Chapter 190: Chapter 188: The Source of the Outbreak
Tsk, tsk...
Shen Feng couldn’t help but frown as he strode over.
His arrival immediately caught the zombies’ attention. They dropped the corpse they were devouring and lunged at him.
The corpse might have only been dead for a short while, but live food always tasted better.
As the zombies closed in, Shen Feng once again sent an electrical current through the brain atop his head, broadcasting a new brainwave signal.
The zombies instantly showed expressions of conflict and confusion, halting their advance.
’Excellent.’
Shen Feng nodded in satisfaction. He abruptly shot out several metal tentacles, snaring the necks of eight zombies whose faces were covered in bulging veins—all deeply infected. The length of the tentacles arranged them into four pairs, one behind the other.
He then hopped on a bicycle parked by the road. Another metal tentacle shot out like a fishing rod, impaled a fresh arm lying on the ground nearby, and dangled it in front of the eight zombies.
"Meat! Eat the meat!"
"Smells so good, so good, so good..."
"Eat, eat, eat, eat, eat..."
The zombies immediately roared and lunged for the arm.
Just then, the metal tentacles around their necks tightened, stopping them just short of the bloody, severed arm.
The zombies roared, straining with all their might as they lunged for the arm, but it always remained just out of reach—so close it seemed one more step would be enough.
The eight zombies fixed their eyes on the severed arm and broke into a frantic sprint, pulling Shen Feng and his bicycle forward at lightning speed!
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! BEHOLD MY EIGHT-ZOMBIE CHARIOT!" Shen Feng cackled from his bicycle.
’I’ve always wanted to try this!’
"Hmph. You’re so childish," Jingwei’s cold voice scoffed, clearly exasperated by Shen Feng’s theatrics.
Shen Feng quickly explained,
"This is to avoid attracting other zombies and increase my efficiency! Look, these things can run as fast as a car!"
The second half of his statement was true. When faced with fresh flesh and blood, the deeply infected ran with reckless abandon.
Their mutated bodies were also extremely strong and incredibly fast. They pulled Shen Feng’s bicycle at a blistering pace through the streets of Tokyo, easily matching the speed of a car and reaching up to seventy or eighty kilometers per hour.
Especially when passing through areas heavily congested with abandoned vehicles, his zombie-pulled "chariot" wasn’t bothered by traffic jams; they simply ran right over the roofs of the derelict cars.
Soon, Shen Feng had crossed nearly half of Tokyo and entered the Kanagawa Region.
As one of the initial outbreak epicenters, Kanagawa was now relatively quiet. He encountered few zombies along the way; it seemed most had already left the area, chasing fresh food elsewhere.
"Help! Help!" A short, chubby man with glasses sprinted down the street. Behind him, a dozen smiling zombies gave chase.
The man’s name was Ishijima Shotaro. He was an office worker who lived alone on Ota Street. He had been fired a few days prior and had since been holed up at home, eating instant noodles and playing video games. He’d seen news reports mentioning a plague but had paid them no mind.
Today, after the power and internet cut out, he could no longer bear it and finally left his house. He hadn’t expected to immediately run into the proprietress of a small street-side shop.
The proprietress’s smile was strange, and the proprietor was nowhere to be seen.
Ishijima Shotaro had wanted to buy some oden, but he noticed the chunks of meat in the stew looked odd.
Before he could react, the proprietress took a bite out of his arm!
Only then did he notice the skeletons on the ground, gnawed clean until only red sinew remained. He was being surrounded by more people, all with the same eerie smiles.
These people had all been his neighbors, but now they looked indescribably bizarre. Some were even holding bloodstained knives.
He fled in a panic, running the length of an entire street, and was now on the verge of collapse.
Recalling the news he’d glimpsed about a plague outbreak, combined with the games he’d played and the movies he’d seen, Ishijima Shotaro finally understood what was happening.
Biohazard!
A Biohazard event had broken out in Kanagawa!
