AN: I had not planned to upload a new chapter for a few days, but it was half done so I decided to finish it today. :)

Chapter 4: Get Some, Big Sexy!

The slow steady rhythm of his breathing was the only sound that could be heard in the room for a time. Scott, though perfectly healthy and completely rested due to the restoration process, was exhausted on an emotional level. He had gone through multiple near-death experiences in a short period of time. The last one had been truly terrifying.

The memories of the horde trying to knock him from the top of the trailer did not prevent him from understanding that he needed to keep going. It would be easy to give in to the fear that had begun to blossom in his heart. However, he knew that sitting on ass his would only get him killed. He could live or die by fighting, or just die sitting on his butt. Only one of those options allowed him a chance to continue on. He had not reached a point where he saw no hope in the things that he did. Still, he needed to take a few minutes to simply feel what he felt.

Time passed too quickly. The clock struck zero hundred hours. The siren from before blared once more. Yet, the door did not open.

Scott hopped up and moved over to it in order to see what was going on. As he approached, a screen appeared.

System Notice

You have survived your first day and reached the first milestone. From this point forward a daily mission will become available at [0:01] each day. You will have until the clock reaches [23:59] to accept and undertake the mission. You will not be able to take any mission other than the daily mission until it is complete. If the daily mission is not completed before time expires, the door will remain closed for seven days.

Milestone Rewards

- +10 EXP

- New Side-Mission Types Available

[—]

He cleared the message screen then looked to see what his new daily mission would entail. He groaned loudly when he saw it.

Mission Briefing

Exterminate! Exterminate! You have been tasked with killing all of the zombies at Dawson High School.

Go Wildcats! Yeah!

This mission will occur in a sealed environment. You must kill every zombie on site. Time will be synchronized to the time in your personal chamber. You will be unable to leave the area until all zombies have been slain. The zombies will not be able to wander off, either.

Difficulty: G-2

World: Dead Men Walking

World Type: Survival Horror

Force Response Authorization: Solo Mission

Primary Goal: Total Extermination

- Enemies Remaining: [147/147]

Reward: 50 EXP

[—]

"Well, shit." muttered Scott. He had one day to kill every zombie at the local high school. He had a weapon with unlimited ammo, but the tight hallways of a school could still prove to be quite deadly.

He opted not to spend his EXP before the mission. While he could have upgraded his pistol further, or his status, neither would have helped that much, and he needed to think long term. A true unlimited ammo pistol might have helped, but it would have taken most of his EXP and would leave only enough room for one more minor upgrade before his new weapon reached max level. That would help short term, but what if he came up a few points short after the mission, or needed major restoration? No, better to deal with the daily mission first then see what he had to work with afterward if he survived.

Scott would have liked to rest for a while longer, but the mission came first. He could rest afterward if he lived. He accepted the task at hand, and the door opened. Beyond the semi-transparent field of energy he saw what looked to be a parking lot, a well-populated parking lot.

"Time to make the doughnuts." he said, a slight smile on his lips. He gripped his pistol tight then stepped out into the adventure awaiting him. The decision had been made. He was already dead, but he had a chance to live again if he could make it through the challenge set before him.

He spotted at least a dozen of the walking corpses nearby. There were none behind him, but he still had to go back to check on something. There was an open gate that led out to the street beyond. Scott went toward that gate. Nothing happened until he got to the gate itself. The moment he tried to cross, his foot smacked against an invisible wall. A cheerful voice spoke inside his mind. "You can't go that way."

"Well, that settles that, I guess." he muttered.

A quick turnaround was in order. The zombies had spotted him not long after his arrival. Scott brought up his pistol then aimed for the closest one. He had suffered because of this game, and because of these things.

Yes, he had accepted the invitation to become a champion. That did not change his feelings. It was time to see if he could get a little payback. A shot rang out. The closest zombie, a husky teenager wearing a heavy metal themed t-shirt staggered back briefly, but remained upright.

Scott frowned. He fired again. He clearly saw the shot slam against the zombie's head. Well, no. He realized that it had glanced off the side. He fired two more times before the husky metal head fell back and a bright green number [0.3] floated upward. His eyes widened. The damned shots had to hit dead center, and it might take more than one hit to kill the things. "How the hell can they have a skull that strong?"

