Zombie Apocalypse: Am I Counted As 10 People?!

When William stabbed the first zombie in the head with his katana, the first raindrops fell from the sky.

They had assumed that the sound of rain would drive the zombies even crazier, but the opposite happened. 

It was as if the sound of rain had made the zombies unable to hear William's footsteps, breathing, and soft murmurs. 

William saw this as an opportunity and killed all the zombies in the village with Austin and Elura. The rain even slowed down for a moment, and William tried to attract all the zombies to himself by hitting a car in the middle of the village, but no zombies appeared. 

Finally, they breathed a sigh of relief and began searching for a safe house. 

After a while, Austin and Elura's voices came from afar.

When William arrived, he saw a large, classic, old farmhouse. 

It resembled a massive wooden mansion with white exterior paint and a few dead zombies in the garden. Next to it was a small barn, and to the left of the barn were vast fields filled with crops. 

William went in first and checked everywhere, including the roof, and after confirming that every place was safe, he told the two to come in and placed a small cabinet behind the door.

After placing the heavy cabinet, which would stop an ordinary zombie, William found a large sofa and sat down. 

He was very tired today, and even though hundreds of zombies made him want to kill more, he couldn't ignore his fatigue. He always wanted to be in top form.

He threw his head back for a few minutes and stared at the ceiling without thinking about anything.

"Dinner's ready." 

When William turned his head to look, he saw that Elura and Austin had found a few plates and set a feast of canned food on the table.

There was even bread that looked strangely fresh.

William sat down at the table, picked up the small loaf of bread, and asked. 

"Where did you find this?" 

"We found it in the pantry. It's called village bread. It's known for its durability. All you have to do is steam it and eat it. It will always feel fresh." Elura smiled.

She really looked like a mother right now. Austin wasn't polite either and took a piece of bread and dipped it in the heated canned beans.

"Mmmm... Perfect... I never thought I'd miss a hot meal.

Austin then took a fruit juice-like drink out of his bag. "I forgot about these, they go well with the meal."

"Energy drinks?" William smiled.

He was addicted to these half-liter energy drinks. He was sure he could drink them until he had a heart attack. 

"Cheers, then!" William raised his hand and held it out. The other two responded to his gesture. 

It was a perfect meal.

Ending the eighth day like this was unexpected for William. But good things always happened at unexpected moments.

His sharp abdominal muscles were bulging outward, and William's stomach was swollen from eating too much. 

After the enjoyable meal filled with conversation, he returned to his previous spot and stretched his legs out on the table. He closed his eyes for a moment. 

He wasn't sleeping; he was just looking at the system panel. 

[William Aunitidis – Level: 7]

[EXP: 180/21000]

[STRENGTH: 5.2 (+++)]

[SPEED: 4 (+++)]

[PERCEPTION: 2.2 (+++)]

[LEY: 1 (+++)]

[SP:0] (System Points)

[Abilities: Power of Breath I, Weight Master I, Basic Perception II, Silent Step III, Silent Strike II, Piercing II, Among the Shadows III, Shadow Step II, Night Vision IV, Critical Cut I, Impact Momentum I, Throwing Mastery I, Dual Sword Mastery I, Dagger Mastery I,]

[Blessing: EXP10X]

[System Coins: 29461]

[STORE (+)]

[LIBRARY (+)]

[CODEX (+)]

 As soon as William reached level 7, he assigned the system points he received to his strength stat. Their gains from the village massacre were not limited to this; they also gained new abilities.

These abilities were simple, but they were important abilities that needed to be improved.

[Basic Perception I → II: Allows you to see the target's stats. Vision +30%]

[Silent Step I → II: Increases movement speed and reduces the noise of footsteps. Movement Speed +15%, Silence -60%]

[Silent Strike I → II: Increases the power of undetected attacks. Power +75%] 

[Piercing I → II: Increases the power of piercing-type attacks. +40%]

[Critical Cut I→II: Attacks on enemies' weak points deal more damage. +10%]

[Dual Wielding I: Efficiency increases when using the same weapon in both hands. +10 Weapon Proficiency Index.]

