In the distance, the sound of many footsteps echoed quietly. This time, it wasn't a horde of zombies but a large group of people walking as discreetly as possible.
After the bridge collapsed, the hordes were left on the other side. On this side, things were surprisingly calmer. According to the police captain, this area had already been mostly evacuated to an improvised military base. However, they had lost contact with that base hours ago.
The police accompanied the group as extra escorts. They even abandoned their patrol cars and decided to walk along the outer edges of the convoy to help protect them in case zombies appeared.
Despite the few zombies, a silent fear and sense of dread still hung in the air. But there was also resentment among the people, mainly from ordinary citizens toward the police. If it weren't for Allen warning everyone that he'd abandon them if they caused trouble, they probably would have started fighting again.
The bus was at the rear, carrying several women with children, some injured people who had been confirmed uninfected, and a few elderly survivors. Also inside, of course, was Allen's original group—except for him and the girls, who traveled ahead in the Humvee.
Allen looked through the rearview mirror at the large crowd moving slowly. Many people were exhausted after a full day of running from the undead.
"For now, everything's going fine," said Saya as she piloted a drone, wearing special goggles that allowed her to see through its camera.
That drone had appeared inside one of the Tier-2 supply crates. It was a fully equipped drone with an extremely long-lasting battery and a solar charging station. Also, it came with a waterproof, heat-resistant controller, a pair of VR-like goggles of an unknown model, a thermal and night-vision camera, and even a small microphone for communication.
But the most impressive thing about this drone was how silent it was—it didn't make that annoying buzzing sound typical of normal drones.
"Hey, stop fighting!" Saya shouted.
"Brother Allen, why is Sister Saya talking to herself?" asked Alice innocently.
"Ugh..." Saya blushed as she realized how it must have looked to the little girl.
To Alice, Saya appeared to be talking to herself while playing some kind of video game.
Allen smirked. "That's because Saya felt lonely and decided to make herself an imaginary friend."
"Shut up! I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to him! You just keep walking and stop fighting!" Saya took off the VR goggles and groaned. "Ah, how embarrassing!!"
Kyoko and Yukki laughed at Saya, while Shizuka continued driving with a dreamy expression, clearly lost in her thoughts.
After a few moments of laughter, Allen picked up a walkie-talkie. He had gotten a pack of five of them from one of the Tier-2 supply crates. At first, he felt a bit cheated—after defeating a monster like that Tank, he expected something better than something anyone could buy at a regular store. But these walkie-talkies were not ordinary; they had a battery that guaranteed no charging for ten years, a durability comparable to a Nokia 3310, and a range of over ten miles.
"Should I check how things are going on their side?"
....
Several zombies wandered the streets. Even though many had been drawn away by the noise of fleeing survivors, there were still those aimless corpses left behind, waiting to hear something to devour.
Among them stood a female zombie, motionless like a statue in the middle of the street. She was dressed like a secretary, though her condition was miserable—one arm was missing its flesh entirely, exposing the bone smeared with blackened blood.
The zombie suddenly moved when she heard something approaching. She turned around, only to have her neck smashed by a baseball bat.
"Be careful, Takashi!" Hisashi shouted, controlling the motorcycle they were both riding.
"Sorry," Takashi said, scanning the street and spotting around twenty zombies. "Hisashi, stop the bike."
Takashi pulled a megaphone from his backpack.
"You bastards, come get us!" Takashi yelled.
Hisashi revved the engine and honked the horn loudly. The zombies began moving toward them.
"Let's go, Hisashi!" Takashi patted Hisashi on the shoulder and yelled again through the megaphone, "Come on, you damn monsters!"
Zombies started pouring out of houses until a horde of nearly fifty gathered. This action would have seemed suicidal to any other survivors, but the pair seemed to be doing it intentionally—to attract the murderous creatures.
Takashi shivered as he looked at the horde behind them, but he steeled his nerves. If they didn't do this, the convoy would have to face those zombies instead.
Elsewhere, Teshima with Kazu, and Tsunoda with Yamada, were doing the same thing—luring zombies away from the group.
...
"Brother, you should say 'over' when you finish talking," Tsunoda said through the walkie-talkie. "We lured away a small horde of a few dozen from the east."
"We also drew the zombies off the road," said Takashi over the radio.
"Everything's clear here too, though a Hunter chased us," Kazu reported.
