The belated system

The air at Atlanta Zoo carried a mixture of grass, earth, animals, and sweat.

It was not a pleasant smell, but to Lynn, it meant safety.

He stood atop an artificial rock formation half a person's height, looking down.

The afternoon sunlight was blinding. Through his narrowed eyes, the zoo's spacious herbivore enclosure-now called the "inner zone"-was tightly enclosed by layers of raised, reinforced wire fencing.

The mesh was fine, its top wound thickly with barbed wire that gleamed coldly in the sunlight.

"Left! Pull it tight! Weld it solid!"

A rough voice roared.

Lynn looked over. It was Davis.

The burly former boxer was bare-chested, his bronze skin covered in bulging muscles and several scratches that had yet to heal.

He was directing several men as they welded a heavy I-beam to a post on the inside of the fence.

Sweat ran down from his buzz cut and over his broad back.

He swung a heavy sledgehammer, each blow landing with a piercing metallic clang as the steel post sank deeper into the ground.

The area that had once belonged to zebras and giraffes was now piled with supplies: canned food stacked into small mountains, bottled water built into walls, bundles of fabric scattered across tarps, medicine crates, and generator parts.

In the distance, near the lion and tiger enclosure, the frames of several watchtowers were going up.

"Boss."

A clear, calm female voice reached him.

Min-seon approached at a brisk pace.

The Korean female doctor wore faded khaki cargo pants and a black tank top, her figure trim.

She held a list clipped to a piece of cardboard. Her shoulder-length black hair was tied in a ponytail, a few stray strands plastered to her temples with sweat, and her sharp gaze swept over the area below.

"The eastern fence reinforcement is finished. The bulletproof steel plates for the lookout platforms go up this afternoon. Davis is ahead of schedule."

Min-seon stopped beside Lynn and handed him the list, speaking rapidly. "The medicine inventory is done. We're short on antibiotics and anesthetics. I've marked them as search priorities.

"The water from the artificial lake in the northeast corner is usable after filtering and boiling. That eases the pressure on our water reserves for now."

Lynn took the list, his finger passing over the densely packed numbers and names, and could not stop the corners of his mouth from lifting.

One week!

Only one week had passed since he had plunged into this world, The Walking Dead, with vague, terrifying memories from his previous life-a world about to become hell.

Seizing this well-situated zoo, with its high walls and relatively self-contained resources, had been his only clear goal after transmigrating.

The process had been fraught with danger.

Taking advantage of those few brief days of peace and a little "foreknowledge"-mainly confirming that Rick Grimes was hospitalized in a coma-he had coaxed and threatened, even spending his last bit of change to bribe several keepers. Finally, on the eve of the walker outbreak, he had forcibly taken over the zoo with Davis and Min-seon, the two people he had saved during the initial chaos through his demonstrated "foresight" and decisiveness.

Then hell had descended.

Beyond the high walls, a thin gray-black haze always hung in the direction of downtown Atlanta.

It was not smoke or dust, but embers from the burning.

Clearer still was the sound: a low, continuous drone, like countless flies circling in the distance.

It was the moaning, scraping, and dragging footsteps of countless walkers.

Occasionally, a brief scream or gunshot pierced that background noise, only to be swallowed up again.

The zoo's main gate had long since been completely blocked with abandoned tour vehicles, stone bollards, and layers of wire fencing, all welded shut without a gap.

Now, dull, rhythmic impacts came from the direction of the gate.

Thud... thud... thud...

Again and again, with a persistence that made his skin crawl.

Those were scattered walkers drawn by the noise, futilely, endlessly battering their rotting bodies against the steel.

A safe zone? A fortress?

Lynn watched his people reinforcing their home below, looked at the stacked supplies, felt the solidity of the rock beneath his feet, and smelled the disinfectant on Min-seon beside him.

A powerful sense of security welled up within him.

He had done it.

He had seized this territory at the very beginning of the apocalypse.

The zoo's location, walls, resources-including the animals isolated in the predator enclosures-and a doctor like Min-seon and a fighter like Davis... all of these gave him confidence that he could survive.

Survive!

Survive in this fucked-up world with the people who trusted me, with dignity and security.

That conviction was as hard as stone.

He took a deep breath, drawing the air scented with sweat and earth into his lungs.

Just as he turned his head to speak to Min-seon-

Without warning!

An icy, deep-blue screen abruptly filled the center of his vision with a crackle of static.

The light held no warmth. It instantly froze the smile on his face and the anticipation in his eyes.

On the screen were several lines of square characters flashing with a metallic sheen, angular, sharp, and unquestionable:

[Survival system activating... binding host: Lynn... scanning current world coordinates... confirmed: The Walking Dead main universe...]

The blood drained from Lynn's face in an instant. His heart felt gripped by an icy hand, missing a beat before pounding wildly.

A chill exploded along his spine and shot straight to the top of his head.

A system? What the hell was this?!

The screen ignored his horror, its text scrolling:

[Initial survival mission issued: key event intervention-save Rick Grimes.]

[Mission objective: within 48 hours, reach Georgia State Hospital and safely bring the target, Rick Grimes, with vital signs maintained, to the host's current primary stronghold (Atlanta Zoo).]

Rick?! That sheriff in a coma? The protagonist who would set the coming storm in motion? Go save him?!

What a fucking joke!

Outside was purgatory, mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

Getting from the zoo to Rick's hospital meant crossing almost the entire fallen heart of Atlanta.

This was not a rescue. It was suicide! It was going to his death!

What about my fortress?

What about Davis and Min-seon?

What about the secure start I worked so hard to earn?

A surge of fury rushed to his head, nearly burning away his reason.

Who the fuck wanted to take on a suicidal mission like this? He only wanted to stay at the zoo and survive.

The screen seemed to sense his resistance. The text flickered, becoming even more glaring:

[Mission completion rewards:

Survival points × 500 (can be used to redeem supplies or enter prize draws).

Basic supply pack (containing food, water, and basic medicine) × 1.

Basic physical enhancement serum × 1.

Character creation privilege × 1 (system randomly generates base attributes and specialties; absolute loyalty)]

Character creation privilege? Create a person out of nothing? Absolute loyalty?

Lynn's breath caught sharply. This reward... struck his heart like a sledgehammer.

In this apocalypse, a capable companion who was absolutely loyal... would be beyond price.

The immense temptation battered at his wavering resolve.

Yet the screen gave him no time to weigh his options.

The deep-blue glow abruptly turned blood-red, and a bone-piercing chill seemed to pass through the screen and freeze into his marrow.

Several lines of glaring blood-red text, heavy with the breath of death, seared themselves into his retinas and his soul:

[Warning: mission failure... or failure to complete within the time limit...]

[Host... termination!]

The final word glared scarlet, constantly enlarging, twisting, and pulsing until it filled the entire screen.

"Termi... nation..."

Lynn's lips moved, his voice as dry and rough as sandpaper. A bone-deep cold shot from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.

The air that had felt so reassuring moments ago now seemed to fill his lungs with shards of ice.

Achievements? A fortress? A future?

All his plans, all his security, shattered instantly before those blood-red words.

He stood frozen, nothing in his vision but that blinding red.

The impacts outside the walls, Davis's hammer blows, Min-seon's puzzled calls... all grew distant and indistinct.

The zoo's walls, supplies, and people... this ark he had only just built now felt like a cold tomb.

He squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them again. The last trace of hesitation in his eyes was crushed, leaving only the cold resolve of a beast driven into a corner.

I have to go.

Go to that damned hospital.

Drag that damned Rick Grimes out of hell.