Stallus took a few steps back from the thirty-two zombies in front of her; although she’d killed two more zombies, she knew two things about them: "One, they always appear behind me, and two, they always multiply and come back. Even if I kill only one in the set, the others will disappear and return multiplied."

"I guess that there’s a time limit if I kill even one of the set. Now my next plan is to know if there’s a time limit they can exist if I don’t kill any of them," Stallus said. "And the only way to know this is...to run!"

She turned and took off, her essence-covered legs letting her cover long distances with short strides. Her legs tapped the floor and propelled her forward, blurring her through twisted corners.

But now the zombies were stronger and no longer stumbling; they couldn’t keep up with her, but they did not lose her either, and they followed her closely.

Finally, after what felt like thirty minutes of running, she stopped. "If there’s a time limit, then it’s not kicking in. I can’t keep fighting you bastards, not when you’re going to multiply. You’ll turn into what now, sixty-four? No way."

Then she had to stop them somehow, and without killing them. She brought out a blue crystal the size of a fist and began to fill it with essence through her formation. Then she turned, and woosh! She created more space before throwing the crystal upward, and the explosion that followed made the stone tunnel in front of her crumble.

She coughed and waited until the dust settled, then looked through one of the gaps in the fallen stones. The zombies were still standing there, their hands picking at the stones with futile effort.

She heard their soundless screams, and she smiled to herself. "Now what are you going to do? I don’t kill any of you, and you can’t follow me. How are you guys going to eat me now?"

Stallus turned when she heard something that made her look through the gaps again. A sharp crack, like bones snapping. What she saw sent a chill down her spine. The zombies were eating each other!

Their delicate fingers cracked each other’s skulls open as easily as breaking nuts, then scooped out the rotted brains like cold soup. Stallus shuddered. "They are killing each other...don’t tell me!"

Just then, the last zombie standing jumped into the water and burned. She knew then that things had reset again. "So I must not do anything that causes them to kill themselves too. In short, I should just leave them to kill me."

Before the zombies could appear behind her and trap her between the crumbled wall, she turned and began to run. It wasn’t that she couldn’t take care of sixty-four zombies; on the contrary, she’d kill them so fast they’d double before she knew it. And then? Would she continue killing until they numbered in the thousands and overran her?

"I have to clear this Crypt," Stallus shouted out loud. That was the only way to get out of this loop. "And the only way to clear a crypt is to kill the boss."

But things didn’t happen as Stallus wanted because she eventually had to kill the zombies to buy herself time to rest after running for two hours. And no matter where she looked, she didn’t see the boss lair.

Having killed the zombies twice, their numbers now sat at two hundred and forty-eight. Now she began to feel real danger because the most terrifying thing about all this was that each time the monsters came back, they became stronger and more powerful.

Right now, Stallus couldn’t fight them without taking damage. She knew this because of the wound to her ribs that throbbed with every breath. Fortunately for her, they didn’t seem to pass on their disease. But one thing was clear now: even if she killed the zombies, they would eventually surpass her in both strength and speed.

But then, just like before, Stallus wiped them out again with her skill. And the game continued like that. She didn’t know how long she had spent there, and her resting time between killing the zombies was getting shorter and shorter.

With no way out of the tunnel that always looked the same, Stallus began to use her skill on random parts of the walls. Passing through the artificial shortcuts, she was able to lose the zombies for a while, but then something happened for the first time since she entered the crypt.

She ran into a dead end.

A black stone wall that even the water couldn’t pass through stood before her, strange in that it caused no disruption to the flow of the water.

Stallus sighed. She looked as tired as she felt, and dark circles had already formed beneath her eyes. "So they are behind me again. Well, nothing to do."

She brought out two very large crystals. She set one before the base of the wall and threw the other at the zombies. The explosions happened at the same time, and the force almost tore her apart. Only the essence coating her body saved her, and even that didn’t protect her fully as she staggered out, shoving debris aside.

Her eyes widened at what she saw behind the wall. It was a vast hollowed-out space, like the hall of a church or temple. The acidic water covered everything except for a small island in the middle.

Stallus stared downward because the place she stood on was some kind of cliff. She laughed as if she had lost her mind. How was she supposed to do this? Jump down and get killed by the water, or wait and become food for the angry zombies?

Stallus didn’t like either option, but she knew her chances were better with the zombies. At least she wouldn’t disappear at once; she’d give it her all before they ate her brain.