Day Three of the Dead Body Virus Outbreak
Yakan awoke to find Miyamoto Rei, who should have been resting as an injured patient, already up before him. She stood alone in the kitchen, stirring a large pot of curry.
"Morning, Rei." "Ah? Yakan! Good morning!"
After a night's rest, Rei's complexion was significantly better than the day before. Her walking posture showed almost no sign of her recent leg injury.
"Your leg... it's fine?" "Mhm. I don't know why it healed so quickly, but it's not a problem anymore. I just can't overuse the Acceleration."
"Acceleration?" Yakan blinked in surprise.
"Like this..."
Rei stepped out from behind the counter, took a deep breath, and bent her knees slightly into a sprinter's stance.
Suddenly, her figure transformed into a stream of light, shooting forward with such speed that even Yakan's 400-point spiritual attribute could only barely track a blur. Reacting instinctively to the sudden movement, Yakan raised his hand defensively.
Thump.
A pair of remarkably elastic mounds collided firmly with his palm.
"Eek!" Rei gasped, leaping back half a step. She wrapped her arms tightly across her chest, her face a mix of embarrassment and indignation. She couldn't rightly blame him—she had moved without warning, and his hand had come up purely by reflex. It couldn't be called intentional... probably. If you ignored the slight squeeze that followed, anyway.
"Impressive!" Yakan gave a thumbs-up, flashing a textbook eight-and-a-half-tooth smile. He clarified quickly, "The ability, I mean."
Rei flushed crimson, words failing her. Her chest heaved with agitated breaths, creating a distinctly alluring undulation beneath her shirt.
Yakan smoothly defused the awkwardness, crossing his arms thoughtfully. "So, this is your Awakened Ability?"
"Ability?" Rei looked puzzled, clearly unfamiliar with the concept of what had happened to her. "I was just using my spear technique against the Dead Bodies... thinking 'Faster, faster!' Then... I suddenly was faster..."
"Indeed. Very fast," Yakan nodded. Rei's ability reminded him strangely of a sword technique from an old domestic film – 'Ten Steps, One Kill.' Within ten paces, none could stand against it.
Given the speed Rei had just displayed, a sudden attack launched within that distance would be nearly impossible to evade, even with his quadruple-normal reaction time. Combined with Rei's expertise in long-reach polearms like her spear, her effective striking range extended far beyond ten paces. Discounting firearms, her current combat prowess rivaled that of elite first-tier players.
"Oh? Curry for breakfast?" The aroma seemed to have roused even Jabuki Sayaka, who rarely rose early. She shuffled into the kitchen, sleep-tousled, wearing only a long white shirt that barely covered her hips, her long legs completely bare and distractingly pale.
"Hey, Jabuki-sensei! Could you pay a little attention to how you dress before leaving your room?" Rei sighed in exasperation.
"What's wrong with how I'm dressed?" Jabuki blinked, then held out her arms and looked down. A realization dawned, and she lifted the hem of her shirt triumphantly. "Look! I wore shorts underneath today!"
Rei breathed a small sigh of relief. Oh, she's covered... Wait a minute! Why did that statement suddenly feel deeply unsettling?
Soon after, Majou and the others emerged from their rooms, gathering silently in the dining area for breakfast. The mood was heavy; the grim news of the two red system warnings – the deaths and subsequent Bossification of Shiri Airisu and Hirano Kouta – clearly weighed on everyone. Only Ross seemed oblivious to the tension.
"Curry? Ugh. Back in college, I had this exchange student roommate from India. Couldn't stand the cafeteria food, so he cooked curry in our dorm constantly. At first, it was kinda cool, authentic, y'know? Then it was every damn day. We swore we'd rather starve than eat another bite of curry..." Ross prattled on, oblivious.
"Shut up! Eat!" Sapphire snapped, glaring daggers at him.
Ross instantly wilted. He looked mournfully at the plate of yellow-brown sludge before him, scooped a reluctant spoonful, and shoved it into his mouth. His eyes widened slightly. "...Huh. It's actually delicious!"
As Rei and Jabuki went to fetch more rice, Yakan discreetly deployed his [USS Micro Recon Drone] and pulled Majou and the others into a private comms channel.
Ross: "Hey! I can talk again!" [Ross has been muted by Administrator Yakan for one hour] Majou: "..." Sapphire: "o(￣▽￣)d Thumbs Up" Knuckle: "+1"
"Those two system prompts," Yakan initiated, his voice low and serious over the comms. "You've all seen them. Thoughts?"
"Expected, yet unexpected," Knuckle summarized succinctly.
Expected referred to Shiri Airisu's Bossification. With her notoriously high difficulty to find, protect, and her high point coefficient – the dreaded "Triple High" – every player team had abandoned her. Her becoming the first Boss was inevitable.
Unexpected was Hirano Kouta's fate. The otaku wasn't some helpless student. Give him a gun, and even the NPC powerhouse Jabami Mitsuko might hesitate to face him head-on. Protected by several squads of players, even encountering a horde of a thousand Dead Bodies should have allowed escape at worst.
The timing of both Bossifications pointed to one grim conclusion: Hirano Kouta's protection team had encountered the newly Bossified Shiri Airisu.
This was catastrophic news for their small team.
"So... do we still head for Minami Rika's villa?" Sapphire's voice was thick with apprehension.
Everyone knew Shiri Airisu's Boss spawn point was near that villa. Sticking to their original plan meant an almost guaranteed confrontation with the Bossified little girl. Now, compounded by a Bossified Hirano Kouta? For their limited combat strength, it spelled near-certain annihilation.
"Actually... I think we should go." Yakan stated before objections could arise.
He continued firmly over the comms, "The system only states Bossified NPCs can sense other NPCs. It doesn't specify the range of that sense. If the range is large enough... avoiding the area won't save us forever. It will find us eventually."