As I casually lounged on the roof of Fujimi Academy, using [Light Manipulation] to subtly project the sun's rays around me to make myself near-invisible to anyone who wasn't looking directly into the sun, I had a bit of time to think.
The world I was in was clear to me now - High School of the Dead. It was a zombie-apocalypse series that was similar to the DxD series in the pure ecchiness of it, but it was a world that was very much so less dangerous.
Instead of Dragon Gods who could snap their fingers and kill you, it just had some zombies.
It was pretty fitting for an E-Rank world, as while there wasn't any real danger in this world for me, there was at least some theoretical danger. The requirements of the world's ranking were based on being able to conquer the Underworld, which had a lot of variance.
If I didn't have [Phenex Immortality] or any other healing skills, along with having no resistances to whatever the zombies used to turn people into [Undead], then dying was possible, if unlikely. The zombies were weak enough that no one with enough strength to conquer the Underworld should die to one, but if you were careless and fell asleep near one and got bitten, then you technically could die.
Or, undie? As you'd be turned into an undead? Either way, the world fit the E-Rank criteria of 'you really shouldn't die, but if you're a giga-dumbass, then you could!'
Overall, I wasn't disappointed. The world probably wouldn't give me a lot of statistical value - as the only things I could use [Devour] on here were either [Undead] or normal humans - but in the same vein, it wouldn't be that difficult to conquer.
It was essentially just a normal human world, but with zombies. There were no powerful beings, no supernatural powers, nor anything or anyone who could pose a threat to me. Even the zombies themselves, despite having 'supernatural strength', were really just stronger than the average human, and could be pretty easily killed by a firearm, or even a baseball bat.
I had pretty much just been given a blank slate of a world - or what was about to be a blank slate, as it was still rather civilized right now - to take as my own. I'd gain more land, a bit more power, and a lot more subordinates, even if those subordinates would be weak combat-wise and only useful for production purposes.
"What the hell are you doing?!"
I glanced off the roof as a female voice rang out, drawing my attention to an event that I figured was about to happen. I had assumed I entered the world on the first day that the apocalypse happened, and I was glad I was correct. If the current timeline was far before the start of the series, then I'd either have to choose between conquering the world before it fell apart or waiting until the [Undead] appeared to complete my quest.
But as a pale man with glazed-over eyes repeatedly walked into the gate at the front of the school, I knew the main event was about to begin. He was wearing a suit and slammed into the gate repeatedly, walking forward as if he didn't even see it while banging his head on the metal bars.
"Stop doing that! What's wrong with you?!" Meanwhile, a rather beautiful woman was standing in front of the gate with an annoyed look on her face.
[Human] [Kyoko Hayashi] - Level 2
The woman was very clearly a normal human, as I could see that even without her low level. She had a pretty slim frame, with an hourglass figure, large breasts that were shown through her rather revealing yellow shirt and white coat, and a pretty face with shoulder-length reddish-brown hair.
"Let me handle this, Miss Hayashi!" A more masculine voice followed her, as there were three other teachers going to deal with the commotion with her. The one who had spoken was a rather muscular man with a broad frame, looking like he was probably the gym teacher.
[Human] [Teshima] - Level 4
Despite his muscular frame, he was also just a human. His level suggested that, at best, he might be able to take down one of the lower-level four-legged direwolves in a fight to the death.
"What the hell are ya doing, you bastard?! You got a fuckin' problem?" The man started harshly, stomping up to the gate and sticking his hand through the bars. He grabbed the front of the pale man's suit, yanking him forward as he forcefully pulled him into the bars, causing a bang to ring out as his head met the metal.
"Mr. T-Teshima! Don't resort to violence!" Kyoko called out, looking slightly concerned as Teshima roughed up the man, banging his body repeatedly against the gate as he yanked him through the bars.
"Don't worry, Miss Hayashi! With dumbasses like this, you got to- ARGHHH!" Teshima was abruptly cut off as the pale man leaned down, looking unbothered by his rough treatment as he angled his head at the arm gripping the front of his suit.
He leaned in, opening his mouth, and then sharp teeth clamped down onto Teshima's arm. The teeth tore through his flesh effortlessly, and a fountain of blood spurted upward as he bit him.
