Multivers, Leveling Up in the World I Created

Chapter 440: 440 Dawn of the Dead 4

The group heading down to repair the generator in the underground parking lot was set to be Kenneth, me, and Michael.

But Michael went somewhere for a moment and returned with two men in security uniforms I had never seen before.

"Huh? Who are these guys? I’ve never seen them before."

"These two are the security guards who were occupying the mall when we first arrived. They came out aggressively, so we subdued them. We agreed to let them go after this job is done."

These two must be CJ and Bart.

CJ is a white man in his 30s with a mustache styled like a Mexican’s.

He’s very cautious and suspicious, which makes him somewhat prickly, but he’s not a bad person at heart.

He’s also one of the most memorable characters in the original, as many people empathize with his efforts to live by his own beliefs.

Bart appears to be a white man in his late 20s, with a slacker, thuggish vibe.

Simply put, he’s like CJ’s lackey.

We opened the door to the basement and carefully descended.

Throughout the descent, CJ kept grumbling.

"We should at least have weapons! We’re going to die like this!"

Without a word, Kenneth broke the glass of the fire extinguisher box on the stairs, took out a fire axe, and handed it to CJ.

CJ took the axe and stopped grumbling, but his expression looked like he had bitten into something foul, and he couldn’t hide his displeasure.

Once we were in the basement, I took the lead and started scanning the area.

At that moment, something whizzed past my side.

Michael reflexively shone his flashlight in that direction.

Woof, woof, woof!

"What is it, just a dog? But why is it barking so much?"

Bart said, "Because it’s a dog."

Just then, something approached Bart from behind, from the ceiling, so I quickly shoved him aside, drew my backpack, and slashed it in an instant.

Swoosh!

Thud!

"Why did you suddenly push me and... Oh!"

Bart seemed about to get angry at being shoved, but he was shocked when he saw the zombie cut in two on the floor.

Woof, woof, woof!

But that was just the beginning.

The dog continued to bark furiously toward the parking lot entrance, and we turned our heads with a sense of foreboding.

In that moment, a horde of zombies came charging at us like mad.

There must have been about twenty of them.

"Head for the generator!"

I shouted at the others to go to the generator.

The generator was surrounded by barbed wire to prevent people from entering, so it would provide some shelter for a while.

"Jin, what are you doing!? Hurry up!"

Michael shouted from behind, but I ignored him.

In my left hand, I held my backpack (sword), and in my right hand, the Yukimura (pistol), as I began slaughtering the charging zombies.

Kyaaah!!!

Swoosh!! Phut, phut!! Slash!! Phut!

Thud, thud!

"What the hell is that guy?! Why is he so good at fighting?"

The people watching from behind were stunned, just standing there in admiration at the sight.

The reason I chose to do this was simple.

I judged it necessary to show everyone just how capable I was.

That way, I could move around freely without needing anyone’s protection.

It was, in a sense, a display of force.

Slash—!!!

After cutting down the last zombie, I struck a pose, flicked the blood off my backpack with a flourish, and sheathed it.

Click!

"Alright, the area’s clear. Let’s fix the generator."

"O, okay..."

While I repaired the generator, the others kept watch for any more zombies.

As we worked, they started asking me various questions.

My performance must have made quite an impression.

"How are you so good at fighting?"

"Thanks to my parents, I learned kendo from a young age. And when I was working as an engineer, I did tactical shooting as a hobby with friends. So that’s why."

"Wow... this guy’s a jack of all trades."

Just then, the lights in the basement came on, indicating the generator was fixed.

"That should do it. We won’t have to worry for a while. Let’s head back up."

"Yeah."

Worried that zombies might invade the basement again, we lowered the shutter blocking the parking lot entrance and went back up into the mall.

Of course, we also brought the dog we had met in the parking lot.

But upstairs, something else seemed to have happened.

People were gathered at the entrance to the Kids Zone, which had been Andre and his wife’s room, with serious expressions.

"What’s going on?"

When Michael asked, Anna explained.

"Well... Andre, who always came to pick up supplies, stopped showing up. I thought his pregnant wife, Luda, might be in bad shape, so I took some supplies to their room. But Luda was already infected and tied to the bed, and Andre was just standing there holding the baby, looking like he was out of his mind. So I left the supplies and came out, then told everyone."

Andre’s wife, Luda, had arrived at the mall heavily pregnant, but she was bitten and infected while clearing out the zombies inside the mall.

Andre had hidden this fact, leading to this situation.

In the original, Norma, an elderly survivor from the Pasteur facility who had a stern demeanor, went to deliver supplies in Anna’s place, saw that Luda was infected, and immediately shot Luda with her pistol.

