《Awakening》


 Chapter 1 - The Beginning of the End

    In a room filled with exercise equipment, a young man was currently hitting a heavy sandbag.


    The teen was about 195cm tall and his body was incredibly athletically toned, his brown hair was messy and flowed about with his body as he threw kicks, punches, knees, and elbows at the poor punching bag. The bag flew backward constantly at a steady tempo, along with the sweat that gathered on the teen''s body.


    After a few more minutes of this, the boy stopped and did some stretches before he walked over to a bench near him and picked up a towel. He used the towel to wipe down his body and get rid of the sweat that had collected on it.


    After getting most of the sweat off, the teen threw the towel back on the bench and walked up the stairs on the other side of the room. The stairs took him up into a hallway but he continued walking up the stairs until he reached the top of them. At this point, the boy seemed unable to wait and jogged/speed-walked the rest of the way to what turned out to be a bathroom.


    He stripped down and turned on the shower and rinsed his body down with plenty of hot water and soap before getting into a readily made bath.


    In the bath, the teen just relaxed into it. Slowly but surely he fell asleep while in the bath and unknown to him, a weird thing happened in front of him - light started to gather together and seemed to solidify into the form of a screen with writings on it.


    [Awakening in Progress...]


    [Time until Awakening: 10 minutes 13 seconds]


    Unbeknownst to the teen asleep in the tub, his body started preparing itself for something - Something big.


    Slowly the seconds ticked away and the boy continued sleeping in the bath, but slowly as the countdown got to the end, the boy started to wake, "Huh...What''s this?" he groggily said as he wiped his eyes, thinking he was seeing things when he saw the screen counting down in front of him.


    When the screen didn''t disappear, the boy got out of the bath, thinking he''d spent too much time in the bath and it''d caused his brain to become a little tired. But even after the boy had dried his body and put on some casual clothes, the screen was still persistently floating in front of him.


    "What the fuck is this...?" the teen gnashed his teeth in annoyance, "Is this some kind of joke?" he looked around, obviously looking for some snickering friends or for one of his siblings to come out and explain the joke to him.


    But when nothing of the sort happened, the teen started to get worried about how similar this was to some novels he''d read. His brain constantly told him there was no way that could possibly happen but the nagging feeling in his stomach told him otherwise.


    When the countdown reached 3 minutes, the boy was startled as he heard screaming outside. He rushed to the window and looked out of it. He really wished he didn''t look outside.


    People were stumbling outside, dragging their feet across the floor; every single one of them looked dazed or extremely drunk. But the horrifying part was that their bodies seemed to have undergone a few months of necrosis or body decay.


    Bits of flesh loosely hanging from their bodies, greenish skin or even pure, coal black skin, Even from where he was, he could smell the rot and disgusting stench and that was from his window only being open slightly, he didn''t want to imagine how bad it would be up front.


    The screaming he had heard came from two kids around his age, a boy and a girl. The boy was tall, shorter than the teen in the window, but he was still tall in his own right, he had black hair and black eyes like most Japanese people and he was currently fending off the growing hoard to defend the girl behind him.


    The girl in question was a petite girl who looked incredibly similar to the boy, so the teen looking down at the two of them imagined that they were probably siblings.


    "HELP! SOMEONE, PLEASE HELP US!" the girl screamed while looking around the neighborhood. While she was looking, she looked behind herself and up into the window the teen was currently looking through and her face lit up with a pleading look as she continued to scream, "PLEASE HELP US! PLEASE!"


    The boy seemed to notice something in the girl''s voice and he himself turned around and looked in the same direction as her. When he saw the young man looking at them, he didn''t say anything but the pleading in his eyes was undeniable.


    The teen looking down at them wasn''t a very good person. In fact, he was a delinquent, he bullied people, he beat the shit out of people and overall wasn''t a very nice guy but when he looked at the pleading looks of the two kids his age, he felt a twitch somewhere deep in his stomach and before he knew it he had shot down the stairs and was opening the door for them.


    Again, he wasn''t a nice person but if those people were really dead, then he had no choice but to help people on the same side as him; the side of the living.


    "Quick, get in here!" his voice was deep and intimidating but the urgency of the two youths caused them to ignore that as they ran to the open door.


    As the two of them got closer, he saw the school uniform they were wearing and felt a twinge of guilt for the first time in his life; they came from the same school as him and he''d probably caused trouble for them at some point. But he guessed that they''d have to forgive him after he saved their lives, right?


    When the two of them got into the house, the youth slammed the door shut but not before looking outside and seeing the seemingly undead horde shuffling toward his house.


    He wasn''t really worried about them getting inside as his family was quite rich and had put a lot of money into the safety of their house; reinforced doors, walls, and windows. As long as they weren''t stupid, the three of them would be fine. What the boy was worried about, however, was his siblings and his mom - How would they fare outside when there was a horde of death blocking the entrance to their house?


    The boy shook his head to rid himself of those pessimistic thoughts and instead focused on the two people who were panting and shaking from the aftereffects of the adrenaline in their bodies.


    Looking at the two of them, he realized that he knew who the two of them were.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    "Aren''t you two the famous Himura Twins? Then we can skip introductions, you should know who I am, right?" the boy smirked as he looked over at Himura Daichi, the boy from outside.


    Daichi looked up wondering what he meant but as he saw the youth''s features he had an awkward smile on his face as he replied, "It''s surprising to see you''re the one to lend us a hand, seeing as you''re the infamous boss of the school, Kurosawa Hiroki," Daichi had a small laugh as he stood up fully before bowing deeply to Hiroki, "But nonetheless, thank you for helping me and my sister, I''m incredibly grateful!"


    Hiroki got a bit awkward as he wasn''t used to people being thankful for his actions and just raised his hand, "Don''t do that, Himura, if those things out there are Zombies or something, it''s my obligation as a living being to help other living people, right?" he slightly blushed as he smiled and scratched the back of his head.


    "You''re not used to praise, huh, Kurosawa-san?" Daichi laughed but his jovial appearance faded quickly as he nodded at what Hiroki said, "But you are right if those things are the undead, Humans have gotta start working together."


    Hiroki looked from Daichi to his sister and saw that she was frankly covered in blood, he quickly rushed over to her before looking at Daichi, "What happened to Ino?!" he sounded quick worried, mainly because she was one of the few people who''d been nice to him at school.


    His imposing height and muscular stature made him quite the fighter, but his sharp and wild facial features were what made everyone so fearful of him. It wasn''t that he wasn''t good-looking, no, it was just that he was a different kind of handsome compared to Daichi''s pretty boy looks and put together with his body, he unconsciously intimidated most people around him.


    But Himura Ino wasn''t intimidated by him, she treated him like a normal person despite his ability to easily make her life at school hell. This resilience impressed Hiroki and he treated her similar to an equal.


    So, to see her so bloodied worried him intensely.


    But his worry was soon placated by Daichi, "Don''t worry, Kurosawa-san, this is someone else''s blood," as he was speaking he pulled out a bloodied box cutter. Hiroki got put a bit on edge at seeing this and his fighting instincts kicked in as his body tensed up.


    Daichi saw this and quickly put the knife away, "Calm down, Kurosawa-san, I wouldn''t dream of trying to take a knife to you. Both because of your fighting ability and the major fact that you saved our lives."


    After this was said, Hiroki slowly calmed himself down and looked at Ino, "You can go change into some of my sister''s clothes if you want, she wouldn''t mind, especially if she knew you were covered in blood," he smiled, flashing his prominent canines.


