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A middle-aged man with a mask could be seen walking down a ruined road. Cars were all around, each with their own problems that made them unusable. Several of the engines are completely totaled, some are flipped on their sides or upside down, and some are simply missing their fronts, tires, or other essential parts for a car. Buildings had holes, were filled with fire, and had smoke protruding from them. The place that this man had lived in, was annihilated over the course of a decade. One might ask themselves, "Why, what happened in this city?" And in response, many would ask them if they lived under a rock. It wasn't just this city, but the entire country of Japan. The Japanese Government, preparing for a war, had put many weeks into an experiment. The goal of said experiment was to create soldiers who wouldn't be affected by chemical warfare.
Obviously, things didn't go according to plan, otherwise, the country wouldn't be in this situation. There were some successes, many men had been able to enhance their tolerance to perfection. They were immune to chemical weapons, even dangers like White Phosphorus Munitions. Using an army of these evolved soldiers, Japan was going to cause a third World War and abuse its advantage by continuously mowing down its opposition using Chemical Warfare. However, as stated earlier, things didn't go to plan. This is because only a mere fifth of their forces survived this process, the rest simply didn't make the cut and perished in the experiment. But it's not the lack of forces that caused their horrible state of being for the country, no it wasn't. Instead, it is what happened AFTER the death of four-fifths of Japan's forces.
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Zombies... zombies with a disease that even the biologically enhanced soldiers couldn't fight against. You didn't even have to get bitten, if you simply inhaled the toxins that they produced, you didn't have long to live yourself. And soon, you would join their ranks as a mindless corpse walking, infecting, and eating everything in sight.
It didn't take long for the country to realize its predicament. They simply didn't have any other choice other than accepting their new reality. And with that, less than 1,000 people live in Japan now. That's less than 0.000811066% of the original population. And it so happens, our mask-wearing protagonist is one of the people who survived the fall of Japan.
As the protagonist walked, he saw a horde of zombies approaching him, fast. He, however, didn't walk these streets unprepared. With a Smith & Wesson .44 Magnum Revolver, a Remington 870 Tactical Shotgun, and a chain, our protagonist prepared himself for combat. He had done this so many times, it was as natural as the desire for survival in any wild animal.
He charged back at the horde, pulled out his shotgun, and shot quickly. He managed to kill six in this initial attack. He jumped off one of the falling bodies that he had shot, boosting him into the air, as he started to flip, he shot again, this time managing to off five more targets. He began to reload the shotgun, flipping the used shells into the air and replacing them by catching them in the unloaded barrel as he started to pump it. With his, now free left hand, he began to fire bullet after bullet into the zombies' heads with his Revolver. As he was dropping, he fired the now fully loaded shotgun again. Clearing out an area for him to land. He switched the Revolver out for the chain, which he began swinging at an extremely high speed that should be humanly impossible. This tore straight through the bodies of any zombie that had dared to get closer.
As the chain ripped the abdomens and severed the necks of any zombie unfortunate enough to be in range, the protagonist noticed something approaching abnormally fast through his peripheral vision. He was going to swing his chain to cleave through the monster, but it outpaced him, and rammed into him hard enough to send him flying through the air, a wall, and a table behind the wall. The force had broken the protagonist's arm, but he didn't react to it at all. By the time he looked back down at his arm, it was fully repaired.
You see, there are two things that have to be known about this world. One, the protagonist was one of the successful people who went through the Japanese Chemical Soldier Experiment, or JCSE (pronounced Jessie), not only did he gain immunity to Chemicals, but he also gained Superhuman abilities. His being regeneration and beyond a peak human physique. The second being that any of the people who were the test subjects in Project JCSE were turned not only into zombies, but mutant zombies.
"So, you come out at last." Our protagonist spoke, he was specifically hunting the Mutants as the minor zombies aren't a big threat to him. Hordes always seem to follow a Mutant, that's why he was searching for this mob's Mutant. "Well, let's get this over with, I'll send your spirit to Yomi." He got into a fighting position, which was heavily inspired by Muhammad Ali's stance and the traditional Muay Tai stance. "Well, I don't know about you, but I'm not getting any younger over here."
