Sometimes later at Rika's house, Zeno, who had arrived at the place earlier than the group of the main characters, could be seen standing before an outdoor BBQ grill in front of Rika's Humvee that was parked outside the garage near his own black sports car that was parked at the front of the house while he was currently busy grilling a bunch of ribs and sausages on the BBQ grill for his dinner as the faint smoke from the grill could be seen rising up to the night sky.
Before he arrived at Rika's house after leaving the Fujimi Academy, Zeno went to the grocery store along the way on a whim and grabbed some expensive ingredients from the store for his dinner before he came to Rika's house, as he casually broke in and treated it like he owned the place. He then set up a BBQ grill outside after taking a bath and being ambushed by White Dream in the bathroom, who milked him dry with her sexy red lips as usual.
As for the zombies that are loitering around the neighborhood, he has his shadow clones that he created clearing them up swiftly and dumping their bodies in the empty house next door as they pour Godblood on them to convert all of the dead bodies into a compact block of dirt cubes, a prime resource for the Liberty usage.
"Dun~ Duh-duh~ Dun-dun~ Duh-duh~"
Humming along to vintage music that is currently playing from the mini stereo on top of the Humvee's hood, Zeno waits patiently for the food to be perfectly cooked as the flame in the grill licks the ribs and sausages under his watchful gaze while the delicious smell spreads out in the cool night air.
Right now Zeno is currently dressed in a white t-shirt with a black apron, light brown short pants, and a pair of black flip-flops. In his hands there is a plate for his soon-to-be dinner and metal tongs, which he used to flip the ribs on the grill from time to time.
With this casual appearance, his cool image of a mob boss in a black suit and sunglasses from this earlier morning is already gone, reduced to atoms.
And of course his brazenness of cooking outside the house at this hour without seeming to care about the zombie apocalypse currently going on in the city is not going unnoticed by the people that are hiding in the neighborhood.
"What the hell is he doing…?"
"Isn't he afraid of THEM…?!"
Some of the people were watching him with various thoughts as they peeked at him from behind the curtains and windows of their houses; they really don't know what to say about his bizarre action of cooking outdoors in the open like an idiot, especially in this apocalyptic situation where man-eating monsters are roaming around.
But even if their words somehow reach him, Zeno is not going to listen to them anyway. He is just being cheeky at this point since he doesn't have to worry about zombies attacking like a normie and can basically do whatever he wants in this low-tier world, so he decided to have a BBQ while waiting for the group of main characters to appear and be surprised by his unexpected presence at Rika's place just to mess with them.
Zeno will stay around with the group of main characters for a little while longer before he has to eventually go back to his company HQ to monitor the survivors' rescue operation and then the city takeover operation that will begin once the government abandons the Tokonosu City in the next day or two.
What about the future EMP blast incident, you might ask? Well, there will be no EMP blast incident in this timeline since Zeno had already sabotaged all of the nuclear missiles around the world as he secretly removed all of the components inside the missiles themselves, so they are basically just useless rockets now.
[ I don't want to set the world on fire~ ]
[ I just want to start~ ]
[ A flame in your heart~ ]
Zeno poked the sausage with tongs in his left hand as he checked if they were cooked properly as he listened to the song while humming along with its slow tune.
"It's almost done…"
Zeno muttered with anticipation as he flipped the sizzling meats on the grill while the song that was coming from the mini stereo created quite a leisure atmosphere.
[ I've lost all ambition~ ]
[ For worldly acclaim~ ]
[ I just want to be the one you love~ ]
Zeno then glances at eight shadow clones of himself who take on the form of Freedom Guard in black suits and sunglasses who stand guard around him with assault rifles in their hands, making quite an intimidating sight for the survivors who see them.
Right now the eight Freedom Guards are split into two teams as they were standing on the two sides of the road in front of Rika's house to deter any hostile people and to eliminate any zombies that wandered too close.
"I think it's about time. They should be coming soon, right...?"
Zeno wonders, a little uncertain since the plot is already derailed from canon, but logically speaking, the group of main characters will have to come here for shelter since they can't cross the bridge, which is currently being blocked by the police, and soon the police will start shooting anyone indiscriminately after people try to force their way through the blockage.
And by then the horde of zombies would have arrived to join the fun, causing the bad situation to worsen to another level with everyone already running for their lives and all. Zeno expected that the group of the main characters would have to abandon the bus and escape from the heavy traffic road on their feet, which would inevitably lead them towards Rika's place and directly to him, ideally.
"Saya should be able to use her genius common sense and warn the group to leave the bus before it's too late, and Shizuka should inform the group about Rika's house, right?"
Zeno mused before he shrugged his shoulders without thinking too much about them anymore since he doubted anything bad would happen to them; they are not a bunch of mob characters that will die randomly after all, but he doesn't know about Kyoko though since she is an actual mob character after all.
"Meh, they should be just fine, maybe, probably…"
Unbeknownst to him, the situation is already going to hell over there while Zeno is busy nomming on his food in bliss...
