Choose Your Apocalypse (A LitRPG Apocalypse, Progression, System Fantasy) [CYA]

<Alex, Real - Lost Sheep Have Gone Astray, Bank>

Alex stepped forward to meet the rush of undead, fighting his instincts to run from the frothing office-workers and other mundane folk.

He felt he'd been lucky thus far, mostly having to fight creatures that were clearly just that: Creatures.

Now, what came at him looked like drunk, enraged people. There were only small hints here and there at their undead nature.

Their skin was a bit too pale. They had wounds that didn't seem to be bleeding and eyes that didn't really seem to be focused on anything, even as they stared in his direction.

That, combined with their inhuman movements caused him visceral revulsion that was surprisingly hard to ignore.

As it turned out, the System seemed to agree.

Condition Acquired
Instinctive Revulsion

Instinctive Revulsion
You have encountered something that just isn't meant to be, and you know it in every fiber of your being.

Until you have slain, removed, or otherwise left the presence of the 'something,' you are under the following effects:
Effect of all Agility dropped by 25%
Effect of all Power increased by 25%

Alex felt the odd shift in himself. He felt the change even before the notification had forced its way into his mind. Now that he'd dismissed the notification, the difference was all the clearer.

He felt a bit numb, both in body and mind, and he felt a need to either run or obliterate what was coming at him.

He didn't know why the turned outside the bank hadn't triggered this feeling—this condition—and at the moment, he didn't care.

He let out a yell as he swung his dadao with all his might, the motion only vaguely similar to a proper strike.

Still, with his strength and the quality of the blade, it blew through the nearest attackers.

He didn't want to touch the creatures, but something deep inside him knew that they'd just keep coming if he didn't. He instinctively knew that he needed to cleanse the corruption.

Therefore, he slapped his off hand against the falling, bisected undead, sending quick pulses of health through to ash them before jerking his hand back and shaking it to flop uselessly with a disgusted shudder.

John and Natasha were acting like they were similarly affected, his eyes flicking around almost frantically as a cold sweat beaded on his forehead. Her eyes were so wide they looked unnatural, and her head jerked back and forth, sweeping the room to try to keep the three of them from being surrounded or overwhelmed.

Still, John continued to shoot, his long years of practice likely giving even his panicked shots precision and accuracy.

Natasha, likewise, used her spear to keep the undead at bay, Force Shields occasionally coming into place to keep her from being overrun.

Alex fought through his own jerkiness and instinctive revulsion more than through the enemies themselves. Those died rather easily; it was his own body that felt like the greater opponent.

Still, in less than two minutes, it was over and the condition passed, leaving the three Initiates panting, sweating, and shuddering in the once-more-silent bank foyer.

He found himself frowning, a bit confused.

Aside from the admittedly horrible condition, the fight had been… easy?

In truth, the only way this would have been a challenge worthy of a boss-style encounter would have been if Alex had been forced to fight by himself, or if they'd been otherwise forced to deal with the enemies one at a time while holding off the others.

Alex shuddered, putting the thoughts aside, even as the condition faded.

Natasha made no move to pick up the ash—for once—instead, rubbing her own arms and practically bouncing in place. John was doing what seemed to be an almost unconscious check of his weapons, appearing to take comfort from the clearly practiced actions.

Alex, for his part, was thumbing his wedding ring, and fighting the desire to squeeze his eyes closed and forget he'd ever been here.

The odd sensation was gone, but the memory of the fear and wrongness was still all too fresh.

Soon enough, Natasha shook herself free of the memory and cleared her throat. The sound pulled the two men free after her. "Eat something, then we need to go."

She put action to her words, pulling out a candy bar that she'd clearly been saving and taking a big bite.

Alex followed the instructions, pulling a few spicy cinnamon candies from his Inventory straight into his mouth without having to open the packaging. The heat and sugar felt like it grounded him somehow, and he was soon nodding to himself, truly leaving behind the experience at last.

