Chapter 3: Variants and Miis

Sounds of shouts, moans, groans, and slashing filled the hallway.

“Haa-!” (Lucas)

I beheaded another one as I charged and started to ponder.

I’m a zombie. Well, at least this body of mine is a zombie. Yet, I don’t eat brains, nor do I feel the need to eat normal food...is it because I’m not mindless like the others?

There’s also another strange thing...that, even though I’m a zombie, zombies attack me.

I should be a zombie, yet, these so called ‘mindless’ zombies actually know that I’m different? Well, I was the one who attacked first but did they understood from that, that I’m different?

I already tested it and didn’t attack first but I was still attacked. Were they more intelligent than I thought or is there someone secretly controlling these zombies?

In [Harus], Necromancers can control the undead. Is it the same here?...Could it be, I’m not the only otherworlder here?

Anyway, there’s no doubt that they can recognize me as an ‘enemy’ and that means I can’t sneak up on them and kill them easily so I had to use a bit effort.

Unlike some zombie movies or novels I read, these zombies can see, hear, and smell. In some zombie fictions, the zombies can only see or can only hear or can only smell. There was even one where they can only ‘see’ the healthy ones and not the infected ones but that is definitely not the case here as they can see me.

The zombies here have weird variations. Some skin are tougher than normal, while some are as normal as they can be. I wonder why?

I haven’t seen any visible differences but there are indeed some who have tougher skin based from the slashes I made.

Some slashes need a bit more effort to give some damage while some only has a bit resistance.

Do their skins get tougher the more they eat? But I have no way of confirming that...hm?

Just then, I spotted a zombie in the corner of my eyes eating something. Because there was a glint of shine, it grabbed my attention and looking closely, the zombie isn’t eating human flesh, but...a door knob?

Uhh...it’s deformed now but that’s definitely a door knob...So they don’t only eat people, they can eat metallic things too? I wonder if wood is also fine?

I observed the zombie for a while but then it noticed me so it dropped the half-eaten door knob and charged towards me.

I sighed and quickly beheaded the zombie.

“Hm?” (Lucas)

Frowning, I noticed this zombie’s skin is a bit harder than normal...could it be? Because he ate the metallic door knob?

As I started to think about it, another zombie caught my eye.

This one...this one is clearly different from the rest!

Both its arms are covered in thick metal chunks and its fingers looked like sharp blades! His entire body is also colored grey with a bit metallic luster on it!

This...I know that in most zombie fictions, there are always some variant zombies that are a rank higher than the rest but I always thought that if a zombie apocalypse were to happen in real life, there won’t be such a thing. Now, I’m proven to be clearly wrong!

I need to kill this zombie before it grows even more stronger!

I rushed towards that zombie and shot out my divine sense to cover that zombie.

It noticed me and roared as it charge forward but I was already a step ahead and instantly flattened it!...Is what should’ve happened!

“Gruaaahhhhh!!!”

The metallic zombie’s body bent forward as it withstood the pressure of my divine sense and still charged forward!

It can actually already withstand it! This is impossible!

...No...I didn’t notice it before but my divine sense is clearly weaker than before!

Although I can use divine sense, it’s area is limited because of this body but it’s also true that the farther the divine sense is, the weaker it gets. If I want to use my most powerful divine sense, then the distance must be near zero!

After quickly deciding, I closed in on the metallic zombie who charged towards me with both hands, no, claws forward.

I made full use of my fighting experience honed after countless battles and dodged the metal claws by a hair’s breath and quickly placed my palm on the zombie’s head, not fearing that it will bite me.

And then...divine sense, full force!

With a bang, the zombie’s head exploded from the inside!

I observed the zombie falling down sluggishly, deep in thought. Finally, I grit my teeth and decided.

I looked at the axe in my hand that has lost its sharpness from the zombies I chopped down and, after a brief moment of hesitation...I bit it.

*Crunch*

Surprisingly, it wasn’t hard at all as my teeth bore down on the hard metal.

Crunching it a few times like some crunchy fried chicken minus the delicious flavor, I swallowed it down my throat.

Though faint, I did feel a change in my body but still no visible changes so I ate the whole axe.

However, even after all that, there is still no visible changes...

I looked around and saw zombies approaching. I don’t have a weapon this time but I can still kill them with my strength and divine sense.

As I clear out the classrooms, I ate all the metallic objects I found.

I also saw a zombie with a wood-like texture on it’s skin and figured it must’ve ate wood more but even though it’s just wood, it’s still harder than normal zombies so I guess zombies grow stronger the more materials they ate.

After I saw that zombie, I also started to eat everything I can find.