There was no time to waste on speculation. He fired a few more times then ran empty. "Hope this works." he muttered, before switching the safety on.

He ran to the side in search of a better vantage point to work from. The best spot that he could find was the top of a school bus. "Shit. I hope these rotten bastards can't turn it over."

Scott turned the safety off and experimentally fired at one of the shambling corpses to see if his weapon had actually reloaded. He was relieved to hear the loud report of his beloved firearm.

After he clambered up onto the top of the school bus, he started to fire at the zombies as they came for him. Even with their slow and steady movements he was forced to expend several rounds to take down a single walking corpse. Sometimes the skull would crack due to a shot that skidded off the side of the thing's head but the creature would keep coming.

His weapon was emptied and reloaded several times, before the mini-horde reached his position. He had downed seven of the rotting beasts, but there had to be at least twenty more to go.

It was easier to hit them now, however. They were so close that a head shot that worked could be made within four shots now, most of the time. Each time one zombie fell another took its place. The pattern continued for a while until the zombies piled up and began to push against the bus.

Scott muttered about the situation then fired a few more times. It was not as bad as it had been when the zombies had piled against the eighteen wheeler but the bus still rocked a little from their attempts to get at him.

It would have been impossible to use his gun as a main weapon if he'd had to rely on reloading the normal way. Zombies were surprisingly durable unless they were hit dead center in the skull. The movies always made it look easy. Headshots happened like nobody's business in every zombie movie he had ever seen.

Clearing the parking lot became a chore as more zombies staggered out from around the cars or out of buildings nearby. By the time he had killed most of the original horde, a smaller horde had arrived. Once the last zombie fell, Scott wiped his forehead then unclenched his fingers from around his weapon. He had fired a few hundred times at least. His hand needed a break.

A loud moan, louder than any he had heard before, suddenly echoed from behind him. He turned just in time to see the biggest damned zombie that he had seen to date lurch around the corner of the school on the far side of the parking lot. It wore what looked to be oversized police riot gear complete with shield and what appeared to be a utility pole. The pole dragged along the ground. The scraping of metal on asphalt reached Scott's ears not long after.

His eyes wide, he said, "Oh, fuck my life." There were special zombies too? He recalled the difficulty rating then grunted. Things like this were why it had a higher rating than before, not just the number of zombies.

The massive undead monstrosity was still a good distance away. It had not seen him yet, but it obviously knew that something was going on nearby.

A zombie in body armor was automatically a lot more difficult to deal with, but when that zombie was the size of a bear it made things far worse. Scott doubted his pistol would kill the thing. No, he needed something more damaging.

He looked around the parking lot. "Maybe..."

Scott quietly slipped down the side of the bus in an effort not to get noticed. What he needed was a minor miracle. He had seen enough games to know that rushing a zombie like the one clomping around would lead to dying frequently. There was no way back for him if he died. He had only one shot at this.

The bus had no keys on hand. None of the cars that he could reach easily had any either. He did not know how close he could get to the big bastard before he was noticed, but he did not want to risk it till he had a plan that would work. Unlimited ammo did not mean much if the shots pinged off the side of a helmet.

So far, so good, he thought as he circled quietly around the parking lot. If he could not find a car with a set of keys in sight, he might still be able to get away from the big bastard and cut down on the rest of the zombies that he had to deal with by entering the building. He was pretty sure most, if not all, of the others outside were taken care of during that scuffle.

His hopes were dashed, however, when something truly surprising occurred. The door to the school burst open and several people ran out. Each of them wielded some makeshift weapon and made a bee-line for the bus.

The big guy heard the commotion and turned toward the new comers. The one in the lead, a young man with black hair and a baseball bat shouted. "There's the bus!"

A woman wearing a skirt that was a little too tight to be allowed in school cried out. "Wait! Wait! What about the guy who killed these things?"

"Fuck him! We gotta go!" shouted the supposed leader.

Scott snorted at the assholish way the guy had disregarded him. He had no interest in leaving anyway but that dismissal had given him a special sort of impression about the guy.

The seven people ran to the activity bus nearby and piled inside. Scott shrugged and stayed out of it. There was no reason to get involved since they clearly had a plan. Instead, he continued looking for a car to use since there was no way he would be able to get control of that bus completely without taking hostages. That would cause more complications than anything else.

