-----
-----
"Mafuyu Kirisu, come take a bite out of me."
Julian walked up to Mafuyu and held out his hand.
Right now, Mafuyu was on the level of a mutated zombie. Way stronger than the average ones shambling around outside.
He wanted to see if her bite would still boost him.
"Huh?"
"Master, are you giving me a snack?"
Mafuyu's eyes lit up instantly.
Drinking blood wasn't exactly a pleasant experience, but it filled her up. That was what mattered.
"Just a small bite. Don't drink too much," Julian reminded her.
Crunch.
Mafuyu bit through his finger without hesitation.
She closed her eyes in clear satisfaction as she sucked at the blood.
Julian, on the other hand, felt a warm current of energy slip in through his fingertip and flow through his body.
It worked!
His eyes brightened.
After Mafuyu got stronger, her bite really did make him stronger too.
Which meant…
He could feed Mafuyu and Uzaki Hana, make them stronger.
Then have them bite him to make himself stronger.
A perfect power-up cycle.
Holy crap, this was broken.
If they kept this loop going for a while, he could practically strut sideways through the apocalypse.
Even mutated zombies wouldn't scare him.
"Master… I want a little too."
Seeing how happy Mafuyu looked, Hana shuffled closer, eyes full of longing.
Julian sighed. He couldn't say no to that expression. He held out another finger.
Crunch.
Hana bit down and started drinking.
This time, the energy that flowed into him was faint. Almost negligible.
Just as he thought.
The stronger the zombie, the more noticeable the boost.
At this point, if ordinary zombies bit him, it probably wouldn't do anything at all.
From now on, he'd focus on training these two little sidekicks.
After drinking for a bit, both girls looked noticeably more energetic.
Julian's heart skipped.
A bad feeling crept up on him.
"Oh no… I just screwed myself."
His face twitched.
He'd finally exhausted them earlier. Now he'd just fed them his blood and restored their stamina.
He'd basically dug a pit and jumped into it himself.
…
Before long, Julian was feeling that familiar ache in his lower back again.
Sure, he'd gotten stronger.
But so had the two of them.
This was not getting any easier.
And even though his physique had improved, his "output" still had limits.
Thankfully, the warehouse was stocked to the brim with supplies.
Abalone, sea cucumber, and all sorts of "tonic" ingredients were piled up in storage.
With Hana's cooking skills, those ingredients were put to good use.
After downing a whole pot of nourishing soup, Julian finally felt somewhat human again.
No. This couldn't continue unchecked.
They needed a plan.
"Mafuyu, make a schedule."
"Limit everyone's daily… sessions."
Julian gave the order.
Mafuyu nodded. She understood the importance of balancing work and rest.
"And when you're done, you and Hana go inventory the entire warehouse."
"Sort the food by expiration date."
In the apocalypse, resource management was everything.
A lot of people didn't die to zombies. They starved.
Even though this warehouse was packed with supplies, they still needed proper planning.
Short shelf-life items had to be eaten first.
Waste was unacceptable.
"Got it, Master!"
The two girls nodded.
At Julian's firm insistence, they had both changed into Mafuyu's cotton pajamas today.
They finally looked… somewhat normal.
The girls quickly went about their tasks.
Julian turned his attention back to fortifying the warehouse.
"Surveillance…"
"Yeah, I need to fix the surveillance."
After checking around, he found 24 interior cameras and 8 exterior ones.
The indoor ones were probably meant to stop employees from stealing. Completely useless now.
After some rearranging, Julian moved all 24 indoor cameras outside.
Now the entire perimeter of the warehouse, including the generator area, was covered with zero blind spots.
The supermarket's surveillance system was pretty advanced too. Night vision, motion detection alerts, the works.
With that set up, he could finally sleep at night without worrying.
Once the cameras were handled, he went back inside.
Originally, the feeds were connected to monitors in a separate control room.
There was no way he was going to sit in there all day.
He needed the feeds displayed in the main area.
Luckily, the appliance section was loaded with huge, bezel-less TVs.
Julian grabbed eight 80-inch sets and stacked them together into one massive display wall.
Each screen showed four camera feeds.
Just like that, a giant monitoring system was born.
"Master, that's huge!"
Hana happened to walk by during inventory and froze in shock.
The outside view was crystal clear.
"Master, why not build another big screen?" she suggested. "We could watch movies or something!"
Life in the warehouse would get boring fast if all they did was eat and… eat.
Julian nodded.
Not a bad idea.
If the girls had something to pass the time, he could get more rest too.
Building the entertainment screen was basically the same process.
For better viewing, he used nine big TVs in a 3-by-3 layout.
With a converter hooked up, any video source could be displayed on the giant screen.
Honestly, Sony TVs really did have amazing picture quality.
Before long, both Mafuyu and Hana wandered over, completely distracted from their work.
"Master, play something! Let's see how it looks!" Mafuyu urged.
Julian nodded and pulled out his iPad.
A tentacle-themed anime popped onto the screen.
The two girls stared, stunned.
Julian felt his face burn.
It seemed… he hadn't exactly loaded anything wholesome onto that iPad.
"....."