Grey and the hefty zombie tumbled down the stairs together.
The weight of the monstrosity crushed down on Grey with so much force that it threatened to skewer his body into nothing but a paste of blood and bones.
Pain erupted through his entire being.
His head...
Back...
Shoulders...
Legs...
Everything crashed against the unforgiving stairs.
His vision spun violently, and for that very brief moment, all Grey could understand was pain.
So much pain that he wished he would simply die from it.
However, even that solace of death, this world did not permit him...
Grey grunted as his descent down the stairs finally came to a halt. He groaned, pain permeating his entire being, as he forced himself to climb back onto his feet.
But to no avail.
His strength did not return to him immediately.
And from his attempt, he simply staggered forward, eventually collapsing against the wall on one knee.
He was gruesomely exhausted, his chest rising and falling in heavy, ragged heaves.
How had he survived the fall?
That was a mystery.
But how the gruesome zombie had survived...
Grey slowly turned to glance back at the grotesque beast, which was only a few steps down, groaning in desperation as it clawed its way toward him.
This was utterly worse luck.
Its body was mangled, a horrifying mix of broken bones and peeled flesh covered in an endless layer of blood. Yet somehow, the monster continued dragging itself upward, its fingers scraping against the stairs as it desperately reached for Grey.
"You bastard! Why can’t you just bloody die!" Grey spat in disgust, his eyes scrambling across the stairs for his dagger.
As soon as his eyes found it just a few steps above him, he stretched forward.
Grabbed it.
And then turned to face the zombie, which was already upon him.
Its hands stretched toward Grey’s knees, its mouth opened wide, rows of knocked-out and bloodied teeth exposed as it prepared to devour its prey.
With one precise flash of the dagger, Grey sank its blade into the zombie’s skull.
The creature convulsed violently.
Its eyes bulged in their sockets.
And then it fell flat onto the stairs in defeat.
Grey had won...
"Serves you right."
Grey whispered to himself before resting against the wall, allowing himself only a moment to catch his breath.
And then...
Wait!
What was that feeling?
Grey’s eyes lifted slightly as he stared down at his body.
But what he saw first was the notification from the system.
[You have completed your quest.]
[You have gained a skill: Dash.]
’Dash?’ Grey asked himself in a curious tone.
Another set of holograms appeared before his eyes.
[Dash Description: User can move fivefold faster than their usual speed.]
Grey blinked a few times at the description before, in a sarcastic and irritated voice, spitting out,
"That would have been useful against those five fucking zombies! Stupid system."
He didn’t linger on it, though, and instead turned to the other notifications.
[Your Core: 6/100]
[Fill your Core to become stronger.]
Grey dismissed the notifications at that moment and turned to stare at himself.
His hands.
His legs.
His entire being.
The pain had suddenly subsided.
Not completely.
But enough to stop him from completely going mad.
He slowly rose to his feet, and to his surprise...
His body felt lighter.
His senses felt sharper.
His movements felt more natural.
There was a strange sharpness coursing through his entire body, a feeling he could barely describe.
’Just like a car getting greased.’
This was no doubt the effect of killing those zombies and his Core increasing.
"So the more I kill in this new world, the stronger I become... This is really insane."
Grey rubbed his temples as he thought back to the start of everything.
His loved ones.
His room.
Everything that had happened before this nightmare began.
He needed to get to his room before he could leave this building.
Until then, he could not allow himself the solace of rest.
Grey tightened his grasp around the hilt of his dagger and began proceeding up the stairs once again.
He moved into the hall and darted through it, faster than perhaps even an athlete could have covered the distance.
He reached the doors that led to the next set of stairs within seconds.
He opened them and immediately began to climb.
His footfalls echoed throughout the entire place, the sound becoming a strange revelation in the suffocating silence.
He reached the door of the next floor and approached it with caution.
Slowly, he pushed it open and peered into the contents of the hall.
He counted.
One...
Two...
Five...
Six...
Seven zombies.
They were scattered throughout the rampant hall.
More confident now than he had been in the first hall, Grey darted into it at full speed.
And surprisingly, before the zombies could even react...
He had already killed two of them.
One received a gruesome stab through the throat, Grey’s dagger ripping upward through flesh and bone until the blade buried itself into its brain.
The next met the unforgiving blade of Grey’s dagger as it burrowed straight through its eye and into its skull, killing it within moments.
The other zombies reacted in pure retaliation.
The closest two lunged forward, their decaying hands stretching out to grab Grey.
At this moment, he used his new skill.
Burst Step!
He disappeared before their eyes.
The wind distorted around the space where he had been standing, his body moving at a speed that left no trace behind.
Both zombies faltered.
Their charges came to an abrupt halt as their rotten minds struggled to comprehend where their prey had gone.
And that second was all Grey needed.
The two zombies dropped to the ground, both stabbed cleanly through the back of their skulls.
Behind them, Grey stood fiercely, his dagger dripping with blood.
The others met their fate similarly.
Grey Burst Stepped past their defences and ended each one before they could even react or get ahold of him.
And with every body that fell, he could feel himself growing stronger.
Faster.
Sharper.
More ruthless.
More powerful.
Each zombie no longer came to him as a chore to battle for survival.
Soon enough, they became nothing more than tools.
Tools for him to grow even stronger.
And soon enough, Grey had finally reached the doorstep of his dorm room.
The wooden door was covered in blood, and the body of a man, or what remained of one lay just before the entrance.
Grey stood there silently for only a second.
Then he dismissed his dagger.
The blade shimmered briefly before dissolving into nothingness.
"I hope you are still alive."
Grey’s voice came out low and uncertain.
He stared at the body for only a moment before reaching for the doorknob.
His fingers wrapped around it softly.
He spun it slowly.
Then pushed the door open.
With hopeful eyes, he glanced across the entirety of his room.
And then his eyes locked onto it.
Right there in the corner of the dorm room, beside the broken bed and bloodied floorboards, stood the white-furred beast.
It stood over a corpse torn beyond recognition.
If it had been anyone else who stepped into the room, that beast would have looked like nothing more than an unforgivable corruption of nature.
A grotesque creature that should have been discarded without a second thought.
But to Grey...
This was no beast.
To him, it was nothing more...
Than a dog.
His dog.