"We want you to be our leader," Zackery said in a sincere tone, pausing for a minute to observe my reaction and wait for my response.

'Of all the ways he could have said it. Do I really look that stupid?' I smiled despite my anger, and Zackery took that as a good sign as he smiled, preparing to seal the deal.

"You really have a death wish, don't you?" I said in an icy tone, still smiling as I moved incredibly quickly and caught the man by his neck. "You want me to be your leader, eh? What a Joke!" I remarked as I began applying pressure to his neck, causing him to begin stuttering indecipherable gibberish while choking and clawing at my hand.

"Now, how about you try to rephrase what you said just now?" I added as I stopped choking the man when his face turned blue without removing my hand from his neck.

"I don't understand what you mean, sir," he hurriedly said in between gasping breaths as he greedily inhaled air into his lungs.

"Fine, we'll do it the hard way then," I said with a wintry smile as I buried my other hand in his abdomen, causing him to grunt in pain.

"You are nothing but a parasite living off my hard work, and you only live because I tolerate your presence," I said with a scornful smile while looking him dead in the eye, punching him again to emphasize my point.

"And the only reason I could think of for a parasite like you to approach someone like me is that you have an ulterior motive," I stated as I forced him to his knees.

"So tell me, what kind of ulterior motive do you have?" I asked as I began pacing in a circle around him. "Do you want to get rid of me early in the game to reduce the competition, or do you plan to make use of me somehow?" I asked again, feeling genuine amusement as his face began losing color.

"But you don't want to get rid of me, do you?" I asked as I stopped behind him, taking Blood Sport out of my inventory. "You and the other parasites need me to keep this area safe, after all," I stated, answering my own question as I rested my Bat at Zackery's shoulder, causing him to flinch.

"But a safe area apparently isn't enough for you people, so tell me what exactly more do you want?" I asked as I stopped smiling, my lips turning into a thin line.

"I swear, I really don't understand-" and that's all he said as I bashed his head with my baseball bat, staining the hotel's reception floor with the splatter of Zackery's shattered head.

"Some people never learn," I murmured to no one in particular as I squatted near Zackery's unmoving corpse, retrieving his badge, which had the number 277.

"Time to make an example, I guess," I murmured again with a sigh as I began dragging Zackery's corpse outside the hotel, moving some distance away.

...

"Alright, everybody, listen up!" I shouted in the middle of the street, and I immediately noticed several people peeking at me from several hiding places as the undead heard my voice too and began walking towards me menacingly.

"Zackery here tried to fuck with me, so he's here to serve as an example and show you the consequences of doing that!" I said as I raised his unmoving corpse, not even giving the approaching zombies another glance.

"Next time someone wants something from me, then maybe they should send someone who doesn't speak so much bullshit," I said as I turned to look at the owner of a specific Aura who was watching the happenings in the hotel from a distance.

"Well, here's your dinner, boys, but don't over eat, or you'll get a stomach ache," I remarked with a toothy smile as I turned to look at the approaching zombies, tossing Zackery's carcass in their direction.

"He's full of shit, this one," I concluded, cackling like a maniac as I turned around and left, not even registering the sickening sounds of Zackery's carcass being torn to shreds and eaten by the undead.

...

"I guess it won't be that easy," a man said while watching the undead tear Zachry's corpse apart with a blank expression, not even flinching as the zombies dug open the poor man's abdomen and began devouring his insides.

Clark Weaver was his name, a former resident of Corp City and a former minor executive, but he was fired from his job and evicted from the city under allegations of embezzlement, bribery, and other assorted felonies.

He quickly found himself in an unpleasant situation merely two days after leaving Crop city as he was making his way through the wasteland and towards the old world republic (OWR) to start over.

Raiders had attacked the convoy he went with and killed most of the passengers after looting it clean of anything that had value, and although Clark survived the attack, the raiders still left him stranded in a hostile wasteland with no supplies.

He quickly found himself staring death in the eye and nearly succumbed to dehydration, but that's when the game master's minions showed up, saving his life and forcing him to take part in this game.

