Chapter 25: The First Page
Creak!
Jason slowly pushed open the old, creaking door. The dust blew away as the wind appeared from outside and drifted across the empty, dark living room. There were a lounge, living room, and kitchen connected with no doors. At the end of the lounge, a wide set of stairs reached the second floor.
On the ceiling, an old chandelier embedded with small diamonds hung. The lightbulbs were cracked and in pieces. The whole mansion looked like it had been around for millennia and had been empty for at least a hundred years.
Jason stepped into the mansion and kept an eye on the living room and kitchen. He didn't know when a zombie would pop up from the shadows and try to bite him. One bite from a zombie could be fatal or turn the person into a zombie. If Jason had a higher rank, he could survive several bites.
Even after leaving the door open, the interior was pitch black. As if the darkness had swallowed the light. However, he still managed to see quite clearly.
Jason ventured into the kitchen and looked around with a revolver in hand. He checked the cupboards, the refrigerator, and all the cabinets. There was nothing but dust and old dining tools. The sink didn't work, and the faucet was stuck as if it had been frozen by time.
After seeing that there was nothing special in the kitchen, he went to the living room. He didn't forget to cast his gaze quickly toward the upstairs in case he saw something. However, he didn't, and soon entered the living room. There were broken furniture and papers scattered across the wooden floor.
'Nothing in here either.' Jason left the living room and cast his gaze at the set of stairs. The second floor looked far too creepy to stay comfortable. Luckily, there weren't framed paintings, or he would start imagining things such as faceless creatures suddenly jumping out of them.
With the revolver pointing in the direction he was heading, Jason slowly walked up the stairs. He looked left and right once he arrived on the second floor. It was an empty hallway with several half-open doors. He quickly checked the rooms, but they were empty without a single piece of furniture.
After checking all the rooms and the abandoned bathroom, he turned his gaze to the other stairway. With a few moments of hesitation, he carefully moved up the stairs and arrived at the third floor. At that moment, he felt like the temperature had turned colder and that it was even darker than before.
This time, Jason only looked in one direction. There was one door at the end of the hallway. It was different from the other faded painted doors. This one was painted black, but the color still remained. The door looked brand new compared to the rest.
Thus, he ignored the rest of the doors and slowly opened the end-of-the-hallway door and widened his eyes in fascination. It was a small study room, slightly bigger than his father's. There were old books crammed into the shelves, and a soft rug covered the floor. A small desk with a chair was in the middle of the room, with a small diary on top.
Jason carefully looked around the study as he walked to the desk. He took a quick glimpse at the diary and thought it looked interesting. He frowned before casting his gaze into the dark hallway. The scene was eerie, as he had a feeling that someone might pop out from the corner but was waiting for the proper moment.
He slowly closed the study room's door and walked alone in the darkness towards the desk. He noticed that there was an unlit gaslamp with a half-burnt candle inside. Jason rummaged through his backpack and pulled out a box of matchsticks. He took one, scratched it across the matchbox, and lit it up. He then used the small, flickering flame at the tip of the matchstick to light the candle.
A small, flickering flame appeared on the candle. Jason then closed the gaslamp and saw the eerie darkness slowly vanishing from the room. The shadows of flickering flames danced across the walls, bringing more warmth into the room.
Jason then pulled a chair and got seated. He wondered what the diary was about. He hoped it would explain what happened here and lead him towards zombies.
'Why is there a diary, and who left it...' He placed a finger on the edge of the soft cover and flipped it open. The first empty page opened up. The paper seemed old, as the white paper had turned a faded yellow.
Jason curiously flipped to the next page and saw written text. It wasn't written with a pen but instead with a quill and black ink. He quickly checked a drawer and saw a quill with a dark feather and a small bottle of black ink. He then closed the drawer and began to read the first page of written text.
"...Walking. That's all I remember ever doing. It appeared as though an unknown force had obscured and clouded my mind. Maybe it could be that I had died and then been resurrected. That could have been the price of immortality...
"However, when I was still living my peaceful days in the village, I remember disliking walking. I stayed in my wooden hut, reading about dark magic. My sister and my family never understood me. I told them that I was reading out of curiosity, but it was as if they could see into my heart and see my true desires...
"I thought they would understand some day. I was eager to prove them wrong. Thus, I tried it. I tried to concoct the potion the book told me about. The Potion of the Undying. The ingredients were easy to gather, except for the last one. It needed a sacrifice. I tried sacrificing a cat that usually stayed near the village, but it didn't work. It needed a proper sacrifice.
"Therefore, I sacrificed my neighbor's son. I thought they would understand. When I presented the potion to my parents, they were utterly repulsed. They had read the book without my knowledge and knew what ingredients the potion needed. I told them that this potion could save our village...
"They never listened to me, not even then. Out of anger, I drank the potion. I wanted to show them that this potion is our future. So what if we have to sacrifice others to gain immortality? It was a small price to pay...
