"So this early in the event my focus is protecting NPCs and trying to keep any zombie hordes from getting out of control. Now that the group is vetted anyone who wants to split off is welcome to, but let's exchange contacts so we can coordinate!"
Gen breathed a sigh of relief, she had been worried that Susan would cart her around for the rest of the event using Jasper as a lie detector. She still didn't know how he had determined the unfortunate antagonist was actually an antagonist or if he had just guessed to screw with her. Either way, her panicked lie that he had a lie-detecting augment wasn't something she could maintain for very long and Susan was too high level for her to survive if she was found out.
About half the group split off for their own things, but a sizeable amount stayed with Susan. If Gen had actually been a protagonist she likely would have done the same, as a high-level ally was a great asset.
Susan looked disappointed that Gen didn't opt to stick around, but Gen quickly made an excuse grabbing Rusty and Francine, "We're just generated and our guide got zombiefied, he'll probably reenter as a ghost soon and we don't want to miss orientation."
Francine and Rusty shared a glance but didn't object.
Susan shrugged and shot her guns in the air a couple of times before yelling, "People coming with me! Let's go! I got a text that zone 38 has a large horde and we need to clear it out!"
A chorus of cheers went out and Susan's group hurried away. Gen eyed the sky nervously, she wasn't a firearm expert, but she knew that shooting bullets in the air as Susan had done was dangerous. Did LEO take care of it behind the scenes or did people just not care because it was an event?
Ding~!
Gen quickly scanned the polls and breathed a sigh of relief, assassinating Susan wasn't something she thought she could do so she was glad it hadn't been selected. Creating a special zombie wasn't something she knew how to do, but hopefully, it would actually be possible.
The blowgun had appeared in her inventory and was marked as an event item so it didn't use up any plot value of storage.
Around them, the ghostlike vendors that were unaffiliated with the event were putting stalls back together. The giant swimming pool had disrupted the market area and Gen saw several people shooting her dirty looks.
Feeling self-conscious Gen looked at Rusty and Francine and asked, "Do you guys actually want to wait for Alfred to come back or were you done shopping?"
Francine pointed to a new Kevlar outfit they were wearing, "I spent too much on this so I can't really afford shopping."
Gen had seen the outfit for sale, it had a moderate plot value but supposedly could block small arms fire and presumably zombie bites to a decent degree.
They looked at Rusty and he shrugged not indicating a preference.
Gen led them away from the square and into an isolated alley before turning on Rusty and saying, "So sorry to spring this on you, but… I'm not really a protagonist so if you really are you can't come with us." Looking him in the eye she asked, "Are you an antagonist?"
His eyes widened slightly and after a brief delay, he nodded in affirmation.
Gen wasn't great at reading people's faces and looked at Francine for help, but they only shrugged. Jasper however hissed and shook his head no.
She looked at him in surprise, "He's actually a protagonist?"
Jasper shook his head up and down excitedly.
Gen hesitated, but Francine did not as they abruptly stabbed Rusty in the throat with a syringe.
Rusty's shocked expression turned into a feral one as black veins quickly started spreading across his body.
Francine and Gen shared a look before both saying, "We should go."
They began running off before Rusty could finish transforming. As they went Francine whispered, "Your iguana's augment is really useful for this event."
Gen glanced at Jasper still not really understanding, "I lied about that! He doesn't have such an augment."
Francine stopped running, "Wait so I stabbed Rusty for no reason?"
Gen shrugged, "Did you get points or lose them for infecting him?"
Francine's eyes flickered checking something on their interface, "I gained points so I guess he really was a protagonist…"
"I don't know how he keeps guessing right, maybe he's just got good intuition?"
She felt Jasper roll his head in annoyance, but screaming echoed from behind them as Rusty evidently found his first victim and they started moving again.
Francine smiled, "I got more points when he infected another person!"
Gen's smile was tight definitely not at all jealous as she thought about her negative contribution points. If the event ended and she was still negative would be penalized instead of rewarded?
Instead, she asked, "Where did you get the syringe?"
Francine replied, "I got it from a poll, LEO said that successfully infiltrating the other team by doing nothing at all made me lucky so I deserved a lucky reward. I got an infection toolkit, it has three syringes. I used the one labeled basic on Rusty as I didn't want to waste the other two, one is labeled armored and the other one spitter."
