Chapter 102
“Hehe, this is simpler than I thought huh?”
I was admiring the terror that talent possessed.
Even when he first grabbed the steering wheel, Vale was like a frightened child.
Now, he drove the ship as skillfully as a seasoned fisherman.
“He's not going to mess up like that, is he?”
Adela approached my ear and whispered quietly.
Unlike Sir Vale's cheerful voice, his complexion was gradually worsening.
“He'll be fine, probably.”
There was no stopping Sir Vale now.
He could not hide his excitement, looking like someone who had awakened to something inside himself.
“I see an island over there!”
Talleon, who was observing the surroundings from the observation deck, shouted.
Hearing the boy's words, I moved forward.
Just as he said, an island came into view.
“There are several islands.”
“It's an archipelago after all. It's a form where many small islands are clustered together.”
“Which one do you plan to stop at?”
“Initially, we'll go to the largest one, Seagull Island.”
“Will there be survivors?”
“Don't expect much.”
I approached Sir Vale and told him the place to stop the ship.
He changed direction and anchored at the location I pointed out.
As the anchor was lowered, Sir Vale staggered and collapsed.
“……Huh?”
He realized his physical condition only belatedly.
He went limp on the floor and fainted not long after.
“The knight squad and Luna remain on the ship. If there are survivors, there's a possibility they'll target this vessel.”
I didn't think this island was uninhabited.
Perhaps there was a possibility I was wrong.
However, one must always be wary of the worst-case situation.
“Understood.”
After hearing Leo's answer, I descended to the land.
Wooden buildings were clustered in a place not far from the coastline.
I headed there first.
I passed the sandy ground, stepped onto the road, and arrived in front of the building's door.
Even then, no sign of presence was felt.
When I grabbed the door handle and pulled, it opened smoothly.
Perhaps because all the windows were closed, the interior was pitch black.
“Serena, I ask for your detection magic.”
She immediately gathered mana and activated the magic.
After about three minutes, she exhaled loudly, seemingly having completed her assigned task.
“There are six moving life forms. I think they are zombies.”
“Where are they?”
“The room at the inner end of the first floor. They are all gathered in one spot.”
“Understood.”
I approached the room Serena pointed out.
I put my ear to the door.
A sound was heard.
It was unmistakably the groan emitted by zombies.
I took a dagger from my breast pocket and gestured for Adela to approach.
“If I open the door and zombies rush out, freeze them. I will handle the rest.”
“Yes.”
Adela had a face of resolve.
While observing her expression, I threw the door open.
“……Ah.”
She did not use magic.
It was because there was no need to.
Every zombie was tied with their necks hanging from the ceiling by sturdy ropes.
“A mass suicide, huh.”
I replied nonchalantly, but it seemed to be shocking to the students.
Serena covered her mouth and dry-heaved.
Tania's feet were frozen to the spot.
At least Adela seemed okay compared to the other two.
“I will handle it. You all wait here.”
I went into the room, took out my dagger, and began to clear the zombies one by one.
Zombies were piled like a mountain on one side of the room.
I thought it should not be left like this.
I opened the window at the end of the room and lifted them up one by one to throw them out.
“Tania, I think fire will be needed.”
Tania could not move even at the sound of my calling voice.
Adela gently stroked her shoulder.
“Ah! I-I'm sorry.”
She approached the place where I was in a single bound.
“I just need to set the corpses on fire, right?”
She knew her role.
After catching her breath a few times, she threw a spark over the corpses.
The flames gradually grew according to her will.
“It'll take some time to turn to ashes.”
I turned around and rummaged through the room.
A diary, written by someone unknown, was lying on the floor.
I checked the contents.
“Why did they end up like that?”
Tania asked, unable to suppress her curiosity.
“It says the party that left the island to get supplies did not return. The owner of this diary seems to have thought they were betrayed.”
“Why didn't they think of escaping separately or becoming self-sufficient?”
“According to the diary, there seem to have been nine survivors in total. But one of them turned into a zombie and bit two others, it says. They handled it somehow, but it seems the person they relied on among the dead also died.”
“So they collapsed?”
“Yeah, it's a common story.”
I handed her the diary and looked at the place where I had set the fire.
At some point, the fire went out and only remnants remained.
“Are there no remaining life forms in this building now?”
Serena laboriously scribbled with a ballpoint pen.
[There are none in this building.]
“We will look through all the other buildings too.”
I left the building and headed toward the other buildings that were attached side by side.
There, too, I searched for survivors with her help.
[None here either]
“That means there are at least no other survivors in this vicinity.”
It was difficult to think they would live on the opposite side of the island while leaving an intact building behind.
I returned to the first building.
I checked how many rooms were on each floor.
In total, there were more than ten spots.
It was enough for each person to take one room without a problem.
“I will bring Leo's group. Rest until then.”
* * *
I arrived at the building with the knight squad.
I had placed a transparency spell on the ship.
“The room belongs to whoever grabs it first, right?”
Leo said with an excited expression.
“Do as you please.”
“In that case, I will use the highest room.”
Not just the boy, but the other students also scattered to choose their rooms.
The atmosphere became distracted.
However, I did not feel the need to laboriously correct it.
The past few weeks were a difficult journey for the children.
Nevertheless, they had never once complained to me or opposed me.
That was something that required trust.
“……Hmm.”
I laid the fallen Sir Vale in a room on the first floor and left the building.
“Around here, was it.”
There was an abandoned barn in a place not far from the lodging.
Upon entering, flies flew around along with a foul smell.
When I checked the floor, animal droppings hardened like stones remained.
