SYSTEMBREAKER: Rise Of The Ninth Overlord

#4: Logical Choice

Rhys smacked down with his chair. The wood coming down with a satisfying smack on the zombie's head.

The larger zombie tumbled down and crashed into the other zombies. Kind of like a bowling ball knocking down wooden pins. A strike he couldn't really admire.

Rhys threw the bedding over the disgusting zombie pile at the bottom. Then left his first chair at the top as another obstacle.

There was no time to hesitate, he sprinted to the second room with a similar layout as the first. A bed, a chair, and a mess. Rhys grabbed more of the old linen as he ran back. Another fresh but half sized zombie had almost crested the stairs.

He booted the small zombie along with the first chair down the stairs.

That was a damned child, he realized, then he threw the thought in the back of his mind.

Holding the second chair in his hand, he defended the stairs.

It was getting busy at the landing now. Zombies were scrambling to get past the fallen mess. They stepped, pulled and scratched as they funnelled themselves to the top.

At least there were only three fresh ones. The others were clumsy and actually messed up the footing of the more dangerous fresh ones.

Rhys repeated his bedding trick until every room had been stripped and the chairs had been thrown. The zombies were too stupid to understand that they were making no progress.

He held up a small oil lantern as the fire flickered in his eyes. He chucked it down. Not at the zombies but at the landing on the ground instead. He had already knocked down the other lanterns on the second floor. The scattered bedding and broken chairs caught on fire.

The zombies didn't seem to notice. They continued to scramble up at him as he hurled his last chair with all of his strength, the flying chair flipped in the air as it knocked the closest zombie back down the stairs.

Adrenaline pumping in his veins, he ran to the first room and leapt out of the building's window. Rhys's eyes widened when he realized he had jumped from the second floor. He braced for pain as he did a perfect landing on the ground.

Right, he was a Dominion 0 adventurer now. He couldn't spend any time processing that thought as he ran back into the building.

He found the object he was looking for, a large round table. The zombies were still in the process of clambering up the stairs. There was no sight of the fresh ones, they were probably on the second floor.

He half dragged and half rolled the large table towards the entrance. A few zombies had seen him and started turning around. Too late for them, Rhys was out of the inn and slammed the table against the entrance doors. He angled the large legs so that the door wouldn't be able to open from the inside.

Thank fuck for whoever had come up with Plan B.

Plan B, or Plan Burn It To The Ground, was a strategy Rhys hadn't wanted to use. Despite its effectiveness, it had issues with achievement-

There was a crash from the second floor directly above him, he looked up to see two zombies jumping out of the same window he had come from.

He'd completely forgotten about the fresh zombies.

They fell far in front of him as they smashed into the ground. Unfortunately for them, they weren't quite as graceful as he was. Both of them splatted to the ground one on the back and one on its stomach.

He didn't hesitate as he sprinted forward and kicked the innkeeper zombie's head, snapping its neck. He took out his sword to stab the other one in the neck and it dodged.

Its eyes changed colour, a purple hue reflected in the dead irises.

"Trialist..." It moaned, "Won't you take my deal?"

Rhys didn't listen, he lunged forward to try to stab the head as the zombie hurled itself at him. It was going for a mutual hit. He stepped sideways at the last moment and slashed out. It nicked the zombie at the side as it kept running forward, ignoring him. It sprinted straight ahead.

Right at the table blocking the entrance.

Now Rhys was the one sprinting at the zombie. He managed to close the gap and stabbed his sword right through the back of its head. A [Twin Strike] just for good measure. It laughed as Rhys pulled the zombie backwards and threw it on the ground.

"Fuck."

That had been way, way too close. He checked the table holding the door closed and breathed a sigh of relief. He was about to check his notifications when another body dropped from the second floor.

A small figure crashed into the ground.

"You fool," it cried in a high-pitched voice. "The other trialists will kill you. They did-"

Rhys kicked the zombie in the head. Its head snapping backwards. He held the door for a few more minutes as the smell of burning rotting meat filled the air.

When the last of the zombies had burned to death, the notifications started streaming in

《You have slain an innkeeper zombie You have slain a trader zombie You have slain a child zombie You have slain a zombie x24》

The zombies being controlled by the Trial boss meant that at least an hour had gone past since the other adventurers had arrived. The fresh zombies meant that the other adventurers had taken the path of slaughter. They'd probably already killed everyone in the village.

That was how you maximized combat achievements for the Initiation Crucible.

Neither of those things was something Rhys wanted anything to do with. He wasn't judging, it was considered bad taste but taking the demonic path wasn't against Guild rules.

He eyed the dead kid.

"Okay, that's just cold."

Maybe he was judging a little. Trial being or not, that was too far. It was one thing to talk about maximizing combat achievements, it was another to actually do it. Rhys shook his head, trying to put it out of his mind.

The real worry was whether he could tell them he was a Chosen before they tried to kill him. The worst case scenarios flashed in his head, stories where mortals argued about how they had been killed and the other team had called it an 'accident'. There were worse stories floating around, those that had been caught on video, bragging about the lives they took.

If he died, he wouldn't even be able to report it. He didn't have a safety life.

Rhys stared at the path that led deeper into the dungeon. It was a gaping maw that promised to devour him whole. A three-mortal scaled Trial.

He decided to take on the risk of telling the party instead.

After all, the Adventurer's Guild of the modern era was nothing like two generations ago. What group of insane idiots would try to kill him, only to end up blacklisted the moment they became adventurers?

He was making the logical choice.

Right?