Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night
Chapter 178: A Shocking Revelation

For a solid thirty minutes, Zane and Olivia would shower together, but unlike the normal fun that Zane would have with whichever of his women slept by his side the night before. Zane was entirely still, barely doing what was necessary to clean himself.

His thoughts were more attracted to what had just happened moments ago. Maya was clearly in the room. Not only had he seen her, he had felt her hair as he pet it. But in the next moment, she vanished as if she had never been there to begin with.

Was this his imagination? Or was Maya capable of such a feat? After all the door was locked with no sign of any entry happening from the moment Zane and Elena shut it behind them and sealed it the night before.

If Maya was capable of entering the room without disturbing the locked door, then did that mean she was not human? But rather something else? An undead perhaps? Ultimately, Zane decided to no longer reflect on such matters. The reason being was simple: He did not want to go down a path of paranoia, suspecting his companions of secretly being undead sent to harm him.

Thus, rather than following this trian of thought, that would ultimately lead him to a dark place, Zane instead wanted to focus on things that he actually could do that would be productive.

And because of this, he decided to establish more formal ties with the settlement of New Reno. In particular, he wished to sell his wares, IE low level equipment from the grim force to its inhabitants.

After all, if New Reno was wiped out, then that would be very bad for Zane. New Reno was really the only thing keeping the local Horde King from expanding his territory, because of this fact Zane wanted them as a buffer. And thus it was with this ulterior motive that Zane announced his plans to the girls at the table.

"Alright, so I plan to make a stop towards New Reno today to establish more friendly ties with them. I mean they are pretty much the only other real settlement in the area, aside from some small walled off apartment complexes that have a few dozen people inside of them.

And if New Reno falls, we will be next on that Hode King's list. With this in mind, I plan to sell them some of low-level gear, the same gear I used to outfit my Undead Servants, as well as see if we can establish some kind of agreement with them regarding power.

If we can get New Reno to rely on us, and by us, I mean Olivia, for restarting their power grid and keeping it running, then we will be in a far more advantageous position going forward. What do you all think?"

Olivia was the first to speak in agreement with Zane's plan, commending him for coming up with a method to keep the nearby settlement as an ally and not a rival.

"That's a very good idea Zane, did you come up with that on your own?"

The way which the mature silver haired beauty spoke was mildly condescending but in a play manner, one which Zane was all too accustomed to. Elena also voiced her support for this plan in her own way.

"I don't necessarily have a problem with it, but doesn't this mean Olivia will need to make monthly visits to New Reno? Also, won't this mean that they will be more inclined to kidnap her in an attempt to have their own power source? Wouldn't this put Olivia in danger?"

Zane had not thought of this possibility, but he was not worried. Instead, he simply scoffed as he responded to Elena's fears with absolute confidence.

"If anyone dares to lay their hand on my woman, they will lose more than just that hand…"

Such a bold and brazen comment had an obvious effect on Olivia, causing her to flush with embarrassment and look away, naturally causing Elena herself to roll her eyes. She may agree with Zane's statement, and abilities to follow through with them, but did he really have to announce it like that?

As for Angelica, she hugged Zane and "desperately pleaded" with an overtly cutesy and sheepish expression for him to do the same to her.

"Zane… Will you also go to such lengths to protect me?"

It was only now that Zane realized the mistake he had made, and rather awkwardly admitted he would do the same for all his women. All the while Lily watched and drank her coffee in silence, not having any opinions on the matter .

"Of course Angelica, I would do the same for all of you."

Though it was obvious that Zane was slightly uncomfortable with the way that the conversation had headed, Madison did not waste such a golden opportunity to make fun of the man for acting otherwise.

"Well, look who's trying to act cool so early in the morning. Was your night with Elena really all that special?"

Elean instantly flushed red in embarrassment upon hearing this remark, even going so far as to stand up from her seat, damn near jumping at Madison for mentioning such a thing at the breakfast table.

But she was stopped by Zane's reaction, which turned rather grim as he thought about what had happened the night before, as well as when he first woke up. This was a noticeable shift in expression, or at least for the women who were constantly by Zane's side.

Perhaps if a random stranger were to see this, they would not notice such a mild ship in the position of Zane's lips, but these women knew otherwise as they asked Zane what was wrong.

"Hey, Zane, is something the matter?"

"Are you okay, Zane?"

"Zane, you look a little… upset."

"Zane, what's wrong?"

Upon seeing them all go to such lengths to question him about what was bothering him, Zane could only sigh and admit the truth.

"There is something I haven't been entirely honest with you all about… It's about my skills, or more specifically, the first one I gained…."

While Madison had largely been oblivious to the changes that Zane had undergone since the beginning of the apocalypse, and continued to undergo with each level up. The others were not so blind. And their expressions immediately turned as grave as Zane's was when he announced this.

Angelica, Elena, and Olivia all gathered around Zane. Holding onto his hand and shoulders as they assured him that he didn't need to hide such information from them.

"It's alright Zane, we're all here for you…"

"Zane, you know you can tell us anything, right?"

"Don't be afraid Zane, whatever you have to say, we will accept it!"

Zane was naturally astonished by the loyalty and support that the women were showing him at this moment. All the while Madison and Lily were entirely oblivious to what was going on or why the others were acting so strangely.

However, the one acting the most curious was Maya, whose brows were slightly raised in curiosity, the first expression of emotion she had shown since they found her. Her lips opened, and she mouthed a few words, but no sound escaped her lips. Nor did anyone see what she had silently said.

Instead, all eyes were on Zane as he admitted the truth.

"You know how you all have the category of Race: in your character screens?"

The girls all nodded in agreement with Zane's word. This itself wasn't unusual, after all every awakened survivor knew this. But Zane's next words shocked them to the core of their being when he spoke them.

"I'm guessing that all of yours say human, right? And that's it? Well… I have an additional line of text that says Subrace…."

Subrace? Just what the hell was that? Only Angelicas knew what Zane was talking about, not because she could read his character screen, nor because she had ever encountered anyone like him before.

But because she had speculated that Zane wasn't entirely human, at least not anymore and because of that, she broke the silence as the others in the room stared at Zane with confusion and fear in their eyes. Her voice was filled with dread, almost as if she did not want to know the answer to the question which she asked.

"Zane…. What is your subrace?"

Zane sighed heavily. He could tell that the women were already spooked, but he had come this far, and he wasn't going to chicken out now, even if he ended up deeply regretting doing so. Taking a few moments to compose himself, he finally revealed the secret that he had been hiding from them all since the beginning.

"Living Dead…. In other words, I'm an Undead-Human hybrid…"

It was as if a bomb had gone off nearby, stunning all the women into silence as they stared at Zane as if they did not even know who he was. Nobody noticed it, perhaps because of this shocking revelation, but Maya simply smirked as she grabbed hold of one of her hash browns and bit into it, the audible crisp going entirely unnoticed by those who were sharing a meal with her.