The bus roared to life and pulled out with a screech. Scott shook his head then turned away. A few seconds later he heard a loud crashing sound, followed by screams of pain. He snapped his head around then tried his best not to laugh or cry. He had hoped that they would get away, but life had other plans for them. The bus had rammed into the invisible wall at a high rate of speed. "Guess it doesn't just keep me and the zombies in..."

He was not a cold hearted man, even if he was annoyed at how the supposed leader of their little survival group was happy to leave someone behind to save his own ass. Scott ran over to check on the survivors. As he did so, several zombies staggered out of the open door of the school. A few more were there for the party.

Cries of pain echoed from the bus as those inside started to move around. The big bastard stomped closer with every passing second. Scott had little time to get to them, but he felt that he had to try.

By the time he arrived, the woman in the tight skirt had opened the door and staggered out. "Oh, what happened!" she cried desperately.

"Hey, no time for crying." snapped Scott as he came up on her.

She turned to him quickly then her eyes widened. "You're that guy!"

"Fuck all that. Get everyone who can move and get to a sturdy building in the school area. You can't leave, yet." said Scott heatedly, before he spun around to check the progress of the mini-horde and their big brother. They were getting too close for comfort. Though, thankfully the big bastard did not seem to be able to sprint.

"What... We can't leave?" she asked confused.

Scott opened fire on the zombies shambling nearby, then glanced back at her. "Did I fucking stutter? There's some kind of invisible wall around the place. You can't get out till I kill all the zombies here."

"You did this?" she asked.

Before Scott could answer, the black haired guy with the bat popped out of the bus. "What the hell!"

Scott fired at the zombies again then shouted. "I'm moving out if they get much closer. Stay here and die, or move your ass."

"Who the fuck are you? What did you do?" snapped the guy.

Another series of shots were fired. Scott took down a zombie, but he was forced to switch the safety on afterward. It would take three seconds to reload.

"You want to live? Fucking move." Scott snapped. He had enough to worry about without having to babysit people who should have had a hell of a lot more experience with zombie survival than he did.

Scott jogged forward a few steps then switched his safety off and fired. This was starting to become a hassle.

"You're going to leave us?" called the woman desperately.

"Didn't you choose to abandon me to save your own ass?" called back Scott, before dropping another zombie. Six more shambled toward them, and the big bastard started to pick up speed.

A rapid fire discussion began behind Scott as he continually fired at the oncoming group of undead. He was forced to switch his safety back on not long after.

"Hey! Give me that gun. You can't shoot for shit." called the black haired guy after seeing Scott waste a dozen bullets trying to drop a zombie. Aiming downward at a skull was easier than trying to hit one that was straight across.

"Fuck you." replied Scott casually, before he ran over to a nearby car and hopped up onto the roof to get a little elevation and more distance from the hungry horde. He began to fire once more, just as a few more people left the bus.

"We can't get out!" shouted one girl as she pressed her hands against the invisible wall.

"Yeah, that guy did something to keep us here." snapped out the black haired guy.

"What are we going to do?" asked another girl.

It was then that Scott noticed something strange. The entire group of survivors was comprised solely of one guy and six girls. Something about that did not sit right with him. What were the odds that only one boy would survive out of the whole school? What was he, the hero of a badly written light novel? How much plot armor did the guy have?

Scott turned his attention to big boy when he was a few car lengths away. Even if he did not think that the oversized undead asshole would take damage from his shots, he had to try.

The big bastard whipped his utility pole around wildly whenever a shot connected with his helmet. Otherwise, he acted like he did not feel a thing. The damage level of the pistol was not high enough to even make him take a step back.

Scott cried out in shock a moment later when something hard collided with his side. He looked down to see a baseball bat clatter on the ground, and was just in time to see the black haired guy running toward him. Briefly he wondered if the guy was born an idiot. He pointed the gun at the guy and shouted "Stop."

The supposed harem boss did not stop rushing forward. Scott fired. The shot penetrated the black haired guy's shoulder and sent him spiraling sideways to the ground with a loud cry of shock and pain. The guy had been right, though. Scott's aim was total shit. He had wanted to shoot him in the face.

"Looks like your plot armor broke, jackass." said Scott with a snort. The fucker had actually tried to take his gun! What special sort of idiot does something like that when the guy with the gun was providing fire support and a chance to get away? He was not an especially vindictive person, but he would be damned if he let some idiot attack him and take his only means of survival.

