Zombie Apocalypse: Am I Counted As 10 People?!

Austin woke up screaming as if from a nightmare. 

"AAAAHHHHHH!"

Most of the pain in his chest was still there. Getting up made the pain more intense, and he felt even worse. At that moment, a comforting hand pressed him back down where he was.

It was William. He was closer than Elura, so he was the first to react.

"It's just a nightmare." William smiled slightly.

His touch was like that of the gentlest nurse in the world. 

"Calm down, it's just a nightmare." 

At that moment, Elura arrived and, with teary eyes, placed her hand on Austin's face and kissed his lips. 

"It's over, it's over... everything is over now." 

"How long have I been unconscious?" Austin asked, holding his aching chest. The sun seemed to have already reached its peak.

"It's almost evening," said William.

"What did you see in your dream?" William asked. He wondered why Austin had suffered so much in his dream.

"Darkness, endless darkness, and a white light, but when I looked at the white light, it melted into my eye,s and I was in pain. Then I woke up..." Austin was still trying to get over the shock of the incident.

"What about the horse?" 

William answered this question. "Don't worry, it's dead. We're safe for now." 

"Pessimism, hope, and pain, huh?" William muttered to himself afterwards. He had never had a dream after the catastrophe. 

"Did he have such a strange dream because he was affected by the Ley?" William put this aside for now. Austin's recovery was the priority. 

"Get some rest, my friend. We'll set off tomorrow." William handed Austin the bird meat that was still untouched by Elura, which was lying on the side.

Austin ate the meat as if he had been starving, in a very ungracious manner. When he was halfway through the meat, he realized that Elura hadn't touched it at all, so he stopped eating. 

"I'll leave you two lovebirds alone." William smiled at Austin and left.

As soon as William left, Elura hugged Austin.

"I was so scared... I was so scared of losing you... Please... Please don't leave me..." Then she began to cry hysterically.

Austin and Elura had nothing left to lose; there were only the two of them now. Losing each other would mean death in this cruel world.

That's why they had to hold on to life tightly. 

Austin promised himself that day, hugging Elura tightly as he cried. "Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere... I will protect us forever..."

Tears finally rolled down Austin's face. 

He always thought of himself as strong, but today he realized how soft he really was. 

...

When William came downstairs, he still felt very energetic, so he didn't want to just sit around. 

For now, they had enough food and a house that could be considered safe, and there were no zombies left around. 

This was a perfect opportunity for him to educate himself a little. 

William picked up a few books from the system store. The books in the library only allowed you to acquire basic abilities and improve those basic abilities.

The number of books William could take was limited.

There wasn't a book for every ability. For example, abilities such as [Piercing], [Impact Momentum], and [Among the Shadows] could only be learned through trial and failure and then improved through practice.

There were books available for abilities such as [Dual Sword Mastery], [Dagger Mastery], and [Throwing Mastery]. 

When William opened the book on dual sword mastery, he managed to understand how to learn the ability.

He often used one of the moves shown in the book when killing zombies, which most likely triggered the acquisition of the ability. 

William engraved the moves in the book firmly in his mind.

Then he went out in front of the house and took his two katanas in his hands. First, he adjusted his stance.

"Let's see, just like I always do, lift both swords at the same time and swing them downward and to the side." 

"Whooosh..." 

With each swing, William sliced through the air. 

"Then quickly pull them upward..." 

"Whooosh..." 

"Then bring them straight down from above."

"Whooosh…" 

"Now spread both hands to the sides; the swords should face in two different directions." 

"Whooosh…" 

"Then both swords move independently."

The sword in William's right hand made a cutting motion forward, while the sword in his left hand made a cutting motion backward. 

"Now take a step." William took a short step forward.

"Now we come together again…"

As William took a step, he drew both swords and made a thrusting motion forward.

"Now, power is important, raise the sword and swing it down with all your strength." 

"Whooosh... BOOM!" 

A small crater formed where William struck. This crater was large enough to easily bury the corpse-eating sparrow he had killed.

William took a deep breath with satisfaction. 

He had no teacher; he was his own teacher. That's why he had to learn most things through trial and failure. 

"I wish I had Elura's ability... using two swords would be child's play."

William practiced for several hours. He easily passed the second level, but the third level seemed like a different threshold, so he felt stuck at the second level.

"I'm missing something, but what..." William then practiced the Power of Breath for about an hour. 

