Chapter 2: First Of The Many First!

The capital city, Giogio, of the 4th planet Olion, of the 12,172nd-star system of the Natilian Empire.

"Someone h-"

The weak cry for help was abruptly cut off when a knife accurately hit the head. A chuckle and laughter of men followed right after.

"Bro, why didn't you let her live?" The snicker of a man was the interlude to his reply. "What did I say earlier? One more meek and she will die, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah! Hahahaha!" Their laughter receded, leaving a dead body on the cold ground. One of them is silent throughout as he fixed his clothes. This bunch is nothing but thugs that live under the shadows of the light. In the expansive territories of the empire, this trio believed that the body will be gone soon after, considering this place.

Short ten minutes after that, footsteps were once heard and a man in simple clothing appeared. They wouldn't expect that someone has come in here.

Lon looked around the place. He has stumbled here accidentally and carefully studied the situation. It was the wee hours before dawn arrives.

Though it could only be a perspective speculation, it will still shed some light to the sad truth.

A waitress was going home at midnight when she was attacked by a group of men using a non-toxic sleep-inducing drug. At least two men are involved. The next hours where a nightmare as she was repeatedly raped. Direct and fast with no mercy given at all.

The ripped uniform, missing underwear, the bruises she has around her body and the faint smell of sweat and semen is all the present evidence needed. At the end of the deed, she was murdered swiftly by a knife that penetrated deeply in her skull.

If not for him who luckily stumbled here, her body would become a rotting corpse in this secluded back alley. One of the hidden sections of the city.

"Rest well in the afterlife." Lon discovered that she has no breath left, then she is already dead. He felt like a hypocrite considering what he will be doing in the next moments. Coming here was all part of his new plan. Experiments are often conducted to gather data that will become the solid evidence to prove conclusions. This is what he will try to accomplish. Finding out if those words are not the shenanigans of someone else. A prank to fool anyone that luckily stumble upon it.

It was no accident that he came here after reading that book. A guide and a history that points out the complex structure of the layout of human cities. One would be lost easily in these parts and one would also frequently find dead bodies of animals and humans alike.

'Reanimation Of The Deceased: Final Revision By Uila'

Rummaging to find the most suitable one, he found the most practical one so far. Though this reanimation is divided into many levels, there is a basic one regarding a newly dead person. It doesn't cost him any absurd materials like virgin human blood or large amounts of metals like Tipar Alloy, platinum, and mercury or conditions like a moonless night or secret codes that needed to be encrypted before he could use. However, there is one lethal downside to this magic spell. It requires the dead body to be dead less than three hours from the time of death and the body is not moved at all.

All the requirements fit perfectly and now all he needed to do is follow the procedures without any mistakes. Another thing to add is that he already purchased the basic common materials all the rituals have in common with his remaining money. Buying them is easy especially in large general merchandise markets.

As of now, he is broke, literally. If he failed his first attempt then he will have to sleep in the streets for some time.

"Ahhhh, hhaaaaaaa." Breathing heavily, Lon carefully began his work. With long chalk, he began to draw strange symbols and circles around the vicinity of the body. A ruler is even needed as he carefully measured every inch of the diagram. When he was finished, a complex matrix was created. It took him almost an hour to finish it.

Thankfully, this place is so secluded that no one would just come and stumble here like what he did. No one must interrupt him in this crucial stage. Ten milligrams of gold and silver are placed at the opposite directions, five grams of milk powder of a cow and ten grams of crushed lime placed respectively in the east and the west. Placing it incorrectly would result in the failure of the spell formation to activate.

The next step is the activation chant. Kneeling, with the book in front of him, he began to talk in a language that is unrecorded in the pages of history. He shuddered as cold draft swept throughout his body. The more he continued, the more he could feel his mind and body feel lethargic which is stupid in his opinion. What kind of crappy concept that drains a person's energy when he is just speaking.

Isn't freedom of speech is included in the Universal Will Theorem? Lon couldn't put much more thought into this topic as he concentrated.

This is an extremely important point in the ritual. He steeled his fragile mind as he did one of the most tiring things he did for the past twenty years of his life, kneeling for thirty minutes straight. The incantation is long with tonal differences and gibberish noises that made his talking speed slower as it is his first time. There were even no practice sessions conducted for him to perfect it. This is already an easy one unlike the others where sometimes a live sacrifice must be offered or he has to do strange moves in order for it to work.

If not for his curious mind, he would have stopped midway and after the last syllable, he let his face slumped down on the ground.

"Uh, what happened?" Another voice spoke out as his eyes contracted numerous times. The pale body of the woman in front of him slowly stood up and her eyes still have that look of confusion.

"Hehe, hahaha, hehehehehehehe." Changes began to appear on Lon and his face proved it. An unknown source of energy made him stand up and pounced and hold down the girl.

"Hey what the heck are you doing?" Still unaware of her special predicament, she struggled until she saw the face of the preparator. It was smiling to the point it was creepy to her. It was overestimating of hers as she has no idea how Lon is currently feeling inside. This was the result of him being happy to the point of madness. The heavy feeling he has was slightly alleviated somehow.

The body is cold as an ice cube, her blue iris is faint and diluted and finally, she has no pulse. All of these are the basic signs that the ritual is successful. If it is indeed then, all of his future plans are plausible to execute. And when he thinks about it, the happiness and excitement made him smile and laugh like the weirdo model considered by society.

'Ahh, finally, I can eat again!'

"Are you deaf? I said let-." She planned to struggle before she saw something horrific. A knife drenched in blood appeared in front of her in the hands of the man above her. If it is just that, she won't be trembling but what if it came from the back of her head then. She is a smart woman and such she knew something is not right.