    Ino looked up at him with a tricky look on her face, "I couldn''t possibly trouble your sister like that--!" as she tried to continued arguing, Hiroki placed a hand over her mouth, signaling her to be quiet for a second.


    Daichi got a bit annoyed that Hiroki did that but soon understood why he did it.


    *BANG!*


    "Shit! My window!" Hiroki charged upstairs, with Daichi trailing behind him with the bloodied box cutter fully extended behind him.


    As Hiroki kicked open his door, he saw something quite odd compared to what he was expecting.


    In front of his eyes, stood a 2m tall pure green man. His eyes were a murky white and looked glassy like they were dead and there was nothing in them anymore. At first, Hiroki thought that it was a Zombie that had somehow gotten into his room through his window but the lack of necrosis and the disgusting stench that went along with it but the thing''s skin was unblemished by rot and looked just like dry human skin.


    The thing''s murky eyes looked over instantly at Hiroki before it charged at him.


    "Woah!" Hiroki pushed Daichi back out of the room before he himself threw himself to the side of where the monster was charging. The speed of the thing was definitely quicker than a normal person, probably even to Olympic-level standards.


    Because of where they were standing before they moved, the monster charged right into the wall of Hiroki''s bedroom, putting its arms straight through the plaster and hard material the inner wall was made of.


    Hiroki instantly knew that if that thing touched either of them, they''d be crushed like bugs in the inhuman strength that creature possesses. So, to get ahead of the monster, Hiroki flipped himself up and charged out of the door, grabbing a recovering Daichi on the way.


    All the exercise and martial arts practice Hiroki did was fully showing itself now as he lifted the 70kg Daichi up and put him on his shoulder in a smooth and fluid motion.


    "Wha--!" Hiroki ignored the shocked Daichi and instead dashed downstairs to where Ino was. Ino looked to the stairs as she heard Hiroki barreling down them and her eyes had a worried light in them as she saw her brother on Hiroki''s shoulder.


    Hiroki saw the look in her eyes and quickly said, "Don''t worry, he''s fine, I just had to carry him to get out of there as quick as we could!" Hiroki was interrupted by the creature upstairs roaring. Hiroki winced as the roar filled him with an instinctive fear.


    Ino and Daichi - who had now been put down by Hiroki - both winced and covered their ears as they fearfully looked up at the ceiling; where the roar was coming from.


    Hiroki knocked them both out of it as he looked at the two with an urgent expression, "You two need to go into the living room and hide, that thing will crush the two of you like some dry mud!" Hiroki, without waiting for their reply, quickly ran down into the exercise room in the basement.


    He walked up to a closet and opened it. Inside there was a multitude of sharp and blunt weapons; his family was a bunch of martial art, muscle-brained people like him.


    Hiroki quickly grabbed two combat knives and a strap to hold one of them on his waist, and after fully putting it on and putting the extra knife in it, Hiroki rushed back upstairs to the hallway where he saw that Daichi and Ino were still there looking determinedly at him.


    Hiroki showed an annoyed expression as he looked at the two twins, "What are you two still doing here?! Get in the living room, you idiots!"


    "We''re not going to sit by while our benefactor, that means you Kurosawa-san, fights off some infernal creature! We will fight with you. You know why we''re famous in the school, therefore you know that we''re not weak or anything," Daichi calmly stated as he looked level-headedly at Hiroki who had a scowl on his face.


    Hiroki''s knuckles turned white as he gripped the combat knife in his hand, "Yes, I know that the two of you are very experienced in Martial Arts but you don''t have the necessary fighting experience to go up against whatever''s upstairs!" Hiroki heard the heavy, but slow, footsteps of the creature moving toward the staircase and his expression got even more urgent, "I''ve fought against people who were out to cripple me, hell, they''d probably even leave me to die! So I have the necessary fighting experience to do this. You two have only ever fought in tournaments where there are rules and guidelines, you really aren''t ready for a fight where you could lose your life!" as Hiroki shouted this, he pushed the twins backward, away from the staircase and toward the living room.


    Ino and Daichi wished to refute what Hiroki had said but they simply couldn''t as he was completely right. They had heard rumors about his fights and from what they heard they were particularly brutal, and when they thought about their own tournament fights; they could definitely tell you that they weren''t brutal in any way.


    So, the two of them backed away into the doorway of the living room but they left the door open, just in case they could/needed to help.


    Hiroki looked at the two with gratitude on his face - The last thing he needed was to look out for the two of them while he thought such a monstrous opponent.


    "RAGHHHHH!" speaking of said monstrous opponent, the green, 2m tall giant had reached the hallway and looked at Hiroki with it''s dead, milky white eyes. Hiroki looked back into the eyes and recoiled slightly as for just a second, he could''ve sworn that he saw hunger and greed in them.


    Hiroki slowly got into a loose-stance, with his knife held in a tight grip, and slowly edged his way at the creature, little did he know that the countdown for his ''Awakening'' had reached zero about a minute ago.

 Chapter 2 - Adaptation

    The green creature was seemingly angered by Hiroki''s slow engagement and just charged at him, flailing its arms. Seeing this, Hiroki concentrated, his pupils constricting into holes the size of a pinhead.


    His extensive fighting ability had been grown from an early age by his late father who was a very militant man. This was what caused his delinquent behavior - he had the strength to do what he wanted to do, so why wouldn''t he?


    But now, as the bulk of green muscle charged at him, he knew how it felt to be the underdog in a fight.


    From what he''d saw before the brute in front of him was an absolute powerhouse, being able to stick its arms through a thick wall with ease. By proxy, Hiroki could guess it had to have the durability to put up with such strength, so most attacks he could think of doing were useless.


    Hiroki was brought out of his thought process by the increasingly heavy vibrations traveling up his legs and shaking his core. He saw that the creature had closed the majority of the distance between them and worry started to flood Hiroki''s system as he still hadn''t thought of any way to kill the thing in front of him.


    But suddenly, as all seemed bleak, Hiroki looked into the bipolar eyes of the creature - both unfeeling, yet full of such rage - and he thought of how you usually kill Zombies; Their Brains!


    Hiroki was putting a lot of hope on the fact his knife would be able to pierce through the eye socket of the creature, but as it was all he had going for him, it was all he could do.


    So, Hiroki jumped at the brute, wanting to control the pace of the fight between them. Surprisingly, the creature didn''t pick him from the sky as it saw him jumping at him. Hiroki could see that it wanted to but it just couldn''t.


    Hiroki smirked, thinking that the brute''s unresponsive body was one of the bad parts about being undead; A severe lack of dexterity.


    His smirk soon worn off, however, as he flew through the sky and onto the torso of the monster. Looking so closely at its face, he really couldn''t describe it any better than as a bald Hulk with white murky eyes. It had a sort of dumb, neanderthal look about it.


    But recalling what he was doing, Hiroki admonished himself over his stupid jokes and got one of his hands around the back of the neck of the brute and placed both his feet on the sturdy stomach before drawing back his hand which had the knife in it.


    By this point, the creature was reaching for Hiroki with its arms but it was already too late as Hiroki swung the knife down with all his considerable strength.


    *SQUELCH!*


    "RAGGGHHHHHH!" the big Zombie roared in a mixture of pain and anger as the combat knife sunk through its glassy eyes and into the bone behind the eye itself. The point of the knife lodged its way into the hole which the optic nerve travels through and a sickening crack resounded throughout the hallway.


