CH 2

Chapter 2 – Goodbye Tanaka

I could see black smoke billowing out of the sky a few kilometers away.

Even though the apartment building I live in is worn-out, it has a fairly good view of the city.

I can see the park in front of me completely.

However, the people in the park are wandering around unsteadily… How should I put it?

…Hmm.

Is it okay for me to say this?

Please don’t laugh at it, okay?

…They look like zombies?

Or rather, are they exactly zombies?

They are munching on it. (Guro warning!) The white thing.

Huh? Are you guys the type to do cannibalism?

Since when is Halloween an event restricted to only those above 18 years old?

Well, that was what my first impressions were.

Oh yeah.

By the way, it wasn’t just zombies that I saw.

…Hmm.

I’m sure people will laugh at me when I say this.

Please don’t laugh at me, okay?

It’s something like… a Dragon?

Something like that… a fantasy creature? But that’s right.

I can see dozens of them flapping their wings and screaming in the sky.

It’s too wild, isn’t it?

I wondered if movie advertisements had come this far.

I escaped from reality for a few dozen seconds.

For the time being, I rub my eyebrows as hard as I can.

Yes, I understand.

However laidback I may be, there’s no way I can’t tell the difference between a movie promotion and reality.

…Even so.

This kind of crisis, even if one of them happened, it would’ve been enough of a problem.

Both Zombies and Monsters.

Even if only one of them happened, it would’ve easily been able to wipe out humanity.

With both…

At least the Dragons look really far away. Should I say that it’s relieving that they are not a danger for now?

“Ufu… Ufufufufu…”

I don’t know why, but I smiled for a little bit.

It’s okay. I’m not crazy. Probably, not yet.

I took deep breaths at once.

Just because I woke up a short while ago, I can’t assume this situation is a dream.

Did I wander into the world of the game I was playing I wonder?

Even though I thought of that, when I turn back, it’s my familiar home.

When I was thinking of what I should do now, I heard some loud noises nearby.

And when I looked to my side, I saw my neighbour Tanaka on the other side of the partition board of my house.

Tanaka was a fifty years old salaryman that’s living away from his family due to work, and although his head was partially bald, he was a gentlemanly nice man.

He also hosted numerous barbecue parties.

And on the neck of such a gentlemanly middle aged man… How should I put it?

There are teeth marks on his neck.

I’ve heard Zombies multiply by biting other humans. It’s a famous trope after all.

Hmm. I see. It’s like movies to this extent.

Now that I think of it, even in the game I was playing, there was such a description.

The middle aged gentleman had someone else’s blood stuck on his lips

Even though he’s a little bit overweight, Tanaka would always eat in moderation.

That kind of person is now looking at me with a vacant gaze, and was desperately holding his hands out to suck on the soft skin of a high school girl (me).

“Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!”

Tanaka, who never raised his voice during his life, is now ferociously growling.

I felt like he was saying; “Let’s get together and have fun.”

Now then, it seems like I’m in a little bit of trouble.

As some of you may know, on the partition board, there’s a note that says “In an emergency, please break here and evacuate to the next door.”

In other words, these boards are weak enough to be broken if you have the guts.

And judging by appearances, the Tanaka right now seems to have more guts than anyone else.

-Please pick up your weapon.

Then, I heard another auditory hallucination.

Good grief.

“It seems I got dragged into a troublesome situation.”

I said out loud.

Here the female version of a hero who says “good grief” was born.

From now on, I plan to lead a popular life as a seemingly ordinary high school boy with hidden powers together with a naturally tsundere heroine.

Glancing at Tanaka once more, I return to the living room and sigh loudly.

-Please pick up your weapon.

“Ah, yeah. I understand.”

While responding to the auditory hallucinations, I pick up my grandfather’s keepsake japanese sword. (It has a national registration certificate, you know?)

And then,

-Please exterminate the nearby “hostile lifeforms”.

What the auditory hallucation was saying changed.

At that time, I started speculating that this wasn’t an auditory hallucation, and that it was speaking under some kind of will.

*thud* *clang*

When I hear the dangerous sounds coming from behind me, I realize I don’t have any time to relax and think about it.

When I turned around, I saw Tanaka looking at me with a pale and disturbing face.

I didn’t notice it until now because of the partition board, but his internal organs that were supposed to be in his abdomen were gone. He was walking like that.

This is the kind of situation where our relationship, which should have been good so far, can never be repaired.

Tanaka hit the window of my balcony.

His power was stronger than I imagined, and the window of the balcony was easily broken.

Tanaka entered my house as if he was falling on a bed of shattered glass.

“If this is a bad joke, please stop immediately.”

I pulled out my japanese sword and warned him.

“If you get even a little bit closer, I will kill you.”

I warned him again.

Tanaka was a crawling zombie, not caring about being injured by the broken glass.

He seems to have left the feeling of pain behind somewhere far away.

“This is my last warning.”

I said, just in case.

Then, my memories of Tanaka flashed through my mind.

I should accept his death as solemnly as possible.

“Goodbye, then.”

Tanaka boasted that he loved his wife and children above all else.

But I noticed he brought other women to his house on the nights of his days off.

I wondered if love and lust were two different things.

I wanted to hear it directly from him one day.

I’ll thrust the tip of my sword to Tanaka’s forehead.

I could feel the flesh and bone being cut through my palm.

Tanaka could no longer move.

“To his soul-”

As I was about to say lines such as “May he rest in peace,” I heard the sound of a trumpet echoing in my head.

-Congratulations! Your level has risen!

Said the auditory hallucation.

…Oh, this game is level-based. That was what I was thinking with my dizzy mind.