The outbreak of the dead had begun about three weeks ago.
And contact between different parts of the world had almost completely collapsed a week earlier.
The reason was a far more severe solar storm. It had crippled nearly all of the satellites.
That had made the situation in this world even more dangerous.
But that still was not the worst of it.
Over the course of these three weeks, the dead had changed.
Or rather, they had begun to evolve.
Three weeks ago, their movements had still been sluggish.
Now they were much faster. They still were not as quick as an ordinary human, and as long as someone was healthy, they could still outrun them without too much trouble.
But the dead had one advantage that normal humans did not.
Their endurance far surpassed that of living people.
They were like perpetual-motion machines, while humans got tired.
And among numbers this vast, there were naturally mutated variants that had become even faster.
Ordinary people were no longer capable of dealing with those special variants.
It took trained soldiers with steady nerves to beat them.
There was roughly one such variant among every thousand dead, which did not sound like much, until one considered how many people across the world had already turned.
And this was only the change after three weeks.
If they kept getting stronger from here on out, humanity's situation would become extremely grim.
The only fortunate thing at present was that no intelligent dead had yet been observed.
At that moment, in one corner of Tokonosu City, the dead gathered there were among the most dangerous anywhere.
A great many of them retained fragments of the muscle memory and physical instincts they had possessed while alive. That meant people who had been stronger in life were naturally more dangerous after becoming dead.
And this place in particular was filled with exactly that sort.
The entire wave of dead here had once been athletes. The force of their bursts of movement was twice that of ordinary dead, and some of them were so fast that even normal people could not outrun them.
The reason so many had gathered here was simple.
There had been a marathon cycling event taking place that day, and one section of the route had passed through Tokonosu City.
Suddenly, a car slid several meters with a scream of tearing metal, as though something had slammed into it, and then a huge dead creature came into view.
A closer look at their transformations revealed something almost like the oni of old folklore, or perhaps ghouls.
The thing spotted something, bared its teeth, and let out a hoarse growl before charging forward in a frenzy, lunging to bite a silver-haired woman in black whose back was turned to it.
Just as those claw-like hands were only centimeters away from seizing that slender body, the black-clad figure moved with a reaction speed beyond that of ordinary humans and slipped away in an instant.
At the same time, the long white katana in her hand flashed through the air.
The dead creature, having missed, took one more charging step forward and then split cleanly in two.
Before the two halves had even finished falling, the black figure was already darting into the horde, cutting them down as if she were slicing tofu.
Looking toward the other woman dressed the same way, the weapon in her hand was a greatsword.
Her fighting style was even fiercer, like that of a berserker.
The first one, by contrast, looked more like an assassin.
"Big Sis Yuko, could you beat them?"
Kiba Mikoto could not help asking as she looked at Yuko Sagiri beside her. Those two silver-haired women in black fought like emotionless machines.
Then again, they really were machines.
Robots that looked nothing like robots.
They looked like impossibly exquisite silver-haired beauties, too perfect to be alive.
If Mr. Kain had not told them they were androids, they never would have believed those two were machines.
"I don't know."
Yuko gave a vague answer.
If this was truly the full extent of their strength as they currently were, then she ought to be about evenly matched with them.
Then, after another half hour, the most troublesome area in Tokonosu City was finally cleared.
It was not just those two androids helping out.
That man had come back too, as vicious as ever.
Thunk.
"Ugh!"
A somewhat cute little cry escaped Nashida Oriha's lips as she immediately covered her head with both hands. Someone had knocked her with a merciless flick to the forehead.
"Quit touching."
The one who had delivered that little punishment, Kain, then pinched the cheek of this huge-breasted loli as well.
She had tried to grope 2B's chest, so he smacked her for it.
Correction.
That was not the real 2B.
It was a 2B figurine.
Since it did not carry a Black Box and had no true self-awareness, it could basically be called a robot running on dead programming.
And because it had also been designed to look more human and have softer, more realistic flesh, the body was much weaker than Kiya's.
