"One, two, three… seven, eight. Only eight packs of instant noodles, ten bottles of cola, one pack of pickled mustard greens, and one jar of beef sauce left!"
After finishing off another pack of noodles and another bottle of cola last night, Kyoko finally realized today that her food supply was running dangerously low.
As for the dried fruit she had left over, she had gotten bored the night before and eaten all of it.
She still had a bucket and a half of water left—twelve liters per bucket. It looked like a decent amount, but water was not just for drinking, so in reality it still was not enough.
"System, emergency aid, now. I need to see the shop."
[Host, almost time. There are still three minutes and two seconds left before settlement and payout.]
"Ahhh! Hurry up and give me my 1,270 reward points already!"
Yesterday, Kyoko had completed two system missions and earned five hundred points. The barbecue massacre had netted her another 483, and then she had sold off a number of recyclable items to the system for 287 more. She was officially a four-digit point holder now.
Those three minutes felt agonizingly long. At last, the system panel finally displayed 08:00.
[Account credited with 1,270 points. Current balance: 1,375.]
"Oh hell yes. Shopping time."
Seeing the number in the balance field change instantly brightened Kyoko's mood.
"I'm buying the weather forecaster, then a tactical hand axe, and for the pistol, give me an M1971 Colt. Nobody wants a Nambu."
During yesterday's fighting, Kyoko had realized she did not have much armor-piercing capability. The neighboring apartments had only contained a few simple household tools, and in her own survival kit she had only a small one-handed hatchet.
Her swords and blades were fine against unarmored enemies, but if she ran into anything seriously mutated, they would not be enough.
As for the pistol, that was for emergencies. If she had had more points, Kyoko absolutely would have gone for a shotgun.
[Weather Forecaster (forecast accuracy 80/100): 300 points. Tactical Hand Axe: 260 points. M1971 Colt Pistol: 600 points (includes 30 rounds of 9mm ammunition, two standard 15-round magazines, and a suppressor). Total: 1,160 points. Confirm purchase?]
"Confirmed."
After spending the 1,160 points, the purchased items appeared in front of her. Kyoko did not even glance at the others first—she immediately picked up the pistol box.
She had never handled a real gun in either of her two lives.
That meant she absolutely had to appreciate it properly.
In her previous life, even playing with toy airsoft guns had gotten her in trouble—gear worth over a thousand yuan had been confiscated on the spot. In this life, even though Japan had more realistic replica guns for sale, Kyoko had never dared mess with them.
"The system even includes an instruction manual. That's so thoughtful."
[Idiot Host, that came from the manufacturer. Don't believe me? Look at it yourself. It's all in English.]
She opened it, and just as the system said, it was an English-language manual. Fortunately, her phone still had a translation app cached offline.
At the moment, Kyoko had five phones, two power banks, and a pile of batteries. Yesterday she had drained the remaining charge from the three phones she looted from her neighbors into her own power banks.
The dead phones had been put away in a drawer. Once she found a way to generate electricity later, they would be very useful.
She took out her phone and translated the manual.
"What the hell? This is just the standard factory certification sheet. I thought it'd be a maintenance manual."
[Child, why would you need to repair it? Once it reaches the end of its service life, just buy another one. By the way, its usable lifespan is about 3,000 rounds.]
"Three thousand rounds? That's not bad. It's just for indoor use anyway. Once I'm richer, I'll go straight for a shotgun or an assault rifle."
Three thousand rounds felt good enough to her. She refused to believe she would not have earned back the cost long before then.
"Alright, how much is ammo? Let me see if I can still afford some with what's left."
As she spoke, she began loading the freshly opened rounds into the magazine.
[Standard 9x19mm ammo: 20 points per box, 30 rounds total. Special ammunition—incendiary and tracer—40 points per box. Armor-piercing rounds: 120 points per box.]
Looking at those prices, Kyoko immediately bought one box of standard ammo and one box of special ammo.
[-60 points. Remaining balance: 155.]
"By the way, System, aren't you supposed to be a slice-of-life system? Why do you have so many weapons and ammo?"
