The Survivors' Base
The search team, we each began taking out our hunter equipment and putting it on. But while I was in the middle of donning my personal armor, a small problem arose.
“Because of this tail, I don’t think I can wear the groin protector.”
“Oh shoot~ I forgot to alter it after the tail grew in. Can’t be helped. Let’s just equip everything except the groin piece.”
“At least there’s a skirt, nya.”
With no other choice, I put on the armor while leaving out the leather piece that covered the groin. The modifications had increased the volume of the artificial muscles around my abdomen, so it felt a little tight, but otherwise there were no issues and I finished equipping it without trouble.
“There is a skirt, but it’s see-through so my underwear shows right through.”
“It’s fine, nya. Your underwear is pretty, nya.”
“It looks good on you too, Charlotte.”
“Thank you, nya.”
It wasn’t flattery—the sleek leather equipment that revealed her nimble figure without any filter suited Charlotte extremely well.
Oppa, having finished putting on all his hunter gear by drawing the magic sword he favored, stood before the door leading down from the rooftop and spoke.
“I’ll take point, Charlotte in the middle, Elisha at the rear. Single-file formation. Everyone stay alert.”
“Yes.”
“Understood, nya.”
With a metallic creak, Oppa pushed hard after repeating his warning. The hinges must have been rusted; the door opened with a loud groan. Motion-sensor lights lined the ceiling of the stairwell passage, but the power had clearly been out for a long time—none of them responded. With the lights dead and no windows, the staircase was pitch black. Oppa pulled out a flashlight and switched it on.
Tap, tap.
The only sound breaking the silence was our footsteps as we descended the stairs. We reached the door that led onto the top floor.
Oppa, in the lead, carefully gripped the handle and tried to open it a crack. Click, click. No matter how many times he tried, the door refused to budge.
“Doesn’t feel locked, but it won’t open. Something’s blocking it from the inside.”
“This is when you use a magic tool, nya.”
Charlotte pulled a small disc from her pocket as she spoke. She pressed it against the center of the door and firmly pushed the button to activate the device.
Thud!
Crash!
The unexpectedly loud noise made all of us flinch. We froze, waiting for any reaction, but no presence stirred.
“Is this building completely empty? Elisha, are you still running the bio-scanner?”
“Yes. No movement detected besides the two of us and the ones on the roof.”
I had kept the bio-detection radar active just in case, but it picked up nothing.
“Then let’s pick up the pace. We’re going in.”
Another creak of rusted hinges accompanied the opening door, revealing the interior. The darkness inside was even thicker than on the stairs, so Charlotte and I switched on our own flashlights.
The top floor had probably been a food court. Shoes lay scattered as if people had fled in panic, and abandoned belongings were strewn everywhere. In the kitchen of one store we searched, I lifted the lid of a pot still sitting on the stove. The stench of rot rolled out.
“Ugh! That’s horrible, nya!”
“Shit, it reeks all the way over here. Close it, quick.”
“Yes.”
Startled by their reaction, I slammed the lid back down.
“The fact that it’s rotting but not completely dried out suggests this hasn’t been going on for very long.”
“I wonder if there are any survivors.”
“In extreme situations like this, the humans who survive tend to be extremely selfish, nya.”
“Meeting survivors could be a problem in itself.”
The somehow chilling atmosphere made us keep up a stream of idle chatter as we continued the search. We rummaged through food storage areas along the way, pocketing long-shelf-life rations into our subspace pouches, when suddenly the bio-detection radar caught something.
“The radar picked up something.”
“Where? What direction?”
“Over there.”
“Let’s go.”
We approached the indicated direction with caution. Just in case they turned hostile, we kept our hands raised, palms visible, and moved slowly.
The moment we reached the location, a swarm of bio-signatures suddenly appeared, encircling us.
Ping!
I was about to shout a warning when a sharp noise stabbed at my auditory sensors. Instinctively I raised my arm to shield Charlotte in front of me.
Crack!