÷×÷×÷
"Kyaaa!! Noooo—!! Takashi—!"
Rei screamed frantically as she saw Takashi start to get overwhelmed by the group of zombies from all sides while her makeshift spear got stuck in a zombie skull and made her unable to go help him immediately. She was very scared that her childhood friend would share the same fate as her boyfriend.
"Shit! Get away from me!"
Takashi is struggling with all his strength to keep the zombies off him, but they are gradually getting closer as their jaws snap repeatedly, eager to taste his fresh meat and warm blood.
"Ahhhh!"
"Grrrrrr!"
"Shit…!"
The zombies growl as they step closer while Takashi has nowhere to escape from the encircle. He can't believe that everything has gone to hell so fast in the recent hours. They were just waiting on the bus not long ago, and the next thing he knew, the policemen just started shooting people randomly before the horde of zombies suddenly appeared from all sides and attacked the people too.
It was so chaotic everywhere as everyone was running around for their lives, and zombies were grabbing the ones close to them and tearing their prey apart. The dying screams and faint sobbing could still be heard from every direction even now.
"Damn it…!"
Takashi frantically looks around for anything that could serve as a weapon or a means of escape since his baseball bat is already bent and deformed from smashing zombies' skulls far too many times.
"That…!"
Then to his right, he sees a crowbar lying on the ground near the abandoned car. Takashi knows that this is the only way he could save himself from the zombies and decided to make a dangerous gambit.
"Raaaaaah—!!"
With a burst of desperation in his roar, he lunges for it, knocking over a few zombies in the process, and fortunately for Takashi, the zombies are not able to grab him because of this sudden desperate move. With a new weapon in his hand, Takashi immediately grabs the crowbar and stands up while swinging it around, knocking one of the zombies in the head and watching it stumble back, momentarily stunned.
"Die!"
Without waiting for it to recover, he smashed its head again with the pointy end of the crowbar digging into its skull and killing the zombie instantly. He then turned towards the other zombies after yanking out the crowbar from the dead zombie's skull and then started fighting off the zombies around him, much to the relief of Rei and the others who were watching him with worry since they were also busy fending off the zombies around them and can't help him either.
"There's no end to them…"
Saeko mumbled as she defended Shizuka, who supports the unconscious Saya's body on her back, from the approaching zombies, since at the start of the chaos, Saya got pushed down by some escaping people and hit her head hard on the car window and lost consciousness with a bad cut on her forehead. Fortunately, Shizuka has a bandage in her medic bag to stop the bleeding, but Saya has now become a burden and is slowing the group down significantly.
As the battle raged on, Saeko fought with incredible skill and determination, her wooden sword striking the undead and killing them with ease. Despite being outnumbered, she managed to create a small safe zone around them. But she will definitely get tired eventually, so the current situation will not last forever.
"We must get out of here! This place is already overrun with zombies!"
Kouta exclaimed as he threw his nail gun that was out of ammunition at the incoming zombies; they were getting closer and closer with each second.
"I…! Hah! Hyi! I don't think…! Ugh! Ha! I can't keep them off anymore…!"
Kyoko wheezed in exhaustion as she was using a supermarket cart she found on the way to push back the zombies while Kouta would shoot them next to her. The two of them had been fighting them off for what felt like an hour by now. The simple strategy that they had thought up was holding up, but it wouldn't be long before the larger horde of zombies would come to them when there's no more prey around, and then it will be game over for the group.
The situation was clearly dire, and the fear was palpable in their hearts.
"What to do~?"
Shizuka's heart was racing, and her palms were slick with sweat. The cries of the undead and the people echoed through the streets of what was once a bustling city, constantly reminding her of the carnage going on around her.
"I wish Zavior-san was here…"
Shizuka muttered under her breath, wishing that the dependable and handsome young man were here to help them out.
"We will have to cut open a path for our escape."
After a brief moment of tense silence, Saeko took a deep breath and looked at the group with a grim determination and offered her group a solution, a very risky one. It's the only choice they have if they want to escape from here alive.
"That…"
The group looks at Saeko with apprehension as Rei and Takashi regroup with them after they fall back from the new wave of approaching zombies.
"It's our only option."
Saeko said firmly as she looked at them one by one in the eyes. The group hesitated for a moment before they agreed with her plan since there's really no other way.
"Alright, let's do it!"
Takashi finally said, as he turned towards the direction with the smallest number of zombies, ready to lead the charge, while Rei, who had a determined expression on her face, walked next to him with Saeko.
"Please keep up; your lives literally depend on it!"
Saeko turned towards Kouta, Kyoko, and Shizuka, who already transferred Saya to Kouta's back as they nodded with as much determination as they could muster.
"LET'S GOOOO—!!"
Takashi cried out heroically as he charged forward with his group following him into the horde of zombies.
Will they make it? Will they fail? Nobody knows, but what the group knows is they will definitely beat up Takashi if they make it out of here since his loud mouth has once again drawn the attention of many zombies in the distance onto them!