As Riri-senpai swung the van onto the highway, I breathed a heavy sigh of relief, glad to have temporarily outpaced the massive swarm of black zombies. Yet, a lingering sense of dread remained.
Those creatures were slow and clumsy—they shouldn't have been able to keep up with a car, let alone one traveling at highway speeds.
But this was a trial designed by Shiro-san. Surely, it wouldn't be as simple as just driving away.
Arisa and the others seemed to share my concern. They scanned our surroundings with hawk-like focus, weapons gripped tight and ready for action.
"Wait! It looks like they've caught up!"
At Fey-san’s shout from the back, we all scrambled to look out the rear window. A pack of black zombies was closing in, riding sleek motorcycles.
"Oh, come on... why are zombies using the fruits of civilization? I mean, I don't even know if they’re technically zombies, but they clearly haven't watched enough movies. They're breaking all the rules of the genre."
It certainly felt wrong to see zombies on bikes, but in this virtual world, these "black zombies" were apparently more than capable of handling machinery.
Regardless of the aesthetics, our seven-seater van was at a serious disadvantage against high-powered motorcycles.
"I’ll thin them out. Riri, open the sunroof."
"Understood!"
Lidi-senpai stood up, clutching her archery bow.
"Lidi-senpai, you know there’s a rifle right here, right?" Arisa asked.
"I am not as handy with those things as you are. I’d rather stick with what I know."
Politely declining the massive firearm Arisa offered, Lidi-senpai braced her feet on the seat and leaned out the sunroof. In one fluid motion, she began raining down arrows.
Even from a swaying vehicle, her aim was impeccable. One by one, her shafts found the heads of the motorcycle riders, sending them crashing into the asphalt.
"Amazing shot. We should be able to clear them out at this—wait, something's wrong."
"An accident? No, that's not it."
Arisa paused while handing more arrows to Lidi-senpai, her expression shifting to one of confusion. Erina looked equally puzzled. We watched as the motorcycles behind us began to move in an eerie, synchronized pattern.
Three of the bikes veered toward each other, colliding by design. The three zombies merged into a single mass, expanding and warping until they took the shape of a giant black tiger that began sprinting down the road.
"They can combine?! Seriously, anything goes here!"
"Hmm... it’s like this virtual world follows the rules of a game," Fey-san mused. "Each individual zombie doesn't have much 'Resource,' so they're weak on their own. But by merging, they can pool that capacity into a single, high-powered entity."
Despite her casual, airy tone, Fey-san was typing on her laptop at a frightening speed. Her fingers blurred across the keys like a torrential downpour.
"Riri-tan-senpai, push the engine for a second and gain some distance... Oh, and stay out of the right lane."
"Fey-san? What are you up to?" I asked.
"Oh, you know... just doing a little spring cleaning. Okay, launching now."
Launching? Launching what?
Before I could ask, a piercing shriek cut through the air—the sound of something cutting the wind at supersonic speeds.
"Wait, Fey-san... what did you just launch?"
"Hm? A Tactical Tomahawk."
"A Tomahawk?!"
She didn't mean the axe, did she? She meant the missile!
An earth-shattering roar erupted behind us, and the van bucked violently. Once the world stopped shaking, I peeked out the back. The horde was gone. In fact, a massive chunk of the highway itself had been erased from existence.
"What... why?! Why do you have missiles?! Were those just sitting in the university lab too?!"
"Shiro-san is very thorough. She even gave me a high-performance laptop just for this. Besides, this world is going to vanish once the trial ends anyway. No point worrying about property damage!"
I was floored. What was Shiro-san thinking? Missiles? Was she trying to drag me into a full-scale war?
Despite the shock of the missile strike, our progress became incredibly smooth after that. With the highway severed, the pursuit dropped off significantly. Arisa and the others easily picked off the few stragglers that managed to get near.
At this rate, we’d reach the city limits in ten minutes. The cemetery would be just around the corner.
And yet, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. It was too easy.
"Doesn't it feel like they're going easy on us?"
"Yeah," Arisa agreed. "I was thinking the same thing."
"...A trap?" Erina added. "...Or... are they... preparing something?"
It seemed everyone was on the same wavelength. Unfortunately, our collective intuition was spot on.
"Everyone, look to the right!" Riri-senpai screamed.
We scrambled to the windows, and the sight that met our eyes left us breathless.
Far off in the distance, near the heart of the city, stood a pair of massive skyscrapers. Now, they were being consumed by a gargantuan black sphere that was swelling by the second.
Memory of the three zombies merging into a tiger flashed through my mind. This was the same thing—but on an unthinkable scale.
"This is bad..." Fey-san whispered.
"Beyond bad," Arisa said, her face pale. "If this world has the same population as Earth... Japan alone has 120 million people. If zombies are gathering from the entire world, we’re talking over seven billion. If they all merge into a single Resource—!"
The black sphere pulsing over the twin towers suddenly surged, its shape warping and elongating.
The color was deeper and more malevolent than any of the zombies we'd faced, likely due to the sheer density of the concentrated Resource.
Gigantic wings unfurled, casting a shadow that rivaled the black sky. Despite lacking eyes or a nose, the massive creature radiated a suffocating sense of power.
"Kaito-san, I apologize. I had the wrong genre," Arisa said with a strained smile. "You aren't the hero of a zombie movie... you're the hero of a kaiju movie."
Tearing through the city skyline was a gargantuan creature, easily several hundred meters long—a jet-black dragon.