Gen nodded and asked, "Where is your headquarters, mine isn't that far away."
Francine pulled out their phone struggling with the map for a few seconds before Gen helped them. "I have the monkey exhibit, it's really far away so we should go to yours if we want to go to one."
Gen nodded and checked her phone, as expected there weren't very many monkey exhibits in the city, both were located in zoos on opposite sides of the city. She marked them in her app with one being Francine's headquarters, the other one had to be a protagonist headquarters based on what Alfred had told them.
Her own headquarters was only a few minutes away, she didn't know exactly what an ability testing center was, but the name seemed to be somewhat self-explanatory.
As she walked she made a group chat on her phone and sent a text to Jacob, Morna, and Chuck.
Gen: Hey folks, don't know the convention on this (sorry if this is rude Jacob), but I'm an antagonist are you guys doing the event?
Chuck: Yeah I'm in the event, I'm on other side though so I'll dip out. Send me any specific questions if you have them. I won't obliterate you just because your on team evil if I see you.
Chuck has left the chat
Jacob: Hello Gen, sending a message like this isn't rude.
Jacob: It is somewhat non-standard to open with your affiliation, however.
Jacob: Typically one would message individuals separately and ask them if they would like to coordinate on the event.
Jacob: If they're interested then you can disclose your role and see if they would like to cooperate.
Jacob: In the interest of long-term friendships, it puts people in an awkward situation if they meet you in person while knowing your role and having to choose between their own role's actions and your friendship.
Jacob: As for the event I am not participating, as I told you previously I have a family reunion so I am unfortunately not in the city at the moment.
Gen could see he was writing yet another message when a notification appeared.
Morna has kicked Jacob from the chat.
Morna: GEN! wow what a windbag, ammiright? But yeah team evil over here, what zone are you in? I have a group chat of people from my club who are team antagonist, club rules is you can't lie to club members in events so everyone there is legit! I'll add you! Unless you're lying about your role, which I'll have you know if considered very rude between friends and I would definitely block you if you don't tell me the truth right now!
Gen: I'm not lying…
A new chat appeared immediately called SPOTLIGHT ZOMBIE TEAM EVIL. She got access to the chat history and saw that there were over fifty people in the chat with updates spamming quickly.
She had to scroll up to see Morna's introduction message for her.
Morna: Heyya laddies and ladies! New prospect here, her name is Gen. We have three Gens already so I figure we call her Geeen to prevent any confusion! She's new like generated yesterday new, but she's legit I saw her pulverize like forty gnomes using only gravity without blinking an eye so she's a bonafide sociopath and will fit right in with everyone!
Your nickname has been set to Geeen
The message had a slew of emoji reactions and a spam of welcoming texts flew by after it. Gen didn't have time to react to them and walk at the same time so she focused on just getting information from the chat.
They seemed to be in the process of updating a realtime map of the event city with everyone's information. Gen clicked a button and synced her map.
Map sync in progress~
Map sync complete. The coordinated map has strategic event value and members represent a minor faction, information contributions will be rewarded in contribution points.
A notification flashed and she gained 100 contribution points for marking the two monkey exhibits. Her own headquarters was apparently already known so she didn't receive any points for it.
Looking at her updated map she gulped at the scale of things as she saw several hundred headquarters marked. Most of them were antagonist ones, but a dozen or so protagonist ones were also known.
To her side, Francine spoke, "Alfred posted that he's back in the market for anyone who still wants to do orientation. He said that if anyone wants to prioritize the event they're welcome to." She paused, "Bo still isn't answering me, but Alfred says he's there too."
Looking at Francine's lost puppy expression Gen said, "I'm not going to tell you to ignore him even though that's totally a hundred percent what I think you should do. I say we just try to get as much contribution as we can, if Bo ever needs help then you need to make sure you're in a position to offer it right?"
Francine hesitated but eventually nodded.
Changing topics Gen asked, "Did you get a bonus mission by the way? I got one for making a special zombie, but I don't even know what that is."
Francine nodded, "Yes.. my viewers picked on to destroy an enemy headquarters, but I don't think that's possible at our level."
Gen grimaced, "Yeah I had one for assassinating Susan not sure if I would've been able to accomplish it. What even does level 7 mean? Abilities can be so varied and if she has seven of them there's no guarantee that I could take her down even with a sneak attack."
