Chapter 3: First Encounter with a Zombie

The place the convenience store employee had pointed to was the storage room, packed with all sorts of merchandise.

Fang Qingzhou pushed the door open and stepped inside. Ahead stood another closed door, behind which the faint howling of something could be heard.

Fang Qingzhou’s palms were drenched in sweat, leaving the grip slick and sticky, while his index finger rested along the outside of the trigger guard.

The police academy training memories the system had just transferred told him never to place his finger on the trigger until he was certain he was going to fire; that was a mistake only rookies made.

Under intense stress, a person’s fingers involuntarily tighten. If one happened to be resting on the trigger, a round would fly out before any conscious decision was made, hitting something never meant to be shot.

Keeping his gun raised, he crept forward inch by inch. It was an ordinary metal warehouse door, its paint chipped and peeling, rust clinging to the handle. The howling came from right behind it, terribly close.

Taking a deep breath, he slowly gripped the handle with his left hand and gave it a gentle twist. He leaned in, easing the barrel through, and the beam of his flashlight cut through the gap to illuminate the storage room.

Inside, a figure in a convenience store uniform was crouched over a police officer, tearing into the officer’s neck with ravenous bites. Flesh was ripped away, exposing ragged, mangled tissue and stark white bone underneath.

Clearly, the patrol car parked outside the convenience store belonged to this officer.

The zombie seemed to catch the noise and jerked its head up. Its face was smeared with gore and shreds of flesh, its milky eyes clouded and glazed. Its lips were peeled back to expose dark red gums, crooked teeth, and bits of freshly torn flesh still hanging from its jaws.

Fang Qingzhou’s pupils contracted. The scene was an overwhelming shock; never in his life had he witnessed something so terrifying.

Spotting Fang Qingzhou, the zombie lurched to its feet and lunged toward him.

This time, Fang Qingzhou pulled the trigger without the slightest hesitation.

“Bang!”

The gunshot detonated in the cramped storage room, leaving his ears ringing. The bullet slammed into the zombie’s shoulder, splattering dark red fluid. The creature wobbled, but with only a momentary hitch in its stride, it continued charging forward.

“Bang!”

The second shot struck its chest. The impact knocked the zombie back, but it still didn’t go down. That rotting face was now less than two meters away.

Fang Qingzhou’s adrenaline surged. It was a bizarre sensation: his heart beat so hard it felt like it would burst from his chest, his limbs trembled slightly, but in that very moment, his mind turned extraordinarily calm.

Memories of Leon’s training at the police academy surfaced once again, and he aligned his sights with the zombie’s head.

“Bang!”

As the third shot rang out, the bullet bored through the zombie’s clouded eye. Its skull burst like a watermelon struck by a hammer, dark red fluid flying everywhere. The zombie staggered two steps forward before collapsing with a heavy thud.

Fang Qingzhou stood frozen, gasping for air, both hands shaking violently. He looked down at the headless corpse as his stomach churned, though he couldn’t bring anything up.

【Killed Zombie ×1, EXP +10】

Nearly a full minute passed before he barely managed to recover from the intense shock. That single moment had utterly shattered every naive idea he had ever held about zombie games.

“System, what is this EXP for? I don’t see any level on me,” Fang Qingzhou asked.

【EXP can be used to upgrade skills and special abilities, reducing the difficulty of the host’s clear.】

【Additionally, a friendly reminder: The novice tutorial has ended. Host, please leave the convenience store immediately and proceed to Raccoon City.】

“Novice tutorial? What do you mean?” Fang Qingzhou froze again.

But the very next second, he understood, because the cop who had just been mauled by the zombie was swaying back to his feet.

Behind him came the snarling of another zombie as well; the convenience store clerk he had seen earlier had already turned.

He was surrounded.

“Damn it!” Intense regret surged through Fang Qingzhou’s heart.

He should have put a bullet through that clerk’s head right from the start. But now was not the time for regret. These zombies weren’t fast, so there was still a sliver of hope.

He immediately brought his gun back up, took aim at the newly turned cop zombie ahead, and pulled the trigger decisively. The bullet caught it dead center between the brows.

To Fang Qingzhou’s disbelief, the zombie merely threw its head back, paused in place for two seconds, and lunged toward him once more.

“Why won’t a headshot kill it?!” Fang Qingzhou began to panic. Wasn’t the head supposed to be a zombie’s weak spot? Why couldn’t a headshot take it out now?

Refusing to accept it, he pulled the trigger again. Only after three consecutive shots to the head did the zombie finally collapse.

【Killed Zombie ×1, EXP +10】

Before Fang Qingzhou could catch his breath, he felt two arms grab hold of him, followed by a surge of agonizing pain.

The clerk-turned-zombie had crept up behind him, wrapping its arms around him and sinking its teeth directly into his shoulder.

It was the worst agony Fang Qingzhou had ever felt in his life. Forcing himself through the searing pain, he jammed the muzzle against the zombie’s eye and pulled the trigger. As the round pierced the creature’s brain, the teeth clamped into his shoulder finally loosened, and the decaying corpse went limp, sliding to the floor with a dull thud.

【Killed Zombie ×1, EXP +10】

Fang Qingzhou had no time to look at the system prompt. Stumbling back two steps, he collided with the shelf behind him, sending several boxes of drinks crashing to the floor with a series of dull thumps.

He looked down at his left shoulder. A huge chunk of flesh had been torn open, leaving behind a bloody mess. Deep bite marks sank into his flesh, and dark red blood ran down his arm.

Fang Qingzhou gritted his teeth, veins throbbing on his forehead, sweat and blood mingling as they ran down his arm. The Protagonist Aura^[1] meant he wouldn’t turn into a zombie from bites or scratches.

But not getting infected didn’t mean it didn’t hurt.

【Special skill Bristleback^[2] triggered. Pain reduced.】

The next moment, the tearing agony in his shoulder abruptly eased.

What had felt like a red-hot iron searing into his flesh instantly dwindled to the sharp prick of a bee sting.

Though it was still uncomfortable, it was entirely bearable and did not hinder his movements in the slightest. Under the skill’s effect, the wound gradually stopped bleeding.

“System, why didn’t this skill activate earlier? Why wait until after I went through all that pain!” Fang Qingzhou cursed.

【This is also part of the tutorial. We hope the host can adjust his mindset to better survive. In addition, please flee the convenience store as soon as possible.】

In his mind, Fang Qingzhou cursed every ancestor of this garbage system back eighteen generations, but he had no time to bicker with the damned thing right now. He had to get out of here fast; staying would only lead to more zombies.

His pistol had only held ten rounds to begin with. Having already fired seven, he was down to a mere three bullets. He had to scavenge for supplies elsewhere.

Gun raised, he sprinted out of the storage room, but another zombie had emerged in the store at some point. It sprawled beside a shelf, rotting arms clawing wildly forward to cut him off.

Fang Qingzhou was not about to waste a precious bullet on this thing. Shifting his weight, he kicked hard into the nearby shelf. The heavy rack came crashing down, slamming onto the zombie and pinning it firmly beneath.

He kept running toward the entrance, but just as he was about to burst out of the convenience store, he saw someone running straight toward him.

It was a woman wearing a red leather jacket, half-zipped to reveal a black tank top underneath. Her dark brown hair was pulled into a neat ponytail, and her striking face wore an expression Fang Qingzhou knew all too well right now: fear and panic.

Their eyes locked.

A name flashed through Fang Qingzhou’s mind: Claire Redfield.