Just then, he heard the sound of frantic running from the distance, seemingly accompanied by the whir of a bicycle chain.
While still running, Ishijima Shotaro glanced back and saw an unbelievable sight.
Eight ferocious-looking zombies, bound by chains, were sprinting in his direction. Dangled before them was a bloody arm!
The zombies spotted the fleeing Ishijima Shotaro and immediately veered to lunge at him.
Just then, with a heavy THUD, the eight zombies were brought to a sudden halt, as if the chains around their necks had been anchored to the ground.
Then, to his astonishment, Ishijima Shotaro realized the eight zombies were pulling a bicycle!
And on the bicycle sat an extremely tall person, his neck craned forward so far it looked unnaturally long.
"Hee hee, it’s meat!"
"Eat... Eat Shotaro’s meat!"
"Shotaro, let me have a taste..."
"You fat loser, you must taste so greasy..."
His relentlessly pursuing neighbors had now caught up. Ishijima Shotaro’s legs gave out, and unable to run any farther, he collapsed to the ground.
He watched as the expressionless man dismounted the bicycle. The man’s arm suddenly extended, lashing out as a Metal Whip. Its razor-sharp edge instantly split the heads of the zombified neighbors in two.
After casually dispatching the dozen or so zombies, the man turned back to Ishijima Shotaro and asked curiously,
"You’re not infected?"
"I... I..." Ishijima Shotaro was still slumped on the ground, at a loss for words. Suddenly, he felt a numbing itch in his arm. A strange, fragrant scent filled his nostrils, and drool began to pour from his mouth. "I... SLURP... smells so good... so good..."
’This person smells so fragrant... but it also feels like... I shouldn’t eat him...’
Shen Feng felt a wave of disappointment. Clearly, this Ishijima Shotaro wasn’t immune; the infection’s onset had just been delayed.
He had succumbed to the infection after all.
Without further hesitation, Shen Feng flicked the Metal Whip. It sliced across Ishijima Shotaro’s neck, severing his head.
The Metal Whip was an attack method he had developed along his journey.
The uses for the Nanomechanical Cluster extended far beyond the devouring consumption of the Gray Tide. As a nano-scale metallic substance, its inherent sharpness was a given.
By maximizing the Nanomechanical Cluster’s tensile strength, it could form this terrifying Metal Whip. It was virtually unstoppable, capable of slicing through almost anything.
It was incredibly convenient for beheading zombies.
Looking around, he saw that he had arrived on Ota Street.
The street was mostly empty, with few people or even zombies in sight.
Not far away was his destination: the Ota Elderly Care Home.
A sudden gust of wind swirled fallen leaves and scraps of paper from the roadside, making Ota Street feel exceptionally bleak as the wind began to pick up.
Inside a street-side shop powered by a rooftop solar panel, a television was broadcasting an emergency news report:
"...According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, Typhoon Hagibis, the 19th major storm of the year, is expected to make landfall and pass through Eastern Japan between the 12th and 13th, bringing violent winds and torrential rain. As of the 10th, the typhoon is moving north over the waters near the Ogasawara Islands. This is a super-typhoon, with a central pressure of 925 hectopascals, maximum sustained winds of 50 meters per second near the center, and maximum gusts reaching 70 meters per second. Winds of over 25 meters per second extend 370 kilometers to the east of the typhoon’s eye and 280 kilometers to the west. We urge everyone in Tokyo and the surrounding areas to take all necessary precautions... This has been a report from the NHK Television Station Kyushu Branch..."
As she spoke, the beautiful news anchor on the TV suddenly burst into tears.
The Tokyo Region had completely fallen. She had no idea how many living people could even hear her broadcast.
’Even if it’s just one person...’
Shen Feng remained expressionless as he arrived in front of a small, three-story building.
The wind seemed to blow harder, letting out a mournful howl.
Shen Feng looked up at the nameplate on the wall, then stepped inside.
The Ota Elderly Care Home—source of the Kanagawa outbreak. He had arrived.