Chapter 3: 003 – First Blood

Chapter 003: First Blood

It was time to enter the black door. With the bow and arrow, nocked in one hand, I open the door.

Suddenly, I get teleported to a long, quite large stone corridor, with glowing rocks embedded on the ceiling at regular intervals.

At the end of the corridor, at least 100 meters away, is the silhouette of the zombie.

I’m happy we weren’t placed next to each other.

I keep my bow in my hands, with two spare arrows in my hand, ready to fire one and nock a second and third one right after.

I’ll just have to walk until I get close, shoot, then jog back, shoot again, as many times as I can. Then, I put on the gloves, and it’s knife and hammer time.

I guess the mouth’s the worst part, so I might as well make it chew on the hammer and stab through its eye.

Hopefully it dies once the brain is hit.

It’s not like there’s a magician making it move or something. The mission’s semantics clearly make the zombie a living thing that can be killed.

At around forty meters, much too far to shoot, the zombie notices me and starts walking, faster and faster, getting more excited.

It does seem like its sense of balance is bad, as it movements are exaggerated in all directions.

(No… His strength is beyond what it was before turning into a zombie. That’s why.)

I take position and shoot an arrow at thirty meters.

It flies by its neck. I jog back and nock another arrow. 25 meters away.

I shoot, the arrow plants itself in the zombie’s collarbone.

I jog back, 20 meters. I miss completely, my hands are shaking a bit.

12 meters.

It’s close enough to make out its features, it’s the moving cadaver of a middle-aged man, wearing brown pants and a dirty yellow shirt. He has a lot of facial hair.

His mouth opens and closes automatically, making a clacking noise every second.

Shaking or not, I won’t miss now.

Fuuu

The arrow embeds itself in the zombie’s right side of the jaw.

Its mouth has trouble closing now.

I run back quickly and nock one more arrow.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck. Hit the eye! The skull!”

I’m now close to the end of the corridor where I started.

The zombie’s still around 12 meters away.

I shoot its head, the arrow plants in the top of the head, but the zombie still seems fine.

“Fuck!” The arrow skipped over the top of the skull. I shot too high.

I throw the bow down and put on my gloves in a second, then dual wield my knife and hammer.

I sidestep the zombie which accelerates towards me.

The corridor being about 4 or so meters wide makes combat maneuvers possible.

“Alright, I can do this…”

The zombie turns and lunges again. I sidestep it again and whack my hammer at the back of its head.

“Ahhh… Hurts, hurts!” The zombie mumbles.

The zombie still seemingly had a sense of self.

“Fuck! Fuck!”

Seeing the zombie up close was already putting my hair on ends, but I almost couldn’t move once I heard its voice.

The zombie lunges again towards me.

I sidestep and hit its skull, making the zombie fall on its arms.

I throw the hammer at its head then place my foot on its back, holding it down.

“…”

I give a kick to its back, the zombie seemingly shocked after the head shot from the hammer, has its arms flail around.

Being immobilized on the ground, I take the opportunity to stab its skull.

Thack

“It’s hard!”

This wasn’t some rotten bone at all.

I had to try harder.

I take the knife in my two hands, facing down, and swing down with all my strength.

The knife goes through the skull. The zombie has spasms and soon stops moving.

“…”

The white door appears. I pull out my knife, which takes a while with my foot on its head, then I collect my hammer and bow and leave.

The message screen appears in my mind.

“Search, apostle.”

Only two results, the same ‘tutorial set’ as before and an ‘apostle slate’, both for a single point.

The apostle slate made it possible to use points using the slate, from anywhere. The picture on the hologram made it look like a thin slab of marble.

“Buy them.”

The knowledge is embedded in my mind.

Mana Convergence allows me to meditate and regenerate mana quickly.

The Accumulation Martial Arts is both a philosophy and a set of techniques to deal higher damage, many movements become ingrained in my reflexes.

I try a few out.

A half sidestep punch. More punches and kicks. The movements make efficient use of the body to generate maximum power, but I notice there are no defensive techniques, and only two grappling moves.

It seems it is mostly the philosophy that allows these moves to shine.

The philosophy of Accumulation Martial Arts is as follows…

‘Hitting what moves towards you means you can multiply the damage. Burn what’s overheating. Freeze what’s cold. Make plasma out of thunder.’

In other words, if someone were to punch me, I’d position myself to not get hit and punch the fist and wrist of that someone.

The harder fist would win usually, but the better positioned fist will win even with equal hardness. You can hit below the knuckles and cause more damage.

It’s quite something. To make full use of this, I’d need a better body, and better healing.

“Search, healing.”

“Buy Enhanced Regeneration 1.”

I have 17 points left.

“Search, body strength.”

Looking at the details, enhanced strength seemed to give more strength, but body enhancement improved everything, even my brain and stamina. Since the details are blurry, I’m not sure how much improvement this corresponds to.

