“Keep your eyes peeled on the road. If anyone sees a superpower… an esper hurling fireballs towards us, let me know. The same goes to mutated zombies.”
Toyogasaki High housed one mutated zombie, what more of the populous city pza?
However, Eishi could not forsake the two trapped there. He is partly responsible for Megumi’s predicament. There’s also warehouses located within them.
As he drove, he continued eating the cherry fruit from the school. Not only was it easier to chew and swallow, it held ten times the normal energy of the green strawberry.
Ranking up to four stars required eating a lot of strawberries.
It wasn’t just Eishi. He also distributed them to Mahiru and Shizuka. He did not hesitate to give Shizuka a Gene Correction Serum, too.
When Mahiru expined Eishi’s background numbering in trillions of Japanese Yen, she was surprised. The Gene Correction Serum became self-expnatory; money answers everything.
“You are hiding very well. Won’t you capture all the girls’ hearts once it is known?”
“I only care about girls I am interested in.”
His scumbag-like answer stunned Shizuka. Whatever retort she had in mind was sent to oblivion.
“Is this how you truly act?”
“Yes. I won’t mind you knowing it, Hiratsuka-sensei.”
She felt strange upon hearing his words. Worse, his scummy attacks…
They are working.
‘No, no. What am I thinking about? He is my student..!’
Under this strange atmosphere, Shizuka reached two-stars with the serum. The drastic increase of her status warmed up her body to the maximum.
[Shizuka Hiratsuka]
Innate Talent: Martial God (SS, First-order)
Non-exclusive Talent: None
Life Level: First-order, Two-star
Strength: 27 > 82
Agility: 30 > 85
Constitution: 26 > 81
Spirit: 125 > 180
Just like that, she surpassed Mahiru’s physical attributes. It did not st for long as Mahiru entered three-stars—fifty cherries did the trick.
[Mahiru Shiina]
Innate Talent: Healing Grace (SS, First-order)
Non-exclusive Talent: Agility Boost (B, First-order)
Life Level: First-order, Three-star
Strength: 87 > 102
Agility: 111 > 126
Constitution: 86 > 101
Spirit: 132 > 147
The two women are practically stronger against the world’s top athletes. All that’s left for them is to learn combat skills, to which the two have experience of. Mahiru’s repeated sying of zombies tempered her will. Shizuka worked out and has a background in Judo.
‘Hiratsuka-sensei…’
Eishi thought about Shizuka. One of the reasons he did not hesitate to bring her level up is because of her unremitted help over the past year. Another reason was that…
She can’t be conquered by usual means.
Directly asking her to be his confidante will be met by her repulsion. He already knew this from the way her dynamics worked in the light novel.
Instead, he chose to give away too many things—so many that she won’t have any reason to decline his proposal ter on.
The more he thought about it, the more he wanted to sp himself in the face.
‘What a bonafide scumbag… Oh, that was me.’
The road wasn’t as smooth as expected. They had to take detours every now and then. He activated [Lucky Eyes] to avoid any troubles in the road. The ‘troubles’ are all in light orange. He could easily deal with them but chose to avoid them for now. It was a huge hassle right now.
Thirty minutes of driving wasn’t enough to reach the city pza. Eishi’s panel received changes at this time.
[Eishi Hiraoka]
Innate Talent: Time Dominator (SSS, First-order)
Non-exclusive Talent: Spatial Backpack (310,000 Cubic Meters), Constitution Boost (B, First-order)
Life Level: First-order, Four-star
Strength: 166 > 186
Agility: 163 > 183
Constitution: 189 > 209
Spirit: 360 > 380
Warm currents flooded his bloodstream. The genetic energy absorbed by the milky-white core made it grow bigger. His constitution, which struck twenty times the normal human, gave him a stronger heartbeat.
‘Testing is for ter. We need to get this over with.’
Another fifteen minutes ter passed before the car stopped.
“We need to proceed on foot.”
The three disembarked the nd rover before it was tucked inside the spatial backpack.
