"Don't forget! We're the Overlord Squad—how can we run when we see humans?" Locomotive barked.
"Oh, right!" Mist snapped out of it, looking a little embarrassed. Things were different now—this wasn't like before.
"Sorry, old habits die hard."
Locomotive: "..."
Big Ears scanned the area with a sharp gaze.
"We didn't get the stone tablet, but humans showed up. If we take them out, that's still a big win."
"Yeah, yeah, Big Ears is right," Shrimpy chid in, nodding. After chasing this far, they had to do sothing. No way they were going back empty-handed.
But up ahead, the firelight and the crash had stirred up quite a commotion. The noise echoed across the open plains, and the wandering zombies had definitely noticed.
The scent of humans in the air only made them more frenzied.
What had been aimless, sluggish corpses suddenly turned into a pack of ravenous wolves, charging in from all directions. And there were a lot of them.
"Hey, Dad! Zombies incoming!" a young girl's voice rang out from the crowd, her tone tight with fear.
The middle-aged man's eyes swept the darkness. Shapes were erging—zombies, snarling and howling, closing in fast.
"Damn these things! They just keep coming!"
His face twisted in frustration. Then, with a sudden crackle, arcs of electricity danced across his hand, sizzling through the air.
His aura surged, rising sharply until it hit a peak.
Lightning flared, lighting up the field in a blinding flash. The grotesque faces of the zombies flickered in and out of view, now just feet away.
"Die!" the man roared, slamming his fist into the ground.
A deep rumble followed—like thunder rolling across the earth. Bolts of lightning shot out from the impact point, racing across the ground and weaving into a massive electric net.
The zombies froze mid-charge, their bodies twitching violently as electricity tore through them. Smoke curled off their charred skin.
One by one, they dropped like puppets with their strings cut.
In a single, clean move, the man had wiped out dozens of zombies. No hesitation. No wasted motion.
Anyone who made it out of Japan alive clearly wasn't so nobody...
"Holy crap," Big Ears muttered, eyes wide. "That human's no joke. Good thing we didn't rush in."
"Big Ears... maybe we should let them go this ti?" Shrimpy suggested, a little sheepishly.
"Hmm. That's why you're our squad's brain, Shrimpy," Big Ears nodded. "I didn't bring my weapon today anyway. Let's cut them so slack."
The crash had been loud enough to echo for miles, so more zombies were already shambling in from the darkness. These were the lowest tier—mindless, driven only by the urge to kill.
The Japanese Awakeners scanned their surroundings warily.
From beneath the dirt, there was a faint rustling—like roots writhing underground. In the distant forest, pairs of eerie green eyes blinked open. Sothing was watching. Waiting.
Clearly, they hadn't just stirred up zombies. Mutated plants and beasts were on the move too.
The middle-aged man wasn't about to stick around.
"Too dangerous out here at night. Let's move—now."
"Got it!" the others responded quickly.
With the man leading the way, the group gathered their gear and hurried off into the shadows.
"They ran?" Big Ears and the others watched from a distance.
"Lucky for them," Shrimpy grunted. "If they'd stayed a minute longer, we'd have gone full rampage mode."
Mist frowned. "So now that they're gone, does that an we miss out on the credit?"
"Not necessarily," Big Ears said, pressing his oversized ear to the ground. He focused, listening intently to the humans' retreating footsteps.
"Co on, follow !"
With that, he stiffened his legs, stuck his butt in the air, and started scooting forward in a weird, slithering crawl.
Mist blinked. He'd never seen anything like it. What kind of power was this?
No doubt about it—anyone working under the boss had to be a genius...
Big Ears had a plan. Sure, those humans were strong—maybe too strong to take head-on. But if he could track where they were headed and report back to the boss, that'd still be a win.
Who knows? If those Japanese survivors were carrying sothing valuable, that could be a huge score.
Big Ears had exceptional hearing. He could pick up everything—the rustling of mutated plants, the screeches of strange insects, and the steady footsteps of the fleeing humans.
The journey wasn't exactly smooth for the humans. They kept running into zombies and mutated beasts trying to block their path. But luckily, none of the monsters were high-level threats, and the Japanese Awakeners made quick work of them.
By the ti they moved on, they'd left a trail of corpses behind.
"Good thing the monsters here aren't nearly as tough as the ones back in Japan," said the middle-aged man leading the group.
His na was Hiro Saito. He'd fled all the way from Japan, where the environnt had beco increasingly hostile to human life.
The few dozen people trailing behind him were all from the sa shelter.
"That's such a relief."
"Yeah, no way the creatures here are as bad as what we had to deal with back ho."
"Look at all this grass—food shouldn't be a problem."
"..."
The group started chatting, letting their imaginations run wild about what a new, better life might look like.
"Hey, Dad, I think there's a town up ahead," said a soft voice. It was Naomi Saito, Hiro's daughter.
She'd been well protected throughout the journey. Her skin was pale and untouched by radiation, her face still round with a hint of baby fat—petite and adorably cute.
Hiro narrowed his eyes, scanning the distance. Sure enough, there was a small town ahead. Overgrown with weeds, buildings crumbling and half-collapsed—it looked like a ghost town.
A few zombies were still wandering around.
"This place'll do. Let's clear out the zombies and rest here for now," Hiro said.
"Got it," a few Awakeners behind him replied. They grabbed their weapons and charged in, quickly dispatching the startled undead with practiced ease.
Once the area was secure, the group moved into the town.
It was a small place, so there weren't many zombies to begin with—nothing that could pose a real threat to them.
They found a two-story building that was still mostly intact. After forcing the door open, everyone filed inside.
It was safer to hide indoors, away from prying eyes.
One of the Awakeners had psychic abilities and cast a ntal barrier around the building, masking their presence completely.
"Phew—"
Everyone finally let out a breath. After trekking across mountains, crossing the sea, and surviving god knows what else, they'd actually made it.
A few people couldn't hold back their emotions and started crying softly.
"Thank god... we made it..."
"We finally escaped that hellhole."
"My mom... she didn't make it. She died on the way."
"Let's not dwell on it. We should check if there's any supplies here."
"..."
Now that they could relax a little, people began exploring the building.
The two-story house was surprisingly clean. A bit dusty, sure, but it looked like no one had lived here even before the world went to hell. Everything was still sealed up tight.
"Chocolate! I found chocolate!" Naomi squealed, pulling open a drawer.
Amid the clutter, she'd found a few chocolate bars—still within their one-year shelf life and totally edible.
Her eyes lit up with joy.
...
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