"Hey, Michael. What's the plan now?"
After the chaotic events of the morning, Michael had left the day-to-day management of the newly formed Contribution System entirely in Hank's hands. He was now heading out to scout the surrounding campus perimeter.
"I plan to test my new skill," Michael replied with a grin, playfully nudging Shawn's shoulder. "Don't you want to do the exact same thing?"
"We need to practice our active skills during our downtime so we can utilize them flawlessly when things get desperate," Selena noted, nodding in agreement as she followed closely behind them.
"I think that one's a perfect target. Let me go first." Shawn stepped forward, tracking a lone rogue zombie wandering near the courtyard.
Stopping a few paces back, Shawn cracked his knuckles, brought his hands together, and began chanting a string of incomprehensible, low incantations.
The ambient space around Shawn violently trembled and fractured, tearing open a hollow, pitch-black dimensional void. Beads of sweat instantly formed on Shawn's forehead from the sudden mana drain. A moment later, a massive, imposing gray wolf bounded out of the portal. The beast locked eyes with Shawn for a split second before leaping forward, clamping its jaws onto the rogue zombie's throat and ripping it apart in less than a second.
"Shawn... how long can you actually maintain that thing?" Michael asked, momentarily speechless as he stared at the terrifying, spectral physique of the Shadow Wolf. The beast casually tossed the shredded corpse aside and stood perfectly still before its master.
"Hmm... based on my current maximum mana pool, I think I can only keep him sustained for about ten minutes," Shawn grinned, immediately beginning to flex his new power by hunting down stragglers.
Beside him, Selena was already moving seamlessly, rapidly adjusting to the disorientation of her new [Blink] skill.
"Alright, my turn. Watch closely—time to witness the true potential of an Epic-grade skill."
Michael approached one of the intact corpses Shawn's wolf had just cleared. Kneeling down, he began using the freshly spilled blood to sketch intricate, geometric circles and bizarre runes across the pavement. Once the blood-writing was complete, Michael sat cross-legged before the corpse, chanting a series of low, alien phrases while weaving complex gestures with his fingers.
Nothing happened.
"Michael, what on earth are you doing?!" Shawn's grin widened into a full-blown laugh at Michael's eccentric, dramatic display.
"I think this particular corpse doesn't meet the integrity criteria mentioned in the description," Michael muttered, completely ignoring Shawn's mockery. He placed his hands on his chin, sinking into deep thought. "Let's try a different approach."
Michael isolated a nearby wandering zombie. He drew a slender, surgical dagger in one hand and raised his shield with the other. Approaching the monster, he raised his shield to seamlessly lock its arms in place, then gently—almost tenderly—drove the dagger through a precise point in the zombie's head before slowly pulling it back out.
"The preparation for this is a nightmare. I really hope it works this time." Michael knelt back down and executed the identical ritual from scratch.
The painted blood runes on the asphalt suddenly began to pulse with an eerie, violent purple light. Michael sliced his own palm with the dagger, dripping his fresh blood directly onto the central array. The glowing circles fractured in a terrifying display, and the pooled blood began crawling up Michael's hand and weaving into the skull of the corpse.
The crimson fluid seeped deep beneath its decaying skin.
"Did it happen? Did the skill fail again?" Selena whispered cautiously as the blinding purple radiance began to fade, looking down at Michael who remained seated on the ground.
"No... it worked perfectly." Michael smiled. He could feel a profound, invisible mental tether linking his consciousness directly to the dead creature standing rigid before him. He could command its every movement with a single thought.
"Bro, how long can you keep that zombie under your control?" Shawn walked over, inspecting the undead servant from head to toe as if trying to gauge its structural weight.
"It's permanent," Michael smirked, seizing the perfect opportunity to fire back at Shawn's earlier mockery. "It lasts indefinitely until the physical shell is entirely destroyed. Did you think I was a cheap, timed summoner like you?"
Shawn stood completely shell-shocked by the sheer utility of the Epic skill. Selena, on the other hand, massaged her forehead with a heavy sigh, realizing the massive asset she had casually gambled away. "Michael... you owe me a massive favor for this. Seriously."
"I promise I'll make it up to you next time," Michael laughed, giving her a firm thumbs-up.
"Wait a minute, Michael," Shawn's eyes suddenly widened as a brilliant realization hit him. "You're controlling a zombie, right? Does that mean the other wandering zombies will completely ignore him?!"
"Unfortunately, no," Michael sighed, instantly popping Shawn's bubble of excitement. "During the ritual, a portion of my own blood integrates into its anatomy. The system recognizes its signature as an extension of me, meaning the undead see it as a threat."
"Why don't you show us how it actually handles a fight?" Selena gestured with her chin toward a small cluster of zombies shambling a few dozen yards away.
"Let's do it."
The team intercepted the cluster, systematically putting down the majority of them while leaving a single regular zombie isolated for the experiment.
"I never in my life thought I'd be cheering at a zombie-on-zombie boxing match," Shawn cheered as Michael's thrall lunged forward. The servant moved with raw aggression, tackling the wild zombie to the ground, tearing into its neck, and crushing its cranium with a single, brutal downward strike.
