Reminder
"What have I done?"
Vincent muttered, his body shaking in terror.
His legs shook as he took a step back.
Thud!
Unable to support himself, he collapsed to the ground, still staring at the sight before him in terror.
Judging by the collapsed buildings around, he could tell his location was deeper toward the city's center.
Dozen humans walked the street, their movements sluggish as their feet scraped the ground. One look was enough to see that those were walking corpses as their bodies, pale in color, had already started to decompose.
"Bleeuugh!"
Vincent turned to the side, vomiting in disgust.
His body trembled as weakness attacked him, but death loomed over him, forcing him to react.
He quickly got up, closed the door, and ran to the chair, taking it. He put the chair's backrest under the door handle, blocking it.
Though it was not the wisest move or even foolish, it was the best he could think of at the moment. He could only pray the zombies outside didn't notice him.
Thud!
Vincent leaned and slid down the wall, resting on the floor in terror.
"Blee..." He put his palm over his mouth. As the sight flashed in his mind, he felt a wave of nausea but managed to hold it in.
He couldn't forget the scene he saw. Among the several zombies walking the street, he saw another kind of zombie.
The zombie crawled on the ground. Its lower part of the body thorn off, its intestines dragging along the ground, leaving trails of green blood.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
Before Vincent could even get the chance to come to himself, several system notifications popped before his eyes.
[10 beings successfully infected]
[You received: 0.5 attribute points]
[50 beings successfully infected]
[You received: 0.5 attribute points]
[100 beings successfully infected]
[You received: 1 attribute points]
[500 beings successfully infecte]
[You received: 1 attribute point]
[1000 beings successfully infected]
[You received: 2 attribute points]
[1 awakened being successfully infected]
[You received: 1 attribute point]
"Just what is going on?" Vincent grabbed his head, pulling his long hair.
But deep down, he understood the situation. As he thought deeper, everything started to make sense, but he couldn't accept that he was the cause of everything.
Tears rolled down his eyes as he lowered his head, analyzing the situation.
Vincent hugged his knees and rested his forehead on his kneecaps. He stayed like this for a few minutes.
"I'm the cause of all of this," He finally muttered.
"At that moment...In that rage..." Vincent's voice started breaking as he looked at his trembling palms, tears rolling down his eyes. "I-I didn't think things through. I didn't realize the consequences of my actions..."
The scene outside flashed before his eyes, the zombies walking, their rotting bodies, the intestines of the crawling zombie dragging on the ground.
"I...I killed a thousand people?"
Thud! Thud!
As tears rolled down, he hit his head in fury.
The weight of his sin was heavy.
"If I...If I could repeat the same action to survive...Then would I do it again?" Vincent voiced his question out loud, which only made the answer he had deep down clearer.
"No...When I did that to Marin, I had already accepted death...So..." Vincent looked at his palms once again. The trembling intensified. "I killed a thousand people...innocent people...just for revenge?"
It hurt. It hurt to know that if he came into a situation where he needed to repeat the same action to survive, he couldn't sacrifice his life to save a thousand people.
An immense fear emerged within Vincent, fear of himself. As if a large portion of his humanity disappeared. Now, even he himself didn't know to what extent he could go.
"I...I'm a monster..."
...
Night had fallen outside, and the room had turned pitch dark.
Vincent still sat on the floor in the darkness, blaming himself, unable to cope with reality.
An immense hunger attacked him, and the weakness followed. He had not eaten for more than a week.
[Ding]
[The zombie virus spreads]
[1500 beings successfully infected]
[You received: 2 attribute points]
[You have: 8 allocation points. Do you wish to allocate them?]
Vincent's status window appeared before his eyes.
[Status Window]
[Name: Vincent]
[Race: Human (Carrier of the zombie virus)]
[Level 1] - [Exp: 0/100]
[Stats:]
[Strength: 6]
[Stamina: 4]
[Agility:6]
[Perception: 8]
[Mana: 10]
[Skills: (Contract) ; (Command) ; (Probe)]
With the status window before his eyes, it took his attention. Just what he needed, something to divert his mind.
With the status window reflecting in his dull eyes, Vincent slowly raised his hand.
Swish!
His hand passed through the status window, dispersing the area of the status window where it passed. But it was just for a second as it quickly formed again.
