Kill & Eat
[DAY 8]
'Well, simply put, the purple crystals in the undead make me stronger and allow me to unlock more abilities.' Neo thought to himself while looking at the purple crystal and a bunch of yellow and red threads in front of him.
'Yes, you read that right, I've already removed the crystal from the stage 1 mutated undead, Type: Agility. To be honest it wasn't that hard to remove, basically I was able to pull it out right after the skull was open. Well, the yellow and red endoskeleton is a different story. The small threads are just all over the place and are difficult to remove with the tools I have. So, I just removed the threads from the calves, since that's where most of them were.'
"Well, what can go wrong?" Neo said before popping the crystal into his mouth first.
Neo swallows the crystal whole and waits for something to change on his body.
...
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10 minutes have passed
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20 minutes have passed and Neo is sitting on a chair behind the cash register and wonders if he made a mistake or if his theory could be wrong.
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But after 30 minutes it happened... an unbelievable headache, it felt like his head was being cut into a hundred small pieces, but he wanted to stay conscious to investigate how and what was changing.
And after another 30 minutes of unbelievable agony, the change happened. His fingernails grew and became razor sharp blades. His teeth became sharper and grew slightly and now looked like those of a shark. Otherwise, no discernible physical change occurred.
But Neo could feel it, he can perceive much more now. It's a bit difficult right now, but if he concentrates, he can take in everything around him more closely. The fly on the 2nd floor, the undead in the shop opposite and much more.
Also, his thoughts feel much clearer and he seems to be able to think faster. Complex math tasks that previously had to be handled by the AI because they took too long can now be calculated almost as quickly.
After some trial and error, he discovered that he could slide his blades on his fingernails and his fangs on his teeth in and out so they looked like they did before the mutation.
He decides not to consume the yellow and red threads until he has regained enough strength. Otherwise, he thinks he is loading his own crystal with too much energy.
Pleased with his progress, Neo must now deal with the hunger problem he has had since his rebirth. And for that he just found the perfect prey. On the street around the corner is a building where he can smell three people.
'With my enhanced senses I can smell this for the first time... it smells so delicious... if I want to survive in this world I have to eat and that's what I will do, whether people are old, ugly, rich or are injured, if I can I will eat them all if that means I get stronger. Well, I do have a limit... kids... I'm not a monster ok if I meet kids, I'll just avoid them.'
"If Host needs therapeutic help, should I set up an appointment with a therapist? Alternatively, Host can also buy the respective addon and receive therapy from an AI. Privacy is secured either way according to Section 151a of the Interstellar Code. Does the Host wish to purchase the Addon?' the AI asked in a robotic voice.
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...
...
'She's kidding me, isn't she?' Neo wondered
But said... "uhh, no forget that and don't ask me that again, got it." said Neo
"Ai understood Host, if Host behaves psychopathically again, Ai will say nothing." said the Ai
....
Neo was speechless again.
***change of scene
Ninette, Donatien and Meram are three teenage friends who love to do things together. They have known each other since childhood and all three come from a small remote village that does not use any technology and devotes itself to their religion.
In the village, the three of them learn to hunt and survive in the wild from an early age.
The three never really believed their parents' and other friends' views that technology was a sin. I mean, who would want to live in the dirt when the neighbours next door lives in big mansions and travel the stars and have adventures and fun. Nobody would like to live like that.
Well, at least the three saw it that way and decided just before the outbreak of the apocalypse to sneak away and go to one of the well-known big cities.
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Kind of funny when you think about it, isn't it? They didn't believe their parents' words and went into sin and before they could taste it, the world suddenly collapsed.
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Of course, the three of them didn't think it was that funny and regretted ever going against their parents' words. They sought fun, love, and fulfilment, but found sorrow, death, and misery.
The three survived the first six days quite well. But at the latest when they met their first Stage 1 Undead, they realized how hopeless their situation was. This wasn't like the stories you heard as kids about heroes and knights killing the monsters and saving the princess and the land. no Reality is brutal and unforgiving and if you hold on to dreams and fantasies then you can never achieve your goals.
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Ninette is a girl who is very ambitious, she is the best hunter of the three and can silently sneak up on her prey. She used her abilities to quietly take out the undead to secure supplies. Donatien is the classic musclehead, no brains but strength, he protected his friends from the great masses of undead. Finally, there is Meram, a rather mute, slim, tall boy who excels in tactical skills, only thanks to him the group was able to find a safe place to survive and he knew quite well where and how much food could be in certain buildings.
Overall, one would say that the group has a good chance of surviving in the apocalypse. Each team member complements each other and together they are a force to be treated with care. A sect leader who spread his faith in the city after the apocalypse had to experience this painfully.