[Who says a slice-of-life system can't provide weapons for self-defense?]
"Right, right, you're absolutely correct. So what missions are currently available?"
Having just bought herself shiny new equipment, Kyoko had no desire to offend the system again, so she smoothly changed the topic and asked about missions instead.
[Build a Safehouse: Keep the horde, hunger, and danger far away. Before January 15, transform your chosen residence into a safehouse.]
[Requirements: Nearby infected must not pose a major threat to you. Store at least one month's worth of food and water for one person. Possess basic stockpiles of supplies, including weapons, tools, medicine, clothing, and so on.]
[Reward: 800 points.]
This lined up perfectly with Kyoko's own plans. It was only eight-thirty in the morning, so she accepted the mission and prepared to get to work.
[Speaking of which, isn't Kyoko forgetting something? Like the fact that she still hasn't checked the random shop.]
The system certainly noticed that, but it had no intention of reminding her.
Because yesterday's barbecue had been so intense, almost nothing below the fifteenth floor was worth looking at anymore. Even the places the flames had not directly reached had been blackened by smoke.
Fully geared up, Kyoko headed out with her newly bought pistol, hand axe, and wakizashi.
Her plan was to clear out floors twenty through eight.
Not in a single day, of course.
That was simply the broad outline of her current strategy:
Abandon floors one through six completely. Floors one and two were too low and too easy to attack. Floor six was adjacent to the ring of surrounding buildings enclosing the residential complex, and those neighboring structures were about the same height as the fifth floor. There was a real possibility that infected could climb in from somewhere else and break into the fifth floor, so the sixth floor had to be abandoned along with it.
She would spend a full day clearing out whatever still remained inside the apartments. Then, starting on the eleventh, she would use large furniture from the residents' homes to block off the stairwells around the fifth and sixth floors, fortifying and sealing that mandatory route completely.
As for how she would get down afterward, her plan was to use rope and wooden boards from Room 0704—specifically from the window-side section—to construct a rope ladder leading to the four-story-high terrace outside. If she wanted to reach the ground, she could then move from the large terrace to the smaller, two-story-high terrace, relying on rope ladders for safe movement in and out.
And how would she bring supplies from outside into the building?
If she was alone, small batches of goods could be hauled up by hanging basket. If there were more people later, she could build a pulley system. Back in her previous life, during corn harvest season, they used small hoists to raise baskets of corn all the way up to rooftops.
As for interior zoning:
The seventh floor would become a transfer station for moving goods in the future.
The eighth floor would be the security zone, where guards could be stationed once the safe area was properly established.
Floors nine through fourteen were undecided for now, but would most likely become residential space.
The fifteenth floor did not even need explaining—that was obviously Kyoko's private domain.
The sixteenth floor and above might become planting areas, since higher floors received longer daylight.
The rooftop would be the rainwater collection zone, though she still had no idea whether rainwater was contaminated.
That was Kyoko's grand plan.
Of course, she was not trying to accomplish all of it in the short term. The idea was to get it started now, then develop it properly once she found more companions.
"I wonder what Sis Chiyo's doing in Hawaii. Still, I'm not going. No boats, no planes—what, am I supposed to row myself to Hawaii with my bare hands?"
Kyoko was a realist. Right now, the priority was securing her own safe zone. The military was probably never coming to rescue her. She needed to learn to survive by her own efforts.
Her earlier window-smashing plan was no longer necessary, because yesterday's fire had already wiped out most of the zombies that had entered the building. The snow outside had also stopped, and some of the infected had aimlessly wandered away.
That greatly reduced her pressure.
Now all she really had to do was carefully lure the zombies out of the apartments one by one.
So she went back to her old trick: smash the peephole with the axe, thread a wire inside, and as long as the occupant had not deadbolted the door from within, she could usually open it.
But the moment she opened the stairwell door, her entire plan went off the rails.
A mass of burned corpses had fused together. Large amounts of greasy residue clung to the blackened walls. The thin metal handrails had warped into bizarre shapes. The glass panels and their plastic frames were simply gone, leaving open gaps where freezing wind now poured directly inside.
