"Uh~~ It really is true..." The girls were surprised by the outcome. They never expected the usually composed and elegant Saeko to have such a side to her.
As they fought their way through, Goku suddenly stopped in the middle of a small path.
"What's wrong, Goku?" Saeko walked up to him, puzzled. The Hummer also came to a halt a moment later, stopping beside them.
Goku pointed toward a nearby house and said, "There's a survivor in that house. In the next house over, there are five more, and further ahead, there are more than a dozen survivors."
"Huh? Goku, you can sense people even without seeing them?" Saya's eyes lit up as she looked at him curiously. By now, they were no longer surprised by Goku's abilities—just curious.
"Yeah! Every living being has ki. I just used my ki sense to detect them," Goku explained with a nod.
"Then… should we rescue them?" Rika hesitated and looked at Goku.
Goku pointed at the nearby house. "Whether other people live or die has nothing to do with me. But… the ki of the survivor in this house is very similar to Rei's. Even if she isn't Rei's mother, she's definitely a close blood relative—maybe a younger sister or an older sister..."
"Huh?! I don't have a younger brother or sister! I'm an only child. It must be my mom!" Rei's face lit up with excitement. She immediately jumped out of the car and ran toward the house, with Goku following closely behind.
Saeko sighed. "She really is reckless… Alright, let's follow them!" She turned to the other girls in the car. They nodded, got out, and quickly followed.
---
"Mom… Mom! It's really you!"
On the second floor, Goku kicked down the locked door, and Rei rushed inside. Standing there, surprised, was a short-haired woman holding a long spear.
"Huh? Huh? Rei?!" The woman's eyes widened in shock before she broke into a delighted smile.
"Hello!" Saeko entered with the other girls and greeted Rei's mother respectfully with a bow.
Startled, Kiriko straightened up and held her spear horizontally across her chest before awkwardly bowing in return. "Ah! Ah… hello.…"
Just then, her stomach let out a loud growl. Her face instantly turned bright red. "A-Ah! I'm so sorry! I haven't eaten for a whole day and night, so…"
Rei also turned red from embarrassment. Without hesitation, the girls pulled out food from their bags and handed it to her.
Kiriko's eyes lit up as she eagerly grabbed the food and started eating without any regard for appearances.
The girls all had black lines on their foreheads as they watched her. Rei, on the other hand, turned even redder and averted her gaze. Seriously? Where's the emotional family reunion?!
"Ah! Thank you all so much!" Kiriko spoke between bites, glancing at her daughter. "Rei, you've made some really great friends!"
---
"By the way, Mom, why are you here alone? How did you end up starving like this? I can't believe someone like you couldn't even find food!" Rei asked, puzzled.
Kiriko expression darkened. "Now that you mention it, it really pisses me off!" she grumbled.
"I originally went out to collect food for my neighbors. At first, everyone worked together, and things went smoothly. But after the power went out, things started going wrong. Yesterday, I realized our food was almost gone, so I suggested that we go out again to find more supplies. But everyone was too scared to leave, so I had to go alone. When I came back, they wouldn't let me in! Apparently, some suspicious people had infiltrated the group and swayed everyone to their side. I yelled outside for hours, but instead of opening the door, they threatened me with guns."
"To make things worse, it started pouring rain, and my shouting attracted a horde of zombies. I had no choice but to fight my way out and take shelter in this house. If it weren't for the spare clothes here, I might have caught a cold by now."
Rei clenched her fists in anger. "Those neighbors are terrible!"
Saya adjusted her glasses. "So, you didn't manage to find any food, right?"
Kiriko nodded. "Yeah. Everything around here has already been looted."
"It seems like they didn't let you back in because they were afraid they wouldn't have enough food," Saya concluded.
"Hmph! Those bastards! And to think I actually wanted to help them!" Kiriko angrily took a big bite out of her bread.
Goku spoke up. "Since that's the case, why don't you come with us?"
Kiriko held her cheek with one hand and tilted her head slightly. "That sounds like an invitation to elope… So, where are we going?" Then, as if realizing something, she immediately became serious. "If you don't have a clear goal, you'll run into endless troubles. Just surviving isn't enough!"
"It's fine, Mom! Goku is really strong! And now that we've found almost everyone we need, we can go back to his world soon. Right, Goku?" Rei looked at him expectantly.
Goku nodded. "That's right. Once I gather enough energy points, we can leave this world."
Kiriko's eyes widened in shock. "Leave this world?! You're not planning some kind of double suicide, are you?"
"Suicide, my ass!" Goku really wanted to say that out loud, but he held back. Instead, he looked at Rei. "You should explain it to her properly." He sighed. Why do I have to explain this every time we meet a new girl?
After about ten minutes of explanation, Kiriko finally understood everything. Surprisingly, she took it quite well—probably because of her carefree personality.
