Sudden Danger

"How do you dare to kick me? I'll sue you." Dave was rendered speechless by the fatty. When he saw how fatty put a face as someone had disgraced his family, Dave wanted to beat him up into a pulp.

"Sorry for disturbing you. But, I have a question to ask you." Dave just wanted to quickly leave him, but he still needed to check on something.

Still massaging his butt muscles, fatty looked funny. "Khek...what do you want from me?" He backed from Dave, squinting his eyes in apprehension.

"Calm down. I'm not here to harm you. First of all, when did you wake up? And have you heard any suspicious activity from the outside?" Dave asked, getting right to the business.

Widening his eyes, fatty stared at Dave as he said, "Did you also fall asleep in the afternoon? I thought I just fell asleep due to exhaustion..." However, catching a cold stare from Dave, he winced. "I woke up in the middle of the night. I believe it was around 3 am."

'It means he slept approximately for 12 hours. And I woke 12 hours later than him...Darn, I slept for 24 hours. I hope Adam's alright.' Dave's face darkened. For a moment, he was relieved that he locked himself in his room when the voice sounded, otherwise...

Coming to the realization, Dave frowned. "And what were you doing here all the time. Didn't you hear any noise from the corridor?"

"Nah...I was in my room all night, but my neighbours were noisy, though, that I cursed them all night. They have gone crazy when I was asleep. When I looked through the window, some students were even chasing after other students. So I locked myself in my room." Fatty said in a scared manner.

"So...what you did all night? I mean...you wouldn't have watched porn all night, right? Moreover, I thought the internet stopped working. How did you even watch porn, then? And what did you eat?" Dave asked as he looked at fatty in a strange way.

Catching his strange gaze, fatty said in embarrassment, "Of course not! I'm not some sort of a pervert...It was just...I was stressed, okay? Anyway, I have my favourite videos downloaded on my laptop. Also, I had snacks that I saved in my room, so I ate them to calm myself."

Sighing lightly, Dave thought he had stumbled upon quite a strange student. "Alright, then. I've got no questions left. Good luck with staying alive." Dave said as he waved his hand and turned to leave the dorm.

"Wait a bit. Do you know anything about that voice? What about that cataclysm stuff or evolution? What happened to all the students?" Fatty asked in a panic. Dave was the only sane student that he had met after waking up, so fatty thought that he should know something. At least, Dave should know what's happening outside.

Halting, Dave pondered over it for a moment, then turned to fatty. "Well, it should be fair to answer some of your questions since I answered some of mine. Have you ever read any novels with evolution and apocalypse tags.?"

"Of course, I read a lot of them in my high school. " It seemed that fatty was proud of his hobbies. His room told to Dave much more than any other words. Pictures and figures of 2D characters were taking up every nick of place. It seemed that he was the type of people who were really into it.

"Then you should know about some basic stuff such as zombies, mutated monsters, and system. Even if you may don't want to acknowledge such a fact, the apocalypse had descended on our world. Zombies are crawling everywhere and eating humans. " Dave explained.

"Apocalypse? Zombies? Then a person you killed...?" Fatty asked in shock.

"Yep, it is a zombie." Dave tried to say it in a cheerful way, but it came more creepy than he had expected.

"...Then, it explains a lot about the aggressive behaviour of students...Hmm... Considering that you already killed one and are wandering outside, you should have a place to go or a plan to follow." Fatty said in a fast tone. Then, his eyes gleamed as he stared at Dave with pleading eyes. "You should take me with you."

'Well, he isn't as stupid as I've thought when I first met him. But he seems weak.' Dave thought inwardly, staring at fatty. Fatty was five feet tall, had a plump body and didn't seem to have an athletic build.

"Nope. Why should I take you with me? You'll just drag me down with you." Dave was reluctant to take fatty with him because, to be honest, in his eyes fatty didn't seem to be that helpful. He was not some sort of a hero and had no obligation to save fatty. It was work for the police, not his.

"Noooo...I promise I won't drag you with me. If you want to, you can toss me away at the first sign of danger." Fatty said in a panic.

At his words, Dave couldn't help but reevaluate his opinion on fatty. At least, he seems to be decisive which was good to know...

...But it wasn't enough to survive. Even the most decisive people can die miserably. So Dave retracted his gaze from fatty and intended to walk away.

"Wait a bit. I can be helpful to you. I have something called innate ability." Fatty tried to stop Dave. Fatty didn't know how helpful it could be, but it was the only thing he had.

Hearing him Dave stopped suddenly because he had never thought that he would meet an Awakener here. According to his knowledge, people can be either Ability Holders, Evolvers or both. Ability Holders are people who awakened an innate ability, while Evolvers are people with a boost to their stats.

Both of them have their own perks yet, in his previous life, Dave related to neither of them. He had no special ability or no boost in stats, so he strongly envied such people. It was even rarer to meet a person who had awakened right in the beginning. People usually awaken after the period of adaptation to mana in the air.

"What does your innate ability do?" Dave asked in interest.

