Episode 58: Counterattack Against the New Order Coalition

Late night on the day the Shopping Mall was attacked.

Hayato received a layout diagram of Chukann City Municipal Hospital from Sakurai and proceeded to the site.

Chukann Hospital, serving as the base for the New Order Coalition, was a six-story building with two hundred and ninety beds.

Located three kilometers south of Chukann Station, residents from the southern side of the station used the municipal hospital, while those from the northern side used a mid-sized hospital adjacent to the Mall.

Originally designated as a secondary emergency hospital and a disaster response center.

Equipped with a self-powered generator and a groundwater pumping facility—now a persistent nuisance.

‘You know the way?’

Yui asked, questioning whether it was possible to travel at night.

Hayato, not a native of Chukann City, walking on roads without streetlights—this was a reasonable concern.

‘We’ll drive until we reach a straight path. After that, we walk.’

‘Can you see in the dark?’

‘When focused, I can see about fifty times better than a human.’

Hayato could clearly distinguish the outlines of trees, the shapes of buildings, and the contours of the ground on moonlit nights, even without streetlights.

Identifying moving objects was easy. He could tell zombies apart from others.

‘Use spatial storage to retrieve the vehicle. Keep the headlights off. Check the map with the Car Navigation System. That way, we can approach without being detected.’

‘What then?’

‘We’ve been attacked three times—outside the Police Station, at a house with a parked car, and at the Shopping Mall. If that’s the case, we can strike back at the organization itself.’

Whatever was done with Anna, Sakurai’s food situation had to improve.

The solution was simple. Tell Hayato he could collect the excess pine resin he couldn’t use.

The hotel residents could secure food for the immediate future. They could begin rice cultivation in the nearby fields. Women could perform threshing, hulling, and milling. Anna could survive.

Zombie prevention: surround the rice paddy with fences and barricades.

The greater threat than zombies was raiders. But a more dangerous threat emerged—bears.

The method was simple.

Hayato’s spatial storage had the capacity of ten twenty-foot containers.

One of them contained six hundred sixty-four fifty-liter drums filled with gasoline.

Use that to burn everything possible.

The buildings themselves were fireproof and would not burn. But many other items could be burned.

—First, the motorcycle.

Hayato arrived at the city hospital. He approached the motorcycle parked in the covered bicycle shed and began pouring gasoline over it.

The motorcycles were packed into the bicycle shed, lined up along its perimeter and against the hospital building.

He poured gasoline thoroughly onto each one.

—Today’s harvest is abundant. He’ll be too distracted to notice.

After finishing work at the shed, Hayato ran toward the main entrance of the hospital.

A barricade blocked the main entrance.

Yellow and black striped guard fences, like those used at construction sites, were linked end to end to span the width of the entrance.

Each fence section was anchored to heavy concrete footings.

Double-layered. It seemed impossible for a zombie to reach the entrance.

—…Hmph. Useless effort.

Hayato muttered a line befitting a villain, then folded the guard fence.

The storage was temporary. He planned to discard it on his way back.

After placing about fifty barrels, he ran along the wall, tossing the barrels aside.

After a short distance, he reached the loading entrance for medicine and food supplies.

He placed about thirty barrels there, then moved on.

Next, a passage connected to the morgue building to the north. This was where the hearse docked to transport the deceased from the hospital.

A makeshift barricade of guard fencing was already in place, so he stored it and replaced it with about twenty barrels.

"Next is the problem."

He ran while sprinkling gasoline, arriving at an area behind the hospital housing the self-powered generator and the pump for drawing groundwater.

The hospital's groundwater was designated for use by local residents during emergencies. A public unveiling event had been held, inviting a local television station to cover it, so Sakurai was aware of the arrangement.

Questions arose about the power source for pumping water, along with explanations of the nearby self-powered generator.

The fuel tank for the self-powered generator was underground, but the operating machinery was above ground.

Both were made of metal. They would not break from light heating, but Hayato had brought a large quantity of gasoline.

