Josh's POV
I'm playing a zombie game on my computer right now.
Here are the four at home.
I don't know why. -__-
They know it's crowded here, but they still come, you morons.
"Hello Josh, there's still that wet tissue there?!" Jah said laughing and went to the fridge.
"Josh, what can be cooked here?" Stell asked.
Ken was on one side taking a selfie.
Pinuno just looked around our entire house.
I focused on my game. I'll leave them alone for now. I only paid attention to Stell because I was hungry too.
"Stell, just cook whatever you want." I said.
I lost my game so I agree. Zombies ate me.
I pressed Enter three times to start a new game. But...
"Why do I have a blade here that looks like a chicken wing?" Ken suddenly said.
"Ken, you're just hungry. I'm already cooking here," Stell said.
"What are you holding, Jah?" Pinuno asked Justin.
"I don't know." He waved it and suddenly popcorn came out and it felt like we were all healed.
"WOW, HOW AMAZING IS THAT!" Jah said, enjoying it.
"What's behind you, Stell? Sejun?" I asked them.
"I'm busy guys. This is going to burn, go ahead." Stell said. He thought we were playing a prank.
"Josh is right behind you." Ken said to me.
I reached behind me and grabbed a tall sword with designs of pork barbecue.
"What the? What is this?" I said.
"It's cooked, guys! Can't wait? You're all exhausted." Stell said and set the food on the table. She still didn't look at us.
I can't blame him for not feeling the spear-like force behind him. Because my swords are so light.
I think Stell noticed that we were so quiet that she looked at us and laughed.
"I was just cooking so much, you guys immediately made a cosplay." He said, still laughing.
In our umimik.
Instead of speaking, Sejun approached Stell and was about to take his Spear to show her, but he was suddenly stopped.
"Huh? Why is it forbidden?" Sejun asked himself.
"Who are you talking to, Sejun? You're all creepy, go eat now." Stell said.
"Guys, point your finger in front of you, something will suddenly appear." Sejun said.
We all tried, including Stell, so we could eat.
"HEY WHAT IS THIS! I think I'm getting infected by your madness!" he said.
What appears in the upper left is like a green bar and below it is a blue bar.
"I think this is HP and MP." Said Jah who also likes to play.
The name is in the upper right.
And mine is Barbeque Sosh.
Seriously?
At the bottom, on the right side, there are four buttons that say three of them are special skills and one is a default skill.
The special skill has a cooldown time, the default one doesn't.
At the bottom of the left side there is a settings button.
I also read here that we can't touch or take our companions' weapons. That's probably why Sejun got hurt when he tried to take Stell's weapon.
Every time I look at them, I see their HP and MP's.
HP means Health points. This is our life.
MP stands for Magic Points or Mana points for our special skills.
One of the settings is a bag.
Inside it are potions.
Wait, is this real? Or did I just dream?
"Yeah, pinch me." I told him.
He came closer to me and pinched me hard. -__-
I'm so sorry.
"This may not be a dream, guys, but why are we wearing hero costumes?" I asked them.
"Well, I don't know, Josh, you're the only one playing, right? Did you hit anything? What were you playing anyway?" Stell asked.
"I just pressed enter to start the game again, but it's impossible that's why we ended up like this, what's the magic?" I said.
"I'm playing a zombie game by episode. I'm on the second to the last episode, but I've been playing for a while now and I can't pass the level." I added.
"Z-zombie?" Stell said scared.
"Does that mean there will be zombies coming out today?!" Jah said.
Sejun and Ken were very quiet, just thinking and reading the meaning of their special skills.
By the way, let me explain the four heroes first.
Sejun is Tender Sejuicy's name. He has a bow and arrow. The design is a fork and hotdog.
Stell is Stellberry Jam. He has a spear with a strawberry design.
Ken is Chicken Sken. He has a blade that is designed like a chicken wing.
Jah is Powerpuff Corns. He has a big wand with a corn design on the end, and when he used it earlier, it looked like he was teasing us. Popcorns come out every time he uses his wand.
