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"Quick, find that 2080 Ti."
Kento gave the order as he stepped forward and picked up the graphics card the zombie had been licking earlier.
"Titan RTX?"
"Not that one."
Kento tossed the card aside.
Before long, Ryuji found what they were looking for.
"Boss, there are five boxes!" Ryuji said excitedly.
"Take them all."
"Then meet up with the other team. We're heading to the third floor to look for games!"
Kento led his group toward the stairwell.
The other team noticed the signal from the flashlight and began making their way to the stairs as well.
"Damn it, I thought joining the camp meant we could stay inside and live safely."
"Yeah! Didn't think we'd have to come out and do all the dirty work."
"Exactly! If we'd known, we might as well have worked on our own. Either way we're risking our lives out here."
Several young men from the other team grumbled as they walked toward the stairs.
Most of them had only recently joined Kento's camp.Being sent out on dangerous supply runs right away left them pretty unhappy.
"Alright, alright, cut it out," someone said.
"If nobody comes out to gather supplies, what are we supposed to eat?"
"You don't know how scarce food was when I first arrived."
"Good thing the boss took people out to gather supplies, otherwise we'd have starved."
"So stop complaining already."
The one speaking was Takeshi, a member who had joined earlier. He had been assigned to guard the camp before, and today it was finally his turn to go out scavenging.
"I just don't get it," one of the young men muttered again.
"What are those old people and kids in the camp even doing?"
"In a world like this, they're just useless mouths wasting food."
"And they get the same share of food as us."
"That's totally unfair."
Those words immediately irritated Takeshi.
What was wrong with the elderly and the kids?
His own mother and son were in the camp!
If Kento hadn't taken them in, they might not even have food to eat, let alone any sense of safety.
As they approached the stairwell, the young men finally shut up.
They were still pretty afraid of Kento.
None of them noticed that in the darkness behind them, a figure lay crouched on the ground, silently watching them.
"Everyone here? Anyone injured?" Kento asked.
"No. We only ran into a few zombies. Took them out," Takeshi replied.
With ten people in the team—some holding flashlights, others fighting—they handled small groups of zombies fairly steadily.
"Alright. Stay alert."
"The third floor is the gaming section. Grab what we need and leave."
"This place is basically a zombie nest. We can't stay long."
Kento led the group upstairs.
The third floor had floor-to-ceiling windows, so the lighting was a bit better. Even without flashlights, they could roughly see their surroundings.
Kento walked at the front.
But the moment he stepped up, he froze in shock.
At a game counter, a girl with twin ponytails was testing a game on a TV.
She wore medieval-style leather armor on her upper body, a plaid skirt below, metal greaves on her calves, and she held a massive battle axe in her hand.
Around her lay more than twenty zombie corpses.
"Did… she kill all of these?"
Kento was stunned.
One person had killed that many zombies… and was calmly standing here picking out games?
Was this girl even human?
"Boss, what's wrong?"
"Holy—"
Ryuji and the others who came up behind him were just as shocked.
They suddenly felt ridiculously weak.
All those zombies… killed by one person?
No way…
The girl also heard the noise behind her and slowly turned her head.
"You guys… what are you doing here?"
This girl was none other than Miss Asuka.
She'd been bored waiting at home, so she decided to go out and find some games herself.
Even though she hadn't gotten her driver's license yet, nobody was enforcing traffic rules these days anyway, so she simply drove her family's Bentley Continental out.
She was very familiar with the computer mall. After bulldozing her way through dozens of zombies along the way, she arrived here to look for games.
She tried The Last of Us Part II for a bit.
It was trash.
Her mood instantly soured.
The zombies attracted by the TV noise had all been chopped down one by one. She hadn't expected actual living people to show up now.
And there were more than ten of them.
"We're just here to find some games. Hope we're not bothering you," Kento said politely.
He didn't have much choice.
The girl clearly wasn't someone ordinary. Being rude would only be asking for trouble.
"Whatever. Just don't make noise."
Asuka was in a terrible mood. She snapped the The Last of Us Part II disc in half.
After searching around, the only thing decent enough to pass the time was Monster Hunter.
Too bad there was no one to play co-op with.
She packed the PS4 and the games she picked into her backpack, preparing to leave.
Just then, one of the young men who had been complaining downstairs walked up to her.
"Hey little girl, it's pretty dangerous for you to be here alone."
"Why not come with us?"
"Your big brother here can protect you."
The young guy, wearing a pair of knockoff Adidas with the letters spelled wrong, slicked his hair back like he thought he looked cool.
"Get lost."
"Or I'll split you in half."
Asuka's voice was ice cold.
The young man froze for a moment.
He could feel the killing intent in her tone.
But at the same time, his pride took a hit.
"No need to be so cold, little girl."
"You think holding a cosplay axe means you can kill zombies?"
He clearly didn't believe the dismembered zombies on the ground were her doing.
And that axe looked way too exaggerated.
Probably plastic.
Asuka tightened her grip on Bloodhowl, preparing to smack this idiot with the back of the axe.
Just then, a shadow suddenly flashed past the stairwell!
Asuka happened to be facing that direction and caught it immediately.
"Not good…"
She stepped back several paces.
"ROAAAR—"
A hunched zombie suddenly leapt forward, jumping straight onto the young man's shoulders.
"W-What the hell?!"
The young man didn't dare lift his head. He only felt a heavy weight on his shoulders.
Something had climbed onto him.
"Makoto, don't move!"
Kento immediately pulled out his fire axe and slowly approached.
This zombie…
It had enough jumping power to leap directly onto someone's shoulders.
Completely different from any zombie they'd encountered before.
This thing might be hard to deal with.
Makoto also realized what was sitting on his shoulders.
"Help! HELP!"
He lost control and shouted.
The zombie riding his shoulders lowered its head, grabbed his jaw with one hand, and bit down.
With a violent yank—
His long tongue was ripped out from the root.
The zombie smacked its lips a few times and swallowed it.
Blood gushed from Makoto's throat. He collapsed to the ground.
There was no way he was surviving that.
The zombie landed lightly after jumping down, not stopping for even a moment before locking onto its next target.
With another leap, it jumped onto the shoulders of another young man who had recently joined the camp.
"....."