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Shiro clearly didn't understand human nature very well yet.
But Julian did—and the situation he predicted was very likely to happen.
Whenever a group decides to do something immoral, they won't allow anyone inside the group to stay "clean."
"Here's what we'll do," Julian said.
"Take these bananas back and hand them out yourself. Get on good terms with them."
"Also keep an eye out for which guards actually have decent character—those who don't want to go along with the others."
"If they start planning something, pretend to go along with them and notify me as soon as possible."
"I'll come handle it when the time comes."
Julian said it all with a faint smile.
The East Lake Villa district was one of the territories he planned to turn into his colony. He couldn't let those security guards mess things up.
Of course, conquering the place outright required the right moment.
If he just charged in now, everyone there would only see him as some kind of monster.
No—the best time to act would be when the guards began slaughtering the residents.
Then he could appear as a savior, wipe out the guards, and rule with both kindness and authority.
That way he could take control of the whole place much more smoothly.
After all, a colony needed workers. People had to believe in him first.
"Alright! I'll do whatever you say, bro!" Shiro nodded firmly.
Surviving these days was incredibly hard. There was no way he could manage alone.
Listening to Julian was clearly the better choice.
Once everything was arranged, Julian drove Shiro back to the villa district.
Next on his list was N University—he needed to search for seeds and fruit saplings.
But just after the car hit the road, Julian suddenly received a call from Nanami Kento.
"Brother Julian, help! Please!"
Kento sounded panicked. Something serious had clearly happened.
"What's going on?" Julian asked.
"Amano! The guy who went with us to the vault and ran away halfway through!"
"He turned into a zombie—and he brought hundreds of zombies to attack our gymnasium!"
"We can't hold out much longer!"
Kento spoke in a rush.
"I'll be there in ten minutes."
Julian hung up immediately.
Gas. Clutch. Gear.
The car shot forward, the speed jumping straight to 80 km/h.
"Leading hundreds of zombies to attack…"
"If he can control regular zombies, then Amano definitely isn't an ordinary one."
"At the very least, he's a mutated zombie with some level of power."
"Interesting."
Julian didn't particularly care about the people in the camp. They weren't friends or family.
But having Kento owe him a favor? That was worthwhile.
After all, Kento was destined to become one of the strongest people in N City.
Julian focused on the road, and it didn't take long before he reached the side gate of the Primary School.
Even from a distance, he could see it clearly.
Hundreds of zombies swarmed toward the gymnasium like a black tide.
They were climbing, crashing against the walls, piling over one another.
Quite a few had already broken inside.
The situation in there was probably complete chaos.
"Mafuyu, let's go mow some grass," Julian said.
He grabbed his Tang sword and jumped out of the car with Mafuyu.
What followed looked straight out of a Dynasty Warriors battlefield.
Zombie heads and limbs flew through the air one after another.
Not a single zombie could stop Julian or Mafuyu.
After all, the two of them had grown much stronger over the past couple of days.
Soon, a bloody path was carved straight through the swarm.
Julian and Mafuyu fought their way directly into the gymnasium.
"Brother Julian—you're here!"
Kento and the others were instantly energized.
Several people had followed Julian to raid the vault before. They knew very well how terrifying his strength was.
And the fact that he'd just cut his way through hundreds of zombies to get inside the gym? That said everything.
Julian glanced around.
Nearly a hundred zombie corpses already littered the floor. Some of them had probably been people from the camp who'd been bitten and turned.
The elderly, women, and children had retreated to a corner.
Their eyes were filled with terror.
As for the people still fighting with weapons…
There were fewer than fifty left.
It looked like the camp had already lost about half its people.
"Ah—I can't take this anymore!"
One young man suddenly broke down mentally. He threw away his weapon and ran straight into the zombie crowd.
Within seconds, the surrounding zombies tore him apart.
There wasn't even enough left of him to turn into a zombie.
"Behind us are the elderly and the children!" Kento shouted.
"Everyone, find your courage and fight them!"
Several women in the corner stood up as well, grabbing weapons and joining the battle.
The fighting erupted again.
With Julian and Mafuyu's overwhelming strength supporting them, the number of zombies inside the gym steadily dropped.
Before long, even the zombies at the entrance stopped charging in and retreated a little.
Apparently, even they couldn't keep feeding themselves into the grinder at that rate.
Finally, the people inside the gym got a chance to catch their breath.
Julian looked around again.
Counting the women, there were only about forty people still standing.
In the corner were another twenty or so elderly and children.
This battle had wiped out nearly two-thirds of the camp.
"Damn it…"
"Amano, that bastard—even after turning into a zombie he came back to take revenge on us."
Kento wiped the blood off his body.
He was covered in wounds.
Originally, he'd assumed that after fighting for so long he'd inevitably turn into a zombie.
But surprisingly, the virus hadn't affected him at all.
Could it be that after becoming what Julian called an Awakened, he'd become immune?
That would be fantastic.
It meant he could fight much more aggressively from now on.
"Everyone else take a break first!"
"Ryuji! Takeshi! Shimada! Makoto!"
"You four—come here."
Kento called a few of his men over to Julian.
"Brother Julian, there's no time for polite thanks right now. I'll thank you properly later."
"Yesterday I had more than a dozen of my guys chew on some gold."
"During the fight just now, four of them awakened."
"The others… maybe their bodies just weren't strong enough."
"Also, I noticed something. After awakening, if zombies scratch us, we don't seem to turn."
Kento shared all his discoveries.
"Probably because awakening strengthens the body enough to resist the virus," Julian said, nodding.
He wondered if Asuka—who had awakened after drinking his blood—was immune too.
Another thing was now completely confirmed.
Gold really could help trigger awakening.
Although it didn't work for everyone.
"So what do we do now, Brother Julian?" Kento asked anxiously.
"They've pulled back for now, but they're still blocking the entrance."
"And with all the noise here, more zombies will keep getting drawn over."
"We have limited stamina. We can't fight forever."
"Relax," Julian said casually.
"If this whole mess was caused by Amano…"
"Then we just cut Amano down."
He said it so casually it sounded like he was talking about slicing a cucumber.
"Cut him down?"
Kento froze.
There were hundreds of zombies outside.
They might not even survive long enough to reach Amano!
"....."