    Hearing the cracking and squelching noises, Hiroki ignored the blaring ache in his ears and pushed even harder on the knife, trying to push it through the cracks of the bone and into the delicate brain.


    *CRACK! SLI--*


    But before the knife could fully insert itself, Hiroki felt two big hands encircle themselves around his neck. Instantly choked for air, Hiroki let go of the knife out of pure instinct and brought his hands to the green ones currently choking him.


    "Gagh!" Hiroki''s face went red as the veins on his arms bulged as he tried to move the hands on him. The hands briefly budged which surprised the Zombie, and even Hiroki himself, but before either of them could act on their surprise, the Zombie brought Hiroki''s body backward and got into something reminiscent of a baseball pitching stance.


    Knowing what was about to come, Hiroki re-doubled his efforts and strained himself even more. From the pure pressure, he''d put on his body, plus the hand pushing all his blood into his head and stopping it from leaving, two trails of blood came from each of Hiroki''s nostrils and his usually brown eyes started to glitter with an unusual color.


    The Zombie noticed an increase in strength from it''s captive but ignored it as it was still meager compared to its own strength and in one fluid motion brought it''s hand forward at blinding speed.


    Hiroki didn''t register when he''d left the Zombie''s hand as the force of the throw and the previous asphyxiation had left his mind pretty blank.


    But he could write a full-blown essay on when his body hit the wall next to the living room doorway.


    Because the throw somehow had some curve to it, Hiroki''s body had spun mid-air and his back was the first thing to hit the wall, and it hit the wall with some momentum as when his back hit the wall, Hiroki felt and heard a resounding crack.


    After that he limbs followed and slammed into the wall, resounding in dull thuds and nearly uncatchable cracking sounds; like eggs being broken in the distance.


    Then his organs seemed to catch up to the rest of his body and slammed into his injured spine, squeezing up against it and switching position with one another. After that, Hiroki''s head caught up and apart from some brutal whiplash, the back of his head split open similar to how a watermelon does when someone takes a hammer to it.


    Hiroki heard a faint gasp and then felt someone rush to his side and start to whisper his name. He couldn''t see who it was as his eyes and brain had apparently broken up at some point in the last 10 seconds and nobody had told him about it.


    But alas, they seemed to make up as his eyes slowly but surely started to see things once more.


    He saw Ino''s beautiful face, covered in worry and anxiety, her raven black hair looking like a blanket of night falling over the world as it hung over her and Hiroki. Hiroki thought about how dearly he wished to sleep at the moment...He also seemed to be forgetting something--


    Hiroki''s mind suddenly went under a massive reboot as he remembered what he''d just been doing and how the green creature had thoroughly handed his ass to him.


    He looked up at Ino who was trying to whisper consolements to him but he couldn''t hear any of them, but he smiled nonetheless. Or at least he tried to and his mouth did something weird, he just spoke on instinct, feeling that it was more important than smiling at Ino.


    "Run..." was all Hiroki could get out before he saw a big green hand wrap its way around Ino''s neck and drag her away from him and throw her toward the doorway. Granted she was thrown with much less force than Hiroki but it was enough to put her out of it.


    The brute than went to reach for Hiroki but before it could reach him, the Tv from the front room flew into the side of the creatures head eliciting a roar from it. The green head darted to it''s left and looked at Daichi who had just thrown it.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    Hiroki couldn''t see Daichi at the moment as he was lying on the ground in a crumpled pile but he could definitely imagine the anger on his face at watching the Zombie harm his sister.


    Daichi...what an honorable fella...


    Hiroki was brought out of his mental ramblings as he felt something in his body click together. With the click, Hiroki could suddenly feel his body once again and he mentally rejoiced. But that happiness soon faded as volley after volley of pain followed the sensation of feeling returning to Hiroki.


    "Arghh!" Hiroki let out a howl of pain as he felt his internals rearranging themselves. It wouldn''t have been so bad but it felt like someone was doing a jigsaw puzzle in his body, and the main problem was that they were fucking terrible at jigsaw puzzles.


    While Hiroki was howling in pain, Daichi was throwing new things at the Zombie. He threw the coffee table at it, the Tv stand, even a small bookshelf. The only reason the Zombie hadn''t marched over a killed him was because it felt a mass of internal conflict; Kill the Human who stabbed it in the eye or kill the Human who kept throwing stuff at it.


    The undead brain didn''t seem capable of figuring out which would be better so it just stood there and looked back and forth between Hiroki and Daichi with anger and hatred building upon its face.


    Looking around the room, Daichi seemed to find something of major value which made his eyes shine with hope.


    If Hiroki wasn''t screaming and howling in pain and saw what Daichi had found, he''d probably understand why the pretty boy teen who''d won multiple Kendo Tournaments would get excited over finding it.


    Daichi had found a Katana that had once belonged to his Father''s Father or Hiroki''s Grandfather. Once his Father had died, Hiroki was meant to take up the sword, for his family honor or some shit like that, but he didn''t want to - preferring his limbs and knives as his main weapons - so the Katana had just been collecting dust in the Living Room on a stand since his Father''s death.


    Daichi, however, was a Swordsman. Apparently a natural-born one at that. So, in the Zombie apocalypse when he had to decide on a cold weapon to use, why wouldn''t he pick a Katana? The only problem was that he didn''t personally own one, nor were they easy to find. Well, at least good ones, anyway.


    Daichi picked up the blade and inspected it. It didn''t look special but as a swords fanatic, Daichi could tell the workmanship on the blade, guard and handle were all superb.


    So, now that he had it in his hand, what would he do? Attack the bulky, green dead man in front of him of course!


    Daichi got into a stance before rushing at the brute in front of him. The brute was seemingly distracted and didn''t realize what was coming at him as Daichi sliced at the side of the creature before slipping past him and slicing it once more on the back.


    Both these attacks did draw blood but they were the equivalent of someone getting cut and drawing blood from a paper cut.


    But the level of damage seemingly didn''t matter to the brute anymore. The Human with the sword was beginning to be much more annoying than being stabbed in the eye, so it turned around to address the problem.


    Daichi backed up a few feet and composed himself, his stance perfect and left with no openings.


    Meanwhile, Hiroki had stopped screaming and was instead calmly watching something in front of him.


    [Awakening Traits with the Virus...]


    [Traits Successfully Awakened!]


    [Traits Gained: Accelerated Metabolism, Adaptive Metabolism, and Superior.]


    [Well done for surviving your Awakening, you have been given the Title "The One Who Adapts Survives"]


    As he saw this lines of text, Hiroki felt his entire body click back into place, feeling better and stronger than ever. He didn''t know why this was happening but he wouldn''t question it right now, not when bigger things were on the line.


    Unknown to Hiroki, his eyes had turned from brown to a light yellow and the pupils were slightly elongated and they currently constricted a little looking similar to slit pupils as he looked at the brutish Zombie.


    He leaned down and took out his spare combat knife and using his unusually keen senses, flung the knife like a throwing knife at the back of the creature. The knife split the air in a hurry and firmly entered the green flesh, black blood spilling from the edges of the knife.


    "RAGHH!" The monster spun around only to see the Human it had crippled back up, seemingly as if nothing had happened to him. The Zombie even sensed there was something different about the Human, it was definitely more dangerous than the Human with the sword.


    The Zombie thought this was weird as the knife Human had lost its weapon but the creatures pea-sized brain figured it wasn''t worth thinking about and instead let anger decide it''s decisions again.


