It was already evening so Alex did not stop anywhere until he has reached the most expensive hotel in the city, he drove the truck into the hotel parking lot and asked the two of them to stay in the car before he prepares their accommodation.

He booked a VIP room with very good security doors on the floor just above the parking lot and tipped the receptionist big. As soon as he was done, we rushed back to the floor below and helped Elise and Edith to pack all the supplies that they have bought.

They settled in the room which has two beds on it. As soon as they have taken their showers eaten, they gathered around a table where he brought out all the guns and bullets he has bought. He taught both of them how to arrange bullets in the extra magazines and the three of them sat down and started loading and arranging all the bullets in them.

After a few minutes of that, Elise stopped and looked at him directly in the eye.

“Brother, isn’t it about time you tell me exactly what is going on as you promised? I don’t even want to question you about the guns and bullets we are loading into magazines here. Tell me the truth, you know I will walk to hell and back with you if you tell me to, just as much as I know you will for me; so tell me what all of this is about.” Elise said.

Alex stopped what he was doing and asked Edith to stop as well, he stood from the table and sat on the edge of one bed, asking the Elise and Edith to sit opposite him on the edge of the other bed so they could talk.

“Listen to me carefully, I have a very unbelievable thing to tell you, so brace yourselves. I also am not ready to share how I know what I am about to tell you yet, so I will also want you to trust me on this one. Can you do that?” he asked.

Edith and Elise almost synchronically answered, “Yes, I can”.

“It is about the meteor we saw earlier on the news earlier, the one that is supposed to pass near the planet tomorrow morning. As you must have already noticed when we watched the news, they said that there are quite a few abnormal things about it, but that is not what I am about to tell you.” Alex said and sighed heavily, weighing what he was just about to tell his sister and Edith, knowing fully well that even he may not believe it if he was in their shoes.

“The meteorite is going to change its course mysteriously and crash onto our planet! And that is not the issue. Although the meteor is big enough to cause an extinction level event, it will shatter in the atmosphere and rain small negligible fragments that can only damage at most house or two where they land all over the world. Most of it will turn to gas and a red rain will fall all over the world. But this is not a problem. The problem is the rune virus that came with the meteor.”

“By this time tomorrow, the world is in chaos because the virus has turned into zombies! All the people you love and cherish will have to fight for their survival or die at the hands of the eighty percent of the world that won’t wake up from the first blackout. At least not as humans. When they wake up, they have already turned into zombies.” Alex said.

There was uncomfortable silence in the room for a few minutes. All of the kept quite knowing that he had already said he will not share how he knew that was going to happen. Elise wanted to demand more explanation, but she knows Alex would never put her in harm’s way.

“Look guys, I know this is really hard to comprehend, but just trust me till tomorrow when you confirm this with your own eyes. And one more thing, if we are going through this together, both of you have to promise me that you will trust me and do exactly as I say from now on.” Alex said.

Elise looked at Edith, who was also looking at her, and then the two of them looked back at him before they nodded their heads in agreement and promised him to do what he says.

With that, he walked to the door and locked it very well. He also checked the windows and made sure they were locked properly.

“You should sleep early today. You may not be able to get the kind of peaceful sleep you will have this night from tomorrow onwards.” Alex said and went to bed, closing his eye. In his mind, he said, “Status window!” and the window popped into his vision.

Remaining 10 hours before the next mission is unlocked

Time before the infernal rain: 14 hours.

He turned around and looked At Elise talking with Edith and used clairvoyance to look at her, a small window popped and it said.

Race: human

Power: Aceso’s vessel [dormant]

Description: [vessel of Aceso, the goddess of healing. When awakened, this power can heal any kind of injury with a single drop of the user’s blood.]

“I see now what the power you possess is. I will definitely protect you this time around, even if I have to burn the world to do so,” Alex said to himself, set an alarm on his phone before he fell asleep.

----***----

The sound of the alarm he had set on his smartphone the night before woke Alex from his deep and relaxing sleep. He reached for his hand and turned off the alarm on the phone, but something was not right. He was sure that the previous night he took one bed in the room and left the other one for the girls to share.

“I remember that correctly. So why are both of them on my bed sleeping soundly? That does not matter though, we have a very difficult day ahead of us.” He said to himself and slowly got out of the bed without walking any of them.

