Four months had gone by since the world went to shit and zombies appeared everywhere. Every major region had been hit by the apocalypse most unexpectedly, dealing with zombies that seemed to spring out of nowhere. Eventually, they would come to realize that there was more to the zombies than just converting most of the humans on the planet, but for now, everyone was barely surviving.
In time, natural leaders and authoritative figures rose up, some from the original world, some from the old world. The apocalypse destroyed everything, but it also gave the opportunists of the world countless opportunities to reestablish themselves.
Naturally, humans flock together for warmth in the desolate loneliness of the apocalypse, forming settlements with the opportunists taking the chance to lead those people and give them hope for a more prosperous future. There were the conquerors, who aggressively tried to expand their reach and devour other settlements; there were the complacent, who lived lavishly and disregarded the will of the people under them; there were the hopeful ones, who did their best to bring society back to normal and hoped for some authoritative figure like the government to step in; there were the ambitious, who had directly brought back the feudal system and declared themselves kings of a kingdom. Countless such settlements emerged in these four months, and ten times that number were destroyed or merged. Every settlement that survived the initial bloodbath of grasping control survived on the basis of both merit and the personal strength of the leaders.
The settlement on the side of Shichirigahama beach followed the two doctrines of bubbling oneself up and conquering. It expanded aggressively, covering a little over half of the Kanagawa Prefecture. Considering the billions of zombies swarming every single open area imaginable, it was impossible for people to survive alone, which meant there were a few independent settlements in the surrounding cities that weren't under the influence of the Shichirigahama settlement. With a patient and cunning leader, however, it was only a matter of time before they swept through the entire prefecture, gathering every survivor under a single banner.
The leader, Un'yo Shinomiya, with enough personal strength, trusted and strong subordinates, and the natural charisma of a leader, was able to rally both the unruly and the desperate survivors of half the prefecture, bringing the number of people in the settlement up to over thirty thousand after sweeping through a large part of the prefecture. In a prefecture that housed more than nine million people at a time, this made the rate of survival less than one percent, even if only half was considered, a truly abysmal number.
With the settlement housing thirty thousand people, that led to their defense line also being massive. The zombie hordes were tireless and endless, constantly coming up in droves to overwhelm them with numbers. Under the pressure of such an impossibly difficult enemy, the Shichirigahama settlement had not only endured for months but also successfully expanded to cover some more housing area for their people.
The settlement started from the Koyurugi Shrine situated at the end of the beach, which had adjacent inns and living areas, which made the area easy to defend. Not only that, right beside them was the fishing port, which took care of the food problem as long as they had enough people going out fishing. Their expansion plans involved taking advantage of the train tracks and their fencing to hold off the zombies and set up temporary housing along the beach in the form of tents. After four months of expansion, the settlement had covered the entire beachfront all the way up to Minegahara High School. Multiple factors made such a defensive line feasible, with the primary one being the fencing that went parallel to the highway. After reinforcement, it allowed them to divert the zombies into two major areas—one on the side of Minegahara High School, and the other on the side of the shrine and the fishing port. The secondary reason for this to work, one taken for granted, was the passive nature of the zombies. Unless agitated, they would rarely take the initiative to attack and try to break through things. Even agitated, they generally calmed down after half an hour or so.
In these four months, things had practically normalized for the people living here, with little to be surprised by. Even the leader and his subordinates were calmly dealing with the things in their hands, slowly planning expansion efforts.
Today, close to the middle of summer, an anomaly appeared near the settlement. The first to notice it were the ones holding the defense line on the side of the Koyurugi Shrine.
"Kenta, is it just me, or does it feel like the horde is weaker today?" A man said. He stood atop the broken ceiling of a house that had been made into a watchtower with a bow in his hands, shooting at approaching zombies down below. The ten houses on the front side of this block had all been repurposed to hold two archers each, making sure that twenty people manned the defenses at all times.
"They're finally running out. There are only so many people in Kanagawa to turn into zombies."
"I guess…But I have a feeling. The number of these things coming up from the north side along the Sakai River is slowly going down…"
The other watchtowers were in the same boat, curious but relieved that the number of zombies was going down. Not only was this the case for the front defense line, but it was the same for the one at the back, but not as noticeable; only some of the more experienced among them were feeling something amiss.
The defenders weren't kept in suspense for too long as occasional bright flashes appeared in the distance, around ten to twenty kilometers from the front defense line. At first, none of them paid any attention to it, attributing it to the sun's glare. But merely minutes later, the lights started growing brighter, getting people to notice it.
