January 16
In urban combat, a sniper has to relocate as quickly as possible. Staying in one place too long makes it easy for the enemy's snipers to focus fire on you, and in a worse scenario, artillery saturation soon follows.
Kyoko had already moved on from the small mid-rise building she had used a moment ago. The people on the other side did not have long-range firearms, and the infected that had been spraying corrosive liquid at her had already been sent to meet God by her 6.8mm rounds.
With the long-range threat gone, Kyoko began reloading her magazines. Because she was rushing, several rounds failed to seat properly, and by the time she finished, her thumb was aching badly.
Dumping rounds on full-auto felt exhilarating, but the quiet labor of stuffing magazines afterward was miserable. Kyoko was suffering and enjoying herself at the same time.
The people wearing the six-pointed-star insignia had been pinned down by her fire and forced back into the school building. The other survivors they had been chasing had retreated into the administration building of Kyoko's high school.
Outside, apart from those who had fallen and not quite died yet, groaning in agony on the ground, nothing else was moving. The colored smoke from the airdrop was gradually thinning. No one had gone near it yet, leaving the drop's eager welcome utterly wasted.
"These scum. Working together with the infected to slaughter their fellow humans. Unforgivable."
Just thinking about the way those bastards had controlled the infected to hunt ordinary survivors made Kyoko burn with fury. The enemy side probably had nothing left now except a few pistols. She was going to take the initiative and wipe them out.
The main school gate was guarded by dozens of infected. Kyoko only had three magazines left on her, plus twenty loose backup rounds. Her rifle ammunition was running low, and her sidearm had to be reserved for sudden close-range fighting. A direct assault on the gate was impossible.
She needed another way in, some weaker point in the defenses.
Thinking back over her old school grounds, she quickly found the answer. There was a low section of wall near the back gate by the garbage disposal area, a spot discovered long ago by clever students. The wall there was short, and once over it, the annex building was only four meters away. She could slip inside almost immediately.
Kyoko Moves In
"Boss Okada, that woman has vanished. What do we do now?"
A scar-faced man stood on a desk, peering through the privacy glass and scanning the area, unable to find any trace of Kyoko. He turned anxiously to another man nearby, one who looked pale and weak.
"What do we do? You tell me what we do! We're down to fewer than twenty infected under control, and the only Spitter's dead. You want to stay here and trade pistol fire with someone carrying a full-auto rifle?"
The weak man clutched at the coat already soaked through with blood. A bullet had not hit him directly, but the shattered glass it threw off had slammed into his abdomen.
The wound was still bleeding. Gritting his teeth, he had yanked the larger shards out of his flesh himself before wrapping it up with bandages.
Right now, he was the one most desperate to flee. But he had to make the others take him with them. If he had to rely on himself alone, he might as well stay and wait for a bullet.
"What about the mission the higher-ups gave us? They ordered the field teams to wipe out every last survivor in Fukushima Prefecture."
Another man holding a police-issue Nambu pistol spoke irritably, his tone stiff.
Inside, the wounded Okada cursed. His life was hanging by a thread already. What use was completing the mission if he died doing it? He had joined the Apostle Organization with his boss and crew precisely so he could survive.
Faced with the ill-intentioned questioning of the pistol man, who was not truly one of them, Okada forced himself to sound calm and rational.
"The enemy has a fully automatic rifle. Kojirou and Shinshuu got dropped in a few shots. That means her marksmanship is solid. We only have three pistols. We can't win."
"Yeah, Boss, let's pull out! More than half our people have already been lost this week. The people above us don't treat field operatives like human beings. I know a side passage behind the school. Let's run!"
"Fine. Then we leave. Lucky for those unbelievers that they get to keep their lives a little longer. We'll take them later."
Seeing both men agree on retreat, the pistol man gave up on clinging to the mission. The mission belonged to the organization. His life belonged to him. He, too, agreed to flee.
His consent delighted the other two. They decided to use the infected as cover and make their escape behind them.
Using the genetic serum issued by the organization to low-level commanders, Okada still retained some ability to interfere with the infected. He directed the remaining few dozen to serve as living shields.