Francine frowned, "Yeah it's a bonus mission though so I think I'll just ignore it, maybe someone at a headquarters can explain yours?"
"I've got a group chat, let me ask there first."
Geeen: What is a special zombie I have a mission to make one
Morna: It's the best thing ever!
G2n: A special zombie is similar to a boss in a scenario, making one isn't easy however you need a large amount of biomass and at least one mutagen. When you start the process it will make a quest for enemy protagonists to come raid your location and you'll need to defend the incubating zombie until it hatches.
Gen: What's a mutagen?
Morna: They're fun! I use them as quickly as I can!
G2n: An important resource. At the beginning of the event, zombies are slow and weak, mutagens are special viruses that can make augmented zombies with additional stats and abilities. If you get a mutagen you have to be careful not to waste it. Long-term spreading a mutated infection is much more valuable than spreading the base zombie virus. There is debate on whether using mutagens to make an augmented zombie horde or saving them to make a special zombie is better. Early on it's unlikely any antagonist base is fortified enough to survive an extermination quest so usually mutagens are used to make hordes with bosses only appearing at the end of the event once antagonists have cleared out multiple zones.
Gen glanced at Francine, the two leftover syringes sounded like exactly what she needed. She quickly explained the situation to Francine.
Francine nodded, "I'm glad I didn't waste the important one. I think Rusty only managed to infect one person before getting taken out as I haven't been getting any more points." She looked at Gen, "How'd you get into a group chat like that?"
Gen shrugged, "I made some friends in my first scenario and one of them is in a cult."
Francine looked aghast, "Do they need help? I ended up in a cult in one of my lives… by the time I realized what was happening I was too isolated and had no one to help me."
Gen felt guilty as she quickly corrected, "Well umm… I don't think it's that type of cult. More like a club, they seem like good people I think."
Francine looked doubtful, but said "Do you want my mutagens? They said you can use more than one to make a special zombie right?"
Gen looked at Francine greedily, but tried to suppress it, "I do want them, but they emphasized that protagonists will try to hunt down the boss before it finishes being created. You can hold onto them for now."
Francine gave her an inscrutable look, but before they could speak more someone yelled out from ahead "Halt!"
Looking ahead they saw two men both level 3 with rifles pointed at them. Gen checked her map and saw they were standing directly in front of her headquarters.
The taller one named Gary questioned, "What's your business here?"
Francine tensed, but Gen put a hand on their arm and said, "This is my headquarters, I'm assuming you're both antagonists as well?"
There was a chance that protagonists had already taken the base, but it looked undamaged, and with how early the event still was she didn't think any bases had fallen yet.
The two guards relaxed a little and Gary asked, "Do you have any evidence of your affiliation?"
Gen hesitated a second before pulling out her blowpipe, "I have a blowpipe that shoots infection darts…"
She hadn't looked at the blowpipe fully, but its description read.
Shoots basic infection darts, 1 dart per second.
Gary walked over and motioned for her to hand him the blowpipe, she hesitated only a moment before handing it over and letting him examine it. He handed it back shortly, "Add me as a contact, my clan One Voice is working on making a chain of command along with the other clans. Event equipment can be looted so it won't be enough to validate your identity going forward. It's early enough that it's unlikely you looted already though. We don't have anyone with lie-detecting abilities at this headquarters so watch your back as anyone else who shows up is also unverified."
She nodded in understanding, she was tempted to suggest Jasper's services, but she still had no idea how he was checking people or if he was just guessing. Either way she wanted to actually interact with the event rather than being stuck in a back room watching Jasper interrogate people.
Gary gave them a quick rundown of the area. There was an NPC cashier at the front where you could exchange contribution points to either get event equipment or upgrade the headquarters. Inside there was a dormitory room as well as a control node which had to be defended to prevent any protagonists from seizing control of the base.
He quickly realized she was a generated when she asked what an ability testing center was.
His tone was a bit annoyed and she heard him mumble something about generated, but he explained "You can swap between your abilities and augments inside and there are reinforced rooms to test them out. People short on emmys will volunteer to be practice partners as well, but the usual crowd is too busy doing the event to show up. You can switch your abilities in a headquarters already so it's a bit redundant right now."