"Captain…" One of the men called out to their leader, who was standing at the forefront watchtower. "Unidentified entity approaching…"
"I have eyes, goddamnit," the blonde man shouted, letting two arrows loose at the same time that pierced through the heads of two zombies. "Get me a telescope or binoculars pronto."
The man nodded and quickly got the attention of an attendant nearby who was watching everything. This woman was responsible for overseeing the logistics of the battle, replenishing arrows, getting other supplies, and more. The system worked efficiently, and the blonde captain had a pair of binoculars in his hands in less than a minute. In that time, the bright flashes of light had grown closer, but were still too far to make anything out of.
"Dear god…" The captain's hands trembled, almost dropping the binoculars. "Call the leader, right now!"
"But—"
"Now! Tell him there's another anomaly, one far stronger! Un'yo-sama needs to be here right now," he said authoritatively as the attendant scampered away at her full speed. The captain continued looking through the binoculars without blinking, afraid he would miss a single moment of the marvel that he was viewing.
In the distance, a brown-haired man was casually walking between the zombies, with not a single one coming even close to him, not blocked by a barrier, but being killed before they could even get within ten meters of him. His hands were in his pockets as he calmly walked forward, repeatedly releasing beams of light from around him that accurately struck every zombie that even came close to him. Every single beam of light pierced through at least ten or more due to the sheer numbers that were surrounding him. At this point, he was walking on top of a layer of corpses that he left in his wake. To the blonde captain, the most understandable thing was the way the splashes of blood were blocked before any of them reached him, harmlessly falling to the ground. He was able to conclude that it must be an advanced version of the cleaning barrier skill that almost all of the residents in the settlement possessed at this point. The man continued walking through the zombies with the same ease as someone walking through the park. Even his expression seemed impassive and uncaring, as if he truly believed that he was strolling around.
As the minutes passed, the man's destination also became clear to the captain.
He's coming here… What's taking Un'yo-sama so long?
A few more minutes, and the brown-haired man had gotten close enough to be noticed by the naked eye. Murmurs emerged among the defenders as they all quickly understood the true reason behind the reduction in the number of zombies. They all simultaneously paused, forgetting about the zombies for a moment as they saw the man continue to fire beams of concentrated light all around him, destroying any zombie that dared to get too close to him.
This beam doesn't seem too powerful, only able to pierce through a couple of zombies at a time… but it's this person's marksmanship that's unnatural. As if he has eyes in the back of his head… I can't gauge anything from his walk, but he might not have that powerful a physique in lieu of the intelligence and wisdom stats.
The blonde captain kept observing the man closely, trying his best to gather as much information as possible about the newcomer.
Suddenly, the target of his heated gaze looked up, directly at his face. A harmless smile graced the man's features; he even raised his arm and waved at him. The seemingly friendly gestures, when viewed from the perspective of the captain, who was still looking through the binoculars and was already on a high vantage point, were nothing but chilling.
He noticed me? We have more than ten kilometers between us… Not to mention he's on the highway between countless zombies. He's an even bigger monster than I thought.
It was at this time that the leader of the settlement finally came to the front defense line. A slender man, wearing a neat suit and sporting a well-groomed appearance. He was accompanied by two bulky men, both of whom had shotguns slung across their shoulders and pistols on their belts. The attendant was following close behind, with a reddened mark on her face as if she'd just been slapped.
"What's the fuss all about, Masato?" Un'yo Shinomiya asked his blonde captain, now identified as Masato.
"An anomaly, sir," he responded respectfully. "He is fast approaching and will reach the main gate in the next ten to fifteen minutes."
"Show me," Un'yo said, stepping up to the front. His gaze went to the zombies and narrowed as he saw a significantly lower number than what it usually was. Without any further words, he climbed up the stairs and stood beside Masato.
"Please," Masato bowed respectfully, stepping as far back as he could as he handed the binoculars to him with deference in his posture.
Un'yo Shinomiya looked at the man emitting constant bright flashes of light and hummed. The moment he used the binoculars to view the man, he froze in place. The raw power in his actions and the indifferent elegance he possessed left the leader unable to speak, as his eyes were stuck to the man. It took him a few seconds to come to his senses after being stunned by the power of the light beams that were being released by the anomaly.
"He's coming toward us?"
"He is, sir."
"Be prepared for a welcome. I want him to join us, no matter what benefits he asks for," Un'yo said. "He will join us. No matter the circumstances, Masato Hayasaka. Am I clear?"
"Understood, sir. I'll offer him whatever he requires, as long as it is within our power."
"Good. I'll meet him tomorrow. Give him some time to settle, explore."
***
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