"However... I still can't believe it. Even a hundred millennia later... I can't believe that the village chief actually agreed to make potions against everyone's wishes. I thought he understood what I was trying to say. But then... the sacrifice was me!
"After all I did for them. They sacrificed me! They bled me dry, then, with my dying breath, I saw everyone taking a small sip of the newly-concocted potion. While I got only a small boost of power, they got an explosive one.
"Some of them instantly grew wings and began flying as if they were goddesses... Some had enough strength to destroy a mountain with a simple punch. They had become things we only dreamed of—gods.
"While... I became a buried corpse."
Jason finished reading the first page and heaved a sigh. His emotions were mixed. The person who wrote this diary was horrible, but so were the rest of the villagers. Instead of stopping the experiment, they continued and killed another person—the writer of the diary.
'Grew wings... could break mountains with a single punch. It sounds like they became Angels. How potent the potion actually was? According to the person who wrote this diary, he only had a small boost of power while others became godlike beings. Could it be because his blood was a much better ingredient than the neighbor's son?
'He or she... did drink the potion. I guess that is the reason. Also, it apparently happened over a hundred millennia ago. The Realm Stations were only created a hundred years ago. Thus, they were basically living in the Stone Age.'
Jason pondered thoughtfully and tried to turn to the second page. However, the page didn't move as if it were glued together.
'It's stuck...' He frowned. 'Well, I will take this with me. Maybe I can find a way to separate the pages without tearing them apart. I am quite curious about what happened to that person and why his or her diary ended up here.'
Jason killed the candle's light and left the study room. After leaving the mansion, he slowly trekked towards the gates, as he had already finished touring the mansion and there wasn't anyone there. He did check the closed doors on the third floor, but they were the same as rooms on the second floor. Empty without any furniture.
"Graw..."
Jason's body froze immediately after hearing a gritty growling noise. It was as if the person who growled had something stuck in its throat. He slowly turned to the nearby forest and saw a rotting man walking towards him. He wore tattered white cloth with most of its flesh missing.
'Zombie!' He was delighted, even though he was surprised that a zombie had appeared out of nowhere. He dropped his backpack to the side and drew his revolver. He checked the cylinder wheel and saw eight purple bullets. Then he pushed it back inside, cocked it, and was about to fire.
At that moment, the zombie's hollow eyes seemed to turn alive as it suddenly sprinted forward. It spilled pus and rotting flesh everywhere as it moved.
As Jason was about to fire, the zombie suddenly leaped to the left and attacked his backpack!
'What the f—' Jason's eyebrow twitched as he saw the zombie wrestle with his backpack. It was clawing and biting at the texture. It was as if there were some valuable food that it desperately wanted to get.
Jason placed the barrel against the zombie's forehead and pulled the trigger. Bang. With a single purple bullet, the zombie's head exploded.
"What was that?" He wondered aloud as he kicked the zombie off his backpack. "I have never heard a zombie act like that. That was strange, but at least I got a free Horror Creature Lung."
He quickly pulled out his combat knife and began to find the zombie's lung. It was a messy and foul-smelling experience. The zombie's whole body was rotting, causing a very clear smell that made Jason grimace multiple times. Soon, he acquired a green lung. It was also rotting, but it was fine for the Night Potion as long as he washed it beforehand.
After putting the backpack on his back, he left the mansion's grounds and was ready to leave this realm. However, the Horror Realm wasn't eager to let him leave. From the forests, dozens of rotting corpses appeared!
They were zombies!
"Now they are showing up?" Jason dropped the backpack again and drew his revolver. A few small sweatdrops appeared on his forehead as he realized the incoming danger. It was easy to deal with the previous zombie because it attacked only his backpack. However, fighting against a dozen zombies that wanted desperately to eat him was quite a difficult task.
His hand stopped trembling as he pulled the trigger. The bullet traversed between thick branches and leaves until landing on the zombie's forehead. The single shot caused the first zombie to fall.
At that moment, the zombies sprinted out of the forests and growled menacingly. But then they suddenly leaped to the left and attacked the backpack. A pile of zombies appeared on top of the backpack, and they even began to fight against each other. The zombies accidentally injured each other as they clawed and bit the backpack.
'Seriously, what the hell?' Jason cocked the revolver and emptied his chamber into the pile of zombies. After a click sound appeared every time he pulled the trigger, he pushed open the cylinder wheel, placed eight more purple bullets, closed it, and continued firing.
After that chamber was empty, a pile of dead zombies was in front of him. Their disgusting blood flowed down onto the backpack.
Jason snatched the backpack and debated whether he should get the zombie's lungs too. The lungs were the only usable part; the others didn't have any other uses. However, he then heard more growling. This time, hundreds of zombies had appeared from the depths of the forest!
'Oh no...' Jason looked around and quickly began running down the long road. From the woods, hundreds of hungry-looking zombies ran after him. However, their crazy-looking eyes weren't on Jason. Instead, they intensely looked at the backpack as if it hid the most delicious treat.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone