The Origin Warden

Chapter 3 : The First Core

He stared at the coin with a frown and clenched it tightly in his hand.

' I see '

He sighed and threw the coin into the garbage as if it had lost its value.

' This is my luck and I know it well. It has always been my sworn enemy '

He rotated the small crystal core in his hand and muttered,

“Regardless of its use in upgrading the Azoth Armor, what are its other benefits?”

Previously he did not have the slightest idea about the usefulness of the core except that it was important because of reading many novels and manhwas that showed the protagonist consuming the core to gain supernatural power, but Jack was cowardly afraid of turning into a zombie if he tried eating this core, especially since it previously rested inside the skulls of the creatures he killed.

But with the appearance of the Azoth Armor item he now had an idea about the usefulness of the core.

[ Medium Quality Dormant Origin Core ]

He stared at the runic letters that appeared before his eyes.

' How can I use it to upgrade the armor? '

Jack wondered silently and immediately got his answer as if the system responded to his requests. Another interface appeared before him.

[ Do you want to consume the Origin Core for the benefit of Azoth Armor? ]

“Of course, yes”

Jack whispered then watched how the core crumbled into white light particles and entered his body. This time he did not feel anything.

He immediately summoned the item information to check the matter.

[ 30/1 ]

A wide smile formed on his face. Without hesitation he took out the remaining cores and did the same thing with them.

[30/4]

' There are still 26 left '

He dismissed the interface then took a deep breath or at least tried to because the smell was unbearable.

He slowly pushed the container lid until it fully opened. Fortunately the container was in a closed alley and this meant it was a relatively safe area from the presence of monsters or zombies nearby.

He grabbed the sharp bone, his temporary weapon, and came out.

His shoe made a faint sound when it touched the ground surface. He looked around while stretching his limbs a little because of his sluggishness from sitting for too long. He groaned in pain when his back pain suddenly hit him.

He saw nothing except darkness. He was somewhat afraid but quickly regained his composure. He could try carrying out his plan of storming the police station during the day but that would only be suicide. Night was a better time because of the darkness. According to what he noticed zombies completely lose their ability to see at night.

He tightened his grip on his temporary weapon then began walking with slow cautious steps while looking around him and especially behind him fearing something might appear.

With the help of the faint moonlight he soon approached his target. He hid behind a car and stared at the police station gate which was not empty like the street.

' Fuck '

Jack gritted his teeth with a dark frown while staring at the vague outlines of the five zombie bodies who stood before the gate motionless like statues. Their crimson eyes which were like an abyss of blood stood out even in the absence of light.

' Only five. But there may be more nearby not to mention inside '

He carefully looked around making sure his surroundings were free of any unknown danger. He shook his head trying to get rid of the crazy idea that appeared in his mind but failed.

' I can take them down '

He cast another glance at them then flipped the bone to the other side and forcefully struck the window glass of the front car door.

The sound of breaking glass alerted the zombies and they began limping slowly with clumsy steps toward the place.

Jack had already left the area and sneaked behind the zombie who was apparently a police officer judging by the uniform. He resisted the trembling of his hand and with a clumsy movement inserted the sharp side of the bone into the zombie’s ear cavity causing it to fall without resistance.

Jack quickly grabbed it with both hands and gently placed it on the ground fearing its fall would alert the others.

' No weapon on him '

He searched the officer’s corpse with his eyes but found that the latter’s weapon was missing, most likely dropped somewhere.

[ You have killed a level 4 dormant creature : Dead Walker ]

[ Congratulations you have obtained 3 fragments of Origin Energy ]

[ Your level increases ]

He ignored the ethereal system voice that announced he had obtained a reward as a result of taking someone’s life, but were they really alive?. Even the system referred to them as Dead Walkers.

He shook his head to dismiss these thoughts stirred by his conscience and pulled his weapon out of the ear cavity.

Drops of coagulated red blood dripped from the bone toward the ground while Jack headed toward his next target.

He grabbed the next target by her hair fixing her in place then quickly inserted his weapon into the ear cavity before his target could resist, exactly like he did with the previous one.

[ You have killed a level 4 dormant creature : Dead Walker ]

[ Congratulations you have obtained 3 fragments of Origin Energy ]

Jack gently placed the corpse on the ground then retrieved his weapon and headed toward the next target.

[ You have killed a level 6 dormant creature : Dead Walker ]

[ Congratulations you have obtained 5 fragments of Origin Energy ]

[ You have killed a level 7 dormant creature : Dead Walker ]

[ Congratulations you have obtained 7 fragments of Origin Energy ]

[ You have killed a level 5 dormant creature : Dead Walker ]

[ Congratulations you have obtained 3 fragments of Origin Energy ]

He released a long sigh while pulling his weapon out from his last victim. He knew they were no longer living beings but at the same time he was not sure.

A question always crossed his mind about what if humans in the future managed to cure zombies and return them to their original state. Wouldn’t that mean he was taking away other people’s right to return to life once again?.

With these negative thoughts weighing him down Jack failed to notice that he was being watched by a pair of yellow eyes with vertical black pupils.

He stopped thinking about these complicated matters when the ugly mumbling sounds of zombies approaching his location entered his ears. Apparently the sound produced from breaking the glass attracted the attention of distant zombies.

Jack stood up then began walking with quick but cautious steps making sure not to touch or make any noise that could attract attention.

He placed both hands on the closed glass door trying to see through it but even with the moonlight’s help he could not see anything.

' This is strange. The door is closed and there are also zombie corpses nearby, if I’m not mistaken then most likely someone is here or at least someone visited this place recently, I just hope they left something behind '

He carefully turned the handle then slowly opened the door and entered inside, leaving the door open behind him as a precaution.

There was a long hallway and Jack could not tell what was at its end because of the darkness. On his right there was an open empty cell. Jack ignored the cell and headed toward the office on the left.

Fortunately the door was not locked. He slightly opened the door and looked inside to make sure there were no zombies before entering and closing the door behind him.

' I don’t think the police keep their weapons here '

Jack thought while running his hand across the surface of the only desk in the room. Most likely this room was a complaint reception office.

Papers were scattered everywhere on the floor but there was no trace of any corpse. Wherever the person working here was, they had succeeded in escaping the office.

' There’s nothing useful here '

Jack grumbled silently then exited the office and made sure to close the door behind him.

' I think the weapon storage room is at the end of the hallway '

He stared at the end of the hallway with a frown. He really did not want to go there but he had no other choice, actually he did.

He had many choices like retreating and returning to his beautiful residence, the trash container that had become safer than living in an apartment!, but the temptation of obtaining a firearm was stronger.

' Haaah! '

Just when he was about to step forward he felt something wrapping around his left leg. Instinctively he tried to escape forward to free himself from the strange thing wrapped around his leg but that only made the situation worse. The thing’s strength was stronger than his so he tripped and fell face first downward.

' Damn it. I knew it. My luck isn’t good '