The arrow that flew in at high speed bounced harmlessly off my armor. A beat later, Charlotte—who had finally registered the attack—shouted.
“Nya! We’re under attack, nya!”
“They’re using arrows! Enemies with crossbows or bows!”
“Damn it! They attacked without any warning!”
Ping! Swish!
There was more than one archer; arrows flew from two directions at once. Apparently deciding metal armor like mine was pointless to shoot, the arrows flew toward Oppa and Charlotte instead.
Clang!
“Kill the flashlights!”
Oppa shouted as he batted an arrow aside with his sword. Knowing they would only make us easier targets, I switched mine off instantly and sprinted toward the source of the movement.
Thanks to my night-vision ocular implants, I could at least distinguish shapes even if the image wasn’t perfectly clear. I vaulted over the furniture barricade and delivered a powerful kick to the figure standing behind it.
Thud!
“Agh!”
The man who took the heavy kick to his side flew sideways and slammed into the wall. At the same time, from the right, a polearm with a blade at the tip thrust toward me.
Clang!
Had I been bare-skinned, the sharp edge would have risked tearing my artificial dermis, but the hunter-grade armor let me block it easily with my bare hand. I seized the blade, yanked hard, and the man clutching the other end stumbled forward.
Crunch!
“Urk!”
My toe connected squarely with his head as he fell, knocking him out with a short cry. I twisted aside to avoid the attack swinging at the back of my skull.
Whoosh!
The heavy sound brushing past my ear sent a shiver down my spine. I was about to counter when a spray of hot liquid splashed across my face.
“Gaaah!”
“Who the hell swings a fire axe like that?!”
The man whose wrist Oppa had severed screamed in agony, rolling on the floor while clutching the stump that gushed blood.
“Elisha! You okay?”
“Yes, thank you.”
“All right! Let’s just knock every last one of them out first!”
“Yes!”
Oppa dodged an iron bar swinging from another angle as he spoke. I answered while deflecting another arrow and charged toward its origin.
The battle filled with screams and spraying blood ended when Charlotte struck the final enemy in the neck with the edge of her hand, incapacitating him.
After the radar confirmed no further movement in the area, I spoke to the other two, who were busy securing the fallen men with cable ties.
“No more moving signatures detected nearby. I think that’s all of them.”
“Okay. Put the translation ring on the one who still looks the most intact. Let’s squeeze some information out of them.”
“Got it, nya.”
Charlotte rummaged through the groaning men on the floor, dragged out the one whose eyes still showed life, and tried to slip the ring onto his finger.
“Nya. He won’t straighten his finger, nya.”
“Little shit’s resisting.”
Thud!
“Urgh!”
“Spread your fingers. Now.”
Thud!
“Huk!”
Oppa showed no mercy toward those who had attacked his family. His brutal blows gradually turned the man’s face into a bloody mess. Only after Oppa smashed the back of his hand with the hilt of his sword—producing a sickening crack—did the fingers finally open.
“It’s on, nya.”
“Good. What the hell are you people?”
“What… cough. How are you speaking our language?”
“You don’t need to know that. I asked what the hell you people are.”
“……”
The man glared with pure venom and clamped his mouth shut. Oppa’s expression grew even darker. He kicked the man’s shin.
Thud!
“Kup!”
“You’d better talk while I’m still asking nicely. I’m in a really foul mood right now.”
“……”
“Ugh, you’re really pissing me off. One hit for every time you don’t answer.”
Bam!
“Kehek!”
“Why did you surround us and attack without warning?”
“……”
Thud!
“Ugh!”
“Keeping your mouth shut like that isn’t good for either of us.”
Oppa’s violent interrogation continued for some time. The man endured the precisely controlled blows that avoided vital points—hard enough to hurt but not kill—until he finally broke.
“Cough… we’re survivors.”
“I can see that. What are you people?”
“…We’re a civilian group that turned this mart into our base.”
“Civilians who shoot bows and crossbows and swing fire axes? At fellow humans, without any warning? If you’re lying and I catch you, you die.”
