novelraw Chapter 62 62: Survival Tears
Chapter 62 62: Survival Tears
Even though her voice was quiet, thin around the edges, still carrying the rasp of days spent crying, the group wasn't large, and the street around them was eerily empty. Her request carried clearly, bouncing off the building walls and reaching almost everyone present.
For a brief moment, silence ruled.
Then eyes shifted, some wide with shock and disbelief, others full of pity, as if they were watching someone sign their own death sentence without realizing it.
A few men closer to the back snorted under their breath. Someone muttered something about "another crybaby." Someone else wore a crooked smile, like he'd finally found a way to vent his own fear and humiliation after Leon's earlier words. It was easier to mock a small, tear-streaked girl than admit to yourself you hadn't even had the courage to take one step forward.
"Calista, what are you…" Sylphia shouted, her voice sharp with panic, cracking as she stepped forward and reached out, like she was about to physically drag her back.
But before she could move, Roland swung his wooden cane, stopping her. Sylphia snapped her head toward him, fire in her eyes, but he only shook his head slowly, saying nothing, and looked past her toward Calista.
"If you really care about her," he said quietly, "you'd better not make any rash moves."
Sylphia stared at him, eyes wide, and opened her mouth to answer, only to be cut off by Leon's voice.
"No problem," Leon said calmly, not raising his tone, yet somehow making sure everyone heard him. "If you've got that much determination, and that much courage, you can do it yourself."
Several people turned toward him in disbelief. Someone cursed under their breath. Someone else shook their head like they couldn't process what they'd just heard.
Leon stepped forward and, without a word, reached for his daggers.
Something strange flickered in his eyes. Then he turned both blades around and offered them to Calista handle-first.
"Here."
Calista froze for a fraction of a second, then grabbed the daggers with both hands, and her breath caught hard as a system window flashed before her eyes.
[Equipment Effect Applied]
[Effect: STR +5 | AGI +10]
"T-that's… incredible…" she whispered, barely audible, as she felt something warm and heavy spread through her body. Like her muscles had suddenly grown denser, more obedient. Like the world around her had slowed by the tiniest fraction.
Despite her small frame, she had the absurd sense that she could lift the heaviest student in their group without much trouble. The feeling came so suddenly, and was so alien, it was terrifying.
Leon watched her closely as she drew a deep breath, fingers tightening around the grips until her knuckles turned white.
"Remember," he said evenly, but hard. "There's no room for hesitation."
Calista looked up at him. Tears still clung to her lashes, but there was something new in her eyes now. She nodded without a word.
She turned toward the zombie, and only then noticed it was moving… slower than before. Its swaying steps looked clumsy, predictable, almost pathetic.
Which made sense.
Her Agility had nearly doubled in an instant.
The knowledge that a single scratch could end her life made her clench her teeth so hard her jaw ached. Then she broke into a run, heart hammering like it was trying to escape her ribs, yet her legs carried her faster than she'd expected.
Leon watched in silence, a brief, almost imperceptible flicker passing through his eyes. He hadn't expected a request like that from her. And the thought flashed through his mind that when this was over, no matter how it ended, he would owe her an apology for that one word he'd thrown out too casually.
Calista had no idea what she was doing.
She didn't know how to fight. She didn't know any techniques. She didn't understand her own body yet, or how much it had changed the moment she took those daggers. And on top of it all was the paralyzing fear crushing her chest so tightly she could only breathe shallowly, unevenly, tears blurring her vision.
Still, she ran.
Her legs moved faster than she could control. Each step was too long, too sharp, like her body was reacting faster than her thoughts. Before she even understood what was happening, she was circling the zombie in a wide arc.
The creature lunged for her a few times, arms jerking out, grasping at air where she'd been a heartbeat ago. But it was too slow, its movements clumsy, delayed. And Calista, almost instinctively, accelerated every time she saw it try to turn.
For a full minute, that's all she did, ran in circles. Her heartbeat pounded in her ears, her legs burned, and tears splashed onto the sidewalk as she fought not to trip over her own panic.
"She's doing… better than I did at the start," Elena muttered, scratching her cheek as she watched with a mix of tension and memories she'd rather have left behind.
Adam glanced at her from the corner of his eye and gave a crooked smile, remembering the chaos in the dorms and his own first frantic, panicked shots, but he didn't say anything.
After another loop, Calista finally scraped together what courage she had left. When she found herself behind the zombie, she clenched her teeth and let out a short cry, more terror than anger, and surged forward, striking with all the strength and speed she could muster.
She aimed for the head.
She missed.
