My Reality Became a Zombie Game World, but Only I Can Use the Game System - Chapter 4: First Defeat

Chapter 4: First Defeat

“Don! Don don don don!”

Something inside my father’s room was making a loud noise, banging on the door.

Something. It wasn’t just something, it was a zombie. The mini-map clearly displayed a red warning, so I had to snap out of it. I tried to clear my head and think hard, as I was trying to escape reality again.

My father might still be in the room.

I had to deal with the zombie quickly and rescue him.

Did I have a way to deal with it? What was the means to defeat a zombie?

That’s right, the message window had said this:

—“Think of it as if you, as a player, can use the game system of ‘Dead Land 4’ in reality.”—

If I could use the “Dead Land 4” system, then of course, I should be able to use weapons!

“How do I use the weapons!?”

“Please equip them from the inventory in the menu. The method of operating the menu should also be installed.”

As the message window said, I somehow knew how to use the menu.

I displayed the menu screen in mid-air and checked the inventory from there. There was a pistol and a melee weapon in the inventory. After a moment’s hesitation, I equipped one of them.

A machete, a type of default melee weapon in “DL4,” materialized in the empty space, taking a few seconds to become real.

The machete looked heavy, but when I gripped it in my right hand, it was lighter than I expected. Was this also due to the increased muscle strength as a player?

Still, it was an unbelievable phenomenon.

I couldn’t believe that a weapon could materialize like this.

This was more inexplicable than the zombies. It was like a magical phenomenon in a fantasy world. But I didn’t have time to think about it now.

“Don! Don! Don!”

The sound of the door being knocked on from my father’s room continued.

I placed my left hand on the doorknob. My throat was dry with tension.

Sweat was forming on my right hand, which was gripping the machete.

At this point, I was starting to regret my decision. The blade of the machete was long, and if I swung it horizontally inside the house, it would likely get caught on the wall. I needed to be careful as I swung it down on the zombie’s head.

But could I bring myself to swing this sinister weapon at a zombie that was once a human? In the game, it was something I did without thinking, but this was reality.

Could I… do it?

“You can do it, Ritsu-san.”

The message window seemed to have noticed my struggle and was encouraging me.

What do you know about me…? I laughed bitterly, and then I realized I had been holding my breath due to the tension.

“Fuuuuuuuuuuuuu…”

I resumed breathing, took a deep breath, and tried to calm myself.

It was okay. Before I could even think about whether I could do it or not, I had to do it. I was the only one who could save my father.

I opened the door with my left hand, swinging it wide.

“Aaa… Aaahhh… I… It hurts, it hurts…”

As the pale-skinned zombie lunged at me, I swung the machete down…!

I swung it down, and it was too late when I realized that zombie was my father.

It was something that was obviously possible, but I hadn’t even imagined it until now.

So, I witnessed the moment when the machete sank into my father’s face, like a surprise attack. I saw my right hand taking my father’s life.

The zombie, my father, with his head split open, lost his strength and fell towards me. I instinctively caught him, and his brain matter splattered on my face. I heard a scream, and then I realized it was coming from my own mouth, a moment later.

“Aaa… Aaa… Aaahhhhh!!!.”

“Congratulations! You have successfully gotten rid of a zombie!”

I felt nauseous and rushed to the toilet, vomiting.

The image of my father’s face, split vertically, wouldn’t leave my mind.

I felt dizzy and fell to the floor. I hoped it was all a dream.

Thinking that, I let go of my consciousness.

*

It wasn’t a dream.

I woke up in the toilet and stepped out into the corridor, and there was still my father’s corpse there. There was a pool of blood around his body.

“… “

It seemed that when humans experienced too much shock, they lost the ability to grieve.

I couldn’t cry, and my thoughts were frozen, as I made my way to my room, avoiding my father’s body.

I looked at the clock in my room, and it was past 10 a.m. I had skipped school on a weekday, but I didn’t care about that now.

I wanted to pretend like nothing had happened and hide under the bed, but I had to at least organize the current situation.

What I had done, what I could do, and what I should do. I needed information to know all that.

I unconsciously touched my neck and noticed that the wound from yesterday’s bite had healed.

Was this also a benefit of being a player?

Sitting on my bed, I spoke to the message window.

“Um, message window person…”

“Please call me Ai. Like a special person you talk to, with affection.”

Ai…? Was it an AI, like AI Ai? (T/N: He’s dumb, she was referring to the japanese word Ai not AI. Ai translates to love.) 

If there was such advanced technology that could materialize weapons, it wasn’t strange to have an emotionally rich AI to support it.

I should have asked many questions, but I was completely worn out.

I just wanted to pour out my heart to anyone.

“Listen, Ai, my father was a really good person, and yesterday, he even offered to go fishing to cheer me up…”

“Will that story be long? Can I start the game system tutorial instead?”

“… What did you just say? Now is not the time for that?”

Does this thing have no heart? Maybe it really is an AI?

“Do you know the joke where you ask an OS support character for a way to delete it? That’s how I feel right now.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t understand.”

“I guess so…”

I let my shoulders drop. It was starting to feel silly to be so down.

“I understand your feelings, but there was no way to save your father, who had become a zombie. Your actions were the best solution. Instead, you need to understand the system as soon as possible. The zombie hazard has already occurred.”

“You mentioned that zombie hazard before, right? Is it happening in this city?”

“No, it’s happening all over the world.”

… All over the world?

To become a zombie, you had to be bitten by a zombie. Physical contact was necessary, so was it possible for it to occur simultaneously all over the world?

Ah, maybe it was like the type in “DL4,” with a few hours of incubation period. If people were bitten and turned into zombies within a few hours, zombies would spread rapidly in each region.

I turned on my computer and decided to search for SNS.

Just by entering the search word “zombie,” photos and videos started to appear. It seemed that it was indeed occurring in countries other than Japan.

I saw videos of zombies running wild on planes and ships, and my spine froze.

The people bitten by these zombies would also turn into zombies in a few hours. The world would be overrun by zombies in no time.

At least, it wasn’t a matter of just escaping the city to be saved.

It seemed that the situation was more serious than I had thought.

As Ai said, I needed to understand the system I could use.

“The game system tutorial, right? I know about the mini-map, health bar, inventory, and weapons. Is there anything else?”

“Yes. I will explain about a very important system.”

The display of the menu in my vision changed.

There was a list of weapons, accessories, skill drugs, and so on. Each item had a price, although the unit was unknown. Ah, this was a screen familiar to “DL4” users. So, this meant… As I realized it, Ai began to explain.

“It’s about the usage of the store system.”