One kilometer underground…
In the depths of reinforced concrete, a massive conference room blazed under pale lights.
The circular table held no occupants. Instead, each seat bore a high-definition screen.
Most screens showed aged, weary faces, with a few younger sprinkled in—the company's core decision-makers.
"There's been an anomaly in Tokonosu City, Japan."
The elder on the main screen spoke bluntly, his clouded eyes cold.
Even as he spoke, satellite footage flickered across their displays. On city streets, towering mountains of corpses rose, rivers of blood staining the roads.
"Wha…"
A young board member's voice cut through the silence. He frowned, staring hard.
Others exchanged uneasy looks. For the first time since the apocalypse began, confusion touched their faces. One even adjusted his glasses, as if to see more clearly.
"When did they learn performance art like this?" someone muttered nervously.
But when the feed zoomed in, silence fell.
This was no art.
It was slaughter.
Zombie corpses piled into grotesque hills, decapitated heads scattered everywhere.
Brows furrowed, the room grew tense. Who had done this? Resistance groups had been destroyed swiftly… such mass culling of zombies shouldn't exist.
Before questions could be asked, the elder pulled new data onto their screens.
Photos appeared: a golden-haired girl wielding a blade, moving through seas of corpses. Every frame recorded efficient, merciless precision. Hordes fell before her like grass beneath a mower.
"Impossible… You're saying this girl did all this?"
A board member's voice rose high, trembling in disbelief.
More footage streamed in—her nonhuman feats laid bare. Leaping between skyscrapers. Blades flashing wide, herding tens of thousands into slaughter. Buildings split with a single swing.
Every shot testified to power beyond human limits.
After a stunned silence, the atmosphere shifted. Awe turned to fevered light in their eyes.
"Incredible…"
An elder whispered, skeletal fingers clenched, greed flaring.
"Compared to our research, she is the true… New Human! Stronger, perfect, superior!"
"We must act at once!" another board member slammed the table, voice shaking. "This is the evolution we dreamed of!"
"Form the Butterfly Capture Plan! Deploy units to contact her! Whatever she wants, grant it—if she cooperates in our research!"
"And if she refuses?"
"Then seize her—at any cost! We must have her!" one snarled coldly, eyes glinting. "Even the sharpest butterfly cannot escape our specimen case!"
On the screens, Zeroy strode alone through carnage, cold as a reaper of the end.
And in the chamber, greed and mania blazed.
Then, the elder rapped the table. The faint sound silenced all.
"It's not so simple. She's already found us—and struck."
New displays lit. Across their global network, real-time statuses flashed. In Tokonosu and surrounding regions, four secret bases blinked crimson: LOST CONTACT.
"She destroyed four bases?"
One gaped, then scowled. "What were the commanders doing?"
"She bears such hostility? Why?"
"Where is she from? Some lab's mutant experiment?"
All eyes shifted to one screen.
There sat a middle-aged blond man, stern-faced.
Director Wilson—the highest authority of Japan's branch, commander of the entire plan, currently in-country.
"Wilson, you owe us an explanation."
The elder's voice was low, iron with authority. The air froze.
"I—"
Wilson began—but red light flared, alarms shrieked.
"One moment."
He frowned, reaching to cut the feed.
"No! Keep the line open!" the elder barked, eyes narrowing. "We must see what happens."
Wilson hesitated, then growled, "…Fine."
He patched through an emergency call.
At once, panicked voices poured in, explosions roaring in the background, metal screeching.
"A monster… A monster broke in! The defenses are torn apart!"
"What nonsense?!" Wilson roared, straining to keep face.
But the voice cracked near collapse. "It—it's cutting off everyone's heads! We can't stop it… Bullets don't work… defenses are useless… it's ripping everything apart!"
A pause. Then a scream that stabbed the ear, "It sees me! No—no! Don't come—please—"
Squelch! Thud…
Disgusting, ripping flesh sound was followed by a heavy body hitting the ground.
A massive blast shook the base.
"William?! William! Answer me!"
Wilson slammed the table, his shout echoing, his calm gone.
"Damn it, what's happening in that base! William!!"
Only silence answered, broken by distant screams.
...
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