Zombie Apocalypse System

"Hey, driver! Slow down! You don't need to race with death!"

"Take it easy, man! The brakes are a bit shot, and it's totally jammed up ahead!"

Axel just snorted, leaning his head against the violently vibrating bus window. In his ears, metal music thundered, trying to drown out the hot and suffocating bustle of Jakarta. He glanced at his cracked digital watch.

"Damn, I'm screwed... late again. The boss is definitely going to rant like crazy," Axel muttered softly, staring at the rows of cars that weren't moving at all under the scorching sun.

Suddenly, a massive thud hit the roof of the bus. The entire vehicle shook violently, throwing passengers from their seats.

KRAAAKKK!

"Holy shit! What was that?!" shouted a teenage boy in the back seat.

"Hey, the roof is torn! Help! The roof is torn open!" a mother screamed hysterically while clutching her child tightly.

Axel looked up. His eyes widened. A giant, pitch-black claw, shimmering like steel, had just ripped through the bus ceiling as if it were a piece of tissue paper. Blood splattered onto Axel's face as the claw forcibly pulled away the body of a man standing right next to him.

"Dammit! What kind of monster is that?!" Axel shouted, instinctively jumping toward the bus aisle.

"Open the door, man! Open it, quick!"

"I can't, the door's stuck! It's jammed!" the bus driver shouted, his voice trembling violently, his hands pounding on the unresponsive control lever.

A six-legged creature, with glowing red eyes and fangs dripping with green slime, emerged from the hole in the roof. The creature let out a roar that nearly shattered Axel's eardrums.

"This is insane! We're going to die! Everyone's going to die!"

"Don't just stand there, idiot! Get out through the window!" Axel snapped at the man in front of him who was frozen in fear.

Axel didn't wait any longer. He grabbed his backpack and used his elbow to smash the window glass into a thousand pieces.

"Jump! Everyone jump if you want to live!" Axel commanded firmly.

He jumped out, landing on the hot asphalt with a perfect roll. As he stood up, the sight before him was far more horrific than anything he had ever imagined. The Jakarta sky, usually gray with pollution, was now split by a giant purple crack.

"Oh my God... is the Monas building... collapsing?" muttered a woman who had just managed to escape the bus, her voice hoarse from shock.

"It's not just Monas, ma'am! Look over there! Everything is destroyed!" Axel replied, pointing toward the city center.

Skyscrapers collapsed one by one, like a house of cards blown by the wind. Flying monsters with wings as wide as small planes began to dive, snatching people running in the streets.

"Run! Don't just stand there! Find a place to hide!" Axel shouted to the people around him who were still paralyzed.

Suddenly, a bright blue transparent screen appeared out of nowhere, floating right in front of Axel's eyes.

[Warning: Apocalypse Initiation Protocol Has Begun]

[Welcome, Earthlings. Please Participate in the Great Evolution Selection]

"What the hell is this? A hallucination? Am I breathing toxic gas?" Axel tried to rub his eyes, but the screen remained.

"Hey, do you see a blue screen too?!" shouted a man running past Axel.

"Yeah, I see it! This is crazy! It's like an RPG game!" another replied while continuing to run aimlessly.

"Dammit, what kind of system is this?!" Axel growled, trying to touch the screen.

[Candidate Analysis: Axel]

[Status: Normal - Hidden Potential Detected]

"Potential my ass! I just want to survive!" Axel cursed at the screen, his feet moving quickly toward a narrow alley to avoid the pursuit of the six-legged monster that had just devoured the bus driver.

THUD! THUD! THUD!

Heavy footsteps echoed from behind. The monster was chasing him. The creature's speed was nonsensical.

"Shit, shit, shit! Why am I the only one being chased?!"

"Hey! Over here! Get inside this shop!" a man shouted from behind a slightly open rolling door at the end of the alley.

"Close the door! Don't wait for me! The monster is too close!" Axel replied, realizing he wouldn't have time to reach the shop.

Axel turned sharply to the left, entering a dead-end alley filled with piles of cardboard and trash. He was panting, his back pressed against the cold concrete wall. His heart pounded as if it wanted to jump out of his chest.

"I'm dead this time... I'm really going to die a pathetic death here," Axel whispered, cold sweat pouring down his forehead.

The creature slowly entered the alley. The sound of its claws scraping against the concrete wall made a heart-wrenching screech. Its red eyes stared at Axel hungrily.

"Come on then, you want to eat me? I'm not going down easy, you bastard!" Axel grabbed a rusted iron pipe lying near his feet.

[Notification: Survival Will Detected]

[Candidate Qualifies For Forbidden Talent]

"I don't need a notification! I need a real weapon!" Axel shouted at the blue screen that reappeared.

The monster lowered its body, the muscles in its hind legs tensing, preparing to pounce. Green slime dripped from its mouth, melting the plastic trash beneath it.

"You think I'm scared?! Come here, you ugly freak!"