A clear mind was indeed effective. William instantly found the problem and the solution, but it was not something he could do in a day.

He had to get used to it. The key to the solution was synchronization. The two swords and himself had to be one. They had to be synchronized, but it would not be easy to solve this problem. At least it would take some time.

William then moved on to dagger training.

Dagger training was relatively simpler.

It was training that required him to focus all his power on a single point. Most of his movements required stabbing.

In dagger training, mobility and focusing all his power on a single point were the keys to achieving maximum efficiency.

William reached the second level in dagger mastery, but he couldn't reach the third level. 

Then he focused only on the power of breath. He worked until midnight, until Austin and Elura fell asleep. 

It was midnight when he stopped practicing the power of breath.

William had heard some sounds that he would not have liked to hear.

He had never heard any of these sounds in the city, but the wild nature was the perfect environment for creatures like the corpse-eating sparrow to survive and become even stronger.

The sound of wolves made William's hair stand on end.

William didn't know how far away the wolves were, but he was sure it wasn't close.

Nevertheless, the howling was enough to make him uneasy.

If it were wolves that had leveled up, they would be in trouble if they encountered it. So he quietly went to Elura and Austin and prayed that the wolves wouldn't smell them as he slept....

...

The next day, he was woken up by Austin and Elura shaking him.

"What's going on?" William sat up immediately and touched his katana. He had to be ready at any time.

"No, it's not zombies or anything! It's people!" Austin spoke breathlessly. William looked at his watch; it was only seven in the morning.

"What kind of people?" William stood up and asked in surprise.

"Just come with us." William noticed the troubled expressions on Austin and Elura's faces. It was a sign of concern.

They quickly brought him to a farmhouse west of the village.

"We were looking for useful materials in the houses and came across this one." 

Austin took William to the basement of the house. As William descended the basement stairs, he began to hear voices.

"Please... Please help us." The voices were loud and muffled, clearly coming from behind something, and there was more than one person.

Finally, William understood where the sounds were coming from and why Austin was so worried.

There was a huge metal door in front of him, made of steel, illuminating the basement with a metallic gray color. It had a large valve and a small touch screen. 

"Can the people inside hear us?" William asked curiously.

"Barely," Elura replied.

"We tried everything to open the door, but we couldn't. It's stuck." Austin stepped forward and tried to turn the valve to show that he couldn't open the door. 

Then he stepped back. 

William wanted to try too. But first, he had to be sure of something. Did he really need to rescue these people? What if there was someone among them who needed care? What if they were a burden to them? There was still a short distance for William to go, but a long way for the team. 

At worst, they would have to walk another thirty miles, and William was thinking of taking the forest road. Returning to the main road would be a waste of time.

"How many people are inside?" William shouted. He wanted to make sure those inside could hear him.

"Five... Please help us. We have no food or water left... Please..." William heard a woman's voice from inside. It was a tired, exhausted, and worn-out voice. 

Behind the thick steel door, it was as if death was lurking in all its darkness, and this voice was a flickering ray of light trying to escape from it.

"Did you try the code?" William looked at the touchscreen.

"Yes, but it's broken. This shelter was newly built, and the catastrophe struck before the electrical work was completed." Austin's face was still worried; he wanted to help the people inside.

William stepped forward and began to turn the valve. At first, it didn't move, but with Austin's help, they managed to turn it a little more forcefully. 

After half an hour of struggling, the door finally opened. 

As soon as the door opened, a foul smell filled William, Austin, and Elura's noses.

William more or less understood the situation inside.

They had eaten the food and, since there was no toilet, they had used the bucket in the corner as a toilet. As far as he could see, the bucket was about to overflow.

The people inside were unable to walk, so Austin and William carried them all upstairs one by one.

Then Elura prepared a meal for them from the canned food.

The five people, who were on the verge of starvation, devoured the food as if they had literally come out of a famine. 

William examined them all in detail at that moment.

They were all level one. They hadn't killed any zombies; they had fled directly to the bunker. They were waiting for the government to rescue them, but William presented them with dozens of new pieces of information that would darken their spirits.

There was no government or anything else. They weren't even sure if it was a shelter because they hadn't reached it yet.

After learning who the five people were and what their professions were, William welcomed them and told them that they had to be as determined as possible and learn to fight if they wanted to survive.

One of them was Grandpa Mick. Don't be fooled by the title of "grandpa"; he wasn't very old, he just got married at a young age and was called that because he had a grandchild. He owned two high-end restaurants and a small hotel in New Telludure. In short, this whole house and shelter belonged to him. Thanks to him, the other four people had survived.

