Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night

After scavenging for supplies across Elena's family home, Zane and the girls left the building. The streets of the neighborhood were quiet, but not entirely abandoned. In fact, there were several Walkers bumbling about, minding their own business, and perhaps even chasing wildlife such as squirrels around in an attempt to devour their flesh.

Among the items scavenged from Elena's home was the girl's Katana, as well as a compound bow that her father used for hunting. Because Zane's skill was a passive one, he was only so useful against the undead, and Elena came to the conclusion that he should provide support by maintaining a safe distance from the girls, while sniping at any undead that got too close to them.

The only problem with this was that Zane's rifle made way too much noise, as it was unsuppressed. Because of this, he could not effectively take out the Walkers with his most effective weapon. Luckily for him, Elena's father had a compound bow, which after several hours of target practice, Zane became quite adept with.

Thus, Zane provided Overwatch, while staying in a tree, while Elena took the front lines with her Katana, using her skill [Time Reduction] to slow time and effortlessly cut off the heads of the Undead who approached her and Olivia.

As for Olivia, she herself stayed in between Elena and Zane, firing off her skill [Electric Discharge] which would deep fry and Walker, who came close to Elena. With this strategy, the trio were able to effectively clear the streets of the suburban neighborhood from the Undead menace within only a handful of house. And had even looted a large quantity of blood crystals.

Perhaps it was because the undead in this neighborhood had feasted on plenty of living beings, more so than those which Zane had encountered in the past, but there was a much higher concentration of blood crystals in this neighborhood.

Zane and the girls had looted well over a hundred blood crystals in a small time frame. But rather than monopolize the lion's share of resources for himself, Zane held onto them, promising to distribute them equally once they had set up camp in the night.

For now, there was a far more daunting task to take care of. While the streets had been cleared of undead, there were still walkers lingering in homes. Because of this, Zane proposed a new strategy. One which involved infiltrating the buildings as a three-man team, using their knives in close quarters to effectively counter the undead in the homes.

Elena naturally took the lead due to her ability, and the trio would only infiltrate a building every time her ability was off of cooldown. Thus, after taking a deep breath, Elean resolved herself, before kicking down the door to her neighbor's home.

After rushing into the building, with Zane, and Olivia behind her, providing backup. Elena found her neighbors had suffered a similar fate to her family. They were all wondering aimlessly in the living room, seemingly unaware that a wall was in front of them.

Because of this, Elena's eyes flashed red as she cast her skill [Time Reduction]. Immediately, time slowed for everyone but herself and her team. Evidently, after using it throughout the day, Elena learned how to properly wield her ability so that only those she wanted would be affected by it.

With this in mind, Elena and the others rushed towards the Walkers who had damn near been slowed to a stop and stabbed their targets straight through the skull with the knives that they had in hand. Immediately after, the trio began to slowly clear the house.

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Though Elena was certain that the four walkers were all the consisted of her neighbor's family, they had no idea if any other undead had entered the building. Thus, after making sure every inch of the home was secure, only then did the trio approach the corpses and cut open the skull. Dissecting the decomposing brains as they searched for blood crystals. Which they found two of.

This strategy continued throughout each house within the housing development, and by the time Zane and the others had returned to Elena's home to rest their weary heads and divide the loot. Night had already fallen.

Once they were safely in Elena's home, Zane opened up a large sack which he used to hold the loot. He divided it into three sections and told the girls to consume their blood crystals after crawling into bed. As for Zane himself, he devoured his own share and immediately gazed upon the results.

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[Blood Crystal Consumed]

[+10 XP]

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This message would repeat itself repeatedly until finally Zane leveled up to level five. Where he saw the following display itself.

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[Blood Crystal Consumed]

[+10 XP]

[Level Up! You are now Level 5]

[+3 Attribute Points]

[+1 Skill Point]

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Zane looked at the blood red lettering of the system with a genuine expression of surprise on his face. +1 Skill Point? What was that? He had never experienced such a change in the leveling up process before. Thus, Zane immediately shifted away from his [Attributes] screen, and instead clicked on the [Skills] section. Where he saw his unique skill on display.

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[Dead Man Walking: Evolve Y/N?]

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The Evolve section of the skill was new. But Zane did not see a reason why he shouldn't evolve the skill, and thus he clicked the yes button.

Immediately, Zane felt something change in his body, almost as if death and decay had taken over. But it was not a sickly or unwelcoming feeling. Instead, what Zane felt was peculiar. Almost like an irradiated glow had taken over his entire flesh, his body becoming much warmer as it did so. And then suddenly this strange feeling vanished, and Zane felt completely normal again.

However, the system alerted that there had indeed been a change with his body.

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[Dead Man Walking – Tier II]

[Description: Your body is now more dead than it is alive… In essence, you no longer require food, water, air, sleep, or the need to relieve yourself. You can now live the rest of your lifespan without ever requiring such things to survive. Essentially, making them voluntary.]

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Zane was astonished by what he just read. By now, he knew better than to question whether or not the system in his head was reality or delusion. And thus he did not even bother testing to see if this newfound ability was real. Instead, he decided to check in on Olivia and Elena, who by now should be getting close to finishing their stage of corruption.