Zero to Peak: Ascension Online

At 4:02 a.m., Ivan was driving a passenger to her destination. He maintained a safe speed along the road while his passenger, a remarkably beautiful lady in her early forties, remained engrossed in text chatting on her phone from the back seat. She wore a crisp, light blue button-down long-sleeved shirt, perfectly matched with high-waisted off-white trousers and a pair of elegant heels. Her sleek black shoulder bag rested beside her on the seat.

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Danger! Danger! Danger!

Dungeon Break imminent!"

A chilling danger warning suddenly materialised in Ivan's perception. This was immediately followed by a countdown, starting from ten. Ivan swiftly diverted his vehicle off the main road, bringing the car to an abrupt halt in an empty parking space on the side of a residential street.

His passenger was appalled by his sudden, unannounced action. She looked around frantically but could not discern the source of the problem. "Driver, is there something wrong?"

Ivan's gaze peered intently ahead, anticipating the impending danger from that direction. They were not on a sprawling highway; they were parked on a busy residential street.

"Yeah, but it hasn't started yet."

The passenger frowned in confusion, utterly unable to connect his cryptic words to a sudden dungeon break. Ivan patiently watched the countdown timer tick down to zero.

"Ma'am, please do not leave the car. It will be dangerous." Ivan gently unbuckled his seatbelt and exited his new car.

Ivan stood on the road, his gaze still fixed ahead. The passenger remained deeply confused. She began to suspect that she had, most unfortunately, hailed a driver who was suffering from a mental illness.

"Why does my bad luck have to manifest in this form?" The passenger muttered, utterly frustrated.

Suddenly, piercing sirens blared across the entirety of Section 2.5.

"Oh shit! The driver wasn't crazy. Shit! Shit! Shit!"

Ivan's passenger instantly realised her grave mistake.

Ivan turned around and once again instructed his passenger not to leave the car. He meticulously ensured that all doors were securely locked and could only be opened by the passenger from inside the car or by himself.

"All capable special characters are required to fall out. A dungeon break has occurred."

The chilling announcement, delivered by a feminine automated voice, echoed around Section 2.5. The streets instantly devolved into utter chaos. Civilians desperately fled, scrambling to find any conceivable hiding place. Police officers bravely stood at various corners on different streets, valiantly attempting to maintain some semblance of order amidst the pandemonium. The blaring siren was a stark warning that every individual living in Section 2 was acutely aware of.

"Rarrgh!"

"Aggh!"

A horrifying symphony of monstrous, inhumane screams, intermingled with terrified human cries, reverberated through the air. Everyone lost all semblance of order. It became a desperate, primal scramble for survival. The grotesque monsters from the dungeon break had descended onto the streets, and they indiscriminately attacked anyone they laid their sights on.

Zombies raced relentlessly down the street, savagely tearing and ripping apart people without distinction: men, women, and children alike. No one was spared. As if this wasn't enough, the zombie horde comprised two distinct categories of monsters—the rippers and the infectors. The rippers were primarily preoccupied with indiscriminate massacre. The infectors, conversely, moved about biting people, infecting them with the virulent zombie virus. Hence, the virus would kill them, corrode their bodies and reanimate them as zombies.

People mindlessly raced past Ivan, unintentionally slamming into him in a desperate attempt to flee to safety. Ivan's passenger sat in growing apprehension and palpable fear. Ivan could distinctly hear the monstrous growls drawing closer. Panicked yells from the fleeing crowd informed Ivan of a particular monster dangerously close to him.

Fortunately, his Riot battle armour was fully usable in the 'real world'. He swiftly summoned the formidable armour set, and it perfectly engulfed him. He leapt effortlessly out of the frantic crowd and landed softly on the roof of his car, which suffered no dent whatsoever from his landing. Someone attempted to run on top of his car, and he immediately stopped this desperate act with a serious reprimand, delivered by a forceful yell.

His eyes locked onto a grotesque ripper zombie that was brutally tearing into a young boy, approximately five years of age. It was bloodily feeding on the entrails of the unfortunate child. Ivan raced over to this mindless, heartless monster, expertly manoeuvring past the surging crowd.

Upon arrival, Ivan delivered a vicious punch, shattering the skull of the zombie. The creature fell to the ground, utterly lifeless.

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Zombie Fact: Destroy the head or reanimated heart of a zombie to kill it.

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You have killed one ordinary Ripper zombie.

Reward: 5 exp.

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New Mission

Info: A sudden dungeon break unleashes monsters to ravage across Section 2.5. Every monster has an origin. Origins could be enigmatic or could easily be deciphered through common thought. The end of this zombie break is tied to their enigmatic origins.

Description: Find the origin of the zombies and end the zombie lineage.

Punishment for failing the mission: Forced to survive an endless gate for two hours.

Ivan quickly read the system information that popped up in his perception. He had no time to ponder the new mission. There were countless people who desperately needed to be saved from this indiscriminate massacre.

"Help! Someone help me, please!" A deep, masculine voice cried out.

Ivan followed the voice and located the helpless person in a pastry shop. The man had tragically lost both arms to two savage ripper zombies that were preoccupied with devouring his fleshy limbs. A third ripper zombie slowly and instinctively approached the man. Its slow, shambling approach was due to half of the zombie's brain and cranium being grotesquely missing, leaving a bizarre, horrifying human zombie figure.

Ivan burst explosively through the shop's gaping front glass window, shattering what remained of the glass. He quickly scanned the dire situation in the room. The zombies instinctively turned their attention to the unexpected visitor and immediately decided to pounce on him. The two zombies that had been previously engrossed with the man's arms swiftly approached Ivan. Ivan effortlessly wove past their swathing finger claws and head-first bites.

With a powerful karate hand chop, he brutally severed the zombies' torsos from their legs. The zombies hopelessly writhed on the floor, still attempting to harm Ivan. Their efforts were futile and almost comical, as they could not reach Ivan. Ivan then stomped on the duo's heads, smashing them to a final, gruesome death.

During all that, Ivan had been meticulously tracking the third zombie. Fortunately for him, the creature was handicapped and could only approach at a sluggish pace. Ivan casually walked up to it and crushed its head between his hands.

Ivan then turned his attention to the helpless man, who had fainted from excessive blood loss. Ivan rushed deeper into the shop, found a water faucet, and swiftly washed his suit clean. He then rushed back to the man and dragged him into the inner rooms of the shop. Here, he managed to staunch the bleeding from the wounds and secured the room, making it difficult for any wandering zombie to easily access.