"Looks like yesterday's fire was way too strong. From now on, I'm not setting fires anywhere near my own place again."
Stepping over the bodies, Kyoko silently resolved that any future arson would be conducted far away from home. Otherwise, it really would become a case of the city gate catches fire and the fish in the moat suffer for it.
Her boots crunched sharply as they stepped across corpses that had been baked dry and fully carbonized.
After climbing nearly a hundred stair steps like that, Kyoko finally reached the fifth floor, today's designated cleanup zone.
Everything below the fifth floor was being abandoned and would not be searched. The only reason she had come to the fifth at all was to use the former residents' furniture to block off the stairs.
With a bang, she opened yet another lucky resident's door, raising the wakizashi high in her right hand and chopping downward at the infected waiting behind it.
The infected let out a garbled, hissing howl. Its eyes were red, saliva streamed directly from the gaping cavity where its lower jaw used to be, and it staggered straight toward Kyoko's weapon.
A second later, there was a heavy thud.
The infected seemed to feel the world spin, its field of vision abruptly dropping lower—then Kyoko's long boot slammed into it and sent it flying.
Looking at the dead infected, Kyoko felt absolutely nothing. Without even sparing it another glance, she immediately began rifling through the apartment.
"Unopened cooking oil. Keep it. Vacuum-packed dried meat sticks. Keep those too."
"And these chips, keep. This guy had a ton of snacks. Looks like he was a serious junk-food addict while alive."
"Whew… and wow, this guy was a real shut-in. He left behind this many doujin books? No, this is my responsibility now. I'm going to have to inspect them critically later."
Very quickly, the two backpacks Kyoko had brought were packed full of food, useful tools, and a number of highly valuable morale-boosting goods.
After setting the bags aside, she continued her zero-yen shopping spree, sorting useful items into a separate pile.
Wiping sweat from her forehead, Kyoko sat on the sofa for a short rest. Chewing on free dried meat and drinking freshly discovered wild mineral water, she found herself thinking that maybe this was not so bad after all.
[Host, I hope you understand the seriousness of this. The moment you encounter a special mutant, you'll be finished.]
"Wait, System, how are you hearing my emotional reactions?"
Even with the system calling her out, Kyoko kept smiling. She dusted herself off and got back to work.
After nearly four hours, by one in the afternoon Kyoko had killed every zombie on the fifth and sixth floors.
The bodies were thrown directly from high altitude, crashing into the thick snow like depth charges and blasting up curtains of powder.
Why did Kyoko choose a method that made such enormous noise?
Simple. Because it was fast and convenient.
As for attracting zombies, Kyoko's observations suggested that they still retained some biological instincts. They knew cold from warmth, discomfort from comfort.
Now that most of the zombies inside this particular building were gone, the ones outside had no interest in crossing fifty meters of brutal cold just to come here.
And with snow piled over a meter deep, the drifts themselves acted as natural traps that heavily impeded the infected.
Unless Kyoko practically delivered herself to them in person, they were not coming.
"The furniture designers for this place were geniuses. If I ever meet them, I swear I'm going to plant one giant boot-kiss right on their asses."
While hauling furniture around, Kyoko discovered a major problem: most of the furniture was assembled from composite wooden boards. If she used that kind of thing to block zombies, there was a good chance it would eventually get smashed through.
So she chose the only reasonable solution:
More mass.
She used refrigerators, televisions, and solid wooden furniture as the main structural bulk, then reinforced them by nailing removed wooden boards across them into large makeshift barriers.
At that point, even the system could not keep quiet anymore.
[Host, have you not considered removing the doors? Those things are bigger solid boards than all this furniture junk. And you still haven't checked the random shop, idiot.]
"System, did somebody replace you? Why are you suddenly so caring?"
Kyoko set down her hammer and teased it.
[It's not because I care about you. I just don't want you being too stupid and ruining my chances of getting home.]
Seeing her system's classic tsundere act, Kyoko almost laughed out loud, but managed to hold it in. Otherwise, she would probably have pushed Miss System straight into a breakdown.
Still, the system was absolutely right.
