January 17
"Damn it. When did these things get here?"
Just moments ago, the outer rooftop levels had been completely empty. Now they were packed with grotesque infected.
The defensive network Kyoko had worked so hard to build on the ground was as solid as France's Maginot Line in World War II—formidable from the front, completely useless when the enemy went around it through Belgium.
Faced with dozens of hideously deformed infected rushing in, Kyoko did not panic and run blindly. She moved with purpose, dragging Brent—whose mind had recovered but whose body still had not fully restarted—into the first floor of the building.
What the hell were these things?
Their faces were viciously distorted. Leather-like wings gave them short-burst flight. Their bodies were unnaturally thin, so gaunt that their skeletons showed clearly through their skin, and in some places the bones had even burst out through the flesh, forming sharp protruding spikes.
And now these abominations were closing in on Kyoko and Brent.
You heard them before you truly saw them. That was one of their attack methods.
Specialized organs in their mouths gave them the ability to generate infrasound attacks. By emitting waves at certain frequencies, they could distort human hearing and induce hallucinations. If several of them gathered around a single target, they could assault the victim's consciousness directly, causing the brain and nervous system to short out in fragments.
That was what had happened to Brent just now. She had been struck by exactly that kind of attack, leaving her dazed and vacant, one step away from a full mental shutdown.
There was no piercing shriek to hear, and yet her head felt as though something invisible were hammering into it.
While Kyoko searched frantically for a favorable position to counterattack, the long-absent System Girl finally decided to show up again.
[Kyoko, who told you to stay up in the middle of the night and insist on finishing everything right now? See what happened? You've drawn in the fused infected from the nearby clusters.]
[I was going to make a mission out of this later, but the mission targets came to you on their own. So now you have to do it. I've already accepted it for you. Go hunt them down.]
"Then the next time there's a new mission, tell me before it gets here! I only brought three magazines—ninety rounds total—and you expect me to fight this many infected? Do you think I'm the protagonist of some soldier-king power fantasy?"
There was no point complaining now. She had to deal with the problem in front of her.
Because she hadn't brought the G18C as a sidearm, Kyoko had no choice but to hand one of her waist knives to Brent.
Precise semi-auto fire would be too slow. What she needed now was a violent burst of suppressive fire.
She switched the M4A1 to full-auto and leaned out from cover, venting both fury and ammunition at the oncoming infected.
Muzzle flashes strobed through the hallway, making the darkness pulse bright and dim. The relentless roar of gunfire shook the entire space. In the cramped terrain, some of the infected used their wings to slip in through the shattered windows on the second floor and invade Kyoko's position directly.
Glass exploded across the floor.
Kyoko wheeled around and fired at the ones breaching from the windows. Brent, armed only with a blade, stayed at Kyoko's back, covering her blind side and serving as her second pair of eyes.
The sonic attacks from the infected made it impossible for Kyoko to aim properly. Her control over automatic fire had never been good to begin with, and now she abandoned any hope of accuracy altogether.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The infected were shredded and thrown into confusion by the storm of bullets. Those unlucky enough to be hit wailed, stiffened, and then collapsed, only to be trampled underfoot by the others behind them.
The walls were instantly repainted with splattered dark-green fluid and a suffocating stench of blood.
The remaining ammunition vanished fast. Kyoko threw two empty thirty-round metal magazines to the floor without a second glance.
There was no time to worry about anything else. Reload. Now.
Retreating as she swapped magazines, Kyoko and Brent moved toward the stairs—but not upward. The staircases from the fourth to the sixth floors had already been destroyed.
They were heading for the basement.
That place was cramped, the corridors barely wide enough for two and a half people to walk abreast, and the layout twisted in all directions like a maze.
Ordinarily, the basement was just a cold, damp storage area where residents kept extra supplies, unused tools, and old furniture. No one lived there, and because no one lived there, infected rarely went there either.
Only something deranged would bother going into such an inconvenient place from outside.
And so, when forced to choose between running outdoors and diving into the basement, Kyoko chose the basement.
Huaxiu and the others were still upstairs. Kyoko wanted to lure these monsters somewhere else.
She had already installed iron security grilles over the windows on her own floor and the nearby ones, but creatures capable of using infrasound for mental assault were too dangerous to leave anywhere near the upper levels.
Bringing them into the basement was safer.
After all, Huaxiu's group did not have enough combat power to offer meaningful support from above. If a rocket or a crossbow bolt missed its mark and hit Kyoko or Brent instead, that would be the end of it.
And once they were outside, the advantage would no longer be theirs. With the rifle's ammunition running out, and with the infected able to come from the air, melee combat alone would be hopeless.
During Kyoko's brief gap in fire, the surviving fused infected charged like maddened beasts.
"Hurry! Lock the door and get down to the basement first!"
Still gripping her rifle, Kyoko shouted at Brent.
These fused infected did not seem very durable. Their wing membranes tore like rags once the 6.8mm rounds punched through them, hanging uselessly from the bone.
But driven into a frenzy, red-eyed and numb to pain, they kicked through the flimsy protective door anyway—
and began pursuing Kyoko and Brent into the basement.
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 126)
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 (Chapter130)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter89)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter157)
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 133
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 125
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 84
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 143
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 115
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 99
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 53
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 75
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 66
Uma Musume: From Beginner 75
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 52
Uma Musume: I Want All 51
I Can Copy Unique Skills 53
A Guide to Aid in the Underwor 26
Summoning an Evil God, but the 27
Supernatural Multiverse 27
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