"No, actually, this is just about perfect."
Leo smiled—but the smile froze the moment he looked outside the door.
Because what had arrived wasn't just one or two zombies.
It was a dense mass of them—dozens upon dozens.
"Uh… looks like we really are going to have to seriously criticize your mistake later."
Despite the sheer number of zombies outside, Leo wasn't worried at all. These zombies weren't like the ones at night—no berserk speed, no terrifying agility. They were still shambling forward at a slow, dragging pace.
More importantly, there was only one path in.
The front door.
"Come on…"
Leo took a deep breath. As long as the door didn't fall, he'd only ever be facing one zombie at a time. As long as he didn't panic, things would be manageable.
The real issue was that these American-style houses were wooden. Not very sturdy. He was worried the doors and windows wouldn't hold.
And right as that thought crossed his mind, the wooden windows shattered as arms punched straight through them. One after another, zombie arms thrust into the room.
And unlike zombies from many other worlds, the zombies here could climb.
He'd noticed it earlier when the wolves had drawn them out, but he hadn't expected them to manage it even during the slow-moving daytime.
Zombies began entering through both the windows and the front door. Leo twitched the corner of his mouth.
"Erina, you take the windows. I'll handle the door. If things go bad, shout and we retreat!"
With that, Leo rushed forward. His axe came down hard on the skull of a staggering zombie.
The fragile, half-rotted skull split open instantly. This one was clearly in poor condition—its body already showed heavy decay—so it dropped fast.
Realizing this, Leo didn't hesitate. He pulled out his hammer and smashed it down onto another zombie's head, knocking it flat and blocking the ones behind it, causing the next zombie to trip and fall.
Leo stepped on the first zombie's head, yanked out his axe, and split the fallen zombie's skull with a single blow, ending it completely.
With no second zombie rushing in yet, Leo glanced toward Erina.
He'd expected hesitation.
Instead, what he saw shocked him.
Facing a zombie trying to crawl in through the window, Erina swung her axe with perfect form, cleanly severing its neck and sending the head flying.
She then reversed her grip, drove a kitchen knife straight into another zombie's throat, and sliced cleanly across. Blood sprayed—but not a single drop touched her.
With a light flick, the zombie's head tilted aside and it lost all ability to move.
Leo froze for a split second.
The smooth, flowing movements. The lack of hesitation. The sheer precision. Even decapitating zombies without getting blood on herself.
It left him dumbfounded.
Then he snapped back to reality, narrowly dodging another zombie's lunge and smashing its neck from behind with his axe, splattering blood all over himself.
Seeing this, Erina shouted.
"What are you staring at?! Why are you spacing out?! I'm a chef, you know! Of course I know how to use knives!"
Right. Yeah.
Leo felt the fatigue in his arms, then looked at Erina—now in rhythm—swinging her axe three times in succession, cleanly taking three heads, not even breathing hard.
An idea popped into his mind.
This girl…
Is she stronger than me?
Speed, agility, timing, precision—she beat him in all of it.
She was still scared, sure. Her mentality hadn't fully adapted yet. But her actual combat ability was undeniably above his.
"This is really…"
At first it felt absurd. Then it made sense.
Erina was a rich young lady. A blonde tsundere. A picky eater.
But there was one undeniable fact.
She was a chef.
And not just any chef—a top-tier one.
She could flip iron woks with ease. In modern professions, chefs were probably the most proficient with bladed weapons when it came to cutting flesh.
Even so-called swordsmen couldn't match a chef's mastery of knives when it came to precision cutting.
Chefs… the true cold-weapon masters of the modern era?
That thought alone nearly broke Leo.
He shook it off as another zombie entered range and buried his axe in its skull again.
Brain matter and blood burst out. Leo gasped for breath.
Even rotten flesh took stamina to hack through. For an injured office worker like him, endurance was a real issue.
"I can't lose to her!"
After a brief pause, Leo swung again, dropped another zombie, then crushed its head on the ground, flexing his arms afterward.
Then a thought hit him.
He opened the game interface again.
He wanted to see how much EXP one zombie gave.
The instant the interface appeared, Leo chopped down the next zombie. Numbers jumped at the corner of his vision.
+1250 EXP.
The experience bar surged forward, just shy of leveling up.
"So nine zombies would be enough to make Erina a player? No… the required EXP must've dropped, since Erina didn't—huh?"
Leo looked over again—and froze.