His wife had died at an early age and he had been alone for a long time. So he had a lot of free time and was knowledgeable in his own way about things like bunkers, weapons, and survival. 

Then there was his neighbor Trudie. She was 35 years old, very attractive and charming. Her husband had a small agricultural supply store in New Telludure and she ran the family farm. She took care of a few orchards three miles west of New Telludure.

William didn't miss the way Trudie looked at Mick. 

Kim was very young compared to the others. She was sixteen and seemed less developed than her peers. She was 5'1" and very thin. She stood almost like a wooden stick when he stood up. Her arms were very thin, and it was clear that she was malnourished. 

William realized that she was one of today's plagues, one of those frail girls who never left the house and fed only on junk food. 

And then there was Min-Jun. He was over 6.5 feet tall and had a thin build that showed he had been malnourished recently.

He was Kim's cousin from Asia. He had come here to help his uncle with his farm work.

Finally, there was Jason, who had come from New Telludure to work with Mick. It was clear that he had come here to work; he had expensive-looking black shoes and looked presentable in his shirt and pants. 

His dreadlocks looked good with his suit. 

After everyone had eaten their fill, William took them on a short tour of the village so they could understand the state of the world. 

Seeing the condition of the people they knew, they all cried for a few minutes, but the truth was painful, and such pain healed quickly because it was a matter of life and death. 

"If you don't kill them, they will kill you." 

That was what William told them.

After a long discussion with Elura and Austin, William agreed to give them a day to process what had happened.

William wanted to go to the shelter as soon as possible and get some rest. Elura and Austin, on the other hand, thought these people would be helpful at the shelter and insisted that each of them was valuable and needed to be carefully protected.

After a while, William had to admit that Elura and Austin were right.

Even if one person meant one more plate on the table, it made no sense to count one person if that person could put more than one plate on the table.

Everyone except Kim was useful.

William still wanted to give them all a weapon to convince them. There were no firearms in the system. So the rifles he collected from the village were the only option. 

Or so he thought. Mick told him to throw away those rifles. 

Confused, William followed him and saw that Mick had built a second underground bunker, which contained dozens of different weapons. And there were thousands of bullets... thousands. 

William's eyes lit up.

He gave everyone the freedom to choose. 

But he personally selected one for Kim. It was a heavy, long-barreled rifle. Actually, his intention wasn't for Kim to use it, but for her to get used to its weight and improve her strength statistics.

Mick took a pistol, a large knife, and a semi-automatic rifle for himself.

Trudie was already accustomed to using rifles, having hunted wild boars in the fields and gardens many times, so she chose a nice shotgun and loaded it with ammunition, filling her shoulders and waist with shells. 

When William mentioned he could provide cold weapons, Min-Jun and Jason took an interest.

Min-Jun wanted a large, long sword that was suitable for his height. He also took a pistol with him. 

Jason wanted a katana, a short knife, and finally a small pistol, just in case.

William also chose a new pistol for himself. Elura remained loyal to the pistol William gave her and only took bullets.

Austin took a fully automatic rifle. He wanted solid firepower to be able to retreat when his machete was useless.

Everyone armed themselves and filled their mouths with bullets, and when they were ready, William bought them leather armor that would suffocate them even more on this hot summer day.

It didn't look like it was going to rain, so the weight wouldn't be a problem, but they would have to endure the heat. 

William then told them everything he knew about how to fight and where and how to behave. 

He gave a few minutes of intense speech about how they should all behave if they encountered a large group of zombies and how they should protect each other as a team.

The five people who came out of the shelter listened to young William like a real leader and nodded at everything he said.

William thought he was getting positive feedback from these serious faces and smiled.

 Then he wanted to give them all a Power of Breath technique, but at that moment, he discovered that he could not take two of the same item.

He also tried to give them the book, but as soon as it touched Mick's hand, it disappeared and reappeared on William's chest.

He opened it so they could read it from a distance, but they said they couldn't see what was written inside.

Thus, William realized that no ability could be shared, and that all of them had to be purchased with their own coin. 

He gave up showing them the contents of the book and told everyone, including Austin and Elura, what he knew. It was the perfect time to rest. In a world without television, telephones, and other entertainment devices, meditation was the most logical option.

Among those who were taught the Power of Breath, Min-Jun was the most talented...