I walked up quietly behind her and tapped her on the shoulder. She jumped and turned around quickly, looking quite scared. Once she saw me, she was confused for a split second, but was still scared of me.

"What are you doing? Where are you going?" I had asked her the main questions that were going around in my brain. 

"I-I was going to the restroom."

I looked deadpan at her. "It's the opposite way. Try again."

She stuttered for a few seconds and then sighed outwardly. 

"You caught me. I was trying to sneak out."

"Why?"

She looked at me boldly, switching her personality quickly.

"Hold up. What are you doing here? Are you not doing the same thing as me? Hypocrite."

"First off, you're the one who got caught, so I'm the one doing the questioning. Secondly, I am not doing the same thing as you. Third, hurry the fuck up and answer my questions, I got places to be."

Her bold look went away fast, and she apologized to me.

"Sorry, I was sneaking out to go to try to find my brother."

She started to tear up.

"How are you going to find him? Does your [Ability] help with that? If not, it's going to be quite difficult."

She sighed, she looked reluctant to tell me her ability, but told me anyway. 

"It's called [Super Hearing], it is as the name suggests, it allows me to hear about twice as better than regular humans currently."

[Useless.]

'Dang! You don't have to be so ruthless and mean! It can be quite useful if she levels it up enough.'

[To be honest, host, her ability is just a sub-tier of the main ability [Body Strengthening]. Her ability only strengthens her ears, while the former can strengthen everything that is in the 'body'.]

'Still, you don't have to [Ability] shame. Everyone can't just pick an [Ability] they want.'

"Well how about I come with you to help you? It will be much faster and it will also help to achieve my goal."

She didn't believe me for a second, but still thanked me.

"Alright, follow me." 

We both started to sneak around to the front entrance. I saw the man from earlier that took information about us, sitting in a chair, dozed off. 

'He really should be fired.'

We snuck past him quietly and went outside. 

The girl beside me sighed and looked towards me.

"Thank you for helping me…. What is your name? I don't think you told me."

"Oh, right, nice to meet you, my name is Ethan. What about you?"

"I'm Kara. My brother's name is Mateo, but for short, I just call him Matt."

"Well, it will be nice working with you, Kara. Hopefull,y we will be able to find your brother."

'Status.'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name: Ethan Caldwell

Species: Human

Age: 18

Titles: Little Bro, My Little Boy

Level- 2 (46%)

HP- 100/100

MP- 60/60

Strength: 5

Agility: 7

Dexterity: 5

Intelligence: 8

Vitality: 3

Luck: 7

SP: 5

AP: 3

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Abilities:

AIR- 5%

Skills-

Barrier: A force field made of your {AIR} ability to protect you or others from your surroundings.   (Level-2)

Constrict: A {Barrier} you can put around enemies that shrink into a smaller area to kill or incapacitate them.   (Level-2)

|||||||- 1%

Skills-

None 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, I should focus on trying to level up while also trying to make some new skills on the way. Time to grind for some levels. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kara and I turned out to be a good team.

While she tried to hear and listen for her brother, she also brought me to where she heard a lot of zombies. It was a lot of easy levels for me. It also helped me upgrade my health and mana.

I found out that each time I level up, my health and mana fills back up, which I didn't notice before. 

We took a break inside a building before we went back to the mall.

"Do you have any idea about where your brother could be?"

She shook her head and sighed. "No, we already checked the last place I saw him before we split up. I want to go back to my house to see if he went back home, but we have to go back."

I shook my head. If it was me I would have still gone to check my home, no matter what.

'But I'm not her, nor is she me. I can't blame her, this is a different world we are in now.'

She explains further that her home is in the opposite direction from the store. Past the west side of the mall.

"Alright, around the same time tomorrow we can go to your house."

She nodded and we went back towards the mall. On the way, I had gained more experience for my levels.

After we split up, I went back to bed. 

'I'm going to check my [Status] in the morning. I'm too tired right now anyway.'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**************

(P.O.V Change)

**************

Ethan got up a bit….a lot later than everyone else. Michelle woke up her brother after everyone was ready to leave.

Ethan slapped her away.

"It's the apocalypse, I don't have to go to school anymore. There is no reason for you to wake me up." He turned in the opposite direction from her and faced the wall, snoring soundly.

She was fuming, and knowing that her brother was joking, she joked around too. 

So she slapped him on the back of his head.

"You think I was playing?! Get up! We have more important things to do."

Ethan almost hit his head against the wall and stood up immediately. He rubbed the back of his head, still wincing at the pain. 

"Alright! You know I was joking!"

"I know. I was, too."

"..."

"..."

"I hate you."

"Love you too, little bro. Now come on, Casey and Kayla already went to the front. We are late."

On the way there, Ethan looked at his new [Status]. 

