Chapter 49: Smoking Is Bad for Your Health
In Ryū's eyes, the traverser who possessed the so-called "Apocalypse Fabrication System" — the one with the absurdly tsukkomi-worthy name — was, without question, a walking pile of Points. A pile that could run and jump, no less.
The traverser herself probably wasn't worth much. She didn't even measure up to Blackbeard Teach, who'd only had the Dark-Dark Fruit for a few days and was still worth 3,000 Points.
For a traverser with a System, that was embarrassingly low-tier.
Forget 3,000 Points. She didn't even hit 2,500 — which you could at least round up to 3,000 if you were feeling generous.
A System-wielding traverser, and her head was only worth 2,000 Points.
Ryū suspected the only reason it was even that high was because she had the System.
Without it, whether she'd be worth 200 Points…
Was honestly debatable.
The real prize, the one that made his heart race, was naturally the 11,000-Point Apocalypse Fabrication System. That was where the real money was. Traversers with Systems really were loaded. If only another one would show up sometime…
Just one more traverser carrying a System.
And Ryū figured his Six Powers, plus the Observation and Armament Haki training methods Whitebeard had just uploaded…
Could all be boosted with Points to a combat level no weaker than an Admiral's.
As for whether relying on Points so heavily would create a dangerous dependency…
He'd considered that.
And then he'd stopped considering it.
If he didn't use Points to get stronger fast, then in a few months, when a certain large, orange "Husky" decided to rampage, the first to suffer would be those who were still weak.
Under those circumstances, worrying about dependency could wait a year.
For now: power up as fast as possible.
Let future-him deal with future problems.
How did the saying go?
Just vibe and it'll work out!
* * *
Ryū swept his gaze across the largely empty rooftop. Then he noticed something on the ground nearby — a few cigarette butts, still looking fresh. He and Yukari exchanged a glance, both seemingly reading the other's thoughts.
In reality, neither could read a thing. But neither admitted it.
Setting that aside — transmigrated into a five-year-old girl and already smoking? Didn't she know that was bad for her health?
After a few seconds of silence, Ryū spoke. "She can't have gone far. Or she's still in this building. I can smell rotting flesh — absolutely nauseating."
Yukari concurred wholeheartedly. She had, in fact, stopped breathing entirely.
The stench of decomposing meat was genuinely overpowering.
Of course, being a Gap Yōkai, she could go without breathing indefinitely.
Nothing would happen.
She certainly wasn't going to suffocate.
Her elegant brows furrowed slightly above those clear, beautiful eyes. Yukari extended her senses to feel for nearby life signatures, then murmured: "She's inside this building. If this one hasn't misread the signs… ninth floor."
Wolffy followed up immediately: "My bio-thermal scanner is also picking up a living person in the building. And there are two more figures beside her with extremely intense thermal signatures. They don't look friendly."
He paused, then continued: "According to the Surveillance Bugs, this building has thirteen floors. We only need to go down four or five to reach her."
The moment Wolffy finished, Yukari tore open another Gap.
Now that they knew the enemy's exact location, of course they'd go straight to her.
The quest allowed thirty days.
But if they could wrap things up faster… who wouldn't want to?
The group stepped into Yukari's Gap corridor once more.
* * *
Meanwhile, on the ninth floor of that same building — long since emptied of all residents by the zombie virus — the abandoned structure had become a certain traverser's base of operations.
Exactly as Kaguya had analyzed: Meyu Inkyo, freshly arrived in this world and gripped by a gnawing unease, had made safety her first priority while spreading the virus.
The most dangerous place was also the safest.
What she hadn't realized was that the most dangerous place really was, in the most literal sense, the most dangerous place.
At this moment, a strange, eerie glee was spreading across Meyu Inkyo's small face.
"Infection count has broken 40,000! This entire zone that the Self-Defense Forces sealed off — aside from me, 99.999 percent of every person in here has been turned. They're all zombies now. All mine to command!"
"Next, I just need to use these 40,000 zombies for a remote-controlled push — smash through the SDF perimeter and let the virus spill into the surrounding cities!"
"If it reaches a major city? Even better!"
She was a visitor from another world.
She couldn't care less whether the people of this one lived or died.
Even though this body belonged to someone from this world, the soul inside it did not.
Meyu Inkyo felt no guilt whatsoever about what she was doing.
She didn't give a damn about the consequences.
All she knew was that she had to complete the System's missions.
That was how she'd use the System to grow stronger.
Until no one could ever control her fate again.
* * *
But just then, her brows suddenly creased. A bad feeling welled up from somewhere she couldn't identify — formless, sourceless, but deeply unsettling.
"Did something happen? No… there shouldn't be anything. What could possibly give me a bad feeling right now?!"
Meyu Inkyo found herself thinking of the apocalypse movies she'd watched in her previous life.
She swallowed hard and muttered: "They wouldn't nuke the place… would they?"
The thought had barely formed before she shoved it away.
Ptui, ptui, ptui! Why was she cursing herself?
Besides, as far as she knew…
Japan didn't have nuclear weapons.
And the zombie outbreak was barely two or three days old.
Even the Japanese government wasn't fully sure yet what kind of crisis this would turn into.
There was no way they'd call in a nuclear strike from one of the major powers.
"Phew… a nuke is probably out of the question. I'm just overthinking it."
She had barely finished exhaling when an unfamiliar voice spoke from behind her — and Meyu Inkyo's pupils contracted violently.
"A nuclear strike? Quite the imagination you've got there. Though if you really had been nuked, the lot of us would've come all this way for nothing, wouldn't we? And I have to say — didn't expect the target to be a five-year-old girl. That's a bit of a surprise."
The unfamiliar voice set every alarm in Meyu Inkyo's head blaring. Her mind screamed: Impossible!
She had already swept this entire area clean. There couldn't be a single survivor left!
Damn it… what had gone wrong? Where had they come from?
Meyu Inkyo couldn't figure it out.
But she could tell from the speaker's tone alone: whoever this was, they were the enemy.
Meyu Inkyo didn't hesitate for even a heartbeat.
She opened her mouth and shrieked: "Number One! Kill every last one of them — no survivors! Number Two — get over here and protect me!"
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