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"…Wait. Something's coming."
Saeko Busujima suddenly turned her gaze toward the street not far away.
"…Something's watching us over there."
At the same time, Gabriel, Frieren, and Fubuki stopped chatting and quickly looked outside.
Roughly five hundred meters away, a humanoid figure was closing in.
With their sharp eyesight, they could see it raising a long, tube-shaped object and pointing it in their direction.
"Careful!"
Saeko shouted.
Fubuki reacted instantly, unleashing her psychic power to throw up a barrier around the house.
The air whipped into a violent gale, tossing corpses and rubble sky-high as a rocket streaking fire exploded against the outer edge of the shield.
"Huh? What was that thing?" Gabriel squinted. Something was blocking her view, so she couldn't see clearly.
"An enemy." Frieren had already raised her staff and was locking on to the target.
But before she could act, a spear of light appeared in Rosen's hand. He flicked it casually, sending it soaring across the distance.
The glowing spear shot hundreds of meters in an instant, slamming into the towering, two-meter-tall monster.
A deafening boom shook the streets.
The creature's upper body shattered instantly, and the spear kept going, obliterating an entire building behind it.
In this ruined world, Rosen had no reason to hold back. And showing off a little strength was never a bad thing.
When the thunderous noise finally faded, Yuuka Nanri and the others stared dumbfounded at the black-haired young man who had caused it all.
Compared to pinning down a couple of Lickers, this was on the level of a miracle.
"Whoa… that much power?" Frieren tilted her head, her eyes wide with curiosity.
"And the accuracy too—it's faster than any killing spell. Honestly, it's better than most demon-killer magic."
Her gaze lingered on Rosen with eager anticipation. She was already thinking about the day she'd finish her current mission and return to study that spear of light herself.
"At the very least, that's A-rank. And not just average A-rank—this is top of the class."
Fubuki's face stayed calm, but inside she was reeling. She hadn't expected the newcomer to the group to be this strong.
As the top B-rank herself, she used to take a bit of pride in that status. But after witnessing this, the last shred of her pride vanished.
Looks like she'd have to push herself harder than ever. First, she needed to outpace everyone in the chat group—and one day, surpass her sister, Tatsumaki.
"Hm… he looks more and more familiar, but I still can't remember from where." Gabriel frowned, clearly frustrated.
She wasn't as shocked as the others, though. Angels might be peace-loving, but maintaining peace required strength.
And unfortunately for anyone who underestimated her, Gabriel was plenty strong. She just didn't care much for fighting most of the time.
Meanwhile, Saya Takagi, Yuuka Nanri, and the others were too stunned to form proper sentences.
Was this guy really not some character pulled straight out of a video game or manga?
But while the survivors gawked, in a hidden underground base on the outskirts of Tokonushi City, several Umbrella staff members were staring at the playback feed in shock.
After the failure of the Lickers, the local commander had deployed a "Tracker" for combat testing.
But before it even fired more than a single rocket, their powerful bioweapon had been obliterated.
The remote feed showed it clearly: the man had just thrown something like a spear, and then the screen had turned to static.
"Impossible! The Tracker is Umbrella's latest bioweapon. Even an elite special ops squad with heavy weapons wouldn't stand a chance against it!" The supervisor swallowed hard.
But then his expression shifted from panic to excitement.
"Quick—contact headquarters! Tell them we've found a group of extremely unusual lifeforms in Tokonushi City. One of them not only retains a human shape but possesses incredible mutation abilities!"
"Deploy heavy firepower. Send as many special ops teams as possible. Get aircraft if we can. We must capture that man!"
The staff quickly relayed the message to Umbrella's headquarters in Austria.
The supervisor was already daydreaming about promotions and pay raises.
The call went through—not to headquarters, but directly to his superior, a board director.
After hearing the report, the director wasted no time in deciding: deploy his own private combat unit to capture the valuable specimens alive.
At the same time, establish contact with the group of survivors in the city. No matter their demands, do whatever it takes to keep them cooperative until the combat unit arrived.
Say what you will about Umbrella, but even in the apocalypse, their efficiency was frightening.
Back with the group, Rosen finally shared his own thoughts.
"..."
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