Step 10

-နိုးထ

°•○● - Step 10 /T

*You may think like you took many lives in a war. But you only had a share in taking those lives. Did you actually hit the last shot-the finishing blow? You can't know for sure.*

Eren also didn't know. He was shooting and hitting a lot, of course. But he had no idea how many lives he had taken. Over time, he tried to aim better without thinking about it. In particular, he helped clear the remaining pioneer group in frontlines of the zombie herd.

20 minutes before the actual zombie horde arrives, he put down his gun and left the rest to the professionals. The pain in his head had increased. He felt like vomiting but kept it in his throat.

Eren was even sure he had a serious fever.

[It is like I had slept for hours under the sun on a beach. And consumed a liter of vodka before it. It feels like shit]

But he somehow knew that the problem wasn't just bugs or anything physical. He had already taken the medicines and had always eaten the same packet of food that was good for his body. He was eating it for almost a year already. Also, the clouds in this world did not allow the sun to come down directly. Heat-stroke would be a miracle among miracles on this planet.

Something was strange.

Eren closed his eyes and relieved his dried and burning eyes. He sat down on a cool stone, with his head leaning against the wall in a shady spot. The coldness of the stone felt so good that Eren was beginning to believe he would recover for a few minutes.

But then a new ringing was heard in his head, and shapes appeared.

"... + möm% bvvb ^ & zxzzx / dfpğpüy ()) ghpjkk '!' sffg? -ehg + / tuo * / é ..."

It was blurry and ridiculous before. He began to think it was a language he didn't know.

[They said genetic vaccines could have side effects. Is it that kind of thing?]

But Eren had begun to develop a small genetic trait without realizing it. Nobody had told this. Seconds later, the same ringing appeared in his head. His whole body trembled.

The blurry thing, like a text, became a little more noticeable.

[Maybe these are not texts but passwords or something. I wonder if I'm going crazy? Is this DaVinci's code kind of thing?]

"... + Sev% bvvb ^ & zkrit / dfpğpüy ()) inside! 'Sffg? -Ehg + / surname * / z ..."

Before Eren could think about the weird and fun theories of him, the sound that had been heard faster and faster rang out again. It was heard without leaving Eren the opportunity to prepare.

The texts have changed again. It was as if with every ringing, Eren could see something better than before. But it was clear that his body was also feeling worse.

"... + for level% bvz criteria / dfpforpus ())! 'Sffehg + / completed * / z ..."

Eren put his forehead on another cold part of the wall because of this headache. He banged his head against the wall in case something would get better. But his head was not an old TV and he felt even worse. Realizing that it wasn't good, he stopped hitting his head and leaned his forehead on another cold spot.

The writing was fully legible when the last ringing was heard.

[I have completed the criteria for leveling up]

[Completed? - I did? - Wtf..]

It was something like Eren's usual inner voice. Even though it looked like a text, Eren heard his own inner-voice when he read it.

As he focused on the text, he remembered the logical things that it didn't tell and that Eren shouldn't know. These were information that his logic didn't produce.

For example, the chains in his body were broken by genetic upgrading. These chains were genetic level shit and they were holding a normal human to live longer. But also it was pressuring the body to lave minimum levels. You can run faster than a cheetah or jump 5 meters. But it would be meaningless if it hurt or even shreds your body into pieces after you do that. So genetically human body like every other creature would have a natural chain in it.

But after the genetic vaccine, he could use his body better.

The second and the most important thing was Eren understood his body gathered something necessary to evolve more. It would do thanks to both the creatures he eats or the creatures kills. Both would work for Eren but this time killing other creatures was the reason.

The last thing he understood but wasn't sure how was that his body was about to explode.

As he looked at the sentence about leveling up, he realized that he had to make a choice and improve. The things his body collected were piled up and about to overflow. He should spend that now!

[If these were nutritional raw materials, my body would store, use or turn them to fat. But it's kind of like "invisible-genetic exp". I have to spend it...]

As he understood what the sentence was telling him, a new ringing appeared. Longer and more complex sentences appeared after the sound.

+ STRENGTH : 2.6/2.7

! PERCEPTION : 2.9

+ ENDURANCE : 2.6

+ CHARISMA : 2.6

+ INTELLIGENCE : 2.6

+ AGILITY : 2.6

! LUCK ( Chance): 2.9

Eren remembered an old game he liked to play with his friends on Earth after he saw this list of stats. Even when he first looked at his comm after the genetic upgrade, these names were easy to get used to. After months of seeing these stats, he always thought about games on Earth. It was weird.

In games, he also strengthened his character and increased its features in many games he played as a child. So, Eren was used to this kind of thing.

The most important thing he remembers was these improvements would always be beneficial for the character. Perhaps with the help of the popular gaming culture of his old world, he completely trusted the sentences in his head. Knowing that it wouldn't hurt yourself was speeding things up.

He looked at features that he didn't even have to read the meanings. When he thinks about the titles, he would know the effects. There were exclamation marks next to the "Luck" and "Perception" features.

At the beginning of every other stat, the + option appeared.

But Eren used to like boosting one stat over others and become OP in games. So, he focused on Perception even if there was a "!" next to the "perception" category. He was wondering if there would be a difference between 2.9 and 3.0.

"Ringing in head...!"

As soon as Eren tried this, he heard a refusing ringing in his brain. And that way he tested what the! mean. Exclamations mean "fuck off, choose something else!".

This time Eren chose his weakest feature, "power".

He just had to think about clicking + symbol and it did by itself. Every cell of his body tingled as he did. He felt that his high fever suddenly subsided. His body was feeling fine except for this tingling.

