The Wilderness-Optimized Villainess

The Virtual YouTuber Gallery was exploding again.

Apparently, if you ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠cook zombie meat thoroughly enough, you don’t get infected by the virus. Come to think of it, you could eat zombie meat in Minecraft too. Maybe that’s just how all sandbox games are. This one is brutally difficult, and securing food is especially tricky. They probably adjusted the difficulty by letting players eat zombies. Since it’s still in early access, the official patch might change everything. Which means enjoying zombie meat might be a luxury exclusive to right now.

──Or so the logic went, but it was the last piece of game knowledge Rion wanted to learn. Who in their right mind would want to eat zombie meat?

‘…Wait, but how is that sister so used to this?’

Even a butane torch felt unsafe under the circumstances. Lighting a fire should have been difficult, yet she gathered a few branches and random scraps and started one on the spot. Then she built a massive campfire on the rooftop and began roasting zombies over an open flame.

“Be a dear and sort out some chemicals so we can eat safely, won’t you?”

The moment Lora spoke into her smartwatch, the device replied in a calm AI voice through ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠her tiny earpiece.

It was the AI that had been managing the hospital facility. The story was that it had followed Lora’s party. If this were a cultivation novel, it would be like the Fairy Pe●mon; if it were a modern fantasy, it would be like Department Head Ma●no. In this game, AIs handled the “guidance” role for players—offering support, explaining things the user might not know, that sort of thing.

“Here, eat it with these chemicals, darling.”

“…What even are these?”

“Eating the meat as-is would ruin your health, you know. Fortunately we brought plenty of medicine from the hospital, so we can fill our stomachs without any trouble.”

To satisfy their hunger, they had to eat zombie meat alongside medicine. …Even homeless people on the street probably lived more humanely than this.

For the record, Lora was the first to lead by example. She chewed the meat with an elegant expression that never once wavered.

“Sister… does it taste okay…?”

“Flavor is something one enjoys only when one is well-fed. Still, I suppose it’s better than eating bugs.”

Lora smiled sweetly.

After that, Lora continued to be far too familiar with everything. Climbing trees or streetlights. Catching bugs and eating them. She even crafted a harpoon and hunted squirrels. The gallery chat went wild.

Wilderness-optimized noble daughter. …Wilderness and noble daughter. How could two words that should never go together be placed side by side?

Thanks to our very own Lora Grylls and her professional survival skills, Rion, Sora, and Anna were able to continue living safely. Even if it felt like they had endured every possible form of culinary torture in the process.

The party reached the shelter without further incident, only to be greeted by:

Two robots stood guard at the entrance leading underground. It was difficult to describe them as anything other than robots. If one had to make it easier to understand, they looked a little like the “big data” robots commonly memed about in the gallery. At least they could talk, which made them better than zombies. The guns pointed at the party, however, made them equally threatening.

“…Five million won? The world has ended and you’re still charging money?” Sora asked, dumbfounded.

“Can’t you just let us in? What’s the point of money in a world like this….”

“Ugh…. Who even is this facility administrator?”

The robots refused to budge. Fortunately, they did not open fire unless the party acted hostile. They answered questions honestly. After整理 the information, this is what they learned:

1. Safe time inside the shelter is infinite. Logging out here means no risk of turning into a zombie.

2. The shelter entry fee is 5 million won per entry. There is no time limit; once inside, you may stay indefinitely. However, leaving and re-entering requires another 5 million won payment.

3. The only facility inside the shelter is a sleeping device. No food or drink is provided except water.

“So they’re charging money for a safe logout,” Lora concluded. “Progress doesn’t decrease or increase while inside, so it really is just a logout spot.”

“Five million won every time we log out? How are we even supposed to get that kind of money…?”

“You’re overthinking it, Sora dear.” Lora shrugged.

The ducal party soon arrived at an ATM in front of a convenience store.

“I see… Since the world has ended, there’s no such thing as theft anymore.”

“More or less. An ATM should contain plenty of cash. If we can just get it out, money won’t be a problem.”

“The problem is how to get it out.”

If they could smash the ATM with heavy construction equipment like an excavator, the cash would come spilling out. Of course, acquiring such equipment was easier said than done.

“I saw a few construction sites while we were driving… Should we go back now, Sister?”

“Can you operate heavy machinery?”

“…No.”

“I imagine hacking the ATM’s system would open it. Can’t the AI do that?”

The AI helpfully marked the bank’s location on the smartwatch.

“Looks like we’ll have to rob a bank.”

