Episode 31 Outside the City

Starting today, Volume 2 begins!

Soft March sunlight bathed the suburban road where Hayato ran.

No vehicles passed. No need to worry about collisions, even without working traffic signals.

More concerning were the zombies that might burst from cover. Hayato moved down the center of the road.

"Even the suburbs have been looted."

He said it casually. Zombies couldn't catch up to moving vehicles.

Yui in the passenger seat, Natsuki in the back, both watched the scenery outside with interest.

Stores along the road had warped shutters, shattered display windows.

"Supermarkets and convenience stores—understandable."

"Yeah?"

"Even bank branches—glass broken too."

To the left, along the road, a bank branch stood with shattered windows.

"Ah, it's the end of the world, isn't it?"

The bank showed no sign of food.

Still, if no one was present and no police had arrived, one might be tempted to enter.

Hayato had a slight curiosity about the internal structure of the bank.

Someone had clearly thought the same, as signs of forced entry were visible.

"Can we use money?"

"...It's not possible."

Hayato answered Natsuki after a pause.

Stores that exchange cash for goods no longer existed.

No fuel meant no transport of goods, and even if a store opened, only zombies would come.

Earning money would be pointless if it couldn't be spent.

Worse, providing valuable goods would only mean personal loss.

As Hayato moved forward, observing ahead, a new zombie appeared from beside the road.

The decaying corpse staggered toward the vehicle, slowly.

Hayato shifted the car to the right, deliberately avoiding the zombie.

"These things move on magic essence. They won’t stop, no matter how many years pass."

"What does that mean?"

Yui, in the passenger seat, repeated Hayato’s mutter.

Hayato, having avoided the zombie, answered while driving.

"One of the other transmigrants had predicted this..."

After death, biological decay begins.

When muscle cells decay, proteins break down, and the ability to contract muscle fibers is lost.

Tendons connecting muscle to bone decay and snap, so force from muscles no longer transfers to bones.

Synovial fluid that lubricates joints vanishes. Ligaments decay. Joints disconnect.

Nerve tissue also necrotizes and breaks down, so signals from the brain no longer propagate.

Under normal conditions, movement ceases after approximately two weeks in summer, or two months in winter.

But the zombie virus compensates for essential functions using mana.

In decaying areas, the virus generates a specialized protein matrix from mana.

This protein matrix performs alternative functions to blood circulation and cellular metabolism.

Externally, the body appears decayed, but intracellular structural proteins and membrane composition proteins are sustained by mana.

Mana exists in the atmosphere and maintains function under extreme heat or freezing temperatures.

Thus zombies possess limited resistance to heat and cold, and as long as mana remains, the body sustains itself and continues movement.

"Therefore, movement may slow, but it will never cease entirely."

"How long can it last?"

"In the other world, zombies from a forgotten ancient kingdom that vanished six hundred years ago still wander."

Yui made a face of distaste, wrinkling her nose.

Even if it must be clarified, destroying or detaching the head severs signal transmission.

Therefore, targeting the head is correct when defeating zombies.

Conversely, destroying the heart does not stop movement, as the virus supplies muscular contraction energy using mana.

"How did it work in the other world?"

"Even without transfer, church clerics in towns could heal with sacred magic. Town soldiers would kill zombies, treat those bitten, and resolve the issue."

"What about villages without clerics?"

"Someone with basic skills would treat the bitten person while transporting them to town for resolution."

Hayato believed the sacred magic originated from the transference device of the supercivilization.

The theory held that gene modification and nanomachine implantation occurred during device activation.

Nanomachines also existed within the bodies of those from the other world, passed from mother to child.

Yet not all of them could use the machines, and effectiveness varied.

If the transference subjects were the first generation of genetic modification and implantation, then their descendants were likely diluted, or not related at all.

Thus, for Earth-born individuals, sacred magic would be essentially unusable.

— Still, my child might be able to use it.

Hayato’s child would be the second generation of those modified and implanted with nanomachines.

A sense that sacred magic could be accessible to them stirred in Hayato.

Of course, announcing that openly would bring great trouble.

I don’t want to spend my life imprisoned as a virus removal drug, or subjected to human experiments. Let the government fend for itself, then.

I sincerely wish the government would uphold the constitution—laws that define what the state must not do in order to protect the rights and freedoms of its citizens.

"There are survivors at the factory on the right."

From the passenger seat, Yui pointed toward a factory reinforced with iron grilles and corrugated metal sheets.

Red cloth fluttered from the roof. Someone waved.

"Yeah, that’s right."

Hayato replied flatly.

The quiet engine glided along the road, fog still thick in the morning air.

"We’re not stopping, then."

"Wouldn’t benefit me much, I don’t think."

Natsuki, in the back seat, asked hesitantly. Hayato gave a curt reply.

Out of curiosity, he lowered the door window slightly to listen.

The vehicle slowed. A man’s voice came from the factory.

“Hey! Stop! Wait!”

The voice echoed from above the window.

The small figure, barely visible, scrambled over the railing and ran to the edge of the roof.

The loud call made the zombies roaming around the building lift their heads in unison.

“Ah, what’s going on here.”

Around Hayato, the zombies began to move toward the factory one by one.

They approached, swaying on decayed limbs, emitting a foul odor from rotting bodies.

New zombies emerged from the opposite side of the road.

“Wait. We have food!”

Hayato, deciding the man was unmanageable, accelerated the vehicle. The man shouted to stop him.

“Says there’s benefit,”

“Must be a trap.”

Natsuki pointed out. Hayato dismissed it sharply.

“What kind of trap?”

A trap to steal the vehicle. Something about acquiring supplies.

With a vehicle, they could break through locked shop shutters. They wouldn’t be knocked down and bitten by zombies while moving.

Being able to operate a vehicle gave a survival advantage.

But now that overseas fuel supplies had ceased, vehicles were no longer easily operable.

Wanting to know how to obtain gasoline—there were many possibilities.

Hayato moved while storing gasoline in his spatial storage.

Most would assume he had secured a fuel station somewhere on his own. Then they might want to join him.

He glanced at the rooftop through the side mirror. Another human waved a white sheet violently.

The motion drew more zombies toward them.

"Hey, this is bad."

"Damn it, move fast—hide."

Voices from the rooftop came in rapid succession.

The figure waving the sheet vanished abruptly. The man on the rooftop rolled off the railing and disappeared.

Dozens of zombies had already gathered around the factory perimeter.

The zombies staggered forward, mindlessly pounding the barricade.

The iron gate at the entrance looked sturdy. Yet, the sound of breaking drew more zombies, one after another.

"Um, is this okay?"

Natsuki glanced back, concern in her voice.

"Maybe that's why zombies are gathering here—because the barricade can't be breached."

Hayato kept his hands on the wheel, eyes on the scene reflected in the rearview mirror.

Even with Hayato’s bear-like hearing, the voices from the rooftop still echoed.

"Could you do better?!"

"I just ran out of rations..."

"Could have had the zombies attack the car at the entrance instead."

The argument, begun inside the building, reached them faintly.

Unfortunately, the factory's food supply seemed nearly exhausted.

They had said food existed, but not how much. Nor had they said anything about sharing it.

"Shall we move forward?"

The government stated that in disasters, self-help, mutual aid, and public assistance follow in that order.

First, each person must help themselves.

Hayato pressed the accelerator. The vehicle moved quietly away from the spot.

In the rearview mirror, the swarm of zombies grew steadily larger.