January 20
That brought the conversation on the road to an end. They had heard quite enough melodrama for one day.
At that moment, Kyoko plugged her Samurai-3 combat suit into the vehicle's battery to recharge it. She had completely forgotten about charging the thing over the past few days. If the system had not suddenly warned her that the battery was running low, she never would have noticed. If it had died on her in the middle of a fight, that would have been a serious problem.
By then they had reached the small settlement of Takamori. There were not many infected around, but the weather was deteriorating. The snowfall was getting heavier and heavier, and it was obvious they would never reach their planned destination before dusk.
If they kept going, they would end up spending the night in the mountains with nothing around them but wilderness.
Left with no better option, the group decided to hole up at a roadside motel in Takamori. It stood right at the entrance to the settlement, close against the highway. They might even be able to find some additional supplies in the area.
As Kyoko slowly eased the vehicle into a parking space, their journey for the day came to an end.
Since there was still some daylight left, everyone immediately split up and got to work.
"The fuel consumption is ridiculous," Kyoko muttered after checking the gauge once she shut the engine down. "We've already burned through nearly half the tank."
Fully armored, she climbed out of the vehicle carrying an oil canister.
In freezing temperatures, engines needed more energy just to maintain working temperature. Poor fuel atomization reduced combustion efficiency, which in turn drove fuel consumption up.
The cold also sapped power, made the fuel burn less completely, and weakened engine performance overall. Even the electronics suffered. The stereo in the Toyota Hayate Miranda was driving had spent the whole trip stuttering and mangling the music instead of playing it properly.
Standing in front of the armored vehicle, Kyoko pulled out a wrench and began tightening parts loosened by the shrinkage of metal under the cold.
The other five had been sent off to clear infected from the surrounding area. Truthfully, Takamori was tiny—only a few dozen households. Even if every resident had turned, there could not be more than a few hundred infected at most.
The blizzard and wind were too severe for the drone to take off.
Still, Kyoko was not worried. The other four were armed to the teeth. With firearms in hand, what danger could they possibly be in unless they ran into a special infected? And as for ordinary human survivors, there just were not that many people wandering around with guns unless they happened to be soldiers, bandits, or something similar.
Her live map showed no visible threats in the open. Sending them to clear the area around the motel should have been safe enough.
With complete peace of mind, Kyoko continued hammering and wrenching at the vehicle. When she got to the tires, though, she discovered a new problem.
"Great. The tires are already in this state after just a few days."
In the cold, the rubber had stiffened. That meant less grip, less friction, and a longer braking distance whenever they tried to stop.
There was no easy way to replace the tires out here, so Kyoko focused on the chains instead.
She needed to add a few more snow chains and tighten them down hard. Anything to reduce the risk of skidding—or worse, rolling the vehicle.
The metal components exposed to the freezing air were painfully cold. Even through tactical gloves, she could feel it.
Ugh. I need to finish up and get inside where it's warm.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Suddenly, gunfire cracked through the storm.
That was Miranda's Genesis Arms Gen-12 shotgun. The report was unmistakable.
Kyoko dropped the oil canister at once.
Looks like Huaxiu and the others have run into trouble. What the hell could be happening in a place like this?
She snatched up her rifle and sprinted behind the motel.
Near the edge of the houses, all four of them were pouring fire into a blind spot beyond Kyoko's line of sight. The howls of infected were drowned out beneath the gunfire.
What the hell? Did this tiny backwater just spawn a zombie horde?
"Fall back!" Kyoko shouted. "Get behind cover!"
She yanked a round Mk2 grenade from the pouch at her hip. Holding down the safety lever with her thumb, she pulled the pin, twisted at the waist, and hurled it high and hard.
The others immediately began retreating as they fired. The moment they heard Kyoko call for a grenade, they ducked back into safer positions.
Then—BOOM!
A column of smoke and shredded snow shot skyward. Flesh and icy powder sprayed in every direction.
But the infected only paused for a moment before charging again.
Even as the blast went off, the gunfire never stopped. From several angles, the group kept shooting at the infected swarming in from different directions. The newcomer, Ye Ling, had no firearm, so she was forced to fight with the metal spear Kyoko's group had picked up from the airdrop.
"Haah!"
She swung the shaft with all her strength, her large fox tail whipping behind her. The spearhead stabbed straight at the infected heads. Her technique looked odd, more like she was handling a two-handed sword than a spear, but whatever the style, a move that killed infected was a good move.
Bullets tore through infected bodies with ease, and the alloy spear cut through them as cleanly as a blade. Against ordinary infected, it was more than enough.
Spent casings rained down into the snow, but made almost no sound as they vanished into the soft drifts.
Soon the infected lying all over the ground outnumbered the ones still moving—but there was one problem left.
As Huaxiu lowered her weapon to reload, she saw movement somewhere it should not have been.
"What… what is that? Kyoko—something's coming out of that house!"
At Huaxiu's shout, Kyoko snapped her head toward the building. The front door was being battered from within. The windows had already shattered and lay in glittering shards on the ground.
Whatever was behind that door, the answer was simple enough.
Shoot first.
Kyoko raised Little Princess and opened fire. A flimsy door could never stop 6.8mm rounds.
Only this time, the result was not what she expected. The bullets punched through, clearly hitting whatever was behind the door—but the thing inside did not stop smashing against it.
In fact, Kyoko's bullets only finished the job for it.
The door came apart entirely, and what emerged had to force the doorframe wider with its own bulk.
Now Kyoko finally saw what it was.
A special infected.
It was huge, yet hunched over, like a grotesque parody of a man shaped into some kind of living siege engine. Huge enough that it had to stoop to fit through the doorway, but so broad and compressed that calling it merely "tall" felt wrong.
Its most horrifying feature was its enormous belly.