I'm like an assassin. I have two swords. Then there's the design and the one on the pork barbecue.
I noticed that everyone was quiet. They were busy reading about their special skills and about the rules when I played.
"Guys, maybe something just happened, there really won't be any zombies coming out." I said, but we heard shouting outside.
Familiar.
It's like the one at the beginning of the episode from the second to the last one I played.
"Yare. It's real guys! After seconds, the zombies will run towards the house on the roof, Sejun and Jah, because you have long range! Stell and Ken, follow me outside!" I instructed them.
"I wonder if I can be on the roof? Josh! Z-zombies!" Stell said fearfully.
"Dre. You're not long range yet because you have a spear." I said.
"My skills and default are mid-range so it's okay that I'm not close to attacking." He explained. It's a good thing he actually read it even though we were all wondering if it was true.
"Okay, just stay behind Ken and I. We'll have you as our back-up." I said.
Ken is the one who really looks like a melee fighter. He must be very close to the zombie because his blade is like a dagger.
And so the zombies ran towards us.
I'm a bit new to swords because in games I use guns.
I am alone whenever I'm playing this game. But this time, I have them.
Ken ran towards the zombies and killed three of them at once.
Something was about to bite him, but Stell killed it.
His spear is like Jah's, strawberries will come out whenever he attacks. The only difference is that his spear can go up and pierce zombies. It's only for mid-range so it can't be used on the roof.
Sejun, on the other hand, rained down a lot of arrows on the zombies far away from us. I think that's one of his skills.
Jah heals us whenever we run out of MP and sometimes he also attacks zombies. He is the hero that takes the longest to run out of MP because he also has potions.
He also placed the three of us under the shield. And if anyone bites us, the shield will be destroyed first before our HP is depleted.
We don't turn into zombies when we get bitten. Our HP just decreases.
It turned out that 20 minutes had passed and our shield was also damaged. I told Jah not to give us a shield for now, but later. This was also to reserve his MP.
We've also killed a lot of zombies.
Until there are birds flying. Dead.
"Sejun! Jah! Be careful, they're just birds but they do a lot of damage!" I shouted because they were on the roof.
Jah used his shield skill on both him and Sejun. Each skill has a 10-25 second cooldown, depending on the skill.
There were quite a few birds and different types of birds had arrived, so the two focused on that.
We don't have backup right now, so the zombies took advantage of this to come closer to us.
Ken used his dagger's special skill where he threw it like a boomerang. It came back to him.
He killed 25 zombies with just a single blow. Now he did a default attack again but mind you, if before he could only kill three, now he can kill five.
Stell used his skill to turn the tip of his spear into a laser, which is why he killed many zombies.
Will I lose? Of course not. I also used my assassin-ninja skill. I made my shadow-clone smart and then a lot of zombies came here. I killed them all at once.
"Episode 15: Kill or be one of us
Episode Cleared!"
We looked up at the sky and that's what we saw. Someone also did a voice-over of those words.
We're done with this episode. Phew.
Our HP is in the red bar. We're about to run out of HP. I don't know what's going to happen but I don't even want to think about it.
"Guys, drink HP potions." I told them all and they followed me.
"Is it finished?" said Stell.
We approached the dead zombies and shook them, maybe they were still alive. So, they are the undead, right?
"Why do we still need to drink HP potions Josh, it's over, right?" Jah asked.
"Second to the last episode is over Jah. Ken's answer.
We were stunned.
Yes, by the way. There's still a final episode. I don't know when it'll start because I haven't passed this level yet.
"When are we going to return to reality? It's already scary here. There are only five of us." Stell said.
I was about to answer when suddenly someone spoke from the sky.
"But we're not done yet.
Kill the zombie boss and all of you win."
We haven't even prepared yet. In past episodes, you had a few minutes to prepare, you just have to wait until you're ready, then just click enter. But after all, we can't click the enter button for this.
In past episodes we could buy potions and upgrade our weapons, but not here. Straight to the point.
Zombie boss? There's something like that? I thought the last chapter was times two when improved zombies would appear.