[Dagger Mastery I: Increases the efficiency of attacks and defenses made with daggers. +10 Weapon Proficiency Index.]

When William found a place to relax, or at least a stable location and place—like the shelter they were currently going to—he would focus on improving these abilities. 

He knew that this was the key to improving himself.

He even felt that after a while, he might not see the "You have learned an ability!" notification that constantly appeared in his head. 

Therefore, he would acquire all the abilities he could, and then focus on improving those abilities. 

There was one term that stuck in William's mind among these notifications and explanations. 

He focused on dual weapon mastery and dagger mastery and wanted to know what the term "Weapon Proficiency Index" meant. A notification immediately appeared in his mind.

"It is a numerical indicator of the physical, mental, and spiritual harmony formed with a weapon type. It expresses power, speed, perception, and ley. Substatistics may vary depending on the weapon used and spiritual harmony."

Frankly, William didn't understand much. But he nodded to himself as if he understood. 

He turned his wrist and looked at his watch. It was 3:45 p.m. 

There was no electricity, and despite the early hour, it was starting to get dark because the sky was filled with dark clouds. Within a few minutes, William had fallen asleep in his chair....

It wasn't night yet. When William woke up, it was 8:15 p.m. 

He saw Austin and Elura sitting on the sofa on the right, by the wall, holding hands and talking. Elura was rubbing her stomach with one hand. 

They had found a gas lamp somewhere and lit up the room. 

All the curtains and shutters were closed, and the yellow light inside the room cast strange shadows, which danced on the walls. 

When the two saw that William had woken up, they shook their heads and continued their conversation. William also got up and began to check the windows. 

As luck would have it, when he looked out the window next to the front door, he saw something.

Something that shouldn't be there. 

Reflected in the light of the room, something at the bottom of the window was looking at him with its head tilted in a strange position. 

It had popping eyes and a long head. 

When William opened the curtain, he almost bit his tongue in fear when he saw this creature. 

For the first second, he was so shocked that he couldn't speak and stuttered.

But then, when he saw the words on its head, he regained control of the situation and shouted.

"A zombie!"

[Shadow Hoof Zombie Lv9] 

The moment William shouted, the zombie horse started running straight ahead as if it was scared when it saw William.

William could see what the shadow hoof zombie looked like at that moment.

It had the classic appearance of a zombie. Rotten flesh and muscles, with yellow ribs clearly visible beneath... But its tail was different. It seemed filled with blue ley energy. 

The blue glow spread from its tail like the dust from a butterfly's wings.

Its feet were almost invisible. They had become one with the shadows.

The moonlight in the sky was the only source of light illuminating the environment.

William was able to see more clearly at that moment.

[Shadow Hoof Zombie Lv9]

[STRENGTH: 5]

[SPEED: 5]

[PERCEPTION: 2]

[LEY: 4]

"How could this be? Is it because a horse has more physical stats? So a horse's base stats are 2?" William did a quick calculation and realized that this was correct.

The starting stats for a horse were two. His level nine stat points explained this. 

Then William turned around for a second. 

He saw Austin and Elura getting up and coming over to him with their weapons.

Then he turned his head and looked at the horse again. He wished he hadn't looked.

The horse was running toward them at full speed.

"Watch out!" William shouted and jumped aside.

At that moment, the wooden wall at the entrance exploded and scattered.

Pieces of wood flew onto Elura, Austin, and William.

A few splinters pierced Elura and Austin's bodies.

Due to William's higher strength stat, the splinters had little effect on him.

The interior of the hall was in complete chaos. The gas lamp fell and broke in the turmoil. 

William saw that the horse was trying to recover and took advantage of this opportunity to jump on the horse.

At that moment, he shouted, "Stand back!" William swung his katana at the horse's head, but the horse's speed statistic of 5 was no joke.

With great agility, the horse turned its head and reared up on its front hooves. 

The horse's hooves were almost invisible, but despite the gas lamp having fallen over, William could still see a metallic glow in the flickering light it emitted. 

The horse was literally armed.

The metallic glow on its hooves moved at the same speed as William swung his katana.

"Ding!" William felt his hands tremble. It was clear who had the upper hand in the clash between the katana and the horseshoe.

