The Origin Warden

chapter 17 : Smith POV : Level up

The last thing Smith felt was a heavy weight pressing down on his back and a pale hand with long nails filled with bits of flesh falling near his face, then his eyes rolled back and he lost consciousness.

“Pathetic.”

Eric lowered the automatic firearm, ignoring the sound of the system inside his mind, and looked at Julian who had just spoken, then sighed.

“Well, the kid is indeed somewhat cowardly, but that’s normal. Eight days ago he was just an ordinary person. Surviving this long is already something worthy of praise.”

Julian did not answer. He merely stared at Eric before shaking his head and turning toward Mandy, giving an order calmly.

“Mandy. Wake the fat kid up and help him kill these things.”

Mandy frowned and could not help but ask,

“Boss, I don’t understand. Why do you want to help this fat pig level up?. His personality isn’t suited for fighting.”

This time he did not turn to look at the giant woman beside him. He simply opened his mouth and said calmly, in complete contrast to Mandy’s fiery temperament,

“We need more capable people!”

Mandy was not satisfied with that answer, but she did not ask further questions.

She shrugged, then started walking toward Smith who was lying unconscious on his stomach, while the female zombie rested on top of him with a bullet hole beneath her right eye.

She grabbed the zombie’s corpse with both hands and lifted it before throwing it toward the nearest zombie as though it were a trash bag.

The corpse crashed into the unfortunate zombie and knocked it to the ground.

She knelt on one knee beside Smith, then flipped him onto his back.

She stared at his round fat face before swinging her hand and slapping him.

“Wake up, you cowardly fat pig!”

Smith dreamed of a bad memory.

He was at his grandfather’s house in the countryside, and out of boredom he decided to try riding a horse there, but it ended with the horse kicking him in the face.

He raised his hand and touched his face painfully while muttering resentfully,

“Grandpa, you really should sell that ugly horse. It tried to kill me...”

“What the... have you finally lost your tiny mind?. The only thing that’ll kill you is me if you don’t get up right now!”

As though that annoying voice was a key, the final memories before he lost consciousness flooded back into his mind like a rushing torrent.

He opened his eyes in panic and tried to get up, but he could not because there was a leather boot pressing against his chest.

He swallowed nervously, then followed the trail from the boot to the leg, and finally his eyes met Mandy’s eyes, who was smiling a wicked smile... or at least that was how it seemed to him.

“D-did I get bitten?” he asked.

“Oh God, you really are an annoying lump of fat. Get up, you weren’t bitten.”

Smith let out a deep sigh of relief, then raised his arm and extended his hand toward Mandy with a joyful smile because he had survived.

Amanda removed her foot from his chest and ignored his extended hand, causing him to lower it awkwardly while trying to cover it up with a light laugh.

He placed his hands on the ground and pushed himself up before looking at the group, headed by Julian who was leaning against a streetlamp with a calm expression.

Smith immediately lowered his head in embarrassment, unable to look into those gray eyes.

“Fatty. Listen, the leader is giving you another chance...”

When Smith heard Mandy’s words, despite being afraid of her, he interrupted her mercilessly while shaking his head left and right.

“No. No. No. I won’t do it. I won’t. I can’t.”

Even when he saw the frown forming on her white freckled face, he did not flinch this time.

He crossed his arms, which had a few scratches from his earlier fall, over his chest and said firmly,

“Look. I’m only here to help you restart the cars. Fighting these monstrous creatures is your specialty.”

“Don’t you want to level up?. Awaken your latent powers?” she asked in confusion.

He nodded and shook his head at the same time.

“I... I do want to, but my life is more important.”

“So you’re not opposed to killing them?” Mandy pointed toward the zombie standing only a few steps away from her.

He shook his head.

“No. Yes, I’m a coward, I admit it, but I’m not stupid. These things aren’t human anymore.”

Mandy stared at him thoughtfully before sighing and turning toward the zombie, kicking it in the chest hard enough to send it stumbling backward, then said while walking toward the zombie trying to stand back up,

“Good. Now pick up that damn knife. I’ll immobilize them for you, all you have to do is kill them.”

Smith hesitated.

He cast a quick glance at Julian, then at the zombie, then back at Julian again before letting out a long sigh and bending down to grip the knife in his hand.

“I don’t have another choice.”

he muttered under his breath while walking toward Amanda.

She had somehow already knocked another zombie to the ground.

The zombies terrifying him were merely toys in her hands.

Smith could not help but shiver at the thought that he had spoken to her in that tone a little while ago.

She pointed with her finger toward the zombie struggling to get back up while trying to push away the corpse of the zombie she had thrown on top of it earlier.

“Start with that one. Aim for the head through the eye socket or the ear.”

Smith nodded, then walked toward his target.

He turned his head to the side, unable to look directly into those ominous crimson eyes, then tightened both hands around the knife and drove it down forcefully, stabbing through the right eye and into the brain.

The zombie stopped moving and the final trace of life vanished from the corpse.

At the same time, the ethereal voice of the system appeared in Smith’s mind.

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

[ Congratulations, you have obtained 4 fragments of Origin Energy ]

“I...”

He stared blankly at the lifeless zombie, then at his trembling hands.

“I...”

“Fat pig, we don’t have time!”

He turned toward Mandy, who was frowning, and asked reflexively,

“What?”

She twisted the unfortunate zombie’s arm beneath her foot hard enough that Smith could hear the sound of cracking bones.

“You’ve already wasted enough time. Come over here, you can feel guilty later.”

Smith lowered his head with a confused expression, like a little child lost from his mother.

He pulled the knife out of the eye socket with difficulty while resisting the urge to vomit.

As he walked toward her, drops of thick red blood dripped from the surface of the silver knife onto the ground.

This time, under Mandy’s impatient gaze, he did not hesitate.

With both hands, he drove the knife through the ear canal.

“Hmmm, I guess... you’re not completely useless after all!”

Smith let out a laugh that could easily be mistaken for crying.

He did not know whether this woman was mocking him or praising him.

[ You have killed a level 8 dormant creature: The Walking Dead ]