WebNovels

Chapter 5 - Exile 5: Impossibilities

"E–easy there," Orion couldn't understand how he had been snuck up on. He had been sensitive to any sounds around him from the moment he broke into this apartment. He would have heard even the faintest footsteps with his current hearing. "I'm Orion. I don't know Japanese…"

Right now, he could only hope that the person holding a gun to his head could understand English.

What kind of lousy system doesn't give you an auto-translate function? Do I need to spend energy to dream about that as well?

"Not from around here…" The woman spoke in English with a softer voice with a slight accent, seeing as Orion had loosened his grip on the katana. "Drop the katana."

"All right, all right," he said, throwing the katana to the side as he glanced at the mirror and got a faint glimpse of the woman's shiny black hair that had an allure of its own, leaving him stunned for a moment. "You are unbelievably beautiful," he blurted out, despite only getting a glimpse of her hair.

"Step back, hands behind your head." The woman didn't respond to his compliment and pushed the gun harder against his skull, using her foot to push away the katana.

"Okay," he said, bringing his hands up to his head and stepping back as the gun was pulled back. Still, he didn't doubt that it was still pointed at his skull. "Is she your sister? Is that you've kept her like this?" He shot his shot, having some hope in humanity and thinking that the woman was just holding out hope for a loved one who had spontaneously become a zombie. There were no visible bite marks on the woman, telling him that the transformation was most likely natural.

While he could have tried to kill the woman or overpower her, he couldn't be sure how strong she was. Considering that the apocalypse had been going on for at least four months, she had a lot of time to get stronger. Not to mention, if the thing about the other side providing a system was true, then she was definitely stronger than him with how many zombies she had probably killed in the past few months.

She didn't say anything, ignoring his words as the two of them stepped outside the room, and she threw a pair of handcuffs in front of him. "Behind your back."

"You aren't secretly a bondage freak, are you? I'm flattered, but really, I'm not into being tied up and all that. I'm a good Christian boy… I even used to go to church every Sunday."

"You want to die?" Her voice was still soft, but there was a threatening undertone that sent a confusing shiver down his spine.

"Are you a succubus?" He asked with a thought, bending down to grab the cuffs and getting a look at her legs. She was barefoot, but her legs were covered in black stockings without a speck of blood on them. "Why is your voice so…mesmerizing?"

Not getting a response, he sighed and cuffed his hands behind his back. He didn't particularly worry about them and could get free whenever he wanted by summoning his sword. He'd communicated with his gear and come to learn that whatever it created, regardless of distance, could be summoned to its internal storage at any time.

"Succubi are sexual demons that ensnare men with their enchanting and alluring voices and suck their life forces. You aren't like that, right?"

She clicked her tongue and stepped forward—this time, he heard her footsteps as she approached him and tightened the handcuffs completely, not giving him any leeway and almost cutting off the circulation of blood to his hands.

"Say something, will you? Is it because I'm speaking in English and you don't understand half the things I'm saying?"

"You are impolite. You came in wearing shoes and got my floor all dirty," she said coldly. "Take them off outside and clean the floor. Once you do that, I'll let you go."

"Cuffing my hands behind my back doesn't exactly make it easy, does it?" As he heard her stepping away from him, he took the opportunity to turn around, finally looking at her back. Her long hair went all the way to her hips, and her purple skirt went down to her thighs. Her choice of top was some kind of white sleeveless shirt with frills on the shoulders, revealing her slender arms. She stopped in front of a bowl and grabbed something from it before turning around.

"Here," she threw a small key at him.

It clattered to the ground as he was completely frozen at the otherworldly woman in front of him. Her blue eyes had an almost soul-sucking beauty in them that left him both stunned and mesmerized while also clarifying to him that the zombie was indeed her sister.

Holy fuck, she's crazy hot…

"Wait…I've seen you before," he widened his eyes, recognizing her.

"You have?" She rolled her eyes as if he'd just said something obvious. She still made his heart skip a beat with that expression.

"I saw you on like half the billboards and posters I saw outside. You must be a superstar."

"You really don't know?" She frowned, leaving him stunned as he lowered himself to the ground to grab the keys. If his hands were free, one of them would be on his chest to calm his racing heart. Still, he didn't want to seem disgusting and kept a flat expression on his face while shaking his head in refusal.

"My name is Sakurajima Mai," she said. "How did you get here?"

"As you can probably tell, I'm not really from around here."

"What's your level?" She asked a question that left him speechless.

"…none?" He said without any shred of confidence. Still, he unlocked the handcuffs and freed his hands, only to see her pointing the gun at him again.