Maybe Doctor Zomboss will come out today.
We all waited and waited. Until we heard some children's songs.
The delivery was just creepy. And after that, some zombies came out. Ken came closer to kill them using his default skill. But they don't die immediately with just one strike.
They're only a few compared to the last episode's wave of zombies, but they're hard to kill.
We've killed them all. But we're running low on HP. Earlier when we drank, our HP was at a full bar, now it's at a yellow bar.
"It's over?" Stell said happily because she had been scared for a while.
"Not yet. The song just continued. Nothing was announced." I told him.
"I'm scared. The song is getting creepier and creepier." Stell said.
"It's okay Stell. Everything's gonna be okay. We are here for you. I am here for you." Panigurado ni Sejun sa kanya.
"We're just here." Ken said.
"But what does this mean? Why isn't it over yet?" Jah asked.
"Find me. Find me. I'am style here."
We heard someone speak. A child. That explains the creepy nursery song.
"Maybe we should look for the child." I said.
Sejun and Jah came down from the roof.
We left the house and went for a walk.
The zombies that were killed gradually disappeared.
"It's a good thing those zombies are disappearing, I thought they'd rise again." Stell commented.
"Find me. Find me. I'm near."
We heard the child's voice again. This time, Ken looked like he was crazy.
"Where are you?! Find me, find me." Ken shouted. No one answered him.
"Hey Ken, don't make me angry!" Jah preached to him.
"I'll keep hiding because I still want to watch anime." Ken said with a pout.
I laughed at that. Ken only pouts in anime.
"It really looks like an anime." Stell said.
We walked around for a while but in the end we ended up back outside the house.
"Why is that?" Stella asked.
"Endless loop? No matter how far we walk, we'll still end up here." Sejun said.
"The kid is just around the corner, maybe we don't have to go far." I said and entered the house.
Slowly.
They followed me inside.
"W-wait, I'm scared, it's creepy." Stell said. It's still the same inside our house.
The one that Stell cooked. The one that Ken took a selfie with. It was all there. We went inside where we were heading to my place.
And yes, the kid was there. Sitting in front of my computer as if he had been waiting for us for a while.
He's like a baby. We don't know if he's a girl or a boy.
Is he the zombie boss? Wait, is he a zombie or just a kid?
I looked at the four of us and we were all confused. The kid was still there staring at the computer.
I was about to approach him, but he suddenly turned around. It was as if his head had been broken. His body was facing the computer, but his head was actually facing the four of us.
Ken suddenly used a skill. His boomerang-like skill.
990/1000 HP
That's what his HP turned out to be. Wait. Is he really the zombie boss? Why is he young?
I checked our HPs again, they were already in the yellow bar. We need to be careful.
Stell raised his spear to pierce the boy's heart directly.
800/1000
Stell's damage was huge compared to Ken's. But we were still surprised because the kid wasn't fighting back.
He was still in the same position. His body was facing my computer while his severed head was facing us.
But we didn't want to wait for him to get up and kill us, so we attacked him using our respective skills.
10/1000
"Just kill Josh a little bit, maybe you can trigger us to return to reality." Jah said to me.
But no. Is it that easy to clear the last episode? The past episodes were really hard.
"No, wait. Look at the child." Sejun interrupted.
We looked at her. And we didn't notice. Her tears were flowing. Her eyes were so sad.
It's like... He's just waiting for us to kill him.
If earlier I was afraid to approach because he suddenly turned around, now I continued to approach.
I even heard Ken and Jah stop me, saying maybe it was just a good idea. But I had a different feeling.
If this is just a prank, why would he be afraid of us? He has 1000 HP compared to us, he only has five attacks, so we're in the red bar again.
I checked my computer.
"that eht laeh"
What does this mean?
I was shocked when the child touched me. The four of them screamed too. I thought it was the end of me but nothing happened.
That's why the four of them came to me.
"dik eht laeh? What is that? Dialect?" Stell asked in surprise.
"Just turn it around. Start reading from the left." Sejun said.