Francine went to check the contribution store while Gen went inside the base not wanting to confront her negative points. Once inside she got a notification.
You are inside a friendly headquarters you may toggle your abilities and augments on and off!
With a thought, she could visualize her short list of options.
Summon Iguana (On/Off)
- Teamwork makes the dream work (On/Off)
Surprised she saw that she could turn off her only ability. Turning it off she looked at Jasper and he looked back without expression. She turned it back on and then turned the teamwork augment off.
"Jasper can you still understand me."
He gave her a very judgemental expression but nodded his head.
Smiling she walked into a testing room and summoned an iguana. A normal size iguana appeared and stared at her dumbly before walking to a corner of the room and lounging down.
Glancing at Jasper she saw him looking at it with a high level of intensity. Guessing the problem she said, "I turned off my teamwork augment so it's just a normal iguana rather than one of your teammates."
He looked at her and hissed.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Self-concious of how close he was to her eyes she held up her hands, "I can turn it back on! I just was thinking that this might be useful right? You said you want iguanas to be summoned into enjoyable situations and a zombie apocalypse doesn't exactly qualify does it?" She pointed at the iguana, "That's just a normal iguana rather than part of your clan so you shouldn't care what happens to it right?"
Jasper gave her a long stare. She tried to imagine how she'd feel in his situation, if someone could summon humans with iguana-level intelligence would she not care what happened to them? In a way that was exactly what the NPCs were and the whole event hinged on her infecting as many of them as possible and she didn't feel guilty about it even if maybe she should.
Jasper eventually made peace with the situation, but he avoided looking at his lesser-intelligence cousin.
Leaving the testing center Gen summoned another iguana out front and watched it meander off down a street to confirm that the augment stayed turned off. In scenarios she couldn't turn off augments she didn't want, but it seemed outside of them she didn't need to use them if she didn't want to.
Ignoring Francine for the moment as she was still shopping she went to Gary, he rolled his eyes, "I don't have time to explain how the world works, you people have an orientation guide for stuff like this don't you."
She frowned, she had wanted to coordinate her plan with the existing defenders, but maybe she didn't care?
Walking back to Francine she asked, "Find anything good?"
Francine shrugged with a concentrated expression. "I don't know there's a lot, but I can't afford most of it. The mutagens I have aren't for sale they only have the basic syringes which are 10 contribution points each. The zombie-gas grenade launcher that guy at the market had is 10,000 points. I don't know how he got so many so quickly."
Gen considered, "Anything to help protect us from zombies?"
Francine nodded, "A lot, there's wards to make the zombies avoid an area. Amulets to make them ignore you, dust which is like a temporary version of the amulet, and a bunch more, but I can only afford the basic versions which emphasize they won't work on mutated zombies."
Gen nodded and put a question in the chat.
Geeen: How long does it take for a special zombie to incubate?
Morna: Waaaay too long! If you get some mutagens just use them to make a horde! Your bonus mission is cool and all, but I always ignore mine!
G2n: Incubation will depend on the rarity and quantity of mutagens that are used. If you use more then the boss will be stronger and have more variety of abilities, but it will add eight to sixteen hours to the incubation time per mutagen.
Gen: Rarity of mutagens?
Morna: Rarer ones are cooler! I like the one that makes zombies explode when they die!
Gen: What rarity are armored and spitter?
Morna: These questions are really specific! Geeen do you have mutagens? Where are you I want to come play!
G2n: Armored is low rarity and spitter is a very rare mutagen. They would take 8 hours and 16 hours respectively to incubate. If you use both then it would take 24 hours to incubate. Do you actually have both of those?
Gen: Yeah technically, my friend does at least. They'll let me use them, I have a plan that will take a while to set up, but if anyone is interested in assisting on defense I'm at ability testing center 7.
G2n: You have a way to get biomass? That's the hardest part this early in the event as it's tedious to collect bodies.
Gen smiled to herself as she outlined her plan.
Francine looked at her hesitantly, "Are you sure this is a good idea? Your friends said the mutagens are valuable and we shouldn't waste them."
Gen shrugged, "If we could sell the mutagens for emmys maybe it would be worthwhile instead of risking it, but Alfred said it was against the rules trying to profit from the event with normal world benefits so if we want to benefit from this we'll need to take action directly and try and get contribution points."
