[Name: Tier 1 Zombie]
[Race: Mutated Human]
[Status: Dormant, low perception]
[Weaknesses: Head, Fire, Electric Shock]
[Description: A basic mutant.
It moves slowly but possesses greater strength than an average human.
Elite individuals are stronger and more resilient than ordinary zombies.]
An elite level.
Kagashi narrowed his eyes.
He approached slowly, deliberately softening his footsteps until they were nearly silent.
Ten meters.
Five meters.
Three meters.
The zombie still showed no reaction.
Its grayish-white chest rose and fell slightly, as if it were breathing—or perhaps dreaming.
The power of the Ox Talisman surged into his right leg.
Then!
He lashed out with a sudden, violent kick!
Thump!!!
The kick connected solidly with the zombie’s chest.
With a burst of a thousand pounds of force, the zombie was sent flying like it had been hit by a truck!
Boom!
The zombie slammed into a concrete pillar over ten meters away, letting out a dull, heavy crash.
Cracks spiderwebbed across the pillar as dust cascaded down.
The zombie slumped to the ground, its chest caved in significantly.
Its grayish-white skin split open, revealing the dark, compromised internal structures beneath.
But it wasn’t dead.
“Ugh…
ah…”
It let out an indistinct low growl and struggled to crawl back up from the ground.
The sunken chest was slowly recovering, and the ruptured tissue was beginning to knit back together.
“Its regenerative ability is quite strong,” Kagashi frowned.
The zombie lifted its head, revealing its horrific face.
“Roar!!!”
It let out a sharp screech and lunged forward!
Kagashi sidestepped to dodge.
At that moment, he funneled all the power of the Ox Talisman into his right leg.
His muscles tightened, and the energy surged.
The moment the zombie missed its lunge, its body leaned forward, leaving its head and neck completely exposed within Kagashi’s range of attack.
Now.
Kagashi exerted force from his waist, and his right leg swept out like an iron whip!
“Hah!”
The kick was fast and vicious, the tip of his foot striking the zombie’s neck with precision.
Crack!!!
The sound of breaking bone was sharp and jarring, echoing through the empty parking lot.
The zombie’s head was severed directly by the impact of the kick!
Then, its body collapsed straight down.
Thud.
A dull landing sound kicked up a cloud of dust.
The head rolled away, and a small, luminous crystal tumbled out.
Kagashi picked it up to take a look.
A Zombie Crystal.
After a glance, Kagashi placed it directly into his system inventory; it might be useful later.
[Ding!]
[Tier 1 Zombie slain ×1]
[Global First Kill confirmed.
Resource Gift Pack ×1]
[Ding!]
[System Announcement: The team led by player ‘Kagashi’ has achieved the Global First Kill (Zombie)!]
This announcement wasn’t just sent to Kagashi alone.
It was global.
Every survivor across the world could hear it.
Inside a train carriage parked at an abandoned factory, a middle-aged man with a face full of stubble was crouching on the floor, using a small rusty knife to whittle a wooden stick.
The moment he heard the system announcement, his hand jerked, and the knife sliced his finger.
“Hiss~” He put his finger in his mouth to soothe it, his eyes wide with shock.
“Global First Kill?
Someone’s already neutralizing monsters on the first day?”
Beside him, a young woman wearing glasses looked up and pushed the cracked lenses back up the bridge of her nose.
“Kagashi?
I’ve never heard of that name.”
On a desolate, snow-covered wasteland, a train stood solitary on the tracks.
Inside the carriage, several people wrapped in tattered cotton coats huddled together for warmth.
“Global First Kill?” A young man with a shaved head let out a cold laugh.
“We’re about to run out of firewood, and others are already out there securing resources from monsters.
The gap is just too wide.”
“Stop talking,” a white-haired old lady nearby coughed a few times.
“Save your energy.
Just try not to freeze.”
Back at Shuguang Community, under the large tree.
Furina was crouching on the ground picking up stones when she suddenly stood up the moment she heard the system announcement.
“Global First Kill?
Kagashi?” She turned her head toward the underground parking lot, her pupils shrinking slightly.
“That guy went down there alone?!”
Misaka Mikoto had also heard the announcement.
She was still holding an Iron Axe she had just scavenged, but her entire body had frozen in place.
“He didn’t wait for us?” Her voice carried a hint of disbelief.
“He went to handle a threat alone?” Then, that disbelief quickly turned into frustration.
“That idiot!”
Roxy was the quickest to react.
