The body did not move again.
Lin Hao stood frozen in the middle of the corridor, the fire extinguisher still clenched in both hands. Blood ran slowly across the floor tiles, weaving around his shoes in thin red streams.
His breathing was ragged.
His arms trembled.
The thing in front of him had once been human. A student. Someone who had probably lived on the same floor, eaten in the same cafeteria, complained about the same classes.
Now it was just a corpse with blackened veins and a shattered throat.
For a moment, Lin Hao felt nothing but the pounding of his own heart.
Then warmth spread through his chest.
Not heat.
Not pain.
Something denser.
Something that did not belong to the old world.
A transparent window appeared before his eyes.
Lines of pale silver text unfolded in the air.
Target Eliminated
Type: Zombie
Rank: Primitive
Level: 3
Primitive Power Absorbed
Source: Primitive Zombie Lv.3
Experience Gained
Lin Hao's pupils shrank.
The text remained.
It did not blur. It did not vanish when he blinked.
Then another message appeared beneath it.
First Kill Registered
Welcome to the Primitive Record
Level Increased: 0 → 1
+2 Unassigned Attribute Points
His fingers tightened around the extinguisher.
Primitive Record.
Level 1.
Attribute points.
The words felt absurd.
And yet, the warmth inside him was real.
So was the body on the floor.
So was the blood.
Before he could think further, new lines appeared.
Skill Acquired
Name: Strong Spirit
Type: Active
Rank: Primitive
Description: Sharpens the user's senses and focus for 5 minutes.
Increases clarity, reaction speed, and mental stability in combat.
Cooldown: 1 day
A second window followed immediately after.
Skill Acquired
Name: Cold Heart
Type: Passive
Rank: Primitive
Description: Suppresses emotional interference during dangerous situations, allowing colder judgment and steadier actions.
Lin Hao stared at the words in silence.
Then, slowly, he understood the strange calm spreading through him.
The fear was still there.
He could feel it, buried somewhere under his ribs.
But it no longer ruled his hands.
It no longer made his breathing collapse.
It was as if something inside him had placed a sheet of ice over his panic.
A voice echoed from deeper in the corridor.
"Help! Help!"
Footsteps followed.
Fast. Uneven. Desperate.
Lin Hao looked up just as three figures rushed around the corner.
Two boys.
One girl.
Their faces were pale, breathing wild, clothes stained by rainwater and dust. Behind them, another shambling silhouette emerged from the shadows of the hallway, its movements jerky and unnatural.
The taller of the two boys was the first to react.
He grabbed a broken chair leg from the wall and swung it with surprising force. The wood slammed against the creature's shoulder, knocking it sideways but not stopping it.
"Damn it!" he shouted.
The girl stumbled back, clutching a backpack tightly to her chest. Her face was tense, but her eyes were alert. She looked like the kind of person who stayed calm by force, not by nature.
The third student remained one step behind, silent, watching everything with unsettling focus.
The zombie lunged again.
Lin Hao moved before thinking.
The extinguisher cut through the air and smashed into the creature's face.
The first hit staggered it.
The second broke teeth.
The third sent it crashing to the floor.
Its limbs twitched once.
Then stopped.
Silver text appeared again.
Target Eliminated
Type: Zombie
Rank: Primitive
Level: 2
Primitive Power Absorbed
Source: Primitive Zombie Lv.2
Experience Gained
No level up.
So killing weaker enemies did not always mean immediate growth.
Good.
That made more sense than blind luck.
The tall boy stared at Lin Hao, then at the corpse.
"You killed one before this?" he asked.
Lin Hao lowered the extinguisher but didn't answer immediately.
The girl looked between them, chest rising and falling quickly. "You saw it too, didn't you?"
Lin Hao's eyes narrowed. "Saw what?"
"The messages," she said. "The… screen."
So it wasn't just him.
The tall boy ran a hand through his hair and gave a short, disbelieving laugh. "Yeah. Mine said Level 0 at first. Then after I hit one of those things…" He swallowed. "No, after I killed one."
The silent boy finally spoke.
"Everyone can see their own."
His voice was low and flat.
"But no one can see anyone else's."
Lin Hao looked at him properly for the first time.
Sharp eyes.
Controlled breathing.
A face that hid more than it showed.
Useful.
Dangerous.
The tall boy pointed at himself. "Wang Li."
The girl steadied her breath. "Chen Yu."
The quiet one spoke last. "Liu Ming."
Lin Hao hesitated only a second.
"Lin Hao."
Wang Li glanced at the blood on the floor, then at the extinguisher in Lin Hao's hands. "Well, Lin Hao, if you can smash them that hard, we should move together."
"Why?" Lin Hao asked.
Wang Li blinked. "Because staying alone is suicide?"
"No," Liu Ming said calmly. "Because four people mean more eyes, more bait, and more chances to survive."
Chen Yu exhaled. "Could you two not do this right now?"
A scream echoed from downstairs.
Then another.
And the distant crash of metal against metal.
The entire building felt suddenly alive with violence.
Lin Hao finally opened his status window.
Primitive Record
User: Lin Hao
Race: Human (Restricted)
Level: 1
Strength: 8
Agility: 8
Endurance: 8
Intelligence: 8
Magic:15
Mana: 5
Health: 80/80
Active Skills:
• Strong Spirit (Primitive)
Passive Skills:
• Cold Heart (Primitive)
Occupied Territories: —
Unassigned Attribute Points: 2
Two points.
Only two.
Not enough to change everything.
Enough to matter.
He thought for less than a second and placed both into Endurance.
The numbers shifted.
Endurance: 8 → 10
Health: 80 → 90
A faint surge ran through his body.
His breathing steadied slightly.
The pain in his arms lessened.
Not by much.
But enough.
He closed the window.
"Where were you heading?" he asked.
"The cafeteria," Chen Yu answered immediately. "Wide space. Supplies. Fewer blind corners."
"Or more people fighting over food," Liu Ming added.
Wang Li shrugged. "Better than waiting here to get surrounded."
Lin Hao glanced down the dark staircase at the end of the hall.
The screams from below had not stopped.
Neither had the distant growls.
He activated Strong Spirit for the first time.
A pulse of pressure flashed behind his eyes—
then the world sharpened.
Every sound separated into layers.
Footsteps.
Breathing.
The drip of blood from the broken sprinkler pipe above.
The trembling fingers of Chen Yu against her bag strap.
The shifting weight in Wang Li's stance.
The way Liu Ming's gaze never rested in one place for long.
His thoughts became colder. Straighter. Cleaner.
No panic.
No confusion.
Just information.
Useful.
Dangerous.
He hated how natural it felt.
"Fine," Lin Hao said.
"We go downstairs."
This time, none of them argued.
He took the first step toward the staircase.
And for the first time since the sky had gone silent—
Lin Hao no longer felt like prey.