December 31, 2021.

Almost everyone was outside celebrating New Year’s Eve, eagerly awaiting the dawn of a promising new year.

11:59PM.

People gathered in the centres of every major city, counting down to the new year.

59…

58…

57…

…

5…

4…

3…

2…

1…

Happy New Year!

Everyone cheered at the arrival of the new year. Bright laughter rang through the air, as people continued to enjoy the New Year’s celebrations.

Amidst the celebration, no one noticed that spatial cracks had started to appear in many locations around the world. These cracks quickly expanded outward like an insidious spiderweb. From within the cracks, an eerie blue light began to emerge.

One meter…

Two meters…

These blue lights eventually transformed into 5-meter-tall portals.

Some people had finally taken notice of these gigantic portals. They took out their smartphones and began to take pictures and videos, thinking this was part of the New Year’s celebration.

At the same time, a monotone voice sounded inside everyone’s head.

[System Start Successful. Beginning registering players…]

[Registration successful. 7.8 billion players registered.]

“Did you hear that?”

“Are we in some kind of event?”

“Awesome!”

People everywhere stared closely at the blue portals and saw several figures emerge from within.

At first, everyone was curious to see what was going to happen next. However, that curiosity quickly turned into fear as zombies and hideous beasts began pouring out from all the portals.

Scared out of their minds, everyone started to frantically run away.

People pushed and shoved, showing no regard for other people, caring only for their own safety.

Amidst all the panic and chaos, the zombies and hideous beasts that came out of the portals eventually caught up to the nearby people, mercilessly killing and devouring them.

On January 1, 2022, over a billion people died. What was thought to be the beginning of a great new year turned out to be the beginning of a never-ending nightmare.

Every country dispatched its own military to the portals, trying to combat the zombies and hideous beasts.

It was quickly discovered that a portal would either have only zombies come out of it or hideous beasts, never both. Hence portals with zombies coming out of them were called zombie portals. Likewise, the portals with hideous beasts coming out of them were called beast portals.

It took all the countries half a year before they were able to wipe out all the zombies and hideous beasts that came out of the portals in the major cities. However, during this time, another billion people had died.

Once the portals in the major cities had been contained, various countries sent military squads into the portals to explore, however, none of them came back. As a result, all the countries gave up trying to go into the portal and instead setup a barricade around the portals. Military personnel guarded the portals 24/7, killing any zombies and hideous beasts that came out of them.

On the other hand, the portals that appeared in places with little to no human habitation were left unchecked. Hordes of zombies and hideous beasts rushed out freely.

Everyday, there would be news stories about zombie or hideous beast hordes overrunning small towns and villages. Human death toll continued to increase everyday.

With many areas infested by zombies and hideous beasts, water and food shortage also became a huge issue.

However, a good piece of news is that during this half a year, the monotone voice known as the System sounded inside people’s heads at set intervals, offering tutorials on the features available since everyone had now become a Player.

The first major feature is the status window. A person merely needs to think the command “open status window”, and a translucent screen that only they can see would appear in front of them, showing their status.

The second important change is that people can gain experience to level up, become stronger, and learn superhuman skills by killing zombies and hideous beasts. However, it was quickly discovered that killing zombies and hideous beasts using weapons on Earth did not count. Only by killing them with one’s own hands or weapons and skills gained from the System can the person earn experience.

In terms of obtaining weapons and skills from the System, sometimes, after killing a zombie or hideous beast, they would drop items such as weapons, skill books, or other things. Players can automatically learn new skills by obtaining skill books and agreeing to learn the skill stored within. Once a person picks up a dropped item, they would unlock the Inventory feature, which allows them to store the item inside the inventory.

Since nobody has any weapons or skills from the System at the start, everyone would have to kill a zombie or hideous beast with their bare hand first. For most people, they would not be willing to risk their own life trying to kill a zombie or hideous beast bare-handed. Hence, they remained as a normal human being. However, various countries quickly found a loophole they can exploit. They would send in the military to shoot down the zombies and hideous beasts to a near dead state, then have the military personnel finish them off with their own hands. There would be the occasional death of course, however, the reward for taking on this risk was more than worth it. In this controlled and relative safe manner, various countries were able obtain weapons and skills from the System, and slowly nurture their own powerful force made up of strong Players.

