END Initiated...

Note: This chapter is being posted on 27th May. However, there is almost no internet connection here. If you can view this chapter that means my internet is up! Enjoy!

The two of them left the odd building after searching all around for anything else. Looking down from the second floor obviously, they had to face the zombie herd that had increased around the building. Does it seem the building itself was attracting the zombie's groups near it? Or was it their human radar? Who knows? 

"It looks like we need to take these zombies out before going."

Well, it's not that it matters knowing that these things provide some essential kill points.

"Ok!" As soon as he finished, Neel pumped up to the brim to show his usefulness, jumped straight down from the second floor.

"Huh? Wait up!" 

However, Kiel was one step too late to stop the ever excited kid. Neel had already jumped out of the window with excitement all over his face. 

Jumping down usually from such heights would usually have led to bone fractures, however, just before the impact, his feet suddenly grew a large bush-like structure absorbing most of the impact. And what's more, he landed straight on the head of one of the zombies pummeling it straight to the ground in the process.

He even took out an odd-looking axe from his badge and began mowing down the zombies in front of him. The zombie's hand clashed with the axe, however it easily tore through their skin and muscles. 

The axe was unusually sharp. It was by no means an ordinary weapon. And as Kiel analysed more, he noticed that the axe possessed another feature. It seemed to be able to surround its user with a thin yellow aura like armour all around the user.

Maybe that's the gift he got from here? Probably an armour+weapon magic tool? Maybe that gave Neel the confidence to jump down? Kiel could instantly come up with many thoughts.

After all, even the zombie's strong limbs could only leave scratches all over it. The armour around Neel also seemed quite sturdy. The zombies couldn't even penetrate it. While Neel looked quite heroic battling the lifeless around him with a smile on his face. 

'I guess that's what separates coloured cards from the black ones?" Kiel wondered.

Although the axe did pique his interest. But now he could only slap his forehead for being one step too late to stop this idiot from taking risks like that. There were twenty to thirty zombies there. And let's not forget even if the axe came with a battery pack or relied on its user for energy, Neel was still one man and whether he had enough stamina for the job?

"Hey, dude? Are you coming down or not?" 

Neel finally realised that he was the only one down fighting the zombies while his companion seemed to be watching him with glowing eyes. Neel couldn't help but feel a chill down his spine like his every fibre was being studied down to the very bones.

"Huh? Why the hell did you even jump down! I don't plan to jump down like an idiot. Wait there for a moment. I will send them off to their graves. " 

Kiel finally came to his senses too.

"Eh? Ok. But hurry up. Fighting with these things alone is really harder." 

The armour was good and all, and the sharpness and range of the axe was also good. However, fighting so many targets was already putting a toll on his body.

Kiel had no plan to jump down and go into melee mode. He still had no weapon and he didn't have much practice with hand to hand combat to rush out of so many zombies. He, however, had a very simple plan.

Kiel punched with all his current might the wall of the building in hopes that he would crash it down to the zombies to free a path for Neel. However, the moment his hand touched the wall, the only feeling transmitted to his hand was the pain. 

"Ouch! Damn it why is so hard. The hell it is made off! " Kiel tried a few more times, but to no avail. He could only give up on the wall. 

"What happened? I need some help here." Neel was getting anxious by the minute.

GROWL! Growl!!

"Just hold on a bit longer. And tell these things to shut up. I am getting irritated here." 

"I am trying!"

Kiel didn't have any big moves to kill so many zombies at once. And he wanted to keep his new moves a secret as he had still not practised them much.

And so as the current building failed to fall down, Kiel was now sure that something was wrong with this building. So it was now time for another building.

He climbed out of the window then using the window as a lever, Kiel activated his Gravity Manoeuvre to reach the roof of the building. He still could not use gravity to climb on vertical spaces, as it would take too much of his mental strength to activate and deactivate gravitation around him instantaneously. He still needed to train to get very fine and delicate control over it. And he didn't have much training in this concept. But he could still use it as a travel medium from one point to another fairly easily. 

