"Shitai." (Corpse) That was the authorities' newly adopted official term for these walking corpses.
She'd heard it on the radio.
The broadcast was still trying to soothe people, telling citizens not to panic, that things were "under control," and that everyone should hide for now and wait for rescue personnel.
"This kind of crap actually comes out of someone's mouth…" Saya really wanted to drag whoever was saying that out of the studio and throw them nearby, just so they could see what they were talking about.
Telling citizens to stay put, not run around, and wait for rescue was simply unacceptable.
It was nothing but lies—meant to slow the increase in bodies as much as possible.
And besides, citizens were all fleeing in a panic. That kind of chaos was probably convenient for certain people trying to escape.
The powerful and well-connected.
When those people got rescued, ordinary citizens would definitely swarm after them the moment they saw it.
After Saya spat out that complaint, she noticed the others looking at her oddly.
A flicker of irritation rose in her. She wanted to say that her family would never pull special strings, that her father and mother were definitely trying to save as many people as they could right now, and wouldn't divert massive resources just for their daughter.
But with everyone already holding a preconceived impression, any explanation would only be "believed" in a perfunctory way. She swallowed the words.
Hm?
There it was—the police station.
Out of the corner of her eye, she also looked at Rei. Her father worked at the police, so it wasn't exactly a coincidence they'd come here.
This branch station wasn't far from the river either, so after coming ashore, they decided to take a look.
And coming to the station might let them restock some firearms and ammunition.
After all, the ammunition they'd brought out from Shizuka-sensei's place was already significantly depleted.
That guy had been helping clear them out the whole time—forcing everyone to learn how to handle things themselves, pushing them to adapt to the apocalypse.
If they kept shrinking back in fear, a broken world like this would swallow them quickly.
One more thing: that Earth Elixir really did have a preventive effect against the Shitai viral infection.
Someone had been bitten by mistake while attacking a Shitai, yet up to now, nothing had happened.
Still, caution was necessary. It could be that the virus had simply been delayed.
They'd also run another test—forcing a dose onto someone who'd already turned into a Shitai. The person couldn't be saved, but the body did "revert" into a more normal corpse.
A corpse that truly didn't move.
After that, he even used the corpse's blood to feed other Shitai, testing whether any medicinal effect remained—whether it could "reverse-infect" them.
It was useless.
"Looks like it's been cleaned out." Saeko gave that assessment.
The chaos inside wasn't caused purely by the Shitai; there were clear signs of deliberate smashing and looting.
Most likely, rioters had come in and ransacked the place.
With the world collapsing, ethics and morality collapsed right along with it. On the way here, they'd already run into two groups of thugs.
The first group—he'd killed all of them without hesitation.
And now, Saeko realized she didn't even feel that post-kill panic or fear. As expected, she really was a bloodthirsty woman at her core.
The second group had been five people. She killed three. Alice's father killed one, and Hirano Kohta killed the last.
Those two still hadn't fully recovered from the shadow of killing.
She checked the livestream again. That progress bar had climbed noticeably—around thirty percent now.
"Boom—!"
A sudden, violent blast.
The station's glass shattered in response, and several people screamed.
Eyes widening, she saw another missile incoming—fired from an armed helicopter.
But it exploded midway as it closed the distance.
And Saeko immediately caught sight of that man—the one who didn't mind her obvious violent tendencies, the one who'd even openly admitted to his "special hobbies," and yet somehow made people feel safe.
He'd shot the missile down.
And with inhuman movements, he was already closing in on the helicopter.
"Ohhh! This time he's turned into Spider-Man!!!" Kohta screamed with fanatical eyes, staring at that figure.
Kohta was a military otaku through and through. He'd even done a month of firearms training with a private military company—Blackwater—so his knowledge and handling of guns was far beyond an ordinary person's.
And because he loved military action movies—special forces ops, explosions, Terminator-style blood-pumping scenes—he'd always yearned to become a superhero himself.
Now a "superhero" was right in front of him.
The man moved exactly like Spider-Man—running along walls and leaping between buildings, using grappling hooks fired from his gun-gauntlets to vault across the gaps.
It was absurdly exaggerated.
The armed helicopter that had attacked them couldn't stop him at all.
Then the AH-64 attack helicopter fired two more missiles at him.
"D-Did you see that?! This is the kind of plot that only exists in movies!" Kohta howled.
"Takagi, you all saw that, right?!"
Under normal circumstances, if that fat otaku screamed like this, Saya would've kicked him three times without thinking.
But in the face of what this apocalyptic super-soldier was doing, even she was momentarily stunned.
Not just her—everyone was staring, dumbstruck. The two missiles still couldn't get close before detonating.
The helicopter crew was completely panicking. As he drew nearer, they dumped everything they had left.
Fireballs bloomed across the sky, one after another.
In the end, maybe because the distance was too close—or because of the angle—both sides seemed to be swallowed by flame and black smoke. For a moment, everyone's nerves tightened.
But when the helicopter finally emerged from the smoke, they could ease up a little.
Because he was there—hanging onto the emptied missile rack.
Correction.
He'd flipped up onto the stub wing.
"Checkmate." Kohta snapped his fingers, grinning.
Truthfully, for someone with that ridiculous marksmanship and those special rounds, shooting down the AH-64 wouldn't have been hard at all.
He was clearly trying to capture them—interrogation.
He wanted to know exactly who was targeting them, where the enemy's nest was, and then kill his way through in one push.
Of course, if the helicopter had flown higher from the start, it might've escaped capture.
Unfortunately for them, they'd apparently used buildings as cover and taken a low, winding approach to avoid being spotted from far away—then launched their strike.
Hm?
The helicopter suddenly lost control and crashed toward a high-rise.
Kohta didn't look worried. That guy was the protagonist—how could he possibly die?
Sure enough, a figure burst out of the flames and smoke, carrying someone in his grip.
So, today's results:
One AH-64 attack helicopter brought down.
Three captives taken.
(End of Chapter)
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