The door to apartment 404 exploded inward.
Splinters of cheap wood and drywall sprayed across the room like shrapnel. Through the dust, the Hell-Hound charged. A snarling missile of muscle and hate.
It was fast. Faster than the Infected neighbor.
"ROAR!"
The beast opened its jaws. Aiming to crush Sebastian's skull.
Sebastian had been waiting though. He'd calculated the trajectory. The speed. The aggression.
He didn't retreat. He stepped into the charge.
"Sit."
He swung the crowbar.
He didn't aim for the head—skulls were hard. Round objects could deflect strikes. He aimed for the front leg.
CRACK!
The sound of bone snapping was sharp. Loud.
The Hell-Hound yelped. Its momentum causing it to tumble awkwardly across the floor. Crashing into the kitchenette counter. It scrambled to get up. Its front left leg dangling uselessly at a sickening angle.
It snarled. Trying to pivot on three legs to face him.
Sebastian didn't give it the chance.
He closed the distance in two strides. His Agility was 9—nearly double that of an average human. To the dog, he was a blur.
He raised the crowbar high.
"Die."
He brought it down.
THWACK.
He hit the base of the skull. Right where it connected to the spine. The beast went rigid. Then collapsed. Its legs twitching in post-mortem spasms.
[Ding!]
[Real World Kill Confirmed.]
[Target: Hell-Hound (Tier 0) Eliminated.]
[EXP Gained.]
[Synchronization Rate Increased: 2.6% -> 2.7%]
Sebastian stared at the notification.
"0.1% for a Tier 0 beast," he analyzed. His breathing steady. "The diminishing returns are already starting. I need to find stronger prey."
He looked at the corpse. A faint white light hovered over it.
"Loot?"
In the early stages of the apocalypse, real-world monsters didn't drop system items often. The drop rate was abysmal until the World Core fully integrated. Luck though, or perhaps his high Karma from the game, seemed to be favoring him.
He reached out.
[Item Acquired: Minor Beast Core (Fragment)]
[Effect: Can be consumed to restore 10 Mana or increase Mana Sensitivity slightly.]
A tiny, jagged crystal the size of a fingernail appeared in his palm. It felt warm.
Sebastian didn't hesitate. He popped it into his mouth. Swallowed. It tasted like ozone and copper.
[Mana Restored: +10]
[Mana Sensitivity Increased.]
A rush of heat flooded his veins. The headache that had been nagging him since he logged out receded slightly.
"Better," he muttered.
He walked out into the hallway.
It was a scene from a nightmare. The lights were flickering. Casting strobing shadows across the walls. Blood smeared the floor. Doors were smashed open. From the stairwell, the sounds of screaming and tearing flesh echoed upwards.
Most people were running down. Trying to get to the street.
"Fools," Sebastian thought. "The street is a buffet."
He needed to go up. The roof. From there, he could assess the city.
He moved silently. His [Basic Sneak] skill from the game bleeding into his movements. He didn't make a sound on the linoleum floor.
As he passed apartment 405, a door creaked open.
A man stood there. It was the building superintendent. A burly man holding a fire axe. He looked terrified. Sweating profusely.
"Sebastian?" the super whispered. Eyeing the bloody crowbar. "What the hell is happening? The TV said it's a virus!"
Sebastian paused. This man, Dave, had fixed his sink once without charging him.
"It's not a virus, Dave," Sebastian said calmly. "It's a server merge. Grab your axe. Go back inside. Fill your bathtub with water. Do not open the door for anyone."
"But... my wife is at the store..."
"Your wife is dead," Sebastian said. The words were cruel. True though. "Or she's something else now. If you go out there, you die. If you stay here, you might live another day."
Dave stared at him. Horror in his eyes. "You're crazy."
"Maybe," Sebastian shrugged. "But I'm alive."
He turned. Continued toward the stairwell.
Behind him, he heard Dave hesitate. Then slam his door. Lock it.
'Good choice,' Sebastian thought.
He reached the stairwell door. He pushed it open.
SCREEE!
Three [Giant Rats]—cat-sized rodents with glowing red eyes—were gnawing on a corpse on the landing. They looked up. Hissing.
[Monster: Demon Rat (Tier 0)]
[Level: 1]
They were weak. Fodder.
There were three of them though.
Sebastian spun the crowbar in his hand. He felt the connection to his game avatar pulsing in his chest. He couldn't use spells yet—not without burning out his nervous system—but he could use Technique.
"Shadow Weave... no, can't use the skill," he reminded himself. "But I can use the footwork."
He recalled the muscle memory of his avatar. The way he moved when the [Shadow Weave] passive was active. The shifting of weight. The unpredictable rhythm.
The rats lunged.
Sebastian side-stepped. Not a human movement. A glitch-step. He moved diagonally. Letting the first rat sail past him.
SMASH.
He backhanded the second rat with the crowbar mid-air. Sending it slamming into the concrete wall with a wet crunch.
The third rat bit at his ankle.
Sebastian stomped.
With Strength 8, his boot hit the rat like a hydraulic press. The creature burst.
He spun around. Finished off the first rat before it could recover.
Three seconds. Three kills.
[Ding!]
[Ding!]
[Ding!]
[Synchronization Rate: 2.8%]
He felt a sudden surge of heat in his arms. His muscles twitched. Expanding slightly. The fibers were becoming denser. Knitting together to accommodate the higher stats.
"Evolution," Sebastian whispered. Flexing his hand. "My body is adapting to the data."
He looked up the stairs. The path to the roof was clear.
His pocket buzzed though.
Sebastian glanced down at the Caller ID—Valerie—and let out a sharp, annoyed exhale through his nose. He had already given her the survival playbook: barricade the doors, hoard water, and wait for his signal. Calling him back five minutes later was inefficient. It was needy.
"I told you to stay off the line," Sebastian answered, not bothering to wipe the gore from the screen. His voice was flat, dripping with the irritation of a raid leader dealing with a newbie who wouldn't stop pulling aggro.
"I sent you the coordinates to the warehouse. Pack your bags and move. I'm not a suicide hotline."
"I can't move, you damn psychopath!"
Valerie's voice shrieked through the speaker, cracking with a high-pitched hysteria that was miles away from the composed 'Princess of the Blue Rose' he had met in the game.
"The threat isn't outside! It's in here! The barricades are useless because the monsters were already on the payroll!"
A deafening CRUNCH echoed in the background of the call...the sound of heavy metal buckling under immense hydraulic pressure.
Sebastian paused, his annoyance shifting slightly toward curiosity.
"My Head of Security," Valerie sobbed, the sound of her expensive heels scrambling for traction on marble flooring audible through the feed.
"Captain Miller. He didn't play the game. He didn't have the resistance. He just... he just exploded out of his suit. He's eight feet tall, Sebastian! He's a Level 10 Elite and he's peeling the blast doors of my panic room like a tin can! I have gold, I have resources, but I have zero mana left! If you don't get your ass over here, your 'investment' is going to be smeared across the penthouse walls!"