"After that shit, you people are on your own." called Scott before he hopped down. He winced heavily due to the pain in his side. For a moment he wanted to put another hole in the idiot.

"Johnny!" called one of the girls desperately. She favored her arm like it was injured or broken. Scott glanced at her then snorted.

"Get your asses somewhere better than an open parking lot if you want to live." he said before he jumped back and fired at the big bastard a few more times to keep his attention.

Tight skirt woman grabbed one of the girls by the hand and pulled her to the side. "We have to go!"

"But Johnny!" cried the girl again. "We can't leave without Johnny."

Scott groaned as he noticed the desperate look on their faces. The numb-nuts crying on the ground was probably the only source of hope that they had. Well, whatever. He had to deal with the zombies anyway. "Hey, Big Sexy! Come get some sweet hero meat!" shouted Scott before he fired on the oversized zombie once more.

Several more zombies had staggered out of the school by that time, but they were no threat at the moment. He would simply have to keep abreast of the situation. The parking lot was large, and they had to cross it almost completely to get to him.

The oversized undead riot cop flailed his utility pole around wildly as another shot dinged off the side of his helmet. A decidedly nice looking crack appeared in it to match the several dings in the ceramic.

He had the thing's full attention now. Scott trotted away as fast as he could go while he favored his injured side. The zombies followed the sight of moving meat, and soon the little group of high school girls and an inappropriately dressed teacher were left alone to tend to their own fate.

Scott ran a short distance away and fired his weapon at the beast to keep his attention. At least a dozen zombies had come out to play in the interim.

The riot cop zombie bumped into a convertible on his way to send Scott to pound town. A car alarm went off that caused the oversized bastard to go crazy. He whipped his utility pole down repeatedly in an attempt to bash the offending vehicle to pieces.

Scott rounded a corner in the distance and saw that he was near a maintenance building. Just outside of it he saw something that he initially ignored, but soon realized might be useful. "Man. I hope this place really does work on game physics and not real ones."

He struggled to lift the bright red barrel that he had found. It had a fire symbol on the side with the words highly flammable printed underneath, and it had an open hole in the top that had been stuffed with a blue rag. He lugged it around the corner the set it up in the big guy's path before running off to what he hoped was a safe distance.

The oversized creature came within a hopeful striking distance and Scott fired off several rounds toward the barrel. His shots punched a few holes in it, but there was no explosion. A viscous fluid began to spurt out of the holes and pool around the barrel, but nothing else happened.

"Fuck." said Scott thoughtfully. Well, nothing else to do about it now. He started firing again. If he hit the helmet enough times it might break off and give him a shot at the putrid brain it was hiding. Three shots later he hit the helmet square in the center.

Just as he always did, the big bastard went crazy. He lashed out repeatedly with his utility pole. One strike slammed down atop the barrel and bashed it downward. Fluid gushed up out of the hole and splattered thickly against the beast. Sparks flew as it continued its tirade. The pole slammed down on a dry section of asphalt near the highly flammable fluid.

Much to the surprise of everyone. It quickly raced over the top of the flammable liquid and shot up the zombie's side. The big bastard moaned and writhed as the heat built. The flames rose high and the heat built to the point that his flesh began to blister. It was not long till he fell to his knees then forward to land on top of the barrel. The fire blazed merrily for a moment while the beast feebly moved his limbs. Ten seconds later a green [+2.4] floated up from the corpse.

There was no time to revel in his triumph, however. The lesser zombies were still coming for him. It was time to reload and finish this mission.

A few hours passed while he cleared the school of the undead. There were no more special zombies, so it became a simple point and shoot adventure. Point at a zombie. Shoot the zombie. Reload. Repeat.

He did run across a tight situation when he wandered into a dead end hallway and had to fight off six zombies at once. In the end, he cleared the school without much trouble. Other than the dead end, the only real threat had been in the parking lot. There was also a humorous moment when he had run across the survivors from before. They had hidden in the Nurse's office while they waited for the invisible wall to disappear, not that they had told Scott.

The girl with the hurt arm had thrown her shoe at him and called him an asshole. He had told her that she was welcome, since what she had really meant to say was, "Thank you for killing the zombies so we can leave, handsome stranger."