"W-What the hell?!" Teshima stumbled backward, releasing his grip on the man through the bars as his other hand went to clamp on his injured arm. He continued to backpedal until he fell flat on his ass.
"ARGHHHH!" He let out a pained scream as his eyes went wide, his mouth opening wide as he started to twitch and spaz on the floor, clutching at his injured arm.
"M-Mr. Teshima! Are you alright?!" One of the other men, who looked much older as he had gray hair and was balding, called out as he took a step back. The third man, who had a rather plain-looking face and short black hair, also backed away as they stared wearily at Teshima's twitching body.
Teshima didn't answer, instead continuing to twitch and roll around on the ground for a few more seconds until he finally went limp. His eyes drifted shut, and he became motionless as his mouth was still open in a silent scream.
"H-He's dead!" The older man shouted, pointing in terror at Teshima's still corpse.
"N-No way! He just got bit in the arm!" Kyoko stuttered out, taking a tentative step forward as she looked down at Teshima, "H-He wouldn't die from something like that! You're fine, right, M-Mr. Teshima?!"
The limp body didn't answer for a moment, the man just lying there with his mouth open and his eyes closed. Then, slowly, his eyes flickered open, and he sat up.
"S-See? I told you!" Kyoko nodded as she smiled shakily, "I-I'm glad you're alright, Mr. Teshima! We need to call an ambulance for you, and the police for that man!"
Teshima didn't answer as he stood up, just rising to his feet robotically. Then, slowly, he turned to look at the woman.
"Mr. Teshima?" She asked as he stared down on her, taking a step back instinctively as his shadow was cast over her.
Then, the man lunged forward, his mouth wide open as he aimed to bite deep into Kyoko's neck. And, he would've succeeded if I hadn't decided this was a good time to step in.
I could've easily saved Teshima before any of that happened, but he seemed like an annoying type of guy to keep around. I could've just killed him myself if he was being too annoying, as it'd been a long while since I had any moral-compass related concerns about killing, but seeing their friend die would help the other teachers get a grasp of the reality of their situation.
I appeared in front of the gate faster than any human's eyes could hope to keep track of, casually slashing out with my sword as zombie-Teshima's head was separated from his body.
[Devouring Stab] has claimed stats from [Teshima]!
+5 HP!
+1 MAXHP!
+1 STR
I just ignored the stat gains as Teshima's head was lobbed off, falling to the ground next to his body. He really was only worth less than one four-legged direwolf, huh?
"A-AH!" Kyoko squeaked out, taking a step back and raising her hands as Teshima lunged at her. Then, she slowly opened her eyes, peering forward as nothing had happened.
"M-Mr. Teshima?!" She yelled, being even more shocked than when the man had been bitten as his head was suddenly not on his body. She fell back, landing on her shapely ass as she stared up with wide, fearful eyes at the headless body of Teshima.
Said body then fell forward a moment later, landing in a pool of blood at her feet.
"H-He's really dead," The elderly man spat out, staring with wide eyes at me as he glanced from my sword to Teshima's decapitated head.
"RUN!" The other man was apparently pretty reasonable, as after watching his colleague get turned into a zombie and then have his head cut off by a huge man who appeared out of thin air, he turned around and promptly ran towards the entrance of the building.
"W-Wait for me!" The elderly man took off a moment later.
"N-No! Wait, don't leave me!" Kyoko shouted out, trying to push herself to her feet but stumbling as she did. She fell back onto her ass, staring up with wide, horrified eyes as my bloody blade casually rested on my shoulder and I towered over her.
"Damn, that was harsh," I chuckled lightly, looking down at the terrified woman, "They just left you, huh?"
But it wasn't that surprising. The entire premise of the beginning of this series was showing how cold-blooded humans would be when faced with death.
The first school-centered section even showed various students abandoning their friends for a chance to escape - hell, there was even a scene where one girl said 'we'll be best friends forever!' about five seconds before kicking her friend into a pit of zombies to try and get away.
Whether it was the nature of all humans or just specifically humans in this world, they would do what it took to survive. If that meant abandoning their 'friend' to a random hulking sword-wielding man who just beheaded their other friend, then that's what they would do, and I couldn't really blame them.