"Keep going. We're almost there," Allen replied before cutting communication.
This strategy was simple but extremely effective. Thanks to the motorcycles luring the zombies away, they could advance without major problems.
"Luckily, they're so stupid," Saya muttered.
Allen didn't respond. He had sensed a kind of primitive intelligence in some mutated zombies—like an ability to recognize threats—but there was no reason to scare the girls with that knowledge just yet.
"Ahhh!"
A scream came from a nearby house as they passed. Allen extended his arm out the window, Evory in hand, and fired in a split second, killing a zombie through a barely visible window.
"What... what kind of eyesight do you even have?" Saya gasped.
The girl didn't even have the energy to scold him for firing a gun and possibly attracting more zombies.
"..." Allen gestured with his hand, and a police officer separated from the group, entering the house in question. Moments later, he emerged with a family of four who looked like they hadn't slept all night—understandably so.
"We're almost at two hundred..." Saya muttered, biting her nails.
Allen glanced at her through the rearview mirror and smiled slightly. "Don't worry. I don't plan to show up empty-handed when I meet my in-laws."
"Huh?! Y-you pervert!" Saya flinched at the sudden teasing, blushing furiously before yelling at him.
Allen just laughed.
Teasing Saya had become one of Allen's favorite pastimes. Not only because her explosive personality made it easy, but also because her reactions were adorable. She would turn bright red, threaten him like an angry cat showing her fangs, or her eyes would spin in confusion as she tried to find a comeback.
In short, despite being a tsundere, Saya was genuinely cute in personality—it just took knowing exactly where to press to bring that side out, and that was through embarrassment.
After teasing her, Allen thought to himself. Housing over two hundred people was complicated, especially when it came to food and shelter.
"Saya, can you call your mother?"
Saya, still pouting, realized what Allen intended. She swallowed her emotions and dialed the number on her phone.
While the call connected, Allen signaled to Saeko and Rei outside to return to the Humvee. The two girls, who had been walking and keeping watch, stepped back, leaving the rest to the police.
"Captain?" Tanaka asked, noticing this.
"Maybe something's happening..." the captain muttered as he extended a retractable baton to kill a nearby zombie.
Everyone knew that the safety of all these people depended on that group of young fighters. So even if they looked like just kids, no one disrespected them. Of course, there were plenty of doubts—who were they? How did they get those weapons? Why were they so strong? But no one dared to ask, out of caution or fear.
They had seen what these kids could do, especially the white-haired boy who seemed to be the leader—carrying a massive hammer like it was nothing and handling .45-caliber weapons without recoil. A superhuman like that would have caused panic if not for the apocalypse.
"Something happening?" asked Kawamoto from the second floor of the bus. She had binoculars and was acting as a lookout.
"Who knows..." replied Taniuchi beside her. The braided girl was bandaging a boy's injured leg after he had hurt himself trying to escape.
"Maybe Allen-senpai just wanted to go ahead for some reason."
Their comments caught the attention of the female reporter and her cameraman, who approached them.
"Excuse me," said the woman in a polite, cautious tone. "You girls came with that young man, right?"
Taniuchi grew nervous as the camera turned toward her—she wasn't the most outgoing girl. Kawamoto, however, seemed completely unfazed and smiled proudly.
"That's right! We're part of Allen-senpai's group~!"
The others on the bus's second floor looked at them with curiosity and awe. Now that the immediate danger had passed, it was impossible to ignore Allen's presence.
The reporter's eyes lit up and she smiled. "Would you mind telling us who that young man is—and why he's so strong?!"
Kawamoto crossed her arms confidently. "Oh? So you're interested in our leader, huh?~"
"Hey, maybe you shouldn't..." Taniuchi tried to stop her, but Kawamoto, being quite the social type, didn't stay quiet—instead, she started bragging nonstop in front of the camera about everything she had seen Allen do.
"Senpai is incredible! I saw him break through an entire horde with his fists!"
"I saw him tear zombie heads off with his bare hands!"
"He jumped off a building and landed on a car without getting hurt!"
"He fought and killed a giant zombie as tough as a tank using a metal pipe!"
"He grabbed a zombie and threw it into a building!"
"He kills mutated zombies like they were chickens!"
Taniuchi was left speechless. She had witnessed many of those things herself, but hadn't really had time to reflect on how absurd all of Allen's feats truly were.
