"Hurry up, will you? We don't have all day!" I remarked as I caught the heads of two zombies lunging at me, smashing them against each other and crushing them in the process while Looking at Clark, who was dancing around two undead creatures.

"I'm almost done," Clark replied as he ducked beneath the arms of a zombie that lunged at him, moving behind it and gently tapping it with the back of his hand, causing it to stagger and fall face first.

Clark then stepped to the side as the other zombie lunged at him, swiping the small stiletto knife at its neck and cleanly beheading the undead creature.

Clark's quickly turned around to finish the first zombies, but his eyes widened as he found himself face to face with the undead creature.

Clark reacted immediately, raising his arms to shield his face as the zombie raised its hand, preparing to sink its claws into his expressionless face. But it proved unnecessary as a small knife came flying from behind him, burying itself inside the undead creature's forehead.

"I already told you that these zombies will be faster than usual," I said with a sigh. "They tend to act that way when they are under the influence of special undead creatures," I added as I turned around and walked away.

"I'll keep that in mind," Clark replied with an expressionless face as he squatted near the now motionless corpse, retrieving my knife. "That's the third time you've said that!" I exclaimed with twitching eyes.

...

"Hey, aren't those Gamma Hog and Stink Bomb?" a game contestant asked his friend, nervously gulping as he watched two men, one round and huge, the other short and thin, walk brazenly in the middle of the undead-filled streets. "What the hell are those two maniacs doing in this game?" he asked again with sweat running down his forehead.

"I don't know, but let's hurry up and get out of here before they notice us," the friend hurriedly said, getting up. "I don't want to be anywhere near those two animals!" he added as he turned to leave, but he didn't make it far as a metallic ball-shaped bomb broke through the window of the building they were hiding in.

The bomb quickly exploded without a second's delay, sending both body parts and debris flying in every direction. "Who the hell are you calling an animal? Hahaha!" Said Stink Bomb, the short, thin one in a shrieking tone with a shrill laugh, while playfully tossing a similar bomb to the one that killed the contestants in his hand.

"You idiot! Stop wasting bombs. We don't have a lot of materials here!" Said Gamma Hog, the round, huge one with a deep husky, wheezing voice that spoke of violence, not even flinching as a tall undead covered in decaying muscles lunged at him, ripping a hole in Gamma hog's stomach with a punch.

Gamma Hog slowly took out a large, black inhaler device that had two glass containers with toxic-looking green fumes inside, inhaling greedily from the device.

Gamma hog then caught the undead creature's head with one hand, picking it up and crushing it as the wound on his stomach began healing itself at a visible pace.

"Maybe I'll stop doing that when you stop wasting so much radioactive fumes, you greedy pig!" Stink bomb replied with an annoyed expression as he threw another bomb at a group of zombies, obliterating them in the resulting explosion.

"Who are you calling a pig you sniveling rat?!" Gamma Hog said as he moved with a speed that a man his size had no right to have, lunging at zombies and ripping them apart with a rusty meat hook.

"Well, at least I don't look like a pig!" Stink Bomb said with a smirk, showcasing his buck front teeth that indeed resembled a rat's teeth, throwing more bombs, and obliterating even more zombies.

The two continued to picker and quarrel in this manner as they killed their way through the undead-infested streets, killing everything that moved within their sights while making their way to the outskirts.

...

"Undead king, eh?" Flatliner murmured to herself with a sigh, frowning as she sat atop a half-destroyed building not far away from the city's center.

She wanted nothing more than to go there and see what this so-called undead king was all about, but she, unfortunately, couldn't do that.

Her boss was one of the greed game's mysterious sponsors, and he had a tacit agreement with the game master to send her inside the game for a quick vacation, but there were still conditions she had to abide by while participating in the game.

Like not killing entertaining contestants or interfering with special events like the emergence of the undead king, leaving her frustrated at the fact that there was fun to be had, which she couldn't have right in front of her.

Flatliner's frown suddenly turned into a scowl as she picked up a rock nearby, throwing it at a broken AC unit on the roof and destroying it with dust flying everywhere in the process.

The dust took several seconds to settle down, revealing a beautiful woman with red hair and a creepy smile on her face. "Flatliner," the woman greeted with a nod, still wearing a weird smiling expression.

"Who the hell are you calling flat, you cow?" Flatliner said with a scowl, glaring at the woman as her eyes involuntarily moved to the woman's bulging chest, causing her glare to intensify.

"Calm down, allez-vous (Will you)?" the woman remarked with a chuckle. "I was merely calling you by your name," she added with a light shrug.

"You are called Flatliner, non (no)?" The woman asked, her eyes narrowing as she empathized the word flat much more than was necessary.

"I'm in a bad mood right now, and I don't have the patience to deal with you right now, Demira," Flat liner said with a scowl. "So quickly spit out what you want to say and make yourself scarce!" she concluded while taking a deep breath to calm herself as clashes between the sponsor's representatives in the games were also against the rules.

"No need to be so agitated. I'm only here to talk, après tout (after all)," Demira said with a casual smile. "I heard you met one particularly fascinating young man...,"

...

"So, what's our next step?" Clark asked as we both unpacked our supplies, making ourselves at home inside an abandoned family home in the city's outskirts.

"Now we explore the area while waiting to see if any of your group will make it," I said as I took out a bottle of water, immediately emptying its contents with one gulp.

"I see. Maybe we can form a new group to protect this area in case the undead begin invading the rest of the city like you said," Clark remarked with a thoughtful expression.

"I really hope it doesn't come to that," I said with a sigh, shaking my head. "There are a lot of strong game contestants, and there's a chance that one of them will take care of the undead king before that happens," I reasoned, hoping against hope.

"But an undead invasion is still possible if that so-called undead king proves to be too strong, or if the strong contestants simply choose to ignore it," I added with a frown as I began making myself outside.

"So start working on building a safe area with proper fortifications as soon as you can," I concluded as I walked out the door without waiting for him to reply.

'System show me my status screen.' I quickly made my way towards a barely intact barbershop to be alone and think for a moment.

Name: Kaden Solomon

Age: 19

Race: Human

Bloodline: None

Parameters:

Strength: D -> C-

Agility: D -> C-

Endurance: D -> C

Intelligence: D-

Energy: D -> C+

Overall evaluation: C-

These were the results of all the grinding I've been doing for the past week and a half.

I had already lost count of how many zombies and humans I'd killed to reach this point as I became more comfortable with killing than I wanted to be, but I suppose being ruthless should be the least of my worries in this dangerous world, but I digress.

I would say that I was now able to handle at least 50 to 60 well-trained soldiers with no special powers without suffering any serious injuries at my current strength. But that is only possible if the soldiers had only regular weapons and nothing over the top, of course.

When it comes to ratings based on power, then an F-rated individual would be an average human. An E-rated would be a peak human with professional combat training, meaning that people who fall within these two ratings are nothing more than regular humans.

D-rated individuals were where someone would become "superhuman" with the ability to take down or fight at least a dozen of E-rated combatants.

Where was I going with this line of sight, you might ask? I was considering if I was strong enough to try taking down the undead king, as the special reward the announcer spoke about honestly tempted me.

After all the technology I've seen the games master use in this game so far, then I could only expect his special reward to be something great.

But the question now was whether or not I should risk it?