To confirm her suspicion, she traced her fingers on her head and soon found a small grove. Horrified, her face couldn't be paler as she has a sudden realization.

She was injured! Yet she could not feel any pain at all!

"You are already dead." She was further stunned by the next words uttered. "You are now a zombie. So would you be rather kind to listen to my explanation?" Left with no choice, she has to listen to what this man has to say. Not she has a choice in the first place seeing that knife so close to her skin.

...........

"Ahhhh, that was delicious!" A man and a woman sat opposite in a dining table. On the table were delicious food they both ate, cooked by Nana. Simple golden fried egg rice, vegetable-reipol soup, and apple fruit juice. However, there was no happiness that can be seen on her face. No one would be happy if they could never taste their cooking again. This was the sad reality for her as she listlessly stared at the food in front of her.

"Hey, don't be like that Nana. Although you are a zombie, an undead, at least you could still live." Seeing her like that, the man encouraged her. This man is the one who resurrected her but not as a human. Such things in the first place are impossible to be real.

Lon has already explained to her what she is now and what she could do. That is the reason for her dead expression. Zombies could not feel pain like any other undead and that trait is always present on them.

This guy has also somehow convinced her to live in her house. It was unknown how but before she could realize it, they were already at the front door of her apartment unit.

Yet her heart is crushed to a fine powder when she heard what she experienced as a human. In this era, no one would care about a victim like her. It is for a fact that the human population ballooned to more than septillion, spread in numerous galaxy. It is no joke that a gram of gold has more weight than human life. A gram of pure gold costs as measly as 100 Nins, enough to survive barely for ten days by only consuming hamburgers.

"Tsk, tsk, if you are so depressed right now for the fact you died then think about the people that rely on you." That statement though not sincere enough, created a small ripple in her emotions. It is true that there is still someone that needs her support. It was her little sister that studies abroad, Nila Loomrock.

"For example, me!" His fingers stained with grease pointed at his nose. The bizarre feeling of the overlapping, when her little sister is happy, occurred to her. The joyous kid that always cheers her up. In her perspective, Lon and Nila is the same child that she always took care of. This produced a slight smile and a chuckle from her.

"Whasss's llrrronk?" His mouth is full yet she understood clearly what he meant.

"It's nothing, nothing." Some humans are like cats, curious as ever. "So how did you revive me?"

"Jirhen." The answer shocked her to the core. She never thought that her question would be frankly and outright answered. What's more, if it really is from his Jirhen then there was no need for further doubts. That, however, didn't satisfy her as she opened her own Jirhen for some reason. It was a nagging feeling that things aren't as simple as they seem.

The pages of her blue-striped notebook were flipped. Her eyes were blank as she dazedly stares at the last pages that came out of nowhere.

'Magic Spell Models: Eight Edition'

'Increasing your magic capability'

'Knowhow: How to raise Ermars'

'The legend of the flying swordsman'

Her hands went stiff, making the notebook bare to be seen by Lon. Once at his sight, his eating spree stopped as he picked it up and began reading. The flash of greed for knowledge appeared in his eyes.

"Give me that back!" A few moments later, Nana was furiously trying to grab her Jirhen. Her mind was steaming hot because she considers the notebook a private part of her life. Then a stranger somehow grabbed it and was now reading it. In short, it was her shame from being embarrassed.

"I beseech you, sit." Those four words carried special powers as she suddenly cannot control her body at all. Like a puppet, she quietly sat and could only watch.

"What did you do?" Anger is laced in her voice this time. This man is still a stranger in his life despite he 'helped' her. But Nana knows nothing about this man, nothing more and nothing less. She didn't even know the intentions of why she is revived in the first place. A sigh came out of Lon as he lazily stared at her distant blue eyes.

"Aren't you curious why I would revive you and how did I convince you?"

He scooped a mouthful of food, waiting for her answer. Nana wanted to know more about it but she has an inkling it won't be any good in the first place.

Seeing her nod quietly, Lon was put into a good mood. Yet he spoke in a plain tone, "The answer to the first is simple. You are a result of an experiment, nothing more than that. As for the second, it is a confidentiality secret. Even if the skies are burning and falling, I won't be telling anyone."

The first part broke her heart. Nana is five years older than him yet this is the first time she encountered such coldness emanating from words alone. It just happened that she was murdered at that time and he happened to be there too. The second one interested her, however.

"Hey, tell me, how did you do it! How could you convinced me!" Anyone with basic education wouldn't be simply tricked by few words unless there were hypnosis techniques used. She also didn't believe such a thing happened to her. If he were, to be honest, he himself completely didn't know how he did it. What he currently knows is that she is somewhat connected to him. The point of connection is still uncertain so he could not just create a feasible conclusion.

"I beseech you, do not ask me regarding this matter." As he spoke those words, he could feel his whole body and mind being strained. Nana could not ask any more about it because if she tried to voice it, no sound would come out of her mouth. This is the connection he found. Commands could be imposed on her yet it similarly tires him out for some reason. This is the same on how he could convince her to live within her house.

"Anyway, don't tell anyone that you died and for what happened to your Jirhen." Closing it, Lon handed back the notebook which surprised her. She thought that it will be stolen at the end of the day. It was no surprise because even thieves would steal Jirhen given the chance. This was her source of livelihood and the reason she could have a decent job as a waitress in a licensed restaurant despite dropping halfway in university.

Still, she was apparently vigilant against him based on her appearance. This guy though a little handsome, an unknown aura enveloped him which made her uncomfortable. It is at the level where she has a misconception that she was living with an evil demon at her own home.

...