Wood, metal, plastic, cement, ceramic, glass, even cloths. Basically everything I see, I eat.

Well, except for flesh. I still don’t understand why these guys seem to prioritize eating living human flesh than others. I mean, metal and cement are definitely tougher than flesh. Is there more to it than absorbing materials?

There is another thing that’s odd. Me.

Even though I ate a lot of different materials, my skin is still the same as ever. Still, I already noticed that my skin is way tougher than before and my area of divine sense has grown larger as I can now envelop half the school building with divine sense.

Survivors? Still no sign of it. Well, at least for half of the school anyway.

In any case, it’s a good thing I won’t look like weird with different colored skin. I wonder why though?

My body's a zombie. Yet zombies attack me and craves for my flesh.

Zombies, for some reason, prioritize eating living human flesh more than other materials.

So, with that train of thought, am I actually a zombie, or a living person?

Speaking of which, my heart is clearly beating...I also feel heat from my body and not cold. But every cell in my body is clearly dead...uhhh, I don’t get it!

In the beginning, it was an accident for my soul to get stuck in this body! I’ll just be glad that I can move and continue to think! Dead? Alive? Reasons? To hell with that!

It only makes my head hurt! But I don’t feel pain since my body's a zombie so actually, my head doesn’t hurt! But it still hurts! You get it!? No? Then you understand what I feel now right!?

*Cough* Let’s just look for survivors…

Aaaaa~ Ban, Trask, guys...quickly find a way to get to this world and bring me back my real body~

As I boredomly thought, I killed all the zombies I saw and ate everything I see. Well, I didn’t look through the bags of the students since that will take time, just the chairs, tables, doors, and stuff I see immediately. I saw a PSP so I ate it too.

I saw a zombie dressed like a soldier with a rifle and a handgun...should I eat the guns? Eh? No, wait...why is there a soldier in a college school!?

...Maybe, the army already made it’s move and evacuated the survivors, but as they weren’t able to pass through the zombie horde, they retreated immediately without checking every room?

But, the army has guns and men...why are they unable to break through? Did they only dispatch a squad per building or...did they meet a variant zombie?

But the toughest zombies, the metallic and cement zombies should still be unable to stop a rain of bullets...is there something else?

I thought but, after searching the whole building, there isn’t something different. Maybe it left the building, or is already dead.

As for escaping my divine sense? Heh, that’s impossible.

Whatever, since I didn’t see it, it’s not my problem for now. However, my problem is to get the survivors and clear out the zombies.

This time, I saw a dozen or so survivors that’s currently holed up in the library and zombies are about to break the door.

There’s a cement zombie and three wooden zombies in the zombie crowd so it should be a matter of time before they broke through.

Thinking so, I ran quickly to their location while ignoring the zombies I passed. I’ll get back on them, for now, my priorities are these guys.

“Hmph!” (Lucas)

Reaching the door leading to the library, I snorted and flattened the zombies with my divine sense from a distance.

All the normal zombies were quickly dealt with while the three wooden zombies kneeled to the ground and the cement zombie bending forward.

With these four temporarily not moving, I got close and flattened them with my full force divine sense.

I don’t need to touch them anymore as the area 1 meter around me is now capable of my full force divine sense. Still, as expected, using my full force divine sense on an area that big takes a lot on me so I wouldn’t be able to use it for a few minutes.

Good thing that there’s no variant left.

*Gruaaaaaahhhhh*

...Spoke too soon.

Damn, I really shouldn’t always keep using my divine sense…

A metal zombie lunged towards me but I only sighed to myself for being too wasteful and grabbed both of the metallic zombie’s claws with my hands before crunching it.

The two hands of the metallic zombie was crushed and its arms were bent in a weird angle as it groaned.

Then, I smashed its head with both of my hands as it exploded like watermelon.

Seeing as there are no more zombies arriving, I turned around and saw a bunch of faces peering through the glass on the double doors.

Like the door of the cafeteria, the door of the library is also a double door style with see through glass panes in the middle so both sides can see the inside and outside.

Right now, each of those faces had wide eyes and slack jaws as they stare at me dumbstruck...it’s happening again…

“...Not going to let me in?” (Lucas)

“Eh? Ah! In! Please go in!”

As they open the door, I clearly saw everyone inside and saw some familiar faces. The Argot brothers, Zeal and Lowy.

Back from my world, Zeal turned into some pervert with a mecha harem while Lowy turned into a pervert with a zombie harem...ehh, then won’t this be his dream world?

