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Rosen's suggestions didn't spark any objections from Yuuka Nanri and the others. Honestly, they didn't really have the right to object. Compared to all the people who'd died, being alive at all was already more luck than they deserved.
So they just went along with whatever Rosen's group decided.
Sakura Megumi and the other girls blended in smoothly with Takagi Saya's group. After all, Megumi had been a modern literature teacher at Fujimi Academy—plenty of the girls already knew her.
The survivors began clustering together, drawing comfort in numbers.
Meanwhile, Rosen was busy in the group chat, rallying his members to plan their next moves.
[Shepherd]:"Let's talk about what we're gonna do when Umbrella's people show up."
[Shut-in Angel]:"What else? Put them down on the spot! Umbrella's the scum of the earth. They wrecked the whole world without a shred of regret—still doing experiments like it's nothing!"
[Old Mage]:"True. I still don't get their motive though. Why destroy the world when they're human too? What's in it for them?"
[Blizzard from Hell]:"Normally, yeah—Umbrella's just a transnational corporation. Profit should be their only goal."
Blizzard was right. In modern society, every company was profit-driven.
To make money, you needed customers. Nations and everyday people were the backbone of consumption.
But if the whole world had turned into zombies, who was left to buy your products?
Wasn't that putting the cart before the horse?
[Bad Woman]:"Not necessarily. Maybe Umbrella had other goals. Like… human evolution."
[Bad Woman]:"Remember the data Gabriel shared? Umbrella originally wanted an immortality drug. The T-Virus was just a nasty byproduct."
[Shut-in Angel]:"So basically, they screwed up big time."
[Bad Woman]:"Who can say for sure?"
[Shepherd]:"No point overthinking it. Maybe Umbrella's execs just want to rule what's left of the world. Wipe out humanity with the virus, freeze themselves, then wake up a hundred years later as the new Adam and Eve."
That wasn't impossible.
In the movie world, some Umbrella executives had literally embraced that exact plan—let the virus run wild, then wait to inherit the ashes.
After all, Umbrella controlled most bioweapons.
And zombies, unlike the ones in Return of the Living Dead, weren't immortal skeletons. The T-Virus was at least semi-plausible science; eventually the infected would decay.
[Blizzard from Hell]:"Either way, their motives don't matter to us. We just need to wipe them out."
[Shepherd]:"Soon they'll send people to pick us up. Odds are they'll fly us straight to headquarters. Once there, we get ahold of the higher-ups and read their minds. Frieren, you can handle that with magic, right?"
[Old Mage]:"I think so, but it's been ages since I tried. And using that kind of spell on humans could be risky."
[Shepherd]:"No need for mercy. Think of them like your demons."
[Old Mage]:"You're making me mad now."
[Shepherd]:"Once we know Umbrella's global setup, you'll know what to do."
[Shut-in Angel]:"Humane extermination.jpg."
[Shut-in Angel]:"Don't worry, I'll be very merciful. Hehehe."
[Blizzard from Hell]:"Hearing that from an angel doesn't sound merciful at all."
[Shut-in Angel]:"Hmph! Those people are just wasting rice if they stay alive."
Rosen didn't argue.
Finding a good soul inside Umbrella was like finding a needle in a landfill.
Time slipped by as the chat rolled on.
A low rumble broke the silence—rotor blades slicing the air.
The girls, dozing off in exhaustion, startled awake.
Excitement flashed across Takagi Saya's face, mirrored by Sakura Megumi and the others.
Could it be? Had the Japanese government actually survived? Were troops finally here to rescue them?
But Yoriko Takagi, standing by the window, frowned deeply.
"No… not a rescue team. That's Umbrella."
The aircraft were Osprey-like transports, each emblazoned with Umbrella's unmistakable red-and-white logo.
Four in total—three of them bristling with heavy firepower.
The noise drew hordes of zombies, but they were shredded to pieces by the aircrafts' Vulcan cannons before they could get close.
Show of force, or warning—maybe both.
Just to hammer the point home, one transport casually fired a missile, obliterating an entire building in a fiery blast.
"..."
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