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"Hana, is dinner ready yet?"
"Master should be hungry!"
Mafuyu reminded her from the side.
"Ah! Right!"
"I've got to go cook!"
Hana bolted for the kitchen like she was fleeing a crime scene.
She'd gotten so absorbed watching videos earlier that she'd completely forgotten about making dinner.
Julian walked over to the screen and turned on the computer, planning to check if there was any news online.
As soon as it booted up, the minimized video player popped back onto the screen.
Well… now he knew exactly why Hana hadn't made dinner yet.
He closed the player and opened a browser instead.
Lately, the most talked-about site online… well, maybe not most talked about, but at least getting a decent amount of traffic… was a website called Night Forum.
It had been created by a die-hard apocalypse enthusiast.
The site existed even before the zombie virus outbreak. Back then it was just a small forum for discussing zombie movies and games. But over the past few days, it had turned into a gathering place for survivors.
[Help! There's a beautiful girl in the building across from me asking for help. Should I go over and save her?]
"OP should focus on surviving himself. Staying alive is hard enough these days, and you're thinking about helping someone else?"
"I support the OP going. We're probably dead anyway. If you can have a little fun before dying, why not?"
"What if it's a trap? She lures you over, robs you of all your supplies, then throws you to the zombies."
"The guy above is a genius. That actually gives me an idea."
Julian clicked into the thread at random and saw dozens of comments.
The original poster had basically run into the exact same situation he had before.
Well… good luck to him.
After all, not everyone manages to become the hero.
Elsewhere on the forum, some users had posted detailed information about zombies.
Their habits, traits, weaknesses… all listed out seriously, like a survival guide.
Julian skimmed through it.
Some of it actually made sense.
Looks like the guy who wrote it had really put some time into studying the topic.
It wasn't particularly useful for Julian, but for other survivors, it could definitely be a handy little survival tip.
As he kept browsing, Julian suddenly noticed something surprising.
A mutated zombie had appeared in a city to the south.
And it had only been a few days since the outbreak!
Apparently it escaped from a hospital. It was incredibly fast and had insane jumping ability.
Even if people hid inside their homes, it could smash through the door and get in easily.
Now the survivors in that city were terrified. Many were thinking about fleeing somewhere else.
Of course, leaving the house these days took a lot of courage.
"I wonder what things are like in N City right now," Julian muttered.
At this rate, he really needed to move to Donghu Island as soon as possible.
It wasn't that he was afraid of mutated zombies.
With his strength plus the two little followers tagging along, what mutated zombie couldn't they handle?
The problem was that once mutated zombies started appearing, infrastructure and resources in many cities would gradually get destroyed.
The fragile balance between humans and zombies would collapse.
Soon enough, even going out to scavenge supplies might become impossible.
Yeah… they really needed to get moving.
Julian kept browsing until he found the N City section of the forum.
There weren't many posts, but since it was about his own city, he was pretty interested.
[Food shortage! Someone please save me!]
"Who isn't short on food these days?"
"Exactly. I've only got one last can left."
[I think a zombie crawled into the water tower on our building. I'm too scared to use the water now. I'm dying of thirst!]
"You should still drink it. Builds immunity."
"Boil it first. Probably still safe."
[There seems to be a survivor camp at the gymnasium of Xiaoshi Elementary School. They're giving out food. Planning to go check it out tomorrow!]
This post caught Julian's attention.
Wasn't that Nanami Kento's camp?
So it had already started attracting attention.
If too many people showed up, the thousand jin of food they'd brought probably wouldn't be enough.
"Is it real? Is it a government-run camp?"
"Do you actually get food if you go? I might check it out tomorrow too."
"I've got enough food at home for two more days. After that I'll go take a look."
"Yeah. Better than sitting at home waiting to die."
There were over fifty replies.
Most people were clearly tempted by the idea of a camp giving out free food.
In times like this, once people ran out of food, they'd risk anything just to try their luck.
Looks like Nanami Kento and his group were about to have a headache.
[Friend recommended The Last of Us Part II. Anyone have the game disc? I'll trade a gold bar for it!]
This post practically screamed Asuka's personal style.
Julian checked the poster's username.
Sure enough, it had the character "Asuka" in it.
Definitely that little loli Asuka.
But the post was from last night.
Back then her PS4 hadn't broken yet, right…?
Oh right.
He'd taken her Hammer of Destruction earlier, so he still owed her a PS4 and an RTX 2080 Ti graphics card.
As he scrolled further down, another post made Julian's whole body stiffen.
[Anyone want to team up to search the Convention and Exhibition Center for food? They just held an agricultural products expo there.]
Julian frowned deeply.
The Exhibition Center…
That place left a deep impression on him.
That was where he'd been surrounded by hundreds of zombies… before he somehow traveled back.
Thinking about it now, with all his survival experience, there was no way he would've been careless enough to walk straight into a trap like that.
Someone must have set him up.
Exactly.
In the apocalypse, when two groups ran into each other at a supply point, some people would deliberately lure zombies toward the other group.
Let them get surrounded and draw the zombies' attention.
That way they could search the area for supplies without interference.
Julian vaguely remembered seeing someone there that day.
There had been a person with a streak of white-dyed hair.
If someone really had screwed him over…
That guy was the most likely suspect.
"Damn it…"
"If I run into him this time, I don't care whether he actually betrayed me or not."
"I'm killing him first."
Julian muttered under his breath.
Just then—
"Master, dinner's ready!"
Hana walked over carrying a plate of grilled chicken steak with mushroom spaghetti.
The smell alone was amazing.
After a whole day of running around, a good meal felt like pure heaven.
Mafuyu even thoughtfully brought over a bottle of ice-cold beer.
Julian casually put on a mystery movie and started eating while watching.
Meanwhile, Hana quietly pulled Mafuyu aside.
"Mafuyu… um…"
"I accidentally knocked over the stock we collected yesterday."
In the end, Hana decided to come clean.
"Knocked it over? The red bottle?"
Mafuyu asked.
Hana shook her head.
"…Sigh."
"Forget it. We'll just collect more later."
Mafuyu sighed.
Still… what a waste.
"Since it fell on the ground, it should still be edible, right?" Mafuyu asked after a moment.
"I grabbed a little."
"But most of it was eaten by… Goldie."
Hana looked embarrassed.
"Goldie?!"
Mafuyu glanced at the little golden retriever stuck close beside Julian.
So there was another food thief now?
No way that was happening.
Looks like from now on, Goldie would need some proper training.
As a golden retriever, it needed to understand something important.
Dogs aren't supposed to eat everything. 🐶
"....."