After eating, Jaxon went back to his room to rest. As he closed the door, his eyes drifted to the PC sitting beside his bed.
"I'll check on my Discord friends tomorrow," he muttered. "Too lazy to do it now."
He paused, then added softly, "I just hope the electricity and internet last longer. If they go out, I need to be ready."
He walked toward his bed, one step at a time.
Then his eyes narrowed.
Jaxon stopped in place.
Creak… creak.
A faint creaking sound came from above.
His breathing slowed as his senses sharpened. With his slightly enhanced hearing, the sound was clear enough to make his skin crawl. It came from the roof.
'That sound…' Jaxon thought. 'Only infected make noises like that.'
A cold chill ran down his spine.
'There's a zombie on the rooftop?'
Instinctively, he summoned his rifle into his hands.
Then came another sound.
Footsteps.
They moved faintly across the roof, just above his head.
'How the hell did it get up there? he thought. Did it climb?'
Creak… creak.
The eerie sound echoed again, louder this time.
Jaxon's fingers tightened around the rifle. His heartbeat thrummed in his ears as he slowly lifted his head, staring at the ceiling as if something might break through it.
He moved to the window, careful not to make a sound. With two fingers, he pulled the curtain aside.
A faint shadow landed on the roof of a neighboring house.
Jaxon's eyes widened in shock.
'Did it jump from our roof to that one? But that's at least thirty meters away, and it didn't even make much noise.'
His expression turned grim.
'A jump like that… It's a new variant.'
The night hid most of its shape, but he could still make out a hunched back. It looked taller than the others. Its arms were long, and the hands looked like claws.
'This thing can't be left alive. If something like this is roaming around, we won't be able to go outside at all.'
He quickly changed into his black camouflage clothes. Then he moved to his usual position, steadying himself as he raised the rifle and looked through the scope.
'Good. It's still there.'
The creature was only a dark shape, but its position was clear enough.
A moment later, the faint outline of a bald head came into view. The crosshair settled on it.
Got you.
He pulled the trigger.
Whishhh.
The bullet skimmed past the side of the infected's head. Blood sprayed into the night, but it missed the brain by a hair.
The wound barely mattered.
The creature let out a furious roar, echoing through the empty streets as it searched for its attacker.
'I missed?' Jaxon thought, stunned. 'Did it react to the shot?'
From roughly forty meters away, missing was rare for him now. His sniping skills had grown far beyond what they once were.
'How did it avoid that?
Was that instinct?
Just how strong is this thing?'
Before he could fire again, the creature snapped its head toward his direction.
It heard it.
Even that faint sound of his upgraded Suppressor.
Two glowing yellow eyes burned beneath the dark sky as the infected roared again, twisting its head left and right. It had not found him yet, but it was close.
Jaxon ducked instantly and pulled back from the window, pressing himself against the wall.
He took a slow breath.
'Status window. Upgrade suppressor.'
(30 coins spent. Suppressor Lv.4 → Lv.5 max)
Jaxon blinked.
'Level five is the limit?'
He tightened his grip on the rifle.
'Good. That means the sound should be completely gone now.'
He studied the suppressor for a moment. It looked the same as before.
'Time to test it.'
Moving without a sound, Jaxon slowly returned to his sniping position.
Outside, the infected was still searching. It had not found him yet, but it was clearly angry now. It leapt from one roof to another, landing with precise control, its movements unnaturally fast.
When it passed under a streetlight, Jaxon finally saw it clearly.
A bald head, hunched back. Its body crawled on all fours like a twisted animal. And its sharp claws scraped against concrete as it moved.
Its muscles bulged in unnatural ways, thick and tight, as if they were barely held together by skin. Even worse, Jaxon could see its veins throbbing. Something seemed to move beneath them, like a living thing crawling inside its body.
Jaxon swallowed.
'Disgusting.'
'These things just keep getting worse.'
The sight alone made his skin crawl. Meeting something like that at night would freeze anyone in place.
As the creature kept moving, sniffing the air and turning its head, Jaxon made his choice.
He shifted his aim to the right, lining up his scope with a window in a nearby house.
Jaxon pulled the trigger. And this time there wasn't even the slightest sound. The upgraded suppressor was completely silent.
The sound of breaking glass echoed, at the same time, the creature snapped into view inside his scope.
Jaxon's eyes widened.
In less than a heartbeat, the creature leapt forward and burst through the broken window, its body twisting unnaturally as it charged inside.
'Fast, terrifyingly fast.'
'No. Focus,' Jaxon told himself. 'Kill it.'
He forced his breathing to steady and dragged the scope back to its head.
Then he pulled the trigger.
Crack.
The sound of bone breaking and flesh tearing cut through the night.
The infected was thrown backward, tumbling out from the third floor and crashing down below.
Jaxon frowned.
'Why didn't I get the notification?'
He lowered his rifle slightly and looked down.
The creature was still moving.
Its legs flailed wildly as it tried to stand, stumbling like a drunk person with no control over its body. A large chunk of flesh and bone was missing from its head, blood pouring down its face.
And yet, it twitched.
It crawled.
It tried to rise again.
'Still alive?'