'It is going to be harder to level up now.'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name: Ethan Caldwell

Species: Human

Age: 18

Titles: Little Bro, My Little Boy

Level- 9 (73%)

HP- 1040/1040

MP- 960/960

Strength: 13

Agility: 21

Dexterity: 17

Intelligence: 16

Vitality: 14

Luck: 15

SP: 40

AP: 24

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Abilities:

AIR- 12%

Skills-

Barrier: A force field made of your {AIR} ability to protect you or others from your surroundings.   (Level-5)

Constrict: A {Barrier} you can put around enemies that shrink into a smaller area to kill or incapacitate them.   (Level-4)

Air Slash: Air that comes in the form of the wind to hurt enemies. Close to the way a sword would slash their foes.   (Level-2)

Air Bullet: A small, compact, air-shaped pebble. Used to pierce enemies with the use of less MP.  (Level-2)

|||||||- 3%

Skills-

None 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

'I'm tier one? That easily? Well, I'm not complaining. A win is a win.'

[...]

'What?'

[I don't want to bring you down, Ethan, but….]

'Spill it.'

[Tier one is mostly made of people who know at least three skills. Which is mainly teenagers and adults. When you are a tier 0, you are compared to a toddler or child because of the lack of power or knowledge you have about your [Abilities]. It isn't your fault for not knowing about this. I only know because my first host was born in a world where people were born with systems. It's quite different in your universe.]

'There are different worlds? I'm not surprised at this point.'

[In conclusion, it is not hard to get to tier 1.]

Now that Ethan had gained some new information, he became a bit more curious about tiers and levels.

Michelle and Ethan met up with the other half of their group. Casey looked unsure about sneaking out. 

'We can just ask to go out. They didn't have any problems with anyone else leaving with the group. Why will they have problems now?'

Casey thought to herself before asking her question to the group.

"Why do we have to sneak out when we can just ask? Isn't there no point in doing that?"

Ethan thought about what she said. She wasn't wrong. Why do they have to sneak out? He was just panicking mostly, but it is true that what he thought of could happen in a few months. 

'Was I too cautious? Maybe I just have trust issues. It's probably because of movies, novels, and comics I've seen.'

Ethan doubted himself. 

"Go ahead and ask. I don't think I was thinking clearly when I suggested we sneak out. I'm pretty sure they will let us go. Plus, if we die, there will be fewer mouths for them to feed."

"Alright, hon'. Stay here."

Casey went up to the same man who was at the desk. 

'Do they ever switch shifts? It's not my problem.'

Ethan was watching Casey talk to the man. When he looked at the man's face, for a split second, he saw reluctance and frustration in his eyes. He couldn't tell if it was because of what Casey had asked him or something else entirely. 

When he saw him give a slight nod at Casey, coming back with a smile and a pep in her step, he knew what she was going to say.

'Was I really cautious for no reason? I feel like something is wrong. I must have thought way too much about it, but I feel like something bad is going to happen in the future. I'm just gonna' trust my gut feeling.'

Casey came back with news of what the man said. 

"He said as long as we are back before sunset, he won't mind us going outside on our own. If we don't, he is going to count us as dead on the roster. Let's get going! We have no time to waste!"

Kayla and Michelle followed Casey, with me following them with a bit of reluctance.

Ethan glanced at the man at the desk. He was shocked when he saw him grin smugly at him. When Ethan blinked, the smile was gone off of his face and was replaced with a look of worry. 

"Be careful out there! Be sure to come back before sunset! With no zombie bites!"

"Yeah….Okay. Bye"

Ethan waved to the man bye for a short time, and went out the door to catch up with his family.

He saw them already using their [Abilities], trying to level up.

'Or should I say tier up? Same thing either way.'

Ethan saw that Kayla was having problems. She was getting ganged up on with multiple zombies, and a werewolf was coming her way. 

Ethan went to help her out by using [Air Slash] and [Air Bullet], cutting down the zombies easily.

[Host, you should use your new [Scan] function and activate your [Map] so you can get to see how it works.]

'Right! I almost forgot to try it out earlier when I had unlocked it. Thanks for the reminder.'

[It's my job to do so.]

Ethan scanned the werewolf that was coming after them.

[Scanning subject…..]

[Scanned]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name: N/A

Species: Werewolf

Tier: 0 

HP: 800/800

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

'This is all I get!?! At least it's something. I wasn't really expecting anything else. Maybe I was……'

Ethan used his [Barrier] to try to catch it. Somehow it managed to escape it.

"What? I guess I have to move to plan B."

Ethan used [Air Slash] multiple times. The werewolf was able to dodge a few but was caught in the rest of the spells Ethan casted. 

While it was distracted, Ethan cast [Barrier] around it again, and the werewolf was caught inside. 

It was a bit harder for Ethan to [Constrict] the werewolf compared to the rest of the zombies he had faced earlier using the skill. He was able to manage it and kill it. 

"Good, now that the problem is done with, I will collect my loot. After that, we can continue. You should probably help your daughter, though. She is having a bit of trouble."

Casey looked back to see her child running away from the zombies, turning around periodically to blast a zombie when it got too close to her.

"I swear sometimes I think that she isn't my child, but when I see this……I can't help but wish it were true."

After she had finished her sentence of frustration, she went to help her child, who successfully killed a zombie by missing one of her shots.

'At least we know what she needs to work on.'