    So, like it had done more than once today, the Zombie charged at the knife Human, Hiroki.


    Seeing the charge, unlike the fear Hiroki felt before, he currently felt disdain when he looked at the disorderly charge of the Zombie. It had magnificent strength, it just didn''t know how to use it.


    With that thought, Hiroki rushed at the Zombie, looking like he was about to charge at it. This angered the undead creature even more and it re-doubled it''s effort in its charge and caused even more vibrations to shake the hallway, alerting any Zombies within a half-mile that a fight was underway.


    Hiroki kept his calm and continued charging at the Zombie but as they were about to meet, Hiroki dodged under the raised arms of the brute and his hand flickered up to the knife in the Zombies back and pulled it free, the blade now dyed black.


    The Zombie was shocked its opponent had thought of dodging its charge but it couldn''t do anything about it as its momentum was too strong and carried it toward the wall where Hiroki had been thrown into.


    But Hiroki wasn''t going to let it reach the wall. He pivoted on the spot where he''d grabbed the knife and with an unnatural amount of grace and control, instantly shot after the green brute.


    Hiroki''s speed shocked Daichi as he instantly accelerated to speeds that even some sprinters would find troubling to run at. Daichi was further shocked as he watched Hiroki speed up and overtake the Zombie.


    Looking at it from Daichi''s perspective it seemed like Hiroki and the Zombie were having a race for who could reach the wall first and whoever got there first would live. Well, that''s what his instincts told him at least.


    Hiroki knew this was his only chance because as dumb as the Zombie was, it seemed to be learning, so he needed to pull off his plan. Thinking this, he pushed his legs further causing the muscles to burn and ache for him to stop but he didn''t and his speed increased once again.


    After less than a second the wall was in front of him and he jumped and placed his feet against the wall, the momentum and power going through his legs caused something to rip but Hiroki ignored the pain in his lower body and instead used whatever power he had left in his legs and pushed off the wall with, quite frankly, inhuman strength cracking the plaster around his feet.


    Hiroki shot through the air at the Zombie''s head and brought up his knee to impact the knife in the brute''s eye socket.


    The Zombie saw what Hiroki wanted to do but like before, the Zombies body just wouldn''t move quick enough for it to be able to do something to stop it''s impending doom.


    *CRACK! SQUELCH!*


    Hiroki''s knee collided with the handle of the knife and the force of his flying body and the force of the Zombie''s charge worked together and the knife went straight into the Zombie''s head and even split the Zombies head open.


    "Argh!" of course Hiroki wasn''t completely exempt from injuries from that exchange but from what happened when he healed from a broken spine, a broken knee wouldn''t be too hard, right?


    Hiroki dropped to the floor and because of his knee, his earlier appearance of having superb control disappeared as he hit the floor and started rolling, unable to stop himself. But he didn''t care, he had a dumb smile on his face as he realized he''d not only survived such dire circumstances, he''d even gained something from them.


    Coincidentally, Hiroki kept rolling and only stopped at Daichi''s feet who looked down at him with a happy smile on his face, "Well done, Kurosawa-san!--Wait, what''s happened with your eyes!" Daichi instantly got worried about Hiroki.


    Hiroki only smiled before laughing, "Shouldn''t you be worried about your sister? She was thrown over here, right?" his mood seemed impossible to bring down and it was only made better by his knee sliding back into its rightful place.


    However, Hiroki wasn''t incredibly eager on explaining his eyes and his powers.


    Meanwhile, Daichi who heard what Hiroki said, instantly paled and turned around to see his sister with a bloodied nose on the floor near the door. He quickly rushed over to her and did a once over on her and to his relief, she was fine.


    Seeing that everything was fine, for now at least, Daichi collapsed back onto the ground and figured his questions for Hiroki could wait until later. For now, all three of them could rest.

 Chapter 3 - Aftermath, Traits and Skills

    Hiroki only stayed on the floor for a little more time as his knee was completely healed and his body was full of so much energy he felt like he was going to explode.


    So, to use this energy, Hiroki walked over to the corpse of the brutish Zombie and squatted next to its corpse, "You big bastard, bet you didn''t think you''d die again today, did you?" Hiroki lightly whispered as he smirked at the crushed head of the Zombie.


    But Hiroki quickly caught this behavior of himself and thought about why he was like this?


    He should be much more distressed by this, right? This Zombie was once a Human as well and apart from the green skin and dead eyes, it could easily pass for a Human who lived in a Gym. So, why was he so remorseless when he looked at the gore?


    The answer soon came to him in a flux of information in his head which collected in front of him in the form of one of the screens he was becoming so familiar with lately.


    [Awakened Human, Kurosawa Hiroki, has the Unique Trait [Superior] which enhances his Mentality - just as it boosts his body''s prowess - so he will adapt much quicker to traumatic sights than a normal person]


    Hiroki was starting to like these screens. He looked at the meaning of this and wondered about his own behavior for the last 5 minutes or so and he couldn''t help but see that this ''Trait'' was in effect. How else could he be so calm after going up against such a monster?


    With his evolved mentality, Hiroki simply pushed the possible worries out of his head and replaced it with a weird self-confidence, like he was the only creature who would survive; The Apex.


    But he soon curbed those thoughts, arrogance wasn''t something he needed in any amount right now.


    Suddenly thinking about how the screens seemed to answer his questions, Hiroki thought about something before calmly speaking, "Can you show me a status screen or something?" Hiroki felt a bit embarrassed with speaking to nothing and felt that he seemed like a madman.


    Luckily, however, a screen started to build itself in front of Hiroki, placating his worries about himself being crazy. But it didn''t help much as Daichi couldn''t see the screen and indeed did think that Hiroki was rambling like an idiot.


    The screen appeared in front of Hiroki and he looked intensely at the screen.


    [Name: Kurosawa Hiroki]


    [Title: The One Who Adapts Survives]


    [Race: Modified Human]


    [Virus Mutation: 0%]


    [Rank: 0]


    [Unique Traits: Accelerated Metabolism(?), Adaptive Metabolism(?), and Superior(?)]


    [??? Gained: N/A]


    Hiroki was surprised at some of the terms used. Virus Mutation? Modified Human? Was he just like that Brute Zombie? As he started to worry, his new mentality came to his rescue and calmed him down. The main thing that calmed him down was that he was still classed as a Human and despite having a Virus in his system, he didn''t feel any weird urges to eat brains or people.


    Also, what guarantee was there that he had the same Virus as the Zombies?


    All these reasons slowly brought him back to a calm state of mind and Hiroki looked at the (?) next to each of his traits with a curious look on his face. Would this tell him what his traits were? Hiroki thought this was the right line of thought and pressed on the little virtual symbol.


    He could probably guess what the abilities did, but what would it hurt to know more about his abilities?


    [Accelerated Metabolism - The user has an accelerated metabolism, rendering them resistant to weight gain, illness, injury, and accelerating their healing speed. Also comes with the added benefit of enhanced reflexes, enhanced thought process and heightened Kinetic Vision/Visual Acuity]


    [Adaptive Metabolism - User possesses a supernaturally adaptive metabolism, which allows them to withstand virtually any toxin/pathogen via gradual exposure, survive incredibly harsh conditions and recover at amazing speed from otherwise lethal damage. They can build up their physical abilities to potentially infinite levels through increasingly harder training, and develop powerful elemental resistances via gradual exposure. This flexibility extends also to their brain cells, allowing them to learn at an accelerated rate]


    [Superior - The holder of this Trait is just naturally much better than the average member of their species]*


    ( *Author Note: All the Awakened have this trait. )


    Hiroki looked at his abilities with widened eyes.