Enraged, Andre also shot at Norma, but she didn’t back down and returned fire, resulting in all three of them dying.

But looking at the current situation, Norma, who had been working in the fields, seemed to have rushed over, brushing dirt off her hands, so it appeared Anna had simply delivered the supplies and left.

Since Anna didn’t have a gun, she must have just left the supplies and told the others.

In effect, my suggestion to start farming had saved Norma’s life.

"I’ll go in and talk to him."

When Michael said he’d go in, Anna warned him.

"Andre is out of his mind and has a gun. It could be dangerous."

"I won’t take any risks. I’ll just talk to him."

Michael said that and went inside.

Bang!

We waited for a while, then suddenly heard a gunshot and rushed in.

Inside, Andre, unable to accept reality, had taken his own life, and Michael was standing there in shock, looking down at his body.

I immediately raised the Yukimura and disposed of the zombified Luda.

"Damn... I wish we could have saved at least Andre..."

Anna quickly came in and checked the baby Andre had been holding.

But a baby born to an infected mother couldn’t be normal.

"Kyaaah!!!"

"Oh my God..."

When the newborn baby screamed, infected with the zombie virus, the people were so shocked they froze in place, and some even started dry heaving.

In the end, I had to step in and dispose of the baby as well.

After witnessing such a scene, the survivors in the mall were in a very dark mood.

To make matters worse, perhaps because we had killed so many zombies in front of the mall, the rotting corpses were starting to emit a foul odor that was seeping into the mall.

So Michael gathered everyone for an emergency meeting.

"This can’t go on. We need to do something about the infected corpses. Aside from the smell, they’re attracting bugs, and we might not be able to handle the mounting bodies much longer."

"But we don’t have a way to do that. We could burn them, but that might damage the walls."

At that point, I offered an opinion.

"I saw a wheel loader at a construction site near the mall. I’ll go get it. Then we can easily dispose of the bodies. So we need to clear out as many infected as possible to make it easier to get out. And this would also be a good opportunity to rescue Andy."

Michael thought for a moment and then answered.

"Phew... alright, let’s do that. Right now, I don’t see any other option."

It was good that I had shown my skills.

They allowed me to do this.

But Jane objected.

"Jin, it’s dangerous! We can just put up with the smell a little longer! There’s no need to take such a risk!"

"Jane, don’t worry. I’m better at this than you think. And if we take out as many infected as we can before I go, it won’t be a problem."

"But..."

Since the outbreak, Jane had come to rely on me a lot, and as a lover, she was very concerned, so persuading her took quite some effort.

The others couldn’t easily help either, as interfering could backfire.

We started quickly clearing out the zombies in front of the mall.

The goal was to minimize the risk before I left.

Fortunately, thanks to our consistent efforts, while there were many corpses, the number of living zombies was relatively small.

We also sent a message to Andy on the whiteboard, telling him to prepare.

Andy replied that he would gather ammunition and guns.

Once the zombies were somewhat cleared, I prepared to leave.

Like when I left home, I packed only the Yukimura, the backpack, the KAC LAMG, and a few magazines.

"There aren’t many visible ones left, but still, be careful."

"Okay. Take care of Jane while I’m gone."

"Alright."

Jane silently hugged me.

I gently patted her back to reassure her.

Then, with their cover fire, I slipped out through the same entrance I had originally come in through, got into the car, and drove away from the mall.

As I left, I noticed something interesting.

Perhaps because the zombies had gathered around the mall, there were almost none in the immediate vicinity.

I had read something like this before: "The gunshots Andy fired to kill zombies attracted all those zombies to the mall." That might actually be true.

After driving for a while, I arrived at a construction site.

The workers there had also turned into zombies, wandering around the site, so I quickly disposed of them first.

Phut, phut, phut, phut!

Thud, thud!

Then I checked the wheel loader.

It was a slightly older model, but it had enough fuel and seemed to be in working order.

The only problem was that there was no key, so I had to open the key box and hotwire it.

One advantage of the wheel loader was that it had reinforced glass to protect against falling debris.

As long as I kept the doors closed, zombies wouldn’t be able to break in easily.

So even though it was slow, I could move without worrying too much about zombies.

Vroom!!!

I drove the wheel loader back to the mall.

Some zombies attacked along the way, but I just ignored them and pushed through.

Graaah-

Thump!

’What was that? A deer?’

Occasionally, a zombie would hang on, but I cracked the door open and shot them off.

When I arrived at the mall, the people watching from the roof waved their hands and cheered.