That had brought another shoe flying his way. There would be no high school girl zombie apocalypse harem for him it seemed. Ah, such was life.

Nothing else came of the situation, however, and soon he was able to leave after heading back to the parking lot. As it turned out, there was one zombie trapped in a car that he had missed. The door of light rose up and he headed toward it.

Just before he stepped in, a voice called out to him. "Hey! What's that?"

It was the school nurse, the woman with the inappropriately tight skirt. Scott shrugged. "I'm going home."

"Home, that weird door? What is all this? What happened?" she asked him.

Scott glanced at the door timer then looked back to her. "I still don't know for certain, but you can leave the school now if you want."

"Thank you for what you did for us." she said, a gentle smile on her lips.

He nodded to her then said, "Glad someone appreciated it. Sorry about the wanna-be harem king." He thought better of it for a moment then offered her a smile and saluted her with his pistol. "Good luck out there." he said, before he stepped through the door and left her reality behind.

Tight Skirt was shocked by what she had seen. The moment that he had stepped into that light he had disappeared. "I knew it. Aliens did it!"

Back in his private sanctuary, Scott sighed in relief and walked over to his image. The first thing that he did was check to see how much EXP it would take to restore himself. This time it would require three points. He accepted it then waited for the light of healing to do its work. Both his body and his equipment were completely restored.

"Right then." he said with a smile. "Time to see how they screw me out of EXP this time."

Mission Score

You have completed your second daily mission. Congratulations!

Why so mean, Senpai?

Grade: B

Base Reward: 50 EXP

Grade Bonus: X2

Total: 100 EXP

Elimination Bonus: 54 EXP

Settings Bonus

Bastard Survivor Route: You protected survivors, a hero. But your respect amounts to zero. That much is true. One girl got mad, she threw a shoe. Two actually.

You shot Johnny in the shoulder, but aimed for the face. In the end, you were the only reason they could get out of that place. You found favor with a pretty girl in a tight skirt. Too bad you're a champion, or you'd have had time to flirt.

You stud, you.

Grade: A

Route Bonus: 200 EXP

Tactical Bonus: You figured out a cheap way to kill the special zombie.

Grade: C

Bonus: 60 EXP

Entertainment Bonus

You proved to be highly entertaining on several occasions. This reduces the annoyance of our people as they wait for your race to fail their challenges and become our property.

Entertainment Grade: B

Entertainment Bonus: 80 EXP

Fan Following: You have acquired new fans. Once you have 100 fans, you will be granted a one percent bonus to all EXP earned. Each additional 100 fans will increase your EXP by one percent as well.

Fans: (16)

Total EXP Earned: 494

[—].

Scott's eyelid twitched slightly. Where was the screw you, buddy? He had received his full EXP. After he began to accept the truth, he could not help but laugh a little. Finally, he'd gotten a break!

He began to expend his points without hesitation. He had a little over five hundred sixteen total EXP with what he had saved before. The first thing he purchased was two more days of life. That would give him a slight cushion in case he failed a mission.

The next thing that he did was upgrade his pistol. He decided not to spend points to make it a type two unlimited ammo weapon, as the version he had now seemed to work well enough. Instead, he spent fifteen points to upgrade to plasma rounds, then increased the damage rating for another five EXP. He only had four more points to spend before it was maxed out, but he decided to try to upgrade damage one more time to see if it worked.

Scott grinned a little when he saw that he could go over the maximum on upgrades. The second damage upgrade was accepted! However, he received a little warning buzzer when he tried to do it again. His pistol was maxed out, and could become no stronger.

Before it had looked like an ordinary, even generic, black handgun. Now it had a strange rail-gun appearance and a few holes in the side. Total attack damage had increased by fourteen by upgrading damage directly. It seemed that the damage increase rounded upward to the next whole number when it increased. Changing the ammunition to plasma rounds increased the damage output by another fifteen points. That combined to drastically increase the total damage generated.

