William hadn't returned to the shelter for a long time. He saw this stage of his life as an opportunity with the new beginning of the catastrophe.
And he seized that opportunity. The blessing allowed it, and William worked hard for it.
He hadn't counted how many zombies he had killed, but there was a number written on the codex.
William sat in his chair, his eyes tired and dazed, staring at the codex screen.
[Number of Level 1 zombies killed: 3,889,488.]
[Number of Level 2 zombies killed: 19,374.]
[Number of Level 3 zombies killed: 3,975.]
[Number of Level 4 zombies killed: 1,132.]
[Number of Level 5 zombies killed: 574.]
[Number of Level 6 zombies killed: 144.]
[Number of Level 7 zombies killed: 76.]
[Number of Level 8 zombies killed: 91.]
[Number of Level 9 zombies killed: 110.]
William looked at the screen. After staring at it for a few minutes, he fell asleep. Then he woke up and looked around. On one side, the items he had obtained from the special zombies he had killed were piled up. Almost none of them were useful to him.
William stood up and walked to the bathroom in the house. It was a spacious, tidy villa with few belongings.
He entered the bathroom and looked at his face in the mirror. His hair had grown very long. He pulled out a dagger and tried to cut it, but he couldn't.
He looked at his face again, disappointed. His beard was starting to grow in patches. He thought it didn't look good on his face, so he tried to cut off all his beard with the dagger.
He couldn't do it again.
The tenth-level knife he had bought from the system store couldn't cut his beard or hair.
William hung his head in disappointment and then took a shower with a barrel of water standing in the corner.
A thick layer of dirt washed off his body. He hadn't taken a shower in months. He thanked the previous owner of the house for buying expensive body care products.
William then walked over and went to his bedroom. Here he lay down for a few minutes in a bathrobe that did not belong to him. Then he got up and looked at himself in the full-length mirror.
He had a well-proportioned body. No, he didn't look overly muscular like Marcus. His height had increased by another four inches in the few months he had been gone, and most of the muscle mass he had gained didn't look absurd because of his increased height.
William looked carefully and liked what he saw. He took off the bathrobe and began posing in front of the mirror.
His jaw was completely defined. There was very little fat on his body; if he could measure it, he was sure it would be less than eight percent.
William then went to the kitchen. There were thousands of opened and eaten cans of food.
This body came at a high-calorie price.
If he didn't consume thirty thousand calories a day, he felt like he was dying of hunger. Fortunately, he wasn't very addicted to food. There was a potion for that in the system store.
A thousand SCs was a good trade for it, according to William. The potion prevented him from feeling hungry for a week. It was a miraculous mixture that slowly dissolved in his stomach.
He was in a good mood today. So he ate most of the canned food instead of the potion.
Then he got dressed. He wasn't wearing armor anymore. He preferred simple, plain clothes.
He didn't think there was anything left in this area that could threaten him.
William put on a black undershirt. Then black boxer shorts. Then he put on a thin silver chain that he thought belonged to the owner of this house.
Then he put on the brand new level 9 black boots he had obtained by killing a level 9 zombie. All they provided was durability, but they looked dozens of times better than the horseshoe-nosed boots.
He extended his hand, and a leather jacket materialized out of thin air. It was adorned with various zombie symbols—some long, some short, but all equally terrifying.
He then reached out, and two katana flew into his hands, resting against the armrest of the chair. After fastening the belt adorned with a zombie head symbol, he slung the two katana over his back.
The katanas were rare Level 10 weapons obtained from the marketplace. He had paid a fortune for them.
William then jumped and exited through the already broken roof of the house.
He sat on the roof for a moment, watching the rising sun. Then his eyes focused, and he looked at the system display.
[William Aunitidis-Level 10 (C10(MAX))]
[EXP: 91,136,000/91,136,000]
[STRENGTH: 14.6 (+++)]
[SPEED: 13 (+++)]
[PERCEPTION: 10 (+++)]
[LEY: 10 (+++)]
[EVOLUTION POINTS: 110/10]
[LEVEL CYCLE: 10/10 (Max)]
[SP: 522] (System Points)
[Abilities: Astral Echo: Soul Resonance I, Twin Fang Style: Crescent Eclipse I, Titanus Spine I, Phantom Stride I, Obsidian Veil I, Advanced Perception II, Master of Weight III]
[Blessing: EXP10X]
[System Money: 280,841,520]
William ignored the unnecessary windows below. The only things that interested him in the latest update were events and quests.
And he didn't think about them for now because he didn't know where or how the events would take place.
As for the quests, they were too easy for him.
William had been feeling empty for the past few days. Even if he let the zombies attack him, not even a tenth-level zombie could scratch him.
He knew that what was giving him this feeling of emptiness was actually his inability to improve.