On October 15, 2022, the United States, Germany, France, China, and Russia were the first countries to produce a level 20 Player. The greatest reward for becoming level 20 was the ability to select a class. The classes that these countries discovered were: warrior, guardian, ranger, assassin, mage, and cleric.

Warriors use melee weapons and are fairly balanced in terms of offensive and defensive capabilities. Guardians use shields and have extremely high defensive capabilities but low offensive skills. Rangers typically use bows to attack from afar. Assassins have extremely quick movement and can deal high burst damage. Mages can cast offensive spells to cover a large area. Lastly, clerics specialize in healing the wounded.

Furthermore, the System announced that there was no upper limit in Players’ levels. This means that if Players continued to gain experience, they could become infinitely stronger.

This piece of news aroused many people’s ambitions. The rich used their own private forces to help them level up, while the average person sought to enlist in the military, where they can systematically level up in a relatively safe manner. There were even some people that went out to kill zombies and hideous beasts on their own.

December 24, 2022.

In the small city of Milton, Ontario, Canada, a dark-haired youth was walking down Road 26 with a despondent expression. His face was pale and his left hand clutched his bleeding right shoulder.

“Shit!” the youth swore. With a thought, he brought up his status window.

Name

Jack

Class

None

Level

1

Health

Declining (Infected)

Mana

5/5

Strength

9

Vitality

9

Dexterity

8

Intelligence

7

Skills

None

After the shocking news that was announced back in October 15, Jack had been debating whether he should go out to kill some zombies himself in order to become stronger.

Back in January 2022, a zombie portal had appeared in the town of Durham, which was about 125km northwest of Milton. Unfortunately, the Canadian military couldn’t get there fast enough. Hence, the town was overrun and became a zombie-infested city.

Like many youths his age, Jack lost his parents to the zombies. Since living alone in his house wasn’t as safe, Jack sold his parents’ house for paltry amounts of money and moved into a community building with many other young people in Milton.

The first person within the community build to go out and kill a zombie with his bare hands was Chad. Chad was a personal trainer at the local gym and had an extremely good physique. After successfully killing a zombie and leveling up, Chad would brag nonstop about how strong and brave he is. He was even able to recruit a few people and form his own gang. Soon after, many other young guys would go out and attempt to do the same. Although none managed to kill a zombie with their bare hands, most of them were able to come back alive.

On the morning of December 24, Jack had finally made up his mind to go northwest to kill some zombies. Jack was tired of seeing Chad and his gang acting all high and mighty just because they killed a zombie, while constantly ridiculing him and other guys for being cowards. Jack wanted to kill a zombie himself so he could shut Chad up once and for all.

After riding on his bike for a few hours, Jack finally reached the end of Road 26 and arrived at Belwood, a small village that was located in between Milton and Durham.

The zombie infestation had spread to Belwood as well; however, Belwood had considerably less zombies than Durham.

Setting his bike to the side of the road, Jack walked to the entrance of Belwood. A lone zombie near the entrance noticed Jack and began to walk towards him. As the zombie slowly inched closer, the courage that Jack had gathered in the morning began to evaporate. When the zombie was two meters away from him, fear overtook him.

Jack wanted to turn around and run, however, in his haste, he tripped over his own feet and fell. As he scrambled to get up, he suddenly felt a pair of cold hands grab onto his shoulder. Then, a set of teeth bit deep into his right shoulder. The zombie managed to bite through his jacket and leave a set of bloody teeth marks.

Screaming in pain, Jack desperately punched the zombie in the face and managed to get it off him. Without looking back, Jack ran for his life on Road 26.

After running over 5km on the road nonstop, fatigue finally overtook Jack. He walked off the road and towards a tree a few dozen meters away. He sat down and leaned against the tree, trying to catch his breadth.

