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Julian headed straight up to the third floor like he'd done it a hundred times before.
"Master, it's over there!"
Mafuyu pointed at a refrigerator.
Hammer in hand, Julian stepped forward and pulled the door open.
Sure enough, a zombie dog was curled up inside, trembling.
He recognized it instantly. It was one of the dozen or so zombie dogs that had surrounded him last time.
This one was the smallest of the bunch. Probably used to be a toy poodle or something…
"Hana, can you communicate with it?"
"Ask what's going on here," Julian said.
"I'll try…"
Hana didn't speak dog, and zombie dogs didn't speak human. Communication wasn't exactly easy.
Luckily, Hana could tap directly into its consciousness. The dog was weak, so she managed to extract a bit of information.
"Master, I got the general idea," she said.
"A pretty strong group of awakened humans came through here."
"They killed a lot of zombies. Only a few managed to escape."
"This little guy had nowhere to run, so it hid in the fridge."
"A strong… awakened human team?"
Julian frowned.
At this stage, a powerful team of awakened humans had already formed?
That didn't feel right.
How did they level up so fast?
Even with spending resources, there should still be some randomness involved…
And what kind of people were so righteous they'd come all the way here just to clear out zombies?
Don't tell me they came for graphics cards…
"Hana, ask it if it can track those people."
Hana nodded and reached out again.
"Master, its sense of smell is gone. It can't track anything."
"But it does know the general direction the other zombies fled."
"Good. Let it lead the way."
"If you get us lost, I'll kill you."
Julian shot the zombie dog a cold look.
The dog shuddered.
This human was even scarier than the last group…
Julian found a long rope, tied it around the dog's neck, and fastened the other end to the front of the car.
The zombie dog walked ahead, guiding them, while Julian drove slowly behind.
The dog felt miserable.
As a small breed, it had already been bullied within its pack.
And now it was being pushed around by humans too…
Didn't zombie dogs deserve dignity?
Apparently not.
Head lowered, it trudged forward in silence.
On the other side of the city, Nanami Kento led his team to a large commercial plaza.
"This is the place."
"Good luck."
He untied the curly-haired woman and the blonde, handing each of them a bottle of water and a steamed bun.
Ryuji tossed them each a short-handled hammer as well, something for self-defense.
"Please, don't leave us here!"
"I'll do anything you want!"
"All ten of you, at once, I don't care!"
The curly-haired woman lifted her skirt, crying.
For someone as pampered as her, being left here was basically a death sentence.
"Sorry. I don't break my rules," Kento said, shutting the car door.
What happened with Amano had changed the way he saw the apocalypse.
Unreliable people in your team were more dangerous than zombies.
The two Range Rovers sped off, disappearing into the underground parking garage of the mall.
The curly-haired woman looked down at the water and bun in her hands.
One bun… that was supposed to last a whole day?
That wasn't even close!
And one bottle of water…
She still needed to wash her face and rinse her mouth!
Her resentment toward Kento and Julian grew deeper by the second.
"Sis… what do we do now?" the blonde asked, wiping her tears.
There were faint silhouettes of zombies nearby.
If one of them came over, she'd have no chance of fighting back.
And running… how far could she even go?
As the blonde trembled, the curly-haired woman quietly stepped behind her, hammer in hand.
"Don't blame me. Blame the ones who kicked us out."
"I'm not starving to death."
She muttered to herself, then raised the hammer.
Thud!
The blonde dropped to the ground. Blood quickly soaked into her golden hair at the back of her head.
Just to be sure, the curly-haired woman crouched down and struck her a few more times. Only when the body stopped moving completely did she let out a breath.
Now she had two buns and two bottles of water.
Still not enough. She needed somewhere safe.
She vaguely remembered someone mentioning a camp near the city museum during dinner last night…
What was it called… Blood Fang?
It didn't seem too far. Might as well try her luck.
She found an electric scooter and rode off toward the museum.
Inside the mall's underground parking garage, Kento's team quickly dealt with a few zombies and made their way to the first floor.
At this point, there were six awakened individuals in the group, including Kento himself. He had left two behind to guard the base and brought the rest out.
In addition, he had brought along six ordinary people for field training, including the young security guard, Shiro.
For Shiro, this was both exciting and nerve-wracking.
"So… why are we at the mall?" Shiro asked.
"There's not much food here, right?"
Kento glanced at the supply list: swimsuits, women's clothing, beach shorts…
That part… he'd have to ask Boss Julian about.
Of course, there were also everyday necessities they needed, like toothpaste, toothbrushes, laundry detergent.
Go a few days without brushing your teeth… yeah, not happening.
"This time we're mainly looking for daily supplies and clothes," Kento explained.
"If you see anything else useful, grab it too."
"Ryuji, didn't you say you wanted cigarettes? I remember there's a vape shop here."
"Alright, we'll split into two groups. Keep the noise down, sweep the place quickly, and head back to base."
He divided the team. He and Takeshi led one group, while Ryuji and Shimada, both fairly capable, led the other.
At the stairwell, the two groups split up and began their search.
This Wanda Plaza had plenty of stores. You could find just about anything.
Of course, there were plenty of zombies too.
Almost every shop had a few lurking inside.
To train the newcomers, the ordinary zombies were left to Shiro and the others, while the awakened ones stood by as backup.
An hour later, Shiro's group walked out of Uniqlo.
They had gathered most of what they needed.
"Should we regroup now?" Shiro asked.
"Hold on, I still need to grab some stuff from the vape shop."
"Haven't had a smoke in days. It's killing me."
Ryuji laughed awkwardly.
He really needed to ask the boss for permission to hit a tobacco warehouse sometime.
For a heavy smoker like him, cigarettes were just as important as food.
With no real cigarettes available, he'd have to make do with vapes for now.
Shiro and the others followed Ryuji to the vape store.
They had just started stuffing vape products into their bags when a group of rough-looking men appeared at the entrance.
"....."