The red sky was more so due to ash swirling in the air. Elias was walking at a steady pace, not too fast and not too slow. He had finished climbing down the hill leading into the Gravewild Exapnse. In front of him was the old abandoned highway, moss covered and cracked in places.
Countless cars, some crashed into each other others just abandoned by the people were all along the rather long highway. Elias looked at the sky, the rot meter started to tick erratically since the rot index was getting higher and higher as he walked towards the Redline Sector-31.
"This is bad, the index suggests either a high tier zombie is in the Sector, or there's a swarm of either Shamblers or Stalkers." Elias said to himself while looking at the rot meter.
He sighed before he pulled out his phone. Thankfully it was still running. He called the only person he trusted, his mentor. The line died before it rang. There was a silence, once that was heavy on him. One that reminded him that he was alone for now.
He put his phone away and stopped walking as he saw a few Shamblers in the distance. He was outnumbered, despite being a ZIA trained official in his current condition he was equivalent to a civilian.
Near him was a rusted school bus, the door was opened so he climbed into it. He decided to rest there. Even as a half-zombie, fatigue still clung to him...it was proof that the rot hadn't taken everything.
"System," he called out and the green floating window appeared in front of him.
There were different options listed this time.
[Necrotic Ascension System]
[Status Window]
[Evolution Tree]
[Quests]
He clicked on the status window option. The window glitched and changed into a status window.
[Name: Elias Grey]
[Designation: Half Risen]
[Affiliation: DZR Team Alpha Leader]
[Core Stats]
Level: 2
Race: Human-Hybrid/Classified
Condition: Stable Instability
Rot Index: 37%(left side dominant)
Cognition Integrity: 82%
Vitality Retention: 61%
[Primary Attributes]
Strength: 12
Agility: 9
Endurance: 14
Perception: 10
Adaptation: 17
[Passive Traits]
[Half-Risen Physiology]
Immune to minor necrotic decay.
Cannot regenerate naturally.
Partial immunity to mind-affecting effects from Class-1 undead.
Vulnerable to cleansing-type weapons.
[Pain Nullification - Tier I]
Pain response is redirected into cognitive stress load. Overuse may trigger Instability Events.
[Active Skills]
[Disguise – Level 1]
Temporarily masks rot and undead traits.
Duration: 10 minutes. Cooldown: 1 hour.
High mental strain upon activation.
[Grafting – Level 1]
Allows grafting of organic undead material (muscle, bone, tissue) into your own body.
Can only graft compatible sources. Corruption increases slightly per use.
[Distribution – Level 1]
Grants control over where grafted flesh integrates into the body.
Limited precision at current level. Can only manipulate external form.
[System Notes]
Your path is divergent.
Further synchronization may reveal latent skills.
Stability warnings will be issued at key corruption thresholds.
Clear the quests to gain insight about a cure and the truth of the infection.
*****
Elias went through his status window thoroughly. He was shocked that something like this existed. But he didn't complain much, he was at least breathing...whether he was dead or alive.
After he checked other tabs and got used with the system he rose up, took out a ration pack and ate some bread with some ketchup. After that he gathered his stuff and went out. The Shamblers had wandered away and his way was clear.
After another fifteen minutes of walking he was in front of the entrance gate of Redline Sector-31. It used to be a quarantine zone a few years ago, now it was an abandoned site with a threat level of 3.
Elias remembered the incident that led to around a thousand ZIA personnel and about two thousand civilians to be turned into a swarm of zombies which could've breached Nova Terra if not for The Echo Trench.
He found a hole in one of the side walls and went inside through it. The inside of the sector was eerie, corpses and skeletons lay on the road leading to the ZIA outpost. The buildings on the sides were burnt, with red vines coiling around them.
A loud gunshot alerted him as he rushed inside a building for cover. The system window appears in front of him.
[Side Quest #1 - Hunt or be Hunted]
There are two survivors currently in Redline Sector-31. Either Hunt them or get Hunted by them. Disguise skill will have a less active time for this quest.
Elias looked at the floating screen with a dead-pan expression. His body was in a bad condition, how would he hunt two people who had a gun. Nevermind that, why would he even kill another human.
He once taught students how life was formed on a molecular level, now he carried death inside him. And the system wanted him to act like it now. This was against his morals.
He should've stabbed his own heart as soon as he found out what had happened to him. Yet he didn't, he grabbed onto the hope that maybe he could find a cure for himself. That maybe he can go back to his normal life.
He gritted his teeth and said a single word full of hatred came out, "Hypocrite."
Another gunshot was heard, this time it was much closer to where he was. By the sound, it was probably a standard issue ZIA rifle from around 5 years ago. He didn't know anything about them. Only the fact that they were two people, and had at least one gun and most probably another one.
He decided to move, he would study them from a distance. Watch their moves and then decide a time to attack them. But for now he had to stock up. He remembered that the ZIA outpost had two armories.
He could find special ammo, batteries and even a better gun there. He made his way to the back exit of the building he had entered. As he was about to enter the next building, the two people entered it. The area around it was reinforced.
He went around it and listened in on them talking to each other.
"Jane, how many times do I have to tell you to not fire without my approval! Can't you understand a darn thing?" The man shouted.
"Why are you shouting, it's not like I missed. Honestly I don't get what is wrong with you. Stupid old man." The woman retorted in an equally loud voice.
The man was fairly tall with fully white temples and some grey in his beard. He wore a simple jeans with a white t-shirt on top. A jacket reinforced with some Kevlar. He looked to be middle aged but the way he was standing meant that he was either in military or something related. The gun on his shoulders was a newer model for the standard issue ZIA rifle.
The woman in front of him was shorter, about average height. She had an almost same attire as the man. Except for the fact that she had a hat on her head. Her hair was braided and she had an older version of the standard issue rifle in her hand. Around her hips she had handguns on both sides in holsters.
Elias observed them quietly, soon they locked the doors and went to the second floor to rest. Elias looked around, he saw some traps set up with some motion sensors inside. He sighed as he didn't know they would have this kind of security measures inside. He was now sure that the man was an old ZIA agent deployed to Redline Sector-31.
To complete this quest, Elias would need more supplies. So, he quietly made his way towards the main building in the center. The ZIA outpost was huge considering it housed two thousand potential infected civilians inside.
He was determined, despite him becoming a half zombie what he fought for before his transformation was still the same. He desperately wanted to find a cure for this and he'd go to any length for that. The system had shown him a ray of hope in finding the cure.
Arriving in front of the outpost, he pushed open the door and went inside not before looking behind him. It was time to start the hunt.