Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night

Chapter 29: Extinction Level Crisis

Zane stared silently at the adolescent boy who he had force fed a blood crystal moments prior. He was using the system to examine any potential changes in the man's condition. After all, there was an eighty percent chance that he would become infected and turn into a Walker, or perhaps something much worse.

It was because of this, Zane intended to use this as an opportunity to see if he could glean and information that might be able to help him detect if someone is infected or not. Unfortunately for Zane, there were no observable changes in the boy's condition.

Whether it was visibly displayed on his person or through the system, the youth remained exactly the same, crying on the floor in agony and frothing at the mouth with his veins turned black as ink. In the end, the thirty minutes passed, and the debuff expired.

Much like Zane expected, his luck wasn't good enough to get three awakened followers in a row. Instead, the teenage boy that he had forced into a game of chance, one that put the youth's life on the line, ended in the young man being infected.

But he did not immediately turn into a Walker, or perhaps even a higher tier of undead. Instead, the boy seemed quite normal, but there was a catch. Displayed in the system was a very clear debuff which had replaced the previous one, along with a timer on it.

[Debuff: Infected}

[This individual is infected with a deadly virus that, if left uncured, will transform him into an undead monster!]

[Duration: 1 Hour]

Knowing that this boy was a ticking Timebomb, Zane did not wait for this countdown to reach zero. If it did, there was no way of knowing what kind of undead he would transform into. The best-case scenario was that this boy would turn into a Walker.

While, the worst-case scenario was that he transformed into some higher tier undead that Zane was not yet aware of, nor could he contend with.

Thus, Zane immediately lifted his bat into the air, and was prepared to swing it towards the teenage boy's skull. But the boy immediately flinched and put his hands in the air, begging for a chance of survival.

"Wait! Please! Please don't kill me! Why are you doing this? Please don't! I still haven't been able to find out if my family is okay yet!

Please!"

Zane reacted strangely to this information. He lowered his bat and sighed heavily, before expressing a sentiment towards his would be a victim with a cold tone in his voice.

"You don't have to worry about your family any longer… Because just like you, they are already dead…."

After saying this, Zane lifted his bat in the air once more and swung it towards the boy's skull so swiftly that the boy could not respond before the attack landed. And when it did, it fractured his cranium on the spot, and thus causing the brain to hemorrhage.

The boy's body began to spasm on the ground, causing Zane to once more raise his weapon and land another heavy blow. After landing two heavy shots to the head, the twitching corpse finally went still.

Zane had successfully removed a potential threat to his survival and that of his group, but there was still a lingering danger that remained so long as this corpse still rotted within these walls. There was more than just the undead virus that could affect his health.

And thus, Zane carried the body to the rooftop where he dragged it outside, fully prepared to throw it off the roof and into the pile of corpses he had already done this with.

But the moment Zane stepped outside and shut the door behind him, he saw a jarring sight. Standing atop the roof was a hooded figure who appeared to beg, looking in the other direction, gazing off towards the city which burned in the background while leaning on the railing without a care in the world.

Zane had previously ensured that nobody was on the rooftop when he barricaded it shut. He also knew that nobody could have entered the area, because when he dragged his victim's body to the roof, the barricades were still in place. Thus, there was only one possibility. This hooded figure was the stalker who had been following him for some time now.

As a result, Zane raised his bat into a position that would easily allow him to defend himself if attacked. Curiously enough, however, when the stalker turned around, it did not immediately attack him. Instead, the creature seemed to be just as wary of Zane as he was about it.

Or perhaps wary was not the correct word, as the Stalker immediately pointed towards the corpse that Zane had left behind him, almost as if it was asking permission to finish Zane's "meal". The very notion caused Zane to eye the creature with curiosity.

There was clearly a level of intelligence within the Stalker that was more than just a mindless walking corpse. Perhaps it was even what one might call cunning. As it had effectively used a larger and more powerful undead to corral the living survivors of the school into two cages, which apparently it was more than capable of infiltrating.

Zane did not say a word, and instead grabbed hold of his victim's fresh corpse and dragged it out in front of him, where he once more dropped it on the ground. The stalker vanished into thin air and reappeared directly in front of Zane.

This, of course, startled Zane, who nearly attacked the creature on the spot, but luckily suppressed the urge to do so, knowing that if he were to attack any undead, they would immediately turn hostile. But it was in the next moment that the Stalker did something unimaginable.

The Tier IV Undead reached into the center pocket of the hoodie that it was wearing and pulled out a small suede pouch. Almost like the kind that would be used to house a set of dice. It then tossed the pouched toward Zane's direction.

Luckily for Zane, he had good reflexes and managed to catch the bag in his hands. But when he looked back to where the Stalker had been just a second ago, it had once more vanished, along with the corpse he had given it, no less. Zane searched the rooftop, but found that the creature was no longer visible to him.

It had likely gone somewhere else to feast upon its fresh meal. As for Zane, he was left with a small drawstring pouch which the undead monster had given him. Curious about what was inside, Zane opened the pouch to find that the Stalker had essentially paid him for the corpse of his victim with ten more blood crystals.

All of which were of the standard size that Zane had come across thus far in his travels.

For the first time in as long as he could remember, Zane suffered an emotional disturbance as a chill when down his spine. With this, he realized that the Stalker was far more intelligent than he had ever estimated. To the point where it was fully capable of bartering with him. If that was the case, then humanity was truly facing an extinction level crisis….