— Place ten of them each, and apply gasoline directly as a precaution?

It would have been better to start with the most labor-intensive location.

Carrying that regret, Hayato arranged the gasoline-filled barrels beside each other, then applied gasoline directly to several.

After quickly completing the task, he carried out the barrels and discarded them, running along the building's side.

There was a garage, once used for vehicles like the doctor’s cart.

The emergency vehicle was not present. Instead, a motorcycle and numerous fuel drums stood in line. Hayato placed about thirty barrels and scattered them directly for precaution.

Adjacent to the garage was a supply warehouse.

The disaster base hospital had a storage room for emergency rations and water.

It was unclear whether it was still stocked. It appeared fireproof, but Hayato arranged thirty barrels in front of the locked entrance and placed another twenty around the perimeter.

He then scattered gasoline and left the area.

——The final option was the time-exit entrance.

With the main entrance blocked, movement must occur through the time-exit entrance.

Possibly, New Order Coalition personnel were stationed there.

Hayato stopped. From his spatial storage, he retrieved and equipped a plate armor simultaneously. Once fully armored, he proceeded toward the time-exit entrance.

The armor specialized against demon lord assaults made little sound.

It did not vanish entirely. When Hayato stood before the time-exit entrance he had sealed, the curtain over the metal-barred window of the adjacent disaster prevention center snapped open with a rush.

The great helm Hayato wore and the man peering from inside the facility met face to face through the glass.

"Gyaaah!?"

The man, suddenly confronted with a full suit of armor through the window, screamed.

Hayato, discovered, retracted the gate fence at the time-exit entrance.

He placed, instead, as many gasoline-filled barrels as possible.

The time-exit entrance remained closed. Opening it required a brief delay.

Hayato arranged the barrels rapidly, counting aloud— one, two, three, four, five. After counting to thirty, he scattered gasoline last, then left the time-exit entrance.

He moved to the corner where the main entrance turned, then threw the lit lamp.

The lamp flew in an arc, landing before the time-exit entrance.

Hayato turned into the wall beside the main entrance, threw himself to the ground, closed his legs, and covered his head with both hands.

Instantly, flames burst through the corner from the time-exit entrance toward the main entrance side.

—Gah.

A red light pierced Hayato’s closed eyelids despite his reflexive blink.

A hissing roar swelled, followed by a deep, thunderous boom. Flames roared upward.

The fire did not stop. It spread through the storage depot, garage, power generator, mortuary exit, loading entrance, main entrance, and bicycle parking area in succession.

The most abnormal explosion occurred in the garage.

It ignited fuel stored by the New Order Coalition.

The explosion did not stop at blowing apart the garage. It struck the adjacent storage warehouse, shattering the hospital windows facing the garage one after another.

Flames scattered. Ignition and chain reactions followed in succession.

Hayato was fortunate that the bus waiting room had become a wall on the front entrance side.

Otherwise, he would have been caught in the explosion of the large quantity of gasoline stored at the front entrance.

"Overdone."

Twenty-five liters was enough to ignite and explode a single vehicle.

Fifty such containers would have blown apart the front entrance, even after the barricade had been removed.

The same number was stored in the supply warehouse. The entrance door would have been blown away. Then the fire spreading inside was unavoidable.

One hundred units each were installed in the self-power generation system and the groundwater pumping facility. This should exceed the stockpile warehouse.

There should be people taken away. So he did not intend to burn the entire building down...

Hayato's objective had been to disable the New Order Coalition's base.

The objective was likely achieved.

The problem was the fire spreading beyond expectations.

— Fire-resistant structure, hold on. Please.

Hayato had only poured gasoline outside the hospital.

Reinforced concrete would not burn, of course.

But the windows were broken. The curtains in the patient rooms, the beds, the waiting room sofas—these all burned.

— Maybe it would be better to destroy the thieves' hideout, to prevent further damage.

While thinking up excuses to himself, Hayato left the burning hospital—the thieves' hideout.

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