"Hmm! I think Bronya's suggestion is pretty solid. What do you say, Kiana?"
Checking the map, Mei noticed the suburban area, while a bit of a distance away, was actually reachable in less than half an hour if they took a rather rough, muddy path.
Mei gave a thoughtful nod, then turned her gaze to Kiana.
"Hmph! Since Mei agrees, then this young lady naturally has no objections!"
Kiana knew perfectly well that Bronya's suggestion was far safer than her own thoughtless idea.
While she still felt a bit indignant and couldn't quite admit she was wrong...
When it came to the bigger picture, Kiana knew what had to be done. She wasn't about to be contrary on purpose now.
After all, even if Kiana could disregard her own safety, anything concerning Mei's well-being was different. Losing a bit of face in front of that brat Bronya was something she could swallow.
But the real reason Kiana gave in so easily was actually something she was a little embarrassed to admit out loud.
The moment Bronya suggested heading to that area, Kiana had suddenly been hit by a strange, almost mystical premonition.
After all, she was officially certified as the real deal—a true luck magnet who could pull an S-rank Valkyrie with a single wish.
So when this kind of gut feeling, which had benefited her more than once, surfaced again...
Kiana didn't think her formidable luck would suddenly turn around and bite her.
In the past, whenever she'd had this feeling and followed that vague instinct, things had always worked out pretty well for her in the end.
And this time, that peculiar sensation was hinting that if she just went along with Bronya's plan, something good was bound to happen on this trip.
"Since no one objects, let's get moving quickly."
"Delays only bring trouble. We have no idea what kind of unexpected problems we might run into on the way to that area."
Seeing that even Kiana, who loved arguing with Bronya, had agreed so readily this time...
After a brief rest where they were, the trio soon set off following the map's directions, making their way along a secluded path toward the residential area where Lunelle was, slowly closing the distance.
--+--
Meanwhile, Lunelle remained completely unaware that the trio of main characters—the last people she wanted to run into right now—were stealthily but purposefully heading straight for her location.
If Lunelle knew the full story at this moment...
She'd probably feel like morphing into a "Buggy the Clown face" or maybe a "Palpatine smirk."
Then, with an expression of pure, abstract despair, she'd wail:
'Don't come over heeere!!!'
But shifting the scene back to Lunelle, who was now fully and completely a cute girl...
As the effects of the Third Eruption continued to intensify across Nagazora City, Lunelle had recently witnessed more and more zombies sprouting up around her neighborhood like mushrooms after rain.
Fortunately, the area where she lived had notoriously bad roads.
Even among all of Nagazora's suburbs, it was considered the most backwater, least desirable kind of "countryside."
And this usually unpopular area had, by a twist of fate, become arguably the least dangerous zone in the entire city following the outbreak of the Honkai disaster.
The rented room Lunelle lived in was on the second floor of a five-story residential building.
Since zombies in the Honkai world were essentially super-weakened, brain-dead, half-baked versions of Honkai beasts...
While they had the instinct to attack living beings, their brains were completely useless.
If they couldn't sense any living presence, they obviously lacked the ability to do something like "go upstairs."
So, even though quite a few dazed, wandering zombies had started appearing around Lunelle's area, living on the second floor meant she didn't face the constant risk of a zombie breaking down her door and attacking, unlike the unlucky folks on the ground floor.
From that perspective, Lunelle's starting location had surprisingly rolled a pretty decent spot.
But Lunelle, who knew the story's plot, was well aware that the zombies converted from humans in the early stages of the Honkai outbreak were mere cannon fodder, not even worth being called minions.
As vast amounts of Honkai energy continued to saturate Nagazora City, the emergence of various Honkai beasts was only a matter of time.
And even the most basic, trash-tier Seraph-Class Honkai beasts had the ability to fly.
Any Honkai beast above that level clearly possessed destructive power strong enough to directly threaten a second-floor dwelling.
Considering this, Lunelle, who had felt a brief moment of relief about not being on the ground floor, immediately stopped thinking her situation was remotely safe.
So, for the sake of security, Lunelle was now trying to see if she could somehow tidy up and reinforce her own shaky little room.
She started by closing all the doors and windows that could still be properly shut.
However, some of them had been badly warped from the earlier tremors.
If this were the old Lunelle, he probably would have just left these problems as they were.
But luckily, the current Lunelle, in terms of physical strength alone, could barely be considered a powerful "strongman."
And a strongman has a strongman's way of dealing with problems.
For instance, Lunelle, who roughly knew the story's direction, was well aware that the large appliances in the room, rendered useless by the power outage, couldn't be counted on to work again in Nagazora anyway.
Plus, because her simulator was more like a janky situation, she didn't start off with a convenient system storage space that many other transmigrators with systems got right off the bat—a space where you could freely store and retrieve items.
So, since these pieces of furniture were useless to keep and impossible to take with her...
Lunelle simply decided to repurpose the junk, using physical means to forcibly block up these potential entry points that might accidentally let enemies in.
After all, the current Lunelle might look soft, cute, and tiny, but her strength was nothing to scoff at.
We're talking little fists that could physically smash your chest in...
And so, the tiny Lunelle, in a rather surreal display, single-handedly and effortlessly lifted bulky items like large wardrobes full of clutter and used them to physically seal off these vulnerable gaps.
To squeeze out every last bit of perceived safety, Lunelle kept at it until dusk the next day, finally managing to turn her little dump of a room into a slightly safer little dump.
Earlier, Lunelle had asked See-chan how long it took for the simulation cooldown to recover outside of deep hibernation.
See-chan, the simulator spirit, told her that given Lunelle's current state, the recovery time fluctuated roughly between 1 to 2 days.
Now, a day and a half had already passed.
Lunelle figured the simulator's cooldown timer should be up.
So, she quickly reached out to the simulator in her consciousness and summoned the simulator spirit, See-chan, again.
"See-chan? Can we start the next simulation now?"
[Simulation cooldown complete. Host, would you like to begin the simulation?]
"Start it! It's not like I have anything left to lose anyway. Why should I be scared of a mere simulation?"
Responding to See-chan's routine question, this Lunelle—who had now thoroughly lost her "little brother"—faced the simulation for the first time with an attitude of utter fearlessness.
As they say, the barefoot fear no shoes, and a dead pig isn't scared of boiling water. That pretty much summed up the situation.
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon! Webnovel will get 2 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.