By a little past four in the afternoon on the tenth, the absurdly efficient Kyoko had already cleared out every floor below the fifteenth.
How much work had that taken, exactly?
Well—her pale little wrists were red and aching from the strain. The edge of her blade had chipped from hacking through hard targets. Her gear was stained and filthy. Nearly a hundred corpses lay sprawled across the ground.
There were only about two hours left before sunset.
She had to finish the cleanup before dark. Until the safehouse was fully established, she would not be able to rest easy for even a single day.
It was not really because of food or security.
The bigger issues were water collection and surveillance.
Once she finished clearing the building, Kyoko planned to set up a simple water-gathering system and an observation post on the rooftop so she could keep watch on whatever might be happening outside.
Time had to be pushed forward.
Nobody knew what the future would bring. Building a safehouse inside a city apartment block was only a temporary measure. The heavy snow outside and the wandering hordes were already huge obstacles to going out.
If she had other options, Kyoko would rather escape to one of Japan's smaller islands. The country had plenty of them, and some already had basic infrastructure. A small island like that could become a safe, stable, sustainable survival base.
Her second choice would be a small rural town with very few zombies. Once the surrounding infected were cleaned out, a self-sufficient base could naturally be established there.
Of course, both of those plans required many survivors working together.
And once you had people, you naturally had a whole new set of problems.
The collapse of the Tokyo shelter was already proof enough of that.
Kyoko did not know exactly how the Tokyo shelter had fallen.
But her gut told her it must have been destroyed from within.
"Shit. I completely forgot to tell Huaxiu about that."
Only now did Kyoko remember that she had forgotten to tell Huaxiu about her parents.
No—better wait for the right moment.
If you suddenly told someone, Your parents are most likely dead, any normal person would have a terrible reaction.
Besides, there was still one unanswered question: what kind of work did Huaxiu's parents do? If they were lucky, maybe they had made it to another human shelter, just like Sister Chiyo had.
"Ughhhh! Why does it feel like my big brain went offline after the apocalypse? How am I even forgetting things like this?"
Feeling as though she had gotten dumber, Kyoko pinched her own cheeks and held her head, nearly fainting from sheer irritation at herself.
[Analysis complete: the Host is now thinking with weapons instead of intelligence. Muscles have fully replaced the brain.
Recommendation: summon Hua Tuo immediately for emergency cranial surgery.]
The damn system delivered that line in the voice of a certain band widow from Tsukinomori, making Kyoko's scalp crawl. Her IQ instantly retook the high ground.
"Get lost already! Answer me, System—is this your fault?"
[Girl, what does that have to do with me? Maybe try looking for the problem in yourself for once, okay?]
[Of course, it could also be due to external factors—like special infected. But go unlock the encyclopedia yourself if you want details. I'm not spoiling anything.]
"So there really are infected that can affect human consciousness?"
[I told you to go find out for yourself. Why are you acting like a dog?]
Well, there went that.
Miss System was clearly annoyed now, even cursing outright. If she had a physical body, she probably would have knocked Kyoko to the ground and beaten some sense into her.
Seeing the danger signs, Kyoko wisely shut up and got back to work.
Still, something felt wrong.
She could not tell whether it was simply her Bloodthirst trait acting up, but she had the distinct feeling that something was influencing her—almost as though some force were luring her attention somewhere, making her itch to see something.
So Kyoko did the reasonable thing and vented by killing a few infected.
The remaining infected in the building suffered terribly for it.
Irritated and restless, Kyoko set aside her already chipped sword, picked up the axe, and began smashing it into anything in front of her that was still moving.
The infected she cut down were left in horrific condition.
Some were split clean in two. Some were chopped in half at the waist. Some were dismembered into pieces. By now, the clothes that had once been only lightly stained were drenched in blood.
Splashes of fluid dotted her helmet visor.
Blood and bits of human matter clung to her weapon.
She looked like a killing god from hell.
By this point, the entire building had been cleared all the way up to the twentieth floor.
If anyone had seen Kyoko like this, they probably would have been scared into pissing themselves.
Even Kyoko herself could tell something was seriously wrong now.
Was there really some kind of special infected out there manipulating survivors?
She felt as though something was tugging directly on her emotions.
Then a horrifying thought hit her—
What if Huaxiu was being affected too?
Kyoko's heart clenched.
She immediately dashed toward the stairwell.
And sure enough—
Huaxiu was climbing the stairs, heading straight for the rooftop.
Kyoko had only told her to gather supplies in areas Kyoko had already cleared. Going up to the roof—something that dangerous—had never been part of the plan.
Kyoko rushed after her and shouted toward Huaxiu's back,
"Huaxiu! What are you doing?!"
Huaxiu reacted to the sound of Kyoko's voice.
But the way she moved was nothing like that of a normal person.
She slowly turned around, her whole body stiff like a puppet's. Behind her glasses, her bulging eyes were bloodshot. She mumbled something under her breath, drool trickling from the corner of her mouth.
As for what she was saying, Kyoko could not make it out.
She did not understand spoken gibberish.
The sight made her panic.
The first survivor companion she had finally found—was she already gone?
"No way! This is not happening! Huaxiu, wake up! What are you trying to do?!"
But after glancing at Kyoko, Huaxiu abruptly turned and ran, charging straight for the rooftop.
Realizing the situation had become very serious, Kyoko stopped caring about anything else and bolted after her.
Even wearing her full set of gear, Kyoko managed to catch up with the lightly dressed Huaxiu, whose body had been driven into overdrive by pure adrenaline.
They reached the twentieth floor.
But Huaxiu did not head for her own apartment.
Instead, she ran toward the neighboring unit.
On the day Kyoko met her, she had never actually checked Huaxiu's apartment thoroughly.
Could this be her real home?
Damn it—she should have inspected Huaxiu's place properly back then.
A far more chilling thought suddenly crept into Kyoko's mind.
If Huaxiu was not being controlled by some infected influence, then did that mean this had all been a trick from the start?
Or worse—did she have someone else behind her?
This time, Kyoko gave up on talking.
To be safe, she quickly dropped her weapon aside, lunged forward in one huge step, and threw herself bodily at Huaxiu, tackling her to the ground.
Soft bodies slammed into the hard floor.
Luckily, it was deep winter and both of them were bundled up in thick clothing.
Poor Miss Huaxiu was knocked out cold on the spot.
Kyoko, on the other hand, was mostly fine. Her armor protected her torso and head well enough that she suffered no real injury.
At that moment, a sound came from the door of Room 2001.
A door unlocking.
That was not something an ordinary infected could do.
Damn it—were there really other monsters here after all?
The tension in the air became suffocating.
Kyoko did not even have time to stand up properly. She drew her pistol at once.
The safety was already off. A round was chambered.
If anything came out of that room, she was going to fire.
Even if it turned out to be her own parents.
Her heartbeat was now pounding like a war drum, thudding in her chest like the King Engine.
Then the door opened.
Kyoko could not make out what the dark figure inside actually was.
She did not hesitate for even an instant.
She fired several shots straight through the gap in the doorway.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter108)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter82)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter144)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 70
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 99
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 95
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 99
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 92
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 47
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 44
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 43
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 26
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 27
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