“Have you seen zombies? The ones in movies. They’re exactly that.”

  “A-ah..?”

  The confusion and the scene outside made her face pale.

  “We need to move elsewhere.” He said. “I have another residence with better security. I pn to go there while we still can.”

  “M-move..?”

  The sudden advent of the apocalypse left Mahiru utterly shocked. Eishi felt troubled by this.

  ‘No matter what… we need to move now!’

  He no longer minded the stunned Mahiru. He looked at Airi.

  “You haven’t tested your strength, but you can send those zombies flying away. Use the baseball bat.”

  “O-okay!”

  With his left hand grasping Mahiru’s hand, they headed downstairs.

  Rustle-!

  The footsteps and growls below made him stop on the third floor stairwell. As expected, two bloodied zombies came from the second floor.

  Before they could react, he shot them dead. Two shots, both headshots. The training from GGO paid off. His arm remained as steady as ever.

  The suppressed gunshots seemingly attracted more zombies. On the pce where the first two corpses are present, several zombies stood.

  “Eek..!”

  Mahiru stood frozen, and so did Airi. The two girls held their mouths before barely swallowing their uprising acid.

  Eishi underestimated the difficulty of bringing two high school girls in the middle of the apocalypse.

  “We need to move! There are still many zombies outside!”

  He spoke as he shot the zombies dead. This time, he emptied the magazine to shoot at their heads again. With a flick of his wrist, another fully loaded M9A3 appeared in his hand.

  Eishi moved amidst the zombie corpses. He forcefully led Mahiru through it. Airi, seeing them move, followed hastily. Her body tensed up, awaiting the “sudden attacks” of these zombies. Fortunately, his precaution allowed them to avoid such a scene.

  They encountered no zombies on the first floor. When they left the apartment complex, it was a hellish scene. Blood spttered everywhere. Burning cars crashed onto poles and walls. The cacophony of screams and sirens was disorienting to the two girls.

  “Hey!”

  Eishi shouted at them, causing them to wake up.

  The trio made their way to the apartment’s parking lot. Taking advantage of the busied zombies, they went to the imposing bck nd rover.

  Eishi took out the keys from his spatial backpack.

  Beep-!

  Beep-!

  Its two arms awakened several zombies.

  “Go inside! Quickly!”

  Psshoon-!

  Psshoon-!

  …

  Eishi covered the girls’ entry to the car. Several zombies were shot dead before they could come closer. By the time he entered the driver’s seat, his tense body rexed slightly.

  Click-!

  Vroom-!

  The adrenaline rush made the atmosphere inside the car eerily silent. Only the radio Eishi opened made noises.

  “...apan has been pced in a state of emergency. Please ensure your safety by remaining indoors. The relevant authorities…”

  It was an emergency broadcast. The time from the blood rain until now sted less than an hour.

  Along the way, Eishi came across people asking for help as well as zombies who stood in front of the road.

  He ignored the people asking for help. He pressed the gas pedal on the zombies, causing the nd rover to shake momentarily. The two girls on the back seat remained silent.

  His decision to leave early proved to be the correct one. Eishi came across crashed cars and trucks along the way. He could barely maneuver his car on the road. Had he remained still for another day, they might have needed to come on the vil on foot—making it a more dangerous endeavor.

  His destination was located near the gated residence, the area of rich people. The vil itself is rger than a typical vil. Its nd space is one block away from these residences.

  Soon, they arrived in front of the ten-meter tall steel gate. Another car, a gray BMW, was parked in front of the gate. Eishi recognized it to be Haruno.

  He took out a remote control and unlocked the gate. They encountered no trouble driving up to the garage. The gate automatically closed once they entered.

  The advantage of this vil became clearer. It is situated away from the urban centers and other residences. Them coming across no zombies nearby is an example of it.

  Once safety was ensured, Eishi slumped his back on the driver’s seat. His heartbeats started to calm down.

  “You two can come out. I will answer any questions you have ter. I have to check what’s going on outside.”

  He left the nd rover. Its thick wheels are covered in red flesh. The bloody smell could not be concealed. He already saw Haruno waiting for him in the distance.

