I throw open the door and almost chuck my phone out the window, but it lands on my desk. I've been a news reporter for eight years. And they just fire me? They didn't even give a reason. Can I even use them as a reference now?
I pull out my chair and try to sit, but as I do so, I fall to the ground. Suddenly, I'm in a white void; the area around me is simply empty. I don't even feel air on my skin.
A black and red panel appears, it looks as if from a game, the writing on it is [you have been chosen to become a variable.] What? What does that even mean? hell no, I'm not doing that.
[Refusal detected. Punishment required.] Pain rips through my body, burning, freezing, cutting, every possible pain floods me. I want to cry, but it won't let me. I want to scream, but it won't let me, then it simply stops. No aching pain, just sudden silence.
"What even are you?" I ask [The DBC System.] "But what does that mean?" [You do not have enough authority for that question.] "Why am I in this place? What type of variable am I supposed to become?" [the ritualistic type necromancer. Prepare to learn zombie creation level one.] "I will, just don't hurt me."
A table with a human body appears. No, it can't be human, its face is different, almost giving the uncanny valley effect. The face is just off slightly; it looks too normal, no imperfections, the skin is too smooth, the eyes are blank without a soul, the body lies there, no cause of death from what I can see, a kitchen knife is there next to it, the window showing a simple command.
[Cut out the heart.] What the hell. But if I don't, it will punish me again. I pick up the knife and move over the body, the bare chest out. I cut the best I can, but a kitchen knife can't saw through bone. I grab the knife and try to stab through it with all my might, and I get through. But suddenly the system appears again. [Heart destroyed, generating new body.] The old body and knife disappear, and new ones appear in their original spots.
I'm going to try a different approach. I grab the knife again and make a cut on the abdomen just below the ribcage. I steady myself and shove my arm into the wound and make my way to the heart, though the guts and organs in the way, I feel the warm blood drench my arm as I shove it in. I get to something I believe is the heart and grip it tightly and pull. I feel resistance, then I nearly fall backward. I can feel the warm heart in my hand.
Another command appears. [Etch this rune into the heart.] The rune almost looks like a chain, but I do so to the best of my ability, and so it appears again. [Etch this rune into the skull] I do so, and another appears [etch these runes into the shoulders] I etch runes into the heart, skull, shoulders, elbows, hands, hips, knees, and ankles. Some different, some the same after doing this, another command shows up [put the heart into the mouth.] and so I shove it in the best I can. [stitch the mouth closed.] For the first time, a tool other than the knife appears, a needle and thread. I pick it up and move to the mouth once again. The mouth is almost bursting with the heart in it. It causes me to want to vomit. I stick the needle in and pull it to the other side, and bit by bit, I stitch the mouth closed.
The window appears again. [You have made the lowest rank zombie type recorded in the system. You have earned the class necromancer.] I collapse and throw up. I'm covered in warm blood; one arm is drenched, and it feels awful. A different panel is there now, but still red and Black.
{Name: Christopher Faustus, Age: 28, Species: Human, Class: Necromancer
Level: 1
strength: 5
Stamina: 6
Constitution: 4
Dexterity: 6
Agility: 4
Mana: 8
Skills: koine Zombie Making}
What the hell? Why do I have stats like it's a game? The mana is probably like that from my class, but what is happening? I feel my body move, and I'm no longer covered in blood for a moment. I hope it was a dream or a hallucination. I'm in my apartment again, but the screen is still there. I feel my entire body shake and be shoved to the floor before I hear a massive BOOM. I look out my window and see massive wolves, beasts stitched together, and other monsters. I see people ripped apart, and I feel it once again vomit at the back of my throat. I expel it forth into the world as I fall to the ground, waiting for the screams, cracking, and ripping to stop happening.
Hours Pass, and after so long, I don't hear people pleading for their lives, I don't hear the children crying before they die, just silence. I look up and see the bodies, and I know I need to leave. I pick up my phone and it doesn't turn on. [Technology such as phones, guns, and other advances no longer function; they will be reactivated after three years. All technology made after or during the industrial revolution no longer functions.]
That means no military to save me or anyone else, no guns to defend ourselves with no cars or trains to run away with. I need to get somewhere safe. But where is safe? The king will probably die, and so will the princes. All of Yevelt is probably going to be starving or dead soon. No shelter can save as many as there will be; any military will fail to keep the monsters at bay. The only way to guarantee my safety is to get somewhere I can use zombie making and hide there alone, and send the zombies to kill monsters as I scavenge food. But where? A graveyard is too open. I could stay here and pick the bodies off the street, but I don't have anything here, and it's not exactly safe. Maybe a morgue? They have bodies and the tools to make them without most of the gore.
There are two nearby. I can remember something about a mistake in one of the hospitals in which a doctor accidentally gave all of the patients placebos instead of real medicine, and that killed some people. WAIT, HOW DO YOU EVEN DO THAT? Whatever I gain from it, his horrible mistake is to my benefit.
I grab a duffel bag I used for the gym when I still went, and put food, knives, and hygiene products in. But I probably should not leave in the day that could cause me to be seen by one of the monsters. And so I wait, bit by bit, the day burns away, and every so often I hear a scream followed by ripping, then nothing but horrible silence.
And finally, night comes, I pick up a knife and open my door. I check both ways before going down the stairs and starting to descend step by step. I get closer to the ground, to the hundreds of bodies lying near the entrance. And when I get there, I see people ripped in two and three people who died choking on their own blood. I hate this awful feeling in my chest. I go to the back door, open it, look around, and start running to the hospital. After what feels like forever, I see it before I feel a sharp pain in the right side of my gut. I hear it growl before I see the beast that bit me.
A red wolf-like creature with ivory eyes. It bites down harder before almost throwing me to the ground. It's bigger than a dog; it's three and a half feet tall. I scramble to my feet, and it is in front of me, growling. I grab my knife from my pocket, it begins to lunge at me, but it goes high, and I barely keep its head away with my left forearm at its neck. I move my knife and stab it in the chest, it claws my arms before pushing me back. It seems almost angry now, it seems louder, but that could be the blood leaving my body. It starts to lunge once again, but so do I before stabbing it in the throat. But its claws don't stop, they keep ripping at me, tearing my skin. I lift the knife up and slam it down again and again until it stops moving, until the growling stops.
[You have slain a young lesser red wolf.] YOUNG? LESSER? I can feel the blood leaving my body. [250 XP gained] [You have 250/200 XP] [You have leveled up. +2 mana +1 dexterity +1 stamina.] I'm still bleeding, so I don't think I even care. My arm is covering the large wound on my right side. I move into the hospital looking for a suture kit. I grab one from a bloody cabinet and pull open a door to a closet. I almost fall to the ground and start sticking the wound closed best I can. It's bad, but better than nothing. I cover it and my arms in bandages. before locking the door and letting myself pass out, hoping to be alive in the morning.