Ingrid’s smile disappeared as quickly as it had appeared, and her eyes immediately locked onto the new red panel. The system’s sudden change in tone made the small sense of safety she had gained vanish almost instantly.
From the little experience she had just now, warnings like this had never appeared without a serious problem following them.
She already knew the news wasn’t going to be good, but knowing that didn’t make it any easier to see. Her fingers tightened around the tree as she forced herself to keep reading.
{ CURRENT HEALTH: 11%. }
{ BEAST ZOMBIE INFECTION: 41%. }
{ INFECTION RATE: INCREASING. }
{ WARNING: IF INFECTION REACHES 100%, HOST WILL BEGIN TRANSFORMATION. }
Ingrid stared at the numbers in stunned silence, and all the excitement from her new upgrades vanished.
Worse, the final warning made it clear that death wasn’t even the only thing she had to worry about anymore. Reaching one hundred percent infection would mean that Ingrid herself could become one of the monsters chasing her. Her gaze slowly dropped toward the bloodied wound on her arm as the reality of that possibility settled over her. After everything she had just done to convince Lorna to keep her alive, it seemed the system had found yet another way to remind her that surviving the next few hours was going to be anything but easy.
She had barely survived the Beast Zombies, and now the system was casually informing her that she was slowly turning into one of the very creatures she had been running from. Her gaze remained fixed on the warning as though staring at it long enough might somehow make the numbers disappear. Unfortunately, the interface remained exactly the same, and Ingrid finally dragged a hand down her face with an exhausted sigh.
"You’re kidding, right?" Ingrid asked, pointing at the warning with an expression of pure disbelief. "If this is some kind of terrible system joke, I really need you to pick literally any other time to try being funny."
Her eyes narrowed as she looked at the infection percentage again. "I’ve already been chased by zombies, nearly had my arm torn off, almost died from blood loss, and spent half my remaining energy arguing with you while sitting under a tree." She shook her head slowly before adding, "There is absolutely no reason for you to tell me I’m turning into a zombie on top of everything else."
{ I am afraid not. }
"So I woke up with four hours left to complete the mission, and I’m also turning into a zombie?" Ingrid asked, staring at the interface with growing disbelief. Her fingers tightened around her injured arm as another dull wave of pain travelled through it. "That is officially the worst wake-up call anyone has ever had."
{ Technically, you are becoming an infected Beastman rather than a zombie. }
"What’s the fucking difference?!" Ingrid stared at the words for several seconds before slowly turning her head toward the interface. "That distinction does not make me feel better. Whether you call me an infected Beastman, a zombie, or a walking disaster with legs, something inside me is currently trying to turn me into something horrible."
{ I know. I’m just trying to help you understand that using the correct terminology is important. }
Her expression twisted with disbelief as she continued, "I really don’t think the terminology is the problem here, Lorna, because I’m pretty sure being transformed is still going to be terrible regardless of what you call it." Her gaze then shifted toward the healing items displayed on the interface, and her expression immediately became more focused. "What matters right now is whether you have something that can actually fix this before I start growing an appetite for human flesh."
{ Well, even if you do grow an appetite, you won’t know because you’ll be dead by then. }
"Haha, not funny, Lorna." Ingrid rolled her eyes as she glanced at the items, "these pills..." Ingrid pointed toward the Infection Purification Pill and then toward one of the Basic Healing Pills, studying both items carefully. "Can these fix me or are they just here for show?" Ingrid asked, her voice becoming more serious.
The pills looked harmless despite the fact that one of them was apparently supposed to fight an infection that could transform her into a monster. She wasn’t entirely comfortable swallowing anything provided by a system that had already forgotten to tell her about several extremely important abilities, but she didn’t have the luxury of being picky anymore. If she wanted to survive, she was going to have to trust Lorna at least a little.
Ingrid kept her finger hovering over the two items as she waited for an answer. "Because if they can’t, then I need you to tell me now instead of giving me another optimistic explanation after I swallow them."
Her eyes narrowed as she waited for Lorna to answer, and the impatience in her expression made it obvious that she wasn’t accepting vague reassurance this time. "I really don’t want to discover halfway through the transformation that these pills were only designed to make me feel slightly better." She paused before adding, "That would be a very unpleasant surprise."
{ They should reduce the infection significantly and restore part of your health. }
Ingrid’s eyebrows immediately rose at the word "should." Ingrid rubbed her forehead and sighed heavily, wondering if "technically" and "should" were the only two words Lorna knew how to use whenever Ingrid’s life was in danger. She looked back at the interface with increasing suspicion.
"Should?" Ingrid repeated, her voice dangerously calm. "Lorna, I swear, if you start talking like a medical disclaimer right now, I’m throwing myself straight back into the swamp." She gestured toward the disgusting stretch of dark water behind her, even though she had absolutely no desire to return anywhere near it.
"If the pills might work, then tell me they might work, because I can understand that, but don’t stand there pretending you know exactly what they’ll do while leaving room for everything to go horribly wrong." Her eyes narrowed further as she added, "I have already had enough surprises for one day, and I really don’t need my medicine coming with a plot twist."