Gen summoned another iguana as they walked around the ability testing center, the surroundings were dotted with several hundred iguanas already and if she added many more Gary and the other guard at the front were almost certain to notice even if the iguanas were just mostly sunbathing at the moment.
Francine still looked uncertain, but Gen dragged them back inside the testing center. The NPC that manned the shop had limited dialogue options but was luckily not racist like Gary so she was able to get a little more information.
Specifically, she found out that antagonist headquarters had built-in zombie dissuaders which would prevent even mutated zombies from breaking their way inside. Entering the building she confirmed she could summon an iguana through the glass door without opening it.
Looking at Francine she smiled and said, "You want to do the honors?"
Francine looked hesitant, "I still worry that you won't get any contribution if I infect the initial one… I've had people blame me before even when I warned them something would happen."
Gen rolled her eyes, Francine's tragic backstory seemed to have some new facet of human cruelty that applied to any situation.
"Relax, you're giving me the armored one for my quest so honestly I still think I'm coming out ahead."
Francine paused looking at the two mutagens in their hands, "Are you sure you want that one? The rarer one would make a stronger boss."
"I still have my doubts that the boss will be successfully incubated even with an eight-hour waiting period, even if Morna's group helps they're not high enough level if a group of Susans shows up. I'm all for high risk high reward, but I'll still hedge my bets if I can."
Francine still was dragging things out as she looked at Gary and his buddy who were pointedly ignoring them as they guarded the main entrance to the headquarters. "Won't they be mad at us after the event?"
Gen rolled her eyes, "Yeah I hope so, maybe they'll think twice before being racist."
"Only Greg said something to you and won't this just make him more racist against generated?"
"His buddy is guilty of staying silent. As for making him more racist… it's a big city we'll probably never meet again."
Francine gave her a very pointed look and she could sense Jasper judging her from the side as well, but they had already discussed the topic to death in the hours it had taken to summon so many iguanas.
With an air of resignation, Francine opened the door and eyed the iguana that had already started napping. Francine looped the aptly named zombie leash they had bought from the headquarters store around the iguana's neck.
The sleeping iguana didn't even wake up as Francine finished leashing it and tied the leash to the door handle.
When Francine injected it with the mutagen however it jerked awake and hissed, but was too slow as Francine ducked back inside and slammed the door shut.
The iguana twitched violently and black veins spread from the injection sight as its skin turned purple. Dark drool oozed from its mouth and its eyes turned dead and gray.
It didn't try to move however the zombie leash working as designed to keep it in a fixed location.
Gen summoned another iguana next to it.
The new iguana didn't even get to fully comprehend its new existence before a glob of spit hit it on the side.
The zombification process was very quick and Gen didn't hesitate as she summoned one iguana after another.
The unleashed iguanas didn't stick around and scurried away from the building much faster than any undead creature had a right to move.
They weren't just walking on the ground either. They scaled up walls and climbed onto roofs with a level of energy they hadn't displayed while alive.
The iguanas she had summoned ahead of time in the area never stood a chance as their diseased brethren swept over them like a tide.
Gary and his friend didn't do any better with both of them getting blasts of toxic spit in the back and quickly starting to transform. Gary made eye contact with her even as black veins spread across his body and she gave him a thumbs up from the other side of the transparent door.
She watched them wander off after transforming noting that they seemed the same as normal zombies just with black drool. The iguanas' mobility seemed to be the result of them being iguanas rather than the mutagen.
From their vantage point inside the headquarters, they couldn't really see much of what was happening outside once the zombie iguanas got too far away to see.
Francine quickly started to get updates in the form of contribution points, however. Infecting iguanas didn't give points and they luckily hadn't lost any points when Gary was infected, but as the NPCs in the area started to get ambushed by iguanas the points began to pour in.
Gen didn't get any points as predicted, but Francine was already up to a thousand in a short amount of time.
She focused on her own role of summoning more iguanas to give as much buffer as possible.
If a high level actor showed up before the horde reached a large enough size then they could easily wipe out the zombies and waste the mutagen.
She only saw them in action a little through the glass door of the headquarters, but the reason the spitter mutagen was valuable was obvious. Being able to make ranged attacks multiplied how dangerous they were and made it more difficult to easily pick them off by flying or attacking through simple barricades.
After summoning a few hundred more Gen was mentally exhausted and moved on to phase two of her plan, but was interrupted by a poll.