The poor preacher of God is just trying to enlighten people with his wise and meaningful words. for example, he preaches of a great Redeemer who will cleanse sinners from their misery. All you have to do is sacrifice some virgins...when I say sacrifice, I actually mean torture.
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First, they cut off the arms and legs of the virgins, of course they also make sure that you don't die so quickly. No, you shall suffer as long as possible. Only your suffering can bring them redemption.
Then they make a tasty and hearty soup from the arms and legs of the virgins. Which, of course, must be eaten by all, including the virgins of whom the arms and legs are and children.
Afterwards they make a big nice fire where they burn the virgins. Their cry should draw the attention of the great Redeemer to them and lead him to them.
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Sick. Just sick.
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Well, anyway, the three friends couldn't sit still when they heard such a story, so they decided to hit the road and free as many of the prisoners as possible. But what they misunderstood is that the prisoners they freed were trapped by the cult there because they murdered without being raped in the name of their god.
The three freed the wrong people, they weren't the virgins, but brutal criminals and the first thing they did after they were freed was to thank their liberators heartily by letting the men watch them rape the woman.
The three were lucky and barely escaped with their lives and were able to kill a few of the criminals. The criminals were therefore so vengeful that they pursued the three to here and now have their last stand near Neo.
***Back to Neo
Well, at least that's how it would have gone if it wasn't for Neo there. Neo, who with his extended senses sensed the criminals from about a kilometre away, was ready to fight them. Neo of course knows nothing about the events of the three or the cult.
But even if he knew, it wouldn't matter to him. Neo is not a good hero who rushes to the rescue of those in danger. No, he is undead and he is aware of his position in the world. When mankind finds out what he is, they will do anything to kill him. In order to be able to protect himself in the future, he has to become stronger and that means he has to eat meat, especially that of humans.
Besides, he hasn't forgotten his mother, who is still in danger. In order to save her, he needs strength.
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In a small side alley where three undead are eating a body on the ground, there is suddenly a loud noise.
"fluh"
"fluh"
"fluh"
All three undead are dead and crossbow bolts are stuck in their heads. Shortly thereafter, 9 men come out of the corner behind a large garbage can. All of them are the criminals that are left chasing after the three teenagers like bloodhounds.
"Hah, Garment your aim is as good as ever," said a bearded tall man.
The man with the crossbow just smiles and moves towards the undead.
But then suddenly a door opens behind them and a horde of undead storms out of the door.
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The group of criminals suddenly felt strong fear and were petrified for a moment, but they didn't hesitate for long and ran in the other direction, trying to escape from the alley. But then suddenly another small horde of undead appeared in front of them, heading straight for them.
The criminals are desperately trapped, their only way out is by fighting, and so the first rushed forward and tried to fight their way through.
However, after killing the first undead, a loud scream came from behind, everyone turned towards the scream at that moment and what they saw then frightened the brutal criminals and put them in an unbelievable shock. An undead wearing a black hoodie jumped from the nearby building and instantly killed two of the criminals with its razor-sharp blades and killed a third with one bite. His sharp teeth ripped off the entire shoulder and arm, the criminal died instantly from shock.
At that moment, the criminals all thought, 'That's it, I'm dead.'
But the undead with the hoodie then suddenly stopped and took the two he killed first under his two arms and then spat the arm out of his mouth and bit the other shoulder of the third victim and then jumped back onto the building.
The building is not that big, only about 4 meters, but no one carrying three more adult men can jump that far.
After the attack by the undead with the hoodie, the criminals were quickly brought back to reality and tried to fight bitterly against the undead who had surrounded them. Screams, curses and much more could be heard throughout the alley that day.
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But relatively quickly the noises were replaced by undead eating.
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Noa decided to attack the bigger prey that night and planned to lure the criminals into a trap. After following them from the rooftops of a few houses, he saw his chance to strike. He used his superhuman speed to lure the undead with the smell of animal flesh and then at the right time opened the door behind the criminal and let the undead do the rest.
After that, Neo jumped onto the roof next door and lured the undead from the street into the alley, which was relatively easy, especially since these idiot criminals just talked too loud to each other.
Once trapped, Neo decided to act quickly before the other undead left him nothing of his loot.
His fingernails and teeth grew out and he pulled the hood of his hoodie, which he found in the store's supplies, over his head and jumped into the fight.
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After Neo landed back on the building, he went to a small room in the building and decided to eat the corpses. He was only able to take three, but that's more than enough for now, so Neo doesn't see it as a big deal.
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[DAY 9]
Human flesh tasted so incredibly good to Neo. He never thought he would say something like that. But he wants to kill more people so he can eat them.
'Well, that should be enough for today' thought Neo
'To kill and to eat ... sounds delicious.'