January 13
The infected were still gathering outside, while inside, Kyoko finally finished modifying her drone. She had replaced the rotor blades and motor with higher-performance parts, completely draining the last of her reward points. [-60]
She intended to recreate a tactic from the Russia–Ukraine war in her previous life: using a drone in coordination with a mine for aerial strikes, clearing out entrenched enemies and producing an airborne "Claymore mine" effect to effectively wipe out clustered targets.
Kyoko fastened a MON-50 directional mine to the drone's hook. Once it got close enough to the infected, she could drop and detonate it remotely. A single blast would be enough to cripple the damned things.
Buzzing loudly, the drone carrying one MON-50 flew out through the window under Kyoko's control. After crossing the six-meter airwell, it reached the corridor outside the door. It slipped into the hallway, which was only 2.8 meters high, skimming the wall as Kyoko carefully lined up the drop point.
When the infected saw the drone flying toward them, they all raised their arms, desperately trying to snatch it out of the air. But most of them were only about 1.6 meters tall, and even with their arms stretched to the limit, they couldn't quite reach it.
The crowding made things worse, preventing even the more agile jumpers from showing what they could do. Watching through the remote-control screen, Kyoko adjusted the angle until she found the perfect position.
The moment she pressed the button, the MON-50 detached from the drone's hook. Kyoko immediately yanked the controls, sending the drone through the stairwell window before pulling it sharply upward.
Then she dropped flat behind the thick reinforced-concrete wall, reducing her exposed surface area and bracing for the blast.
(The pre-formed fragments could punch through a concrete pillar as thick as a soup bowl.)
The infected, not understanding what was happening, were still roaring at the departing drone when Kyoko seized the exact moment and hit the detonator.
The 700 grams of RDX inside the MON-50 went off, creating the effect of an airborne shotgun blast and sweeping through the infected clustered below like live targets.
Its 485 pre-formed fragments, flying at roughly 1,500 to 2,000 meters per second, fanned out in a 54-degree arc through the corridor. The high-speed shrapnel tore into the infected still howling beneath it, dumping so much energy into their bodies that it created temporary wound cavities ten to twenty times wider than the fragments themselves, ripping surrounding tissue apart.
The fragments punched through ribs and skulls, ripped through organs, and for some of the infected, the impact blew body parts in every direction. Torn flesh and sprayed blood burst outward into a grotesque rain of red.
All the glass and anti-theft bars on the fifteenth floor were shredded by the blast, scattering shards across the ground.
Kyoko had been unable to find proper hearing protection, and with both hands clapped over Hanashu's ears, the enormous blast still left her hearing filled with a shrill ringing. But now that she had entered this state, she barely felt bothered by it at all.
This so-called "trench-clearing miracle weapon" had done its job perfectly. There was no longer a single standing creature left in the corridor outside. Even infected bodies enhanced by the virus couldn't withstand something like this.
The area outside was cleared. Through the drone's blurred camera feed, Kyoko could see the devastation: the concrete floor and brick walls were damaged, and some of the fragments had torn through the stairwell, which was only thirty centimeters thick. The elevator doors had been blown open by the blast wave, exposing the pitch-black elevator shaft. The detached doors plummeted more than forty meters to the underground garage ten meters below, provoking furious howls from the infected down there.
The funniest part was that the explosion had sparked a fire, igniting the clothes of the infected rushing in afterward. One after another they caught fire, setting off a chain reaction that ended up burning the rest of the horde as well.
With the blaze spreading, Kyoko had to send the drone back by a longer route, circling around from the other side.
The outdoor lighting was poor at night. Through the drone's night-vision camera, Kyoko saw that the rooftop was still swarming with infected rushing her way. The floors below hers were also filling with infected drawn by the explosion, and farther out, even more were converging from every direction.
If these were only the infected from the two connected apartment towers—and even if some of them were the stronger special infected she had encountered before—Kyoko, in her current state, would still be able to deal with them without much trouble.
[The system girl, returning just in time to cut in: Kyoko, that isn't funny.]
But now the horde was growing almost exponentially. This was not something one person could handle alone. The situation had turned into a deadlock: the more Kyoko killed, the more were drawn in. Attracted by the explosions, a steady stream of infected was coming from the other two buildings, whose stairwells had never been sealed off.
What had begun as a one-way bottleneck was now pressure from both ends.
With her body under the virus's influence, Kyoko's brain spun furiously.
"Ah—I've got it!"
She still had five MON-50s left. Although their high-velocity fragment swarms and blast waves were not as efficient at structural demolition as specialized shaped charges, they were still powerful enough to collapse a staircase. There were only two stairwells she needed to destroy. With two mines for each, she'd still have one left over.
No sooner thought than done.
The infected outside were still howling and raging, their bodies blackened by the growing fire. Their dead comrades had become enemies as well, feeding the flames.
A wall of fire blocked their advance. Thick black smoke turned them into walking torches.
Kyoko's drone took off again, another MON-50 hanging beneath it and swaying as it flew. Even with the upgrades, the drone's performance couldn't compare to military-grade equipment. Carrying a mine that weighed nearly two kilograms, it lurched drunkenly through the air.
[Drone: Look at my price tag before you complain.]
Operating a drone at night was hard enough already. Even with a night-vision camera, it was still difficult. Kyoko guided it with extreme caution.
Under her control, the drone approached the stairwell window at a shallow dive to reduce displacement error. When it neared the opening, inertia swung the hanging MON-50 forward—and straight into the arms of an infected standing inside.
"Huh?"
The infected stared in confusion, apparently about to throw it away.
Then a searing shockwave and a storm of fragments exploded from its hands.
The infected caught in the blast were reduced to scattered limbs and chunks of flesh. Glass, shrapnel, broken concrete, and shredded bodies merged into something utterly indescribable. Limbs flew through the air. Blood mist danced with the dust cloud. This terrifying blossom of slaughter was the handiwork of human technology.
Through the camera, Kyoko saw that the staircase was now webbed with cracks. The center of the blast had been blasted hollow.
One more like that, and the stairs ought to collapse completely.
At that realization, Kyoko quickened her pace. The drone shot back like an arrow from the distance.
The time had reached 10:30 PM.
During the three drone sorties that followed, Kyoko noticed something strange. There was a group of infected on the ground floor that seemed deeply off.
It wasn't their appearance that was odd.
It was their behavior.
While the rest of the infected were scrambling frantically toward Kyoko's position, these ones paid no attention whatsoever to the commotion around them. They stood motionless, like wooden statues.
Realizing something was wrong, Kyoko recalled the special infected that had controlled Hanashu before—the "Soundwave." Could this be another special type, one capable of controlling the infected?
Perhaps the mastermind behind tonight's attack was hidden among them.
With that thought in mind, Kyoko sent her drone out once more—this time, on a reconnaissance mission.
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 (Chapter116)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter82)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter144)
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Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 118
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 111
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 80
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 112
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 80
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 74
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 48
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 50
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 47
Uma Musume: From Beginner 42
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