Ding~!
LEO's voice spoke in her head, You know that summoning iguanas isn't free right? Every time you do it the iguana needs to be actualized into reality which isn't cheap… What you're doing is the equivalent of leaving the front door open with the AC turned on, but on a cosmic scale! And trust me you don't have nearly enough viewers to make up for the deficit. Anyway here's a reward to help you think about your actions!
Gen didn't reflect on her actions at all as she walked the special zombie incubation chamber. It looked like an empty garage with a heavy motorized door on one end.
In the center was a pedestal, on which she placed the armored mutagen on triggering a message across her vision.
Error insufficient biomass!
Rolling her eyes she summoned an iguana.
Error insufficient biomass!
Annoyed she tried to take the mutagen back but the pedestal had locked it in place securely.
Giving a resigned sign she did her best to ignore the error messages as she started summoning one iguana after another. If G2n's math was right then it was going to be at least five hundred iguanas to make a special zombie.
Error insufficient biomass!
Error insufficient biomass!
Error insufficient biomass!
Error insufficient biomass!
Error insufficient biomass!
…
System detected boring content! Viewers now entering omniscient mode. Hit tab to return to current designated primary actor "Gen" and view more incredibly wasteful iguanas being summoned.
Charlie peaked around the corner not seeing any active zombies and hand motioned his teammate Paul forward.
It was still day one of the event so aside from some flashy high leveled actors who weren't invested enough in the event to play carefully not much had happened and of those exciting things that had happened he'd missed them all.
His squad of ten was made of his peers that all went to the same preparatory school as him and they had split up into teams of two. They were all from established families and their parents had set them up together to build lifelong connections and find out who their respective viewers liked to pair up.
They all had at least three scenarios under their belts and were level 2. Their families had also gotten them the best equipment for their plot level.
Charlie adjusted his combat vest again. He'd wanted a powerful weapon, but his mother insisted that the actors that made names for themselves weren't the ones with flashy weapons, but the ones that made it to the finale.
His teammates had gotten similar advice so they had been basically forced to patrol a low contention area for the whole event so far avoiding any areas where high level actors were spotted.
Hordes spread organically in all directions so the center of the city was antagonists ideal spot for starting a mutated horde and consequently it was always the most dangerous at the beginning. Any swarm started at the edge of the map could be easily contained by comparison so it was avoided by experienced actors.
He'd only seen one zombie so far and Paul had unloaded a full clip into it before he could even get a shot off.
Things looked like they might be picking up however as Jazz their team captain had stopped responding to texts.
Charlie was heading to Jazz's last known location and he itched for action. Here on the edge it likely wasn't a major threat just some genlings fumbling through the event that had caught Jazz off guard.
With Jazz gone however, the team leader position was up for debate. If Charlie played his cards right then he could push the group into heading for the center of the city.
Sarah hadn't paid him any attention so far and when he'd bragged to her that he'd reached a hundred viewers she had actually rolled her eyes.
But if he made it onto the leaderboard…
A scratching noise from above interrupted his daydream. Halting he looked up and saw… some sort of lizard?
It was peaking over the edge of the roof of the adjacent shop. Squinting he tried to identify it, he hadn't paid much attention in his earth history classes and zoo trips were for children.
A lizard was a lizard even if it was a bit big.
He wasn't stupid however and could see from its black veins and grey skin that it had gotten infected at some point.
He leveled his gun hoping to get a shot off before Paul stole another of his kills when abruptly the lizard spat in his face.
Cursing he missed his shot and tried to wipe the burning ooze from his eyes. His mom had forced him to equip combat goggles before going to the event, but he'd switched them out for the much more practical option of a mini flamethrower.
Still blind he mentally searched his inventory for a cleansing rag only to belatedly notice a warning message.
You have been infected!
Infection quality "Very Rare"
You are level 2 you have two seconds to apply an antidote.
Panicking he switched his focus to grabbing an antidote instead.
Two seconds elapsed. Adios~!
Switching perspective…
Paul snickered as he watched Charlie transform. His teammate was an idiot and insisted on always being in front as if that would make Sarah notice him.
Paul had been watching Sarah for a long time waiting for his chance to make a good impression and he knew she hated guys who acted without thinking and volunteering to go in front during a zombie event definitely qualified as thoughtless.