But since it helped my bones, skin, flesh, strength, stamina, speed, flexibility, reflexes and more, I could only drool.

Too much strength without any stamina or resistance would just be auto-destructive. I might break my own arms and rip my muscles.

“Buy Body Enhancement 1.”

Suddenly, clarity fills me. I try jumping.

I think I jumped two meters high just like that.

I glance at my status panel.

With the body enhancement, the regeneration, the martial arts, I might have become one of the strongest people on Earth.

Next time, I was planning to get more magical abilities, and become capable of accumulating more mana.

It also seems that this is the path that Ellabizina was recommending with the tutorial set abilities.

With only two points left, I wasn’t about to buy items or consumables I could only use here, and these points weren’t converted to a whole lot of money.

“… Can I talk to the Goddess Ellabizina?”

“Am I not her apostle?”

No screen appears. Was the more human, indirect question not registered, or was this system not answering on purpose?

“Let me leave.”

I reappear in my bed, with my bags and equipment, in the same sleeping position.

I check the time. One in the morning.

Time didn’t flow, or was at least accelerated hundreds of times over there.

Maybe I can even do homework in the white room? If I bring my laptop and extra batteries, can I just play games for a week? But I’d also have to bring food and water just for that.

I get up, undress, and go to bed, tired.

It seems my tiredness is removed when I enter the white room, and it returns after I leave.

Just a minute ago, I felt fine, and now, I’m really tired.

I fall asleep.

…

…

I wake up at 10 AM to eat bacon and eggs.

Three hours later, I go to my cell biology class.

I don’t see Elisa anywhere, so I take a random seat with empty seats by the side.

A few seconds later, Elisa enters the amphitheater and comes to seat next to me.

“Hi Elisa. How are you?”

“I’m good. And you?”

“I’m alright, I joined the archery club last week, it’s quite fun.”

“Oh, archery. You shoot far?”

“Eh… Not yet. It will take time.”

Vanessa Oslin, the beautiful blonde professor comes in.

She starts the class with another quiz.

“Answer me this, what are the functions of alpha-amanitin, acridin, cycloheximide, chloramphenicol and leptomycin B?”

When nobody lifts their hands, I do, since I don’t like to see this professor unanswered when she teaches well.

“Yes?” She says as she looks at me.

“Alpha-amanitin blocks DNA transcription in the nucleus, acridine blocks DNA transcription in the mitochondria, cycloheximide blocks messenger RNA translation in the cytosol, chloramphenicol blocks messenger RNA translation in the mitochondria and leptomycin B inhibits nuclear export.”

“That’s right! And your notebook isn’t open. Pretty good. This is what’s needed if you want to get excellent grades in cell biology. Let’s continue from where we left on.”

…

After class, Elisa and I talk on the way to the following thermodynamics class.

Juan comes and bothers us.

“Hey amigo! Got a new girlfriend?”

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“Ola Juan, got an ID card?”

“Fucker. Come meet me after class if you have the guts. I’ll fuck you up!”

“No, you come meet me! Coward!” I reply.

“What? No, you come!”

“You wet chicken coward. I’ll fry you up, come meet me after class!”

By this point, I had no idea what we were supposed to talk about.

But this Juan’s empty threats meant I could say whatever.

“You… I’ll rape your girlfriend! Come meet me!” He points at Elisa, who takes a step back.

“…!” My eyebrows shoot up. He went too far. “Fine, I’ll follow you after class. Can’t wait to take out my anger.”

Juan smiles at this sentence as if I fell right into a trap. He must have called his Mexican drug lord family for backup or something.

Juan backs away as we walk to class and take our seats.

Elisa seems a bit freaked out, which is no surprise.

Taking a glance at Juan, he’s on his phone, typing.

“Don’t worry, Elisa, although he looks like a criminal, I’ll deal with him.”

“Was he serious? What he said?…” Elisa looks at my face.

“… I don’t think… No, he said that only to provoke me, don’t let it go to your head. I’m not sure what’s wrong with him.”

I almost answered haphazardly, which is obviously no good, especially now.

Unless Juan brought guns, I’d be fine. Still, if he had someone filming the brawl, this could be bad.

Other students stopped looking over.

The class went on.

…

After class, I followed Juan as promised, who started walking into the woods nearest of the university.

The wind blew gently behind me.

Just as Juan stops, three other tanned guys walk over from the woods.

“Alright amigos, let’s beat the shit outta this gringo.” Says Juan.

“Jajaja!” His thinner friend says.

“…” His muscled friend stays silent, looking at me.

“Ain’t he quite calm?” Juan’s fat friend analyses.

I reply loud and clear. “You Juan, I’ll take your front teeth. As for the others… It’ll be up to luck.” I drop my bag on the ground.

“W-What…?” The fat Mexican mutters.

I get down and start sprinting at them at high speeds.