  “Hiraoka-san. What will…”

  “I need to check what’s going on outside. You can go and check the official broadcasts, but I have a feeling it won’t be useful.”

  Without waiting for her reply, Eishi walked towards the ten-meter high wall. Traces of recent construction could be seen on it. Its original three meter tall wall was upgraded to ten meters. Its thickness also increased from 0.1 meters to three meters. Outside, it is bolted with five-meter thick steel ptes. These steel ptes are connected to the vil’s electricity system. It is capable of emitting up to 10,000 voltages of electric shock. Anything that comes closer to it is toast, literally and figuratively.

  Since Japan has strict ws that prohibit this kind of deadly force, it was done ‘under the table’. The electric walls are always in an inactive state.

  There was also a five-meter thick steel gate without openings. Alongside it were the surveilnce cameras installed around the vil.

  This project was entirely possible due to Japan’s advanced construction technology. What took months to accomplish can be done in a week or two, given the workers are paid to work overtime.

  It wasn’t an exaggeration to treat this as a modern day steel fortress.

  Eishi stopped farming Japanese Yen once he had over 500 trillion. He used it to farm more [Stamina Restoration Pills], a decision that proved to be right upon testing its effects.

  ‘Zombie birds and likes. That’s what I need to be careful of.’

  He went up the walls’ stairs. The hellish scene from before turned worse. There were more bck smoke compared to before. He patrolled the entire perimeter of the wall before entering the vil. Although the walls are made of gss, they are strong enough to withstand grenade explosions and the likes. There was also the security system that shuts the entire vil` down with enhanced steel ptes.

  Inside was an extremely rge interior. The main entrance was connected to a ‘lobby’. Several hallways are connected to it, each leading to a different space.

  Judging from the faint bloodstains on the carpet floor, he found the two girls and one woman in the living room. Different sounds came from their phones. Haruno remained faithful in watching over official broadcasts. Airi and Mahiru checked the social media ptforms.

  The moment he stepped inside, their gazes were instantly attracted to him. They had a lot of questions for the man who saved them. The most gring thing was Eishi’s preparedness—he’s too well-prepared. Haruno noticed it the most with his frantic ‘orders’ in the past two weeks.

  “I should properly introduce myself.” He gave Mahiru a brief gnce. “I am Hiraoka Eishi, orphaned at thirteen. By fifteen, I reached out to the foreign exchange market using my parent’s inheritance as capital. Three years ter, it grew to trillions of Japanese Yen.”

  Eishi chose not to lie too much. He only needed to conceal the existence of this ‘Confidante System’, nothing else.

  “Two weeks ago, I dreamed of this very day. The zombie apocalypse… I have foreseen it.”

  *****

  Eishi’s expnation was simple. He revealed his foresight of this apocalypse, the current situation outside, and the existence of superpowers.

  Naturally, it was met with five points of skepticism. His hasty expnation did no good for the two girls, Mahiru and Haruno. Airi trusted him too much, so she believed it all.

  “Look.”

  With the mental image of unfolding a paper, the world turned light gray. Eishi sat beside Mahiru. Two seconds ter, the world’s colors returned. They looked for his missing figure. It happened that Mahiru turned over to his side.

  “Eh..?!’

  Her soft excmation rang throughout the living room. Eishi did not mind it as he began another round of time stop. This time, he sat beside Haruno. Her reaction, although devoid of a surprised yelp, was extremely surprising.

  “This is as far as I know. How this zombie apocalypse happened, I don’t know. But I observed why people turned into zombies.” He pointed to the slightly melted snow outside. “They got drenched by this blood-colored rain.”

  The three of them processed this information for a long while. Seeing this, Eishi pointed out the guest rooms on the second floor. Their gss walls are just as strong as the first floors’.

  Before he left the living room, he noticed Mahiru’s fleeting look. That was the kind of aggrieved look that wanted an expnation. Only then did Eishi realize what’s going on. She isn’t dumb. Her smarts on academics extended to real-life affairs. Airi’s existence made her feel something was wrong between them.