Upon finishing his sentence, the Mutant once more rushed at him. This time, since his attention is fully on him, our protagonist managed to dodge to the left, before hitting the zombie with a devastating liver shot. He didn't just stop with a normal liver punch, but he fully committed to it. This not only punched a gaping hole into the fragile flesh of the zombie but also sent it flying. While the zombie was airborne, the protagonist quickly dashed to where he was headed, jumped, and slammed it into the ground.
"Sayonara." He said as he used his chain to wrap it around the neck of the Mutant, decapitating it as he pulled with all his might. "Alright, now that the glass cannon is out of the way, time to clean house." He said as he turned to the mob.
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An hour passed as he finished wiping out the horde, he managed to find some useful things in the area as well. These things being pocketknives, hatchets, pistols, etc. They could be exchanged amongst his group for things he would need, like food, or ammo. But today, he was out searching for painkillers to help his ally who had cut a piece of his arm off since he was bitten. Luckily, he reacted fast enough to prevent himself from turning. And with his supernatural vitality, he was guaranteed to survive as long as he didn't die to the pain. Which is why our 'hero' is here.
He managed to get what he was after by heading into the pharmacy section of a nearby Kroger. And lucky him, there was disinfectant alcohol and bandage wrapping as well. Turns out, his friend will be more than okay.
That is if he could return alive. You see, our protagonist is sitting in a pool of blood. A mixture of his blood and the blood of all the zombies he managed to kill before his stamina gave out. A few dozen zombies? Sure, he could handle that as long as several Mutants didn't attack him at one time. Which just so happened to happen. And now, he would find himself being mauled endlessly by said Mutants. Remember how he had Supernatural regeneration? In this predicament, he really wishes he didn't. He was originally screaming for dear life. Hoping that someone could hear his pleas for help. But anyone who would help him was way too far to do anything.
Now he was deathly silent. Accepting his fate, his mind slowly shuts down from the pain. Seconds turned to minutes, minutes to hours, hours to days. The only way he could tell how long it had been was to feel the sun's heat warm up his internal organs and the remains of any regenerating flesh. Each time his body begins turning into a zombie, that part of him gets ripped off and eaten, causing it to regenerate as fresh, untampered skin. But because of that... too many times has he had his eyes torn out, too many times his head split open, too many times had he been dismembered, and too many times his pancreas has been eaten. But then, all the hands that had reached out to him had stopped.
He wondered why, but he didn't care, his regenerative properties activated once and this time, nothing interrupted. His entire body began healing but once he opened his eyes again, he was basically flash banged. He cried out, but once again, nothing attacked him. But he could hear a sound. The sound of something heavy dropping through the sky. Once his eyes managed to adjust, which was pretty quick, he saw what was dropping and could only say one sentence.
"Oh, I'm going to die." He observed as a thermonuclear warhead was charging straight at him. He didn't understand the kind of accuracy needed to drop a nuke directly on someone, but it had been done just now. "Heh, I wonder if Kenzo got bett-"
He didn't even get to finish his sentence before the nuke exploded on his body and completely evaporated him. It was something not even his regeneration, which could remake a body from a singular cell, could save him from.
- 6 weeks later -
"In today's news, we go back to the situation in the Deadman's Zone, or what it used to be called: Japan. Now that the chemicals from the intense bombing have begun to completely dissipate, excavation teams have been sent out to discover what really caused the zombie breakout that led to the complete fall of Japanese civilization. In the wo-" The reporter put a finger to his ear which had an earpiece. "Hold on... Are you sure?" The news reporter coughed before explaining the new findings in Japan to his co-workers. "It would appear that a very important recording from one of the ex-Japanese chemists further explains into the outbreak of the undead. Switching to Madison at the scene."
"Thanks, Ryan. As you all can see, I'm in the ruins of the once-prosperous civilization of Japan. And within it, a professional team of excavators has found a small film where one of the government workers logged his findings and the cause of the zombies which we will be showing to you now!"
The cameraman moved up to the screen which originally was static, eventually though, the camera revealed a middle-aged man with rough hair, an unkept small beard, and dark black eyes. He sat on a chair backward and wore a lab coat with a pair of glasses hanging onto one of the pockets. This was the sole man responsible for the downfall of the Japanese, his name was...
