Before the Awakened Academy
Lin watched as Egro's once strong and sturdy body turned into a puddle of red flesh. He sighed heavily and looked at the countless zombies staring at him with murderous eyes, and thought:
"As Egro said, this is probably… the end. But the end only comes when you've lost all strength and hope..." He looked at the zombies and smiled broadly: "but have I lost strength? No. And hope? It's as strong as steel. That means this isn't the end — I just need to persist to survive."
He quickly swung his katana and tried to cut the neck of one of the zombies.
Whoosh!
Clang!
The katana struck as if against iron and made a sharp metallic sound. It bounced slightly off the zombie's neck, but instead of pulling back, Lin clenched his teeth and struck again!
Clang!
The katana bounced again but left a tiny cut, more like a scratch. Lin didn't give up and struck again!
Clang!
The scratch slowly deepened!
Clang!
It became larger!
"Arrgh!" the countless other zombies didn't stand by idly and attacked Lin from all sides, but they couldn't reach him — Lin had only one goal!
To kill that damn zombie!
Lin dodged the endless zombies and kept swinging his katana at the zombie's neck, focused on killing just that one!
Whoosh!
Clang!
The katana bounced again and again like a rubber ball, but Lin kept swinging it, and soon the scratch turned into a proper deep cut across the zombie's neck!
Whoosh!
Lin swung the katana once more — this time the strike went smoothly, without resistance, slicing through the zombie's neck and decapitating it!
Thud!
The zombie's head dropped to the ground like a heavy stone, making a loud impact. Lin was breathing heavily as he stared at it.
"I did it… I managed to kill one..."
He smiled at the other zombies and laughed loudly:
"Ha-ha-ha! Ha-ha! Even if I can't feel the sword, even if your skin is like stone, I still killed you! Yes, it doesn't matter what weapon or enemy you have — if you persist, you can achieve anything!" He raised his katana and picked his next zombie target.
He pushed through countless zombies and was just about to swing his katana when a burning pain shot through his chest!
Lin quickly looked down and saw a zombie lying on the ground, who had reached out with sharp claws and pierced his chest!
"Aargh!" Lin coughed up liters of blood onto his broken mask and raised his blade to stab the zombie in the head.
But before he could, the other zombies overwhelmed him and began to eat him!
"...It's hard when you're surrounded by endless zombies..." He managed to smile and reached up to touch the zombie's head, but it was abruptly sliced off by another's movement.
Lin was left without one arm and gave a crooked smile. He stared blankly at the sky and thought:
"This is my limit..." Suddenly, he heard the voice of the game system:
[Attention! Attention! Attention!]
[Zombies have evolved again!]
[Now, every zombie has minimal consciousness!]
[The zone is shrinking again — all those outside it, hurry and enter or become a new zombie!]
[Good luck surviving!]
Lin laughed and slowly closed his eyes…
Lin died.
...
In the real world, Lin slowly exited the gaming capsule and breathed in the clean, fresh air. He stood still for a while, slowly adjusting to his senses, then stretched to fully regain his body's feeling.
He sighed.
"Whew. The feeling of death in the game is pretty real — especially when pain perception is set to 100%..."
Lin looked around and realized that Zon and Nal had also logged out, as their capsules were open. He left the room and saw Nal happily eating five different pizzas with strange flavors.
"Ah, told you I'd win." Nal took a bite of cheese pizza and then meat pizza, enjoying both.
"Shouldn't have listened to you from the start!" Zon snorted and also bit into the pizza he had ordered for himself.
"Well, I didn't force you to follow me. So it's your own fault... And besides, you ended up being weaker than me and died first."
Zon's face turned red, but he managed to hold himself back and said:
"I'm not going to make excuses like you. I'll accept that I was weaker this time — but that doesn't mean I'll stay that way. Soon, I want a rematch!"
"Ha-ha! I accept!"
They both laughed until they noticed Lin walking out and smiled at him:
"Boss Lin, you're finally out!" Nal greeted him.
