Ultimately, Su Yan did not indulge Busujima Saeko's desire for a reward.
After all, time was a bit tight; if he truly wanted to satisfy Saeko, it would take at least an hour or two.
But they had to head home for lunch, so for now, he could only meet the purple-haired girl's smaller requests, like a brief moment of intimacy.
So, after spending a negligible amount of time satisfying those minor requests, the two of them hopped back onto the motorcycle and hit the road.
While driving, Saeko asked curiously, "Su Yan, where are we heading next?"
Su Yan didn't answer directly. Instead, he asked her, "Saeko, where do you think has the highest concentration of people in Tokonosu City?"
Where are people most concentrated?
This question wasn't just about where the crowds were, but rather where the most zombies would be once the outbreak occurred.
Where would the zombie density be highest?
"The shopping district?"
Saeko blurted out the first answer that came to mind without thinking twice.
After saying it, she thought it over and felt her answer was solid, though she added, "Specifically, the commercial district near the station?"
"That does make sense, but..."
Su Yan didn't dismiss her answer immediately, but he followed up with a 'but' to expand on her reasoning. "You're overlooking something."
"Under normal circumstances, the commercial district near the station is indeed the busiest area."
"However, in a crisis, places like that are wide open, with numerous exits and emergency paths."
"Once the threat of infection appears, the crowd scatters in every direction. The commotion caused by those fleeing also tends to draw the zombies away."
"So, unless it's a very specific situation, the density of zombies in a shopping district actually won't be that high."
"Is that so?"
Saeko rested her head against Su Yan's back and pondered. It did seem to be the case.
She looked up again and asked, "Then where do you think the most zombies are right now?"
"Schools and office buildings!" Su Yan replied.
"Office buildings?"
Saeko was puzzled.
She understood why schools were hotspots; after all, that's how it was yesterday when the crisis began.
In just a few short hours, Fujimi Academy had completely fallen.
Their former classmates had all turned into zombie monsters acting on pure instinct.
The sheer number of zombies last night had certainly given her a satisfying opportunity to kill.
But office buildings?
For a girl who had spent her life training in kendo at her family's dojo and hadn't dealt much with that world, it was a bit hard to grasp.
Why would an office building be a place of high zombie density?
"Simple. Because yesterday was a workday!"
Su Yan smiled and gave her the answer. "You might not know this, Saeko, but regardless of the country, office buildings usually aren't isolated. They're clustered together into entire business districts."
"Plus, when the outbreak hit yesterday, it was a weekday afternoon, and it wasn't time to clock out yet."
"At that time, the adults were all still at work."
"And office buildings are where most adults in a city gather to work."
"A single floor might house several companies—sometimes dozens. A rough estimate would put at least a thousand people in a single active office building."
"Most importantly, office buildings aren't wide open like shopping districts. Usually, there are only two stairwells at opposite ends of the building serving as safety exits."
"Setting aside the fact that elevators likely fail during a crisis, even if they're running, they are few and far between. Most buildings have fewer than eight, and many only have two."
"This means that once a zombie appears in an office building and isn't contained immediately, the people inside essentially have nowhere to run."
Of course, this was just Su Yan's personal speculation. As for whether he was right, he'd find out once they arrived at the scene.
As long as he expanded his En to sense the situation inside, the answer would come quickly.
But for now, Su Yan truly viewed the schools and offices of Tokonosu City as experience-grinding dungeons for the future.
"I see."
A look of realization dawned on Saeko's face, and she praised him. "You really are amazing, Su Yan. To be able to analyze it so clearly."
That said, because she lacked the context, Saeko didn't fully understand everything he said.
But it didn't matter. For her, having Su Yan by her side was enough.
Even the slaughter she had once craved most had become secondary to his presence.
Saeko spoke again, repeating her initial question. "So, is our next destination a school or an office building?"
"Neither," Su Yan said helplessly. "It's a gas station."
"A gas station?"
Saeko blinked.
She wondered if there were more zombies at a gas station than in the schools or offices he just described.
Su Yan pointed at the motorcycle beneath them and said with a sigh, "Because we're almost out of fuel. We urgently need to fill it up."
After riding all through the night and covering a fair distance this morning, the tank was finally running dry.
If they didn't find a gas station soon, he'd have to figure out a way to use his Manipulation abilities to power the bike with Nen.
It would be fine for a short while, but over a long period, the Nen consumption would be too high.
That would be a poor trade-off.
"Haha," Saeko chuckled dryly. "Is that the reason?"
She felt a bit embarrassed by her own internal assumptions.
Fortunately, Su Yan recalled the map of Tokonosu City he had memorized.
He remembered a gas station nearby.
They wouldn't have to wait until the bike died completely, saving him from having to drive it with Nen.
However, just as Su Yan pulled the motorcycle into the gas station...
The unexpected happened.
A group of thugs looking like street punks with dyed hair, carrying clubs or knives, surrounded them from various corners of the station.
"Talk about luck. We ran into a real beauty today," the green-haired leader muttered, staring at Saeko with eyes full of greed.
He then took a machete from one of his lackeys.
Walking up to Su Yan, he threatened him with a heavy, trilled accent. "Kid, you're lucky to be with such a babe. Leave the bike and the woman, and you can screw off. I won't kill you."
Seeing this, Saeko leaned in and whispered in Su Yan's ear, "Do you want me to handle them?"
Neither of them took these small-time thugs seriously.
"No, let me."
Su Yan shook his head, stopping Saeko.
He looked at the green-haired man blocking their path and said flatly, "You're right. I am lucky. But on the contrary, your luck is about to turn very sour."
Before this, Su Yan had been agonizing over how to find people and zombies to use as test subjects for the virus's infectivity.
He needed to know more about it to better avoid the possibility of getting infected later.
However, Su Yan still had his principles; he didn't want to just attack ordinary people for no reason.
But now, the test subjects had delivered themselves right to his door.
[Reviews - Power St0nes - Comments are highly appreciated to keep me going.....(+50 chapters) patre0n.c0m/talecrafter]