'How do I allocate the points? And in what should I put them? Strength?'
[Strength: 7]
The moment Vincent even considered putting the allocation points in strength, an allocation point went into strength.
'So I can control it with my mind,'
Vincent quickly decided what to do and allocated the points.
[Strength: 8]
[Staming: 8]
[Agility: 8]
He equalized his stats at 8, except mana, which was at 10.
"Agh!" Suddenly, his eyes widened as pain attacked him.
The veins in his arms and legs bulged up.
He felt a stinging pain in his eyes, ears, and body.
He rolled on the ground in pain. But still, this pain paled compared to what he felt previously, so he gritted his teeth and held on.
In a few minutes, the pain faded away.
"Just what is happening..."
Vincent's eyes widened.
"This is..."
The metallic smell of the blood amplified, and he could hear faint footsteps outside.
"My eyes..."
Though it was dark in the room, and he could not see anything, his eyes felt different.
Vincent's senses improved.
"I can feel my body is stronger." He stood up.
Thud!
His punch landed on the wall.
He left no mark on the wall, but his strength had indeed improved.
Vincent sat again and focused entirely on the system.
'It seems I have skills. What are they used for?'
Just as he wondered, another system window appeared before his eyes.
[Skill: Contract - Using blood as a medium allows the user to form a contract with an undead creature. Once the contract is formed, it cannot be broken unless the undead creature dies] - [0/3]
[Skill: Command - As the creator of the zombie apocalypse, the zombies won't attack you]
[Skill: Probe - Allows the user to see the status window of entities not exponentially stronger than himself]
Vincent exhaled a heavy sigh, looking up. Immediately, dark thoughts started consuming him.
He had to eat or at least do something other than blaming himself. He knew this. But at the same time, he didn't want to move on. He didn't want to brush his deed off and move on like nothing happened. Because if he did, it would be no different than justifying himself. And if he justified himself now, in his eyes and heart, he would be no different than a monster.
However, the system windows came just right in time for him to use as an excuse to temporarily focus on something else and temporarily move on.
He willed in his mind, and all the status windows he ever received appeared before his eyes. Thus, slowly, Vincent started analyzing everything.
...
The hours passed as Vincent immersed himself in analyzing.
'This skill contract...It should allow me to contract a zombie. It should give me a means of self-defense and maybe some attack.' He analyzed. 'But there seem to be special, awakened beings. It should be the awakened humans, and the one infected must be Marin. It would be best to form a contract with awakened humans.'
'The zombies should be carriers of the zombie virus, and so am I. But it didn't cause any mutation in me.' He looked at his hand, his eyes landing on the violet veins. 'Except this.'
'If my guess is correct, my blood should contain the zombie virus and is infectious.
As for the other skills, the Command skill is simple, and while I have an idea for the Probe skill, I need to test it.'
After finishing his analysis, abundant emotions attacked him and started slowly pulling him back towards dark thoughts: regret, guilt, sadness, and anger. It was all his fault, after all.
Before his dark thoughts completely overcame him, he stood up and walked to the door.
Moving the chair, he opened the door.
Fresh, cool air hit his face, playing with his hair as moonlight shone through the door, brightening the room.
The three moons hung in the sky, in their full phase, brightening the night.
Vincent closed his eyes and enjoyed the cool air for a moment.
He raised his foot, ready to take a step out. But, just when he was about to step forward, he ceased.
He wanted to continue going forward but couldn't forget everything and act as if nothing happened.
Vincent lowered his foot and took a step back.
Suddenly, his eyes widened.
Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw an object reflecting the moonlight.
A knife.
He pondered for a moment before walking to it and picking it up.
"This shall serve as my reminder," He spoke, tightly grabbing the blade of the knife with his left palm. "I know my sin cannot be forgiven, but I have to continue. I have to survive. That way, the deaths of those innocent people won't be in vain.
So, this shall serve as a reminder of the deed I did. A reminder of my irredeemable sin."
SHLUCK!
Tap! Tap!
Fresh, violet blood dripped on the ground from Vincent's tightly clenched fist.
"THIS IS THE SCAR I HAVE TO BEAR!!"
Swoosh!
He swung his hand, opening the palm, revealing the deep cut.
His violet blood splashed around as Vincent walked forward, leaving the building.