    He wanted to stand up and cry out in joy to the heavens, thanking them for giving him such suitable abilities. But he was so happy he''d gone full circle and felt an overwhelming calm smother his excitement and joy.


    Hiroki thought these abilities were so good for him because if the ability he gained was something technical and hard to figure out he wouldn''t be able to use it to its full potential. But the Traits he had now were ones that could be pushed further purely through hard work and fighting against either strong opponents or harsh conditions.


    These abilities were perfect for a person like Hiroki who loved fighting and was also oddly hardworking at training his body and martial arts as much as he could.


    Meanwhile, as Hiroki looked over his status, Daichi was looking after his sister who was currently coming to in a very dazed and groggy manner.


    "Ino, you okay?" Daichi''s worried expression came back when he saw the blank look in his sister''s eyes, "Ino!" but with that sharp shout, Ino''s eyes came back into focus and she looked confusedly up at Daichi.


    "What...happened...?" Ino voice was slurred and Daichi thought the possibility of her having a concussion was very high.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    "You idiot," he smiled down at her as he saw that other than the possibility of a concussion, she was pretty much fine and only needed to rest, "you ran to Kurosawa-san after he was hit and that thing picked you up and threw you all the way over here. You must''ve hit the door or the wall because you passed out instantly," Daichi shook his head with a weak smile on his face.


    He looked down at the blood coming from her nose and pulled out a handkerchief and started rubbing away at the quickly drying blood.


    As he was doing this, he heard Hiroki standing up and stopped his actions, looking back at the infamous delinquent turned savior. He looked at Hiroki with a suspicious face as he could''ve sworn that he''d definitely heard the tall teen''s spine break when he hit the wall but here Hiroki was - Standing up as if that never happened.


    Daichi decided to make sure his sister was safe and sound before he got to questioning Hiroki about what happened to him. So, Daichi got back to wiping up all the blood off of his sister''s face and once he did that he gently and delicately picked her up and carried her to the living room.


    Hiroki, who''d stopped looking at his status, went back over to the Brute Zombie as he smelt something weird over there.


    Looking down at the creature he''d killed, Hiroki smelt a scent he never thought he''d smell from a Zombie; Something delicious, like premium meat. Instantly, Hiroki''s throat felt incredibly dry as he spotted a piece of pure red meat that seemed to glow.


    Hiroki felt his entire body demand that he ate it but obviously, the teen felt disgusted by such thoughts.


    But as he felt more and more ravenous, he couldn''t help himself and he picked up the piece of meat. He didn''t eat it but instead suppressed himself for the moment so he could inspect it.


    As he studied the piece of meat, Hiroki realized that he felt a sort of familiarity with the red flesh. This revelation caused his brow to scrunch up as he thought about where he''d seen this before.


    He thought and he thought but he came to the conclusion he hadn''t seen this before. So, instead, he started to think that it was an instinctive knowledge brought about his status as an Awakened or a Modified Human.


    Hiroki was really debating on whether to eat it or not. On one hand, if he did eat it and nothing happened, then so what. But if he did eat it and it caused him to become infected like the Zombie, his earlier fight to protect himself and the twins would be useless.


    But as he thought about it, that wasn''t why he didn''t want to eat it. His new body seemed incredibly sensitive to danger - its instincts were much keener than his previous Human body - so it would crave this meat if it would hurt him in any adverse way.


    No, what he was worried about was Daichi and Ino seeing him eat the meat and thinking he was a monster like the Brute Zombie.


    Hiroki was a pretty resilient guy when it came to things like people judging him. Just take his appearance, for example, he scared people into thinking he was a bad guy before he even opened his mouth; so he didn''t care what people thought of him.


    But there was something potentially harrowing about having people think you weren''t Human anymore and that you were just a monster.


    Having these thoughts, Hiroki saw that Daichi was now in the living room, facing away from him and putting Ino down on the sofa to rest. Hiroki saw this as a chance to test what would happen if he ate the flesh, so he instantly shoved it into his mouth, hoping for the best.


    Instantly, the flesh seemed to crawl down his stomach as if it had sentience and threw itself into the stomach acid in his stomach.


    The acid surrounded the flesh and started to burn it away, leaving only bright red energy in the stomach. This energy started exuding itself outward from his stomach and started to dive its way into Hiroki''s cells.


    Outside of Hiroki''s body, in Hiroki''s view, a new screen popped up in front of him.


    {Skill Flesh has been ingested! Skill being picked from DNA of Flesh...}*


    {Skill Picked!}


    {Skill Bestowment Process...Underway...}


    ( Author Note: Anything with ''[ ]'' surrounding it is to do with Traits and anything with ''{ }'' surrounding it is to do with Skills. )


    Hiroki could feel something being pushed into his cells while something else was pushed into his brain; information on how to activate the skill he was gaining.


    Currently, however, he couldn''t see what the skill was, nor could he look at the information to deduce what the skill could possibly be. Suddenly, knocking him out of his thought about his skill, another box appeared in front of him.


    {Awakened, Hiroki, has eaten Skill Flesh. This Flesh can only be found in special beings or Variant Creatures and its main purpose is to serve as something people can use to gain skills. Even normal people can eat Skill Flesh and gain Skills, they just have a lower chance of getting a skill compared to an Awakened. Only one skill can be learned each Rank, so be careful at which Skill Flesh you devour and from what source it comes}


    At first, when he read the screen, Hiroki was thrilled that he had a one-up on all those around him, including the Zombies outside but when he saw that he could only use Skill Flesh once per Rank, he started to mentally reprimanded himself.


    Hiroki felt like ripping his hair out at founding out that he wasted his one skill slot on a possible waste skill from the Brute Zombie, something that could be killed by him when he''d only just gained his powers.


    As he was trying to not slam his head into the wall nearest to him, Hiroki saw a box pop up, it said that he''d gained the skill finally. Hiroki pressed his finger against the expansion option on the box and read the screen that came into view.


    {Awakened, Hiroki, has gained the skill {Body Hardening}(?)}


    Hiroki looked at the skill with a little bit of hope in his eyes, the prospect of having a skill that could up his defensive power was incredibly mouthwatering after he experienced his body being broken earlier. He quickly clicked on the (?).


    {Body Hardening - The user''s muscles, bones, and skin are empowered by a mysterious energy and their durability is heightened by 4 fold. Enhancement is capable of scaling up with the strength of the body. E.g Someone with 150kg strength will be able to pull more out of this skill than someone with 50kg of strength.}


    {Weakness - Hardening the entire body will take practice and hardening even small parts of the body, like the hands and feet, takes up a lot of physical stamina.}


    Hiroki looked at the skill with a surprised look in his eyes. He truly didn''t expect to get such a useful skill from such a stupid Zombie.


    Looking down at his hand, he employed the information he''d gained from the bestowal and activated the skill on his entire hand.


    Instantly, his hand turned black like coal and seemed to sharpen in places like a rock. It mainly sharpened around the knuckles but Hiroki didn''t take notice of this as he looked at his fingertips and saw that his nails had extended into short, but sharp, claws.


    The claws didn''t gleam like metal but just looking at them, Hiroki could feel their cutting power and felt some cold sweat roll down the back of his neck. He was really glad he gained this ability and not someone who wanted to harm him.