Immediately he stepped off of the bed, a status window appeared.

Congratulations. You have completed the tutorial mode. Story mode has been unlocked.

New mission: the infernal rain is beginning in two hours and thirty seconds, obtain the rune crystal shard that will fall in the city and kill ten stage-one zombies.

Mission duration: twelve hours.

Rewards: ???????????????

Penalty: ????????????????

 He broke some eggs that were on the refrigerator, made omlet for both of them and ate his own.

He left theirs near the oven with a note for both of them that said.

“Your breakfast is ready. Take it and wait for my return. I have locked you in the apartment just to insure your safety, no matter what happens. Do not leave the apartment until I come back. Switch off the lights and draw the curtains of the window. You should constantly peep through the window to see what is happening, too. I will be back by noon.”

Alex picked the Katana, a pistol before he left. He did not take the truck because he is saving it for when they need to escape the hotel and the city.

“I know exactly where the first shard of the rune crystal from the meteor will fall. I need to be near it when the infernal rain starts.” He said to himself as he takes a taxi and head to the city stadium where people have gathered to watch Kaoru, the most popular musician, perform live.

He took a taxi to the stadium and as soon as he arrived; he sneaked in with his Katana and pistol hidden. He tried to avoid crowded places, but wherever he went, there were people. It was now a few minutes until the infernal rain started and Kaoru was about to start her session when an emergency announcement from the city hall disrupted her show.

“Please citizens be advised that the unknown meteorite has shifted course and is heading towards the planet, place of impact has not been determined yet but given the size of the meteor, it is possible that this may very much be the end for all of us. Say your prayers and be with your loved ones!” the new announcer said over the news and at the moment, the meteor has already cast a shadow on the city by covering the sunlight.

People started panicking and running in the darkness, trying to get out of the stadium while others are have given up, knowing that there is no place to hide from a meteorite that large.

Alex on the other hand has climbed the roof of the stadium, the tallest place where no one was with him and laid down, looking at the meteor as it hits the atmosphere, emitting a brilliant light from the collision before it scattered into millions of pieces, falling in different places all over the world and covering the entire atmosphere in red dust from its explosion.

This is when the infernal rain began, a global phenomenon where red rain fell all over the world instantly and lasted for exactly twenty seconds. Alex did not try to hide from the rain at all because he knows it was no use. Exactly ten minutes after the rain had stopped, everyone in the world fainted, including Alex.

Exactly one hour later, Alex woke up with his body steaming really hard. From below in the stadium, he can see a few people are waking up as steam is emitted from their bodies in resistance to the rune virus. It suddenly occurred to him he had made a terrible mistake.

“What have I done? Because Edith was killed before the apocalypse in my last life, I have no knowledge of whether she will turn or not. I need to call Elise right now. There are still some minutes before the dead begin to rise.” He said to himself and dialed Edith’s number.

To his surprise, Edith picked the phone instead of his sister Elise so he has now confirmed that she has not turned.

“Where is Elise? I need to speak to her now!” he said.

Edith handed over the phone to Elise, who is still a little drowsy.

“Hello, brother. Are you alright? For some reason, both Edith and I fainted after the red rain stopped. Is this what you were talking about? I am little scared. Hurry and come back, brother.” She said.

“Yes Elise. Now do not forget my instructions I gave you. No matter who knocks at the door, do not attempt to open it and if for any reason someone tries to break in, use the guns on the table. I will be there as soon as possible.” He said and cut the call.

He look towards the stage where Kaoru was supposed to be performing before the announcement and saw the stage broken. A rune crystal has fallen on it from the meteorite. It is emitting a bright red glow.

A status window popped up.

Mission has started.

Alex stood up and grabbed his katana, jumped down from the roof and walked over the hundreds of bodies still unconscious, with a few that have woken up confused and trying to call the police for help. He went straight to the rune crystal, picked it up, and started running for the exit.

“What is going on here? I am trying to call the police station, but no one is picking it. Did the meteor cause this?” a woman from the side said while walking towards him.

Alex stopped running and turned around. There are a couple of people who have woken up and each of them seems very confused about what to do.

