They parked the RV near an exit with fewer people, then Hakuba Shiro and Marikawa Shizuka got out fully equipped.
The scepter from before had already been used by Shiro to craft handcuffs, so now each of them had one pair hanging at their waist.
There was no helping it.
The effect that increased damage against “human” enemies by 50% was simply too tempting.
If any player tried to attack them, then with Shiro’s current Physique bonus, killing an undefended player in one hit would be far too easy.
Shiro estimated that this equipment would remain useful for quite a long time.
After entering the resource zone, what greeted them was a ruined city swallowed by plants.
Large numbers of zombies wandered inside, and from time to time, terrifying zombie roars echoed in the distance, shaking dust loose from the buildings.
“Let’s go.
We’ll check the nearby area first.
Safety comes first.” Looking at the dense mass of zombies, Shiro had no choice but to take Shizuka on a detour.
There were simply too many zombies.
Even if Shiro could kill them all by striking their weak points, he could not fight that many at once.
If any noise drew a horde around them, neither he nor Shizuka would be able to escape.
Fortunately, a big city also had plenty of alleys.
After the two slipped into the backstreets, the number of zombies they encountered dropped significantly.
With fewer zombies around, the pressure on them also decreased a lot.
Shiro looked into the distance.
A tall building stood silently far away.
Although vines had crawled all over its walls, the building itself still stood firm.
“Let’s head toward that building.
Try not to make any noise, or we might draw too many zombies over.” Shiro, who was walking in front to clear the way, had already switched his weapon to the entrenching shovel.
Since he did not have a machete, he could only use the shovel to cut through the plants growing wildly across the path.
“Mhm, I’ll be careful!” Shizuka nodded and gripped the baseball bat, cautiously following behind Shiro.
She was very aware of her own combat ability.
Fighting one or two zombies was fine, but once their numbers increased, things would become hard to say.
The alleys were complicated and winding.
As Shiro walked, he made marks along the way so they would not forget the route back.
Along the road, aside from plants, the number of zombies they encountered was not high.
“That’s strange.
This shouldn’t be right.
Logically speaking, even if this place is full of plants, there should still be zombies around.” After walking for a long time, Shiro and Shizuka entered a ruined building and began eating lunch.
“Could these plants also be monsters?” Shizuka tilted her head and spoke with a puzzled expression.
“Hiss… that actually reminds me.
It’s very possible!” Shizuka’s words made cold sweat run down Shiro’s back.
That was right.
No one had said plants could not become monsters.
Their luck had truly been good.
All the plants they had passed along the way had not mutated.
“No matter what, we need to be more careful from now on.
It would be bad if some plant hiding in a corner injured us.” After setting out again, Shiro looked at the tall building still standing far in the distance and stopped.
“Too far.
If we walk there from here, it’ll take at least three days.
Let’s search for some nearby supplies first, then head back.” They had walked for half a day, yet that building was still far away.
Looking at the slowly darkening sky, Shiro could only choose to gather some nearby supplies first.
He looked left and right.
Not far from them, at an intersection, there was a shopping mall.
It seemed like a decent place.
After walking through the shattered glass doors, they saw zombies wandering aimlessly in every corner.
The two carefully avoided them and headed toward the second floor.
Compared to the spacious first floor, the second floor clearly had more stores.
Snack shops, clothing stores, and other shops could provide Shiro with plenty of resources.
Of course, there were also fewer zombies here.
However, just as the two were about to gather supplies, a roar came from a nearby store.
“What was that sound?” Shizuka tightened her grip on the baseball bat.
Her golden hair was slightly disheveled from the earlier tension, a few strands sticking to the side of her fair neck.
Shiro raised a finger to his lips, then tilted his head and listened carefully.
After that roar, the mall fell into deathly silence again.
But this silence was even more unsettling than before, because the few zombies that had originally been wandering on the lower floors had all disappeared.
“Looks like there’s a big one upstairs.” Shiro lowered his voice, and his left hand had already moved toward the revolver at his waist.
“Stay behind me and keep your distance.” The two slowly made their way up the stairs along the edge of the mall.
This place must have once been a major shopping center in the city.
A thick layer of dust covered the marble floor, fallen mannequins were wrapped in cobwebs, and half of the chandeliers on the ceiling had already crashed down.
The remaining half hung in midair, swaying slightly.
The second floor mainly consisted of clothing stores and general shops.
Shiro quickly swept his gaze around and found nothing unusual.
The few lone zombies were silently taken care of by him and Shizuka.
Along the way, they also searched a few shops that still had some supplies left.
Their harvest was not especially abundant.
Many food items and clothes had already been destroyed by zombies.
The few unopened bags of snacks and bottles of mineral water they found were only a small comfort.
“Keep going.
Third floor.” Shiro kept his voice low.
The third floor was completely different from the second.
This floor had originally been the mall’s dining area, filled with restaurants and cafés.
Now, however, tables had been overturned, chairs lay scattered everywhere, and the decorative fabric curtains hanging from the ceiling were already torn to shreds.
The air was filled with the foul stench of rotten food mixed with zombie flesh.
In the open space at the center of the dining area, a massive figure was slowly standing up.
It was a zombie close to two and a half meters tall.
Its muscles were swollen and bloated, as if something had stretched them from the inside.
Its skin had turned a rotten dark purple.
Its right arm was abnormally thick, nearly as wide as an adult’s waist, while its left arm had shriveled like a dead branch.
Most unsettling of all was its head.
Its entire skull was covered by a thick layer of horn-like bone plates, leaving only one bloodshot eye exposed.
“It’s an elite monster.
Sensei, shield.” Shiro pulled the revolver from his waist.
A zombie’s weak point was usually the head, and so far, he had not encountered any zombie with a weak point elsewhere.
But this zombie’s head was covered in bone armor, making it a target that could no longer be solved with a baseball bat.
The only place where Shiro could deal weak-point damage was that exposed eye, which meant he had no choice but to use the gun.
A pale golden light fell over Shiro.
At the same time, the elite zombie let out a deafening roar.
Its thick right arm smashed into the ground, cracking the floor tiles in a spiderweb pattern and making the entire floor tremble.
“Shizuka, be care—” Before Shiro could finish speaking, the elite zombie had already charged over at shocking speed.
Its seemingly clumsy body moved so fast during its rush that it was startling.
Shiro only had time to sidestep before that thick right arm brushed past his clothes and smashed into the wall behind him.
Amid the rising dust, Shiro faintly saw a small patch of skin on the back of the zombie’s head that was not covered by bone plates.
“Is that another weak point?” Broken stone flew everywhere.
Shiro raised his hand and fired.
The bullet shot precisely toward the eye exposed outside the bone plates, but the elite zombie only tilted its head slightly and used the bone armor to take the shot directly.
The bullet sparked against the bone plate and embedded itself in the surface, but failed to penetrate.
The elite zombie swung its arm again.
Shiro retreated and dodged, but the dining area had limited space.
His back quickly pressed against a support pillar.
Just as that thick right arm was about to smash down, Shiro did not panic.
Shizuka suddenly rushed out from the side, and her entrenching shovel chopped hard into the zombie’s shriveled left arm.
The withered arm snapped apart with a crack.
The elite zombie let out its most painful roar yet, and its entire body lost balance because of the blow.
Shiro seized the opportunity, circled behind the zombie from the side, and aimed the revolver at the small patch of exposed skin on the back of its neck.
Bang!
The bullet pierced through the back of its neck.
The elite zombie’s body convulsed violently several times, then finally crashed to the ground.