Clark wasn't strong, but he was sly and resourceful, and he made use of that to survive thus so far, doing anything and everything he deemed necessary to live.

Still, he knew deep down that his chances of surviving this game were minuscule at best, despite his intellect. However, Clark's perspective of the future slowly began to change after he came to this area and observed a man who went out of his way to kill zombies every day.

Despite the man's best attempts to portray himself as a maniac who killed zombies every day for the fun of it, he knew that there was more to it than that after observing him for several days.

"It will be difficult to convince anyone else to approach him after this little display," Clark murmured with a blank expression on his face as he turned around and left without making so much as a comment about Zackery's fate.

...

"Well, time to get grinding again," I murmured with a sigh as I watched a dozen or so zombies moping around in the street in front of me, kicking an empty can on the ground to get their attention.

The zombies all turned to look at me at the exact same second and began walking towards me, and I smiled as I turned around, deliberately moving slowly towards a small alleyway to ensure the walking corpses would keep up without losing sight of me.

I stopped in the middle of the alleyway, willing Blood Sport to materialize in my hand as I took it out of my inventory and gave it a few practice swings.

Why do I keep using my inventory despite knowing that someone is probably watching me, you ask? Well, the answer is simple; misdirection. Anyone with a half brain cell would realize that I wasn't an average person with no powers, so I figured showing this harmless, convenient power should be enough to satiate the curiosity of any prying eyes.

Just think about it, if you were some all-powerful guy, and you discovered a person with a powerful combat-related ability, then the first thing you'll think about is whether or not this person is a threat and how to deal with him if he proved to be as such.

But if you find someone with a power that has no direct combat ability but a lot of convenient uses outside of fighting instead, then the first you would think about is how you're going to win that person over to your side.

I would react in that way or something along those lines, at least, but I digress.

The zombies quickly reached the alleyway, but they were acting strangely, causing me to frown as the undead creatures merely stood at the alleyway's entrance while staring at me with their deformed, rotten faces.

"Nope," I said while shaking my head as I turned around to leave the alleyway from the other way. This situation felt weird, and I had no intention of staying to find out why the zombies acted this way.

That's how people die in horror movies; they investigate shit they should have left alone.

"Well, crap," I said with a sigh as I turned around and found the alleyway's other exit blocked by more zombies as well. 'System put all my current EXP along with any I receive for the next hour into Energy.' I was clearly not getting out of here without having the pleasure of finding out what was wrong with the undead creatures' behavior.

[Energy: E -> E+]

"Well, come on then, what are you waiting for, you undead pieces of shit?" I asked in a loud voice, preparing myself to fight, and strangely enough, the zombies obliged, charging towards me from both sides while making low growling noises.

I charged towards the left alleyway exit, intending to quickly kill my way out instead of waiting for the zombies to surround and slowly tire me out.

It didn't take me long to meet the zombies halfway as they were moving suspiciously quickly compared to how slowly they usually walked, and the first undead literally jumped off the ground, throwing itself at me in what I could only interpret as an effort to tackle me into the ground.

'What the hell is going on?' With that question in my mind, I quickly took a step to the side, shoving the jumping zombie to the side as I jumped over the head of another one right behind it.

'Why are these fuckers moving with purpose instead of brainlessly walking towards me like they usually do?'

My mind kept working on overdrive, trying to understand what was happening and a way to survive as I swung my bat at a zombie with all my strength, sending it flying backward with a sickening crunch of breaking bones.

The zombie hit several of its companions as it flew back, making some space for me to move, and I quickly advanced, but I didn't get far as more undead quickly appeared, taking the place of the ones who fell.

To make things worse, the zombies behind me who came from the other alleyway entrance also arrived, forcing me to stop with my back facing one of the alley's walls surrounded with undead as there was no space for me to move.

"Well, on the bright side, I won't be able to miss any of my swings even if I tried to," I remarked with a bitter smile while watching the undead creatures approaching me from all directions.