Ingrid didn’t need to be told twice. The moment the word "RUN" vibrated through Lysander’s vocal cords, her brain completely bypassed her nervous system and hijacked her legs.
She spun her heavy, three-hundred-pound frame around so fast her thick heels kicked up a massive cloud of damp violet moss and wet dirt. She bolted back up the rocky path, her lungs instantly bursting as her heavy feet thudded against the stone floor like a runaway freight train.
Right beside her, Lysander glided through the fog like a dark, silent shadow, his dark veil fluttering wildly behind him.
’Wait a second.’ Ingrid screamed in her head, her mind racing at a million miles an hour as sweat poured down her face and stung her eyes. ’Why the hell are we running?! Lysander is a warrior! He’s got terrifying white fangs, cool bone daggers, and a mysterious dark aura! These are just generic, rot-brained zombies! He should be able to turn them into diced meat in three seconds flat! They aren’t even evolved ones!’
{ DING! }
The golden system panel flared to life right in front of her face, forcing Ingrid to duck her head in panic as she sprinted so she wouldn’t trip over a jagged root.
{ Oh, Host, your utter ignorance never fails to amaze me, } Lorna’s metallic, overly cheerful voice chimed directly into her brain. { Allow me to educate your primitive little mind. Those aren’t standard, mindless human zombies from your trashy modern pop culture. Those are Beast Zombies! }
’Beast Zombies?!’ Ingrid roared internally, dodging a sharp outcropping of canyon rock by a hair’s width. ’What in the B-movie hell is a Beast Zombie?!’
{ Beastmen who were bitten and infected by the dark miasma when the first zombie waves came! They weren’t traditionally bitten by other zombies for them to turn.} Lorna explained, accompanied by a little animated pop-up diagram of a rotten wolf biting a stick figure. { They retain a fraction of their Primal Core muscle memory! They are significantly stronger, faster, and hit ten times harder than the normal zombies in your world, though not quite as horrifying as the Evolved Ones. They sit right in the sweet middle of the nightmare spectrum! }
Ingrid gasped for air, her heart pounding against her ribs. ’Okay, fine! So they hit harder! But Lysander is right there! Can’t he just slice them up?!’
{ If there were around five of them? Sure! } Lorna chuckled darkly. { But Host, open your eyes and use those basic arithmetic skills you learned in grade school! There aren’t five! There are twenty to thirty of them snapping at your fat ass right now! And with your useless, uncoordinated three-hundred-pound body dragging behind him like a giant anchor, Lysander can’t maneuver or fight without you getting torn to shreds! In short: You are a massive liability! }
"YOU CHEEKY LITTLE METALLIC PIG!" Ingrid shrieked out loud, her raspy voice echoing off the misty walls. She ducked as a decaying claw lunged out from the fog on her left, missing her dirty shoulder by mere inches.
’Lorna, why the hell didn’t you explain these details to me before we walked into this death trap?!’ Ingrid screamed in her mind, her rage briefly overriding her sheer terror.
{ Hahaha! } Lorna laughed, a sound resembling grinding gears and mocking chime bells. { Simple! You didn’t ask! }
’ARE YOU CRAZY?!’ Ingrid’s internal voice reached a glass-shattering pitch. ’DO YOU WANT ME TO DIE?! Is that your grand plan?! In every single system novel I read in my past life, the systems give their hosts a helpful startup pack! They give them basic weapons! They give them emergency info before they go waltzing into a level-thirty hazard zone! But my system wants me killed before I even hit my first weight loss milestone!’
She gritted her teeth so hard her jaw ached, tears of sheer frustration welling up in her eyes. ’I want to disengage! Disengage from the system right now! Unbind me! I’d rather die knowing I was a pathetic, helpless mortal than die knowing I had a useless, malicious system that deliberately withheld help!’
The glowing red panel suddenly froze in mid-air. The flashing warning sirens cut out.
For a split second, total silence filled Ingrid’s mind, save for the sound of her heavy footfalls and the wet, squelching groans of thirty rotten beastmen chasing them down the canyon.
{ ...Wait, } Lorna’s voice rang out, sounding genuinely startled for the very first time. { Ah! The startup pack! ...I forgot about that too! }
’YOU FORGOT?!’ Ingrid nearly tripped over her own feet, her mouth dropping open in utter disbelief. ’YOU FORGOT THE STARTUP PACK?!’