The blinding white beam of the flashlight shone onto the blood-red skull, stripped clean of flesh. Cautious, Kyoko did not fire right away, afraid of disturbing whatever other monsters might be lurking in the underground darkness.
Just as she could no longer resist drawing her blade and stepping forward, the source of the commotion revealed itself—
A rat.
And a huge one at that.
"Hsss—hsss—hsss—SS—"
With a hiss, a green-eyed rat the size of half a human skull scrambled out from the back of the cranium and fled. Its black fur was tangled with shredded bits of meat, no doubt from feeding on the corpses here, with the virus further grotesquely enlarging it.
"That thing's almost as big as a cat. What a monster of a rat."
Seeing it, Kyoko did not react the way Miranda did—she didn't go pale and break out in gooseflesh. She simply watched it with interest.
"Stop staring at it, Kyoko—I'm really… really scared…" Miranda sounded as if she were about to cry.
After living through a day this theatrical and horrifying, she truly wanted nothing more to do with terrifying infected creatures. She was at the edge of collapse now, and her voice had taken on a childlike weakness.
Her exhausted body was still barely functioning, and inwardly she was screaming. The apocalypse had been cruel enough already. After finally finding a brief stretch of stability at Kyoko's place, she had been dragged back into this brutal world all over again.
In front of family and subordinates, Miranda had always been the strong one. Before the apocalypse and after it, she had been the one others relied on.
But now, beside her, there was only Takajo Kyoko—someone even stronger than she was.
And so Miranda let herself show this vulnerable, girlish side.
If she had not needed both hands to grip the blanket carrying Brent, she probably would have pressed herself right up against Kyoko.
Seeing her like this, Kyoko felt a stab of guilt. Wrong time, wrong place, some completely unforeseen disaster—and at the end of the day, this catastrophic outing had been her fault.
"Come on, don't be like that. As if I'd let a rat eat you while I'm here." Kyoko hated seeing girls frightened because of something she had caused. Especially when a dignified older-sister type suddenly turned as clingy and defenseless as a kitten rolling over for belly rubs. That kind of thing worked far too well on her.
Then she added teasingly, "Really now, Big Sister Miranda—you're older than me by quite a bit, you know."
That was true. In both age and figure, Miranda thoroughly outclassed Kyoko.
The sense of security Kyoko radiated finally restored a little life to Miranda. The fear-drained pallor on her face even regained a faint flush of color.
"Mm. I'm counting on you, Kyo—Kyoko… sis… no, Miss Kyoko!"
The slip of the tongue only made her flush harder with embarrassment.
Mom, I miss you… Doris, Brent… I'm so useless. I actually need to rely on an eighteen-year-old girl…
Since the rat had not charged them and instead disappeared deeper into the sewer, Kyoko spared its life.
Only after relaxing a little did the two continue forward.
The endless tunnel ahead flickered now and then with ghostly blue phosphorescence. The dim green emergency lights remained as constant companions in the dark. Blood spatters were everywhere on the ruined walls. Strange noises drifted out of the distant blackness.
"Kyoko, are we lost? Shouldn't we just go back up to the surface?" Miranda was at her limit now—physically and mentally.
Her face was ashen. She felt like she was about to lose control of her bladder from sheer terror. Her blue hair hung limp beneath her helmet. More than anything, she wanted to escape this place.
If I wet myself here, my life is over…
"Trust me. I'm a local. This direction leads home." Kyoko remained calm, raising her weapon and using the tactical flashlight to scan the path ahead.
"It'd be even more dangerous if we surfaced now."
That was the truth. Kyoko did not even need to think about it—the pounding footsteps of infected on the streets overhead were deafening. If they went up now, they'd be opening the lid and serving themselves fresh.
"And if we try another route, that's even less certain. This should already be under the road outside our building. Another hundred meters at most and we'll reach the underground parking garage. We're almost back at the safehouse."
She did not look back at Miranda. Her eyes remained fixed on the narrow, oppressive tunnel ahead.
"You should trust me. What I can do is beyond your imagination."
Kyoko, who had never been particularly timid to begin with, now had her fear resistance trait on top of that. This horror-movie atmosphere did not faze her in the slightest.
Mental Resistance:Suppresses fear and reduces the hindrance caused by it.
The farther they went, the fresher the corpses became.
Half-eaten bodies oozed sticky dark-green sludge. Under the flashlight, the walls glimmered like foxfire. Insects writhed in clusters over rotting remains, chewing at腐肉.
Looks like they really were close.
Kyoko's empty waist pouch was full of grenades again. Ever since leaving the house, she had used far more explosives than she could possibly have carried from the start. At this point she was simply restocking straight from the system shop.
Miranda, meanwhile, had not even realized how suspicious that was. And Kyoko no longer cared. Even if Miranda did notice, what then? Was she going to snatch the system away from her?
The closer they got to Kyoko's safe zone, the more bodies there were underground.
Don't tell me the nest is right under my neighborhood…?
Kyoko found that deeply unpleasant. So the demon's den had been sitting beneath her home this whole time.
Beside her, Miranda's breathing was growing raggeder. The tactical light on her helmet shook constantly.
"Don't be scared. I'm going on the offensive now. Take my G18C and stay here with Brent. I'm going to deal with whatever's living down here."
