Chapter 2: The End of the Beginning
After taking a few deep breathes, Grant stood up and walked over to the now destroyed window. He carefully moved the blinds to the side before very slowly and carefully poking his head through the opening to see if there were any other imminent threats to his safety. Not seeing any other creatures on the surrounding walkways, Grant decided that he should try to block off the opening in the window and then figure out what to do next.
Since the window was relatively close to the wall that separated his room from his neighbors apartment, he was able to lay his couch diagonally against the wall so that it was blocking the window just enough to cover the hole. It looked like a diagonal line through the center of a square.
After feeling ever so slightly more secure in his apartment, Grant walked over to where the now dead dog lay. While he was standing over the dog, Grant couldn't help but feel a little proud of himself. He still had no idea what was going on, but he had managed to gather his wits enough to defend himself.
[The "battle" of sorts, had started in an instant and my dog shit luck, pun intended, nearly got me killed. Thankfully things seemed to work out in the end.
What the hell do I do with this corpse now though?]
After thinking on it for awhile, he decided that the best course of action was probably just to toss it off the balcony since placing it out on the walkway in front of his house may attract another animal. Plus, he really didn't want to be in the same room as a dead animal carcass while he tried to figure out his next steps.
Having decided on a course of action, Grant walked to the closet and grabbed a large towel before walking back to the dog corpse. He wrapped the towel around the dog and tried to pick it up. After struggling for a few minutes with its awkward size and shape, he finally succeeded in getting a firm hold of it. Once he had the corpse in his arms, he walked out onto his balcony, lifted the corpse up to the edge of the railing and pushed it over the edge. No matter how much he tried to prevent it though, blood and god knows what else dripped off the dog and onto his floor while he had been carrying it. Which upon re-entering his apartment and seeing the mess, brought to stark reality the severity of his current situation.
Not being able to stomach the scene in front of him, Grant went back to his room and sat on his bed. While sitting there on his bed, Grant tried to use his phone to access the web to try and get some information about what was happening. No matter how hard he tried though his phone kept giving him the "No Connection Detected" signal, whether he was connected to mobile data or WiFi, so he was unable to find any information in the end.
He tried to use an old radio that he had kept for nostalgic reasons and was finally able to find a signal on one of the old AM stations. It seemed to be a repeating message though because the message just kept saying,
"If you are hearing this message, please find a place with as few windows as possible as shelter and do not go outside. Monsters and what can only be described as zombies, are everywhere. Do not put yourself at risk if not necessary. The last message from the military was that they were trying to gather their forces and move out."
Grant sat there listening to the message for a few minutes before he realized that he still had blood trickling down his leg from the wound he had sustained from the dog. The adrenalin had kept him from feeling the pain of the wound but he had started to calm down listening to the radio so the pain became much more noticeable.
Since he had ace bandages in his bathroom, he limped down the hallway and into the bathroom to grab them before limping back to the bed and sitting back down. He tried to clean and wrap the wound the best he could. It stung at first but Grant noticed that it wasn't really bleeding all that bad and seemed like it had even started to heal, if not just ever so slightly and barely noticeably.
Which surprised Grant because the wound looked bad enough for him to need stiches. But since he wasn't a medic or anything, he just chalked it up to luck that the bleeding wasn't worse.
After he finished dressing the wound, Grant decided to check out his new status to see what had changed with his first successful "kill".
{Status
Name: Grant Holmes
Level: 1
Race: Human
Path: N/A
Title: N/A
Strength: 11 | Agility: 8 | Health: 10 | Stamina: 10 | Mana: 0
Available Free Stats: 2
Random Rolls: 1
Credits: 50}
[Alright, so I actually got slightly stronger, faster, and gained a bit more stamina, at least according to the stats. I wonder to what extent these stats can be raised.. can I become like Superman? Impervious to attacks, super strength, and speed as fast as a speeding train?! That would be cool... wait, the world looks to be fucked.. this isn't the time to be celebrating something like that...]
Grant started to think that maybe, just maybe, this whole situation might not be the worst thing that ever happened to him. He had always dreamed that he would gain some kind of system that would enable him to become some super human with hard work and dedication. Clearly he had already forgotten that not only had he almost died not long ago, but he had already watched a lady get eaten to death by a dog in the most savage way possible.
[What's this "Random Roll" thing?]
The name seemed pretty straightforward but he wasn't 100 percent sure what it actually was, however, a window popped up in his vision as he was questioning what it was.
