Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night

After reaping the souls of his victims, Zane rushed towards their corpses and found that they indeed had some good loot on them. Along with the massive haul of blood crystals. Enough to give him a level up. The group had some much needed supplies that Zane had been looking for.

Looting as much as he could reasonably carry, Zane was about to abandon the bodies to the undead when he heard a voice whisper to him.

"The hearts…"

Zane quickly snapped his head around as he heard the voice coming from behind him. But when he looked around, he could not see a thing. There was nobody nearby, not even the dead. Yet he heard that quiet and feminine voice whisper to him once more, again, as if it had come from behind him.

"The hearts are the key…"

Once more Zane snapped his head around looking for the source of this voice. It was an oddly familiar voice, one that had previously whispered to him that he was being hunted, which was ultimately the reason he had become paranoid while hiding in Elena\'s house and forced himself and the girls to move on, despite it being a decent location for the time being to hide out.

There was a thought in his mind that made Zane believe he was genuinely going insane, and was quick to call out to his surroundings, believing perhaps that somebody was hiding nearby.

"Show yourselves! I know you\'re there!\'

As Zane said this, his rifle was raised, as if he was prepared to shoot whoever was whispering to him. But there was truly nobody there, and the voice did not repeat itself. Almost as if it had never existed to begin with.

Fearing that he was potentially losing his mind, Zane took a step in the opposite direction. But the moment he did so, his body stopped itself. Though the voice no longer whispered to him, Zane felt compelled, almost as if he was being possessed by a supernatural entity, compelled to go back to the corpses of the awakened survivors he had killed and observe their bodies.

The hearts… The voice kept whispering to him about the hearts. There was no way it meant the hearts of the living beings he had just killed, right? These were the thoughts that appeared in Zane\'s mind as he silently gulped. Fearful that he was about to needless desecrate a human corpse, one which he was responsible for the death of.

Whether he was genuinely being controlled by a supernatural being, or if Zane\'s curiosity had taken over his body before his mind could object, Zane did not know. In fact, he had no memory of the action, but when he finally came to there was a delectable and savory taste upon his tongue.

As if it were the greatest thing he had ever tasted. Even better than the blood crystals which he had previously thought this exact thing about. And when Zane finally realized what he had done, he gazed in horror at his bloody hands, and the sanguine writing from the system which displayed his abhorrent actions in front of him.

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[Level 3 Awakened Heart Consumed!]

[+500 XP!]

---

Zane gazed in abject horror at what he had just done. Did he just… Eat a human heart? No, that wasn\'t possible! After all, there was no actual texture to what he had just consumed. It was pure liquid. But then again…

A memory flashed within Zane\'s mind, displaying the Stalker as it ripped Ryan\'s heart out of his chest. Ryan\'s heart had turned crystalline, and radiated the same sanguine color that a Tier I Blood Crystal Did. And when the Stalker devoured it, he did so in the same way Zane consumed blood crystals, as if it had magically transformed into a liquid the moment it touched his tongue.

Suddenly Zane felt cold, as if his entire skeleton had been turned into ice. He had indeed done the unthinkable, and engaged in an act of cannibalism, as if he himself were one of the Undead Monsters which he hunted.

Immediately, thoughts flooded Zane\'s brain as he realized what this meant. When the system said that his subrace was "Living Dead" it didn\'t just mean that he could consume blood crystals like a normal human being.

But he could also consume the hearts of the awakened to gain power, which was presumably why the Stalker had done just that to Ryan… It was a truly horrifying thought, and a sentiment which sent Zane into a existential crisis. Just what the hell was he?

---

After blacking out for god knows how long, Zane finally regained control of his mind back at the camp. In fact, he was in the middle of being yelled at by Olivia and Elena, who were chewing him out about something he did not remember.

In fact, Zane\'s immediate attention was attracted to the giant hole in the wall and the fried corpses around them. Not only that, but Zane saw a glaring message in his vision, one that did not exist before he blacked out.

---

[Level up! You are now Level 10!]

[+3 Attribute Points!]

[+1 Skill Point!]

[Level Up! You are now Level 11!]

[+2 Attribute Points!]

---

This was a curious sight. Zane had gained two level ups without even remembering it… But how? It was then that he reached into his pouch, a pouch which contained the blood crystals he had looted. They were gone! But even then, there was no way that just those blood crystals could have given him two level ups. So what then?

And it was in that moment that Zane remembered what he had done prior to blacking out for the second time. A cold shiver went down his spine until Elena finally snapped him out of his stupor by screaming at him.

"Zane! Are you even listening to me? We need to go! Now! This place is no longer safe!"

As much as Zane wanted to crawl into a corner and reflect on his entire existence, he could not. Their camp had clearly been raided while he was away. And luckily for him, the girls were safe. They were his responsibility to protect, and because of this, he had to push the horrors of his questionable being to the back of his mind, and instead take charge to ensure the safety of the group.

Thus, with a stoic expression on his face, Zane nodded his head and confirmed that they indeed needed to go.

"Pack up everything into the Humvee, we are heading out…"

Neither of the girls knew what had happened to Zane when he was away. Nor had they fully discussed what had happened to them. But those tales would have to wait for another time. At least until they could find another refuge to spend the rest of the night in.