Even if he was going to die, Ryuji had no intention of surrendering without a fight. The RV continued to be pushed, shaken, and torn apart by the relentless zombies, but he gritted his teeth, held onto the wooden frames he had reinforced, and forced himself to move toward the most fragile part of the vehicle.
He could hear it clearly—the first layer of metal on the RV had already been stripped away. If he didn't act quickly, the wooden reinforcements he had placed inside wouldn't hold for long.
"Damn bastards…"
Taking a deep breath, Ryuji clenched his teeth and pulled out a full stack of gunpowder from his inventory.
In his inventory, a single stack contained a thousand units of gunpowder. In reality, each unit appeared as a large handful of black powder. Without hesitation, he ripped open the burlap sack that appeared before him—completely defying the laws of physics by holding such a massive quantity—and poured the contents toward the front of the RV.
Instantly, a dense, continuous stream of fine black powder gushed out from the sack, covering the entire front section of the vehicle, burying the dashboard, and even blocking the entrance.
"Hah… I remember Myth Busters once proved that as long as there's a solid wall, most of the explosion's force can be contained, right?"
While emptying the sack, he worked quickly to reinforce any gaps, trying to seal off every possible opening. But just as he finished, he heard a loud clang—the sound of the front windshield shattering.
A zombie's grotesque face came into view.
Ryuji didn't hesitate. He pulled out his lighter, lit a piece of plastic, and threw it onto the pile of gunpowder.
As the burning plastic tumbled through the air, he hurriedly sealed off the last remaining opening with a stone block and curled up into a defensive position.
The next moment, a violent shockwave hit.
A blinding flash of fire engulfed everything.
Ryuji felt himself being lifted into the air before the RV crashed back down on him. His ears rang with a deafening hum, drowning out even the howls of the zombies.
Dazed, he caught a glimpse of his makeshift barricade shattering under the force of the explosion. A strange, twisting sensation filled his body—a mix of dizziness and… something else.
Then, another jolt. This time, weaker than the first.
When the dust settled, Ryuji found himself sprawled on top of the wooden frames he had constructed. His body screamed in pain. His left arm and right shoulder throbbed, refusing to respond to his commands. His vision blurred with red.
But he was alive.
Through the smoke and flames, he saw something unexpected—he was no longer outside the town.
He had somehow ended up near the merchant's outpost and the gas station. Unfortunately, the distance between him and safety was still littered with countless zombies—many of them now burning.
Burning?
His sluggish mind finally caught up.
The explosion hadn't just destroyed part of the RV—it had ignited the fuel tank. The chain reaction had set off a massive fire, spreading through the dense horde of zombies. Even those that hadn't been directly hit by the blast were now catching fire as they pressed against each other in the chaos.
Ryuji inhaled sharply, forcing himself to stay conscious.
Several flaming zombies had already turned their attention toward him, charging forward. Worse, the ones that weren't on fire were still relentlessly pushing against what remained of the RV.
He tried to move, but pain shot through his body. That's when he realized—his legs were pinned beneath a collapsed cabinet. The once-cozy interior of the RV was now a total wreck.
Gritting his teeth, he focused his mind and pulled out his machine gun. He raised it with one good arm and squeezed the trigger.
The gun roared to life, spewing bullets in a desperate spray. Precision didn't matter—every shot found a target in the densely packed swarm.
But as soon as he ran out of ammo, he encountered a new problem—his injured arm prevented him from reloading.
Then, something strange happened.
Even though he hadn't moved his hand, the magazine clicked into place on its own.
Before he could process what had just happened, the RV lurched again, shoved forward by the burning horde. The sudden movement gave him a clearer view of the merchant's shop—a place he had seen before, but the merchant inside remained eerily motionless.
Then, just as he braced for the RV to crash into the trader's building, that strange, twisting sensation returned.
A sudden shift.
The suffocating heat disappeared.
The roar of the flames vanished.
And in an instant, the sea of burning zombies was gone.
Instead, he now found himself standing near one of the steel pillars of the gas station—facing an entirely new wave of fresh, unharmed zombies, all charging toward him.
For a moment, Ryuji was too stunned to react.
Then, survival instincts kicked in.
Without wasting another second, he turned and sprinted toward the gas station's steel pillar. The zombies immediately changed course, closing in on him.
At the last moment, he leaped—landing on a wooden frame he had placed earlier. His legs screamed in protest, but he forced himself to jump again, just as the first frame was torn apart beneath him.
Every jump sent fresh waves of agony through his body. But there was no time to stop. He kept placing wooden blocks beneath his feet, climbing higher and higher.
By the time he reached the steel beams supporting the gas station's roof, his vision was blurry, his strength nearly gone.
He pulled himself up onto the metal structure and took a deep breath, finally allowing himself a brief moment of respite.
Then, he looked down.
And his heart sank.
Below him, the zombies were already piling up—climbing on top of each other in a grotesque, writhing heap. Among them, he spotted one of those frog-like mutants, coiling its legs in preparation to leap.
A bitter smile crept onto his lips.
"This world really wants me dead, huh?"
As he spoke, Ryuji couldn't help but spit out a mouthful of blood. He barely noticed it. In a situation like this, what difference did a little blood make? Even losing an arm wouldn't change anything now.
"Damn it… I need to take a few more down with me."