From the roof, he could get a better view of the herd through the help of the dim light of the moon. The lifeless puppets were like crawling hungry beasts in the dim night. Anybody from earth would feel their scalp getting numb from just seeing the scene below.

And now the plan was very simple.

"Hey, Neel?"

"Hmm?"

"I am gonna clear a path for you. When I say run, use that path to start running. Don't mess with these zombies anymore. I will catch up with you when we are out of this mess"

"Ok! Sure. Just hurry up bro!"

Getting a thumbs-up, Kiel ran up to a nearby building and jumped on it. It was fairly easy. Then for the next step, he punched the roof. And just as he expected, it broke down fairly easily unlike the previous one.

He then picked up a huge chunk of the roof, almost thrice his size and threw it down to the zombies with all his current strength. And he still remembered to increase its acceleration due to free fall(gravity). 

"Now idiot"

The result: a great BOOM!

Under the huge impact of such an object, the zombies totally caught by surprise totally crashed down. Even Neel was a little surprised. Luckily, he still had his armour to protect him. A storm of dust covered the ground.  However, that was not the end. A few more booming sounds followed up signifying that Keil was still not done yet.

"Hey watch it, bro! Do you plan to bury me alive too!"

When the dust cleared itself, Neel was stunned to see not a single zombie standing on its leg. He could not help but gulp seeing the destruction caused.

[Beep… You have killed a hostile zombie puppet. Acquired 10 kill points… Beep… Beep… ] 

A few such notifications rang in his heart. Seeing that Neel was safe, Kiel was relieved. 

'Phew! Interestingly this armour is quite sturdy.'

"Hey, idiot if you are done sightseeing quickly make up for the run!" 

"Huh? Ok!" Hearing Kiel's shout, Neel came to his senses. He stored his axe and quickly started running up in the direction Kiel pointed. Kiel too made his escape through the buildings in parkour style. It was his first time doing parkour. And to be honest it felt great!

But he didn't forget to kill a few more zombies along the way by throwing shrapnels on them. After all, they were quite frail in their heads.

A crude and brute plan but it worked perfectly. Not all plans needed to be extravagant with deep planning. And not each move had to be in an extravagant heroic style. Sometimes even some small tricks would have more impact than some high-level weapon if used correctly.

Kiel not only conserved his energy for upcoming battles but he also even hid gravity as his trump card. And furthermore, he was just on the second floor. Kiel was not sure even if the move would have much impact. So he didn't take any risks.

***

As they came close to each other after a long sprint, Neel could not help but pant due to the long stress.

"Dude that move was awesome! You were like throwing down whole buildings on those idiots."

Seeing a thumbs up, Kiel was pleased too. After all, who didn't like praises? 

"Well, that's all okay. But if you want to be in the same team, heed my instructions before acting! Do you get it?"

"Oh ok. Don't be angry! I promise not to go off on my own. S-so where are we going now?"

Seeing Kiel quite adamant, and his glare, Neel couldn't help but change the topic to divert his attention.

"To that! That is our destination" Kiel pointed to a big stadium-like structure at a distance in the dark night. Azrael had already specified to him that it was the destination. 

"Oh ok! Let's get going"

The two continued walking after resting for a few minutes humming while strolling. Sometimes a few zombies came out to greet them. But nothing out of the ordinary. But the two of them were still alert. And in just no more than twenty minutes, they reached the vicinity of their goal. They could now see where they were meant to arrive.  

It was a brightly lit place clearly visible even in the dark night. What was more was that the street ahead leading to the big stadium like the place was full of stores! Yes, completely empty stores to boot. But the strange thing was these things we're locked up in. Kiel even tried punching a few however, the stores were empty with nothing inside.

It was clearly a sight that Kiel had almost forgotten. Although neither the writings on the shop nor the shop symbols were much to his familiarity, he could get a simple idea of what these meant.

Kiel's guess of this place being from a scientifically advanced civilisation would really come true if he could get some real science machines. However, it looks like it was just a similar fashion sense until now. 

