The Lower-Body Collector

"Oh. This is clearing right now?"

The day's measure, it seemed, wasn't midnight at all, but the moment I'd accepted the quest. That would explain why the completion notice had surfaced now.

"Heh. There really is a taste to watching points pile up."

I smiled at the total, nearly doubled.

"Ooh... so it really is something new."

Notifications kept stacking one after another. Expectant, I tapped the newly opened Residence System first.

"Obviously."

I hit confirm and pulled up the details.

"What the hell is this?"

My residence had come back far worse than I'd expected, and a question mark might as well have been floating over my head.

"Even so, this isn't a bad place to live, is it?"

The convenience store sat right out front, so keeping myself fed wasn't a problem, and because it was an old low-rise tucked off on the outskirts, there weren't many zombies around either. A rank of Worst didn't feel like a grade I could swallow.

"Tsk. It's my first place. I've got some attachment to it, and having it written off like this stings."

There had to be some other standard behind the evaluation. Disappointed, I skimmed past it and moved on to the next window.

"This time, let's look at the main quest."

I opened it.

"Oh, this is a total freebie. It's no different from them just handing me the points."

The quest itself was simple: choose the residence where I would stay from here on. And that, even though I already had one.

"Hmm... let me think on it a little."

I nearly pressed Y on the spot, cleared the quest, and took the points. But I still couldn't see why my residence had been graded Worst, and the unease made me put the completion off.

"Damn. It's already this late."

I'd been poking through the new menus that had appeared after the first main quest, and somewhere in the middle I'd lost track of the light. I hadn't even noticed the day going dark.

"I'll think it over once I'm home."

I gathered the bag of snacks I'd picked up at the convenience store and headed back to the apartment.

"This place always gives me the creeps."

I reached the building and started up the stairs toward home, then stopped on the second-floor landing.

Maybe it was the dizzy memory of nearly dying to the female zombie missing her lower half. Every time I climbed those second-floor stairs, something about them felt wrong, and I found myself halting for a moment.

"Ugh. Hurry up and go."

I was shaking the feeling off, about to quicken my steps toward home, when it hit.

"Wh-what?"

The window that had burst into existence in front of me threw me into confusion. Just as it said, the strength ran out of my whole body until even breathing was a struggle.

Thump. Thump.

My heart began to hammer as if I'd just finished a marathon. A crushing anxiety closed over my chest, and my breath came short, as if someone had their hands around my throat. Cold sweat slicked my palms. My legs shook, and the strength bled out of me entirely.

A threat to my life. Why? This suddenly?

My mind had gone foggy, and still it spun furiously. I scraped together every clue that might matter.

A residence ranked Worst. The second-floor stairs that always felt wrong. The ajumma demanding food. A Sixth Sense that had fired out of nowhere. A five-story low-rise. The convenience-store part-timer. The female zombie missing her lower half?

Thump. Thump. Thump.

The deeper the thought went, the more time passed, the harder my heart pounded, as if death were drawing near.

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump!

Wait. The female zombie missing her lower half?

"Goddamn it!"

The answer snapped into place. I jerked my head around, searching for somewhere to hide.

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump!

"Hhh... body, move...!"

I spotted a fire-hose cabinet. Dragging a body that refused to obey, crawling more than walking, I got the door open and crammed myself inside.

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump!

I was hidden. My heart still pounded like something insane.

You idiot! A zombie missing its lower half! Why didn't you realize it the second you saw her?

Pressed into the cabinet, I held my breath and kept thinking.

That wrongness every time I climbed the second-floor stairs. That was my Sixth Sense, warning me.

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump!

All the times I went in and out of the convenience store, I never once saw a zombie missing its lower half.

Get bitten, and you turn faster than the zombie can finish eating the limb. That's what it means.

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump!

So what that woman missing her lower half actually meant was...

There's a monster that can sever a lower body in a single stroke...!

Thump... thump... thoom...

The thought had barely finished when a heavy thud reached me. The vibration through my body told me it wasn't my heartbeat.

Skrrrk. Skraaaape.

"Grrrrrh..."

From beyond the cabinet came a chilling cry, and with it the hair-raising scrape of metal dragged across the floor. Sound alone was enough. This was nothing like the zombies I'd met so far.

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

Please, stop...!

My heart kept pounding with no sense of the moment, and terrified the thing outside might hear it, I clutched my chest in both hands.

Thoom... thoom...!

Skrrk. Skraaaape...!

For all that effort, the footsteps drew steadily closer to the cabinet.

"Grk... grrrh..."

Shit. Do I go out and fight it now, even like this?

The monster's breath sounded right in front of me. I admitted it had noticed me, and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠my hand locked tight around the baseball bat I'd brought—

"Young man, what took you so long? I was waiting! I thought I was going to starve to death!"

At that instant, the voice of the ajumma who'd been demanding food from me rang out. The woman who cadged a meal off me every day had heard footsteps on the stairs and come rushing out of her unit.

"Grrrrrh!"

"K-kyaaah! Wh-what is that?!"

For her, it was the worst choice she could have made. For me, it was the chance that saved my life.

Thoom. Thud!

"Kyaaaaaah!"

Shhhk!

Thud-splat!

She hadn't even had time to run. A few of the monster's steps, then the sickening sound of skin and flesh being parted, and after that the nauseating slap of a slab of meat hitting the floor.

"Hhk..."

Through that brief span I clamped a hand over my mouth and kept utterly silent, not daring to make ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a sound.

"Grrrrh."

Afterward, as if satisfied, the monster dragged the corpse away. Its footsteps climbed toward the floors above.

I-I have to see what it looks like.

Whether fear had stripped me of reason, the need to see the thing seized me. I eased the cabinet door open and caught the back of the monster as it ascended.

Along with the blood-red window, I could finally see the thing. A massive frame well over two meters tall, a huge blade fixed where its left arm should have been, and in the other hand the ajumma's freshly bisected lower half, dragged along behind it. A grotesque sight.

Thoom.

With the boom of those enormous footsteps, the monster vanished onto the floor above.