Seeing the look of disbelief on everyone's faces, the braided girl sighed. If she hadn't witnessed everything herself, she would have probably worn the same expression.
"Look, they're leaving!" said the female reporter beside her cameraman as they saw the Humvee driving away.
People began to panic, but Kawamoto interrupted them with firm words filled with confidence.
"Don't worry, he won't abandon us!" the girl said, leaving everyone speechless—including Taniuchi. Suddenly, Kawamoto's expression softened, and her cheeks turned red. "When I saw Naomi choose death, I felt that my destiny would end up the same someday. I'm not strong, I'm not smart, I don't have any special skills like Marikawa-sensei's medical knowledge or Hirano-san's shooting ability. I'm just an ordinary girl... but even so, he didn't abandon me. He didn't abandon any of us. Even when we were surrounded by mutant zombies, he came back for us."
Taniuchi lowered her head, embarrassed. She, too, had witnessed all of that, yet she couldn't help but feel fear when she saw the Humvee driving away.
"It's all true," the timid girl said. "Allen-sama had so many chances to leave us behind. Anyone else would have done it, but he didn't..."
Everyone went silent at the girls' words. Their story might have sounded unbelievable, but their sincerity was impossible to deny. In their innocence, the two girls had put Allen in the spotlight—both for good and for bad. Of course, that was inevitable since the internet and television were still functioning. As absurd as it sounded, this was a zombie apocalypse with active social media.
...
Ignoring the sudden fame he had gained, Allen arrived at a warehouse he had spotted on his minimap, which had tripled its range after he cleared a red zone.
The Humvee stopped in front of it, and Allen got out of the vehicle as the girls followed behind him.
"The plan is simple. We clear this place and get ourselves a truck full of supplies."
Saeko prepared her katana, its blade gleaming under the sunlight. Allen smiled—he had used one of his five upgrade cubes on that sword, granting it the skill "Unbreakable Lv. 1". That didn't make it indestructible, but it was far tougher than any ordinary katana.
"You never get tired of fighting, do you?" Rei said as she walked up beside him. "I just hope we can find a safe place and take a long bath~"
Rei winked playfully at Allen, which made Saya and Yukki jealous. But Allen only smiled; he knew Rei was teasing them on purpose. Deep down, she wasn't brave enough to flirt seriously.
"Enough talking. Let's finish this," Allen said as he summoned his war hammer and charged toward the warehouse.
The zombies inside weren't expecting the door to burst open, nor for someone to rush in like a storm. One zombie lunged at Allen, only to be smashed apart by a single swing of his hammer.
Inside the warehouse were dozens of tall shelves stacked with large boxes of processed food from different factories—meant for supermarkets. It was exactly what they needed. With this much food, they wouldn't have to worry about feeding the survivors for at least a few weeks.
More zombies, attracted by the noise, rushed toward them, but they were swiftly cut down by Saeko or had their heads pierced by Rei's spear.
"GAAHHH!"
A Charger appeared, crashing through a set of shelves. The deformed monster made Allen chuckle. Compared to the Tank, this creature looked like a failed version—something that tried to become a Tank but stopped halfway, turning into a hideous mutant instead.
The Charger seemed to sense the contempt in Allen's gaze and roared furiously, charging with its massive arm. This time, Allen didn't dodge. He gripped his hammer tightly, spun it once, then stomped down with force and swung upward. The hammer struck the creature squarely, slicing it clean in half.
"Incredible..." Alice said from inside the Humvee.
"That's right~," Kyoko replied with a soft smile. She had grown fond of Alice and had started taking care of her on her own initiative.
...
(Takagi Estate, Noon)
Soichiro Takagi sat in silence, his hand moving as he wrote in a notebook. With the world in chaos, he no longer trusted technology to last, so he decided to transcribe important information by hand.
At the moment, Soichiro's mind was occupied with two things—one was the imminent arrival of his daughter, and the other was "that" young man.
The phone rang, pulling him out of his thoughts. When he answered, he heard the aged voice of a man.
"Good day, Soichiro-kun."
"Mikado-sama?" Soichiro's eyes widened, breaking his usual stern expression.
"I'm glad you're alive. I knew you wouldn't take my warning to leave Japan seriously."
Soichiro controlled his emotions and regained his composure, though his clenched fist betrayed his tension. Speaking with this old man always brought immense pressure.