“Yo, Zeal, Lowy. Good to know you guys aren’t zombie. Or maybe you didn’t want that, Lowy?” (Lucas)

“Eh? Do we know you?” (Zeal)

“What do you mean I didn’t want not to be a zombie!? I hate gore and especially zombies!” (Lowy)

...Sure enough, this is a different world and not everything is the same. These two actually don’t know me...and, more shocking is that Lowy isn’t into necrophilia! I like this Lowy version already!

“Lowy, it’s good that you’re no longer into necrophilia. Also, you don’t know me? Does Lucas ring any bells?” (Lucas)

“Since when was I into necrophilia!?” (Lowy)

“Lucas?...It’s you!” (Zeal)

Oh?

“You, you’re that guy that’s popular for sleeping in almost every class!” (Zeal)

...Oi, seriously!?

Eh? Was the [Earth-2] me really like that!?

I looked at the other survivors and they were all briefly shocked before nodding their heads, murmuring that ‘it’s true’ or ‘it really is him’. There was even one who said ‘I’ve met the legend today. I can now die without regrets!’...

I’ll ignore that last one…

“So? How did you know us?” (Zeal)

“Uhh...guts!” (Lucas)

Guts is to say, my inner feelings and my inner feelings are that these guys were the ones I knew from my world, hence, I didn’t lie! No sir!

“...Uhuh...Anyway, how did you do that just now?” (Zeal)

“Yeah! Also, I’m not into necrophilia!” (Lowy)

As always, I ignored Lowy’s remark and thought of how to answer Zeal...well, I already said the partial truth to the other group so they’ll know it anyway.

“Actually, I’m a zombie.” (Lucas)

At my words, everyone back up immediately and Lowy was the one at the furthest back.

“Hey, chill. If I wanted to eat you, I’ll have done it already. You can clearly see that I’m not normal or are you all blind and deaf?” (Lucas)

Thinking that what I said was logical, they slowly relaxed and sighed in relief but still kept their guards.

“Anyway, this body of mine was bit by a zombie but instead of becoming a mindless zombie, I regained my clarity and gained superhuman strength and powers.” (Lucas)

“Powers?”

Someone from the crowd ask so I demonstrated it by pulling his body closer to me.

The guy shrieked in fright but calmed down when he noticed I wasn’t planning on eating him.

“Telekinesis? A zombie with psychic powers? Is that even possible?” (Zeal)

“Uh, how should I know?” (Lucas)

Well, this power didn’t really came from becoming a zombie anyway. And I didn’t lie. When I mentioned powers, I meant the material absorption one. Also, I didn’t say that this divine sense is the power when someone asked, I just demonstrated it and they made the conclusion on their own.

See? I’m so clever at not lying! I’m a great hero!

…*Cough* Let’s move on.

“There’s a bunch of other survivors in the cafeteria. You can choose to head there now while I escort you or head there after I clean up all the zombies in the building.” (Lucas)

“Uhh, please wait.”

They all huddled up and talked amongst themselves. Often, they’ll sneak some glances to me and back again. After a few minutes, they came to a decision and answered.

“We’ll go now. We still don’t know how many zombies are left and how long you will last. It’s better that we move to a location with food immediately.” (Zeal)

“Good decision. Here. You wouldn’t need it but, just in case.” (Lucas)

I tossed them the rifle and handgun I got and turned around, ignoring their surprised reactions.

“Just so we’re clear, even if you shoot me, it won’t pierce my head. My skin is as tough as steel or possibly tougher.” (Lucas)

Without turning back, I said a casual remark and kept walking forward but with my divine sense, I saw that they all flinched for a bit.

They must’ve thought that if I were to suddenly attack them, at least they’ll have a weapon to kill me but now that I said that, they panicked and no longer knew what to do if I were to attack them.

Their only choice now is to gamble.

They gritted their teeth and followed soon after. As expected, they didn’t really have much of a choice at the moment so they can only follow me.

As I lead them, I met the zombies I ignored earlier and quickly killed them with a punch on their heads.

We’re currently in the third floor and the cafeteria is also in the third floor so the distance isn’t that long. I also cleared most of the zombies here, now, I can say that I’ve fully cleared the third floor.

As we head towards the cafeteria, the others noticed that I ate objects like junk foods and asked.

“You eat...inorganic things?” (Zeal)

“Hn? Well, I haven’t tried eating plants or humans but I can basically eat anything. But please refrain me from eating shit or other disgusting things like Lowy.” (Lucas)

“Hey! I’m not disgusting!” (Lowy)

“Oh? Then, you’re delicious?” (Lucas)

As I said that, I licked my mouth with my tongue and looked at him like some delicious food.

Lowy shivered and immediately backed up.

“I-I was joking! I’m disgusting! Super disgusting!” (Lowy)

“Haha, relax. I’m just joking.” (Lucas)

Lowy sighed.

