Chapter 3 — Shadow Veil
The gas station's glass door groaned when I pushed it open, like it had one last complaint before giving up forever. Hot air rushed in — thick with smoke, something burning nearby, and that sour metallic stink that clung to the undead like perfume.
The block looked exactly like the kind of place where the world would end: a liquor store with bars on the broken windows already ransacked. A laundromat with half its sign missing and a car parked through the front door. The dumpsters we on fire —why— I don't know. Sirens could be heard in the background but faint, far away. A chain-link fence rattled in the wind beside the apartments — or maybe something hit it.
The sun hadn't even fully risen, and already the world looked dead.
Perfect.
I stepped onto the sidewalk, bat resting on my shoulder. My heart wasn't racing, but it wasn't calm either — more like tuned for whatever came next. The little boost from my stats wasn't a miracle or anything, but my grip felt steadier, feet lighter. If I was going to survive the first hour of the apocalypse, this was the time to learn my limits.
A wet dragging sound scraped down the alley to my right.
Zombie #2, maybe.
I tightened my fingers around the bat, moved slow. No panic. No screaming. Just calculation. If I was going to get stronger by killing, then avoiding fights made no sense — not this early. Before humanity started forming groups or gangs or whatever future power structures were coming, I should build my foundation. I needed to be able to protect myself in this shitty world.
The alley smelled like garbage and piss — no surprise. A figure hunched behind a tipped-over trash bin, head lolling to the side. Its face twitched at the sound of my shoe scraping asphalt. When it turned, half its cheek was missing. Great.
This one didn't moan and groan like the previous one. It just launched itself at me.
Faster than the first. Not fast-fast, but enough to close half the distance before instinct kicked in. I stepped back, swung horizontally, and the bat cracked against the side of its skull with a dull, wet thump. It stumbled, still going, arms clawing at the air.
I brought the bat down again.
And again.
Then it stopped moving.
You have killed a Level 1 'Zombie' and have been awarded 2 stat points to assign.
A faint red shimmer drifted from the corpse — softer than before, a dying ember floating up. I watched it hover, then settle on the ground as a red marble, pulsing like a heartbeat.
So it wasn't a one-time thing.
I crouched, picked it up, and for a moment I actually hesitated. Not morally — just curious if different zombies dropped different skills. But the reward wasn't labeled, and I doubted the system took requests.
I crushed it.
Another flash. Another heat wave. Not as intense as the first, more like sinking into a warm bath — power soaking gently into muscle and bone.
Shadow Veil (Active)
You partially dim your presence, making it harder for enemies to notice you.
Slight reduction to sound and visibility
Duration: 10 seconds
Cooldown: 30 seconds
Cost: 2 mana
An active skill this time, one that cost mana. Not flashy. Not dramatic. But good something that will let me survive in this world a little longer.
I exhaled through my nose. "Alright. That's two."
This time I didn't touch the stats, not yet, I needed more information on what exactly the stats did. Maybe strength was just raw power, and then agility would make me faster, but endurance? would that mean I would run longer? Or a tougher defense? And Intellegence, what happens if I incres that stat? would it make me smarter and give me an info dump? probably not, so would it increases my mana? or maybe it will improve my thought process letting me think faster?
There were simply to many unknowns at this moment.
But If this was how the system worked — small, stacking advantages — then I was going to snowball hard if I kept killing. But the world wasn't going to stay at Level 1 forever. I needed to move efficiently if I wanted to get ahead.
This new skill wasn't a flashy finisher or some anime beam attack. But it wasn't supposed to be. A skill like this was for people who planned, people who survived.
People who didn't die in the first ten minutes of the apocalypse. and wanted to keep living even if that ment staying hidden.
I could work with this.
A crash sounded outside—loud enough to shake the front windows. Something metal scraped over asphalt. Someone screamed… then gargled… then went silent.
I tightened my grip on the bat.
"Okay," I murmured. "Time to move."
The gas station wasn't going to hold forever, and staying still was just asking to get surrounded. But going out blind was stupid. So I peeked from behind the corner of the ally and stared down the street.
Two zombies staggered into view from behind a truck. One limped, dragging its foot like it didn't remember legs were supposed to bend. The other twitched, head jerking at weird angles as if sniffing for sound.
They weren't close—but they were close enough.
I didn't want to alert them yet.
So I inhaled and whispered:
"Shadow Veil."
The air around me… thinned.
Not by much. Just enough that the fluorescent lights dimmed on my skin. My footsteps softened, like the floor had turned into something padded. My heartbeat still hammered, but even that felt quieter.
Nice.
I crept toward the truck, making sure my eyes stayed locked on the two zombies. They didn't react. Not a twitch.
The cold air slapped me in the face—smoke, blood, and burnt rubber mixing into one heavy stench.
The two zombies shuffled at the far end of the lot, about a dozen yards away. They hadn't noticed me yet. Good.
I tightened my grip on the bat and made my approach slow, deliberate. The closer I got, the louder the world became—groans, the faint crackle of fire, the distant echo of someone shouting for help.
I stopped behind the first zombie.
One swing. Clean to the head.
The bat cracked against its skull, hard enough to split bone. The creature collapsed in a heap.
The second turned at the sound but too slow. I pivoted my stance, drove the bat forward, and smashed into its jaw. Its head whipped sideways, body staggering like it forgot how balance worked. It lunged blindly.
I sidestepped and brought the bat down again.
It dropped.
Another ding rippled through my mind as I mentally flicked the notice of the system to silent.
Two more kills. Two more stat choices. More chances to survive.
But something else happened.
Something I didn't expect.
From one of their corpses, a faint purple glow flickered… then solidified into a small orb the color of bruised shadows.
Not red.
Different.
Rare?
I crouched and held it up between my fingers. It felt colder than the Shadow Veil orb—colder than ice. A little pulse beat inside it, like a tiny trapped heartbeat.
Interesting.
I pocketed it. I'd deal with it later.
For now, I surveyed the street again—and froze.
There was movement across the intersection. Not zombie movement. Not twitchy, jerky, brain-dead nonsense.
Someone sprinted out from behind a crashed sedan.
A girl—maybe nineteen or twenty—stood there trembling, clothes torn and streaked with dirt. Strands of soft pink hair clung to her forehead, matted with sweat and tears. Her eyes, a startling shade of rose, shimmered with fear and exhaustion. Even like this, bruised and disheveled, she was breathtaking. Delicate features, a small perfect nose, and lips that trembled as she tried to steady her breathing. The kind of beauty that didn't need effort; the kind that made a guy's heart stutter on instinct.
She stumbled, caught herself, then sprinted harder—eyes wide with panic as two zombies chased her down the sidewalk.
She screamed for help.
It wasn't loud. More like a desperate, choked plea.
And I realized something instantly:
If I did nothing, she would die.
But... If I helped, she might also get me killed.
The world outside was swallowing itself whole. Chaos was everywhere. Smoke, fire, broken bodies. I could pretend not to care. I could justify letting her die. After all it was the apocalypse, 'every man for himself.'
But that wasn't me.
Not before.
Not even now. I'll do what I want now that I have the chance to be free, to gain the power I always wished for. to have my dream come true, and hey who wouldn't want a beautiful girl to call them their hero.
I felt my grip tighten around the bat.
My body moved before my brain finished deciding.
"Shadow Veil," I whispered again.
The world dimmed around me.
I stepped forward.
Toward her.
Toward the zombies chasing her.
Toward whatever came next.