5 Minutes Later
Adrian could be seen squatting on the floor with a thoughtful expression on his face.
After arrogantly deciding to capture the zombie, he later realized his talent needed him to injure the zombie severely to capture it.
Which was unless he wanted to waste countless resources and craft many more spheres.
Thus, he found himself again beside the trees, being as silent as possible and scavenging the ground to pick the sharpest and thickest branches he could.
He managed to find a thick stick that was around a meter long and 2-3 inches wide in diameter, however it was very rounded and blunt. But despite being blunt, it looked very strong and not easy to break.
Adrian spent a couple more minutes searching for weapons but not finding any, he gave up.
'It's not worth losing more energy, I should just make do with this one and then try to find new weapons later.'
With that thought, Adrian looked around carefully and made his way towards the berserking undead, while making sure no other beast or zombie was attracted.
Along with himself, he had brought a couple more sticks that looked decently strong, or were sharp enough to injure when stabbed.
The Bonding Sphere was placed on the ground a little away from the zombie.
Far enough to not be any sort of collateral damage, and close enough to retrieve at any moment.
[[ Corrupted Human - Lv 2
HP: 113/130
MP: 0/0 ]]
Adrian's eyes showed him the details about the zombie in a hologram that floated above the zombie's head.
Just like his talent window, this hologram was only visible to Adrian.
But he was still unable to see the capture rate that his talent promised he would be able to.
'Hmm, maybe…' Adrian ignored the zombie that was growling and attacking the shield with increased fervor after seeing him, as he grabbed the bonding sphere and looked at the zombie again.
[[ Capture Probability: 13% ]]
Adrian placed the sphere back where he had previously kept it and then looked at the zombie again.
As expected, he could no longer see the capture probability.
"Stop fu**ing scratching my shield!" Adrian grabbed a sharp long stick he had found, which was around 2 meters long but only an inch wide.
It was quite easy to break, but it was also sharp enough to pierce the rotting flesh on the zombie's body.
He pointed the sharp end at the zombie and stabbed it with all the force he could muster.
His worst fears didn't come true and the wooden stick passed through the energy shield, stabbing the zombie in its head with a loud crunching sound.
The zombie grunted and fell on its back after losing its balance.
However Adrian covered his mouth and resisted his gag impulses that assaulted him after seeing so much blood and flesh, along with the obnoxious thick scent of a rotten corpse.
He kept his nerves in check and glanced at the zombie's HP.
[[ Corrupted Human - Lv 2
HP: 49/130
MP: 0/0 ]]
With another grunt, the zombie got back to its feet with wobbly motions, and swiped at the wooden stick embedded in its skull.
The stick snapped easily, leaving a small piece inside the zombie's head while the broken part fell to the floor.
Graahhh!
It surely was pissed the hell off.
Without any concern about itself, the zombie opened its mouth wide, revealing rotten black teeth that threatened to tear Adrian to shreds, and dashed at Adrian.
Adrian flinched as the zombie bumped headfirst into the energy shield.
[[ Corrupted Human - Lv 2
HP: 29/130
MP: 0/0 ]]
"Bruh, don't die, you retarded corpse!" Adrian gulped and shouted at the zombie to cool off his nerves as he picked the Bonding sphere up again.
[[ Capture Probability: 89% ]]
'Should I just take the chance?' He thought, but then scratched the idea.
Why take chances when he could damage the zombie and increase the chances easily?
This time, he picked up a stone and threw it at the zombie's knee.
The knee cracked and the zombie fell down again.
[[ HP: 13/130 ]]
Adrian threw another stone at the zombie's shoulder.
[[ HP: 3/130 ]]
[[ Capture Probability: 98% ]]
Not willing to try his luck and accidentally kill the zombie, Adrian took a deep breath and threw the bonding sphere at the zombie's head.
The sphere flew in a gentle arc, hitting the zombie square in the face before snapping open and covering the zombie in mysterious blue light.
Its body began to distort, like a glitch in a computer, shrinking as it moved into the sphere.
The wooden piece that was embedded in the zombie's head fell on the floor while the zombie's body disappeared, leaving behind the blood and flesh that it lost.
[[ You have captured a
[[ Press the runic button on Bonding Sphere to retrieve your captured being. ]]
A hologram opened in front of Adrian's eyes, prompting a genuine smile to grace his features.
He neither said anything, nor tried to summon his first ever capture.
He just blinked and lowered his body to gather all the sticks and rocks he had collected for the fight.
Making sure that there was nothing dropped by the zombie as items, Adrian walked back towards his control room.
On the way his mind still relished in the feeling of victory and excitement.
He just witnessed one of the most magical scenes of his entire life, and in addition, he managed to CATCH a zombie.
It might not sound like much, but being a childhood anime fan, it could be said that Adrian had fulfilled his dream that he scratched off as fantasy.
Back in his control room, Adrian kept the sticks and rocks beside the recovery pod he woke up from.
He tapped the help tab and clicked chat.
"I caught a zombie."
Maybe he was feeling lonely, or he just wanted to brag about his achievement, but Adrian decided to chat with the AI before checking any other thing on the monitor.
[ Congratulations, Manager 0420. ]
"Tell me more about its uses and if it might hurt me, also, how can I command it to do my bidding?"
[ The captured beings will never hurt their captor and will listen to any verbal command they give. They can also obey non-verbal cues such as gestures and signs, however they need to be instructed what the gestures mean.
The zombies retain some of their basic knowledge from their life before being corrupted, however the amount of their knowledge vary in accordance to their grade and levels. ]
"Grade?"
[ Inputting your captured being in the sphere slot of control hub can give you the required information. ]
"Hmm, I see."
Adrian swiftly headed into the control hub tab.
[ Sphere Slots - 5 ]
// Found that the user possesses an unregistered Bonding Sphere. //
// Register in the Control Hub? Y/N //
// Note: Registering your first bond will unlock the Bonds section under manager tab. //
Adrian read through the texts and decided to select Y.
[ Corrupted Human Lv2 has been registered. ]
// Allocate in the Sphere Slot 1? Y/N //
// Note: Allocating the bond to a Sphere Slot will allow it to be summoned at all times within the area. The allocated bond(s) cannot leave the energy shield. //
Adrian gulped down his saliva, and moved his shaky fingers to tap on the Y again…