"H-E-A-L-T-H-E-K-I-D. Ken read the letter one by one.
"Heal the kid?" I said and suddenly the child's head returned to its rightful place.
His body and head are now facing the computer.
"Heal the kid. Heal the world." Hirit ni Jah.
"Jah. Ken's smile.
"No. I'm serious. So we'll go back if we heal him?" Jah asked. Yes, that's right. Makes sense.
"So he's not the zombie boss? Then who is?" Stell asked in surprise.
The kid looked so tall that we thought he was the zombie boss. Add to that the fact that he has 1000 HP.
"So how do we heal this? Restore HP to 1000?" Jah asked.
"No. If that's the case, he would have healed a long time ago. Maybe he's a zombie too but not completely yet." Sejun's deduction.
"So we need to heal him before he becomes a zombie boss?" Ken asked.
"I don't know. Maybe." Sejun shrugged.
"So we're going to look for the medicine?" Stell asked and started searching inside the house. But unfortunately, she couldn't find anything.
"Tsk. What a stupid thing to do." Stell said.
"Maybe there's no cure. Because if there was, there wouldn't be any zombies, right?" Sejun said.
And that deduction of his made me think of an idea.
I went to my settings and took the last HP potion.
"What are you going to do with that? That's your last HP potion, right?" Jah said to me.
I nodded and opened the potion.
"Put a little of your powers here." I said, and they complied.
Jah added his magic popcorn.
Sejun put a pinch of hotdog in his bow. His arrow was a fork, but the fork couldn't be eaten.
Stell, on the other hand, put a strawberry in the design of her spear.
I put out a barbecue that came from my swords.
Ken's was the weirdest because he didn't have any cooked or edible food so he just put chicken feathers in.
The potion changed color. And my hunch was right, we'll make the medicine.
"Give it to the child." I told them.
"Why us? You're the eldest!" Jah said and everyone agreed.
I sighed. It's only at times like these that I'll be the eldest.
I made the kid drink what we did. I thought he was going to bite me or something but he actually drank it.
His HP became 1000 times higher because in the first place it was an HP potion.
But his face is gradually changing.
She's a woman.
"Thank you. I'm healed. Mom won't kill you now." He said and suddenly vanished.
"You healed my daughter. You can go back."
We heard the voiceover say.
And I don't know, but it feels like we're being sucked into a vacuum.
While it felt like we were in another dimension on our way back to our world.
The game's story has been released.
The real zombie boss is the child's mother. When we kill the child, she will come out to rampage.
Take note... his HP is 2000 compared to ours.
So I can't imagine what would happen if I had continued to finish the child earlier. It's a good thing Sejun kept quiet.
All she wants is for her son to be human. Even if he's a zombie, at least he'll be normal.
The zombies are just looking for a cure, that's the case. Only we can make a cure.
That's why some zombies get angry when we kill other zombies, some will rampage, some will get stronger, and some will suddenly run away.
That's why they want us to be one of them.
They probably thought we would be stingy because they knew we had the cure.
BUT WE DON'T KNOW. T___T
This game is so relaxing.
And in the blink of an eye, we were back in the same position.
Stell just cooked. Sejun was in his place where he was walking around. Ken is already in the corner where he is taking a selfie. Jah is still in the refrigerator, Stell just finished cooking and he is still in the refrigerator.
Did that really happen? Or am I just imagining it?
"Guys?" I asked.
"Yes Josh. We know." Sejun said.
"Don't say it like you're sorry." Stell said scared.
"Same dream?" Ken's comment.
"I think so. I think we all have one thing in mind." Jah said.
"Let's eat~" Stell changed the topic.
Baka nga we all just have the same dream.
I was about to get up but I noticed something strange on my computer where the zombie game I was playing was still displayed.
How did this happen?
"Game Cleared!
Barbeque of them
Tender Sejuicy
Stellberry O'clock
Chicken Light
Powerpuff Corns"
"Guys. It wasn't a dream..." I told them and they all turned to me.
- E N D -