If I were a normal human, and a giant muscular man holding a big-ass sword cut off my friends head, I'd probably get the hell out of there too.
"W-Wait, don't- what- who, p-please-" Kyoko started stuttering out, breathing heavily as she scooted backwards with fear-filled eyes and couldn't force out a complete sentence. Her body started to shake, and it looked like she was about to break down into a full-blown panic attack.
"Relax. I'm not gonna kill you," I just grinned at her lightly, casually activating [Comforting Aura] as the woman in front of me looked like she was about to break into tears, "I actually just saved your life, y'know? You could at least say 'thank you.'"
"S-Saved my life?" Kyoko only stuttered lightly this time, her breathing becoming under control as she relaxed immediately, "How did you…"
"He's a zombie," I said casually, jutting a thumb over my shoulder at the man still bumping into the gate behind me.
She slowly glanced over at Teshima's decapitated head, then back to the man repeatedly walking into the gate. Her eyes widened slightly, but my [Comforting Aura] ensure she didn't start freaking out as she spoke again.
"He's… a zombie?" She asked blankly, glancing between them again, "B-But, zombies aren't real. That can't be…"
"In case your friend dying, coming back to life, trying to attack you and then getting his head cut off wasn't an indicator, whatever you knew about this world has gone out the window," I hummed, gesturing behind me again, "This entire city is in the process of being invaded by zombies. Civilization as you know it will crumble, and it'd be accurate to say the apocalypse has begun."
Just from a glance behind me, it was pretty clear that I wasn't lying. Smoke was rising up in the air from the city below, and the sound of sirens and helicopters taking to the sky was faintly audible.
For my 'protect the city' quest, it would've been optimal to go out there right now and slaughter all the various undead to protect as many people as possible, but I was looking toward the future, and the completion of the [Mainline Quest] instead of valuing a couple thousand stats I was missing out on.
I would eventually have to conquer this world to complete the quest, and the easiest way to do that was to take advantage of the starting apocalypse. While I could go the 'submit or die' route of slowly wiping out all the [Undead] in the world, and threatening every government to obey me in the process, I didn't think that was the best approach here.
Using fear to control people could only get you so far, and it'd greatly hurt the unity and productivity of new subordinates. As a result, I wanted this world to crumble first, and to let the inhabitants feel the fear that came with living through an apocalypse.
Then, freeing them of that fear would make taking over the world all too easy.
"There's… smoke…" Kyoko muttered, slowly pushing herself to her feet as she looked past me, taking in the sight of the city starting to burn as streams of smoke flowed up into the air.
"Yup, and, look at this," I continued with a nod, casually walking up to the gate and raising my hand.
"What are you-" Kyoko was cut off as she gasped lightly, watching as my hand shifted into a knife, and then stabbed through the gap in the gate into the zombie still walking into it.
It cut through his gut easily, but when I pulled my hand out, it didn't even look like he felt it - which was because he didn't. The zombies had no perception of pain, and the man continued to bang into the gate even as a bloody hole appeared in his stomach.
"See? Zombie," I said easily, shifting my hand back as I gestured to the zombie.
"You're… right," Kyoko nodded slowly, staring blankly at the zombie and the smoke in the city.
She probably would've fallen into a full-blown meltdown already, but my aura wouldn't allow it. Instead, she just looked confused, as if her brain couldn't make sense of what was going on.
"And… your hand," Kyoko muttered, and finally even the aura couldn't stop as she slowly fell down onto her knees, staring up at me blankly, "I… I must be dreaming…"
"You're not dreaming, Kyoko Hayashi," I grinned lightly, causing her eyes to widen slightly as I used her name. "The apocalypse has come, but you don't need to be worried. I am Valon, the Beast King and Ruler of the Underworld, but you may call me…"
I casually crouched down, grinning even wider as my face was now only inches away from hers. In that moment, as her eyes went wide, I didn't realize that my grin was a bit too hungry.
"Your savior."
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AN: Thank you for reading! The next chapter will be out tomorrow!
You can also read the next 7 right now on Patreon.com/Koyon !