Eli woke up to the sound of crying, an exhausted sobbing from somewhere in the parking structure.
He opened his eyes slowly, to find himself looking at gray concrete ceiling and felt the cold floor where he laid down.
His ribs still ached from yesterday's fight.
Yesterday.
Had it only been one day since the Death Surge started?
It felt like weeks.
[GOOD MORNING, AUDITOR]
The system's sudden cheerful greeting made Eli want to throw something at it.
"Morning," he snarled.
[DAILY QUEST SYSTEM UNLOCKED]
[RANK E PRIVILEGE: DAILY OBJECTIVES FOR SAFE ZONE MANAGEMENT]
"Huh?"
[DAILY QUESTS AVAILABLE]
[QUEST 1: SECURE RESOURCES]
[COLLECT: FOOD (0/10 UNITS), WATER (0/15 UNITS), MEDICAL SUPPLIES (0/5 UNITS)]
[REWARD: +100 EXP, BASIC SUPPLY CACHE]
[QUEST 2: ESTABLISH PERIMETER]
[CLEAR CORRUPTED SOULS WITHIN 100M RADIUS (0/8)]
[REWARD: +150 EXP, SAFE ZONE EXPANSION]
[QUEST 3: MAINTAIN MORALE]
[INTERACT WITH SURVIVORS (0/3)]
[REWARD: +50 EXP, LOYALTY INCREASE]
[ACCEPT ALL? Y/N]
Eli stared at the quests, dumbfounded.
It looked like a mobile game interface of the survival genre.
"You're treating this like a fucking idle game," he said.
[SURVIVAL REQUIRES STRUCTURE]
[QUESTS PROVIDE STRUCTURE]
[WOULD YOU PREFER BY YOUR OWN?]
Eli didn't have a good reason to survive on his own.
"Fine. Accept all," he said, imagining he could choke the system, if it had a body, or even a soul.
[DAILY QUESTS ACCEPTED]
[SAFE ZONE STATUS: ESTABLISHED]
[CURRENT POPULATION: 7 (6 SURVIVORS + 1 AUDITOR)]
[RESOURCES: CRITICAL]
[MORALE: LOW]
[THREAT LEVEL: MODERATE]
[REWARD: +1570 EXP]
Great. Now he had stats to manage.
Eli sat up slowly, wincing. The wounds already healed, but the pain still lingered.
He looked around the parking structure.
The six survivors were scattered across the third floor. Most of them were still asleep.
Marcus was awake, sitting near the stairwell with the baseball bat across his knees.
The kid looked exhausted.
Eli stood up, and walked over to him.
"You been up all night?" he asked quietly.
Marcus jumped slightly. "Oh. Yeah. Someone had to."
"You should've woken me."
"You looked dead, man. Figured you needed the sleep."
Eli sat down next to him. "Thanks."
They sat in silence for a moment.
"Is it true?" Marcus asked. "What you did yesterday. The… the soul thing."
Eli hesitated to answer. But he answered it anyway. "Yeah. It's true."
"So you're like… what? A ghost hunter?"
"Something like that."
"And the glowing thing in your body?"
Eli looked at his hands. It was still faintly luminescent in the dim light. "Side effect."
Marcus processed that. "Does it hurt?"
"Sometimes."
"Are you gonna turn into one of them?"
Eli thought about his Humanity Index that was 71%.
"I don't know," he admitted. "Maybe. If I'm not careful."
Marcus looked at him for a long moment. Then he held out the baseball bat.
Eli only stared at it, bewildered.
"If you do," Marcus said quietly, "I'll handle it."
Eli stared at the sixteen years old kid, offering to kill him if he turned.
"Thanks," he said, and he meant it.
Marcus nodded and pulled the bat back. "So, what's the plan? We staying here?"
"For now. I need to secure resources. Food, water, medical supplies. Then we figure out the next steps."
"I can help."
"You should stay here. Protect your sister."
"Sophie's fine. Mr. Chen will watch her. And you look like you can barely walk."
Eli wanted to argue, but Marcus had a point. His body was healed, but still not be able to fight more of the revenants. And he had three quests to complete as his daily quest.
"Alright," Eli said. "But you do exactly what I say. No hero shit."
Marcus grinned. "No promises."
*******
They left the parking structure an hour later.
The sun was just coming up, but the sky was in red color, like it was bleeding.
[QUEST 1: SECURE RESOURCES]
[NEAREST SUPPLY LOCATION: CONVENIENCE STORE: -0.3 MILES]
A waypoint appeared, pointing northeast.
Eli and Marcus moved quietly through the streets. The neighborhood was eerily silent. No more screaming. Just the occasional distant moan of the living corpses.
They passed three corrupted souls on the way. All below 40% corruption.
[CORRUPTED SOUL]
[CORRUPTION: 33%]
[THREAT: LOW]
[TIME UNTIL HOSTILE: ~18 HOURS]
Timers. The system was giving him timers now.
"How long until they all go crazy?" Marcus whispered.
"Depends on the corruption level," Eli said. "These ones maybe a day, maybe less."
"And then what?"
"Then they become revenants. They will be fast, aggressive, and dangerous."
Marcus gripped his bat tighter. "So we're on a countdown."
"Yeah. We are."
The convenience store was trashed.
Its front window shattered, shelves toppled. Its contents scattered across the floor.
But there was still usable stuff.
Eli and Marcus filled a duffel bag, with:
- Canned goods (12 units)
- Bottled water (8 bottles)
- First Aid Kit (1)
- Painkillers (1 bottle)
[QUEST PROGRESS: FOOD (10/10), WATER (8/15), MEDICAL (2/5)]
"We need more water," Eli said.
"There's a pharmacy two blocks over," Marcus offered. "Might have some supplies too."
"Good call. Let's move."
They hit the pharmacy next, and gather more supplies:
- Water (10 bottles)
- Antibiotics (2 boxes)
- Bandages (1 pack)
- Antiseptic (1 bottle)
[QUEST PROGRESS: WATER (15/15), MEDICAL (5/5)]
[QUEST 1 COMPLETE: SECURE RESOURCES]
[BASIC SUPPLY CACHE UNLOCKED]
[SUPPLY CACHE WILL SPAWN AT SAFE ZONE]
A supply cache. It sounded like a loot box.
Eli would've laughed if the situation wasn't so fucked.
"Let's head back," he said.
They made it halfway before they ran into trouble.
*******
The corrupted soul came out of nowhere.
[HOSTILE REVENANT DETECTED]
[CORRUPTION: 58%]
It was a female in early twenties. Based on the athletic gear she wore, she probably died while jogging.
And she was damn fast.
Eli barely got his mental grip on her before she closed the distance.
"MARCUS, GET BACK!!"
Marcus stumbled backward with a stunned expression on his face.
Eli grasped the soul and pulled. The revenant screamed, her body convulsed, black smoke poured from her mouth.
He pulled harder and the soul dissolved in no time.
Jessica Brennan. 23. Graduate student. Out for a morning run.
[CORRUPTED SOUL CONSUMED]
[+160 EXP]
[HUMANITY INDEX: 68%]
Eli collapsed against a car. His breathings came in ragged gasps.
Marcus rushed over. "You okay?"
Eli's face was pale then he coughed. "Yeah.
"Fine. Just… just need a minute," he said between the coughs.
[WARNING: HUMANITY APPROACHING CRITICAL LEVELS]
[RECOMMENDED CLEANSING RITUAL WITHIN 24 HOURS]
68%.
He almost lost his humanity twice in two days.
Marcus helped him stand. "Come on. Let's get back."