***

First, we raided the convenience store before the bank. The doors were firmly locked and the interior lights were off. Only the lights, though—the refrigerators and other appliances were still running. It must have been one of those rare twenty-four-hour stores that closed at night because there was no night-shift worker. Thanks to that, it had survived the apocalypse relatively untouched. The inside was spotless.

“…I’d rather just live here.”

“It’s not nearly safe enough for that, I’m afraid.”

At any rate, this was the first time since starting the game that they had obtained proper food. Many items were past their expiration dates, and transporting them was no easy task. Still, they had a car, so they crammed everything inside somehow. After memorizing the store’s location, they moved to a nearby apartment complex.

Lora left the rest of the party waiting in the car and scaled the exterior wall alone. She checked each window to see if it was unlocked, and on the seventh floor she found an open one. She slipped inside without trouble.

She opened the front door from the inside, stepped into the corridor, and cleared out every zombie wandering the floor. Once the area was secure, she called the rest of the party up to the seventh-floor room.

“Let’s split into two groups,” I said. “We’ll make Room 708 our temporary base. Some of us will fortify this place while the others go to the bank.”

“Fortify?”

“For example, the safe time. Can’t we extend it further?”

I tested my theory by dragging a wardrobe over to block the veranda window.

“…Huh? It actually increased. Why?”

“The only way zombies can get in is through the windows. They can’t crawl out of a narrow sewer pipe.”

“Doesn’t that seem illogical…? Zombies aren’t assassins. How would they even get in through a veranda window?”

“There may be high-ranking zombie entities capable of such things.”

“High-ranking…?”

“Sora, you really should try playing Biotic Hazard soon.”

I was certain of it. There were entities far stronger than the zombies roaming the streets. In fact, I had already guessed the true cause of the apocalypse—Sz-001.

‘A gate must have opened.’

One had probably appeared in Africa. Just like my “second homeland.” The gate would have spread some kind of virus, and the humans of this world simply couldn’t respond in time. That seemed to be the game’s premise. Labyrinthos might have been a medieval fantasy setting, but it was made by the same company. The faint magical energy I sensed from the zombies could not fool the senses I had honed as Laura Iris. This world shared the same underlying lore.

“Those in charge of fortifying the base, secure this location as much as possible. While I’m gone, prepare as many portable and preserved rations as you can.”

Thus, Sora and Rion stayed behind to cook. Anna and I would rob the bank.

“Ugh…. Do I really have to drive?”

“The viewers told me you have a license, you know.”

A long tail eventually gets stepped on. Anna had been hiding her license, but she couldn’t fool me forever. Since Rion had suffered through driving last time, it was Anna’s turn at the wheel.

A note about driving during a zombie apocalypse: intelligent people don’t step into the road on red lights, but zombies lack such intelligence. You might be able to run over one or two, but every collision shortens a car’s lifespan. There was also no guarantee that only one or two zombies would block the road. Five or six at once would make it nearly impossible to break through.

That was why I didn’t ride inside the car. I rode on top of it.

“Stop the car, if you would.”

Tap tap. I knocked lightly on the roof twice. The moment Anna stopped, I greeted the zombies trying to block our path.

“Urrrrgh!”

I leaped down from the roof, crushed one zombie’s head beneath my foot, and rolled forward. No living creature has eyes in the back of its head. Zombies in particular were nothing but primal monsters with zero intelligence. They were closer to beasts than anything else. Once I got behind them, their movements became sluggish. Bipedal creatures aren’t graceful when making 180-degree turns.

Before they could even look my way, I had already severed the necks of three. Two remained. I drove my blade up under the jaw of one and grabbed the other by the throat.

“Urrgh…”

I lifted it clean off the ground.

“Hmm.”

My strength was still lacking after all. This game avatar was hopelessly weak compared to my original body. That was only natural. If real physical stats carried over, the balance would collapse. Athletes would dominate while shut-ins suffered. Even so, this weakened state offered its own interesting experience. It felt like those challenge ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠runs in soulslike games—trying to no-hit a boss with a broken sword.

I hurled the zombie away.

Thud!

“Anna, you may drive on.”

I climbed back onto the roof.

***

Come to think of it, I had never once visited a bank’s main branch in my life. Actually, I had never been to the main branch of any franchise restaurant or telecom company either. I used to wonder what could possibly be different about a main branch, but now I saw the buildings were enormous. This single skyscraper housed the entire operation.

The AI spoke the moment we arrived in front of the bank’s main branch.

“Survivors? You mean there are players besides us in this game?”

“Huh? This is an ad server, Mom,” Anna said with an expression that asked if I was serious. “Obviously other streamers who got the sponsorship are playing too.”

A short while later, four survivors approached us.

“Oh my, Sina dear. It’s been a while.”

It was genuinely nice to see her.