I wake up later, not aware of how much time has passed. Scratch? She moved to her favorite spot above the fridge. Okay, so she’s good. But what about me? I notice I was grasping onto the special device in my hands. The color had changed to a gross gray with skulls and bones on it. There were now new buttons and information on the screen.

Strange. Is it because I almost died? And why do I feel itchy? I walk to the bathroom…and fainted.

I woke up again a moment later and slowly stood up to look at the reflection of the zombie before me and almost fainted again. Me. The zombie was me. I had become a ZOMBIE?!

My flesh had turned pale and gross, with little flakes here and there. That explains the itchy. But if I died, how can I feel? How can I be in control? A little more subdued after calming down, I began to look through the device I am going to call the monitor.

The monitor held basic info like a radar and a menu. Looking through the menu, I saw different tabs for status, skills, and news. It seems I could still see the broadcast, but I could see past ones as well. Lucky.

There was no inventory, so no magically storing things away. But I noticed most of my bars in status were empty. Hunger was empty, thirst was empty, fatigue was empty…or maybe that meant there was no problem? Maybe having a full hunger bar was bad? Hmm…

There was a bar for infection level, and it was completely full. I also had a red bar, a blue bar, and a green bar. I don’t know exactly what they were for, but I guessed it was like a video game. Health, mana, and stamina. But the numbers in my green bar were exchanged with a ∞ symbol.

I guess being dead helps a little. I am glad I am still in control, so Scratch didn’t die. I used the radar, and noticed there were some red circles around my house. Are they zombies?

Yep. Maybe now I won’t have anything to worry about with zombies. I look outside through the window to see the green goo zombie. Why does he seem familiar? Oh well. I look at my device and notice I have a skill.

“Tragedy”

How ominous. I guess it fits, since my situation was tragic. But now I am an intelligent zombie! Woohoo! Although, I have to be careful. My body is still slow, it feels like my body will snap and break if I’m not careful.

But I’m a zombie. So I do some extraneous exercises that I know I couldn’t have done before.

Oops, broke something.

POP

Aww, that’s better. It seems that the status tab also had an alternate page that shows my body structure. A bone in my spine is highlighted in red. That must be what broke. Nothing I can do about it now.

I go outside and approach the green goo zombie silently, but he still turns around when I draw near.

“Hello, nice to meet you. I am Wallace, a Hero turned zombie.”

What? He speaks? Wallace? That is definitely ringing some bells.

“Maybe you saw me two days ago on the screen?”

A Player that won an award? That’s right! He killed a zombie that had a bounty!

Whenever a zombie kills more than 10 people, they gain a bounty. The more brains a zombie eats, the stronger they become. This way, knowing a bounty zombie is around tends to get people moving.

It seems he noticed my realization.

“Yep. Haha, I guess while fighting that guy, I got scratched, too. When I awoke yesterday, I noticed I had become a special zombie. A Variant, if you will. My skill I started with allowed me to control the zombies I made. I was surprised to see you on screen last night.”

I nodded a little absentmindedly, not really paying attention to Wallace. I looked around at the other zombies and noticed some people I had passed before all this shit hit the fan. He turned them? I didn’t realize he was so close. I didn’t recognize anyone on the screen and figured it was from all over the world.

Noticing me staring at the zombies, Wallace decided to explain a few things.

“They don’t have intelligence like you or me, but they do have tactics thanks to my skill. The reason I happened to be so close is that the screen only displays the region you are currently in. As zombies, we have access to the living broadcast, and our own zombie broadcast. Bounties exist for humans as well.”

Hmm…I don’t like the way he is looking at me. He wants something.

“Look, why not come along with me? I’m sure with whatever skill you might have, we could do great things!”

I may have got a little angry at his bad guy taking over the world speech.

“Why? Why kill people?”

“Because…they would become my subordinates. What’s wrong? You’re a zombie, now.”

“Yes, but I was just a human last night. The day of you waking back up and you gathered 6 zombies? That means you killed 6 people!”

“Hey, don’t get angry at me, I’m just trying to survive.”

“What about them? You didn’t have to kill them!”

“Calm down, man. Nothing I can do about the past.”

His eyes were filled with anger as the other zombies began to surround me. I took the time to read about my skill, but all it said was ‘Tragedy is an obstacle hard to overcome.’

I have absolutely no idea what that means.

“You know, it’s a shame. You died the most pathetic death so far, going out and getting turned in an instant. But yet you survived, only to die by my hands today.”

Realization dawns on me.

“Yeah, I guess you can even call it…tragic.”

I reach behind my back and pull out my big kitchen knife and stab towards the zombie to the left of Wallace. He ducks out of fear as I begin chopping the zombies. Not held back by my lack of developed muscles, I could literally hear the sinews in my body snapping as I swing and swing again. Wallace fled, but I could easily see him on the radar.

Time to hunt.

I don’t know how his skill works, but he instantly left after I attacked his zombies. He may be faster than a normal zombie, but he isn’t all that strong. He may have seen my knives in hand when he chased after me before, knowing I wasn’t much of a threat. All he had to do was scratch me and I would be his slave.

But I figured out my skill. When facing tragedy, I should gain an increase in abilities. Hell, even my body seems to be regenerating. I look at the monitor and notice the red color is gone from my body status.

I finally found him as he was trying to flee into a human encampment. He must be trying to gain more followers. I couldn’t let him do as he wishes any longer. I rushed forward as fast as I could, knowing full well my legs were breaking. But I caught up to him just as he began to swing at a child.

Where were the adults? Where were the guns?

I stabbed through Wallace’s neck, as he began to sprout profanities at me.

“Hush, there’s a child present.”

I quickly finish Wallace off with a knife to the head.

Luckily, the blood didn’t get on her. I took Wallace’s body as I began to hear the sounds of many footsteps. This must be the outskirts of the camp and the girl must have thought this area was safe. With this, the people will be more alert.

I nonchalantly wave at the girl upon a reflex, but the girl waved back, too. What a strong kid.

“Good luck! Be safe!”

“Thank you, Mr. Zombie!”

Hehehe, how adorable.

I look back at my device and notice a new skill had appeared.