Kyoko's first thought, absurdly, was that the thing looked like some obscene gourmet club chairman on the rampage.
There was no time to dwell on it. The group immediately formed up to confront it.
Its blood-red muscles bulged exposed beneath stretched skin, and much of its body was covered with thick layers of keratinized flesh. Even the heavy buckshot from Miranda's shotgun failed to fully punch through.
Miranda fired round after round from the Gen-12, but the thing simply refused to die. Brent, who had left her sniper rifle in the vehicle, was stuck with only a handgun and could do almost nothing to it.
Step by ponderous step, the thing advanced.
Small-caliber bullets had almost no effect. Even heavy buckshot failed to stop it. The only real result was that the impact force slowed it slightly.
Whenever rounds struck and did not penetrate, angry red welts bloomed across its flesh. When they did penetrate, the wounds oozed foul-smelling blood—but little else. Kyoko tried switching targets to its head, but its neck was so thick and swollen that it protected most of the skull like a living ballistic collar. The bullets barely harmed it at all.
And they still had not found a weak point.
It was already less than ten meters away.
Kyoko could only order everyone back.
"Damn it, is that gut a bulletproof vest or what? Fall back!"
She wanted to throw another grenade, but before she could even finish speaking, the infected changed tactics.
Instead of charging her—the most dangerous threat—it abruptly barreled past her toward the other four.
Kyoko's heart skipped.
That ruined the grenade option. If she threw it now, she might kill her own people.
With no choice left, she hurled the grenade behind the monster instead.
The explosion tore into its back.
That finally got a real reaction.
Its back, unlike its grotesque front, lacked the protection of that monstrous belly, and the fragments punched deep into its flesh. Blood began to pour freely.
The Glutton went berserk.
Bellowing in pain, it abandoned everything else and stormed straight at the human who had hurt it most.
Its maw yawned wide in fury. Rotting saliva sprayed from its mouth as it roared, and where the acidic spit splattered onto the snow, the snow began to hiss and melt.
Close one. Too damn close.
Kyoko's entire body shifted into overdrive. Adrenaline surged through her veins. She dodged the acidic spit by the narrowest margin, relying on reflexes, combat instinct, and the assistance of the fully charged Samurai-3 frame.
But when she looked up again, the monster was already right in front of her, one enormous fist crashing down.
She rolled aside just in time. The blow shattered the crusted snow and cracked the frozen ground beneath it.
She shouted at the others, "Its back is the weak point!"
The others resumed firing the instant they heard that. Hit from behind, the creature twisted in pain and roared again, spewing more corrosive saliva. Huaxiu and the others ducked behind nearby cover.
Kyoko took the opportunity to fire into the back of its neck, finally punching rounds through vulnerable flesh. But her magazine was nearly empty. One after another, the five spare magazines on her vest ran dry.
Now the special infected was nothing but mindless rage. It no longer fought to kill efficiently; it fought simply to crush the prey in front of it.
Its attacks came down like hail.
Dodging became a desperate dance. The thing's fists smashed the snow into clouds, cracked the frozen earth, and even shattered nearby windows with the force of the impacts.
Kyoko's face shield was smeared with filth. The infected's raw strength was terrifying. Even Little Princess was starting to come loose in her hands under the stress of using it like a blunt weapon.
The others could not fire continuously either. Kyoko was too close to the monster. A bad shot would hit her instead. And their ammunition was running low too. The once-steady gunfire had begun to fade.
Brent broke from the group and ran back toward the vehicle to retrieve her 12.7mm sniper rifle. Meanwhile Miranda, Huaxiu, and Dorothy did what they could, shooting down stray infected crawling out from deeper in the houses so nothing else could interfere with Kyoko.
Then Ye Ling charged in with her spear.
"I'm helping! Eat steel, you damned hog!"
At two meters tall, she barely looked much smaller than the Glutton itself.
Kyoko, lacking a long weapon and unable to use a short blade effectively at that range, could only meet the creature with blunt strikes and desperate movement. She had no way to deal meaningful damage on her own.
Ye Ling's arrival changed the entire fight.
Even for such a monster, facing two opponents whose physical strength far exceeded normal human limits was too much. Cuts and punctures began to spread over its body. It was bleeding steadily now, and Kyoko could feel its attacks growing less precise, easier to evade.
Kyoko's strength hardly needed explaining—but Ye Ling, who had been half-starved in the mountains for days, still managing to fight like this, was impressive in her own right.
Then Ye Ling suddenly roared and put everything she had into one throw.
Her spear flew like a thrown javelin and punched straight through the monster's back, pinning it through the heart.
"Move, Ye Ling—move!"
The Glutton made one last desperate attempt to collapse onto her and crush her underneath its bulk.
But Ye Ling had already leapt aside.
At that exact moment, a thunderous report split the air.
The Glutton jerked violently. The top half of its head simply exploded, brains spraying across the snow.
It was finally dead.
The final blow had not come from either of the melee fighters.
It had come from the long-awaited 12.7mm AP round fired by Brent's sniper rifle.
At last, it was over.
Kyoko slumped down beside the dead infected, breathing hard. Huaxiu, Miranda, and Dorothy were already running toward them.
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 139)
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 (Chapter171)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter100)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter184)
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 168
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 156
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 105
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 185
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 160
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 150
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 76
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 97
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 66
Uma Musume: From Beginner 116
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 75
Uma Musume: I Want All 93
I Can Copy Unique Skills 79
Summoning an Evil God, but the 55
Supernatural Multiverse 75
My Harem Is Indescribable 68
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 70
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 66
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 69
Still playing traditional Honk 49
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 53
What Should I Do After Switchi 42
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 50
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 38
Transmigrated as Sukuna 35
Checking In in Demon Slayer 40
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 55
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