"In that case, I'll go with you guys. There's nothing left for me in this world anyway," she said decisively.
Rei hesitated. "Mom… aren't you going to ask about Dad?"
Kiriko shook her head. "Shougo wouldn't die so easily. Even if he did… it would be because he was protecting others. That's just the kind of man he is."
Tears welled up in Rei's eyes. She bit her lip before whispering, "Dad… is dead."
Kiriko stiffened, her eyes widening in shock. "What…? Shougo is dead? He really… died?"
Rei couldn't hold back her tears anymore. She threw herself into her mother's arms, sobbing. "I saw it with my own eyes… Dad turned into one of them… I—I killed him myself…"
Kiriko trembled slightly. She gently stroked Rei's hair, her voice softer than before. "Don't cry, Rei… Even if you lost your father, you still have me."
"Yeah, Rei! You still have all of us! And Goku too!" the other girls comforted her.
"That's right, Rei! Cry all you want! Afterward, you'll feel better. When my dad died, I cried a lot too," Alice, the youngest of the group, added.
Rei wiped her tears and looked at Goku and her mother, feeling conflicted. Knowing Goku's shameless personality, if my mom stays with him, she'll eventually end up like Saya's mother… But I can't just leave her behind either… Sigh, I guess there's no helping it…
"Alright, then. Let's move out!" Goku announced. "We still need about 20,000 energy points before we can leave this world!"
"But with our current vehicle, there's no way we can fit everyone," Shizuka pointed out.
Goku thought for a moment. "Then you all stay here. I'll go gather the energy points myself."
"It seems this is the only way!" The girls nodded in agreement.
And so, Goku set out alone to "collect" energy points. Of course, before leaving, he took precautions for their safety. He scoured the area and found several sturdy security doors, using them to completely seal off the entrance. Only after ensuring everything was secure did he leave with peace of mind.
---
Without the girls by his side, Goku no longer had to worry about their feelings. They were all kindhearted, unable to accept the idea of harming others indiscriminately. Because of that, he had been holding back before. But now? Now, he didn't have to waste time slowly hunting zombies.
To him, aside from his girls, everyone in this world was nothing more than NPCs in a game—eliminating them brought him no burden whatsoever.
After flying for about ten minutes, Goku arrived above a small city. Looking down, the streets were packed with zombies! Of course, there were also scattered survivors in some areas. On one particularly narrow street, a group of police officers had set up barricades on both sides of the road, desperately maintaining order as they shot at the approaching horde of zombies.
Surprisingly, there were even reporters and a live broadcast crew on the scene…
"At a time like this, should I call them dedicated or just plain stupid? With all this noise, do they not realize they're attracting even more zombies? Or maybe… they're using this as a strategy to lure in more zombies and take them out? Either way, they're just asking for death."
As expected, the loud gunfire drew in an even larger swarm of zombies—far more than the officers could handle. As the horde grew closer, the rescued civilians began to panic. When the zombies finally breached the barricades, chaos erupted. The terrified survivors lost all sense of order and started fleeing in every direction.
The situation spiraled out of control. No matter how hard the police tried to restore order, it was useless.
People were being overwhelmed, torn apart, and turned into zombies themselves, making the situation even more chaotic. Realizing the futility of their efforts, the police abandoned their duty to protect the civilians. Fully armed, they began their retreat.
Some desperate survivors, either out of bravery or sheer will to live, begged the officers for weapons to defend themselves. But survival gear was a lifeline—why would the police just hand it over? Left with no choice, the civilians tried to seize the weapons by force.
Faced with the threat of losing their equipment, the police officers followed their commander's orders without hesitation—turning their guns on the very people they had been protecting moments ago.
They didn't die at the hands of zombies. They died at the hands of those sworn to protect them.
"The ugliness of human nature really comes out in an apocalypse, huh?" Goku remarked, watching the scene below with an indifferent expression. "Living is just another kind of suffering. So, let me put an end to it for you."
With that, he took his signature stance, gathering a massive amount of energy in his palms. Then, he muttered to himself, "goodbye!"
"Ka...me… Ha..me… Ha!"
BOOM!
A deafening explosion erupted as the powerful energy wave crashed into the heart of the city. The devastating blast swept outward, leveling buildings, disintegrating zombies, and erasing everything in its path.
As the dust settled, a virtual screen appeared before Goku, displaying his newly accumulated energy points.
"538,568 points. Heh, I didn't expect this small city to have over 400,000 people… Finally, I've got enough energy!"
---
Back at the girls' hideout, Saeko eagerly approached Goku. "Goku, how did it go? Did you gather enough energy?"
The others looked at him with excitement and anticipation. After all, they were about to travel to another world—how could they not be thrilled?
Goku nodded. "Everyone, get ready. Take whatever you need with you. I'm about to open the dimensional gate!"
____________
A/N: If you want to read chapters a ahead,
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