Justice the kitten strutted behind Fei Ming. They were both walking in the moonlit Gray zone streets.
Fateless now had a long, black cloak, with its hood over his head. Since the encounter with the Krats, his face had been posted all over the zones.
It annoyed him, to say the least. All he wanted now was to get rid of the bounty and erase the stupid prophecy made about him.
Unbothered, Justice walked over to his 'servant' and stopped in front of him. Sitting right in the middle of the street with his tail held high.
Fei Ming raised a curious eyebrow. "What do you want? Move." He told the ginger kitten.
"Carry me," Justice demanded.
"No. You walk fine. Now, move out of the way."
After consuming the S-tier game core, Justice could now speak, walk fine, and even have the capabilities of being an S-tier beast with abilities.
But complained non-stop about how dirty Fei Ming's stolen cloak was, or how tight this man was holding him, and how terribly hungry he was.
Those many complaints and whining coming out of an almost four month old cat, drove Fei Ming crazy that he dropped Justice to the ground and made him walk on his own… although with constant checkups if that ball of fur still tagged behind him.
"But it… It's cold!" Justice cried out.
"You have a ridiculous amount of fur for a kitten." Fei Ming tried walking past the cat but got blocked.
"Mrrrow! Just carry me. Carry me. Carry me!"
Out of annoyance, Fei Ming succumbed to his cat's demands, picking up Justice and stuffing him inside his hood. The kitten now sat on top his shoulder.
"It still—"
Fei Ming cut the kitty off. "—Any shitty complaints and I'm dropping you back on the dirty cold floor."
After that, no more complaints were heard.
Sighing, Fei Ming looked up at the full Moon.
It was huge, bright, and casting its faint blue light over the passerby's silhouettes. Just as how the bright moon shone over him, it also exposed a dying man on the street, coughing quite loudly.
Under it, two small kids are at the corner of a broken building, playing. However, the very little light highlighted the bruises and rashes on their skin.
Fei Ming watched them all silently for a moment, then looked away.
Walking over to the back of a small building and leaning against a wall in the alley, he thought about what he saw. His mind went back to when he first found Justice.
It was when he was being chased by the Krats. When he hid from them and saw the decomposing body of a young boy.
"Something is strange," he muttered.
'Why is there a Plague in a Gray zone? Didn't anyone notice?'
Rubbing his chin and twirling his dark overgrown hair, something summed up in his mind.
'Ah… There's a new Game. One that'll be just about— wait.'
Suddenly, he shook his head. 'I can't go into a Game arena for now. There's a fucking bounty on me. But… I'm only resistant to 'mortal damages'. I can't take any chances of contracting a disease. This is annoying.'
Still, there were more pros than cons.
If he calculated right this time, winning the next weekly Game would permanently get rid of his bounty.
If used wisely, it could solve his problem. Game arenas were the perfect place to commit more murders with barely any consequences. That was how he got free with Lin's afterall.
However… "This would be hard."
What if someone recognizes him in the game? He could just kill and silence them but… another predicament of his was— what if it was someone he couldn't beat?
A bitter taste clung to his mouth. 'This is frustrating.'
Justice's face popped up from Fei Ming's hood. "Why we stopping?"
"So I can think," he replied.
'Wait. Where do I even keep Justice while I go to the Game arena?'
Ding! His system screen appeared.
"Ouu. Shiny," the kitten commented.
Shaking his head, Fei Ming noted that this cat could see his system screen.
[Ethnicity: Pla..yer?]
[Path: Path of Insanity]
[Items: Cat Toys!
Sword of Justice
One Day Unlimited Water Supply!
S-tier Game Core!]
Tilting his head, he studied the system. He hadn't really checked it in a long time. First is the little glitch of his ethnicity.
Could it be that the system confused him for something else? Second is the S-tier Game core. It was consumed by a cat. Why was it here?
[Total Cores Absorbed: 22!]
[Absorb More Cores To Reach The Second Equivalent!]
[Do you wish to move the item 'S-tier Game Core' back into the Inventory?]
"Huh. I could do that? I want to see what would happen. Yes."
Pop!
Justice disappeared in the blink of an eye.
The little description image where the game core was supposed to show, changed from a small glowing red orb to that of a shocked ginger cat's face.
Fei Ming chuckled to himself.
[Do you wish to take the item 'S-tier Game Core' back out of the Inventory?]
"Yes."
Pop!
Justice reappeared.
He let out the most dramatic yowl ever and angrily bapped Fei Ming's face with his dainty paw. "Why did u do that?!"
"I'll rip your paws off, Justice. Stop scratching my face."