Kyoko immediately set aside the hammer and nails, picked up a screwdriver, and began removing door hinges.
By the time she was done, she had stripped apart eight apartments.
She left the bedroom doors and security doors intact, but removed every other door in those units.
A total of thirty-seven wooden doors.
To prevent anyone from imitating her zombie-barbecue strategy and deliberately sabotaging the sealed stairwells, Kyoko embedded all sorts of iron knives and blades into the wooden doors.
At the same time, she smashed more than a hundred glass objects and scattered the shards throughout the stairwell below the sixth floor, creating a floor-wide trap of broken glass.
Her goal was to at least somewhat hinder other survivors.
Later, once she had enough power, she intended to go find real construction materials, build an actual wall to seal the place, and then use a demolition hammer to smash the lower stairs entirely, cutting off danger at the root.
For now, the best she could do was stack the more fire-resistant furniture farther forward.
Eight washing machines jammed into the stairwell already blocked most of the space. After that, she shoved refrigerators down from above and stacked them over the washing machines sitting on the fourth floor, completely sealing the passage from the fourth to the fifth.
But by then, Kyoko was exhausted and had to stop for a breather.
After all, she had just moved sixteen pieces of furniture, each heavier than she was. Even if the virus had turned her into some Kentucky-fried Superman, that was still a brutal workload.
"By the way, System, can you generate a status panel for my body?"
[I can. But in exchange, for the next few days, you're not allowed to talk back to me.]
"Mhm, mhm, mhm. Miss System is the best system in the world, and I, Takashiro Kyoko, am your finest partner."
[That's more like it. There. Generated.]
[Name: Takashiro Kyoko
Sex: Female
Residence: Urban area, Nihonmatsu, Fukushima Prefecture
Status: Third-year high school student
Age: 18
Year of Birth: 2007
Weight: 65 kg]
[Appearance: Short black hair, golden eyes, well-developed figure, pale complexion, bust size B, blood type AB]
[Height: 172 cm]
[Skills: Self-taught electrical work, survival enthusiast, proficient in kendo, beginner in kyudo, novice shooter, basic handicrafts, expert lockpicking, beginner cook but skilled at barbecue]
[Genetic changes caused by the beneficial virus: High-performance body — capable of maintaining peak human physical ability, but prolonged excessive use will sharply increase food and water consumption and worsen mental fatigue. Because of this, the body automatically regulates its output. A status lock is also in place; it will not fully unlock until certain standards are met.]
[Virus Antibodies: Your immunity far exceeds that of ordinary humans. You may consume lightly contaminated food and water. Unless a high concentration of the virus directly enters your body, you will not be infected.]
"So I'm actually this strong. Thanks, virus. Or rather… thanks, beneficial virus."
Kyoko had already guessed that the virus had altered her body, but this was still far more powerful than she expected. With abilities like this, her odds of survival were significantly better.
"Thanks to the world's number-one System Lady."
Kyoko gave the system panel a little bow, then finally opened the random shop.
[Military Triangular Bayonet — 200 points. Forged in one piece. Wounds inflicted by it cannot naturally close.]
[Yadi Electric Scooter — 550 points. A brand-name electric bicycle from a certain great country. Excellent battery life. Capable of covering a hundred li.]
…
[Virus Detection Instrument — 800 points. Can test viral concentration in liquids. Each use costs 40 points.]
"Nice. Reserve the virus detector. I'll buy it once I have enough money."
That really was a pillow delivered right when she was dozing off. With it, she could test the contamination levels of outside rivers.
Satisfied, Kyoko closed the system panel and went back to work. Using twenty-centimeter iron nails, she fixed the wooden doors firmly across the stairwell, layering them in with the furniture she had already arranged.
Even then, it still did not feel safe enough.
So she dragged over upright floor air conditioners too.
The final structure became a multi-layered deathtrap: broken glass, then refrigerators and washing machines, then blade-studded doors, and finally air conditioners braced behind them.
Kyoko looked at the whole thing and felt this "two slices of bread with cheese in the middle" arrangement was basically flawless.
The stairwells on the fourth, fifth, and sixth floors were sealed tight enough that not even a draft could get through.