They were clearly thrilled that I had safely brought the wheel loader.

I raised the bucket as high as it would go and brought it up to the second-floor window of Andy’s shop.

Andy, who had been waiting, started loading his belongings onto the bucket.

It was taking a while, so he was probably moving all the ammunition from the gun shop.

Clunk, clunk, clunk!

"I’m done, let’s go, friend!!!"

Andy shouted, banging on the bucket, so I drove the wheel loader back toward the mall with the bucket raised.

"Welcome, friend. We’ve been waiting."

"We were running out of food and thought we were going to die, so this is a relief. Let’s unload the guns first."

When I brought the bucket to the mall, everyone gathered and busied themselves moving the guns and ammunition.

"Jin, we’re done!!! You can lower it now!!!"

When they shouted from the roof, I started pushing the zombie corpses toward the area between the mall and Andy’s gun shop.

Bang! Thud!

While I worked, Andy sniped the zombies that charged at the wheel loader.

As a marksman, he accurately took them out without interfering with my work.

After about half a day of work, I had managed to gather most of the zombie corpses that had been piled up below the mall into one place.

But the work wasn’t over yet.

Michael came up with an idea.

While I held up the bucket of the wheel loader, they would pour gasoline into it, and then I would sprinkle it over the pile of corpses to incinerate them.

This was to prevent insects from swarming.

So, as planned, I brought the bucket back up to the roof.

They loaded not only gasoline but also flammable books and trash from the mall onto the bucket.

I then spread it over the pile of corpses and finally set it on fire.

Whoosh!!

"It burns well..."

But this was also a problem.

The foul smell of rotting corpses was definitely reduced, but now the smell of burning flesh filled the air.

It was probably going to be a tough time for a while.

After finishing the work, I parked the wheel loader behind the parking lot and went back into the mall.

The others welcomed me warmly, patting me on the shoulder.

"Good work, Jin. Thanks to you, we can breathe a sigh of relief!"

"Thanks, Jin."

"Good work."

Jane, who had been very worried, came to me in tears and hugged me.

"I’m so glad you came back safely. You made me worry so much. You’re not getting away with this tonight!"

At Jane’s words, the others whistled and admired her boldness.

"Woo~ I wish I had a lover like that!"

"Right, I’m jealous."

"Jane, isn’t that a bit too bold!"

It seemed I’d have to put in some work tonight to appease her.

A few days passed.

The smell of burning flesh still lingered, but the survivors in the mall were much more lively than before.

Most of the zombies in the area had been cleared, so now only a few appeared, and they could be easily dealt with using firearms alone.

With the extra time, people started expanding the farm, planting not only potatoes but also other vegetables one by one.

Ding~!

[You can no longer progress the story. Would you like to view the ending?]

It seemed the story of Dawn of the Dead was coming to a close.

First, I spread a [Barrier] to prevent the virus from spreading, and thoroughly disinfected myself and all the weapons I had used with [Life Magic].

If the virus were to spread to other worlds even by chance, it would be a disaster, so I absolutely couldn’t skip this step.

Only after completing all the precautions did I watch the ending.

—Two months later, the survivors in the mall finally began harvesting potatoes.

Everyone was overjoyed at the first harvest.

Before the excitement had even faded, another surprising piece of news arrived: Nichole was pregnant.

The father was Terry, a security guard who had been helping the survivors.

Everyone was worried because she was pregnant at such a young age, but Nichole’s characteristic brightness and cheerfulness gradually put them at ease.

Nine months later, Nichole safely gave birth.

The survivors celebrated as if it were their own good news.

Not long after, five new survivors found their way to the mall.

They said they had been barely holding on, but their food ran out, and they came here with their last hope.

The mall’s survivors welcomed them warmly and accepted them as new family.

But after that, no more new survivors appeared.

Some went out to search for others but found no one, and some even never returned.

Eventually, everyone gave up on searching for other survivors.

Ten years later, one of the survivors, unable to bear the despair, took their own life.

To make matters worse, the elderly Norma and Turkey also passed away from old age.

The successive deaths brought deep sorrow to the community, and a heavy atmosphere hung over the mall for a while.

Twelve years later, the zombies began to change.

They could no longer run and only shuffled along.

Anna speculated that the energy within their bodies had been depleted over the long years.

This gave the survivors an opportunity to gradually expand their activities outside.

During this time, they encountered a new group of survivors who had been living in a bunker for a long time.

The mall’s survivors joined forces with them to build a small town and finally began a new life.—

"I’m glad things worked out, but it’s a shame I never got to ride the tank."