“Shit, am I really going to die like this?” Jack muttered under his breath.

He opened his status window one more time.

Name

Jack

Class

None

Level

1

Health

Dying (Infected)

Mana

5/5

Strength

9

Vitality

9

Dexterity

10

Intelligence

7

Skills

None

Jack’s face was now extremely pale. He was sweating heavily, and he was struggling to keep his eyes open.

A few minutes later, Jack’s breathing slowed down considerably. His eyelids slowly shut.

At the same time, a dark gas cloud shot out from the portal in Durham. The dark gas cloud moved around at lighting speed, as though it was searching for something.

After aimlessly travelling around for a few kilometers, it saw a dying person leaning against a tree. Without hesitation, it shot towards that person.

It went up the person’s nostrils and then completely disappeared.

An alert appeared in front of Jack along with the monotone voice of the System inside his head.

[Player #304597872 terminated.]

[Critical unknown error detected.]

[Scanning Player #304597872…]

[Error resolved… updating player status…]

Jack slowly opened his eyes.

He looked around at his surroundings, then down at himself with a confused expression.

Jack closed his eyes, as though trying to comb through his memories. An hour later, he finally opened them again.

Standing up, he slowly made his way home.

When Jack reached the community building, it was already dark out. Everyone typically stayed indoors once it became dark, so Jack was able to make his way back to his own apartment without anyone seeing him.

Once inside his apartment, Jack took off his jacket and made his way into the washroom. Standing in front of the bathroom mirror, Jack studied his own face and body for a few minutes, as though looking at a stranger. Then, he rolled up his right sleeve to check the bite wound he got from the zombie. A set of deep teeth marks can be seen on his right shoulder, with some dried blood around it.

“My transcendent magic Nether Rebirth worked!” Jack muttered to himself with a satisfied expression. “According to the original host’s memories, this world had been turned into a game-like state. This is the perfect place for me to regain my former strength and even surpass it!”

With a thought, Jack curled his lips into a smile as he looked at his status window.

Name

Kaius

Class

Necromancer

Level

1

Health

Normal

Mana

105/105

Strength

9

Vitality

9

Dexterity

8

Intelligence

138

Skills (active)

Dark Magic

Shadow Bolt (10MP): shoot out a bolt made up of nether energy in a straight line.

Corrosive Armor (30MP): wraps the caster in armor made up of corrosive nether energy, increasing Vitality by level *2, plus an additional (50% + level%) of base Vitality stat. When anyone except for the caster comes into contact with Corrosive Armor, deal initial nether damage plus additional damage over time. Consumes 10 mana per minute.

Necromancy

Summon Skeleton (20MP): summon a skeleton warrior from a nearby corpse. Max limit: 5.

Control Undead (35MP): Takes control over any undead creature. If the undead creature is more powerful than the caster, spell may fail and caster will suffer backlash, entering into the Weakened State for 4 hours. Weakened State reduces all attributes by 70%. Max limit: 5.

Skills (passive)

Mastery of Necromancy: as a being that has formerly reached the peak of necromancy, reduce the mana cost of all necromancy spells by 50%.

Mana Mastery: as a being that has formerly reached the peak of at least one type of magic, reduce the mana cost of all spells by 20%.

Nether Physique: as a result of successfully casting Nether Rebirth, Nether Physique has been acquired. Enhances the effects of all dark magic spells by 100%. Enhances the effects of all Necromancy spells by 200%. Possessor of the Nether Physique is immune to zombie virus. Increases resistance against dark magic by 20%. Increases mana pool by level * 100. Increases mana regeneration by 500%. Gain 5 additional Intelligence stat points and 1 additional attribute point per level up.

Favor of the Nether God: gained the favor of the God of the Netherworld due to possession of the Nether Physique. Increase experience gained by 100%. Gain 2 additional attribute points per level up.

Resistance

Zombie Virus: 100%; Dark magic: 20%