A Hitman's Guide To Becoming A Hero

The two fists met at the center, the pressure between them blasting the air outward.

The force behind the collision sent ripples through the atmosphere. The Zombie King’s strength was no joke.

But there was still a clear winner.

The explosive force ripped through the Zombie King’s flesh. Bones shattered and blood sprayed in every direction.

Yet, as flesh and bone were destroyed on one side, they reformed on the other.

Mangled flesh knitted together. Cracked bones snapped back into place.

The regeneration was happening at an astonishing rate.

Nicholas’s eyes widened, ’The regeneration is that strong?’

He quickly leaped back as the Zombie King shot its decayed claws toward him..

’I have to avoid getting scratched or injured by that thing’ Nicholas thought, looking at the Zombie king.

The two stood still for a moment, almost as though assessing one another.

But the Zombie King’s attention wasn’t on Nicholas.

Its eyes kept drifting toward Julie.

’It wants the easy meal first’ Nicholas could tell the thoughts of the zombie, but he wasn’t going to let it.

The zombie King leaped off the ground and onto the wall, using the momentum to push for Julie.

"Ahhh! Stay away from me!" Julie yelled as she ran away.

[Raymond_Garcia_2989: Leave our streamer alone!]

[Kamzy_1234: If she could just die, but the stream keeps going I don’t mind]

[Peach Fairy: Fuck you all! 😭😭]

[Borden: Hey! Aren’t you meant to be running]

Right before the zombie could catch up, Nicholas already moved.

The zombie felt a hand on the cuff of its torn clothes dragging him back with full force.

It balanced itself letting out a loud guttural roar, its eyes burning with rage as it stared at Nicholas, saliva dripping down its mouth.

Realizing it couldn’t reach its target without dealing with Nicholas first, the Zombie King gave up on restraint.

It shot forward in a frenzy, swiping with its claws in an attempt to rip Nicholas apart.

Nicholas blasted forward as well, his eyes flashing with killing instinct.

He didn’t go for a full on clash with the zombie, as getting a graze from those fingers was as much as dying, he went straight for the head.

It raised its hand in an instant, blocking the powerful punch.

The arms were ripped apart from the intensity of the punch, but the zombie’s arms came back together with a wet, grotesque sound — flesh knitting, bone cracking into place, the damage undone in seconds.

Nicholas landed three meters back, breathing hard.

’The regeneration doesn’t just heal. It’s continuous. The moment damage occurs, reversal begins.’ Nicholas frowned.

Every punch he landed was being undone almost immediately.

The damage simply wouldn’t stay. At that rate defeating the Zombie king while trying to avoid getting infected, felt like an impossible task.

Even at 80 strength the math didn’t work, he could hit harder than it could regenerate, but only if he hit the right place fast enough.

The head.

He needed the head.

The zombie king didn’t give him time to think further.

"Rraaarggh!"

It launched forward in a frenzy, not calculated, not strategic, just pure predatory hunger translated into motion. Claws raking the air in overlapping arcs, each swipe capable of opening him from shoulder to hip.

Nicholas moved laterally, reading each arc before it completed.

He slipped inside the third swipe and drove his elbow up into the zombie’s jaw.

CRACK.

The head snapped backward.

For half a second the thing staggered — and in that half second Nicholas went for the skull with everything he had.

His fist connected with the top of the zombie king’s head.

The impact shook the ground beneath him. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

And the zombie king simply... absorbed it. The skull compressed. Reformed. The yellow eyes refocused.

"Raaaargh!"

It drove its shoulder into Nicholas’s chest like a battering ram. The force launched him backward off his feet, his back hitting a car that crumpled under the impact. He pushed through the pain as shattered glass rained down around him.

’It’s protecting its head’

He stood. Spit blood. Looked at the zombie king across the ruined street.

From behind a half-collapsed doorway, Julie had her camera up with both hands, her whole body trembling.

[Atticus: Bro is getting cooked]

[Kamzy_1234: C’mon Phantom, don’t die on us]

[IamTruck_kun: This is the most stressful stream I’ve ever watched]

[AuraNova: PHANTOM GET UP]

"He’s getting up," Julie whispered into the camera. "He’s always getting up."

The zombie king advanced slowly this time.

No rush. It had decided Nicholas wasn’t going anywhere.

