Zombie Apocalypse: Am I Counted As 10 People?!

A small bottle appeared above William with a bright white light. It had a long, thin structure and a classic cork stopper. 

Contrary to popular belief, its color was red mixed with a lot of water. If you didn't look closely, you might think it was just water inside.

"Give this to Austin to drink." William held the small bottle between his hands as if it were the most precious thing in the world.

Elura had already noticed the potion that had appeared above William. She had examined it in detail with Austin while sitting idly in the store section of the system at the gas station. 

She knew what it was and how expensive it was. She thought William had sacrificed everything for this potion.

She didn't hesitate. "Thank you," she said, taking the potion from William's hand and giving it to Austin to drink. 

It didn't take long—just a minute—for Austin's cuts and bruises to begin healing noticeably. It was as if time had sped up for him. His breathing became regular, and the troubled expression on his face was replaced by one of relief.

William and Elura were relieved to see this. William then went back into the store and bought another potion. 

This time, he drank it himself. He didn't care that he knew the effect would be 70% less. Since he was the backbone of the group, he had to get back to his best as soon as possible.

Unlike Austin, he was awake and felt the increase in cellular activity in his body. 

Those ten minutes gave him the feeling of floating above the clouds. 

At the end of ten minutes, his broken ribs had healed, the bruises had almost disappeared, and the scratches had begun to heal after scabbing over.

It still itched a little, but he was in good enough condition.

William took support from his hands and tried to stand up.

The pain was still there, but it wasn't so bad that it bothered him.

"You shouldn't get up now." Elura tried to stop William, but he didn't listen to her.

"Don't worry, this healing potion is better than I expected... I'm sure Austin will wake up in a few hours." 

William spoke as he stretched his muscles. Then he headed for the door to leave the room. 

Elura stopped him at the doorway. 

"Please... be careful." Elura hugged William. It was a call for support. 

She already saw William as part of the family.

Because she knew he could have escaped but didn't. He had stayed and fought with them. He had been by their side and, in a way, saved them.

Maybe they should never have left that gas station. But now that she thought about it, she realized how ridiculous the idea of not leaving the gas station was.

That's why she didn't blame William, but thanked him.

William was ten centimeters taller than Elura. He patted her head and smiled.

"Don't worry, I'll always be here." Despite his young age, he saw no problem in being a big brother to Elura.

He already saw Austin and Elura as siblings.

William put on his Horseshoe-nosed boots at the doorstep. He jumped a couple of times and felt much lighter. 

"I'll stretch my muscles a bit." Then William went out and checked the house. He couldn't see any 'living' zombies anywhere. The village was completely empty after the last zombie died yesterday. 

There was no one alive except William, Elura, and Austin.

And a bird. Small, hard to see. A black bird...

William would describe this bird as a sparrow because of its small size and small beak, but the system told him something different.

[Corpse-Eating Sparrow Sv5]

[POWER: 0.5]

[SPEED: 7] 

[PERCEPTION: 1.5] 

[LEY: 1] 

William opened his eyes wide in astonishment. 

"Is this speed statistic a joke?" 

William quietly bent down and hid in a relatively dark shadow of the house. From there, he continued to observe.

The sparrow's head movements were so fast that even William could barely catch them.

And most importantly, this sparrow was not a zombie, and it was eating zombie flesh! 

Not long after, just a few minutes later, the sparrow's size doubled, and both its claws and beak began to glow with a metallic light. 

Its feathers were already gray, and now they had darkened further. The black feathers on its tail glowed with a metallic light, and the sparrow continued to eat the zombie horse's corpse with its new, larger, and stronger body. 

[Corpse-Eating Sparrow Lv6]

[STRENGTH: 1.5]

He didn't know how it happened, but William saw that the sparrow's strength stats had increased. This allowed him to breathe a sigh of relief.

Then William looked around. This place was very defenseless. The wooden house couldn't protect him from the sparrow, but William didn't think it would be a problem. This was because the sparrow's strength stats were very low, which implied that it probably only had enough speed to help it escape and very little attack power.

However, he couldn't fight a target he couldn't catch. 

So he decided to take a risk.

He thought that the sparrow was one of the animals that didn't die, and that the system worked on the sparrow just as it worked on William.

He wondered what would happen if he killed the sparrow. After all, it seemed to be a special creature.

William took a few nails from the ruins of the wooden house. 

These were perfect weapons to throw. 

Although the sparrow was much larger than normal, it was still far away, so he had to get closer. Knowing that the sparrow's perception was low, William quietly hid in the bushes among the shadows. 

The sparrow didn't notice. 

William took advantage of the sun shining sideways on the world because it was daytime. 

The small bushes were large enough for William's body to fit inside. So he was able to get very close.

Five meters.

That was the furthest William could get. Getting any closer might scare the sparrow.

He had three nails in his hand. One nail for the sparrow's back, and one nail each for it's two escape routes.

If it decided to escape straight ahead or upward, William had no other weapon. In fact, that was the maximum number he could throw at high speed at almost the same time. 

William took aim and counted silently.

1…2…3…

He threw all three nails at almost the same time, with great speed.

"Sip!"

The first nail hit the sparrow directly, entering its back and exiting through its chest. The sparrow tried to fly away, but lost all its strength as soon as it flew off and died.

William carefully examined the area and approached quietly. He couldn't hear any sounds. 

Then he went over and examined the sparrow closely. 

There was still a piece of flesh torn from the zombie horse in the sparrow's mouth. 

William didn't see any useful notifications. 

It was just a notification showing the EXP he had earned. 

"Fortunately, there are no restrictions on killing low-level zombies or creatures. 600 EXP isn't bad."