The horseshoe had won.

William took two steps back, while Austin and Elura had also come out of the house and checked the surroundings.

They didn't see any movement or anything like that, so they took out their weapons to support William.

William calculated. Hand-to-hand combat would be very difficult not only for him, but also for Elura and Austin. He quickly took out the gun he always kept in his waistband and threw it to Elura.

Elura caught the gun and understood immediately. William trusted her. More precisely, he trusted her blessing. Now Elura advanced cautiously, holding a machete in one hand and a gun in the other.

When she was in high school, her father had taken her and her brother to Jim's farm to shoot a few rounds.

The gun she used at that time wasn't even a pistol. But now she had to do it. There was no excuse in this world for not being able to do it anymore. 

Austin focused on protecting Elura on her left side. 

William did not stop after this attack. He continued to launch powerful attacks from the front. 

But it was useless. 

His katana could not penetrate the horse's armor-like rotten flesh. Hitting that skin felt like hitting rubber.

After making a powerful attack for a moment, William retreated.

He immediately purchased a new pair of katanas from the system menu. These were seventh-level katanas, the highest-level swords he could obtain. They felt sharper, but that was all. William wasn't sure about this.

William set aside the old katanas and attacked with the new ones. A few of his strikes penetrated the horse's skin, proving that the swords had become sharper with their level. However, the horse's level was two levels higher than William's. 

Despite his new katanas, William was unsure of the situation. Moreover, escape did not seem like much of an option.

At this speed, the horse would definitely catch up with them.

William realized that he could not rely on himself alone. He needed help. Even if Austin and Elura were third-level, he could not get through this crisis without their help. 

Perhaps there was a small chance he could escape from this zombie horse on his own, or even use Elura and Austin as bait, but was he really capable of such despicable behavior?

The answer was short and clear: no.

William couldn't do such a thing. Even if he thought through hundreds of thousands of thoughts, scenarios, and possible problems, he still couldn't do it. He couldn't abandon them.

William gritted his teeth and jumped onto the horse trying to escape through the ruined wooden wall of the house. 

He couldn't waste any opportunity. 

William jumped, growled, ducked, and dodged. Despite all his movements, he couldn't find the horse's weakness. 

He knew the weakest point of a horse was broken bones, but William didn't have the strength to break the horse's leg. Moreover, he was afraid to get behind it. He knew that a single kick from the horse would send William to donkey heaven, so he was stubborn about attacking from the sides and front.

At that moment, Austin came to his aid.

William could have sworn he saw a small red aura on Austin's sword.

"Is he using an ability?" It was possible. Austin had also killed a considerable number of zombies. 

Austin was shouting inside, "Powerful Strike!" It was an ability he had recently learned. 

He had acquired it while killing the fat farmer zombie at the entrance to the village. 

[Powerful Strike I: Increases the power of your attacks. +10%] 

William saw an opportunity when Austin attracted the horse's attention and jumped on top of it. The moment he balanced himself with both feet for a second, he stabbed both katanas downwards. 

William had miscalculated. Austin's blow had surprisingly hit the zombie horse's head. The horse's head was knocked a few inches to the side by the blow, causing William to miss with one of his katanas. Only one of them went in. It pierced about fifteen inches.

A purplish blood seeped from the bottom of the katana. 

William smiled, but before he could pull the katana back, he was met with the horse's furious struggle.

After a few seconds, he lost his balance and had to jump back. 

Before his feet touched the ground, he saw the horse charging toward him at full speed.

William had nowhere to run; he was in the air. All he could do was assume a defensive position with the single katana in his hand. 

The moment William aligned his katana, the horse's head met William's katana. "Ding!" "Boom!" 

It was as if a truck had hit him.

William flew back dozens of meters. He landed in a cabbage field. There were still strong cabbages growing in the garden, and William crushed a few of them. 

His arms and chest were numb from the impact. His lungs felt constricted, making it difficult to breathe. 

Despite everything, he got back to his feet and took up a defensive stance again. 

But as soon as he raised his sword, what he saw was the horse's head growing rapidly. 

Shadow Hoof was coming for him again.