Zombie Survival System

The three men took lunch together, continuing their earnest and enthusiastic discussion about the preparations imposed by Professor Kouyat. They quickly agreed to dedicate every free afternoon to practicing the survival techniques required by their instructor.

Marlon, still determined and eager to face the reality of the field, immediately announced his intention: he wanted to head straight into the forest to test, uncompromisingly, the wilderness survival methods. William, however, remained more elusive, apparently preferring to deepen his knowledge theoretically. He calmly walked toward the imposing building serving as the academy’s library—a massive, dark-stone structure, housing countless valuable books and resources on the art of Hunters.

Alexandre, meanwhile, chose to return to their student dorm room. Once inside his room, he immediately sat at his desk and opened his laptop, a concerned look on his face. He had many things to handle, numerous elements requiring his careful consideration. First and foremost, he absolutely had to verify that the corrupt arena director had indeed transferred his $100,000, as per their shady agreement. Alexandre quickly logged into his online banking, his heart slightly tense. Seeing the impressive balance of $198,750 appear, he let out a discreet sigh of relief. It was a colossal sum, certainly, but he immediately forced himself to temper his excitement: there was still that dreadful million-dollar debt owed to TerraCorp. Such obligations couldn’t be ignored or lightly postponed.

Alexandre furrowed his brow slightly as he seriously considered how best to invest this newly acquired sum. He quickly dismissed the idea of purchasing more "Liquid Experience Vials." Useful at first, these vials had now, in his view, lost their optimal cost-effectiveness. Two logical choices then presented themselves to him: directly investing in an extremely expensive piece of equipment to immediately boost his abilities, or attempting to multiply his capital—a lucrative but exceedingly risky strategy. Finding no immediate answer to this dilemma, Alexandre ultimately decided to postpone this crucial decision until later.

His attention naturally turned toward the academic encyclopedia reserved exclusively for Hunter students. Today, he preferred avoiding deepening the survival topic, fully aware he would soon do so with his two comrades. Instead, he chose to lose himself in various intriguing side topics. As he conducted detailed research into the particular properties of Hunter blood, an unexpected mention suddenly caught his attention: the name "Doctor Isaac Friedman." This name immediately triggered an alarm in his mind; he was convinced he’d heard or read it somewhere before, yet couldn’t precisely recall the source.

Spurred by curiosity, Alexandre first initiated a quick search on the public internet, but strangely, the doctor’s name remained completely untraceable. He then tried an internal search within the academy’s official encyclopedia, but it only displayed information about professors and senior staff—nothing about the doctors themselves.

Suddenly, an idea crossed his mind. Alexandre vividly recalled the early days of his relationship with William, specifically a confidential document William had given him about the individuals involved in the sinister "Project Genesis." This comprehensive list included hundreds of names: doctors, scientists, military personnel—all involved to varying degrees in the sordid program. At the time, the document had seemed almost unusable, as public figures involved had been officially imprisoned or executed, while lesser-known ones had often mysteriously vanished amid the general chaos of the Great Wave.

Alexandre quickly reopened the precious document William had provided, nervously scanning the lengthy list of names and assigned roles. Finally, after several tense minutes of searching, he found what he was looking for: "Isaac Friedman." But this discovery deeply shocked him. Unlike Doctor José Del Bran, who claimed to have merely been a minor participant in the project, Doctor Friedman clearly occupied a senior position. The note beside his name was unequivocal: "Head of the Department of Blood Experimentation."

Alexandre felt his heart beat faster, a profound anxiety beginning to overtake him. Desperately, he began sifting through his fragmented memories, urgently trying to recall whether he’d ever encountered or even briefly seen this man in the past. Suddenly, a strange sensation overwhelmed his entire body. An intense, unpleasant heat spread rapidly through his limbs, accompanied by alarming numbness. Instinctively, Alexandre jumped up from his chair, eyes wide in confusion and anxiety. His entire body began shaking violently, muscles uncontrollable, as though seized by an intense panic attack, similar yet far stronger than the one he had experienced during the abyssal sea trial.

His heart pounded wildly in his chest like a panicked animal, and his vision dangerously blurred, swiftly becoming hazy and indistinct. Alexandre desperately tried grabbing onto something, but his fingers grasped only emptiness. In an instant, his head violently struck the hard floor of the room, a dull impact resonating through his skull as he drifted inexorably into unconsciousness, totally overwhelmed by this sudden and mysterious crisis.