After finishing their search of the first floor, the two followed the stairs up to the second floor.
The second floor had a different layout from the first.
There were fewer rooms on both sides of the corridor, but each room was larger.
According to the supply list, the medical supplies storeroom was on this floor.
The storeroom door was locked, but Shiro smoothly opened it with the key he had found in the office earlier.
The storeroom was not large.
Several metal shelves lined the walls, neatly stacked with all kinds of medical supplies.
Bandages, gauze, disinfectant, disposable gloves, and common medicines were arranged in such large quantities that Marikawa Shizuka could not help letting out a surprised cry of joy.
“Oh my gosh, there are more supplies here than everything we collected before combined!” The two began taking inventory.
Their haul included Antibiotics x15 boxes, Anti-inflammatory Medicine x20 boxes, Painkillers x25 boxes, Fever Medicine x18 boxes, Bandages x50 rolls, Gauze x80 packs, Disposable Gloves x10 boxes, Medical Alcohol x15 bottles, Surgical Instrument Kits x2 sets, along with a portable blood pressure monitor and a stethoscope.
“These will last us a long time.
They’re all in good condition, and most of them are still within their expiration dates.” Shizuka’s eyes curved into crescents.
If these medicines could be used, then in the future, they would not need to rely on her talent for minor illnesses.
After all, using her talent consumed stamina.
Shiro stored most of the medical supplies in his 20-slot warehouse.
As for Shizuka’s 10-slot warehouse, she placed some bandages, gauze, and common medicines inside as portable backups.
Although they still had some warehouse space left, they also needed to save room for food and other supplies later, so they had to calculate carefully.
The canned food, water, and other supplies they had collected from the previous houses had already taken up 5 slots.
The supplies they found now clearly exceeded the total capacity of their warehouses, so the extra items could only be carried by hand for the time being.
The two continued searching the other rooms on the second floor.
There was nothing special in the meeting room, but the communications room had a radio device that could still be used.
Shiro casually dismantled it and stored it in his warehouse.
With the second floor searched, only the third floor remained.
Standing at the staircase leading to the third floor, Shiro tightened his grip on the baseball bat.
Everything had gone smoothly so far, but his intuition told him the third floor would not be as easy as the first two.
He told Shizuka what he was thinking, and she also put away the excitement she had shown in the medical storeroom, nodding seriously.
“Sensei, is your shield skill off cooldown?” “It is.” Shizuka reached out, and a pale golden light fell over Shiro’s body, forming a faint, flickering film of light around him.
“The shield can negate one attack.
After it’s used, it needs a 5-minute cooldown before I can cast it again.” “That’s enough.” Shiro raised the baseball bat.
“Put the shield on me first, then follow behind me and keep at least three steps of distance.
If you see me get controlled or injured, use your talent to dispel and heal me right away.
Got it?” “Got it!” The two temporarily placed the things they were carrying beside the stairs.
Then, one in front and one behind, they headed up to the third floor.
The third floor was far more open than expected.
The entire floor had been opened into one large space.
It should have originally contained the mayor’s office and the emergency command center, but now all the office furniture had been deliberately pushed against the walls, leaving a wide empty area in the middle.
Standing at the very center of that empty space was something that was clearly not an ordinary zombie.
It wore a black suit that had already become tattered beyond recognition, and a rusted mayor’s badge was still pinned to its chest.
Its body was a full size larger than an ordinary zombie’s, standing close to two meters tall.
Its skin had turned a sickly gray-blue, covered in dark red cracks.
Most unsettling of all were its eyes.
They were not the hollow sockets of an ordinary zombie, but two eerie green flames burning in the darkness.
In its left hand, it held a scepter, and at the top of that scepter was a glowing dark green gem.
“Humans…” A hoarse, indistinct voice rasped from the zombie mayor’s throat.
Those two eerie green flames locked straight onto Shiro and Shizuka.
“My townspeople… new guests have arrived… Rise… welcome them…” As it waved the scepter in its hand, low growls rose one after another from the shadows around the third floor.
Six zombies staggered up from behind the piles of debris and began closing in on Shiro and Shizuka.
“It can talk!
And it can summon zombies!” Shiro’s pupils shrank, but he quickly calmed himself.
“Sensei, fall back and defend yourself with the shovel.
I’ll deal with these ordinary zombies.
Watch that big zombie’s movements and be ready to dispel negative statuses and heal me at any moment!” Shizuka immediately followed Shiro’s instructions and retreated behind him, gripping the entrenching shovel with both hands and holding it across her body.
Shiro took a deep breath, then advanced toward the closest zombie with the baseball bat in hand.
Since all he had was a baseball bat, he could only face them head-on in the most direct way.
The instant the first zombie lunged, Shiro sidestepped it.
His baseball bat swung upward from below and struck the zombie precisely in the jaw.
Precision Strike triggered, and the zombie’s head was smashed apart along with its upper jaw.
Its body flew backward and had already begun slowly dissolving by the time it hit the ground.
The second zombie followed right behind it.
Using the momentum from his previous swing, Shiro turned and swept the baseball bat sideways into the zombie’s knee, knocking it to the ground.
Then he finished it off with another strike.
Shiro’s movements seemed to confuse the zombie mayor.
It tilted its head, then let out an even sharper screech.
The dark green light on the scepter suddenly surged, and the remaining zombies’ eyes glowed brightly as their speed abruptly increased.
“They got faster!” Shizuka immediately cried out in alarm.
Since she had been watching the zombie mayor the whole time, she was also the first to notice something was wrong.
Shiro had no time to respond.
Three zombies lunged at him at the same time, and he could only retreat.
He dodged the first zombie’s attack and used the baseball bat to block the arm of the second, but the third had already rushed right in front of him, opening its rotting mouth to bite at his neck.
Buzz!
The pale golden shield flashed.
The zombie’s teeth shattered against it, and the shield broke with a crisp sound, but it had bought Shiro the crucial one second he needed.
Shiro kicked away the zombie in front of him, then brought the baseball bat down from above and smashed the head of the zombie that had bitten the shield.
Shizuka immediately cast another shield on Shiro.
Two left.
No, three.
The zombie mayor raised its scepter again, dark green light flashing as two more zombies crawled up from the shadows.
“This won’t end at this rate.” Shiro gritted his teeth, sweat already forming on his forehead.
His gaze passed over the group of zombies in front of him and locked onto the zombie mayor standing in the center of the hall.
To catch bandits, first catch the ringleader.
As long as he dealt with that mayor, the summoning should stop.
The problem was that he only had a baseball bat in his hands.
The zombie mayor was guarded by at least three zombies, and even more were pouring in from the surrounding area.
Charging straight in would be the same as throwing his life away.
“Sensei!” Shiro knocked back a lunging zombie with one swing and shouted without turning his head.
“Try using your talent to attack that scepter!
That gem is the source of the negative energy.
Your talent can dispel negative statuses, so it might have some special effect on the scepter!” When Shizuka heard him, she immediately focused all her attention on the scepter in the zombie mayor’s hand.
She took a deep breath, stretched both hands forward, and pale green healing light surged from her palms, shooting like a beam toward the dark green gem at the top of the scepter.