Combat Item

Black Hawk Combat Pistol

Level: Max

EXP: 29/28

Damage: 76

Durability: 34/34

Type: Semi-Automatic Pistol

Accuracy: Moderate

Recoil: Average

Ammunition: Plasma Rounds[Handgun]

Capacity: 12/12[Unlimited Ammunition Type I]

[—]

"So, twenty-five points down." he said, before he checked the combat items. He could afford a few cheap items such as a leather vest that counted as actual armor, or gloves that would double as armor and weapons. The problem was that cheap was a relative term. The vest would cost one hundred eighty EXP. In the end, he opted to purchase only a few things. He bought a set of hardened leather Cesti that would fit over his cotton gloves, a set of leather armguards, and a set of leg guards with sabatons to cover the top of his shoes. The total cost for those items was ninety-seven EXP. He thought about it a moment and then spent the left over fractional EXP to buy food and water so that he would have a whole number of EXP to use.

There was no way to see what the stats of the items were till he purchased them. He was aggravated to no end about that, but that only meant that he would have to be careful about his purchases. Scott checked the first item after purchasing it, and for a moment he did not notice anything off. It was not until he took a second look that he realized that there was something weird about the statistics.

Combat Item

Black Hardened Leather Cesti

Level: 1/2

EXP: 0/6

Damage: 4

Hit Points: 0.10

Durability: 28/28

[—]

"Hit Points?" he asked himself in surprise. Why would armor have durability and hit points? Wasn't that the same thing?

He tapped the hit points section then read through what it had to say. Slowly, his eyes widened and then a feral grin spread across his lips. He immediately splurged six EXP to upgrade his Cesti to level two by increasing the hit points section six times. He checked his other items. They were not particularly remarkable either, but they also offered hit points. From what he could tell, the primary purpose of armor was to provide bonus hit points.

Combat Item

Hardened Leather Armguards

Level: 1/2

EXP: 0/5

Hit Points: 0.05

Durability: 31/31

[—]

Combat Item

Hardened Leather Leg Guards

Level: 1/2

EXP: 0/7

Hit Points: 0.20

Durability: 27/27

[—]

He splurged the twelve EXP necessary to max out both items. Pleased to see such a great bonus come his way, he had to check his status to see if it was truly what he had thought. He almost could not contain his joy when he saw the hit point attribute had popped up.

Hit points in this weird ass game were a sort of damage negation force field. Any damage taken would first be soaked up by hit points. That meant that he could survive shotgun blasts to the face as long as he had enough hit points to negate the damage. The hit points provided by armor worked for every part of the body. Further, the item itself would only take damage if it was hit directly.

He had one hundred seventy-six EXP remaining. He did not want to buy more items at the moment. He would rather expend the rest of his points on his actual status in order to upgrade his core ability. One hundred fifty-eight points were expended without hesitation. He increased resilience to two points, and brought both dexterity and charisma to one point.

After further consideration he increased dexterity once more, and then strength. His main weapon was a gun after all. Dexterity did not increase the damage of the weapon, only upgrading a firearm did that. However, it would allow him to better use the weapon so that he hit what he aimed at more often.

[Name: Scott Davidson]

[Age: 20]

[Race: Earthling]

[Level: 0][196.00/1000]

[EXP: 0.00]

[Life Span: 3 Day(s)]

Hit Points: 35

ATTRIBUTES

[Strength: 1.10][Resilience:2.00]

[Vitality: 1.00][Dexterity: 1.15]

[Concentration: 1.48][Charisma: 1.00]

FEATS

[None]

POWERS

[None]

[—]

"Hell yeah. I'm getting there." he said after taking stock of things. Resilience had become his go to stat for the time being after reading the hit point information. Not only did it act as a base defensive stat that resists damage. It also turned out that every full point of resilience granted half of a hit point. However, there was supposedly a feat that he could acquire at four resilience that would allow him to have one hit point per point of resilience.

Admittedly, that seemed like a small amount of hit points. Honestly, it did not excite him much originally. It was not until he finally discovered one of the purposes of increasing his level that he had truly grown excited.

Each time he increased his level, his hit points would increase by the base number of hit points that he had. If he had four resilience and the hit point increasing feat by the time that he gained a level, he would gain four additional hit points every time his level went up.

The best part was that there were more feats that increased base hit points, and the increases were retroactive! Basically, his base hit points would always be the minimum multiplied by his level. If he reached level ten with only four resilience and that hit point feat, he could increase his resilience to ten and suddenly go from forty hit points to one hundred.

"Immunity to damage? Yes, please!" He did not quite know how hit points worked in action, as there had been mention of superficial damage being generated for dramatic effect, but he should not receive serious injuries while his hit points were intact.