The adrenaline crash finally caught up with Ace as he left the men's restroom. His muscles ached, and his breathing was heavy in the dead, silent air of the atrium. But the 40th floor was completely secure. There were no more dragging footsteps, no more guttural hisses. He was alone.
Now, it was time to gather resources.
The 40th floor housed the development team and the costume department for the Genesis project, which meant the area was an absolute goldmine of nerd culture and anime memorabilia. But first, he moved back to the Director's office since it was the closest room to the bathrooms. He stepped carefully around the gray husk on the floor, collecting the black scabbard for the replica sword from the shattered display case, and grabbed the heavy red leather trench coat still hanging in the corner. He stood there for a moment in the quiet dark, gripping the leather, and said a quick, silent prayer for his long-departed boss.
Then, he continued to scavenge the floor.
He hunted for the essentials of programmer and gamer survival: trail mix, high-energy protein snacks, and whatever vacuum-sealed calories he could find tucked away in desk drawers. He spotted several cans of energy drinks scattered across various workstations, their bright logos looking incredibly appealing to his exhausted brain. But as he reached for one, he stopped. The aluminum cans were heavily swollen and warped with age, the tops bulging dangerously outward. He pulled his hand back, deciding it was best to avoid them entirely rather than risk a sticky, pressurized explosion.
After gathering the survival essentials from the cubicles, Ace shifted his focus to the props. He gathered whatever random action figures and foam replicas he could find on the desks, but the real motherlode was waiting in the back: the Costume Department Storage Area.
He pushed open the double doors of the storage room and flipped his flashlight over the interior. Racks of meticulously crafted outfits and shelves lined with high-end replicas filled the space. Ace immediately decided this room was going to be his temporary Armory. He hauled all the scattered cosplay and anime-related items he had collected from the main floor and brought them into the storage area to consolidate his massive "cosplay arsenal."
He spent the next hour examining and organizing the incredible haul. He found a full-length Ichigo cosplay outfit draped over a mannequin, carefully collecting the white shihakusho. From a sealed prop bin, he pulled out a Dragon Ball Z scouter and a set of heavy resin Dragon Balls.
His pile of potential weapons was staggering. He collected the massive dog demon fang swords of the brothers from Inuyasha, heavy Buster swords and sleek Gunblades from Final Fantasy, and various weapons from the Fate/stay night universe, including Archer's twin dagger-swords and a pristine Excalibur complete with its Avalon sheath.
Moving through the Bleach section of the armory, he gathered Toshiro's ice dragon sword, Hyorinmaru, along with Rukia's pure-white zanpakuto, multiple different variations of Zangetsu, and several iterations of Uryu Ishida's Quincy bows.
But the absolute crown jewels were the Devil May Cry props. He found highly detailed, weighted replicas of Rebellion, Yamato, Force Edge, the Red Queen sword, and the Blue Rose revolver. Best of all, sitting perfectly preserved in a foam-lined case, were heavy, die-cast replicas of Ebony and Ivory, complete with their authentic lower-back gun holsters.
Ace looked around the packed storage room. It was the perfect sanctuary. Starting from the hallway just outside the Armory and his adjacent desk area, he began moving cubicle partitions, heavy oak tables, chairs, and desks. He worked methodically, sweating in the cool air, building a defensible perimeter with a removable barricade. He designed it perfectly so that nothing coming from the floor's only two entrances—the stairwell and the elevator shaft—would be able to reach his new Armory without making a massive fuss.
With his fortress finally complete, Ace collapsed onto a leather couch he had hauled into the center of his camp.
He dug into his emergency gym bag, pulled out a handful of alcohol wipes from his first-aid kit, and began cleaning himself up. The sharp sting of the alcohol cutting through the dried, black zombie grime on his skin grounded him. He swapped his ruined graphic tee for the clean black t-shirt from his bag, finally feeling somewhat human again.
Instead of relying on his system—which only seemed to react when he actively Traced or Reinforced something—he manually took stock of his essentials. He lined them up on a coffee table to see exactly what he had to carry.
Five assorted bags of trail mix and protein snacks. Four half-empty water bottles. The basic first-aid kit, now minus a few alcohol wipes.
On the other end of the table sat his physical gear: the heavy red leather trench coat, the black scabbard for Zangetsu, the DBZ scouter, the full-length Ichigo cosplay, and the heavy replicas of Ebony and Ivory resting securely in their lower-back holsters. The rest of the sprawling arsenal remained safely organized on the shelves of his temporary Armory. Whatever he decided to use, he was going to have to carry it on his own back or leave it behind.
He pulled up the Genesis Override just to check the one objective readout it tracked automatically.
> [Current UP: 3]
>
Ace dismissed the deep-violet panel and ripped open a bag of stale trail mix. As he chewed the dry nuts and faded chocolate chips, his mind began to race.
He was confused about what had actually happened. Everything was just fine while he was working his crunch shift. How could he just wake up to the end of the world years later?
It felt like a classic transmigration trope—like he had been ripped out of his universe and dropped into an alternate Earth. But he didn't know for sure. The city outside the window looked the same, just decaying. The office was exactly the same. Even the zombies were just his former coworkers. Something wasn't right. He had no idea what had actually happened.
He needed a better view. To figure out the truth of this world, he decided he was going to explore the entire Omni-Media Tower. But he had to be smart about it. He needed to start from the top down, leaving absolutely no way for anything to come up from behind and ambush him.
Tomorrow morning, as soon as the sun fully rose, he was going to clear the executive suites, make his way to the rooftop, and finally get a good look at the city.
Ace swallowed the last of his trail mix, lay back on the leather couch, and closed his eyes.