The system message had popped up the moment Zain stepped into the warehouse. It was why he knew that someone in the room had to be special, and he just had a feeling that it was the man at the very back of the room.
It was a little strange since a prompt like this hadn't appeared when he was around Buke or around Clark. Both of them also showed traits of superhuman capabilities, which meant one of two things. The two of them were still growing stronger, and the system had yet to recognise them as superhuman.
Or, in a case like this, it never saw them as a threat while the system had shown it now. Cody's little shout had also given Zain the knowledge he needed. Thinking about it, he wondered what he would do in the other situation.
If it was him, then he would use his speed, the element of surprise and everything he could to finish off his opponent in one hit. So he knew Cobra's next target would be his head, which was why Zain was ready.
Zain blocked the knife attack once again with his left hand while holding the sword in his right.
"You should have never gotten this close to me," Zain said as he held onto Cobra's hand.
Cobra tried to yank his arm away, but it wasn't budging at all.
'His strength…this person, he's not normal as well. I made…I made a mistake!'
It was a desperate situation, and for the first time in a long time, Cobra was panicking. With his other hand free and a dagger in it, he went to attack Zain. He was faster, and Zain couldn't hit him with the sword. The only thing he could do was lift his forearm, so it got in the way.
When the dagger cut through Zain's arm, it didn't make a deep cut and only gave a light wound.
'His skin, why is it like leather?' Cobra cursed inwardly.
"Come on! Get this guy off me!" He shouted and called for his gang.
A clang was heard, and Zain dropped his sword to the ground. Then he used his other hand to grab Cobra's shoulder and pulled him in. It was too close for Cobra to attack Zain's head.
"I hate people like you the most," Zain said as he opened his mouth and bit right into the shoulder and neck of Cobra.
One of his arms was stuck, the dagger still through Zain's hand, while the other, he had been grabbed by the shoulder, barely able to move. Cobra moved his elbow, using the dagger as best he could, but it couldn't even pierce his skin.
The endurance that Zain had gained made it so a weak attack would hardly work. The only reason why the first attack had somewhat succeeded was that rather than a slashing motion, it was a stabbing one, while at the same time, the extra speed had given a lot of force to the attack.
In the end, Cobra found himself losing strength in his body. While his skin colour started to change, Zain received a system message.
[You have successfully defeated a super human]
[Quest reward: 1000 Exp]
[First-time reward: 5000 exp]
[You have successfully turned a human into a part of your horde]
[Reward: 10 exp]
[2/15 Horde]
[Quest has been updated]
[Form your horde]
[Horde: 2/10]
[Hidden Quest accomplished: Turn a Superhuman]
[Reward: 100 exp]
[Note: Superhumans are more resistant to the special virus strain]
[Chances of being turned vary from person to person]
One after another, the system prompts appeared in front of Zain. The truth was, Zain just wished to inflict as much pain on this person as possible, and he couldn't think of a better way than turning him into a Zombie himself.
But from the looks of it, it was able to do a number of things. By the time he let go of Cobra, the other gang members were now extremely worried.
"Cobra…Cobra was turned… he's a zombie now."
Cobra was looking toward them, and he still had both daggers loosely held in his hand. At the same time, Cody couldn't believe what he was seeing.
'Zain…you were one of them. You're with those guys from earlier, aren't you? Now it makes sense about what we saw in that video. No wonder you were able to get out of that place.'
Opening the system, Zain brought up the horde tab and noticed that along with Skittle, there was Cobra as well on the list.
Skittle was level 2, while Cobra was level 1. However, there was something even more surprising than that, and it was the stats.
[Name: Cobra]
[Race: Super Undead]
[Strength: 0]
[Agility: 5]
[Intelligence: 2]
[Vitality: 0]
Unlike Skittle, who had no such stats when he was at Level 1, the superhuman already had stats. It seemed to be linked to how strong they were before they were turned as well, as there were already a few points in agility.
'Intelligence two, I mean, that guy didn't seem like the smartest person, but let's see how this goes.'
With the newest member of his horde, Zain pointed to the gang members.
"Attack."
Immediately, the Zombie Cobra ran from where he was toward the man who had a crowbar. The man swung towards Cobra's head in panic, but the Zombie Cobra ducked and used the blade to stab him right in the stomach and next right up through the chin.
'He can…use weapons, and it looks like he is as skilful as he was before. Is this because of intelligence stats? It must have something to do with it.'
The only thing was, Zain didn't really get any exp for killing humans, only for turning them. Either way, this was better. Since he wasn't using his hands or teeth, it meant that he wasn't turning them either.
Although creating a horde was good, at this point and time, Zain still felt like it was a bad idea, and besides, he needed something else, their brains.
After a minute of screaming or so, everything calmed down in the warehouse. The noise had stopped, and Cobra was standing in the middle of a blood pool, surrounded by the corpses of his men.
'This whole trip has gone better than I thought.'
"Zain…" Cody finally asked, getting up from the floor. "Who are you?"
*****
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