The three of them slowly moved out through the stairwell into the next building over—the annex. It happened to line up perfectly with Kyoko's route.
They were walking straight into her gun sights.
Kyoko's Side
Entering the school she had not seen in so long, Kyoko felt as if she were returning home. The campus layout was so familiar that there was no chance of losing her way.
She chose to enter the annex by the side staircase, prioritizing entry from a higher floor instead of using doors and windows where the enemy could have set an ambush.
From there she intended to cross the elevated corridor into the classroom building where those people had been hiding and finish them off.
There were no signs of infected or recent human activity in the annex. It was winter break, so all teachers and students were gone, and only a few staff would ever have stayed behind. After the outbreak, there was no reason for anyone to come here anyway. There were no supplies worth taking.
"I need to hurry. What are those bastards doing now?"
Through the stairwell window, Kyoko saw infected gathering around the classroom building. The people controlling them were probably planning to use them as cover while escaping.
As if she would let that happen.
She had initially thought about simply opening fire, but then she noticed those people were actually moving toward her position.
Kyoko grinned.
That made things easier.
If they came close enough, she could ambush them here and wipe them all out in one go.
Before long, the men and the infected reached the suspended aerial corridor. Kyoko pulled out an MK3A2 grenade and silently repeated the two-second rule.
"Pull the pin, wait two seconds before throwing."
By the time she finished saying it, two seconds had passed. Then she hurled the grenade with all her strength, startling them badly.
The scar-faced man at the front saw something roll onto the floor. He stared at it for half a heartbeat, then panic exploded across his face.
"Wha— A grenade! Down!"
Too late.
Before he could finish, the grenade went off. The high-temperature, high-pressure gas from the blast wave tore him apart, sending blood and meat flying. The infected around him were killed too. The grenade had done excellent work—enough to blow these people to pieces, but not enough to compromise the building's structural safety.
Kyoko had already dropped prone before the detonation. The instant the blast ended, she rushed forward, switching to precise semi-automatic fire and putting accurate shots into every enemy still on the ground.
Just as she was finishing them off, a weak male voice called out from the wreckage.
"We surrender... cough... stop shooting..."
Okada had been behind Scarface, supported by an infected, so he had escaped immediate death. The pistol man, on the other hand, had been blasted apart from the waist down and was dead beyond all question.
Okada did not want to die like this. He had not had enough of living yet. Covered in blood, his voice raspy like torn cloth, he begged Kyoko to spare him.
Kyoko currently lacked information on these people, so she decided one prisoner might be useful.
Well, she could play with him a little first, see whether he had any tricks left. No need to worry—once she squeezed out everything useful, she would kill him anyway. Every extra second someone like this stayed alive was a disaster for human society.
"Take off everything you're carrying. Don't move!"
She aimed her rifle at the fallen Okada and ordered him not to make a single suspicious move. With no one to watch her back, Kyoko was extremely cautious. Her finger rested on the trigger. One wrong twitch, and she would execute him on the spot.
"I... I can't... move anymore. I can't stand..."
"Is that so? You can still talk. Tell me who you are. Maybe I'll let you go."
Her tone was very gentle. Kyoko was disgusted with herself for it. No matter—she was going to silence him later anyway.
"Spare me... I'm... an external operative... sent here by the higher-ups... to purge the survivors in Fukushima... cough... that's all I know..."
"How are you controlling the infected?"
"The organization injected me... with some kind of serum. I don't know how it works..."
"I see. Then I'll give you a quick death. Saves you the trouble of an amputation."
That was enough. Kyoko could already tell he had nothing more worth extracting. Time to send him on to the next world and spare him the pain of lingering in that half-destroyed state.
A gunshot rang out.
Okada collapsed into his own blood.
Now it was time for Kyoko to go meet the survivors who had just been hunted.
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 115)
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 (Chapter116)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter82)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter144)
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 118
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 111
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 80
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 112
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 95
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 89
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 53
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 61
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 65
Uma Musume: From Beginner 61
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 37
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