"Yeah, Boss Lin, you spent so much time in the Arsenal, I'm not even surprised." Zon smiled.
"I made it to the sixth evolution and died..."
Nal and Zon were both shocked and congratulated Lin:
"Sixth evolution... I heard that at this level, zombies develop a small consciousness, which helps them navigate and even communicate with each other!"
Zon smirked.
"Only players from the Fourth or Fifth League reach that level — shows how exceptional Boss Lin really is!"
They both did their best to support Lin. He smiled at them and said:
"Yeah, that was definitely not bad. Maybe we'll do it again sometime."
"Of course, Boss Lin!"
Lin walked up to the purple katana and picked it up. He decided to train a bit, to see how many swings he could perform now.
He slowly walked to the backyard and took a stance. As he took a deep breath, he began!
"One."
Whoosh!
"Two."
Whoosh!
"Three."
Whoosh!
...
Time flew by. After about ten minutes, Lin performed his seventy-fifth swing:
Whoosh!
He slowly dropped to his knees, breathing heavily, as if he had a jet engine inside him releasing hot air.
"T-this is already way better than before… This katana..." He looked at the katana, and it felt as though it was looking back at him: "Why is it so hard to connect with? Other swords weren't this stubborn..."
Lin sighed and looked at the sky, knowing he still had a long journey ahead before he could "befriend" this weapon.
But he was ready to accept it.
He slowly closed his eyes and lay down on the grass, thinking:
"To do everything for the sake of the goal... Ha-ha. This really is interesting. My time in the Arsenal was a lot of fun because of my friends and comrades, but I can't forget — it's just a vertical world. It can't replace the real one..."
"My goal is to take revenge on the Matrix family for the murder of my mother and father. The Arsenal will help me develop my combat skills and abilities, but for real progress in the Title System — it's completely useless. What will truly help me is traveling through the Dead Worlds and developing myself as an Awakened one." Lin requested to view his general stats:
[Name: Lin Matrix.]
[Title: Lord of the Time.]
[Title Category: Abstract.]
[Title Rank: Awakened.]
[Skills:
— "Slow Motion Perception(Lv.1)".]
[Price: Forgetfulness (Price of Mind).]
[Status:
— Physical health: 95%
— Mental health: 99%
— Distortion: 0%]
[Soul Fragments: (None).]
[Distorted Items: (None).]
[Quests: (None).]
Seeing his stats, Lin sighed:
"I need to grow and increase my rank. Right now, I'm Awakened. After Awakened comes the Call, then Adept, and others. To become the Call, I need a sufficient number of Soul Shards, and also awaken the Echo of the Title..."
"Echo of the Title… I don't know much about them. The main idea is — they are the previous owners of the Titles we possess. Meaning, the so-called Lord of the Time isn't just a cool Title — it was once a real person who existed in other worlds and could control time… But died..."
"In any case, it all comes down to Soul Shards, and they can only be found in the Dead Worlds. I realized I don't know the Dead Worlds that well, so I decided to study a bit in the Awakened Academy. The entrance is in just five days..."
"Five days… I think that's enough," he smiled and stood up.
...
Five days later, Lin sat on the grass meditating with his sword. Nal grabbed a banana in his right hand and threw it at Lin at high speed!
Lin instantly opened his eyes and slashed the katana, cutting the banana into two equal halves!
"Nice one, Boss Lin!" Nal praised him.
Lin nodded.
"Yeah, this is definitely better than yesterday."
He sheathed his katana and sighed.
Over the past five days, he trained actively in the Arsenal and also meditated with the sword to improve his understanding. And indeed, instead of seventy-five swings, he could now do a hundred!
This made Lin extremely happy!
"Boss Lin, when should I take you to the Awakened Academy?" Nal asked.
Lin thought for a moment and answered:
"Today is June first — entrance day at the Awakened Academy. It starts around noon, so we still have a few hours."
"In an hour, we'll head there."
Nal nodded.
"As you say!"