"Raaag─"
While an undead is groaning as it moves towards a figure, a baseball bat drives itself towards the face of said undead, silencing it in the process as the bat smashed its head into bits and pieces scattered on the cold, hard ground.
Meanwhile, in front of the figure's eyes, a series of notifications pop up from a floating screen, the information from each notification making him quite joyful as he looks at the experience bar beside his level, constantly increasing at a fast rate.
[You killed an undead +5 xp]
[You killed an undead +5 xp]
[You killed an undead +5 xp]
…
As he continues slaughtering the approaching undead nearby, Azrael eventually gets the hang of it, figuring out where the most efficient location to hit is, whether he's using a sharp or a blunt weapon. Swinging a metal bat, popping the head of the undead, slashing his knife, and severing the body from the head.
Unknowingly, he eventually starts getting used to a thing that he would never even consider in his past life had it not been for him being pushed into a corner, taking others' lives, no matter how rotten their lives are, is just something that he can never bring himself to do back then.
With steeled resolve to even turn into a vile character to protect what is important to him, though, the repugnant feeling he got from taking these undead lives was replaced with joy, joy of seeing his strength rising bit by bit as his experience points, along with his level, continue climbing at a steady rate.
Once the undead in his location starts to thin down, he continues his walk all around the school grounds, humming a little tune while walking calmly down the streets, his arms moving swiftly whenever there's a creature approaching him, those creatures either getting incapacitated by his attack if not completely obliterated, leaving heaps and piles of flesh and bones behind his path.
'I think I can still get that old guard… the bastard and his group will only encounter that old guard two days later, after all.' While it is unclear whether said undead will still give him much now, Azrael still thinks that it is worth the detour if it means he could ruin the future of his enemies from his previous life.
'Don't say that you're innocent in this life, if you get that power, you will definitely be no less rotten than yourself from my previous life,' thinking to himself, Azrael reminded, his way of dealing with the problem completely different from his past self, decisively nipping his problems in the bud.
Rushing towards the direction of the old zombified guard, Azrael never forgets to deal with the creatures in his way, killing everything with one hit as the creatures approaching him either got their bodies smashed by the bat, or had their heads beheaded, or cut into two by the knife.
Eventually, he found himself standing in front of a large mall with all sorts of shops inside. Due to the nature of the structure, having a lot of glass panes serving as some sort of wall, the inside of the building is displayed, making it known to Azrael the numerous undead lurking inside. If one were not familiar with the apocalypse, people might even think that those undead are just people sleeping, albeit a bit weirdly, since they are standing upright, motionless.
Scanning the vicinity around, Azrael eventually found his target, an adult man standing at nearly six feet tall despite his hunching back, muscular build not so behind Azrael's own physique, and the worst part of all, the clear, sentient eyes that seemed to hold intelligence despite turning into one of those sleeping nightmares.
Taking some precautions, he started comparing their stats against each other, the numerous level-up notifications from his previous slaughter popping out the moment he opened the system interface.
[You level up. Reward +5 all attributes (unallocated)]
[You level up. Reward +5 all attributes (unallocated)]
[You level up. Reward +5 all attributes (unallocated)]
[You level up. Reward +5 all attributes (unallocated)]
[You level up. Reward +5 all attributes (unallocated)]
[You practiced a part of True Life Sutra while fighting for three hours +18 talent xp]
[As an effect of the talent: Cellular Hypertrophy, the effects of the additional attribute points are also doubled]
Investing the unallocated attribute points, he was pleasantly surprised when he checked his status; his power was vastly different from when he was the same level in his previous life.
'This is good, I can protect them better now, and I can destroy the things in my path easier this way,' Azrael thought to himself while looking at the status screen, his attributes definitely something that would scare people on the same level.
[Azrael Dragomir]
[Level: 6(155/3200)]
[Talent: Cellular Hypertrophy Level 1 (30/100)]
[Strength: 150]
[Agility: 150]
[Vitality: 150]
[Stamina: 150]
[Mana: 150]
[Aptitude: 150]
[Skill/s: Basic Scan, Intermediate Mixed Martial Arts, Throwing, Technician]
Seeing the baffling increase in his attribute points, Azrael starts to get used to it. What he finds peculiar this time is the increase in attribute points he got for leveling up. Usually, from level one to ten, a person can only increase all their attributes by one whenever they level up, and only somewhere around level 40 will they start getting an average increase of five points per attribute every level.
'Going through this logic, won't I have around nine points per attribute or even more once I reach the same level?' Looking forward to the strength he would have once he reaches a higher level, Azrael grinned as another thought went through his mind. 'Not to mention that if the growth of additional attributes is linear with a magnitude of one, if the growth is proportional instead, then wouldn't I get twenty-five points per attribute every time I level up by the time I reach level forty?'
Trying to calm his excitement, he analyzes his opponent, now staring at him, the stats it possesses are nothing short of a threat to him, yet he is still looking forward to fighting it, given its level and the rewards it's going to give him the moment he kills it.
[Mutated Undead]
[Level: 15]
[Talent: Enlightened]
[Strength: 50]
[Agility: 40]
[Vitality: 60]
[Stamina: 60]
[Mana: 30]
[Aptitude: 10]
[Skill/s: Intermediate Mixed Martial Arts, Pain Immunity]
'He's definitely not that strong back then, if not, the group that defeated him will definitely get obliterated in no time' Azrael thought to himself as he read the information of the opponent, the amount of attribute it has being more than enough to wipe out an entire armed group in a couple of minutes, not to mention a ragtag group of students using makeshift tools as their weapons
'Previously that Grove hivemind, and now this old guard is getting far stronger than he should… The butterfly effect starts this early, huh…' thinking that this might be related to the change in his actions this past month, he couldn't help but shake his head as he thought of the peculiar butterfly effect and its impact on the proceedings of events.
'If it's like this, then I can just let those guys be murdered by this old guard before I kill it…' he entertained the thought a bit in his mind before refusing the idea, for he thinks of turning his enemies to something more useful before he disposes of them.
'They're like living treasure detectors though, and most of the good things they got in the previous timeline comes from places they don't even disclose, so I need to spare them for now, it would be quite a pity to miss out on goodies after all' Azrael reasoned to himself as he tries to fight the urge to just kill those bastards here, thinking that all those treasures that they would find will be extremely beneficial not only for him, but also his family.
'The gains far outweigh the loss,' he said to himself as he thought that it is more than worth it to hold his revenge back in order to gain even more strength not only for him but also for his loved ones, strength that would be the foundation of their life from this point onwards.