Lahat ng Kabanata ng From Castoff to Star Guest at Her Awards: Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 9

I was alone as the alloy gate of Northvale Base slowly closed behind me. I stood outside with the expulsion order in hand before wandering aimlessly.Suddenly, I heard a roar coming from behind me. When I turned, I saw a huge, dark mass moving toward me. It was a horde of zombies.I tightened my grip on the worn-out machete. It still had dried zombie blood on it from a hunt three days ago. I took them on since I had nothing left to lose anyway.I dodged sideways when the first zombie lunged and buried the machete into its neck. The steel lodged deep into its spine, forcing me to kick the zombie to free the machete. I smashed the second zombie's head with the back of the machete when it went for my arm. I kept fighting them off repeatedly, eventually losing track of how many I killed. I raised my arm to defend myself when another one lunged forward, but the impact knocked me to the ground, causing my machete to slip from my hand and spin far away. I knew I was done for.I tried to

I instinctively raised my hand, and a brilliant, almost translucent light erupted from my palm, as if it could cut through space itself. It was blindingly bright, like the sun.In that instant, the high-level zombie that had charged at me froze in midair. It couldn't move, its rotten body bound by countless transparent threads. I hadn't even realized what was happening when the threads suddenly tightened and tore the zombie apart into dozens of pieces.I was stunned. I looked at my hand and saw transparent light still flickering across my fingertips, warm and burning. It felt unfamiliar, like something inside me had just awakened and was trying to break free. "W-What is this…"I suddenly heard a faint cough coming from behind me. I turned and found Queenie lying on the ground, her abdomen covered in blood. She was staring right at me, her eyes wide in disbelief as she said hoarsely, "T-That's your ability…"I rushed over and dropped to my knees beside her. I tried my best to stem t

In that instant, everyone at the venue fell silent and stared wide-eyed at the holographic screen, then began whispering among themselves.Whitney turned completely pale. She tried to say something, but no words came out. Caleb Lister, her fiance, stood beside her with a frozen smile. He slowly looked at Whitney, his eyes full of disbelief.In the meantime, the display kept running. It showed photos of packets of suppressor drugs sealed in clear bags, right alongside Whitney's signed receipts. Then the witness was brought out. Queenie's subordinate escorted someone from the crowd and brought him onto the stage. He was dressed in gray, his head lowered as his whole body shook.He dropped to his knees the moment he reached the stage. He was a staff member from Northvale Base's testing facility. He was trembling as he exclaimed, "I-I'll confess! Whitney came to me three years ago with a massive payoff in contribution points to alter Maverick's records to a non-ability user! "She

A piercing screech broke the night, followed right after by running footsteps, shouting, and the terrifying growls of mutant beasts.I grabbed my machete and ran outside. I spotted Queenie standing atop the wall, silver-blue light gathering in her hand.Masses of shadows were closing in from the distance. They were mutant beasts pumped full of drugs, double the size of normal zombies and covered in dripping, corrosive slime. There were roughly over a dozen figures further back, all of whom were members of Nocturne Organization.Whitney was leading them. She had lost a lot of weight, her eyes were deeply sunken, and her face was marked with scars. However, the hatred in her eyes had grown stronger over the past year.Queenie looked back at me and said, "Fall back, Maverick."I held my ground as the mutant beasts started bashing against the wall, breaking the stonework and kicking up clouds of dust.Queenie leaped down from the wall as silver-blue energy manifested into deadly blad

I tightened my grip on Queenie's hand.Queenie calmly continued, "I don't even know why I decided to save you—it was probably the look in your eyes. You were barely alive, but there was no fear in them, only exhaustion."I paused for a beat and then said, "I didn't see any reason to keep living back then."Queenie instantly looked up at me.I looked at her and said, "It's different now, though."She chuckled softly before leaning against my shoulder again.The campfire crackled, pushing back the utter darkness of the wasteland that stretched into the night.I wasn't afraid anymore, as I had Queenie by my side.…It was three years later, and the zombie outbreak slowly quieted down, with major bases forming an alliance to start rebuilding society.In the meantime, our settlement kept expanding, and we welcomed hundreds of homeless survivors. There were some who handled farming, some who went hunting, and some who were taking care of patrols. Though life was hard, it was peacef