{Welcome to Random Roll. Using your rolls will result in a random item being delivered to the user. If you would like to use your random roll, please say "Roll"}
[Well shit, I guess it's exactly what it sounds like.. do I roll now though?
In web novels, this would be the moment that the overpowered MC gets his first item that turns out to be some god tier item that allows him to reign supreme over all other beings.
With my luck I'm going to end up getting a wet noodle or something though...
Ah f*ck it... as they say, you miss every shot you don't take!]
"Roll!"
After yelling out, Grant immediately got down on his hands and knees and started praying to whatever deity he could think of because this roll very well could determine his likelihood of survival.
While Grant was on his knees, another screen appeared in his vision.
{Rolling in 3... 2... 1... Congratulations, your item will be delivered immediately.
You are out of Random Rolls. When you have gained more Random Rolls, please return to try your luck once again.}
Following the message, a bright light, which seemingly appeared out of nowhere, started to glow directly in front of Grant. The light was so bright that it seemed like a small sun was shining in the middle of his room. Moments after appearing, the light started to coalesce into the shape of what appeared to be some type of sword.
Once it looked like the sword was about to be fully formed, Grant Instinctively reached out his hands ready to catch the sword. When the light finished morphing into the sword, it disappeared as quickly as it had appeared and the room returned to normal.
Following the disappearance of the light, he felt the weight of the sword finally hit his hands.
Grant stared down at the weapon resting in his palms and couldn't help but notice the lack of any decorations or adornments on the handle or scabbard. It was entirely matte black with no shine or austere nature. The handle was wrapped in some kind of black cloth as well which made the sword look like a shadow floating in his hands.
While Grant was busy starting at the sword, another window popped up displaying the stats of the weapon he was now holding.
{Weapon: Katana
Name: Wet Noodle
Grade: Rare
Has the power to cut through any creature below level 20 without hindrance. Agility +10 and Strength +10 while equipped.}
After reading the description, Grant immediately dropped the sword, stood up, walked over to the wall and rammed his head against it.
[I fucking hate everything...
Is the "system" trying to mock me or something?!]
After bashing his head against the wall a few times, and finally managing to clear his head ever so slightly, he decided that he had no other obvious choices for weapons and that if another dog or something worse managed to get into his apartment then he would have no way to defend himself without the sword. Unless he wanted to run around wielding a kitchen knife until he got another weapon, which was equally ridiculous.
Clearly reluctant, Grant reached down and picked up the sword. After pulling the blade halfway out of the scabbard, he noticed that even the blade was as simple and unadorned as the scabbard and handle.
The only part of the weapon that wasn't matte black was the sharpened edge of the blade. It was a cm thick streak of shiny silver running from just above the handle to the tip of the blade.
[I guess it does look awesome.. I've always been a fan of the matte black look and it's also a Rare grade item so it can't be that bad, right?
I guess I'll just have to give it a chance and if I run across anyone who asks me about it, I'll just make up a cooler name so that I don't have to tell anyone its real name. Plus, when I'm holding the sword, I can feel the noticeable difference in my body from the extra stats.]
After coming to terms with the fact that he now had to carry around a literal Wet Noodle, Grant knew it was time to formulate plans on what to do next.
Thankfully all of this shit with The Path and him being attacked happened early in the day, so he still had some time to figure out his situation before it got dark and things got much more difficult.
Deep down he didn't want to leave his apartment for fear of what he may have to face outside, but he also knew that now that the window had been broken through, he needed to find a more secure location and look for supplies at the same time.
Being the young bachelor that he was, he never really planned ahead. He hardly had enough food in his apartment to last him a couple days even if he stretched it out. So finding a place that he could use as a shelter as well as finding a place to get food were priorities number one and two.
With those thoughts in mind and with his conviction to survive slowly growing by the second, Grant went to his closet, grabbed his backpack, threw out all of his school stuff and immediately started packing things that might be necessary in the future.
He grabbed everything he could think of, including but not limited too, lighters, a couple food utensils, his kitchen knife set, and clothing, as well as all the food and water as he could carry.
He doubted that he would have the chance to make it back to his apartment if things were as bad outside as they appeared to be, so he made sure to grab everything he could.
After putting on a new set of clothes, grabbing his backpack, and his Wet Noodle, Grant walked to the front door.
With a face awash with both fear and determination, Grant stepped through the door and out onto the walkway.
[I guess this will be my first steps on my new Path.]
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