The blade sank into its arm, slicing through rotten muscle. The zombie let out a high, unnatural screech and whipped around. Calista screamed and jumped back on instinct, nearly tangling in her own feet, but the creature didn't even get a step toward her before she was out of reach again.
And only then did it hit her that…
Nothing happened.
She didn't panic over missing her target. Instead, something else surged through her, sudden, wild exhilaration.
Because she understood.
She was genuinely, ridiculously, faster than this zombie.
She started circling again.
This time, the blade cut into its other arm. She dodged away. The zombie, unable to feel pain but growing more and more frantic, thrashed aimlessly, trying to reach an enemy it couldn't even touch.
Calista repeated the pattern several times until, at last, the creature staggered for a moment and exposed the back of its neck.
She saw her chance.
She didn't think.
She lunged and drove the dagger straight into the back of its skull.
Thanks to the blade's properties, it punched through bone with shocking ease and hit the brain. The zombie's body went rigid for a split second, then collapsed heavily onto the ground.
Calista, running on habit and fear, sprang back several meters immediately, ready to keep fleeing, only there was no counterattack. Just the dull thud of a body hitting asphalt.
Messages flickered before her eyes.
[Essence Record – Kill Confirmed]
[Target: Normal Zombie (LVL 4)]
[Reward: +3 VIT]
[Level Up: LVL 1 → LVL 2]
[Stat Points Gained: +4]
Her adrenaline crashed so fast her head spun.
She stood there with daggers in hand, completely dazed, staring at the motionless corpse and the notifications still blinking across her vision, barely able to understand she'd just done something that, minutes ago, she couldn't even imagine.
"Congratulations," Leon's voice said, calm, clear, utterly out of place against the chaos inside her. "You've officially stepped onto the path of evolution."
Calista jerked, like someone yanked her out of deep water. She lifted her head, still breathing fast, cheeks wet with tears, and stared at him in disbelief, as if she was afraid she'd misheard.
"R-really…?" she asked softly, almost a whisper, like a child making sure a gift won't vanish the moment they touch it.
Leon studied her face for a moment, that complete mess of emotions: fear, shock, relief, and something new that hadn't been there before. He wasn't sure whether he should laugh or let out a heavy sigh.
In the end, he answered seriously, without a hint of irony.
"Who else would've done it?" he said. "Those notifications in front of your eyes are proof. The zombie didn't fall over by itself."
For a second, Calista just stood there, like her brain needed time to connect all the pieces.
Then something inside her cracked.
"I did it…" she whispered, and then her voice jumped up several pitches. "I did it! Hahaha… I did it! I really did it!"
She laughed loudly, almost hysterically, shouting with joy, not caring that her voice might draw more zombies, that someone might try to hush her, that the situation wasn't "safe."
In that moment, none of it mattered.
Leon only watched her, and didn't try to stop her.
He understood perfectly that it wasn't just joy.
It was fear finally finding a way out.
Fear that had been quietly rotting inside her for days, since she'd seen death, since she'd buried her face in someone else's arms and waited for others to make decisions for her. Now that fear was spilling out along with the laughter, the shouting, the tremble running through her whole body.
No one mocked her reaction.
There were no sneers. No whispered jokes. If anything, the students who'd been too afraid to step forward a moment ago stared at her with a mix of shock and disbelief. The sight of a small, tearful girl, who'd been shaking in fear just minutes earlier, now standing over a dead zombie hit them hard.
The corpse hadn't even fully settled on the ground when something began to form beside it, first like a faint distortion in the air, then as a clearer outline, until at last a scroll appeared on the cracked asphalt: a tightly rolled parchment with a delicate, barely visible shimmer of Essence.
Calista only noticed it once her laughter began to die down and her breathing slowly steadied. She stepped forward, still uncertain, as if afraid it was just another adrenaline hallucination, then bent and carefully picked it up.
A system window unfurled before her eyes.
[Survival Tears (Phase One Skill) – Tier: Novice]
[Description: A passive skill. While the user is crying or experiencing intense emotional distress, all base attributes are temporarily increased by 100%. Sensory perception, reaction speed, and pain tolerance are significantly enhanced. The effect persists as long as the emotional state is maintained.]
"Th-this… I think…" she began softly, then stopped, not quite knowing what to say as she stared at the notification.
Instead, she closed the window, tightened her grip on the scroll, and, to the surprise of part of the group, turned around. She walked a few steps to Leon and held out the parchment toward him.
"Mister Leon," she said, her voice still trembling, but noticeably steadier now. "Please… this is yours."