They are currently in a small commercial street. There weren’t many zombies lingering on the streets, presumably attracted to the gas station’s deafening explosion.
Eishi and Mahiru expertly cleaned up the few zombies. The sharpness of his longsword killed the zombies in one stroke.
As for Shizuka, she dealt with the ‘leftovers’. Her weapon was no longer a golf club, but another metal bat. After vomiting twice—once in the car and another on the street—she got the hang of it. The number of zombies left for her increased gradually.
Eishi, who kept his [Lucky Eyes] open, saw an orange light charge towards them. It came from the building opposite them—a gss-walled office.
Shatter-!
A burly zombie more than three meters high crashed through the gss. His huge figure crashed five meters in front of them.
An M9A3 appeared on Eishi’s left hand. He did not hesitate to pull the trigger on it.
Psssh-!
Psssh-!
…
Twelve headshots.
Before the burly zombie could close the two meters’ worth of distance, it slumped lifelessly on the ground.
‘Still a First-order, I assume. Strength-type, and he’s stronger than the principal.’
Sou-!
He hacked its skull open, revealing another crimson crystal within.
Eishi gnced at the others who cleaned up the zombie mobs, and then to the broken office wall across them. Another orange light remained, though it is noticeably dimmer than the burly zombie.
He decided to deal with it.
Click.
The world slowed down.
Eishi rushed to the opposite building. He lowered his legs before performing a high jump.
Shatter-!
The broken edges of the gss he stepped on were broken by the impact. His specially-made boots held up.
The room was separated by dividers. It took him five seconds to arrive at the light source—a middle-aged man with a receding hairline.
His shock was apparent when he saw Eishi. He tried to escape but to no avail.
Sou-!
One strike, one leg.
“Aak…!”
Click.
The control over time ended.
“Zombie controller?”
“Ugh… It hurts…!”
Seeing him unresponsive, Eishi no longer hesitated. He took a deep breath and…
Sou-!
…turned the man’s brain into smithereens.
The expected aversion did not come. He felt like he merely killed another zombie.
He scanned the man for any valuables. In his pockets were several crystals from mutated zombies.
‘He must have cleared this entire floor…’
After stabbing the man’s body and separating it to pieces, Eishi proceeded to store it inside his spatial backpack—to be burned ter.
That was the caution he has towards other espers.
By the time he returned to the street, Mahiru and Shizuka finished cleaning up the nearby zombies.
“It’s close.”
Just then, they happened upon a small group of people leaving a restaurant.
‘Very faint orange light…’
*****
The group of strangers that appeared out of nowhere was surprised with the trio’s appearance. The combination of two beautiful girls and one man was an expected sight in the apocalypse, but to see it first-hand was something else.
While some noticed the bloody bats and Eishi’s imposing longsword, there were some who were eager to act.
“Boss. Look—”
“They look better than the mother and daughter combo.”
Just as the two men spoke, the burly man came in front. He eyed the foreign weapon in Eishi’s grasp, a pn forming in his mind.
“We will be on our way. You will be in yours. Is that good?”
The moment Eishi looked away to gnce at the ones behind him, the burly man’s legs charged. His burly muscles expanded. Veins popped up as his skin turned red. The reddened whites of his eyes showed his loss of rationality.
“...I won’t always be here.”
Eishi spoke as if the attack wasn’t there.
Click.
Time stopped at this exact moment.
‘Faint orange… That means death.’
Sou-!
Sou-!
Sou-!
One strike to the neck. Another cross-shaped one to the head. It remained frozen in pce.
‘Just like killing a zombie.’
Eishi thought he would be repulsed, but no. His mental quality was exceptionally good after his two weeks of self-preparation.
Click.
Thud-!
Time resumed. The man’s menacing charge turned into a headless corpse beneath. The bloody smell began to spread.
Everyone was stunned—breathless.
“I will leave them to you.”
The two girls widened their eyes at the corpse. Their eyes flickered with complex thoughts before their gaze turned towards the terrified group of men.
It was Shizuka who made the first move. She did not say anything; her eyes already did.
