Although the lecture hall doors were locked and Julian was loud enough to draw attention, the eyes of the three hundred people in the room inevitably drifted back down to the lower tiers. Everyone had watched the chaos unfold. They had seen Michael react before anyone else, standing alone at the front lines and single-handedly killing six of the monsters.
As the initial shock began to wear off, a wave of students started moving down the tiered steps. Some approached him directly, while others called out from a few rows away, their voices a chaotic mix of frantic questions, overflowing gratitude, and desperate requests for advice on what to do next.
Michael, however, was at his limit. His muscles were trembling from the physical strain of one-versus-one fights without a moment of rest, his left arm was throbbing with pain from the bite and scratch wounds, and the heavy adrenaline crash was finally hitting him. He wanted nothing more than to be left entirely alone to bandage his arm and process the situation in peace. He frowned, his posture tightening, but before he had to force himself to speak, someone else intervened.
Julian, who was still standing near the upper benches organizing the defense, saw the crowd swarming the lower desks. He lunged forward, stepping between the approaching students and Michael, and let out a furious roar that echoed off the high ceiling of the auditorium.
„Back off! Every single one of you, get the hell back!“ Julian shouted, his face flushed with anger and exhaustion. „Are you blind? Look at him! We are only breathing right now because he stood down there and held off those things by himself while the rest of you were screaming in the corners! He’s bleeding, he’s exhausted, and he has more than earned his goddamn peace!“
Julian pointed an angry finger toward the upper tiers, his voice cutting through the remaining murmurs. „Instead of crowding around him and making yourselves a nuisance, get back to your rows! Open your systems, figure out how to summon your spears, and get ready to fight! The hallways are crawling with those things, and if you want to make it out of here alive, you need to be ready to use your weapons, not talk!“
Because the horror of the initialization was still incredibly fresh, the psychological weight of the situation crushed any potential argument. The students were still terrified, desperate for direction, and completely intimidated by the reality of the blood and splintered wood around them. No one muttered a single word of protest. Without a second thought, the crowd immediately turned back, quietly dispersing to their seats to nervously interact with their blue system screens and practice pulling their spears from their inventories.
Julian glanced back at Michael, giving him a brief, respectful nod to signal that the perimeter was clear, before turning his attention back to the locked entrance doors. Finally, Michael had the silence he needed.
With the crowd finally backing off, Michael let out a quiet breath and leaned his back against the splintered wood of a lecture desk. His left arm was still throbbing, but for now, he forced himself to ignore the pain. He closed his eyes and mentally focused on the interface, calling up the screen he hadn’t had a proper chance to look at since the chaos began.
A sleek, translucent blue holographic window flickered into reality right in front of his eyes.
[ STATUS Window ]
Name: Michael Todes
Level: 2
Class: Locked
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XP: 20 / 50
[ATTRIBUTES]
- Strength: 5
- Agility: 7
- Vitality: 5
- Mana: 6
- Willpower: 10
Available Attribute Points: 5
[TALENTS]
None Available
[SKILLS]
-None Available
Available Skill Points: 1
Michael looked closely at the numbers. As the System had stated during his level-up, reaching Level 2 had automatically given him a +1 point increase across all of his attributes, meaning his starting baseline values had been even lower.
The values were completely uneven, clearly reflecting his personal traits and disposition before the initialization of the system. His highest attribute by far was Willpower, sitting at a solid 10 points. It made sense; his determination and natural ability to completely shut out panic, override physical pain, and maintain a detached focus under pressure was directly tied to this stat.
His Agility was his second highest at 7 points, which explained why his reflexes and movements had felt so much sharper during that intense, back-to-back exchange with the Hound-Foxes. Mana sat right in the middle at 6 points, an attribute he currently had no use for without a Class or any active magical skills.
Meanwhile, his physical core stats—Strength and Vitality—were his lowest, both sitting at just 5 points. Even with the Level 2 attribute boost, he wasn’t a physical powerhouse. His endurance was limited, and his body was still highly susceptible to damage, which the fresh, bleeding bite wound on his upper arm clearly proved.
He stared at the screen, his mind already thinking how these uneven numbers would affect his survival strategy. If he wanted to keep fighting the roaming threats outside the room without getting overwhelmed, he would have to rely heavily on his high Willpower and Agility to outmaneuver his opponents rather than trying to overpower them with brute strength.
As Michael scrolled further down the translucent blue screen, his gaze locked onto the unassigned points. Because of his recent level-up to Level 2, the System had granted him 5 free stat points to distribute as he pleased. He stared at the glowing number, his mind entering a state of careful calculation. He wondered if he would receive exactly 5 points with every single level-up, or if the amount would scale as his level increased. He also noticed that the boundary to reach the next Level required exactly 50 XP, meaning he was almost halfway there with his current 20 points.
As an experienced gamer, Michael knew exactly how critical stat distribution was in any progression system. A wrong build could permanently ruin a character’s potential. Since the System hadn’t provided any manual or tutorial, he had no way of knowing if a reset was possible—there was no guarantee he could ever reset or undo these choices later. Going in blind was a massive risk, and he wasn’t about to gamble with his life. He decided to hold onto the points for now until he understood the world’s new mechanics better.
Looking lower down the status sheet, he noted the empty sections for Talents and Skills. Both areas were completely blank, which made sense given he didn’t have an active Class yet. There were no separate talent points to allocate, but the System had awarded him 1 unassigned Skill Point. He left that untouched as well, refusing to rush into any permanent decisions while his adrenaline was still cooling down.
While Michael quietly analyzed his screen, the rest of the lecture hall was doing the exact same thing. Now that Julian had forced the crowd back into their seats, the initial terror was slowly transforming into muted, anxious chatter.
Groups of students began whispering to one another, comparing their screens and nervously reading out their baseline stats. Michael listened closely to the murmurs echoing across the benches, gathering free data.
From what he could overhear, his 10 points in Willpower were highly unusual. None of the students around him seemed to have a single attribute higher than 10. A few of the physically fit sports students and gym-goers in the room loudly boasted that their Strength or Vitality sat at exactly 10, but the rest of their stats were remarkably low, hovering around 3 or 4.
It confirmed Michael’s theory: the starting attributes were a direct, literal reflection of their pre-apocalypse lives. His mental discipline had given him an elite baseline in Willpower, but physically, he was starting from the exact same baseline as any average university student.
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