However, a small smile crept to his lips. 'Well, that's settled. I can go to the Game arena.'
Turning around, he exited the alley. 'Now, where is it?'
Just when he faced the outer city, a tall white hospital building was in the middle of the road.
No fucking building should be in the middle of the street. A building no one had seen before.
Everyone knew that. And everyone knew that was a game realm. From the look of the hospital building, Fei Ming was fully certain about the context of this game.
"Justice, I'll be putting you back into the inventory."
Justice was not happy about that decision. "Bring snacks when u done. Hate this."
'It's not like I have a choice.'
[Item, 'S-tier Game Core' is now in the Inventory.]
'Now, that's out of the way.'
He stepped into the hospital. The floors gleamed under the white lights. It was absurdly clean for a place in the middle of the Gray Zone. With the walls bare, and the corridors wide, and the air smelled so putrid, almost everyone inside the building covered their noses.
Other players shuffled in behind him.
Then the light changed, turning harsh white, completely blinding everyone's eyes as they were being teleported to the game realm.
The hospital vanished.
When the light faded, he was standing on cracked asphalt. The buildings were utterly broken, with smashed windows. A gray haze covered the streets as smoke rose from collapsed roofs.
Broken cars littered everywhere, giving the very look of an abandoned city in an apocalypse.
A floating blue Runic board appeared in front of everyone.
[Welcome players!]
[Welcome to the game: Zombieland!]
[Current Players: 50!]
[Here are the rules!]
[There are 3 Players infected with the 'Zombie virus'.]
[It is up to you to find the infected Players and exterminate them before they infect others.]
[Light symptoms are: Random aggressiveness in nature, Red bulging eyes, and Loss of hearing.]
[Exterminate all the infected before the time runs out!]
[The player who kills the last Infected player wins!]
[Other survivors get their own share of candy too!]
[Don't eat at night!]
[Time Remaining: 48 hours!]
[Difficulty: A.]
Shifting his gaze back to the crowd, Fei Ming's eyes caught something unnatural.
A flicker of red.
When he unconsciously moved closer to see, more of the color came into view, until he was facing the back of a female player. A player with red hair.
He squinted. And then the figure fully turned to him.
The female gasped in shock. Eyes wide, then narrowing. Her hands flew to her head. "Fuck, fuck, fuck. NO. Not you, again!" she shouted. A mix of frustration on how she spoke. "What are you doing here?"
Fei Ming furrowed his brows together, much to his own disappointment."That's a stupid question, Helena."
'So, she isn't dead,' he thought. The imagery of her decapitated head back in the Carnival game must have been an hallucination or a different person. However, Helena looked different to him.
She no longer wore the dirty patchy clothes from before. Now covered head-to-toe in a silver female armor with shoulder pads and a breast plate, wearing a plain white top underneath.
Clutching her red hair, Helena sighed dramatically. "I can't believe this."
Two girls appeared behind her, giggling. They nudged each other, leaning forward. "Hahaha! Is that your ex?" one asked.
Helena's glare cut sharper than any knife. "Fucking— No. Ae-rin, he's a fucking psycho," she spat.
Now turning back to Fei Ming, her blue eyes traced his physique. "Oh. You got taller… healthier if I should add. Finally eating a balanced diet, huh?" she asked.
But then her voice got stern. "Stay the fuck away from me, and my friends."
"Still as temperamental and annoying as ever. I came here to check on something I saw, not you," he replied.
Although, he was quite surprised himself to have seen her. That wasn't what caught his attention.
Looking past Helena, the faint color of red appeared again.
He walked past her and followed the color, however, Helena got curious too and tagged along with him. "Then what caught your eye, hmm?" she asked.
"Shh."
The red light appeared to be coming from another player. A man.
He had sat on a rubble, looking quite troubled, heaving really hard and sweating excessively.
"..fo..food. I need food," the man muttered, clutching his rumbling stomach.
"Food Food FOOD! Hun…gry…!"
"FOOD FOOD FOOD FOOD—!!"
PIIING!
They locked eyes with him.
"...food—" The man's drool overflowed, pooling to the ground.
Fei Ming was a bit taken aback because this strange man's eyes were red. Bright, angry red.
[The First Infected Has Been Found!]
[Extra Note: Heavy symptoms include; Extraordinary Buff in Strength, Excessive Hunger, Excessive Drool, System Corruption…]
[Do not stand in front of an infected player.]
Helena snarled at the Runic board's late warnings. "What the hell?! Why's it telling us now?! We're right in…" sighing as she accepted her fate, she continued speaking,
"We're right in front of an infected player, aren't we?"