In just that short time, more than a dozen zombie heads had piled up at Erina's feet.
She still wasn't even breathing hard. No blood on her. Nothing.
The zombies had some intelligence—they shoved aside fallen bodies to get through.
But not much.
They kept sticking their heads in first, trying to crawl through with stiff limbs—basically handing Erina free decapitations.
The window had become a highly efficient zombie guillotine.
So how exactly were you getting chased around by a few zombies earlier?
Watching this brutal efficiency, Leo genuinely couldn't understand. With combat ability like this, even he wouldn't stand a chance against her.
"So how does a body like that generate this much power?"
He didn't get it—but he kept swinging anyway.
With Erina constantly thinning the herd, Leo's pressure at the door stayed manageable. Unfortunately, the zombies didn't believe in orderly queues. They pounded the walls and circled the house, searching for other ways in.
As Leo dropped another zombie, a skeletal arm suddenly punched through the wall beside the door, smashing rotten planks apart and widening the opening.
Not enough to breach fully—but enough to send a warning.
These houses were not suitable as shelters.
If they wanted a real base, steel and concrete were the only answers.
Still…
Leo split another skull.
"No idea whether this world has zombies that can dig through concrete—or monsters that can straight-up ignore bullets."
He couldn't be sure. He was still learning how this world worked. He'd already seen guns and ammo for sale at the merchant, which meant firearms weren't rare.
So the question was—
Would the game really be this easy?
Leo didn't think so.
He kept swinging.
Another zombie fell.
He leveled up.
But there was no stamina refill. No health recovery. No status cleanse.
He was still tired. Still hungry. Still worn down.
He didn't even know what leveling up actually did—and right now, he didn't have time to care.
Finally, when the last zombie collapsed, both Leo and Erina let out long breaths.
Leo's arms were burning, barely able to lift anymore. He looked at Erina, who was finally starting to show signs of fatigue.
"Do we move, or rest here for a bit?"
Erina shook her head irritably. After a few breaths, her face turned pale.
The stench of rot and blood churned her stomach. She waved her hand and walked straight outside.
During the fight she hadn't noticed—but now the smell was unbearable.
Leo didn't like it here either. He'd only stayed because he was too tired to risk moving earlier.
But if Erina wanted to leave, they'd leave.
He followed her—but just as they were about to exit through the back door, Erina froze.
Leo was about to ask why when the door in front of her opened by itself—without anyone touching it.
"Oh? So you got the system too?"
He'd expected it, but seeing it happen still gave Leo a strange feeling.
Relief—and a bit of emptiness.
"Yes… I got it too. But is this really not a hallucination?"
Erina looked like her worldview was collapsing. The door kept opening and closing in front of her like a haunted scene.
"But it lets us survive."
Leo wanted to pat her head, but looking at his blood-covered hands, he stopped.
"Oh, right. Check your status panel too. See if you've got anything like 'treated infection.' Just press B in your head."
Erina did as told—but shook her head afterward.
"No. Just a treated abrasion, hunger, and thirst. Nothing else."
"…Ah."
Leo twitched.
He hadn't expected this.
Erina wasn't infected at all.
"No, wait. She had fever and dizziness earlier—that was her immune system working. So… her immunity's just better than mine?"
That realization left him speechless.
Then again—it made sense.
She ate high-quality food every day. Proper nutrition. Training. Even had a secretary specializing in medicinal cuisine.
Meanwhile, he lived on takeout, sat in an office all day, barely saw sunlight.
Of course her constitution beat his.
"If that's the case, then you don't have my problem, Erina."
Leo smiled helplessly and stepped outside.
Erina didn't quite understand why he looked a little down—but she followed close beside him anyway.
"Perverted old man! Do you think we can go back?"
She grabbed his clothes. Even after chopping off over a dozen zombie heads, her hands were still spotless. Unlike Leo's—covered in blood and grime.
Leo wiped his hands with scraps of cloth and shook his head.
"No idea. Whoever threw us here, who knows what they want. If it's a trial, maybe we can leave after clearing it. Or maybe we're stuck forever. And what's with 'old man'? I'm not that old!"
He tried to protest.
Erina stuck out her cute pink tongue—then immediately pulled it back in because of the corpse stench.
"Because you're really perverted! Stripping my clothes is one thing, but you even did that to that scary merchant!"
Thinking about Leo grabbing the merchant's chest earlier made Erina angry all over again.