John, for his part, actually pulled out a steak already laid out on a cutting board, knife and carving fork ready to use. He cut off a long strip and put the rest away, clearly savoring the taste, texture, and heat of his own snack. "Oh… that's good."

Alex narrowed his eyes at the now-gone steak, thinking about the chair he had had to leave behind below. A steak is smaller than a chair, Alex. Let it go.

Natasha glanced toward Alex and rolled her eyes at John's antics, causing Alex to grin in return. "Well, then. That was awful. Shall we go?"

"Yes."

No more needed to be said, and the three departed, falling back into their previous formation, Alex in the lead once more.

Thankfully, there were no new undead outside of the bank, and when Alex pulsed Detect Life once more, he found the group exactly where they'd been before he, John, and Natasha had gone into the bank. "No change. Let's go."

They set a brisk pace, once again covering ground quite quickly, with Alex's Detect Undead coming in quite handy in ensuring that they weren't taken by surprise and allowing them to kill what spawned undead they needed to, along the way.

When they found the building that the group was in, Alex almost growled.

The one-story shack-sized thing was a bus-stop, clearly designed to be enclosed in inclement weather.

It was closed at the moment and secured with jackets, clearly straining to tie the doors closed.

Alex could see this despite the numerous undead trying to get in because there was a truly insane amount of light coming from within the glass building.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

That's right. The idiots had taken refuge in a glass building, and lit it up like the sign on an all-you-can-eat buffet in the middle of the night. The undead were apparently suckers for a good advertisement, because they were swarming, thick and heavy.

Oh, come on. There is no way that glass held this long. He almost cursed himself as he noticed the first crack beginning to grow on the side toward them. Videogame logic, Alex. It was held in readiness for our arrival, assuming we came within whatever arbitrary timetable is in play.

John grunted. "Immenient danger. Go in loud?"

Alex grimaced, then nodded. "Loud. Draw them away, kill them over here."

They were less than half a block away from the bus stop, having just rounded the corner to come upon the scene.

Alex put his words to action… and shouted loudly. "HEY! OVER HERE!!!"

So… I put my words to words?

Regardless, Natasha yelled as well, being careful to watch around them for other opponents that might be spawned in to threaten them.

Alex's Detect spells showed that all the undead in the area were ahead, but the System had created enemies where there hadn't been any in the past, and none of them wanted to be blindsided.

The undead nearest them turned, but it wasn't until John began head-shotting any that weren't looking that the group of enemies as a whole seemed to orient on the initiates.

Once again, most of these creatures were turned rather than spawned undead. The System is certainly going for a theme on this mission…

Their disjointed, uncoordinated, horrifically alien movements paradoxically resulted in inhuman levels of speed… somehow… as the miniature horde swarmed their way.

Thankfully, among the spawned undead, the initiates didn't fall under the same condition as before, the overall sense of their enemies seeming less uncanny.

There were several cries of distress from within the bus stop, and Alex momentarily thought that some of the undead had gotten in, but instead, each of those crying out seemed to be staring at one or more undead in particular.

Alex groaned. Great… I'm sure that won't complicate things…

Such was all he had time to consider as he ducked and slashed, pulsing HP into every opponent he could reach, turning them to ash.

His dadao did its work well, and he was wielding it with more skill than ever, but even so, it hit bone quite often, and that was starting to damage the weapon yet again.

I'll need to repair it after the fight…

Thankfully, these were surprisingly easy opponents… again… and Natasha seemed to feel the same way as she stayed out of the fight, her eyes constantly sweeping around them.

Even so, their group chewed through the undead with ease and nothing came to reinforce the enemy.

In the end, Alex stood, breathing a little heavily, but otherwise unaffected by the fight.

This had been suspiciously easy.

As the ash was settling, Alex noticed one turned man still crawling toward him. He'd somehow lost use of his legs and not been ashed yet.