Panting, Ryuji tightened his grip on the wooden frame in his hands. He manifested the last two bundles of gunpowder, then ripped open the absurdly large burlap sacks and hurled them down onto the horde of zombies below.
As the bags tumbled through the air, they scattered thick clouds of black powder over the rotting bodies beneath.
With his strength nearly spent, Ryuji pulled the trigger of his gun. A burst of bullets struck the scattered gunpowder.
In an instant, twin fireballs erupted, engulfing the area in flames. To his shock, the two burlap sacks themselves ignited, exploding violently and sending a shockwave rippling through the air.
The blast threw Ryuji backward. For a fleeting moment, he was airborne before crashing down hard onto the stone slabs below.
Pain consumed him. The deafening hum in his ears drowned out everything except the roaring flames around him.
But at this point, nothing else mattered.
With trembling fingers, he reached into his coat and pulled out a piece of grilled meat—one that had been specially prepared by Erina. It was his emergency ration, meant for when he finally found a chance to escape.
Yet now, escape was nothing but a fantasy. Surviving another thirty minutes would be a miracle.
He chewed slowly, savoring the rich flavors, even as his consciousness began to fade.
The last thing he heard was a series of explosions and the relentless crackling of fire.
His eyelids grew heavier.
"I…"
Am I dying?
Darkness swallowed him.
At last…
—
Morning arrived.
A crisp breeze brushed against Ryuji's face, rousing him from his unconscious state. His eyes fluttered open, revealing a soot-stained ceiling above him.
A splitting headache sent waves of dizziness through his skull. He struggled to sit up against the crumbling stone wall, his mind dazed and sluggish.
Then, he took in his surroundings.
Charred corpses stretched as far as the eye could see. The once-thriving town was nothing more than a smoldering ruin. Smoke still curled from the nearby forest, evidence of the inferno that had raged through the night.
And, of course, the merchant's building remained untouched—just as pristine as always.
"Was this place hell from the very beginning?"
The thought surfaced in his groggy mind, but the sharp pangs of pain in his body and the growling of his stomach quickly snapped him back to reality.
He was still alive.
"How… how did I survive?"
Ryuji frowned, turning his gaze toward the gas station below.
What had once been a functioning, albeit fuel-depleted, station was now a wasteland of craters and wreckage. The ground was marred by deep pits, and where the fuel storage tanks had once stood, a massive, gaping hole remained.
Despite this, small flames still flickered here and there, as if waiting for the slightest spark to reignite the inferno.
Ryuji stared in stunned silence, piecing the events together.
"The fire must have ignited the fuel tanks… Then the explosion wiped out the zombies, burning everything to the ground."
His theory wasn't far from the truth.
After he blacked out, the fire had crept into the gas pumps, igniting the residual fuel inside. The flames then spread to the storage tanks, triggering a massive explosion that turned the entire area into an inferno.
Even so, the undead horde had continued its relentless advance, only to be consumed by the flames.
But then, something unexpected happened.
Four hours after Ryuji lost consciousness, the zombies suddenly stopped. As if a switch had been flipped, their aggression vanished, and they aimlessly wandered away, leaving only the charred remnants of their fallen brethren.
Ryuji had no way of knowing this. But the fact that he had survived was already a miracle.
"Well… I don't know how I made it, but as long as I'm alive, I need to keep going."
He coughed and pulled up his system interface.
A long list of negative status effects filled the screen:
-Concussion: 54 hours 36 minutes remaining.
-Fracture: 68 hours 7 minutes remaining.
-Internal Bleeding: 72 hours 21 minutes remaining.
-Cured Infection: 23% Recovery.
-Lacerations: 36 hours 21 minutes remaining.
-Erina Nakiri's Love: 38 hours 42 minutes remaining.
"…Huh?"
The last one caught him off guard. The rest were understandable, but this?
Curious, he tapped on it.
Erina Nakiri's Love:Upon consuming a dish made by Erina Nakiri, you receive the following buffs based on her feelings toward you:
+50 Max HP
+50 Max Stamina
+200% Stamina Recovery
+20 HP Regen per Hour
Immunity to all negative status effects, injuries, and diseases that would otherwise be fatal.
Heals Infection by 50%.
Ryuji immediately thought of the grilled meat he had eaten before losing consciousness.
His gaze shifted to the remaining portion of the meat in his inventory.
A large "E" now hovered over it.
When he selected it, the name changed before his eyes:
Erina Nakiri's Newlywed Grilled Meat
+50 Max HP
+50 Max Stamina
+200% Stamina Recovery
+20 HP Regen per Hour
Immunity to all negative status effects, injuries, and diseases that would otherwise be fatal.
Heals Infection by 50%.
A dish filled with a girl's love—delicious beyond compare!
Ryuji burst into laughter.
He glanced at his health bar—he only had 6 HP left.
Yet he was still alive.
With renewed determination, he pushed himself to his feet, ready to face whatever came next.
But just as he steadied himself, something impossible happened.
Two orbs of light suddenly materialized above the ruins of the burned town.
Before Ryuji could react, the light coalesced into two human figures—both of them looking utterly bewildered.
One was a blonde girl, dressed in a kimono-like outfit.
The other—
Ryuji's eyes widened in shock.
He knew her.
"Lady Kiri?!!"