After Kyoko and Miranda regrouped, they lifted the blanket wrapped tightly around Brent. One look told them Brent was stable for the moment. What remained now was to pass through that place piled high with bones and steeped in foul stench.
"Kyoko, let's hurry. The air here feels suffocating." Miranda wore a mournful expression, looking ready to collapse from sheer misery. This underground space was unbearably oppressive. And on top of that—she really was about to leak. At this rate, wetting herself down here would almost be preferable to trying to hold it any longer.
"Right above us is the underground parking garage for our safe zone. We just need to find the exit and we'll be out." Kyoko said it with certainty, but under the flashlight's beam the surrounding corridors still looked exactly the same as before.
Hearing that, Miranda forcibly suppressed the unease clawing at her heart, though the oppressive dread still sat heavy on her mind.
Cold sweat kept breaking out over her body, soaking through the clothes clinging to her skin. She felt like a fish sealed inside a can—sticky, damp, suffocating—so uncomfortable she wanted to strip everything off.
Hallelujah. Please just let us get out of here. I'm begging you, Almighty God.
Even Miranda, who usually scoffed at religion, found herself praying for divine favor.
Compared to her, Kyoko trusted good old-fashioned physics far more. The gun in her hands brought her infinitely more reassurance than any vague gods or spirits.
As long as she did not run into some infected monstrosity that could flip tanks or charge head-on through heavy artillery fire, Kyoko was not afraid. Even a Monarch-class infected had gone down in a gas explosion. If a special infected could not reliably survive that, what chance did ordinary infected have? No matter how grotesque they looked, they were still flesh and blood. Did anyone seriously expect piles of meat to overpower steel bullets forever?
From Kyoko's point of view, if not for how sudden and explosive the virus outbreak had been, the way anti-human organizations had fanned the flames, and the god-awful weather conditions, humanity—or at least the military—would not have collapsed this quickly.
The girls pressed onward.
The horrific underground atmosphere felt straight out of a ruined dungeon from a fantasy game. The grotesque monsters they had already encountered only strengthened that impression.
The flashlight's beam was like a lone boat adrift on a midnight sea, carrying the three of them through the dark, silent sewer.
Every section of the tunnels looked the same, making it nearly impossible to tell what part of the city lay overhead. Kyoko's guess was ultimately just that—a guess. Truth be told, she did not know the detailed underground layout of Nihonmatsu at all.
Still, in theory—
They were going the right way. The compass on her watch would not lie, and judging by the direction plus the steps they had taken, they should already be beneath the residential complex.
All that remained was to find a manhole and climb out. But they had to watch for the defenses Kyoko herself had set up earlier. If she had strung a tripwire across one of the covers…
The moment they poked their heads out, fragmentation from an explosive could riddle them with holes. And it was snowing outside. Any mines hidden beneath the snow would now be like Viet Cong crouching in the brush—silent killers beneath a white blanket, waiting for one wrong step.
Thinking that over, Kyoko decided the smarter route was to enter through the parking garage, pass through the basement, then climb up the stairs and return to the warm safety of home by rope.
It was already after sunset. She wondered what the two little ones back home were doing now. Were they standing anxiously on the balcony, hearts in their throats, waiting for them?
Her mind drifted gently toward thoughts of home and warmth, yet in reality she was trudging through a sewer choked with filth.
She was tired too. Compared to Miranda, Kyoko was still in much better shape thanks to her enhanced traits, but even metal suffered fatigue. Even the sharpest blade could chip and roll. Kyoko, for all her strength, was still made of flesh.
And yet the fire inside her still burned hot.
They had to get out alive. No matter what, she had to bring both Miranda and Brent back.
Keep going.
Her boots were now covered in scuffs and gouges. Every so often she stepped over scattered bones. Ever since killing that giant rat, however, the bloody hellscape around them had gone unnaturally quiet, as though no living thing remained.
That was strange. If there had been one little rat before, that larger creature should logically have had an entire brood.
Odd. Better stay careful.
"Are we actually lost?" Miranda was on the verge of dizziness from all the turns. Kyoko still had not shown her any clear exit. They had passed several manholes they could have climbed through, and Miranda had not even heard infected moving aboveground.