 William then approached and picked up the sparrow. It felt very light. He realized at that moment that it was mostly made of feathers and that its real body was not very big.

And one more thing. 

The meat did not rot.

It did not immediately turn into a zombie.

William ran and came to the ruined entrance of the house. He rummaged through his bag in the ruined hall and took out a lighter. He then made a pit out of the dry wood inside the house. 

Although plucking the bird's feathers felt very uncomfortable, he did it. 

He then attached the bird to one of the level four katana and began to cook it over the fire.

Twenty minutes later, the bird's meat was nicely roasted. Unlike chicken, it was red in color, but it looked edible.

"Is it edible?" 

As soon as William thought this, the system's reassuring and comforting voice echoed in his mind.

"The meat of any creature accustomed to ley energy is edible. It may vary depending on the creature's level. The safest approach is level 4 and above. Below that is not recommended." 

William nodded. "So it's edible." 

When he looked at it and weighed it in his hand, there were nearly four pounds of meat. 

William took a nervous, slow bite. 

Then he slowly chewed the dry-looking meat. 

"Delicious!" 

"I have to take this to Elura and Austin." He then climbed the stairs and told Elura about the meat. At first, he was too excited to notice, but after leaving more than half of it for the two of them and going downstairs, he saw the notification.

"You ate meat filled with Ley! +10 EXP"

William couldn't hide his surprise. "Huh?" 

He took another bite. 

"You ate meat filled with Ley! +10 EXP"

"This is amazing! It tastes good and gives EXP—what more could I ask for?" 

William looked into the distance and heard a few low growls. 

"I think I can stretch my muscles a little." 

William left the village and headed for the road they had come from. The sounds were coming from the village and the distant farms directly opposite the road.

These farms were sparsely built and, despite the roads, were very far away. Still, William could see zombies walking slowly in the distance.

He didn't know what was attracting the zombies, but the simplest guess came to mind.

"It must be the smoke from the fire."

William thought the fourth-level katana in his hand would do the job. The seventh-level katanas were at home; Elura had taken both katanas and brought them up to the roof.

He walked slowly and easily killed about ten zombies running toward him.

These zombies were now like snacks to him. With a single swing of his sword, he could easily pierce or cut off a zombie's head. He was certain that he could easily crush these zombies' heads with his fist, but the feeling of getting his hands dirty disgusted him.

After dealing with the zombies, William returned. 

Even the meat filled with ley hadn't satisfied him after such an intense and exhausting battle, so he went and ate some canned food, and later realized he had almost finished most of it.

"I need to find some food." William turned his head toward the village. 

Even though they had cleared the zombies, they hadn't searched the houses in the village.

After a while, he left the house. This time, he took his level seven katana with him. 

He began to wander around the village. 

The door of the first house he saw was slightly ajar in the light breeze, and he heard the sound of something falling inside. It was a faint sound, most likely not a zombie.

William entered the house with heavy steps. He explored a couple of rooms. In the kitchen, there was a table filled with food, and in the corner, an old woman who had been eaten. More than half of her face was gone. Only her lips were visible, curled downward, as if she had suffered until the very end. 

A few plates of food on the table had rotted. 

It was clear that there were only two of them, and William had most likely killed the zombie that had eaten the woman. The zombie that had eaten the old woman was somewhere in the middle of the village, among the small pile of corpses.

William then found the fallen object. It was noticeable when looking closely at the small dust around it.

It was a photograph on the table. William went over and picked it up. 

It was a photograph of an elderly couple, with four boys and a girl next to them. All of them were taller than the elderly couple. 

They were all smiling. William searched the house a little, found about ten cans of fish in a small cabinet, took them, and left the house.

Then he entered another house.

Every house he entered was a flood of memories. 

He could more or less understand what people did in their final moments. 

He even saw a couple in the bedroom who had truly 'eaten' each other.

After visiting about ten houses, William filled his bag. 

Then he took a few rifles and bullets from the houses he entered. 

These rifles were used against bears and pigs, so they were considered powerful even by today's standards. Elura could use them. Thanks to her blessing, he was sure she would be a very skilled shooter. 

William returned home and showed Elura what he had found. He was very happy as he told her about it, but after a while, Elura's mood affected him too.

Finally, he stopped talking about the weapons and sat down next to Austin. 

"All we have to do is wait..."...

...

Everything was dark. Austin looked around. 

He had been in complete darkness for several hours, so he thought he was dead.

He looked at his hand, his arm, his body. 

There were no injuries.

Contrary to his expectations, he was very calm mentally. 

He wasn't scared, he wasn't happy, he was just trying to understand.

"Is this heaven? Is this hell? Is there really life after death?" 

Even though he was in darkness, Austin could see and, more importantly, feel the ground beneath his feet as gray, flat concrete.

He walked and walked and walked. He never stopped. He walked for several hours until he was tired of walking. 

"What's going on? Where am I?" Austin raised his head and looked up. It was dark there too.

After resting for a few minutes, he started running.

He was lost, unable to choose a direction even if he wanted to.

Finally, he collapsed from exhaustion. He lay down on the gray concrete floor. 

He didn't know what to do, he was scared.

He was scared of being alone without Elura, and most importantly, he was scared of the unknown.

"Ngaaaaaawwwwwww!"

Austin was startled by the sound he heard. All the hairs on his body stood on end. 

He looked in the direction of the sound. A white object was floating in the air. It was so white that the sun seemed dim next to it.

Austin could only keep his eyes on this white object for a second. Then his eyes started to burn, as if he had looked too closely at the sun.

Austin knelt down in fear and pain. 

The pain in his eyes wouldn't go away. He rubbed them, but he couldn't get rid of the pain. 

He raised his head and screamed at the dark sky. 

"AAAAHHHHH!!!" 

…