Looking at the two of them—Miranda barely able to fight, Brent completely incapacitated—Kyoko had no choice. Fighting while dragging both of them along was too limiting.
At the corner, she handed the fully automatic pistol to Miranda, along with a Molotov cocktail. Then she slung her drum-fed rifle and went off alone to deal with the thing lurking ahead.
"Mm. I'll wait here. Come back fast!" Miranda was on the verge of losing it. Even with the automatic pistol and Molotov Kyoko had given her, being left alone here was just too terrifying.
Kyoko did not go far—only thirty or forty meters from Miranda.
The journey so far had almost been suspiciously free of surprises. Now she could finally fight this special infected one-on-one.
She switched on the high-output flashlight, turning the sewer briefly bright as day. The beam fixed on the wall ahead.
There, a jagged裂缝 split open the tunnel. Around a hole nearly a meter wide, corpses and bones lay scattered everywhere. From inside came the grinding, gnawing sound of rodent teeth.
Where the concrete had fallen away, red brick was exposed. Rusted rebar was veined with dark-red corrosion, gleaming strangely in the white beam.
"This damned place. I really should've brought the night vision goggles."
A flashlight had its limits. Kyoko bitterly regretted not bringing them when she left.
The beam could not reach the bottom. She had no idea what lay below.
Then, from deep inside the hole, there came a sudden metallic scraping sound—an irregular sawing noise, like countless blades cutting through concrete, or the claws of some creature climbing upward.
Kyoko did not need to think.
Whatever it was, it was coming out.
Her hand flew to a grenade. She meant to drop it straight down and blow the thing to pieces.
But just as she yanked out the safety pin, a massive head thrust out of the hole.
The sight jolted her so hard her heart nearly leapt from her chest.
"Die!"
She hurled the grenade straight into the opening and dove aside with a roar.
Before the detonation, the creature struck by the grenade let out a low, horrific growl—a sound like countless torn throats screaming together, leaky and ragged, enough to make anyone's skin crawl.
Boom—
The blast made Kyoko's eardrums ring, but her eyes still worked just fine.
Out of the smoke, she saw a twisted black shadow explode from the opening.
"What the hell? How is that all the damage it took? Is this thing even carbon-based?"
She had used an offensive grenade without fragmentation, sure, but this infected thing was treating classical mechanics like a joke.
The creature that burst out of the hole stood nearly a meter tall, with a body almost as long as Kyoko herself was tall.
Most of it was covered in backward-hooked, thorn-like scales—though most of them had been charred black. Beneath the broken armor, the softer flesh had been blasted open by the grenade.
Its head was that of a giant rat.
A long neck, like the neck of a duck, connected the oversized head to its body.
Most horrifying of all were its eyes—two blazing embers, their pupils vertical diamonds, like blood-red gemstones embedded in flesh.
Its limbs were not built like those of any normal animal. Jagged bone spurs jutted from the legs, and every blade-like protrusion dripped with bits of meat and blood.
Combined with the spines across its body, Kyoko half suspected it was some horrifying fusion of rat, duck, and porcupine.
Even while taking stock of it, she did not stop shooting. Her beloved rifle spat 6.8mm rounds into the creature's massive body.
Howling in pain, the giant rat slashed with its claws. The strike cut through the air with a shrill scream, carrying a foul gust with it. Kyoko rolled sideways on instinct, barely dodging.
Bullets smashed into the creature's spines, throwing sparks. Fortunately, after the earlier grenade blast, those defenses could only stop a hit or two before breaking.
Kyoko noticed that its exposed lower belly had almost no protection at all.
So she waited for an opening.
The pain drove the rat into a frenzy. With a shriek, it launched itself again.
Perfect.
Kyoko did not indulge it for even a second.
A man-sized rat leaping straight at you was a hell of a visual—but Kyoko was carrying a hundred-round drum and shooting with everything she had.
I'm hitting you this hard—how are you still alive?!
The gunfire roared through the enclosed tunnel.
The man-eating horror of the sewers was finished.
The huge corpse collapsed into a pool of blood, twitching weakly. Kyoko pumped a few more rounds into it, then, not wanting to waste the ammunition already in the drum, emptied the rest into its body just to be sure.
Like in Mr. Vampire, where one missing line of ink under the coffin let the old master escape—this rat had armored its whole body while leaving one fatal weakness in the belly.
And Kyoko had seized it perfectly.
"I'd better head back first. I'm not taking the time to salvage this special infected properly—Miranda would die of fright if I kept her waiting."
She hastily recovered only a portion of the rat-fusion special infected's remains, didn't even bother brushing the dirt off herself, and ran back to where Miranda was waiting.
The moment Miranda saw her return, the panic she had been barely holding together finally eased.
They could go home now.
Thank God.
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 132)
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 (Chapter140)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter95)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter165)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
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 145
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 135
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 95
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 155
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 125
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 105
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 62
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 80
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 66
Uma Musume: From Beginner 80
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 62
Uma Musume: I Want All 65
I Can Copy Unique Skills 53
Summoning an Evil God, but the 41
Supernatural Multiverse 45
My Harem Is Indescribable 35
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 46
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 26
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 36
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