But each time, Kyoko had rejected the idea—either because the exits might be frozen shut or because there could be explosives waiting outside.
"We're not lost. Quiet— I heard something." Walking in front, Kyoko raised a hand to silence Miranda. She thought she had caught the sound of human screams—pained, desperate cries.
Her finger never strayed far from the trigger. If anything appeared, she could fire at once.
Mixed into the distance was another sound, shrill and abrasive, like an old wooden mop with its cloth worn away being dragged hard across the ground.
Ahead lay another fork in the tunnel. The sounds were coming from a side passage not far from them.
The flashlight mounted to the gun cast its beam ahead as the two women moved slowly forward with Brent between them.
Neither dared take large steps. If something came bursting out of the dark and they stumbled, Brent would suffer even more from the jolt.
After another twenty meters, the sounds grew louder. Kyoko's sharp nose picked up a thick, indescribable reek in the air.
If she had to compare it to anything, the air quality here was worse than in the worst smog-choked industrial zones before emission controls. It was a murderous blend of blood, rotting meat, and scorched rubber.
Kyoko's eyes swept the area and instantly concluded that fire had raged here not long ago.
The walls on both sides were blackened with soot. Shiny, glassy patches reflected the light, proof of intense heat. Burned debris littered the ground—some of it shaped disturbingly like human remains.
Maybe someone had fought here before. But who would set a sewer on fire?
A corpse with a particularly grotesque death pose sprawled across the middle of the path. Even now, Kyoko could read the struggle in its posture: back arched upward, face to the ground, fingers dug so hard into the frozen floor that they had scratched into it. Beside it lay twisted lumps of unrecognizable metal.
Then suddenly Miranda let out a loud sneeze, shattering the silence.
"Achoo!"
The foul air and airborne dust had finally overwhelmed her. With both hands occupied holding the blanket, she could not even rub her nose. It was pure torment.
That sneeze was like a match tossed into gunpowder.
From deep within the opposite tunnel came an utterly miserable howl.
It all happened in an instant. Kyoko kicked away the charred corpse in front of her, stepped over bent and burned strips of metal, and dragged Miranda forward with her.
Before the flashlight even reached the source, Kyoko's eyes caught sight of something crawling over the black floor toward them.
From the shape and the way it moved on all fours, she had first thought it might be another giant rat.
It was not.
It was a human crawling.
Kyoko fired several shots, and the thing collapsed at once.
Seeing no immediate movement behind it, she stayed where she was for a moment. It seemed to be alone. Nothing stirred beyond it.
Only after confirming it was safe did she move closer to inspect the body.
"Ah… no wonder it had to crawl."
Under the white beam, the corpse's miserable state was laid bare. Besides the bullet holes Kyoko had just made, it bore countless other wounds.
"Miranda, let's put Brent down here and rest for a bit. We need food."
Kyoko said that after a rough look over the corpse.
It had once been a woman.
Not intact—far from it. There was nothing covering her body. The flesh exposed to the air was covered in cut marks. Her hands and feet had been hacked off, and under the virus's influence the stumps had healed into horrible bulbous masses. From what Kyoko remembered in the system's bestiary, that kind of deformation only happened if the mutilation had been done while the victim was still alive.
Faint writing could still be seen on the bruised, bluish skin. There were irregular bite marks on the more prominent parts of her body.
Even Kyoko, who prided herself on her mental toughness, felt sick at the sight. She hurried Miranda away from the corpse.
The existence of that mangled body told her something important: the road ahead might be even more dangerous. Those crying, whimpering, agonized human sounds they had heard earlier… something truly deranged was likely lurking nearby.
Stopping here for a short break was not impossible. The two of them were exhausted, and they were carrying an unconscious person besides. Pushing ahead in this state would be too risky. Better to replenish their ammunition, eat something, and gather themselves. Miranda, in particular, looked close to collapse.
"Mm." Miranda did not want to talk. Muscle pain wracked her entire body, and her mind was drained. The stimulant Kyoko had given her earlier was reaching its limit.