Noticing that Dave had stopped in his tracks, fatty said hurriedly. "My innate ability is called the Life Pulse. It says that I can send a ring-shaped pulse to the surroundings and can detect life. It can only detect alive creatures ignoring other obstacles such as walls, roads, and other objects."

'What an awesome ability.' It could detect enemies and save a great deal of time ensuring minimal danger. Even though it didn't have any offensive capabilities, it is quite a convenient ability. Knowing beforehand that there are zombies on their way can save a great deal of trouble. Moreover, Dave woke up later than others, so the university should already be overtaken by zombies.

"How many times can you use it?" Dave expected a lot from his innate ability. He never had thought that he would encounter an Awakener right after waking up.

"Well, you know... it requires 1 mana point to send such a pulse, and the thing is...I have no mana at all." Fatty smiled embarrassedly.

'Right...He still didn't level up. No one has mana to use in the beginning because mana can be gained only by increasing your spirit stat or through the special skills to gather them' Dave forgot that fatty never left his room after waking up.

"Did you already open your beginner survival pack?" Dave asked.

" There." Fatty pointed at the top of his bed showing the same Wooden Club that Dave held in his hands.

"Then take it and follow me."

"Where are we going?"

Dave smirked lightly and left the room of fatty. "We are going to level you up, of course. Otherwise, you would be plain useless."

Dave left the room and headed downstairs. Currently, they were on the fifth floor, so they still should go down to leave the dorm building. Along the way, they can hunt zombies in the corridor and gain levels.

On the fourth floor, a trail of blood followed into one of the rooms. Dave shushed fatty and looked into the room where another student fell prey to a zombie.

Dave moved into the room and with four hits crashed the limbs of the monster. "Smash its head if you want to follow me."

At his words, fatty looked at a lying zombie and looked at Dave as he was a monster instead of a zombie. Fearing that his fate will be worse than a zombie, fatty hesitated slightly yet quickly steeled his will as hit the head of a zombie. Not dying, the zombie roared madly trying to move its body.

"Hit harder, fatty. Such a hit won't kill it even after an hour." Dave said harshly.

Fatty clenched his teeth and started banging the club on the head of a monster. After several hits, it turned into a bloody mess leaving blood and white substance. The blue orb of light entered the body of the fatty as he levelled up.

"Put 1 point in strength and 1 point in spirit." Dave didn't forget to remind him.

Fatty listened to Dave and put his free points as he had said.

"From now on put your points the same way as now till your spirit reaches 3 points. It will increase your mana, so you can use your innate ability more often. Then now try your innate ability, we should know more about it."

Giving pointers to fatty, Dave urged him to activate his ability. Every innate ability gave magical powers to its users such as controlling wind or fire, enhancing body or mind. Dave thought that taking fatty as a companion will give a huge boost to his survival.

"Ehm...Dave, how do I activate it?"

"..." Dumbfounded by the question, Dave didn't know how to answer it. He never had an innate ability in his previous life, so he tried to recall what other hunters said about using it. "Damn, I don't know since I never had one. Try to say the name of the ability as in games."

Surprised that Dave knew nothing about it, fatty still followed his advice. It was the first time that Dave didn't know about something since he had answered all of his questions like he knew what he was talking about.

"Life Pulse!" Fatty said the name of his ability.

Dave didn't notice any magical changes in fatty. It seemed like nothing happened, except for fatty's face changing in colours. He seemed to be terrified of something.

"Dave, watch out." As fatty shouted, Dave heard rushed steps outside the room. Along with heavy steps, two roars sounded from the corridor.

Dave quickly dashed out of the room because it was too narrow to fight with two zombies. Initially, it was intended only for one student to live there. If they don't leave the room, they will be quickly eaten by zombies.

Leaving the small room, Dave saw how two zombies were dashing at him. Perhaps, the commotion that fatty had caused was too big, so zombies came after them.

Having been fellow students before the start of everything, Dave recognized senior students from them as blood had covered all of their bodies.

Dave couldn't afford to be surrounded by them nor could he waste his stamina for escaping. In a fight-or-flight situation, Dave decided to fight back.

Predicting how they would attack him, Dave dodged the first zombie and killed it with a swift hit to its head. Having calculated the time interval between their attacks, Dave believed he still had time to evade the second one, but...

...his body was too slow to follow after his thoughts as the second zombie slammed at him.

'Dammit! I forgot how slow my body was!'

Dave still couldn't get accustomed to how weak his body was. His strength, agility and even stamina were lower than in his previous life, so he had miscalculated his abilities. His brain sent signals to move, yet his body was too slow to respond.

A bloody smell from the breath of the zombie washed over Dave. He tried to struggle from its grip, yet zombies were much stronger than people can imagine. Also, Dave had a weak body from the start.

Instead of saying that they are strong, it is more correct to say that they apply 100% of their strength, while people can pull out only 75-80% of it. However, it is compromised with their dull and easy-to-read movements. Perhaps, it is right to assume that zombies are savage and only slightly stronger than humans.

Dave had a chance to fight with two of them at the same time, yet, failing to dodge the second one, he had a hard time grappling with it on the floor. One bite and it's his end.