    But as soon as he had this thought, his body felt drained of energy and the black color left his hand and his body felt utterly devoid of energy.


    Hiroki felt shocked for a moment as he thought about how the description really wasn''t lying when it said it took a lot of stamina to keep the skill activated. Tired, Hiroki dragged himself into the living room where he saw Daichi sitting on the floor near the couch his sister was sleeping on.


    Hiroki was glad that neither of them saw him eating the Skill Flesh. He''d have to eventually tell them but not right now where their psyches were still a bit stretched thin.


    Hiroki sat on the couch opposite the one Ino was on and just collapsed back into the soft seat, but unknown to him, Ino looked through squinted eyes at Hiroki, a faint light of curiosity lit inside them.


    She had seen what he did.

 Chapter 4 - Loss

    Hiroki opened his eyes slowly. For a second he wondered if all the events that had happened earlier were all dreams.


    He looked to the nearest window and saw the darkness, he thought that he simply fell asleep after a day of hard training while skipping school and had just woken up now, after dreaming about fighting a giant Zombie and gaining superpowers.


    "RAGHHHH!!" but a distant roar of primal oppression sounded out from afar, jolting the sleepy teen awake, his now yellow eyes filled with worry and vigilance.


    Hiroki wasn''t as scared of the roars as he was before, both his new mindset and personal power made sure of that, but it didn''t stop his cells from telling him that he was much weaker than whatever just let out that roar.


    So, he instantly shot up and looked around the room, the roar setting him on edge.


    He saw Daichi leaning into the sofa with his hands tightly holding a Katana. He had a blanket draped over his lower body but Hiroki could tell it was originally over his entire body, Daichi''s movements while asleep must have knocked it off.


    Hiroki looked on the sofa behind Daichi and saw that Ino was gone, instantly his face paled as he thought the worst. Suddenly he heard a sound coming from the Kitchen in the next room. Hiroki knew that it could just be Ino doing something in there, but it could also be a Zombie. Who knew? He''d been asleep after all. Plus, it was always better to be safe than sorry.


    Hiroki admonished himself as he slowly crept down the hallway to the kitchen. Along the way, he slipped his combat knife into his hand once again getting into a proper stance to handle any problem that came up.


    He slowly crept up to the door and saw from the light coming from under the door. As he was so close, he could hear whispering going on between two people behind the door, with an occasional third person chipping in. This caused Hiroki to keep up his tensed form as he cracked the door open a little.


    What he saw inside caused him to break out in a bright smile as he burst into the room.


    Inside, three very stunned girls looked at the tall Hiroki burst in with a smile on his face. One of the girls looked like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders, this was Ino. The two other girls instantly froze as they looked at Hiroki, a brief sadness flashing past their eyes before one of them threw herself at Hiroki.


    The girl who threw herself at Hiroki was his older sister by 2 years, Kurosawa Mai. Like Hiroki, she''d been trained in Martial Arts since she was young but she didn''t enjoy fighting as Hiroki did, so she instead focused her martial arts training around health and then as auxiliary support to her gymnastics.


    After finishing high school with brilliant grades, she went to college and that''s where she was currently still at.


    The big thing both her and Hiroki both had in common was that they were both confident, strong-willed and charismatic when they needed to be; they were true siblings.


    But Hiroki was shocked as he looked at his usually confident sister as she sobbed into his chest, clutching at his worn out t-shirt. Instantly he tried to console her, "Onee-chan, what''s wrong?!" Hiroki instantly brought Mai''s head up to look into his eyes.


    In her eyes, Hiroki saw sadness. Pure, unadulterated sadness.


    Instantly, Hiroki realized who was with her. She was his older sisters best friend, Fujimoto Keiko. Both her and his sister had been inseparable ever since they met when they were kids. They had the same interests - gymnastics and dance - and they just seemed to click together personality wise.


    So over the years, Hiroki and the rest of his family had seen a lot of her over the years. So much so that Hiroki''s older brother even started going out with her when they both left Highschool--


    Instantly, Hiroki looked around and even used his keen senses to check if he could sense anyone else in the house. But when he couldn''t, his head instantly darted back to looking between Mai and Keiko, "Where''s Kentaro-nii?" Hiroki''s voice was strained as he put on a puzzled smile.


    The possibility had already crossed his mind but he''d chosen to ignore it out of a pure rejection of even the notion of it happening, but now that it was being thrust at his face, he could do nothing but question where his older brother was.


    His older brother, Kurosawa Kentaro. A genius, child-prodigy, gifted. Many words could be used to describe Kentaro but Hiroki had a favorite word, or more accurately, words to describe his brother, "The best big brother he could ask for" was how he''d put it.


    His older brother would help him with homework, console him when he lost fights when he was younger and much more emotional. His brother was what allowed him to develop such a confident personality and ultimately become the person he was today - purely through his brother''s affection and care could he have stayed as strong as he was when up against the odds when he fought that Brutish Zombie.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.


    Keiko''s frozen body, upon hearing Hiroki''s question, started to shake and she fell to her knees, her arms wrapped at her sides and clutching them. His sister started sobbing even louder as she pushed herself into Hiroki''s chest, causing pain to shoot out from there.


    But Hiroki didn''t mind it, at least it distracted him from the thoughts he was currently thinking.


    Ino rushed over to Keiko and gently wrapped her in a calming embrace before looking at Hiroki, telling him to do the same with his sister. She didn''t say this of course, but Hiroki could see it in her eyes.


    So he did what she said and wrapped his usually strong sister in a tight embrace.


    Minutes passed and Hiroki became more and more restless, more and more impatient but finally, his sister stopped crying and slowly pushed herself away from his now-soaked chest. Hiroki guided her over to the dining table and Ino did the same thing with Keiko.


    As they all sat down, Hiroki looked at the two girls with red-rimmed eyes and dark thoughts once again flooded into his head. But before he could break down and blurt out all his questions, his sister spoke.


    "Kentaro...is dead..." the news froze Hiroki solid, his heart even skipping a beat when he heard what she said, "He...died...saving us from those things in the neighborhood," Hiroki''s frozen body started to slowly shake but Mai was oblivious to this as she carried on, "We were out at the Mall, shopping for his and Keiko''s vacation and then, the change happened," she looked into Hiroki''s blank eyes, "You''ll probably know what I mean when I say we saw screens telling us how we were ''Awakened'', right?"


    Hiroki dumbly nodded while Mai carried on, "We both changed, becoming whatever being ''Awakened'' means but before we could come to terms with that, those monsters appeared," a look of hatred flashed over her face as she gnashed her teeth, "Three of those big bastards, like the one you killed earlier, appeared in the mall and started massacring people and Kentaro, that idiot had to help!"


    As his sister continued to explain what happened, Hiroki slowly became slightly detached as he thought about all the times his brother and he had shared moments over the years. Their chats, the times they went out on trips together, the time Kentaro teased Hiroki about picking up girls with their good-looks - All of it.


    Suddenly, Hiroki came back to his senses and his yellow irises constricted and his pupils became slits as his mouth curved into a smile that seemed entirely fueled by rage and disbelief, "How dare they...!" he suddenly stood up and charged toward the door for the house.


    Barging through it, Hiroki looked upon the horde that was situated in front of his house, his eyes glittered with hatred and his smile twisted further showing animalistic brutality unusual even in the most savage of animals. His prominent canines seemed even sharper and menacing than usual as he unconsciously let out a low, guttural growl.