“It’s true. We only acted in legitimate self-defense for the sake of survival.”
“Legitimate self-defense, my ass. What you did was a surprise attack, you idiots.”
Bleeding from the nose, the man continued insisting he was an ordinary civilian. He went on to explain the current state of this world.
One day, extremely aggressive and resilient plant monsters known as the Seeds of Death had appeared simultaneously across the globe. They began slaughtering not only humans but every animal they could find. When the monsters died they released spores that took root in soil and even corpses, multiplying and spawning new monsters. Nations collapsed before they could even react. The few survivors who managed to seal themselves inside buildings and hold out were barely clinging to life.
“We’ve been fighting the monsters with this mart—full of stored food—as our stronghold.”
“Nya. Did you fight other survivors too, nya?”
“Nya…? That couldn’t be helped. Food is limited, and the mart was already crowded.”
“Crowded? How many more are there?”
“…Fifty-seven, not counting the comrades here.”
Thirteen men including this one were currently rolling on the floor, which made exactly seventy in total.
“Hm. Sleep for now.”
Thud!
Oppa knocked the man out with a strike to the solar plexus, then shook the blood from his dirty gloves.
“No matter how you look at it, these guys aren’t ordinary civilian survivors.”
“I agree, nya.”
“Analyzing their reactions, they aren’t the type who feel guilt over murder.”
Especially when asked if they had fought other survivors, several of their reactions had carried a faint trace of pleasure. There was no guilt or sorrow at having killed fellow humans—only excitement and enjoyment. That was not the reaction of normal civilians with sound minds.
Confirming that all three of us shared the same thought, we exchanged glances and tightened the men’s restraints even more securely.
“Fifty-seven more besides these ones. Honestly I don’t even trust that number, but it means there are more bastards like them inside this building. I have zero desire to share a building with people like this for even a few months. What about you two?”
“I hate it, nya.”
“I don’t like it either.”
“Good. Their behavior is psychotic, but their armament level is low. We’ll head down quickly and take care of them as we go.”
We left the bound men where they were and continued downward. Prioritizing detection over thorough searching, we moved fast and cleared two more floors when we spotted a group coming up from below.
Thinking we were people descending from above, they approached without hesitation. But when they drew close enough to make out our forms, they froze. They shouted something in a language we couldn’t understand. We closed in quickly and began subduing them.
They swung their weapons in resistance, but they were only civilians. We neutralized all twelve without sustaining any injuries. Assuming the earlier information was accurate, forty-five remained.
We bound them tightly with cable ties as well and descended further. Two more floors down, we reached what appeared to be a brightly lit furniture showroom. Fifteen men living there put up a fight, but we subdued them easily.
“The world ended, yet these guys are living in absolute luxury? Look at all the accessories they’re wearing.”
“Covered head to toe in gold and jewels, nya.”
“In a ruined world, why hoard gold that’s worth less than food?”
They seemed to be the leaders of the group that had gone upstairs. From their clothes to their ornaments, everything about them screamed opulence. They were so fat that it made the claim of food shortages seem dubious. Their extra weight slowed their movements, making them the weakest combatants we had encountered so far.
And among those pigs, one especially bloated specimen was screaming at the top of his lungs, spraying spit through his broken front teeth.
“Wow. That really is the sound of a pig getting its throat cut.”
“Want me to slit it for real, nya?”
Charlotte twirled her signature dagger in both hands as she spoke. The pig who had been shrieking in terror at the sight of the spinning blade suddenly cowered and fell silent.
“Don’t. It would just dirty the blade for no reason.”
“Let’s finish checking down to the first floor before we decide whether to deal with them or not.”
“Understood, nya.”
According to the wall directory, we were currently on the fourth floor above ground. We had been attacked on the eighth, subdued the reinforcements coming from the sixth, and now neutralized what appeared to be the leadership on the fourth. There was an underground parking garage, but it didn’t seem necessary to go that far. We decided to check only as far as the first floor before heading back.