"You're lying. Put the cuffs on again. You can mop the floor with your hands in front."

"Fine, fine," he said. "But I really don't have any level."

"Impossible. I saw you kill those zombies outside," she said coldly as the temperature of the entire apartment seemed to drop a little. Her finger was hovering right over the trigger, ready to kill him at the slightest abrupt action.

"It's a long story," he said. "Are you trying to cure your sister? She looks nothing like the zombies outside."

"I have a large industrial freezer with a lot of meat stored in a supermarket nearby," she said with a hint of defensiveness that was almost entirely obscured behind her cold tone.

"I get it, you aren't feeding other humans to your sister. Good to know," he said with a nod. "Could you lower that gun? I won't try to harm you or run away, promise."

"Just clean and leave," she said. "I'm busy."

With those words, she actually lowered the gun and went into her zombified sister's room to check up on her.

"Damn…" Orion whispered, taking slow, methodical breaths to calm down his racing heart.

Seriously, dude, why are you acting like a virgin? I know she's beautiful, but you gotta play it cool. This is the apocalypse, and she has a gun, while you don't even have your katana. I should take things slowly; it would naturally be for the best if we could act together, but considering her closed-off demeanor, I don't think that's possible. Even ignoring the fact that she's crazy beautiful, she's the first person I've met in a long time, and I want to see if there is any middle ground that we can reach. Maybe if I offer to cure her sister…no, that's probably impossible. Is it though…

Communicating with his gear, he tried to get a magic cure for the zombie virus from Great Red. What he wanted to know was how much such a thing would cost him to make.

Research: Zombie Virus Cure

Origin Energy Cost: 10,000,000 to 100,000,000 Units

"The fuck…" He mumbled, trying to get some more details regarding the thing. Not only did it have an exorbitant price, but it also had a range going from ten million to a hundred million units.

Research-type dreams provide an optimal simulated environment for research.

Cost is calculated based on the estimated time required for the research to conclude successfully.

"Dear god, this is crazy..." he mumbled. "You can't just give me the cure and want me to spend who knows how long researching the cure myself? Still, the fact that the cost isn't infinite means that there is a chance to create a cure. I'll talk to her when she comes back out. I don't want to spend my second life wandering around in solitude and doing nothing but killing zombies. I'd rather kill myself."

Considering the amount of dirt and grime on him, it took him quite a bit of time to clean the floor, but just as he finished wiping the final stain, leaving only the stains inside the bedroom, Mai appeared near him.

"Ah!" He shouted, noticing his sword in her hand. "How are you doing that?"

"You have made up for your rudeness. I won't pursue the issue of you breaking my lock, but you have to leave the building."

"I haven't cleaned the inside of that room yet…."

"No need," she aimed her gun at his face. "You can leave."

"Damn, so cold. Aren't you bored all by yourself in the apocalypse? Considering that this thing has been going on for at least four months now, you must've been bored out of your mind. Your only company is a zombie. Hell, I've only been here for one day and I'm already bored with the solitude."

"Solitude perfectly suits me," she said coldly without letting him gauge her inner thoughts. "I'd rather die alone. You can leave now."

"What if I offer to cure your sister?" He said, laying his main card on the table. "Do you still want me to leave?"

"While I would like to believe you, it's impossible. Someone I know is already working on it and has made exactly zero progress."

"I can cure her, Mai," he said with a forceful confidence.

For the first time since he'd seen her, her cold countenance faded, momentarily revealing a concerned look before reverting to cold.

"Why should I believe you? Why would you even help me? What do you get?"

"You may not believe me, but I really just came here yesterday. I don't really have any specific goal per se. Maybe a loose goal would be to eradicate all zombies on this planet, but I'm still on the fence about that."

"On the fence?" She asked.

"It's a phrase that means unsure," he said. "I've gotten a second lease on life here, Mai. I don't want to squander it being a loner who does nothing but kill zombies."

"You can really help heal Nodoka?" She asked.

"Yeah. It's going to take time, but it's definitely possible. As long as we can kill enough zombies, I will be able to find a cure for her."

"What do you want in exchange? I don't take handouts. Especially not from people who think I'm pitiful."

"Well, I don't really have a concrete goal here, but if I were to ask for something, I'd ask for companionship. We could team up and kill all of the zombies around here."

She sighed, putting the gun in its holster that was hanging on her hip. "Clean off the blood and grime you left in Nodoka's room and go to the apartment unit on the opposite side to take a shower. Wear some different clothes as well. You stink. We will talk then."

"Cool," Orion nodded with a little smile on his face.

More Chapters