The muscle-Mexican guy steps in front and lowers his center of gravity, readying his feet and arms to fight.

As he stays there, I jump-kick his stomach, sending him reeling back.

“BWAHHH!”

He flies for a few meters back.

Juan and the other two come to gang up on me.

I punch the fat guy’s face first, as his size and weight might be tricky if I’m grabbed on.

Bang

“My nose! AHHHH!”

Juan throws a knuckle punch from behind. By reflex, I kick the ground, making me spin rapidly, and punch Juan’s fist back before it hits me.

Crunch

“AAAHHHHHH!!! MY HAND!”

I think I broke a bone there. My fist hurts a bunch too.

I take a few steps away to open and close my fist.

“Not broken… Some swelling later though.”

Juan is on the ground, holding his hand, the last thin Mexican looks at his friends and backs up.

“Ayaya… Fuck! Sorry! I didn’t mean this!”

The fat guy got back up since, standing next to the thin guy with a hand holding a bloody nose.

“Ah… We won’t bother you again.” He says.

“Show me where you hid the cameras.”

““… What cameras?”” I look carefully at their expressions, I can only believe they’re genuine.

Then I only need to take care of their phones and hope for the best...

“Good. By the way, bothering me once… Is already too much.”

I take a step towards them, the two turn around to run.

I sprint and give each of them a kick to the balls.

They fall over and cry. I take their smart phones away.

I look at the other two. The muscled guy is back up, pale. Juan is jogging away.

“Juan, you motherfucker.”

I sprint towards him, and give a full powered kick to his nuts.

“AAAAHHHHHH!!! AHHHHH!!! HNGGGGGGGGGG!!! FUCK!!!”

I approach and kick his back to make him face me, then I smash his front teeth with my heel.

Crack

The teeth snap right off into his mouth, I kick his back again to make him face the ground, where he spits and lots of blood and his four upper front teeth, and his two lower front teeth.

“God that’s disgusting.”

I see his phone had fallen from his pocket, I take it as well.

“Juan, you disgust me. You mess with me for nothing, you’re trash. You couldn’t even tell I could beat you up like this so easily? Go fuck yourself. Go rape your mom in a wheelchair.”

Juan responds with a gargled voice. “No… Stop! STOP!!! I’M SORRY!”

I kick his right leg, over and over, but it doesn’t break. I grab one of Juan’s arms and place it behind his back, then I twist it, harder.

Pop

It gets dislocated.

I wanted to break it, but it’s not so easy.

I look at the muscled guy, who’s grabbed his phone, apparently trying to call someone.

I look around, grab a stone and throw it at him, luckily it hits his hand, making him drop his phone and hold his hurt hand in pain.

There are no big rocks here. I grab Juan’s right leg with my arms and place my feet onto it, then I pull.

Snap

It breaks.

“AAAAHHHHHHHH!!! Stop… Please…”

I go jog towards the muscled guy, who just waits for me.

“… Just take my phone and leave. I won’t talk.”

“Then give me your second phone.”

“What…! How did you know…”

My random bluff worked. I almost face-palm myself.

I ready myself and lift my fists.

He does as well. He gets into a boxing stance, then stays still.

I approach to give a light jab, he dodges and punches back.

My martial arts reflexes kick in to jab my elbow at his wrist as hard as I can.

Crunch

“AAAHH!! God… Damn it!”

He holds his wrist in great pain.

It’s broken.

I grab the phone on the ground.

“Give it now, or I’ll break the other one.”

“No… Here! Have mercy…!”

He grabs his bag, opens it and gives me a flip phone.

I grab it. “Hum… Alright, you’re free to go. If you bring me trouble… I don’t need to tell you what happens then.”

I grab my bag and start running back. I get to another secluded area and remove the batteries of all the phones. Three of them, I had to smash them against the pavement to do so.

I return back home. My hand is already fine, no traces of anything left.

As soon as I’m home, I take the phone’s pieces, pick out the data chips, place them in the sink with some unclogging acid, and wait.

I open the window to deal with the smell.

This should take care of all the data and prints. I wash my shoes while I’m at it.

I look at the time, then I head out to the archery stands with my bow.

…

Later, I put the remains of the phones in a separate trash bag, and the next morning I throw it away in a public trash can where there are no cameras.

I go to class as normal.

Seeing Elisa, she speaks out to me first for once.

“Are you alright?” She looks at my face.

“Yes, I’m quite fine, and you?”

“… I’m okay.”

“… I talked to that Juan about what he said, he now regrets it a lot. If he approaches you again, tell me right away.”

“But I don’t have your phone number?”

“Right, let me give it to you…”

Just like that, we exchange numbers.

A good day earned with hard work.

“I don’t see Juan anywhere?… Did you fight?”

I smile back at the question. “Not really…” It wasn’t much of a fight in retrospect. He didn’t injure me. “Maybe he’s ditching class.”

…

…

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