However, this limitation of the system was actually to William's advantage. If it weren't for this limitation, William would be dead. Because, forget about his main stats, even his sub-stats were maxed out at 30 points.
That was why William felt empty. He now knew where every stone in the open dungeon was. He had even killed the hidden zombies inside. When the people in the shelter he occasionally came across saw him, they thought he was a boss and started to change their route.
That was why William was bored. Fortunately, he had more work to do.
He had talked to the people in the shelter and gotten information about the trial tower.
It seemed like a very fun and strange place.
He also needed to improve the expensive and powerful techniques he had learned.
William had improved much more than he had expected, but he knew that this was again thanks to the system.
His blessing was truly broken. He couldn't believe how he had managed to kill so many zombies in just a few months, but he had done it.
He had completed ten cycles.
He hadn't expected each cycle to give him an extra level point.
After the second cycle, everything became easier because the amount of exp he earned didn't decrease, and the points he earned only increased.
This was a perfect opportunity for him. According to his calculations, he could reach level 30 by killing that many zombies, but he didn't need to.
This made him feel stronger and more secure.
William felt transcendent.
"I wonder if there are other crazy people like me?" William thought.
Who knows how many billions of people there were in this universe, and was William the only one among them? Or was he not that special after all?
That was what kept him going and prevented him from giving up at the last moment. To see what lay beyond this planet. He actually wanted to wait a little longer and evolve, but what Elura had said during their last conversation was very intriguing.
William wanted to know the story of the ones in the tower.
He also had a few more goals in mind. The Captive Prince in the open dungeon, the three Field Bosses, and the event areas beyond them. Then maybe the battlefields.
William may not have been aware of it, but he had allowed the techniques and the system to work their way into his mind.
His mind was deteriorating day by day, and his passion for improvement was the same as that of bodybuilders who continued to take drugs despite the damage to their livers and kidneys.
William was no longer using his blessing; no, his blessing was officially using William.
And there was no way to stop it... for now.
..
William watched the sun rise from the roof. There was no haze in his eyes. His gaze was filled with compassion and desire.
He could see it. He could see the city from this distance.
[City of Hope]
A huge sign was visible in the sky above the area he was looking at.
William was currently at the edge of the lake. In a villa a mile to the north.
He could see a few people fishing in the lake. There was no one he recognized among them.
William took a step and jumped off the roof. The roof couldn't withstand the force of his jump, so he had to do it from the ground.
He knelt down, stretched his legs as far as he could, and jumped suddenly.
"BOOOM!" A crater formed on the ground behind William, and with a loud noise, William jumped hundreds of meters into the air.
Seeing this, the people fishing in the lake couldn't hide their surprise and immediately informed Pete at the beginning hotel by radio.
But before they could talk, William had already made a few more jumps and reached the beginning hotel.
Pete rushed outside as soon as he heard and turned his head just in time to see William jumping into the sky.
"There are a lot of things where I jumped first, I'm leaving them with you, Pete!" William shouted while in the air.
Pete was so shocked he almost bit his tongue trying to speak.
"O-okay!"
When he saw that William had almost doubled in size and felt the incredible pressure emanating from him, he almost lost his mind.
Pete wasn't weak; he was an 12th-level evolved being. Even so, he couldn't see William's name on the system screen.
"What level did he reach?" he thought, but by then William had already disappeared into the horizon.
Still, he didn't forget what William had said.
He took the radio and immediately ordered the men who had just contacted him to go to the place where they first saw William.
Shortly afterward, they reported to Pete that they had found nearly a hundred pieces of equipment.
"What did that kid do?"
Pete immediately informed Joseph via radio. He had to report this event.
William reached the outskirts of Hope City in about an hour. He continued on foot from there. He didn't want to scare or worry anyone.
When he arrived in the city, he saw that it had changed a lot. First of all, the city had a wall.
Like medieval walls, they were thick and strong, nearly five meters high. Of course, this wasn't the entire city. It was just an inner wall that could hold a thousand people, built with the help of Eliza and the others.
They didn't yet have the people or materials needed for the outer wall. Even if Eliza and the others worked together, it would be a long project. Therefore, only the boundaries of the small area that was available had been closed off.
No one stopped William.
Seeing this, William smiled and went to Austin and Elura, the first people he saw.
The two were sitting on two chairs in front of the house, enjoying the morning coolness with a cup of coffee. It was still early, so it wasn't time for work yet.
William went over to them and sat down. After chatting for a while, he went to Marcus, Eliza, and the others who were training in the barbed wire-covered garden of the shelter.
At first, Marcus didn't even recognize William. His hair was long, and his beard was messy, like that of a new teenager.
William just made small talk and left them. He didn't forget to greet Mick and the others who were doing their daily training routine.