  However, it was also Eishi who saved her just now. Not to mention their very good retionship over the past two weeks. Mahiru could not bear to forcefully ask for an expnation—she is not an ingrate nor is she self-centered.

  Eishi could only pretend not to see it as he went out. A portion of the snow melted due to the blood rain.

  “The generator room…”

  Airi’s first task today was plotted. They needed diesel to continue powering both the electric wall and the vil’s electricity. The reserves in this vil were only enough to st for three months at most—that was with the electric wall disabled.

  He took one [Stamina Restoration Pill] and felt his body more energized. The powers he lost after activating two consecutive time stops were recovered.

  Taking out his phone, he started checking on the other potential confidantes one by one…

  *****

  Schools have differing term end schedules. Some of them finished earlier than the others. That was the case with Toyama and Seijo High. Unfortunately, Shino’s high school fell to the other cssification. There were still two more weeks before their academic year as first years ended.

  In an instant, the bustling school was turned into a hell on earth.

  One bit two; two bit three; everyone bit everyone!

  “Fu… Huff…”

  Inside a cramped janitor’s room, Shino hid while hugging her bag. One of her lenses is cracked, with traces of blood on her cheek. She used the broken end of a mop to stab away at a zombie. The familiar feeling of killing someone returned… but she had to swallow her vomit.

  She bravely rushed to the still open janitor’s room, took the keys left on the doorknob, and locked herself inside.

  Her frantic heart couldn’t calm itself until now.

  Hum-!

  The vibration on her pocket awakened Shino. She took it out. It was a message from Eishi.

  Thinking of this in-game friend whose skills astounded anyone who saw it, Shino started calming down.

  [Hiraoka: How’s things on your side? Almost everyone went crazy, biting other people like zombies…]

  She thought for a while and chose not to tell her desperate situation.

  [Shinon: It happened here too…]

  [Hiraoka: So it’s everywhere. Are you at school?]

  [Shinon: Yes.]

  No response came from him for a while.

  [Hiraoka: Can you go on foot? I am sending you an address. Download it before the Internet goes down.]

  [Shinon: This is?]

  [Hiraoka: One of my vils in Tokyo. It’s fenced with concrete walls. I can remotely open its gates for you, but I am not sure how long this connection sts.]

  For a moment, Shino fell silent. She vaguely felt that Eishi was ‘extraordinary’, but she didn’t expect him to have a vil in Tokyo.

  ‘Is he giving it..? Why..?’

  Shino maintained a bit of rationality. The thing she thought of the most was supplies. The world turned unsafe with a single blood rain. The human needs that were once at arm’s reach become a luxury.

  As if sensing her thoughts, Eishi chatted:

  [Hiraoka: Don’t think much about it. We are separated by an entire city. The things I have there will spoil if no one takes care of it. You are my only friend living in Tokyo.]

  A warm sensation filled her chest. She could not expin it well, just that her goodwill towards this online friend is overflowing. Her body, taut from an extreme sense of tension, rexed slightly.

  [Shinon: I understand. I will try to reach it before dawn.]

  Looking at the st bit of unfinished bread inside the room, Shino made her choice.

  *****

  The city center was one of the biggest pces struck by the zombie virus. What was once a bustling pza was turned into zombies’ nest. The number of people that survived the first onsught was less than five percent.

  Saeko knelt down and touched Megumi’s forehead with the back of her hand. Heat immediately converged, making her frown. The girl id her back on the lockers while sitting on the floor. The bloodied wooden bouken rested beside her.

  Saeko gnced at the occasional banging sound on the door. They are currently in the fourth floor’s locker room. It is where most stored their belongings before training. The extra protein bars and water tumblers resolved their food issue for a while.

  The most important thing was Megumi’s high fever. Saeko was worried it could worsen. Even…

  She’ll turn into a zombie.

  The resilience of zombies is top-notch. Saeko’s well-trained physique is there, but it depletes her energy to deal with these monsters using a blunt wooden sword.

  Just then, the phone inside her sling back vibrated. The first thing she did after locking the door shut was to silence the phones inside.

  When she opened it, she was greeted by a message from Eishi…