    "You fucking pests...You took my brother from me..." Hiroki''s face warped from the utter wrath he was feeling, "HOW FUCKING DARE YOU!" with this roar of utter despise, Hiroki shot off toward the horde and drew his combat knife.


    The front line of the Zombies noticed Hiroki as soon as he barged through the door and started their shuffling to him then, so this front line were the ones he first collided with. What unlucky bastards.


    It was a slaughter.


    Hiroki''s combat knife sliced through rotten flesh and bone with sickening efficiency. Any attack aimed at him was easily dodged and punished with death.


    Hiroki''s speed, strength, and coordination were eerily inhuman, every action he made was so efficient and full of killing intent that it seemed unfair that there were only a few zombies after him.


    But it could be seen that his stamina was running out as his breaths were incredibly heavy, the quick and strong movements taking more stamina than you''d think. But this didn''t stop Hiroki''s assault at all. In fact, it only seemed to fuel it.


    Hiroki, in his rage, pushed further and further into the horde, cutting Zombie heads off left, right and center.


    But his Combat Knife couldn''t handle the stress after cutting through dozens of necks and snapped in half. The Zombies bones seemed oddly enhanced so cutting through them was much harder on the knife than cutting through a normal Human''s neck.


    Seeing this, Hiroki simply threw the broken blade away and lifted up both his hands.


    Despite the fact that doing what he was about to do was very stupid, Hiroki did it anyway, his emotions making him get carried away.


    Hiroki''s hands both suddenly turned black as his nails morphed into blade-like extremities. Weirdly enough, unlike before where his hand looked a bit rough, this time his hands were completely smooth-looking.


    But Hiroki didn''t notice this as his vision went red thinking about more memories with his brother and how he''d never get to make any more memories with him.


    Hiroki felt like his heart had been torn out of his chest and diced up in front of him, and the only way to stop the pain was to eradicate the Zombies in front of him.


    So, that''s exactly what he did, Hiroki charged at the nearest Zombie and with his hand in the shape of a knife, punctured straight through the Zombies throat and grabbed its neck before tugging at it and lifting the undead creature up.


    Hiroki spun around and using the Zombie as a bludgeon, slammed a Zombie''s head into the ground, killing it and the one he was holding at the same time in an explosion of gore.


    Everyone was at the door watching this, even Daichi, and other than Mai and Ino, all of them had stupefied expressions on their faces as they looked at the Hiroki''s unusual hands and the claws upon them.


    Hiroki felt his heartache suddenly, not from emotional pain bit purely from physical pain. He collapsed to one knee while pushing whatever Zombie was near him away into the bumbling horde behind them.


    Hiroki''s hands turned back to normal and he clutched at his chest with his hand.


    Seeing him like this, Mai instantly charged at him with even more speed than he had and appeared next to him near instantly. She looked at him with a look that was equal parts understanding and also anger before she grabbed his collar and shot back over to the door.


    After hearing his sister herd everyone back inside, Hiroki''s heart pain intensified and he passed out.


    Hiroki went to sleep, vowing to avenge his brother and resolved himself to the fact that he would head to the Mall as soon as he could. He just needed more power first.


    Luckily, that opportunity would soon arrive. For all of them.

 Chapter 5 - The Awakened and System Users

    Once again, Hiroki opened his eyes. His eyes were bloodshot and gave off an aura of tiredness as if Hiroki had just run a Marathon or something.


    But this time, Hiroki''s eyes weren''t full of vigor. No, they were dull and seemed to be pondering about things. Their dull yellow color looked as if his eyes belonged to a corpse and not an alive person.


    Hiroki felt a ripple go through his chest as he remembered what had put him here; overuse of his Hardening ability. But as he remembered why he overused it, his pained heartbeat with anger just like before.


    However, this time the anger was cold and calculating, rather than hot and impulsive. Looking back on his actions, he couldn''t help but reprimand himself for being so stupid. What if there were more Brute Zombies? What if the horde pushed passed him and stormed the house?


    "You fucking idiot, Hiroki..." Hiroki whispered to himself as he slowly pushed himself up and looked about where he was.


    Surprisingly, just like before, he was back in his living room but this time the sky was slowly getting brighter and currently had a light purple coloring to it. Hiroki figured that it must have been a whole night since he went on his short rampage.


    Again, thinking about what he did, Hiroki shook his head in disdain for himself. He had the right to be angry over his brother''s death, nobody could take that from him, but he should have acted on the anger when he was sure he''d be the only one hurt if something went wrong.


    He looked down at his hand and willed it to harden into the familiar black clawed hand.


    Looking down at it, Hiroki felt that the stamina usage had reduced by more than half and he couldn''t help but rejoice at this small bit of good news among such bad news. Hiroki guessed that his [Adaptive Metabolism] Trait wasn''t just for show and was indeed allowing him to improve at a quicker rate.


    Thinking of his traits, Hiroki released his skill and brought up his Status.


    [Name: Kurosawa Hiroki]


    [Title: The One Who Adapts Survives]


    [Race: Modified Human]


    [Virus Mutation: 6%]


    [Rank: 0]


    [Unique Traits: Accelerated Metabolism(?), Adaptive Metabolism(?), and Superior(?)]


    {Skills Gained: Body Hardening}


    Hiroki looked at his status and saw the previous question marks had become the place for his skills, which solved a few questions in his head. But more questions seemed to fill their places as he saw that his Virus Mutation had increased.


    As he thought about this, he slowly stood up, cautious of hurting himself. But surprisingly, Hiroki didn''t feel any pain, in fact, he felt better than before.


    "Oh my God...Is this Adaptive Metabolism Trait forcing my body to become better to keep up with the Hardening skill? Does that have something to do with the Virus Mutation?" Hiroki spoke absentmindedly as he looked into the distance, lost in thought.


    What Hiroki didn''t expect, however, was for his questions to be answered.


    [Awakened, Hiroki, your Adaptive Metabolism, and Accelerated Metabolism feed off each other. Your Accelerated Metabolism makes adaptation to conditions quicker, while your Adaptive Metabolism helps make your Accelerated Metabolism heal even quicker if you sustain enough injuries. So, these two traits, together, are helping you rapidly adapt to the Body Hardening skill. Your Virus Mutation is also getting greater because of your Traits becoming more refined]


    Hiroki was a bit shocked but his thirst for knowledge helped him recover quickly, "But how am I making my Traits more refined by using Body Hardening? Aren''t I just making my body stronger?" Hiroki spoke in whispers, not wanting to attract anyone and make them think he was some kind of mad man.


    The screens reply came almost instantly.


    [Awakened, Hiroki, you are using your Traits to achieve the Body Strengthening, no? So, in the end, you are refining your Traits constantly, as long as you exercise you will refine your Traits. You are the One Who Adapts, Kurosawa Hiroki, one of the Seven. Look at your Title and you will know your power]


    "Wait--What do you mean?" Hiroki, expecting a reply, instantly asked another question. But there was no reply to Hiroki''s confusion, it was as if the screens were taken over by a mysterious entity who would answer some of Hiroki''s questions.


    Having nothing to go off of, Hiroki simply did what the screen last told him; he checked his status and saw that there was a (?) by his title which wasn''t there before. So he clicked on it and a new screen popped up.


    [Due to Adaptive Metabolism, Accelerated Metabolism, and Superior have such synergy, Kurosawa Hiroki''s ability to adapt to danger and intensity have been enhanced by many folds, and has allowed him to take the Mantle of one of the Seven,--@#?!&%@>ERROR#?&@!%--!]