“...Or am I?” (Lucas)

Lowy shivered again and backed up. Everyone laughed and the mood brightened.

It sure is surreal to see a group of people laughing while being surrounded by dead bodies of humans and zombies though but none of them minded at the moment. Maybe they needed the laugh to escape reality.

After a while, we reached the cafeteria and the people there welcomed us.

“Lucas! You’re back! Are you hurt? You’re not hurt right? Is this blood yours? What happened?” (Mii)

Instantly, I was barraged by Mii’s questions and was overwhelmed.

“Haha, relax Mii, your darling’s back safe and sound. He even brought back a bunch of survivors!” (Angela)

“Lucas, thanks for the hard work. Here’s some water.” (Jason)

“O-ou...” (Lucas)

...I say...if this Jason guy is really Crow’s counterpart, then just imagining Crow handing me water like some waterboy is really a weird thing…

I drank the water even though I wasn’t thirsty but didn’t feel any change...is it because it was too little or will only solid objects work for the absorption?

“You have a girlfriend? Is she a zombie too?” (Zeal)

Zeal asked and Lowy shrieked and backed away again.

“She’s not. Also, her name’s Mii, this one’s Angela, this guy’s Cr-...Jason. As for him, he’s Zeal and that not-into-necrophilia over there is Lowy.” (Lucas)

I introduced everyone whose name I knew and even almost called Jason as Crow, even though I’m still not sure. It’s just that I have a feeling that he’s Crow...about 80%...maybe…

“I- Like I said! I’m not into necrophilia!!!” (Lowy)

“Right so, the third floor is cleared of zombies so I’ll go clear out the rest of the floors. There’s only two floors down and the basement and everyone can walk free. In the meantime, the new survivors should join the teams and do your tasks. I’m going.” (Lucas)

Ignoring Lowy again, I handed out my orders and tried to quickly leave but Mii grabbed my arm and looked at me with watery eyes.

“Lucas...are you avoiding me?” (Mii)

“...No.” (Lucas)

Kh-! Shit! I lied and my dao heart ached!...Eh? Nothing’s happening?...Ah! My dao heart is only in my other body and not in this one! It wasn’t connected to my soul! Which means...I could’ve lied any time I wanted!

Ugh...can’t believe I didn’t notice that…

The dao heart is made in order to turn into a Sovereign but this body is not even a cultivator so how can it have a dao heart? Sigh, I’m so stupid…

“You’re lying.” (Mii)

...She still noticed though...well, that’s girl power for you.

“I’m not.” (Lucas)

“Then prove it!” (Mii)

“Uh, how?” (Lucas)

Uh oh...I’m not liking where this is going…

“Kiss me!” (Mii)

...I knew it!

To kiss or not to kiss! That is the question!

...Can’t believe I just pulled a Shakespeare in this moment...seriously, there must be something wrong in my head.

“Wait, I told you, I’m a zombie right? What if I infect you with a kiss!?” (Lucas)

“Kiss me!” (Mii)

“Like I said-” (Lucas)

“Lucas, I’m pregnant! I need to know if you still love me!” (Mii)

As she said that, my mind went blank.

Eh?

Pregnant?

Eh??

Mii is pregnant??

Eh???

I got her pregnant???

Lucas got her pregnant!!!???

I!? No, Lucas!? [Earth-2] Lucas!!!???

Eh!!!???

*Crush*

Suddenly, I heard the wall behind me get crushed and thinking it was a zombie that I didn’t notice due to being in shock, I quickly turned around and got ready for battle but...but…

What I saw made the muscles in my face twitch.

Because, the person in front of me was no zombie...it was a girl with violet hair wearing what looked similar to a shrine maiden outfit…It was none other than...

“Mii!!!???” (Lucas)

And so, the Mii Shiratori from both [Earths] met...

Author's Notes

BOOM! CLIFF! HANG!

That felt good...for me anyways haha.

Mii-2 is pregnant, Mii-1 suddenly arrived hearing that, and Lucas is stuck in between! I wonder what will happen? Mwahahahaha!

And this is just the third chapter, haha, there's plenty more to come!...Probably!

Anyway, you've seen a bit of the zombie's variants here which will be explored further in the following chapters. There's also a boss zombie of course.

I also finished my first R-18 drawing...click the pic to enlarge and dispell the [Lights of Innocence]! CLICK AT YOUR OWN RISK!!! I'l even put it in a [Innocence Barrier](spoiler tag) for those who don't want to see.

Spoiler :

Referrence pic: https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/1670885

This is my first time doing this so it might be weird...

Japtem Version