In reality, this was mainly meant to handle miscellaneous tasks for him in daily life, so it could be considered a household-service model.
That had been 6O's suggestion to 2B and the others: custom-make fully movable figurines modeled after themselves and give them to him as gifts. She had even teasingly said they could be used in all sorts of ways.
If self-aware androids could be transmitted, meaning if they were not judged to be living beings, they absolutely would have sent actual androids along with him.
And according to A2, they really had tested that.
There had originally been four figurines in total: 2B, A2, 6O, and White.
Correction again.
There were only three now.
6O had originally made one of the Commander too, but once White's "making a move" incident became known, the others had angrily destroyed White's figurine on the spot.
As for White herself, she had successfully transferred into that new YoRHa-type body.
And before the transfer, Kain had fulfilled her wish as well, because once the transfer was complete, the original body would be destroyed.
That way, he did not need to worry about any of his "seed of life" being left behind and then used for something.
He believed the androids did not bear him ill will, but if anything ever did happen to him, White and the others might be unable to accept it and end up trying to create another him through that seed.
Kain did not like that idea at all.
"You're stingy."
Oriha puffed out her cheeks as she complained.
"So, how long until mine is finished?"
The sulky look on her face instantly changed into a flattering one. She hugged his arm and started shaking it while pressing as much of her softness against him as she could.
Because he had said they could have custom ones made too, Oriha had immediately put in a request for a robot identical to herself.
"I said, are you done clinging to him yet?"
An annoyed voice cut in.
"Not even close."
Oriha stuck out her tongue at the jealous glasses girl.
Then, deciding that still was not enough, she threw her whole body at him and, right in front of everyone, kissed him directly, even trying to turn it into a deep one.
And just like that, the whole scene descended into chaos.
In the blink of an eye, time passed.
This place had changed enormously since Kain last left.
It now genuinely looked like a fortress, and even a rather sci-fi one at that.
That was because while he had been in A2's world, he had opened up a one-hundred-meter storage space in order to bring over the Fury Interceptor, and that had also come with a corresponding increase in transfer capacity. Through that shared transfer space, Saeko Busujima had pulled over even more things from A2's side and from Tessa's side, gradually turning the place into a military fortress.
And the reason he had come back here again was not entirely pure.
Well, not "not entirely."
It was simply the normal desire of a man.
But aside from that, he had also brought part of the research data over to this world, including some information he had downloaded from that planet concerning human genetics.
According to some of the material, genetic modification during humanity's golden age had also gone wrong. It was suspected that some hidden hand had deliberately guided it down the wrong path, pushing humanity farther and farther away from being human.
Their outward appearance still looked human, but at the genetic level, some had been altered so extensively that they were no longer really human at all, but another species entirely.
Because of that, there had also been research into the correct path for human genetic engineering.
And that research had not been centered on that particular planet, but in another star system entirely.
That planet had mainly focused on dimensional weapons.
Meanwhile, on Saeko's side, over these past three weeks they had actually managed to develop something useful by combining D99 with Earth Elixir.
If the injuries were not too catastrophic, it could accelerate regeneration and healing to a certain extent, though it still could not reach Kain's level.
Not only that, they had also discovered what seemed to be a breakthrough in the genetic basis of psychic abilities.
In truth, Black Label had already noticed hints of that sort of thing before, though they still could not make it as dramatic as it appeared in anime.
For example, Yuko Sagiri's ability was that she could instinctively sense where to cut in order to slice something open with ease.
It had a bit of the feel of the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception.
If that line of research continued to deepen, then perhaps one day humans really could wield unbelievable abilities the way magic was used.
And not just a few people.
Potentially all humanity.
As though all it took was a successful breakthrough in some hidden part of the genes, unlocking the secret inside them.
Listening to that, Kain could not help feeling a strong sense of déjà vu.
Gene locks?
So was this something unique to this world alone?
Or could it exist in other worlds too?
(End of Chapter)
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