It was right that he wasn’t going anywhere.

But not for the reason it thought.

Nicholas reached into his coat.

He pulled out two smoke grenades.

The zombie’s eyes tracked the movement — and in that moment of tracking, Nicholas threw them both to opposite sides of the street.

BANG. BANG.

Twin clouds of dense grey smoke billowed outward, filling the street between them.

The zombie king stopped.

Its black eyes swept the smoke. It couldn’t see him.

But it could hear him.

His Footsteps getting closer from the right, "raargh!"

It swung.

The claws tore through the smoke and found nothing. He was already on the left.

He came out of the smoke low, targeting the knee not to destroy it, but to force it lower. His shoulder drove into the side of the zombie’s leg with everything he had.

The knee buckled sideways.

The zombie king went down on one knee with a sound like timber falling.

For one second its head was at his level.

Nicholas grabbed it by the jaw with his left hand.

’This is the one.’

He pulled the head down and drove his right knee up into its face.

BOOM.

The skull compressed. Cracked. The yellow eyes flickered.

’Not enough.’

The zombie king’s arm came up in reflex and hurled him sideways. He hit the asphalt rolling, came up already moving, circling.

’The regeneration slows when the head takes damage. Barely. But it slows.’

That was the window.

He needed to hit it there repeatedly. Fast enough that the regeneration couldn’t fully catch up between strikes.

He didn’t need to overpower the regeneration.

He only needed to damage the same spot faster than it could heal.

The zombie king rose to its feet. The knee reformed with a sound like snapping wood. It turned toward him, and this time the intelligence in those black eyes had sharpened into something that looked almost like recognition.

’It’s adapting.’

It raised both arms in front of its head — a guard, crude but instinctive — and charged.

Nicholas didn’t retreat.

He ran straight at it.

[Raymond_Garcia_2989: WHAT IS HE DOING]

[Kol_lol: BRO NO—]

Three meters.

Two.

One.

Nicholas dropped into a slide at the last second, going completely under the zombie’s guard, coming up inside its arms with his back to its chest.

He grabbed both of its wrists from inside.

Then he jumped.

Using the zombie’s own mass as an anchor, he drove both feet into the ground, transferred every ounce of his weight and momentum through his grip on its wrists, and yanked its arms apart with everything his enhanced strength could produce.

The zombie king couldn’t guard anymore.

Its arms were locked wide.

Its head was exposed.

Time stretched.

Nicholas released one wrist.

Turned.

And poured just enough Charm Points into his strength.

[✦ Strength: 80 → 100]

His fist moved.

The air in front of it compressed and shattered.

A visible shockwave tore down the street ahead of the punch.

It connected with the zombie king’s skull dead center.

The sound that followed wasn’t a crack.

It wasn’t a bang.

It was a concussive wave that blew out every remaining window on the street simultaneously and sent Julie tumbling backward through the doorway she’d been hiding in.

The zombie king’s head ceased to exist as a coherent structure.

For one long moment the headless body stood.

The regeneration began.

Flesh reached upward from the neck stump, searching for something to rebuild toward.

Reaching.

Reaching.

Slowing.

Nicholas didn’t let it, his hands flashed forward with a consecutive stream of punch, each carrying as much force as the last.

With the piled up damage all over its body, it couldn’t regenerate all parts at once.

The reaching flesh slowed.

Stopped.

Then the Zombie King’s massive body tilted forward.

And fell to the ground with a sickening crunch, it’s putrid black blood pooling beneath it.

Silence.

Julie slowly raised her camera from the doorway, her hair completely disheveled, dust covering her face from head to toe.

[Atticus: ...]

[Kamzy_1234: .]

[IamTruck_kun: .]

[Kol_lol: BRO JUST PUNCHED THE REGENERATION OUT OF EXISTENCE]

[Raymond_Garcia_2989: I don’t even have words. I literally don’t have words.]

Nicholas looked at the fallen zombie king for a moment.

Then he turned and walked back toward Julie.

{Ding!}

{Your charm grows!}

{+200 CP}

{Charm threshold reached!}

{Host has reached charm threshold! Here is your reward!}

’I’m getting a reward?’ Nicholas thought as he glanced at the system screen.

Nicholas froze.

For the first time since obtaining the system, even he looked genuinely shocked.

Reward: ???