The creature leaped. Its speed was such that Axel only saw a large black shadow covering his entire field of vision. The monster's sharp claws lunged straight for Axel's neck, slicing through the air at the speed of sound.

"Dammit... is this the end?"

Just as the tip of the claw was only centimeters away from the skin of his neck, a cold mechanical voice echoed inside his head, stopping the heartbeat of the world for a moment.

[Forbidden Talent: 1000x Critical Chance Awaiting Confirmation]

[Do You Wish To Activate Absolute Dominance?]

"I... I confirm! Hurry up, idiot! Activate it!" Axel shouted with what remained of his strength.

Instantly, a blinding silver light exploded from within Axel's body. The air pressure in the narrow alley changed instantly, becoming so dense that the mid-air monster seemed to hit an invisible steel wall.

"Huh... what is this? My hands... why are they glowing like this?"

Axel stared at his palms, which were now wrapped in a crackling electric silver aura. The iron pipe in his hand also changed color, becoming pure white with a deadly aura.

"Time for... payback..." Axel gritted his teeth, his eyes now flashing with the same light as the aura on his hands.

He swung the iron pipe with a simple motion. However, under the influence of his new talent, that swing created a pressure wave that destroyed everything in its path.

BOOOOMMMM!

A single swing of that small iron pipe produced an explosive impact equivalent to a tank missile strike. The monster didn't even have time to make a sound as its body shattered into fine dust particles. The concrete wall behind the monster was also blown apart, leaving a massive gaping hole.

"Insane... just one hit?!" Axel gasped, staring at the destruction he had created.

[1000x Critical Successfully Triggered on Basic Physical Attack]

[Damage Multiplied by 1000: Total Destruction of Low-Level Enemy]

"This... this makes no sense at all. I could become a god if this keeps up," Axel muttered, a thin smirk beginning to appear on his blood-stained face.

However, his joy didn't last long. From behind the hole in the wall he had just made, dozens of other pairs of red eyes appeared. Dozens of similar monsters were staring at him with overflowing rage.

"Oh, great... so many choices," Axel gripped his iron pipe tighter.

"Hey, you ugly monsters! Come on, all of you, if you've got the guts! I'm not running anymore!" Axel challenged with a cocky tone he had never possessed before.

One of the largest monsters, with sharp spikes on its back, leaped forward ahead of the others.

"Bring it! Take this—"

Axel was just about to swing his pipe again, but the ground beneath his feet suddenly split open. A giant tentacle with a diameter equivalent to a city bus shot out from the bowels of the earth, destroying the narrow alley in an instant.

"Holy shit! What now?!" Axel was thrown into the air, trying to grab onto anything.

In the middle of his fall, he saw Abby—a short-haired woman in torn formal wear—staring at him with wide eyes from the second floor of a shop that was nearly collapsing.

"Hey! Jump over here! Watch out below you!" Abby screamed hysterically while reaching out her hand.

Axel twisted his body in mid-air, his eyes fixed on the tentacle that was now heading straight for him.

"I don't need help, but fine!" Axel shouted back while using his pipe to strike the air, trying to create thrust from his critical effect.

[Warning: System Energy Too Low For Consecutive Conceptual Attacks]

"Tch, this system is so stingy!" Axel cursed, but he managed to land on the balcony where Abby was, albeit a bit shakily.

"Are you okay? My name is Abby, thanks for helping distract that monster!" the woman said quickly, her breath hitching.

"I'm Axel. Stop talking for a second and look at that!" Axel pointed toward the main road.

The giant tentacle began to wrap around the surrounding buildings, crushing concrete like crackers. Above it, a winged humanoid figure with a crown of thorns stood tall, staring toward the two of them.

"Is that... is that the Lord?" Abby asked with a trembling voice.

"Looks like it. And he doesn't seem to like the fact that we're still breathing," Axel replied coldly.

The thorn-crowned creature raised its hand, and thousands of black fireballs began to form in the sky, all aimed directly at their position.

"Axel, we have to run now! That's not on our level!" Abby pulled Axel's arm forcefully.

"Run? There's no such word as 'run' in my dictionary today, Abby," Axel slowly brushed the woman's hand away, his eyes staring sharply at the Lord in the sky.

"Are you crazy?! We're going to be incinerated!"

"Relax. I've got a trick that'll give even a god a headache," Axel began walking to the edge of the balcony, his iron pipe starting to glow again with an intensity even crazier than before.

System... if I use all my energy for this one attack, what happens?! Axel asked internally.

[Analysis: 1000x Critical Chance On All-Out Attack Will Result In Area-Scale Destruction]

[Warning: User Death Risk 99%]

"Only a one percent chance of survival? Heh, that's more than enough for me!" Axel laughed wildly.

He raised his iron pipe high into the sky, just as the thousands of black fireballs began to plummet, raining down upon the earth.

"Take this, you world-destroyers! Thousand-Fold Critical... Destroy...!"

A blindingly bright white light swallowed their entire vision, and the sound of the explosion that followed made time seem to stop in its tracks and...