She experienced failures one after another. She was a total mess during her time in the school. As the only adult in this group, she took it as a responsibility to take care of the two.
Yet, she never expected for the exact opposite to happen. The two high school students are taking care of her!
‘What a messed up world..!’
Shizuka decisively threw away all of her prior conceptions. She steeled herself, not thinking of what will happen next, and let the blood-red aura surround her. The effect was instant.
Her body burst with infinite power. The five-times amplification of her attributes made them average to the 400’s, far surpassing Eishi’s. At this stage, Shizuka is nothing but an insane stat monster!
Sou-!
Bam-!
Her body turned into a blur. Every time her baseball bat touched a head, a head exploded. Bright red blood and white brain matter exploded like fireworks. By the time Shizuka finished off the st one, the corpses that cked an upper torso fell to the ground.
All sorts of human remains rained down upon her, making her look like a devil who crawled from hell.
Mahiru bnkly watched her over. Her fair white hands hidden by a glove could not stop trembling.
Zombies, she can still kill.
Humans? That’s another matter.
Even though the said humans almost killed Eishi, Mahiru felt an aversion to doing it.
“As I said, I won’t always be here.” Eishi turned to look at Mahiru. “There will be evil people… humans without morals, that will do all kinds of insufferable things.”
“...I understand.”
She understood. He wanted them to have the power to act on their own—to protect themselves from zombies and humans alike. Mahiru gripped the baseball bat tightly.
Meanwhile, Shizuka was puking the bread, water, and gastric juices on her stomach. Eishi ignored the bloody scene and searched their pockets. To his surprise, he found four crystals on the burly man.
‘The Principal was one. The more poputed an area, the greater the chances of mutated zombies..?’
He felt fortunate that the loud explosion drew most of the zombies away. It also indicated that these mutated zombies do not have much intelligence as they are easily distracted.
After letting the two recover, they continued moving. They did not stop killing zombies. The street they were in only has a two-way road. The vehicles lying all over the pce made it difficult to use the nd rover to head straight to the gym.
Fortunately, the broken cars could be used as a cover. With the majority of the zombies gone, they advanced straight to the heart of the city pza.
Whenever they felt fatigued, they simply downed a [Stamina Restoration Pill]. Any traces of physical, mental, and genetic fatigue disappeared under its effects.
Mahiru was fine. She downed dozens of them while doing that. It was Shizuka who looked at it with disbelief.
‘Is this something science can make…’
Before long, they arrived on the street opposite of the gym.
Eishi eyed the bring orange lights in his surroundings. Every building nearby has two to three orange lights… per floor.
If he was an ordinary person, he might have risked it. The mutated zombie crystals in his hand have the same effect as evolution fruits, but more potent.
Then again…
He is not an ordinary person.
Eishi can safely farm them through the system’s rebate.
He focused his sight on the gym building. Two green lights could be seen inside. The orange lights, however, amounted to two dozen.
‘Two dozen mutated zombies…’
When he saw the situation here, he almost doubted his eyes. The number of the orange lights in the buildings throughout this street amounted to the one on the gym.
‘Athletic… There must be a corretion between these two somewhere.’
Worrying about it was useless. It is better to think of how to save the two SSS rated confidantes.
‘Guns are still useful at this stage…’
*****
Megumi looked at the LINE app one st time before handing it over to Saeko. The tter frowned at the ‘bad news’.
‘Mutated zombies… Twenty-two?’
She thought of what happened two days ago. Megumi came inside the gym drenched in the sudden rain. There were also others who did, who then turned into zombies. Saeko pulled Megumi over despite her high fever. Eventually, she locked themselves on the empty locker room.
She was prepared to deal with Megumi if it came down to it, but she did not turn into a zombie. Instead, her body grew stronger and she awakened a ‘superpower’ that made her invisible.
Saeko equated these mutated zombies into ones with superpowers—like Megumi.
Dealing with twenty-two at this stage, with no bded weapons nor firearms, is a suicide.
What shocked her was Eishi’s response:
Wait for us to come up.
‘He really likes her…’