Plaintext
[Notification: Your Thrall (Zombie???) has reached Lv.6.]
[System Note: Due to the creature's critically low base Intelligence, the Master is permitted to manually allocate its stat points as desired.]
[Name: —————— ]
[Race: Undead]
[Level: 6 {0 / 250 XP}]
[Class: None]
[Mana Points: 6]
[Strength: 14]
[Constitution: 12]
[Vitality: 13]
[Agility: 5]
[Intelligence: 3]
[Unallocated Points: 3]
[Skills: N/A]
—Holy hell, is this real?— Michael was stunned. The last thing he expected was for a necromantic thrall to possess a structured leveling template identical to human survivors.
"This is getting absurdly complex," Selena muttered, rubbing her temples. "There's no point overthinking the metaphysics of this world right now. Just assign the points and make your pet stronger."
"Yeah, you're right." Michael shrugged. He immediately dumped all 3 unallocated points directly into the thrall's Agility. Nobody wanted a crippled, sluggish tank lagging behind them during an apocalypse.
While reviewing the status screen to confirm the point allocation, the generic question marks in the name slot began to bother him. He tapped the interface.
—Let's go with Dark.—
By the time the status screen updated, the sun had already reached its peak. "It's past noon already. Let's head back to the facility."
On their trek back to the Mechanical Engineering building, the trio crossed paths with a few roaming stragglers, all of whom were systematically converted into raw experience points to feed Dark's level progression.
As they neared the entrance of the faculty complex, Selena stopped and pointed out a glaring logistical issue. "Michael, it's a terrible idea to bring Dark inside the main building. It'll trigger an immediate, mass panic among the civilian survivors."
"You're completely right," Michael nodded, understanding her point. "But I can't just leave him wandering out in the open courtyard either; he'll get picked apart easily."
"I have an idea," Shawn interjected. "Shove him into one of these ground-floor staff apartments and block the door shut with heavy furniture. He'll be perfectly safe inside until we need him."
Michael approved of the quick fix, and they promptly secured Dark inside an isolated apartment unit.
... ...
The moment Michael stepped back into the central hub, Zola and Theodore immediately intercepted him.
"Yo, Michael. Are we going to scout out that Dimensional Gate before we evacuate the campus or what?" Zola asked, bringing up the topic that had been circulating among the combatants.
"I'm not sure yet. I'm still weighing our options," Michael replied, shaking his head neutrally.
"Well, you might want to decide fast. I heard that Jin and Yoo-Min are already planning to head out there regardless," Theodore added, crossing his arms.
Michael's brow furrowed at the news. "Where did you hear that? Give me details."
"Honestly, I don't know the exact specifics," Theodore shrugged, smirking slightly at Michael's sudden barrage of questions. "I just overheard Jin and Yoo-Min mapping out a route to head there tomorrow morning."
"Then we have no choice." Michael finally received the definitive tactical push he needed to commit to the next phase. "Theodore, tell everyone to assemble in the main briefing room immediately. After that, you and Zola get out there and grind your levels as much as humanly possible before nightfall."
... ...
A short while later, as the last invited combatant stepped into the crowded briefing room, Michael clapped his hands loudly to command the room's undivided attention.
"Alright, now that everyone is here, let's get straight to the point." Michael signaled for the core fighters to take their seats. "What exactly do you think we are going to find inside that Trial Ground?"
"I don't know the precise architecture of what's inside," Shawn was the first to break the ice. "But I know for a fact it's a massive opportunity to scale our combat power."
"Exactly. And I think I actually understand the underlying mechanics of how it works," Selena added, validating Shawn's point.
"Oh? Let's hear it," Michael said, leaning forward. Her hypothesis directly aligned with his own unverified assumptions.
"My [Observation] skill allows me to read targeted data on high-tier infected," Selena explained to the room. "Whenever I analyze an evolved zombie, the system description explicitly notes that the specimen 'successfully cleared its Trial.' Therefore, it's highly logical to conclude that this Trial Ground is the exact mechanism that allows us to undergo our own evolution."
"She's entirely correct," Jin spoke up, casually tossing a blank Class Scroll onto the center of the table. "But there's a hard gate. You cannot physically initiate that Trial unless you have reached Level 10."
Jin surveyed the room before expanding on his statement. "The exact moment I hit Level 10 this morning, a system notification manifested in my vision. It explicitly instructed me to choose and lock in my official Class Archetype directly at the coordinates of that Dimensional Gate."
"Then the tactical move is already decided," Yoo-Min shrugged, cutting through the chatter to lay out his proposal. "We launch a coordinated campaign to storm the Gate in exactly three days. During these next three days, every single available combatant must push themselves to the absolute limit to hit Level 10."
"Let it be so, then. This meeting is adjourned." Michael nodded in absolute agreement with Yoo-Min's timeline. The core leaders stood up, filing out of the room to prepare for the grueling grind ahead.
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