Finally, he found himself at Joseph's door. Joseph welcomed him and let him in.
After sitting down, William got straight to the point.
"I'm ready."
Joseph nodded. He had been waiting for this moment for a long time.
"What cycle did you reach?" His face was serious. He wanted to know if William had given up or if he had really put himself in a position where he could be considered strong.
"Ten," William replied calmly.
"What?" Joseph immediately stood up and shouted.
Then he thought his reaction was inappropriate and sat back down. He then calmly placed his hands on the table and asked again.
"Tell me. How does the cycle system work? Tell me about the wins, the losses, and its usability."
William shook his head. He knew these questions were coming, but he didn't think anyone could successfully complete the cycle system up to the tenth level.
Unless they had an absurd blessing like his.
"It's simple. The amount of exp you need to earn in each cycle doubles.
But the only gains are system points and money. System points are 2 in the first cycle, 3 in the second cycle, 4 in the third cycle, and so on."
William grinned meaningfully.
"As for what you lose, there's nothing for now. I just don't think people have the patience to earn that much exp. Moreover, there are no gains other than point increases, and points are limited by your level.
For example, my base strength stat can't go above that, and my sub-stat is also limited to 30 because of that. Of course, I managed to increase it by a few points by lifting weights and doing the same movements over and over for days, but it's not worth mentioning."
"The practicality is difficult. Very difficult. I don't think a lifetime would be enough."
William shook his head. He had answered all the questions.
"I understand. I already knew that your blessing wasn't related to sword mastery, but I didn't expect it to be something so outlandish." Joseph looked at the sly smile on William's face.
"Don't worry, William, your secret is safe with me, and no matter how curious I am, I won't ask what it is."
Joseph stood up and looked out the window. The sight of Marcus doing push-ups and Min-Jun a few meters away brought a smile to his face.
"After all, yours isn't the only blessing that gives exp bonuses. The only problem is that it's too extreme. Still, you should be careful." Joseph shook his head and looked seriously at William.
William, however, was not paying attention. "Why? I don't think anyone can beat me."
Joseph said, "For now," and looked to the east. "If we are the only survivors in the world, then yes. But before the catastrophe, there were twenty billion people living in this world, and despite our country's vast territory, we had a population of 700 million."
Joseph pointed in different directions. "There were countries with populations close to five billion. How many exp do you think are there?"
Joseph smiled. The look of realization on William's face made him happy.
"If all the zombies in the world are completely wiped out. If only field bosses and dungeons remain, will people's greed be limited to a dungeon? No." Joseph shook his head.
"They will want to get their hands on more dungeons in order to become even more powerful. It doesn't matter if they are open or closed. They will want to dominate the event areas."
Joseph turned and sat down in his chair.
"Sit down, let me tell you a little about the old order of our world. I don't mean to brag about what I know as a general, but I know best."
He continued speaking when William sat down opposite him.
"You know that our world entered a period of great peace after World War II. All the wars that have taken place in between, and I emphasize this, all wars, big and small, have been staged. The ordinary people and soldiers who died were unaware of this, but it was nothing more than a series of senseless events born out of the greed of a few rich men who ruled the world."
Joseph reached into his pocket and took out a box. Inside the box were several cigars lined up in rows.
He handed one to William and took one for himself.
William did not refuse. He was in such good shape that he knew the cigar could not harm him, even on a microscopic level.
"Take the oil crisis in 2035, for example." Joseph listed several oil companies and the countries they were affiliated with. "When a new reserve is found, they always want to be the first to get there and gain complete control over it.
But if a rival company emerges outside their own country, that's when the states intervene. That's what happened in our last crisis. A company from our country's interests were threatened."
Joseph sighed deeply. "How much do you think that interest was worth? Only five billion dollars. Five. That company already has an annual profit of 400 billion dollars. But when politics got involved and the distribution of those five billion dollars to politicians became an issue, things changed. In short, there is neither a national security problem nor an oil crisis."
Joseph shook his head. "In short, it was all a lie. I went, I fought, and I came back with my honor intact. But it's incomprehensible that people who know nothing are forced to choose sides and lose their lives as heroes or terrorists."
Joseph leaned back in his chair.
"It will be the same in the future.
I can feel it. Other cities will be built. They will want our open prison for themselves. It doesn't even matter that we speak the same language anymore."
Joseph leaned forward and looked William in the eyes. "That's why you have to stay hidden. We don't know if someone as blessed as you will come tomorrow and kill us all to take over this city. That's why you must continue to improve, but you must remain hidden, William. This is not for me or for our city, but for you. For your future."
William coughed a little, then exhaled the second puff of smoke comfortably.
Then he looked seriously at Joseph and nodded. "I understand."