“All of you here that are awake should listen to me carefully. You are the only ones here that are alive. All the people still unconscious here are dead and in the next sixty seconds, they will awaken as zombies and start eating you. You should get out of here, gather supplies, and seek refuge in a safe place if you want to survive.” He shouted, but none of the people took him seriously as he can still see some of the trying to make calls to the authorities.

He turned around and was about to leave when all the bodies that have not woken up started wriggling violently, shaking so bad that some of them tear their clothes and as Alex noticed, their bodies have become so hot that their skin begin to come off by itself.

He draw out his katana and started running towards the parking lot towards the exit of the stadium in the hopes that he could find a motorcycle and use it to get out of the area.

From his front, one zombie woke up, a man in his late thirties with his face swollen and disfigured from the skin that has burned off while he turned and his teeth bearing out. The zombie violently ran towards Alex as soon as he saw him and, Alex smiled and said in his mind.

“So it has begun!” he raised his blade upwards and ran towards the zombie at full speed, arriving with a slash of his sword that shaved half of the zombie’s head and killing it instantly.

A small window appeared in the side view with a kill count that said.

Zombies killed: 1/10

Immediately, the rest of the people in the area saw this, they run in all directions but it was already too late. All the zombies were beginning to rise and attack the first person they seen without delay. In his front, Alex saw the woman asking him questions later, trying to talk some zombies chasing her out of it; but as he already knew, one zombie fell and grabbed her leg, making her fall.

All the zombies begin to bite and tear her flesh off in a gruesome and gory manner that suddenly reminded Alex of the harsh future that awaits humanity.

He raised his sword and increased his speed, feeling the difference in his already increased physical strength. With his sword on his shoulder, he did not hesitate with his attack as he sliced off the heads of two more zombies in a single slash.

He kept running as more and more zombies rise and chase around. Within a minute, the entire place was in chaos. Screams from people being eaten alive by the zombies, growls of zombies chasing people and explosions from unattended equipment that were left on as the users become zombies.

Alex continued to kill zombies as he approach the parking lot and was lucky when he arrived to meet a motorcycle with a key in it and the owner by the side, turned into a zombie and devouring the lifeless body out of his wife along with the other zombies around that killed her.

Alex paid no attention and jumped onto the motorcycle, putting the shard in his bag and riding out the stadium at a raging speed.

He did not stop anywhere until he was a few blocks from the hotel where his sister and Edith were when the bike engine died, having run out of gas; he pulled out his gun and suppressed it, keeping the holster gun holding pad open so he can quick-draw the pistol and grabbed his sword and continued to the hotel, killing five more zombies in the lobby before he finally made it in.

As soon as he arrived on the floor they were in, he saw a zombie turned from one of the room service workers of the hotel because he still has the hotel uniform on. His lips, along with the face of his skin, have fallen off, showing his set of teeth.

The zombie is banging and scratching at the door of a room just a few doors away from his room where his sister is in. Alex realized how small the hallway is so he pulled out his pistol as he approached the zombie, pointed the gun at his head and fired it once. Killing the zombie by blasting its skull open.

He proceeds to the door and used the special keycard along with the password combination he set for the door. The door beeped, flashed green light and open. He pushed it and walk in to meet both Edith and Elise holding pistols each and pointing them at him.

“Calm down girls, it is me.” he said, turned around and locked the door.

Instantly, a new window showed up.

Congratulations on completing the mission.

Zombies killed: 23/10

Rune crystal: obtained successfully

Mission reward: +5 rune energy, +5 physical strength, +5 dexterity. [New skill unlocked: Rune energy absorption]

Description: allows the user to absorb rune energy from rune crystal shards and blood crystals.

First kill bonus: [level up to a level two user, optional]

He closed the window as Elise ran and hugged him.

“What in the world is going on Alex? First we fainted for no reason earlier and now there are people on the street chasing and killing each other by biting their flesh and eating it.” Edith said, standing in the window and peeking out.

“Is this what you have been talking about, brother?” Elise asked, looking up at him while still hugging him.

“That is right sis, the world has already changed, only the strong shall survive from here on and we are going to survive this to the very end by becoming strong, we have to!” Alex said and removed the rune crystal from his bag and placed it on the bed.