Without the slightest hesitation, she started running toward the parking lot.
“Let’s go!”
The other girls snapped out of it and followed close behind, their makeshift plastic aprons rustling loudly over their white protective suits.
When the four reached the parking lot entrance, they saw Kagashi squeezing out of the gap.
He looked completely unharmed—in fact, he looked somewhat refreshed.
Furina was the first to rush up, grabbing his arm with such force that Kagashi was momentarily stunned.
“You went down there alone?” Her voice was both urgent and upset, and the rims of her eyes were turning slightly red.
“Do you have any idea how worried we were when we heard the announcement?”
“I…”
“What if there was more than one entity inside?” Furina didn’t give him a chance to speak.
“What if you couldn’t handle it?
What if you got hurt?
Did you even think about that?”
Kagashi opened his mouth to say something, but seeing Furina’s genuine distress, he swallowed his words.
Misaka Mikoto also walked over, the expression on her face very complex.
There was frustration, concern, and a trace of some inexplicable grievance.
“What happened to being companions?” She bit her lip, her voice much lower than usual.
“What happened to acting together?
You went off to risk yourself alone and left us outside—what is that supposed to mean?”
“I was thinking, if you went down, what would we do?”
These words were incredibly blunt.
So blunt that everyone present was stunned.
Misaka Mikoto seemed to realize how intense she sounded, and her face instantly flushed red over her collar.
She turned her head away quickly, her voice dropping to a sharp murmur: “I-I just thought that losing our primary combatant would be bad for the team’s survival strategy.
Don’t get the wrong idea…”
Yoshino poked her head out from behind Roxy, her small face still marked with anxious tear stains.
She looked at Kagashi timidly and whispered, “B-Brother Kagashi, next time, can you take me with you?
I’m not very strong, but-but I can help you freeze the monster’s feet.
I won’t be a burden.” By the end, her voice was trembling slightly.
Kagashi knelt down to meet Yoshino’s eyes and said seriously, “You aren’t weak.
You aren’t weak at all.
That target just now was dormant, which made it perfect for a quick strike.
That’s why I made my move.
I’ll definitely bring you along next time.
Your ice abilities are incredibly useful for crowd control against fast targets.”
Yoshino blinked, and though a stray tear fell, the corners of her mouth curled up slightly as she nodded vigorously.
Roxy had remained silent the whole time.
She stood at the back, hands folded in front of her, her fingertips turning slightly white against her sleeves.
Only after everyone else had finished did she speak softly.
Her voice was calm, but it was a deeply serious kind of calm.
“Mr.
Kagashi.”
Kagashi looked at her.
“Next time, please do not take risks alone.” Her tone was gentle, but every word carried weight.
“We are a team.
Your safety is directly tied to ours.”
Kagashi was silent for a few seconds.
Then he stood up straight and looked earnestly at each of them.
Furina, her eyes red; Misaka Mikoto, looking away with burning red ears; Yoshino, wiping away her tears; and Roxy, watching him with steady intensity.
Kagashi said, his voice sincere, “There won’t be a next time.
I’m used to handling things independently.
Back at school, I did almost everything on my own.
And when I saw the target was dormant, my first instinct was to handle it quickly.
I didn’t think through the team dynamic.
But you’re right.
We are a team.
I hear you.”
Furina opened her mouth to argue, but in the end, she just crossed her arms and huffed, though the corners of her mouth unconsciously tilted upward.
Misaka Mikoto hoisted her newly found tool onto her shoulder, her tone returning to its usual tsundere self: “That’s more like it.
If you dare go off on a dangerous solo mission again, I’ll shock you with my electricity.”
“With your current charge, it’d barely feel like a static shock,” Kagashi couldn’t help but quip.
“What did you say?!”
Seeing the two about to bicker again, Yoshino suddenly let out a soft giggle.
This was the first time she had laughed since arriving in this harsh world.
Everyone looked at her.
Realizing she was the center of attention, Yoshino’s face turned red instantly.
She tucked her head in and whispered: “S-sorry, I just thought that Brother Kagashi and Sister Mikoto are l-like two children bickering.”
Misaka Mikoto’s face turned even redder.
“W-who’s a child!”
Furina couldn’t help but laugh as well, and Roxy allowed a small smile to curve her lips.
The heavy atmosphere lightened considerably.
“Oh, right.” Misaka Mikoto suddenly remembered something and held up the heavy object in her hand.
“Look!
I found this over by the salvage pile.
An Iron Axe, perfect for harvesting wood.”