"Hello, my name is Yurei Kage. If you're watching this, then most likely I am dead. The reason this outbreak of ours happened was due to a government project called JCSE. This was done to further increase Japanese political and military power. The goal of the Japanese Government was to create an army of soldiers that could withstand any chemical attacks or diseases in order to wage another World War. This time, they abused their soldier by attacking with highly dangerous chemicals, such as White Phosphorus or the radiation that would follow after a nuclear blast. However, as you all likely know already, we failed. Some of our experiments were successful, we managed to create a squad of superhumans. As not only did they develop an immunity to normal chemicals but gained some form of supernatural powers, like me."
The man used a knife, and sliced his hand off, to which it immediately regrew. All viewers, the people at the sight, the people at home, the government, and anyone watching were immediately intrigued by the development. The thought of superhumans was appealing, but also horrifying.
"But more than that... there were sacrifices. Well over half of our subjects died immediately upon taking the injection."
Almost everybody thinking of possibly injecting themselves with that formula by recreating it, immediately stopped. Almost.
"To anyone who lost their families, friends, or any close people who lived here, I am sorry for what you're about to hear. Since I am the head chemist of this operation, full accountability for the fault of this tragedy belongs to me. But a solid week after the first few thousands of deaths, the outbreak happened. Anyone who even smelt the stench of those creatures could have their mind eroded and would turn soon after; those who didn't turn would be quickly dismembered, torn apart, and eaten. No matter what kind of advancements on our soldiers we made, we couldn't protect ourselves from this horrid fate. So once more, I deeply apologize on behalf of the entire Japanese government."
The mere thought of it made people sweat. At this point the entire world, that could, tuned into this broadcast. Billions of people observed the man's report of this tragedy. People on the internet quickly began debating whether the Japanese should be persecuted for their attempt at world domination, or if they should be pitied for being wiped out.
"But the reason I made this tape, isn't to simply gain sympathy, pity, or feel some form of peace after my death. But to inform you that this problem isn't over. This disease won't die that quickly, even if you carpet-bombed the entirety of Japan with nukes... It can travel across the world in just about any way you can think of. Water, air, touch, anything. To counteract this, I've put the coordinates to my study on finding a cure for it at the end of this video. Please, do not let my failure bring down the entire world. Anyone who can, finish what I started, and find a way to KILL THIS DAMN VIRUS!"
And for a solid minute, the entirety of Earth's population stood still. People stopped debating, they stopped reacting to the video for clout, they stopped talking with their loved ones. Everyone knew what was to come, and they couldn't stop themselves from feeling it too.
Panic.
People watching the broadcast on YouTube flooded the livestream comments with concerns about their safety. People at home began to freak out. But the problem was just starting because the reporters didn't think there would be anyone to survive that massive explosion. Unfortunately, there was...
<Elsewhere>
"..." Yurei, our protagonist, floated in the middle of nothing. "So, I didn't go to Yomi after my death..." He said, he wondered where he was, and he could only think: 'Limbo'.
[Congratulations!]
[You're responsible for a world-ending event! You are going to a special Hell.]
"Ah, I see." Yurei responded, He didn't know what he was talking to, but assumed it was some divine figure, judging his life and decided his obvious sins were sending him straight to the fiery pits.
[You were going to be reincarnated had you not participated in Project JCSE]
[But, since you have given a chance to humanity, HE has chosen to give you one as well][Generating rewards...]
[For causing mass panic and killing thousands without stopping, your race will be Demon Lor-]
[Error: Your WILL isn't strong enough; you will become a Demon. And granted Demon Lord candidacy.]
[For surviving a decade in harsh conditions, you will be granted Passive: Survivor (A)]
[The skills of your past life will be given to you in your new one!]
[Acquiring Skills:]
[Chain Mastery (MAX)]
[Regeneration (MAX)]
[Strong Body (C-)]
[Chemical Knowledge (A)]
[Marksmen (C+)]
"Okay, what is happening?" Yurei questioned.
[HE smiles upon your actions!]
[Since your actions can save many, HE rewards you further, you have been given Holy+]
[Demon Lord candidacy has been taken away!]
[Time for your punishment!]
"Please wait, I HAVE QUESTIONS!"
[Goodbye! You are now entering Hell!]
Feeling extreme pain, Yurei could tell his body was forcibly becoming smaller. His hair grew to shoulder length and his features reversed to how he looked when he was 15. His originally dark black hair turned grey, and his head began to protrude horns from it. It hurt like Hell. Heh. All this as his body fell, further and further into the pits.
No, this is not a Helltaker fanfic.