Shooting Charlie in the head with a burst of automatic fire Paul dropped him easily. Higher-level actors turned into more powerful zombies, but Charlie was only level 2 and barely better than a fresh generated.
Paul was also level 2, but he was different. While his teammates had been obsessing over getting viewers and school popularity Paul instead had been relentlessly training and researching.
He easily identified the lizard as an iguana and could tell it had been infected with a spitter mutagen.
Spitter was a great mutagen, but it did nothing to increase a zombie's defense and so with a single shot, he dropped the iguana as well.
Pausing to text and update in the chat he wrote.
Paul: Charlie is out. He got sloppy. Spitter mutagen present. Found an infected iguana. We're far from the zoo so it's likely a summon.
Paul carefully checked his surroundings for more iguanas or infected NPCs. Summon abilities were very powerful for getting a quick batch of zombies in these events, but from his research, he knew that rarely could a summoner create more than ten minions before facing a long cooldown.
Summons were usually much more powerful however, an iguana of all things didn't seem very useful even if they had a hundred of them…
Paul entered a courtyard of a large house and started to consider his next message to the group. With Charlie dead he didn't have a partner, would it be too direct to ask Sarah if he could join up with her? Maybe he should suggest they all group and keep up with just passively displaying competence until she noticed…
A bush in the garden's courtyard shifted and he saw a pair of dead eyes emerge as he spotted another iguana. He didn't hesitate shooting it immediately before it could spit at him.
His gun was specialized with quick ammo generation at the price of low-damage and aside from his defensive equipment he also had an amulet that further enhanced the gun's ammo generation. He would have few options against a special zombie, but at their level it made more sense to focus on slowly accumulating points. The mutated spitter zombies gave five times as many points as a normal one and if he stayed careful he might even be able to make it on the leaderboard and really impress Sarah…
Another bush shifted and he smiled as he aimed at a new iguana. His smile faltered however as six of the creatures ambled into view.
Quickly thinking he activated his forceshield ability just in time generating an invisible barrier that blocked a volley of spit from the iguanas.
Before he could retreat out of the courtyard he felt a wet impact from behind as another iguana snuck up on him.
You have been infected!
Infection quality "Very Rare"
You are level 2 you have two seconds to apply an antidote.
Cursing he didn't panic as he withdrew an antidote from his inventory and drank it immediately curing himself. The antidote would give him a small window of immunity to the infection as well, but if he kept getting spat on then the potion would be overpowered.
Activating his second ability rocket jump he flew at super speed at an angle above the nearest house aiming to land on its roof. His augment feather fall would keep him from killing himself as he fell down and give him plenty of time to snipe any iguanas in the vicinity.
Looking down his confidence cracked.
The roof of the house must have had over thirty iguanas and all around in the courtyard and surrounding streets he saw more and more of the things milling about. Without something like a flamethrower, he could never clear them fast enough.
Desperate he unloaded his submachine gun peppering the iguanas as he slowly drifted toward the ground. His gun regenerated ammo very quickly, but against so many it wasn't nearly fast enough and he was out of ammo within just a handful of seconds.
With a resigned sigh he dropped his gun and covered his eyes to avoid seeing countless globs of spit flying toward him.
Resistance overcome! Immunity potion exhausted!
You have been infected!
Overwhelming infection detected. Adios~!
Switching perspective…
Bella rolled her eyes, "Why does Paul always type so weird? It's like he thinks he's using a walkie talkie and has to put a period after every statement!"
Sarah didn't respond still looking at her phone and reading the message.
Bella bit her lip trying to think of something clever to say, Sarah was perfect and almost everyone on the team was gunning for her and the ones that weren't were just trying to play it cool even though they secretly wanted her too.
Paul was definitely one of those types, but Bella knew that Sarah desired initiative in any prospective partner. That's why Bella had made sure to volunteer first to get partnered with her.
Ever since they had graduated and started entering scenarios she hadn't gotten to talk to Sarah and Sarah had barely answered text messages so this event might be her last chance to leave an impression.
Charlie was a loudmouth, but she didn't disagree with him that being stuck on the outskirts was extremely dull. From one of her many chat groups she'd heard that a nearby market had had some action and even a giant swimming pool had been summoned of all things.
