It was a tense moment for Zain. In truth, he would have liked to test what he could do and what turning someone would do, which was why he had come to such an area in the first place. There was Barbara, but who knew what had happened to her.

In the end, the circumstances meant that his friend would be the first one to get turned.

“Skittles, speak to me!” Zain shouted. “Say anything if you understand?”

Slowly Skittle turned his head. He looked at Zain and tilted his head to the side for a second. Then opening his mouth, he let out an incomprehensible gibberish.

“Ahh gragk!” “Ahk! gragk!”

“No! No, no!” Zain panicked. “Skittle shake my hand if you understand me?”

Skittle titled his head to the other side and made the same noises again, and Zain’s hand was left hanging in the air. Helpless, Zain fell to his knees, and his head slammed on the floor.

“Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!” Zain grunted out as he punched the hard floor over and over again. “Why…why didn’t it work..why didn’t he turn into something like me!”_.

Just then, a shadow was cast over him as the Zombie Skittle moved closer. It didn’t say anything and just stood there. The truth was, Zain knew there was a good chance that something like this was likely to ensue. Both knew the risks, and it was highly likely that the outcome wouldn’t be in their favour.

‘Wait, maybe there is something in the system that can help? It said I gained new skills or something, right?’

Thinking about this, Zain opened his system panel, and an entirely new section of the system interface opened in front of him. There was a tab called Horde, and when clicking on it, a picture of Skittle’s zombie state appeared on the next screen.

Next to his name were a bunch of stats just like what Zain had on himself, although they were slightly different.

[Name: Skittle]

[Type: Undead]

[Hunger: 99 percent]

[Level 1]

‘He has a level as well. So does that mean that Skittle can level up?’ Thinking about this reminded him that he also needed to check what levelling up would do for himself, but for now, he was more focused on Skittle.

‘There’s no energy stat like mine, but there is a hunger stat.’ Zain thought. ‘I assume it works the same way as my energy stat does, which means at some point Skittle will have to eat.’

When clicking on Skittle’s name, Zain found the new skills that had been unlocked.

[Horde Skills]

[These Skills can be used individually or as a group]

[Follow: Those in the Zombie Horde will follow the Head. If the Head attacks a certain individual, members of the Horde will Auto attack the last target the Head has hit unless further instructions are given]

[Stay: This instruction forces the Undead to stay in its place.]

[Attack: The Horde will attack a target that has been selected]

[Protect: The Horde will do its best to take any damage coming towards the Head]

[Freeroam: This lets the Undead act on their own.]

[Note: If the hunger of a zombie reaches below twenty percent, they can no longer follow commands until it goes above twenty once again and they will make finding food their priority]

The skills were interesting, to say the least. Although Zain’s favourite games were survival-based, he would play others from time to time, and the skills and instruction commands he gained from the system reminded him of those other games he would play, so he understood the concept.

The only thing was, he would perhaps be willing to use these skills if it was just a regular zombie rather than his best friend.

Either way, Zain needed to test out how it worked. It looked like, at the moment, Skittle had the command-follow set. So wherever Zain would go, Skittle would go, and the latter could keep up with him as well.

Skittle was running at the pace he would have done before he even got turned. After that, Zain tried the other commands and even tried the [Attack] command on one of the dead bodies in the room.

Surprisingly Skittle went towards it and started hitting it, despite it being dead already.

So, all in all, Zain tested every skill apart from the [Protect], but then again, he would never want to use this skill with Skittle in mind.

One plus was there was no need to access the system to use these commands. Instead, he could just subconsciously think of commands with the zombie in mind, and it would work. How this would work when Zain had a bigger horde, he didn’t know.

After his testing was complete, Zain felt a little glum. Although Skittle wasn’t like the other Zombies, he couldn’t think for himself. He was doing whatever the system from Zain told him. It was almost as if he didn’t have his own will anymore.

“Skittle, I promise I will do everything I can to find a type of Cure, a way to bring you back to normal. I won’t fail again…I won’t fail another time!” Zain said, putting his hand on his friend’s shoulder, who seemed to respond with the same incomprehensible gibberish.

The only good thing was that there was some control, and he believed he hadn’t fully lost his best friend.

Now, with no more zombies outside, they weren’t in any immediate danger, and it was time for him to plan his next step. However, before that, he needed to do one more thing. Earlier, he had heard the notification of levelling up, and now it was time to check how much stronger he had become and what he had gained after getting to Level Three.

When he opened his stats panel, he noticed a small upgrade icon next to his name.

‘Was this here before?’ Zain thought.

There was nothing else he could do, and it looked like his only option was to click this before deciding something. In the end, Zain clicked it thinking what the worst that could happen was.

[After successfully levelling up, you may now choose from the following.]

[Please choose your upgrade and what type of Zombie you wish to be.]

*****

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