“You really are carefree, Sensei.
Wait… what’s that up ahead?” Seeing Marikawa Shizuka press herself against the window with her hips raised as she watched the scenery, Shiro could not help teasing her.
Her mentality was honestly shockingly good.
He could only say that was just the kind of person she was.
But before Shiro could say anything more, a blurry “human” figure appeared ahead.
“Could that be a person?
Wait, hurry and brake!
Be careful not to hit them!” Before Shiro could confirm what exactly was in front of them, Shizuka had already scrambled into the driver’s seat in a panic.
She turned off the autopilot, then slammed her foot down on the brake.
Fortunately, the moment Shiro saw what she was doing, he immediately sat back in the passenger seat and fastened his seat belt.
Otherwise, he would have been thrown off balance.
Screech!
The sudden braking made the tires grind hard against the road, producing a piercing sound.
In the end, they still failed to stop in time, and the RV slammed straight into the figure ahead.
“Hiss… Shiro-kun, what do we do?
I think we hit someone!” Shizuka shook Shiro in a panic, giving him a headache.
“All right, Sensei, stop shaking me.
You’re going to mix my brain into a smoothie.
I’ll get out and take a look.” Shiro quickly held Shizuka by the shoulders and stopped her from using him like a rattle.
Then he picked up the baseball bat and got out of the vehicle.
When he reached the front of the RV, the figure they had hit was lying quietly on the ground without moving.
Its clothes were torn, and its shoes were in terrible shape.
It looked like someone who had taken a stroll through America while carrying a barrel of oil and somehow made it back alive.
Shiro cautiously took a few steps forward.
At last, the motionless figure reacted.
It slowly propped itself up from the ground.
Its pale hands had long fingernails, though its ten fingers were a little too white.
Its head hung low, preventing Shiro from seeing its face.
From time to time, a clacking sound came from its body, like bones grinding against each other.
Shiro immediately tightened his grip on the baseball bat and watched the swaying figure with full vigilance.
That movement did not look like something a normal human would make.
From the looks of it, he had encountered a monster.
Sitting inside the RV, Shizuka watched Shiro with worry all over her face.
Although she did not know why he had raised the baseball bat, she trusted him.
After all, from now on, Shiro was her partner in surviving this world.
No matter what, she had to give her partner a certain amount of trust.
Besides, from the time they had spent together since waking up, she knew Shiro was not a bad person.
She might be airheaded, but she was not stupid.
Otherwise, how could she have grown up safely in Japan?
“Ghh… ROAR!!!” The figure raised its head.
Its face was deathly pale, its eyes sunken, and one of its eyeballs was completely gone.
Its lips had also vanished, exposing bloody teeth and gums.
Its hair hung messily over its forehead, but Shiro could still see the cracked skull exposed beneath it.
Bang!!!
Strike first, gain the advantage.
While it still had not steadied itself, Shiro did not hesitate and smashed the bat down directly.
Contrary to the feeling he had imagined, the baseball bat met almost no resistance.
Instead, it directly smashed the other party’s skull into pieces.
Having lost its head, the zombie’s body staggered backward and collapsed.
It twitched once, then stopped moving completely.
“Hah… hah!!
Ugh—” Shiro’s breathing grew rapid.
Killing a “person” for the first time made his stomach churn with acid.
He braced one hand against the side of the RV and vomited on the spot.
After taking quite a while to recover, Shiro finally felt a little better.
Then he turned his head and looked at the place where the zombie had been.
The zombie’s body was slowly fading away.
Soon after, it turned into a pure white crystal and dropped to the ground.
After hesitating for a moment, Shiro still stepped forward and picked up the crystal with his hand.
Perhaps this thing had some special use.
Shiro stored it inside his Codex Warehouse, planning to check what the crystal did later.
After turning on the faucet on the side of the RV, Shiro washed the blood off the baseball bat and returned inside.
Although the road was somewhat safer than a resource zone, monsters could still spawn here.
Staying outside the RV for too long was never safe.
“Shiro-kun, are you okay?
What was that just now?!” The moment he returned to the RV, Shizuka came over with worry written all over her face.
That figure suddenly standing up had frightened her badly.
Especially when it tried to attack Shiro, she had almost rushed out of the vehicle to help him.
Fortunately, Shiro had taken it down with the baseball bat afterward, which let her relax a little.
But then Shiro seemed to pick something up before standing there in a daze, making her worry all over again.
“I’m fine.
That thing just now should be one of the monsters the system announcement mentioned.
It was probably a zombie.” Shiro placed the baseball bat behind the seat.
This position was close to the door, making it more convenient for him to grab the weapon when going out to explore.
“Phew!
Thank goodness you’re okay.
That really scared me.
Right, Shiro-kun, are you hurt?
Hurry, let me check!” Ignoring Shiro’s protests, Shizuka directly started feeling him up from head to toe.
Only after confirming that he was unharmed did she let out a long sigh of relief.
Shiro, however, began having a bit of a hard time.
Those two soft, enormous mounds kept brushing and sliding against his body.
For Shiro, who was already young and hot-blooded, his lower body immediately stood proudly at attention and gave a grand salute.
Yet Shizuka seemed not to notice at all.
After using her talent to heal him, she turned around and returned to the driver’s seat.
In a place Shiro failed to notice, however, the tips of Shizuka’s ears had already turned bright red.
After sitting back down, she could not help making a small grasping motion with her hand.
Then she let out a soft little exclamation.
“So… so big!” At the same time, in order to distract himself, Shiro once again sent his thoughts into that mysterious codex.
At this moment, inside the Monster Codex list, a card with a zombie portrait had appeared.
[Low-Level Zombie: Slow movement speed, weak defense, tenacious vitality.
Weakness: head.
When attacking, it is recommended to smash the head or cut it off.
Carries the zombie virus inside its body.
Due to viral parasitism, all attributes have decreased.
The zombie virus can only be spread through biting.] The back of the zombie card contained information related to the zombie.
Beneath the card itself was written 1/10.
It seemed he still had to kill nine more before he could unlock the reward.
Still, killing just one had given him the corresponding information, which was already quite good.
From how things looked now, killing low-level zombies was not a major problem for Shiro.
The real issue was where he was supposed to find them.
For now, Shiro could only set aside the idea of hunting zombies and wait to see whether they would encounter more once they reached a supply point.
After placing the card back into the codex, Shiro returned his attention to the passenger seat.
At this moment, Shizuka was driving the vehicle with a serious expression.
Because of the small incident with the zombie, she had also realized the cruelty of this world.
As a result, she was now driving even more carefully and cautiously.
“All right, relax a little.
This is the road.
Judging from the current situation, although the road isn’t completely safe, compared to the resource zones, the number of monsters appearing here should be very small.
They probably won’t show up on the road often either.
After all, we’ve already been driving for most of the day, haven’t we?” Shiro sat in the passenger seat.
With him beside her, along with his comforting words, Shizuka relaxed quite a bit.
Just like that, the two chatted from time to time while driving along this winding road, a road whose end was still nowhere to be seen.