Zero to Peak: Ascension Online

Ivan stood still, watching Jiggy in silence. Jiggy too sat in silence, watching the scantily clouded sky. Tears slowly welled up in the swordsman's eyes.

"Please, take my rapier. It's all I have left in memory." Jiggy's gaze became fixed and vacant. His body lurched to the ground.

Ivan caught Jiggy's corpse and gently lowered it to lie on the ground. He slid closed the vacant eyelids, resting the corpse in eternal peace. Ivan sighed, deeply saddened. He shook his head in disbelief at how quickly things could change within mere hours. He had only just met the duo of Jiggy and Door-Knob a few hours ago, and now, within that brief span, they were both lifeless corpses.

He was grateful for his own fortune and promised himself to apply utmost caution during battle. Life was like a fragile thing that could crack at any moment with wrong handling. He approached the corroded remnant of the giant zombie to extract Jiggy's rapier. The corpse squirmed, gradually coming to life.

"You can't be serious!" Ivan exclaimed, his frustration evident. He pulled out his sword, putting on hold the rapier's retrieval.

Stab! Stab! Stab! Ivan relentlessly stabbed the squirming, reconstructing corpse, but it refused to die. It continued to regenerate. An incomplete head, accompanied by a throat, shoulder, and chest, began to form. Without delay, Ivan hacked away the throat and head with one swift slash. He quickly followed with a strong stab to the monster's chest, forcefully sinking his blade to protrude out the other side.

Suddenly, the monster experienced a growth spurt that saw it regenerate back to its full, monstrous form. The creature whacked Ivan away with its exaggerated arm. The monster was yet to fully recover its intelligence. Ivan roughly sprawled down the street and came to an abrupt stop beside a trash bin. His sword lay far from him.

The trash bin shook, betraying a presence hidden within. One of the bin's double lids swung open. A half-zombified hand reached out, grasping the rim of the bin and using it for support as it climbed out. A zombified man, dressed in a simple pinstriped black-on-white shirt, black trousers, and a white lab coat, emerged. The zombie was a scientist turned zombie, allegedly.

Driven by extreme prejudice, Ivan shot his fists at the zombie, aiming to decimate its head.

"Wait!" The zombie shrieked in fear with a crisp, human voice.

Ivan's fist stopped a few millimetres before the zombie's face. Ivan realised that the zombie didn't have the characteristic zombie aura hanging about the scientist.

>>>>

Hidden Mission Completed!

Info: You controlled your quick wrath for zombies, hence, you didn't kill the NPC scientist Nova. However, be careful, half-zombies are not to be trusted.

Reward: You have unlocked the zombie origins mission.

Scientist Nova, the conscious zombie, looked in the direction of the monster. The monster stood still, dazed, as it recovered its intelligence.

Scientist Nova turned his gaze to Ivan. "I have the weapon to kill that thing for good."

Nova produced a torchlight device from a pocket on his lab coat. "Get very close to the monster. Click the switch with the lens pointed at the monster's forehead."

>>>>

New Mission Initiated.

Info: As part of the Zombie origins mission, you have been tasked to kill the polymastic giant zombie.

Rewards: No reward.

The new mission confirmed that Ivan could trust Nova's words. He collected the device from Nova and raced over to the Zombie. The monster was backing him as he arrived. He had to go around it to get to its face. The instant Ivan got into position, the monster recovered.

"Not this time." Ivan leaped high and activated the device as instructed.

No light beamed through the lens. Instead, the monster burst into bloody fragments, and its colossal body fell lifelessly to the ground. Ivan surfaced and observed the device in his hand. It was a simple torchlight. To untrained eyes, it was merely a simple torchlight. But for individuals like Nova, possessing scientific knowledge, this peculiar simple torchlight was, in fact, a formidable bio-weapon.

Ivan resisted the silly temptation to try the weapon on himself. As he gazed over to Scientist Nova, he saw a teenage girl climb out of the bin. The girl, dressed in a red spaghetti strap camisole top paired with distressed denim shorts, pressed on the bleeding bite wound on her forearm to staunch the flow.

The scent of blood triggered the zombie's primal instinct that lay dormant in Scientist Nova. He sniffed the air like a search dog sniffing for illicit drugs. The zombified scientist turned to gaze at the girl. Ivan hesitated to act. Nova maliciously glanced at Ivan, but then he abducted the girl, sprinting away to another street.

"What the hell is going on?" Ivan was mad at this utterly senseless development. He grabbed his sword, quickly putting it away in its spatial sheath as he gave chase to Nova.

Nova moved impressively fast, nearing seventy-five kilometres per hour. Ivan chased close to this speed but couldn't quite catch up. Nova, carrying the girl, moved through corners along the chase, expertly weaving his way to other streets. The constant, erratic bends frustrated Ivan as his momentum at different moments veered him off the path of his target.

The pursued and the pursuer entered a straight, long street. On this street, a number of zombie corpses lay lifeless on the tarred road and on the sidewalks. Journalists were preoccupied with interviewing special characters on the scene regarding the event. People were peering out from their windows; some were bold enough to venture to the side of the street to observe the horrific aftermath.

Ivan and Nova raced through the street. None of the special characters intervened in the chase. The lack of intervention appalled Ivan.

'No one tried to stop us. Do they think that this is some sort of child's play? Is Nova really Nova or some actor trying to lure me into a trap? He can't be an actor, no, not with the mission I have initiated. He must be leading me to the origins.' Ivan considered the flow of events.

Suddenly, Nova branched left into a narrow alley. Ivan controlled himself to bend into the alley. He saw Nova waiting before a swirling vortex. The scientist's arms wrapped tightly around the teenage girl, muffling her screams. He lurched backwards, falling into the vortex with the girl still in his grip. Ivan reacted as quickly as he could, but he couldn't catch the girl before she fully entered the vortex. He had no option but to follow them into the vortex.