Her mind briefly wandered imagining Sarah in a swimsuit and she shook herself free of the delusion. She'd never be so lucky as to witness something like that. All they'd run into so far was a group of clueless level 1 antagonists that had been easy pickings, the idiots were walking around with syringes in their hands making it obvious what team they were on, they were probably generated or at the very least genlings.
Looking at Sarah she realized that her dreamgirl was saying something and she'd totally missed it.
Stammering she asked, "What was that?"
Sarah's tone didn't change, but Bella could tell she was annoyed by her eyes as she repeated, "Do you see anything on your minimap?"
Bella quickly recalled her ability, she personally hated it, but everyone kept telling her how good it was. If she concentrated while moving around it could generate a mental map in her head, she had an augment for it that would also mark the realtime movement of creatures that entered the area she'd mapped.
The problem was that it only mapped areas if she concentrated while moving around and she always forgot to focus on it. Glancing at it mentally she felt a sinking sensation as she saw it had only mapped a few feet around their starting area and nothing after as she'd forgotten all about it.
Looking at Sarah she quickly lied, "It looks all clear! We should move to another area quickly, if Paul isn't making it up then spitters could be bad this early… Maybe we should message our parents for help?"
Not all their parents were assigned the protagonist role, but they had another chat with the ones that had been. They were supposed to be getting solo experience start cementing their viewers interest without being overshadowed by their parents, but in case they ran into problems or had information important enough to bother the high level actors the chat was available. Her parents were only level 5, but Sarah's mom was level 7.
Sarah looked around, her perfect brown eyes taking in every detail, but still somehow passing over Bella without ever really looking at her and realizing that her soulmate was right next to her this whole time.
"Let's assess how bad the infection has spread and then we can tell my mom." She looked at Bella, "Don't forget to activate your ability this time."
Bella forced a tight smile not daring to double down on her lie as they hurried forward.
Using all her brain power she kept focused on her minimap and somehow still almost didn't notice when a red dot abruptly appeared.
"There's something!"
Sarah stopped and immediately and took a defensive pose looking around, "Where is it?"
Bella's eyes wobbled as she tried to make sense of the map, "It says it's right on top---"
Her words were cut off as a giant sledgehammer pancaked her whole body from above.
Switching perspective…
Sarah narrowed her eyes at the woman who had fallen dramatically from the sky and crushed Bella. Bella was undoubtedly dead having been turned into paste, Sarah stole a glance at the giant hammer even as it disappeared into the woman's inventory.
What type of weapon was that? Her mother allowed for more creativity with her equipment than most of her peers' parents, but still the hammer was a touch too far. The woman was only level 2 and based on how much firepower such a weapon must have she likely had next to no plot points left for anything else.
The woman looked at her with a hungry expression, "Meow~"
Sarah narrowed her eyes drawing her katana. She was momentarily distracted as a notification flashed across in warning.
Special zombie incubation has begun in zone 98!
Target antagonist headquarters has been marked on your map!
You are in zone 98 stop the incubation at all costs!
Time remaining 7:59:59!
Ah seems like she finished summoning… rewinding and switching perspective…
Gen breathed a sigh of relief as the error message finally turned into one of success. She took a step back and covered Jasper's eyes. He wasn't stopping her from sacrificing unaugmented iguanas, but that didn't mean he had to watch whatever happened next.
From the center dias in the garage red tendrils seeped through the floor spreading rapidly to fill the whole room. The five hundred or so iguanas had been content at first to chill in the empty room, but as she'd summoned more and more they'd been becoming more and more restless as well as picking fights with each other.
She had plenty of scratches already and her new jeans were cut up. She hoped that when the event ended her clothing would be repaired as she really didn't have the emmys to spare.
Once the tendrils finished spreading through the room a hum of static filled the air and all the iguanas were sucked toward the dias. Gen was unaffected, but Jasper was unceremoniously yanked from her shoulder and flew directly toward the throbbing mass of lizard limbs and bodies while angrily hissing.
She stared slackjawed as he was immediately lost from view in the ball.
Special zombie incubating! Time remaining 7:59:59
LEO's voice boomed in her head, Wow using your friend as blood sacrifice… Maybe whats his name was right about you being an aberrant… well whatever villains are great for ratings! Your headquarters is almost certainly doomed, but here's a reward for incubating the first special zombie of the event!