and the countdown to the Apocalypse had already begun. As they made their way to the house, Merlin secretly uttered the words
"Status"
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Status
Name: Merlin Ross
Race: Human
Class: Student
State: Rational
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Strength : 4
Dexterity : 3
Vitality: 3
Mana: 0
Intelligence : 2
Sense : 1
Evasion: 2
Critical: 0
Soul: 1(+50)
Toughness: 0
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Skills
---Locked---
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Lv 1 (0/30)
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Notice
Tutorial Period is beginning and will last for 72 hours.
Starts in : 56 mins
Ends in : - - hours
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Time was ticking for the two, and Merlin had to prepare for the impending danger within these 56 minutes.
As they were speed walking along the footpath, a large supermarket with flashy advertisement caught Merlin's eyes.
"Hey Alex…do you still have that credit card from you parents?"
"Uhm… Y-Yes I do. Why?" he said apprehensively
"Good! We will need it!"
…
*Ting – Ting*
As they entered the store, a refreshing blast of cooled air blew into their faces.
'Ah, the legendary Air-Conditioner'
Back in the future, by the time the second year was over, all electricity stopped working and the only way to make an air-conditioner work was to use a gasoline generator and burn the precious fuel. Therefore nobody would do something so excessive, and instead people kept the fuel for cars and burning zombies and other enemies.
The two entered the shop, only to be greeted by the unimaginable sight of so much excess of food supplies. This was according to Merlin's future self's circumstances, and not what Alex thought.
Merlin quickly removed a paper and pen from his school bag and started writing a list.
"Here. Buy all of these materials."
"W-Why do we need so many Merlin? What is wrong? It seems like you are preparing to live in isolation for 2 months according to this list's materials."
'Tch. He's as good as I remember. Analysing my plans just by looking at my list of materials. What kind of monster are you?' thought Merlin.
'Alex was surely a 4 stat into intelligence, and maybe even 5. He should make a skilful mage if he can get enough mana. But I should consult with him on this matter afterwards' he thought to himself.
"Just do it!"
"Ah…ok"
With this, Alex was off to get all the materials in the list. Although he wouldn't normally follow Merlin's orders like this, today Merlin was different from his usual self. Today, he seemed anxious about something, a reaction never before seen in Merlin. Therefore he thought that the safest course of action would be to go with the flow for the time being and then discuss it with merlin later.
On the other hand, the person in question; Merlin Ross was devising a plan on the best path towards survival. The first thing he needed was weapons. During the tutorial phase of 72 hours, and the following first phase of 1 year, guns were the most important weapons. This was natural since shooting zombies at a distance would greatly increase your chances of survival during these phases. However, from the second phase onwards, the remaining humans had already reached level Tier 1.
This was the point that the zombies began evolving as well. And their speed of evolution was insane, as within the first week of the second phase, the number of zombies reduced by half, but almost all of them had become class 1 zombies. The only known reasoning behind this was that the zombies ate their own kind to become stronger. At this point, the zombies would have some sort of ability. Some had hardened defenced to prevent any wounds from guns, while some had increased speed. Some even had mana like humans, and were able to cast basic spells.
Therefore guns became more of a nuisance due to the noise they created, rather than a help, since they could not harm most class 1 zombies. Only higher calibre guns or guns with higher rpm could affect a battle. But, until the first year ended, guns were the most important thing.
However, Merlin did not have a licence and so couldn't go in and buy guns at random, especially since he was just 18. If he tried to break through and steal the guns, he wouldn't be able to use all of them even if he managed to escape the police. That was because not all gun shops keep their equipment in top condition.
The next best alternative was the well maintained arsenal of the police force. But he couldn't just waltz into the police station and demand their guns. That would have to wait until the Apocalypse's Tutorial period began, and the chaos engulfed everything.
Until then, Merlin needed another form of weapon. He needed melee weapons in order to protect the Jacksons, as well as kill zombies in the most efficient method possible. Weapons that even the average person could use and wouldn't break too easily.
He needed to kill as many zombies during the Tutorial phase since each zombie was worth a lot more stat and evolution points during this phase. If normally a zombie was worth 2 evolution points and 2 stat points.
Each stat point could be used to raise his attributes and each evolution point could be used to increase his level. At level 1, the maximum stat points a person could have was 7, just like Merlin's strength. Although the 'Soul' part was a little special, but Merlin guessed it had something to do with his revival.
Anyway, he needed to get 30 evolution points before being able to evolve into a level 2 human. This would greatly increase the maximum stats to around 20 for each attribute. Therefore, a normal person needed to kill 15 zombies to evolve. However, Merlin intended on maxing out his stats before evolving to the next level.
This was because after every level, the amount of evolution and stat points gained by killing each zombie would reduce. Therefore, he needed to kill around 24 zombies before allowing his body to evolve. This was known as the force evolution method and was the one thing that had taken Merlin around a year to max out his tier 2 body, because he didn't do it from the start.
Therefore, Merlin needed to not only kill 24 zombies, but in fact he had to kill several hundred of them, in order to allow his body to reach level 5 and evolve into a Tier 1 human. This was his goal for the tutorial. Not an astronomical value where he had to risk his life in order to continuously go on a zombie killing rampage, but enough to make use of this tutorial, with ample of time to create a force of survivors and sort out their problems.
Merlin had set his eyes on becoming one of those survivor strongholds, which would hold an army of evolved and would move at his command. This would allow him to not only grow stronger individually, but also allow a force that could suppress a Class 3 zombie alone!
But that was all in the future, and for now he had his priorities straight. He needed melee weapons he could use for close quarter's combat, until he could get his hands on guns.
By this time, Alex had already completed the large order of food items and medical supplies. It was two bags worth of materials, which the frail Alex was barely able to carry.
Awoken from his planning, Merlin looked up at his pale friend, whose well-groomed brown hair seemed to be straight out of a magazine.
"Okay good. Now Alex, I need you to do something very important for me. I need you to take these bags back home and lock the door. Only open the door for your parents, and me. Nobody else is to enter the house, even if they are dying. Got it?"
"What? Why? Merl-"
"Just do it! Also, leave me your card, I will need to for something else."
"Argh!"
"Come on man. I just need to borrow it for a bit"
"Fine! Here…"
Taking the card, Merlin questioned, "Same pin right?"
"Yes"
"Okay. I'll meet you back at home. And don't forget my words. Nobody is to enter. Be it you long-lost sister or Einstein himself."
"Fine, fine."
Alex knew about how serious Merlin was when he brought up Einstein. Merlin always looked up to that scientist since he began 3rd grade, because it was then that he got to know that Einstein was kicked out of his school when he was little. And through hard-work and effort he became what he was in his prime.
Just like that scientist, Merlin too wanted to become smarter, but fortune had it planned that he was hopeless when it came to studies. And after the multiple accidents with his family, Merlin had almost given up all hope. After a long time did Merlin agree to resume schooling.
Seeing the determination in Merlin's eyes, Alex couldn't retort and simply left.
"Next stop, Weapons shop!!"
Saying this, Merlin ran towards the closest hardware and utility store to choose from the plethora of choices for possible weapons.