This sensation of both hot and new cold with tingling continued for almost half a minute. Before he opened his eyes, he was sure his body was stronger now. An improvement in his bones and external large muscles.

He saw that where it said "Power" it was now "2.7" instead of "2.6".

Eren opened his eyes and checked his body. It wasn't tingling anymore. A smile showed up on his tired face after feeling better than before.

He took a cigarette out of his pocket and lit it. Also opened a small mini water bottle and sipped water from time to time.

He decided to investigate this new situation as soon as the zombie issue was resolved. It was enough to talk to Tris. He put his cigarette between his lips, went to pee, and entered the toilet queue below. When he finally relaxed and left, he looked around like someone new.

It felt like he was emptied both physically and mentally. It was as if he suddenly felt the whole sensation of one night's non-stop sex. Both spiritually and physically.

He heard a soldier shouting like "zombies approaching" and pressed the earphone in his left ear.

"Eren Yıldız is arriving at his place of duty. I am ready for orders."

He closed his eyes for a moment as he listened to the soldiers who, like himself, indicated their positions and conditions through the headphone.

When he closed his eyes, he saw the usual darkness. But when he looked hard enough, he saw that something tiny was there. As soon as he gave his attention, what was normally insignificant grew and turned into a screen. A screen is full of numbers and explanations.

Eren was glad that this thing didn't vanish after just one upgrade. It felt comforting to have the opportunity to improve whenever you want.

*- STRENGTH : 2.7 It represents physical strength. It shows the quality and strength of bones and externally scattered muscles.

*- PERCEPTION : 2.9 Shows how sensitive the sense organs are. (Depends on Agility and Intelligence levels)

*- ENDURANCE : 2.6 It indicates the quality of blood, muscles, and organ tissues inside the body. It is a direct indicator of the amount of energy. (Depends half of the Strength level)

*- CHARISMA : 2.6 Demonstrates language & social skill and knowledge in.

*- INTELLIGENCE : 2.6 It shows the quality of the brain cells and naturally -potential intelligence. (Depends on Agility, Perception and, Luck)

*- AGILITY : 2.6 It shows the quality of the nervous system and its ligaments. It allows the body to do things faster. Although it represents speed, it shows the speed of the nervous system, not general speed. (Depends on Strength, Intelligence and, Luck levels)

- LUCK ( Chance): 2.9 It is the natural and hereditary legacy that the body had before its' genetic upgrades. It shows the natural features that enable the person to evolve critical abilities. Value shows the standard level of the race if there is no inheritance (2.5 for humans) (Represents original genetic heritage from family or older generations)

EXP (Genetic Accumulation): 0 / 10.000

Before seeing unimaginable numbers of zombies came running to town, Eren found enough time to test a single thing before losing himself in battle. He wondered how many exp he earned per zombie. He carefully aimed and shot a few times-then closed his eyes and looked at the exp bar.

EXP (Genetic Accumulation): 2 / 10.000

It can't be. So, I haven't gotten this much exp since these zombie incidents started. I wonder if 10,000 is needed for each level? Where did that much exp come from then?

Eren started shooting with questions in his head. More and more bombs were now being thrown at the flocks that seemed to never end. It was complete chaos down there. The land of previously flattened earth was now full of holes ripped by bombs and bloody-hills raised from corpses.

While thinking of cleaning up these many zombie bodies, he noticed something.

Eren thought about the disgusting food bags he had eaten three or four times a day and how much he had consumed in the last year.

[I think the culprit behind that disgusting taste was creature meat. It is even more disgusting now after knowing it]

Even if he earned 3-5 exp from each bag, it was normal to level up only at these times. Moreover, his genetic upgrade was only months ago. What he had eaten before may even have been wasted.

When this event was done, he decided to buy higher-quality food. Then he gave himself to load his gun and shoot.

He used many painkillers and pesticides until evening and even consumed energizing sodas. But at the end of the day, when the exp he got was only 362, he realized that he leveled up with what he had saved for the last months.

Until the evening time and the moment zombies stopped moving, Eren felt that that day would never end.

He had peed on the tanks that were standing behind him several times. And even if it damaged his vision while shooting, he occasionally smoked.

..

He threw himself into the town while his whole body smelt of dirt and sweat. He couldn't keep watch on the wall tonight. Even though his body was strong, he had almost no physical and mental energy.

He slept at the same moment he went to his bed. He would be awakened in the morning with warnings from his watch, with other tired soldiers.

In his dream, he saw big cats and one of the private schools he watched in his old world, attended by rich people. He tried to knock a cat out of a large music room that was trying to break expensive vases. In the meantime, handsome young people made him instant coffee and joked. A good man, who looked at him sympathetically, but Eren was uncertain whether he was a boy or a girl, also gave him food. At the end of the dream, he took the cat out of the room and relaxed after that.

It was a very strange dream.

When Eren woke up with sweat and anger, he realized where he was.

He lit a cigarette and looked at his watch. He had only an hour to go to the wall. He took off his shoes and socks. It looked pretty impossible to get up and take a shower at that moment. He was so lazy that he opened one of the songs from his comm and closed his eyes.

This song was loaded during his comm's production. It was an emotional melody, but also somewhat reminiscent of non-verbal parts of rock songs. Among other silly and annoying music, this was Eren's only favorite melody.

But as he relaxed, his headache came back with a throbbing in his head amid the music. The animal feeling he had felt all day yesterday had grown more than ever.

[It's not the insects that I feel. Something is coming!]

Eren was instantly prepared to stand up and run towards the wall. But as soon as he got out of the house, he heard the sounds of explosions that started very early. There were some shouts coming from the distance.

"Fuck!"

He couldn't even find the opportunity to light his cigarette and started running.

...