As the Apocalypse Event Activates, Point Acquisition Is Unlocked!

At some point, a window like that had begun to hang in front of my eyes. The thought that I had finally gotten a status window straight out of a novel left me giddy, and from that moment on I threw myself into figuring out how to earn points. I tried working out. I tried studying. I tried sex. I even wondered whether I had to beat people for the number to climb, so I went to work under a loan shark and pounded debtors during collections. Then I wondered if it was about taking lives, found a job at a slaughterhouse, and took them. In short, I tried everything short of murder. Murder carried too much risk, so I never went through with it.

But ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the result...

No matter what I did, the total never rose by so much as a single point. In the end I gave up on earning them. I decided the window was a hallucination cooked up by my own mental illness, and I resolved to ignore it and get on with my life.

Then one day, heading out for my part-time shift, I opened the front door and pulled it shut behind me—and in that instant a notification rose before my eyes.

I read it, and I couldn't hide the rush.

"So point gain was locked this whole time? Whatever. I can finally earn points!"

I was still riding that high, reading the notice over again, when a strange phrase snagged my eye.

Wait. Apocalypse Event?

The question had barely formed when a scream tore out of the unit next door. I turned my head, and what I saw hit me like a fist. The woman next door was having her throat torn open by her own husband.

"Aaaah! H-honey, stop!"

In seconds the hallway was painted with the blood pouring from her neck. Her husband's mouth was lacquered in his own wife's blood, and he did not stop biting.

"No, no, don't, honey! Aaaah! It hurts! It hurts!! You crazy bastard!!"

The moment the pain of flesh being ripped away truly started, she drove her fists into his face. The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠blows landed dull and meaty.

"Ah... no..."

He paid the punches no mind at all and kept tearing at her throat. The strength ran out of her. She threw a few meaningless fists at empty air, then sagged, weaker and weaker, until she stopped moving.

"What the fuck is this."

The shock locked me where I stood.

"Skreeee!!"

"Holy shit!"

The instant his wife went still, the husband looked at me—and charged.

"Open, damn it, open!"

"Skreeeee!!"

I spun and clawed at the door I had just locked, but terror had sunk its teeth into me, and the key refused to find the keyhole.

"Fuck! I should've made them swap this for a digital lock ages ago!"

That damned penny-pinching landlady had sworn she would never replace it, and I had shrugged and let it go. I never thought it would be the thing that got me killed.

The lock clicked.

"It's open!"

"Graaaah!"

The husband—wrong now, twisted into something else—leapt at me in the same heartbeat I finally got the door open.

The impact boomed through the iron. He gagged. I screamed. He hadn't been able to kill his momentum in midair, and he drove his face straight into the steel door.

"M-mister?"

I had heard a sound no human body ought to make. I eased my face out from behind the door and checked on him.

"Hrrk...!"

What I saw of the man next door was so awful I regretted looking. He had gone down hard. His head had split against the iron, and brain matter was leaking out; his face was crushed into something hideous to look at.

"Huuuerk."

I had the stomach for slaughterhouse work, but I had never seen a person's face pulped. I ran for the bathroom and threw up—right up until the notification appeared.

A chime rang.

A zombie? Points? A point shop?

The information hit all at once. I locked the door that still stood open, sank down where I was, and started reading the notices.

"Kyaaaaaah!"

"Wh-what are you—stay back!!"

"Somebody help me!!"

The screams coming through the window told me, plainly enough, that none of this was normal.

"P-point shop."

I ignored the screaming and opened it.

"Pfft..."

By the time I finished the message, I couldn't stop the laugh leaking out of my mouth.

"Puhahahaha!"

"You crazy bastards, get the hell away from me!! Gyaaaah!"

"Please, just save me! Save me! Kyaaaah!"

Screams kept pouring in from outside, and I laughed anyway, loud and glad. How long had I choked on the fact that the point window sat right in front of me and nothing ever changed? How empty had it felt, the day I understood that everything I had done on a scrap of hope had been useless? The time had come to be paid back for all that frustration and all that emptiness.

An apocalypse? What did that matter? For everyone else it might be the end of the world. For me it was as good as heaven. Whether other people died or not, whether they turned into zombies or not—what mattered was that I came out ahead.

"Heh heh heh."

Laughter spilling out of me, I opened the Point Shop.

"Oh."

The moment the shop opened, everything I could buy began to unfold in front of my eyes.

"Is this real?"

Heart hammering, I brought a finger to the window hanging before me.

The instant ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠my hand touched the panel labeled Water, the notice appeared in front of me.

"Ooh!"

A breath of light flared, and then the water was simply there.

"Haha, it's real. It's actually real!"

The points weren't a sickness in my head. They were a real ability. Knowing that, I laughed out loud for the sheer joy of it.

"Hahaha, what else is there?"

I sorted the icons I could see.

"Notifications? Why is this one glowing?"

Excitement buzzing through me, I pressed a finger to the shining icon.

"Oooooh!"

The message that spilled out under my finger left me unable to shut my mouth for joy. I left it hanging open and browsed the unlocked Lv. 5 shop.

What caught my eye was a spread of guns with familiar names: a Soviet rifle that looked entirely too eager to put a round through my grandmother, the American rifle built to answer it, and the service rifle I had once carried through the army like a sweetheart.

"Guns, huh..."

I thought it over. If I spent points on a firearm right now, could I actually use it well? A gun needed bullets, and a glance at the Lv. 1 shop had already told me it didn't sell any. I had no idea about Lv. 2, but either way, the only place I could buy ammunition at this moment was this Lv. 5 shop, and it would only stay open for twenty-four hours. That wasn't the only problem. A gun didn't suit what was happening out there. One unlucky shot, and the noise could drag every nearby zombie down on me.

"Hmm. Yeah. Guns are out."

Buy bullets now and I wouldn't be able to buy more for a while. The noise a firearm made was an enormous penalty under the present circumstances. On both counts, I rejected the purchase.

"Then this looks like the best of them..."

Aside from the guns, one listing kept pulling my eye.

"A random ability draw..."

The notice a moment ago had said other ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠players received all kinds of abilities. Those abilities had to be superpowers, and this random draw had to be a way of pulling one. Right now, nothing else looked half as good for getting my hands on the combat power I needed most.

"All right. Should I press it?"

Nerves shaking through me, I set my finger to it and bought the Random Ability Draw.

Along with the notice that the points were gone, a slot machine appeared in empty air and started to spin.

"Please, please...!"

I watched the reels turn and prayed for something useful.

"Fuck!!"

A name that was obviously not built for combat popped up, and the curse jumped out of me before I could stop it.

"No. It's just the name. There's no way it's actually like that..."

On the off chance I was wrong, I refused to let go of hope. I tapped the ability and read the description.

"Fuuuck!"

Anyone could see the description had nothing to do with combat, and I swore at it. Why, in a world already ending, would an ability like this even show up?