Nodding in satisfaction, she went to collect the supplies she had organized earlier.
"Looks like for the next few days I can finally relax a little. The floors are sealed off, the infected can't get in, and petty thieves can't get in either. Hah!"
With the infected's route upward now blocked, the monsters trapped lower in the building were basically sitting in prison cells. Kyoko laughed loudly at the thought.
Her backpack was crammed full of loot, and although the charred infected in the stairwell still had not been cleaned up, she nevertheless bounded up the stairs toward home with light, energetic steps.
Then she noticed something white on the floor.
At first she thought wind must have blown some snow in.
But when she looked closer, she realized it was a whole bunch of crumpled paper balls.
Kyoko immediately grew wary. She carefully checked the surroundings. There absolutely had not been anything like this lying here when she left.
Then she realized the paper trail extended from the fifteenth floor all the way up to the eighteenth.
She picked up one paper ball with her gloved hand and returned to her apartment.
After unloading her supplies and giving her gear and body a basic wipe-down, Kyoko slowly ate dinner.
No need to worry—today's scavenging run had been a huge success. Her remaining food and water were now enough to let her live comfortably for at least another ten days or so.
After dealing with basic bodily needs, Kyoko finally opened the crumpled notes.
Just to be safe, she kept her gloves on as she unfolded the crumpled A4 sheet.
A neat, elegant handwriting spread across the page—at a glance, Kyoko was convinced it had been written by a girl.
It read:
To the unseen sir or madam,
Your fire attack strategy was an overwhelming success. The magnificent sight of your actions has stirred waves in my heart that still have not calmed. Your bravery was like that of an imperial tiger. I watched from the upper floors today as you worked without rest. I hope I may follow in your footsteps and help you, sharing some of your burden.
I can cook. I can make simple rainwater collectors. I know how to use compost bins. I can farm. I can identify certain medicinal herbs. I hope you will accept me into your ranks. I have already been trapped in my home for nine days. If not for what you did yesterday, I might truly have fallen into despair and killed myself. I will obey all of your arrangements. I want to live. I want to continue living as a human being. For that, I am willing to offer everything I have. I have already hung white cloth outside my door so you can find me more easily. I hope we may meet honestly. I know that trying to play tricks on someone like you would never work.
Respectfully,
Yurizono Huaxiu of Room 2002
After reading it, Kyoko did not feel the joy of finding another survivor.
What she felt was fear.
"Looks like I need to be even more careful. I got lucky this time and the person making contact doesn't seem threatening. But what if it had been someone with bad intentions?"
Even this letter itself, Kyoko suspected, could have been a deliberate trap. So far, she still had not seen a single other survivor in person.
Her road through the apocalypse had only just entered its third day, but for everyone else, this was already the ninth day of struggling through hell. Who knew what kind of state the remaining survivors were in by now?
"No. I need to look into this immediately."
She could not allow an unknown survivor to remain within her operational range unchecked. What if they turned out to be a threat?
She pulled out the absurdly crude drone she had bought from under the bed for the bargain price of one thousand yen. At that price, the fact that it even came with a camera was a miracle.
If it exploded midair, Kyoko would probably applaud.
She connected it to her phone and attached a note of her own to it.
Then she flew it out into the central light well, steering it toward the kitchen window of Room 2002.
Struggling awkwardly with the controls while watching the phone screen, Kyoko finally managed to guide the drone to the kitchen of 2002.
She switched on the drone camera's light and symbolically tapped the window a few times, hoping to get the survivor inside to come out.
But after all that effort, there was no response from inside Room 2002.
No movement at all.
It was as though nobody was there.
"Could this be a trap? Or is the other person just timid and got scared?"
After recalling the drone, Kyoko narrowed it down to two possibilities. But whichever one it was, she needed to check out Room 2002 in person before the situation dragged on too long.
At 8:30 PM, fully armed once again, Takashiro Kyoko switched on her flashlight and headed toward the unknown domain of Room 2002.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter108)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter82)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter144)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 70
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 99
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 95
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 99
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 92
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 47
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 44
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 43
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 26
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