Bab 8: Genetic
"Zombie?" Gabrielle's voice became louder and filled with doubt. She took a glance at her seat partner whose behaviour had begun to turn erratic and then turned to the old man, Mr. Donaldson. She was on her toes and she had started to shake rigorously due to the shock. "Mr. Donaldson! Do something about it."
Everyone watched with untainted seriousness and shock as they looked at Harry.
His eyes had turned completely brown, so it was hard to know if he could actually see. His neck turned from right to left with loud crackling sounds that some students surrounding him could hear.
The bone cracking was one of the common things everyone knew about the zombies transitioning or their awakening after being hit to unconsciousness and beginning to rise again. None of the students had believed Mr. Donaldson when he had told them about the apocalypse, until now, when one of their classmates had been infected.
"Stay away from him!" Mr. Donaldson announced and then in a moment, his hands were pointed towards Harry as he began chanting an unknown spell.
Gabrielle, who was about three metres away from him, looked hopefully at Mr. Donaldson, hoping he could save Harry from whatever was happening to him. Unknown to others, Mr. Donaldson was only trying to cage him with the spell so that he couldn't turn around to attack anyone.
However, someone at the left hand side and in the same role as Harry and Gabrielle shouted, "Mr. Donaldson, let's attack him before he changes completely."
Everyone nodded, agreeing to what the boy suggested. The fear in them had turned into specks of dust while a hidden determination from nowhere rose in them, making them feel more powerful than they really were.
They believed if they joined hands together, they could kill the transitioning zombie. Even one of them could as they realised how slow it had suddenly become. They felt that since Harry was infected, he had become ten times slower than they were and it was very easy to overcome him.
On the other hand, Mr. Donaldson, who was busy chanting the spell, suddenly stopped when he noticed the rare uniformity within the students against one of them. His eyes turned solid as he glared, "I told you not to do anything! Just step back!"
The girl named Laura who had in the beginning of the class challenged Mr. Donaldson, about teaching them how to cast magic spells, tried putting down a piece of her own, "We don't want to turn into a zombie like him! We have to kill him at once else we risk having more than one student transitioning into zombies."
However, as Laura had rejected their teacher's say and everyone had agreed with her, Harry who was still undergoing a stupefying transition as a result of the drastic drop in his stat points heard a loud beep again.
His ears only captured loud noises or voices.
Beep.
[You still stand the chance to gain +25 status points to share freely!]
It was a reminder telling him to release himself of his pain by infecting Gabrielle.
However, seeing that if any time soon he didn't do anything to improve the stats, then, he would either end up dying out of the pain overcoming him or end up being attacked by his classmates because right now, he couldn't hear what they were saying but could see their angst through their eyes. The angst this time around was coupled with red anger.
He had no choice. If he wanted to remain alive, he had to grab this chance that he was given now and that was biting Gabrielle.
If he could infect her, then he was safe. He would know what to do in the aftermath.
He wasn't a human anymore and the earlier he conformed to the fact, the better it became for him. Though his reasoning was slow, he could figure out that out of everyone in the classroom, the one who thereby hated him the most and had developed a huge fear of him was no other than Gabrielle, the one he was trying hard not to infect.
It wouldn't hurt more than he was feeling now if he fed on her. His skin felt like it was undergoing a combustion and as a result his flesh was tearing off his body.
Harry slightly turned around and his gaze met Gabrielle's who walked backwards seeing that the zombie right in front of her wanted to attack her. However, Harry was stopped only after he took two steps forward to her.
Although he couldn't see the barrier, his body had recognised a magic barrier which hindered him from moving forward. He felt like he was moving towards a burning furnace and had to stop himself from going further.
"He...he is coming towards me, Mr. Donaldson! Do something!" Gabrielle shouted.
For a moment, Harry thought that he could hear her voice and then he blamed himself for ever attempting to attack her.
However, a sudden beep came again.
[You have only five minutes to gain +25 status points to distribute freely by infecting Gabrielle. Failure to do so, your entire status points shall be decreased and you shall cease to exist.]
Harry blinked.
Previously, this wasn't a quest and was just a bonus, now it had turned into a quest out of a sudden?
How the hell would he be able to do anything when he was restricted?
For a moment, death sounded like freedom and he wanted to die, however, a beep came again.
[Ascending Soul Power is genetic. Once you die, the system automatically goes to your close relative.]
It took Harry a while to assimilate the system's acclaim.
Did it mean his younger sister would be given this ruthless system if he dies?
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone