"What is this?! Why do we have to sleep in this shabby place?"
Saya Takagi looked at the simple, military-style cot in front of her and kicked the metal frame angrily.
As the eldest daughter of the powerful Takagi syndicate, she had been pampered and spoiled since childhood. When had she ever been forced to sleep in a cramped, sterile dormitory?
That afternoon, paralyzed by the horror of the flesh-eating monsters and thoroughly intimidated by the ruthless brutality displayed by the Busujima father and daughter, the surviving students hadn't resisted at all. They had been herded directly to the Yokogawa Mountain Base like fat sheep being led to the slaughterhouse.
At the time, looking at Saeko Busujima's blood-soaked uniform and suffocating murderous aura, Saya hadn't dared to utter a single complaint about the sleeping arrangements. But after sitting in the quiet room for two hours, her princess temper finally flared up.
"So, what are we eating? Why did Busujima-senpai just leave us here? What about our dinner?" Saya demanded, looking out the reinforced window dejectedly.
It was already getting dark. Normally, at this hour, she would be at her sprawling family estate, waiting for the maids to serve a multi-course gourmet meal. But now, forget about the maids—she couldn't even go home. The realization made her incredibly frustrated. Everything had been perfectly fine when she left for school that morning. How had the world ended by the afternoon?
"There are two cases of instant cup noodles here in the corner. What flavor do you want?" one of the background girls in the room offered meekly.
The other girls didn't object to Saya's bossy, demanding attitude. The Japanese concept of hierarchy was deeply ingrained from childhood; the Takagi family was incredibly wealthy and politically powerful in Tokonosu City, so her barking orders felt perfectly natural to them.
Furthermore, because they had been swiftly evacuated by Saeko's bloody path, these girls hadn't truly felt the absolute, despair-inducing devastation of the apocalypse yet. None of them realized that the old rules of society were dead and buried.
"Only cup noodles? Do you have steak? Seriously, what about sushi rolls?" Saya huffed, crossing her arms. When would she, a young lady of high birth, lower herself to eat such peasant food?
"Hey, you!" Saya ignored the girl holding the noodles and pointed directly at Rei Miyamoto, who was silently making her bed in the corner. "Come with me to see if there is any real food in this place!"
"Busujima-senpai explicitly told us to stay in this room and not wander around," Rei replied, her voice entirely expressionless.
Rei knew Saya looked down on her, so she didn't bother trying to be friendly. Earlier that afternoon, her childhood friend, Hisashi Igou, had died a gruesome, agonizing death right before her eyes. Unlike the sheltered girls complaining about their dinner menu, Rei relived that horrific, blood-soaked scene every time she blinked.
Rei had already seen through the true nature of this sudden upheaval. She knew the world had irreparably changed. The polite rules of a peaceful society were no longer valid. If one wanted to survive, one had to adapt to the brutal new reality.
"Fine! Stay here and rot! I am going out to see what is going on!"
Seeing the dim-witted blonde using Saeko's orders to brush her off, Saya was furious. She stomped her foot and stormed out of the dormitory. Although Saeko had instructed them to stay put, Saya was the heir to the Takagi family; even her formidable father struggled to control her, let alone a mere upperclassman.
Saya had never been to such a remote place as Yokogawa Mountain before. Her father, Soichiro, had casually mentioned it over dinner a few months ago, scoffing that Masao Busujima had gone mad and spent a fortune transforming a secluded mountain that no one ever visited. Since it hadn't concerned her at the time, she had just listened and moved on.
When she had first arrived in the chaotic rush of the evacuation, she hadn't paid much attention to the architecture. But now, sneaking out and taking a closer look under the moonlight, Saya noticed how terrifyingly deliberate the compound's layout was.
The entire mountaintop was artificially separated from the lower slopes. Not only were there layers of heavy military barbed wire, but the outer edge of the peak had been excavated and sheer-dropped into a ninety-degree cliff, creating a vertical fall of at least twenty meters. This tactical height meant that whoever controlled the peak had absolute visual dominance over the lower tiers, while those below could see nothing but sheer rock walls.
The only way to traverse between the upper and lower sections was a heavy, industrial freight elevator. In other words, if that elevator's power was cut, the peak was essentially an impenetrable, isolated fortress.
Furthermore, she recalled the entrance at the foot of the mountain: it was completely sealed off from the outside world by a deep, flowing moat and a heavy steel drawbridge. The entire mountain was a modern replica of an ancient, impregnable warlord's citadel.
'Did he know this was going to happen?'
Looking at the militarized layout, a terrifying thought suddenly bloomed in Saya's mind.
This girl, though willful and arrogant, was a verified genius, consistently holding the top academic spot at Fujimi Academy. Although the theory was crazy, Saya felt she had just uncovered the dark truth.
There was no other logical explanation for why Masao Busujima would spend billions to transform Yokogawa Mountain into a doomsday bunker, nor why he would brutally execute a politician's son like Koichi Shido without a second thought!
A chill ran down her spine.
'If my guess is correct... what is his true purpose in rescuing us?'
When Saeko had arranged their sleeping quarters earlier, everyone assumed the assignments were random or based on school year. But now, Saya's brilliant mind connected the sinister dots.
Of the dozens of girls brought to the base, only four had been assigned to this specific, high-security dormitory on the mountaintop. And of those four, only Saya had any real familial connection with the Busujimas. The others were nobodies.
But they had one glaring thing in common: all four of them were considered top-tier class beauties. Even though Saya despised Rei, she had to admit the girl was highly attractive.
'Only slightly less attractive than myself, of course,' Saya reasoned nervously.
Realizing the predatory nature of their selection, Saya quickly tiptoed toward the large, luxurious three-story villa situated in the dead center of the peak.
If she wasn't mistaken, that was where the Master of this fortress, Masao Busujima, resided. She needed to know what kind of devil they had surrendered to.
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