"Yes, I managed to keep things under control somehow," Soichiro replied in a calm, almost humble tone.
"Don't be modest. Turning your home into a shelter and saving so many lives with so few men is impressive," the old man said.
Soichiro wasn't surprised that Mikado knew all of this. One of his subordinates must have informed him.
"Soichiro-kun, I just wanted to let you know that certain events may happen soon. I hope I can count on your help when the time comes."
Soichiro's eyes sharpened with a hint of murderous intent, though he didn't let it show in his voice.
"If it's a request from Mikado-sama, I'll gladly help."
The old man laughed softly. "Good to hear it. Give my regards to Yuriko-kun and Saya-chan."
The line went dead. Soichiro remained silent for a few seconds, then gripped the phone tightly and hurled it against the wall, shattering it.
"You old fool... Do you really think I don't know that you all knew this would happen?!"
Soichiro Takagi influenced Suginami, but that was only one of Tokyo's twenty-three districts. He was a relatively minor politician—far from the top of Japan's hierarchy.
He was aware of his limitations and accepted them. After all, he still had years ahead of him to rise through the ruthless world of politics. But one thing had made him despise people like Mikado, who had once been his mentor.
When the apocalypse began, Soichiro had tried everything to contact the higher-ups for aid. But no one answered.
It was strange—too strange. It was as if they had known what was coming and fled beforehand. But now that Mikado had reappeared, something must have happened—something big. His suspicions only grew when he reached out to an old friend from the JSDF's special forces and heard something that confirmed his fears.
– "Soichiro, I'll tell you this as a friend. Our last order was 'Keep everything running at all costs.' In my opinion, they've abandoned Japan to its fate." –
"What's their goal...?" Soichiro muttered as he stood by the window. "It's not something I can uncover easily. One problem at a time."
His expression hardened like stone. His thoughts shifted to the news that his daughter's group was bringing over a hundred survivors with them.
At that moment, Soichiro decided he would test Allen's capabilities—the mysterious young man who had survived the apocalypse, won his daughter's trust, and earned the loyalty of so many.
"What kind of young man are you...?"
He narrowed his eyes when he heard footsteps rushing down the hallway. Moments later, the door burst open.
"Chief, they've reached the first checkpoint!"
"I see." Soichiro turned, grabbed his sword, and walked out of the office. "I'll greet them personally."
...
Soichiro stood at the entrance beside Yuriko and several armed subordinates.
"Soichir—"
A short-haired woman approached Soichiro, ready to confront him, but one of his men immediately aimed a gun at her head.
"W-What are you doing?!"
The man didn't respond, his eyes cold. Yuriko simply observed the woman silently before turning away. Soichiro didn't even bother acknowledging her presence.
"I have no intention of wasting time with you. Right now, there's someone I need to welcome personally... Do you intend to get in my way?"
The woman went pale, remembering the last time Soichiro had killed a loyal friend right in front of everyone to prove a point.
Everyone waited, and soon they saw the convoy approaching. It was led by a Humvee, followed by two transport trucks, two hundred people, and a bus.
This group was even larger than Soichiro's, leaving everyone speechless. Who was supposed to be helping whom?
Soichiro remained firm at the entrance, refusing to show any sign of weakness, until the Humvee stopped. From it stepped Saya, who ran straight into her mother's arms.
"Mom!"
"Saya!"
The touching reunion between mother and daughter softened the atmosphere for everyone—except Soichiro, who didn't even look at his daughter. His gaze remained fixed on the military vehicle.
The passenger door opened, and a young man stepped out. The moment his foot touched the ground, Soichiro's muscles tensed and his eyes widened.
Allen climbed down from the Humvee under everyone's watchful eyes. He glanced at Saya and her mother for a brief moment before turning his casual gaze toward Soichiro.
Soichiro almost reached for his sword but stopped himself at the last second.
Allen chuckled and walked up to him. Despite being younger, his presence was just as commanding as Soichiro's. When he stood before him, he extended his hand.
"It's a pleasure, father," he said with a teasing grin.
Hearing those words, Soichiro didn't react angrily. He quickly regained control of himself and shook Allen's hand, ignoring the boy's remark.
"The pleasure's mine."
Everyone watching swallowed hard. It didn't feel like a meeting between two men—it felt like a confrontation between lions.
One wrong move, and blood could spill at any moment.
===
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