    Instantly, Hiroki''s vision was full of multiple characters that were just gibberish in his eyes, his head ached for a while and his eyes seemed to close themselves on their own. Hiroki lifted his hands to his head as he felt like his head was being crushed by a hydraulic press.


    His eyes, that were once dull were now back to being full of vigor and if it weren''t for the pain, Hiroki would feel much better.


    This wasn''t because he''d forgotten about his brother''s death, and especially not because he didn''t feel sad about it. It was because Hiroki had realized he had the power to eventually avenge his brother, to eventually start killing as many Zombies as he wanted and once he was ready, he would kill all the Brute''s he came across.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    It seemed slightly childish but there was no way Hiroki would ever let the hatred caused by his brother''s death fade away into nothing.


    If he needed any more reason to kill Zombies, he had one; He was Alive and they would kill him if he didn''t kill them.


    Hiroki''s mentality was slowly warping into a ''kill or be killed'' sort of mindset but this way of thinking was perfect for the times of peril he would soon be going through. As his mind became like this, the pain suddenly stopped and Hiroki could fully stand up without hunching over in pain.


    "Ah, so you''re awake, my idiot little brother," Hiroki casually turned around and saw his sister, Mai looking at him with a gentle smile, "You realize how much of a bastard you were last night, right?"


    Hiroki let out an awkward laugh and scratched the back of his head, "Yeah, I guess I was a little bit of a bastard, huh?" Mai scoffed when he said ''a little bit'' but her happiness at his maturity over the situation overruled it.


    But just as soon as her happiness came, it disappeared and was replaced by a solemn expression of hatred. Hiroki could guess what she was about to talk about. It was at this time that Hiroki noticed that his sister''s eyes that used to brown were now an ice blue and her pupils were like his; slightly elongated vertically.


    These icy eyes added more coldness to her voice as she spoke, "Now, we must talk about how we''re going to avenge Kentaro. We''re both Awakened, so we have a chance, unlike most people," Mai''s softened as she looked into Hiroki''s, "From what I''ve gathered you have shield ability and your physical prowess is higher than mine. So you should be a close quarters fighter, which balances well with my--" before she finished, she and Hiroki heard three equally shocked yelps.


    Looking at each other with worried looks on their faces, both Hiroki and Mai shot into the hallway and into the Kitchen were the three voice came from.


    Inside they saw Daichi, Ino, and a pale Keiko looking into the air in front of them, obviously dazed. Hiroki took the initiative and walked up to Daichi before poking his shoulder, "Himura, what''s up?" Daichi, hearing Hiroki, snapped out of his stupor and seemed to have an excited gleam in his eye.


    "All of the Humans, except the Awakened - which I''m guessing you and Mai are - have been granted the System. It allows us to kill the Zombies and gain Prana from them. If we gain enough of this Prana, we level up and gain Stat Points which we can use to improve any of our stats," Daichi paused for a moment before smiling at Hiroki, "It pretty much works like a game."


    Hiroki widened his eyes as he looked at the excited teen in front of him. His surprise faded as a smile spread across his face, he clapped down on Daichi''s shoulder, "Well, it''s settled then, let''s get stronger together!" after seeing Daichi take on the Brute Zombie with just a sword despite just being a non-enhanced Human, Hiroki started to respect the school idol and knew he was someone he could trust.


    So when he learned that Daichi could become strong like he could, albeit, through more hard work, Hiroki resolved himself to stay with Daichi as the two could watch each other''s backs and help each other through the apocalypse.


    Daichi smiled at Hiroki''s proposal, "Sure, it''d be my honor to fight alongside the "Tiger" of Green Meadow Highschool!" Daichi put quotations marks in the air and laughed teasingly at Hiroki.


    Hiroki didn''t blush but he still felt a bit embarrassed about the nickname people gave him based on his eyes. He also realized he was living more and more up to that nickname as time went on; He''d gained the ability to use claws and his eyes had turned yellow like a Tiger''s. This caused Hiroki''s face to become a bit more embarrassed.


    He let out a small sigh but he wasn''t upset or annoyed at Daichi, in fact, he was happy that Daichi felt relaxed enough around him to tease him like he just did. Most people would shit themselves saying ''Hello'' to Hiroki, let alone teasing him, so Daichi''s attitude was a real breath of fresh air.


    "Yeah, same thing for me, "Prince" of Green Meadow Highschool~!" now it was Daichi''s turn to get embarrassed over Hiroki''s teasings.


    While the two boys were busy messing about with each other, Mai went over to Ino and Keiko and spoke to them about what exactly the message said to them.


    Through her questions, she found out that the System also came with a Class System that would be unlocked at level 20 and that the ''Game System'', as Ino called, wasn''t the only system out there but the message didn''t elaborate on anything else about these various other systems.


    She also found out that despite being users of a game-like system, they could still instantly die no matter their health if they were hit in a vital spot like the heart or brain with enough lethal force.


    Other than that she found that they had a small inventory system and they could only carry as much as they could actually physically carry; so it scaled off of their strength attribute.


    Before Mai could ask any further questions, Ino looked worriedly behind her causing her to look behind herself as well. When she looked behind her, she saw Hiroki and Daichi both walking toward the kitchen door, Daichi with his Katana in hand and Hiroki barehanded.


    With one look she could see what they intended to do and instantly shut them down, "No, you''re not going out there. After your stunt last night it''s too dangerous!" Mai''s voice was firm and Hiroki could sense an immovable will in it.


    Hiroki and Daichi''s expressions dropped as Hiroki stepped toward his sister to persuade her, "But Sis! Daichi needs strength as soon as possible, just like we do. Besides, I can kite the Zombies over to him and if anything life-threatening occurs, I''ll pull him out of it instantly!" Hiroki''s impulsive side showed again but he wasn''t doing this purely because he wanted to be a brat.


    No, he was doing it because he knew the sooner Daichi became stronger, the sooner the two other System Users in the house could become stronger and before they knew it they would have a pretty solid team to go and explore the neighborhood with.


    Yes, Hiroki knew the dangers but he sensed that if they weren''t willing to do something dangerous they''d die, purely because they let themselves get weak while the Zombies might be mutating further.


    He didn''t say any of this because his sister would take it as him worrying too much and despite all that''s happened she wouldn''t believe he could sense with his instincts. Especially after losing their older brother, Mai wouldn''t want Hiroki to risk himself in any way.


    Mai went to storm up to Hiroki and slap him but Ino put a hand on her shoulder, "Kurosawa-san, your Hiroki-kun is right, we all need strength as soon as possible if we''re going to survive this...whatever this is," despite being usually soft-spoken, Ino wasn''t timid or a coward, no she was an incredibly strong-willed person and would always rationally think about things. So even now when she was scared of the outside, she could see the benefits of taking the initiative on using this System.


    But she wasn''t done talking, "So that''s why I''m coming to get stronger with you, Daichi," Daichi, who heard this, seemed to have expected this from her as soon as she stopped Mai from admonishing them. He knew how stubborn his sister was, so he just accepted it. Besides, just because he was worried about her, Daichi would never stop his sister from trying to get strong, mainly so he knew that she could protect herself when the times comes when he''s not there to protect her.


    Mai seemed worn out as she looked at the three teens before her. In the end, she sighed and informed them that she would be coming with them to look over the entire thing.


    So, after all that, Hiroki and the others - even Keiko - walked to the front door, set on becoming stronger.