Roaming around the streets, they came up through a straight corridor. This corridor was also full of all kinds of shops too. However, this place had no locks on them, unlike the previous ones. And the stores even had twinkle lights, which seemed to be inviting customers. Quite a stranger sight indeed.

"Wow, this place is quite odd. I have never seen anything like that before! Look there it says Convenience Store! What does that even mean? Even stores can be convenient? Pffft And there it says stationary. Girls fashion?" Neel seemed to be confused by the places here. Although he could clearly read what they meant, the words combined together were strange.

Looking where pointed, even Kiel could now see the place. 

"Huh? Let's go into that place. It seems interesting"

Kiel had a hunch. The hexagonal building from before was definitely not one of its kinds. And seeing such a familiar word at the front how could he leave it without investigating?

"Wait why should we go there? It may be a trap. After all, convenience is a trap! And isn't it better to get into our destination as soon as possible?" Neel couldn't help but be confused.

"Huh? Trying to be a poet now? And why do you even think so? Was it conveyed in the mission?"

That was definitely a no. The mission simply stated that they had to arrive at the destination before the time ran out. 

Seeing the expression on Neel's face, Kiel continued. "How much time is remaining for the mission?"

"Hmm? 102 minutes remaining! " Neel looked at his badge before replying.  

Seeing Neel still blink his eyes in confusion, Kiel felt a need to explain himself a bit more to the kid.

"Think about it. How long do you think you will need to get from here to that place?"

"I don't know. Probably ten minutes at most. Well if there are zombies there it may take some more time though."

"That's correct. And now tell me, how much time did it take for us to reach here from the beginning?"

"Less than 1 hour" 

"That's correct too! Then doesn't that mean the mission is giving us too much time to complete it?"

"Huh? W-wasn't it because we were locked inside!"

"Huh, that? Well, it was that earthy girl's fault, to begin with. You can't clearly think that the fault of the participants should be taken into account in a test right?  If she didn't lock us from the start, we would still require 80 minutes at most. So why is the mission delayed so much? And didn't you see the notification it took only 80 minutes for that for the other two to get up there."

This time Neel was quite shocked too. Well, this was really one way to put it. He still couldn't figure out what was wrong as he followed Kiel into the store quietly. 

"Wait isn't it because we could get lost in such an unfamiliar terrain and it was night. So the test was meant to take that into account?"

Neel felt that was the obvious guess!

"Hmm... took you long enough to figure that out? But your guess is kinda invalid. We had a first mission and a second mission. So we are bound to have more missions. And the first tests should always be about screening! Elimination of the worthless to be precise. Wasn't it how the guiding attitude was? Otherwise, why do they take group tests? Individual tests could have been enough of a solution. And so going by those standards, the time should be shortened rather than becoming lenient? After all, it's a hero trial! The focus should be on choosing the best candidates right?"

Seeing Neel thinking about it, Kiel felt delighted. To show off his knowledge like this was something he always wanted! He then continued.

 "And now don't start me about the auditorium incident. Although many more lives were lost, in those types of situations, the best thing is always to go out to a spacer environment. So that doesn't count as elimination but stupidity in my terms."

If Neel was confused before, he was dumbstruck now. This made a f.u.c.k.i.n.g lot of sense. The trials had been called bloody from the start, from what he heard before. Only the bloodier ones passed. However, leaving the first unfortunate experience, it was quite easy until now. He even got a magic tool out of it without much effort.

567

As the walked inside the convenience store while chatting, a very familiar view greeted Kiel. Shelves of things required, choosing the one required… Kiel felt nostalgia for a moment. 

The convenience store was filled with candies, snacks and other things that came into view.

"Dude-Dude are you alright?" 

"Hmm? Yeah. You can take anything you want from here we may need!"

"Ok. " although Neel still was in confusion, he did what he was told.

"So what is wrong?"

"Hmm? " 

Kiel didn't look back, he was busy finding things he needed. 

"There is nothing wrong. What I meant was this is not like a trial. It is more like a preparation phase!"