Alex sighed and walked toward the undead. Only then did a woman burst out of the bus stop. Not a teen, but a woman. "STOP! PLEASE!"

Alex frowned. "Ma'am?"

"Please, that's my husband… isn't there anything that you can do?"

He began to shake his head when, to his utter horror, a System notice appeared in his vision.

Hidden Quest Discovered
Re-Turn?

Re-Turn?
Many innocents have been turned in this disaster, can you save any of these poor souls?

0/100

Reward:
Based upon the number restored.
Experience
Merrit

Alex stumbled backward, eyes widening and tears welling up unbidden. His voice was a hoarse whisper. "What…?"

John frowned, raising his gun toward the still moving undead.

"NO!" Alex shouted.

Natasha and John both looked to him with visible confusion.

"I… I just got a quest. When she asked me to help him… I think I might be able to."

John shrugged. "Okay, I guess. Give it a…" He trailed off, his own eyes widening as he looked around at the drifting ash, all that remained of the dusted, turned undead. "By all that is holy…"

Natasha paled. "That's why…?"

She didn't need to finish. The turned undead had been easy to kill, because the initiates weren't supposed to kill them. They were supposed to help them, while keeping the others back until they could be cured as well.

This was meant to be a rescue mission through and through, and they'd missed the cues. Even the response to his formal complaint had contained hints.

Alex moved almost unconsciously as he stepped around the crawling undead, placing a foot on his back, a leaden weight in Alex's chest, his heart seeming to feel heavier with every beat.

The woman came forward, and he held up a hand toward her. "Wait there, …?"

"Jennifer, Jennifer Houser."

"Wait there, Jennifer. I'll… I'll try."

"Thank you, thank you!"

The others came from the bus stop, keeping a safe distance even as they looked at the lazily drifting ash with forlorn expressions. In glancing at their faces, it was obvious that while many wanted him to succeed,just as many seemed to hope that he'd fail, as if to vindicate the deaths of their own loved ones as necessary.

Alex reached down and sent Life into the undead. Restore, heal.

A chunk of Life left him, delving into the undead.

His senses and perceptions showed the flickering, twisted life within the undead, but now that he saw it, now that he really looked, he could tell that there existed a small bit of that spark that was still, somehow, correct and undistorted.

Alex's Life latched onto that, amplifying it even as his Life ravaged through the undead creature, driving out the undead energy and restoring the man to the living.

Alex staggered back, a System notice momentarily pulling his attention.

Mission Complete [Partial]
Re-Turn?

Re-Turn?
Many innocents have been turned in this disaster, can you save any of these poor souls?

It seems so, even if only one.

1/100

Reward:
Experience to be granted at a safe location

No Merit earned.

Apology Tutorial Notice:
This will not work with spawned undead.

Don't try it.

Alex staggered back.

He could have saved them

Instead, he'd turned them to dust.

They aren't real.

The group that had come out of the bus stop were muttering among themselves, even as Jennifer hugged her husband.

John stepped forward, offering the man a hand and breaking the building silence. "I'm John."

"Phil, Phil Fleishman." The man cleared his throat and gripped John's hand, standing with the help.

John gave Jennifer an odd look, and she shrugged, seemingly understanding his confusion. "I kept my maiden name."

"Ahh." The marksman shrugged in turn, as if to convey that it was no concern of his either way.

Alex didn't really pay attention as they continued to talk.

More and more confused and angry stares turned his way. He understood the muttering. He could have saved all of them, and he hadn't.

Natasha saw the building issue and stepped forward, speaking quietly to the group even as Alex's legs gave out under the weight of just how much he'd messed up.

He sank to his knees on the ashblown street.

Ninety-nine civilians. I took ninety-nine people from this world without need. He tried to tell himself that they weren't real, this was a training area, and that helped a little, but the all too real reactions of those around him tore at that line of reasoning.

He'd failed to save them, and he only had himself to blame.