They finally set down the packs they had been hauling. Ironically, the backpacks now held less than they had when they first left home. It really was a case of stealing a chicken only to lose the rice used to bait it. They had gained almost nothing. None of the thug equipment they had picked up was worth keeping. The flamethrower that had once been a crowd-clearing ace had been donated as an explosive gift to the zombie horde.
Miranda copied Kyoko and leaned back against the filthy wall, trying to relax her shoulders and neck to ease the burden on her muscles.
Her trembling legs bent slightly. After a momentary warmth, her lower body now felt cold and damp.
Yes—Miranda had finally reached her limit.
But in this awful place, she did not dare go off alone to deal with it. And with Kyoko right beside her, she could not bring herself to openly take care of it either.
So under immense strain, the muscles finally gave way.
Warmth spread slowly, like a small stream trickling down a mountain spring. It soaked through the last defenses, ran down her trouser leg, and filled her boots.
Though she was not exactly a proper lady, neither was she thick-skinned enough to endure this with dignity. Miranda felt overwhelming humiliation. If Kyoko found out, her life might as well be over.
"Miranda, what's wrong?" Kyoko asked, puzzled.
She had neither smelled anything nor heard anything suspicious. She had only noticed Miranda's rigid expression and asked out of concern.
That nearly gave Miranda a heart attack. Of course, the more desperately she wanted something not to happen, the more likely it was to happen. At Kyoko's question, she tugged her helmet lower over her face, flushed red, and stared miserably at Kyoko's boots.
With the bearing of a turtle shrinking into its shell, she answered timidly, "Kyoko… I really can't stand this environment anymore…"
"Mm. Then we won't stay long. Ten minutes at most and we move," Kyoko replied, never realizing Miranda's true situation. She simply assumed it was the discomfort any girl might feel in such a terrifying, unfamiliar place.
That timid act fooled Kyoko completely, and Miranda nearly sagged with relief.
Was she supposed to just say she had wet herself? She was Miranda, an Italian heiress! She had pride!
Ashamed beyond words, she wished she could simply ascend to heaven and leave this miserable world behind forever.
Kyoko used the 4-7-8 breathing method to steady herself—inhale for four seconds, hold for seven, exhale for eight—to reduce stress and fight psychological fatigue.
After a few rounds, she checked Brent again. Brent was still unconscious, but her breathing remained relatively steady. The wound had not worsened.
Remembering what Huaxiu had once gone through, Kyoko sighed, drank a mouthful of water, and looked at silent Miranda. Then she quietly opened the system.
She was going to buy another combat stimulant.
If she remained in this place much longer, she would explode from the pressure too.
She absolutely could not collapse on the very last stretch of road home.
"Come on. Let's go. We're heading home."
She tapped Miranda lightly on the head, grabbed the blanket wrapped around Brent together with Miranda, and moved forward again.
After two more cautious minutes, they finally spotted it—
A hole about a meter wide had opened in the wall beneath a flickering green emergency light.
It led into the parking garage.
The instant they saw that broad, open space beyond, all the horror of the sewer was cast behind them.
Kyoko and Miranda could have cried with joy. They were finally getting out.
"Miranda, I'll climb up first and check the area. Be careful," Kyoko said as they gently set Brent down.
Rifle in hand, Kyoko climbed up. Thanks to her previous purge—and the earlier slaughter wrought here by the Monarch-class infected that had once nested in the place—there seemed to be no active creatures in sight under the tactical light.
"Is it safe? Can I come up now, Kyoko?" Miranda called anxiously from below.
"Tie Brent up first. We're leaving."
Kyoko lowered the rope. After Brent's limbs were secured, Kyoko hauled her up.
Then Miranda climbed out as well.
"We can finally go home…" Miranda murmured the moment her feet touched the garage floor.
And then—
Disaster struck again.
From behind the ragged corpse they had just passed came a rustling sound.
Out of the pitch-black sewer, countless little rats began pouring forth in a mad stream, the chittering noise unbearably loud.
"Move!"
What kind of hell was this? Why were there swarms of rats suddenly boiling up from the ground?!
Without hesitation, Kyoko hurled several grenades into the hole, then turned and fled with Miranda toward the stairwell, never once looking back.
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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