“It's old.”
I took a long-necked hoe out of my sub-space backpack.
It was a farming tool I had packed when leaving the farm.
“Sir Joshua.”
Just as I was about to start work.
I looked toward the voice heard from behind.
It was Talleon.
“Have you decided on a room?”
“Yes, I chose the 5th floor, the highest one. If I stick my head out the window, I can see the coastline, so if the ship is in a dangerous situation, I'll be able to notice right away.”
“You thought it through in your own way huh.”
The boy grinned, showing his teeth.
“What are you trying to do?”
“I'm trying to fix up a place to keep the livestock.”
“Should I help you?”
“I'd be grateful if you did.”
I took another hoe out of my backpack and threw it to the boy.
Then I began to dig up the floor with him.
“Ugh.”
The boy seemed to find the smell here difficult to endure.
He took a piece of paper from his pocket, rolled it up, and plugged his nostrils.
“Are you okay, Sir Joshua?”
“I feel like my nose is becoming paralyzed.”
“Kekeke.”
Even at the trivial answer, the boy's reaction was extremely good.
I wondered if he would burst into laughter no matter how lame a joke I threw.
[Clever] suggested I try it, but I shook my head and gave up.
“So this place is our new hideout, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Since the sea is right under our noses, wouldn't we be able to catch fish with a fishing rod or a net?”
“It'll be possible.”
“Also, since there's a forest behind the building, there might be edible plants. For example, things like mushrooms.”
“Don't eat just any mushroom.”
“I have at least that much common sense!”
I looked at Talleon with a skeptical eye.
Among the comrades, the boy especially had many parts to worry about.
“You just thought I wasn't reliable, didn't you?”
“Your intuition has improved.”
“Ugh, it was true?”
At the words I delivered in a joking tone, the boy showed a disappointed expression.
Strength was leaving the hands that were hoeing.
“You are doing well enough.”
“Are you speaking sincerely?”
“Yeah.”
The boy's face was truly fickle.
Excited by a single word of praise, he hoed at a faster speed than at first.
“This should be enough.”
With Talleon's help, the work finished earlier than expected.
I picked up one of the straw bundles in the corner of the barn and spread it on the floor.
Then I released the chickens that were growing in my sub-space backpack.
“Cluck cluck!”
The chickens ran wild.
I had kept them trapped in the suffocating space of the backpack for too long.
“Slowly, I see some bastards that should be eaten.”
The boy smacked his lips while looking at the chickens.
“It'd be better not to think about stealing and eating them.”
“I don't do that kind of thing. Because I don't think I'd be able to escape Sir Joshua's eyes.”
“Does that mean you'd try if you could escape them?”
“That's not what I meant.”
The boy spoke in a pouting voice.
I stopped teasing him here.
“Are you only letting the chickens loose here?”
“I plan to keep horses too. For that, the size will need to be expanded.”
I finished the rough cleanup, left the barn, and looked at the forest.
Wild animals like foxes or weasels might be living in the forest.
There should be no losing chickens to their mischief.
I first placed a spell on the barn.
However, occasionally animals with good instincts noticed it.
“A trap will be needed.”
I returned to the building while thinking about what kind of trap would be good.
Adela and Leo were waiting in front of the main entrance.
“I'll go in first.”
Talleon bowed his head and entered the lodging.
I looked at the two alternately and opened my mouth.
“To think you know how to wait even without being called, it seems you now have an awareness as executives.”
“I came because I wanted to hear how you're going to proceed from now on.”
Adela spoke with a serious expression.
“At least for a few days, we should have time to adapt to life on this island.”
“And after that?”
“We will head to the mainland once again.”
Adela had a face that said she was reluctant.
Understandably so, this island was different from the places we had stayed so far.
It was disconnected from the outside.
It was difficult to imagine zombies rushing all the way here.
Food was also self-sufficient.
To a survivor who lived through a disaster, this place was no different from a paradise.
“I have survived on an island before. Because it was one of the first methods that came to mind.”
“There it goes again, that way of speaking as if you are living a second life.”
Leo furrowed his brows as if he were sick of it.
“Unfortunately, it failed. Why do you think so?”
“……Did you eat a poisonous mushroom or something?”
Adela began to chime in with my answer without any particular doubt.
“It's not something I've experienced, but I have heard of it.”
“If not that, then other survivors invaded the island and you were attacked.”
“That’d be the most common pattern.”
“……What's with the 'everything you said is wrong' tone.”
Adela appealed her frustration, as there were no more cases coming to mind.
I shrugged my shoulders.
In fact, the answer was simpler than expected.
“At that time, I was killed by a zombie.”
“Does that mean you were killed by a zombie on the island?”
Leo, who was listening silently, cut in as if his mouth was itching.
I smiled.
The boy's judgment was extremely normal.
“It was not an island zombie.”
“Then do you mean it fell from the sky or something?”
“I can't say it's exactly the same, but it could be seen as a similar situation.”
Now it was time to slowly reveal the answer.
“It's a simple story. There were zombies that crossed the sea. If not that, then zombies that lived in the sea.”
“What does that mean?”
“They are not bastards who reached the island by luck after being swept by the waves. There were monsters with wings, and there were mermen who became zombies.”
“Are you talking about variants?”
“Yeah.”
Like Adela's thought, surviving on this island forever would not be an impossible thing.
Even if it's somewhat uncomfortable, one can live reasonably well if they give up the conveniences of civilization.
However, that was not enough.
Zombies grow.
Even at this moment, some zombie was increasing its power by devouring life.
One day, I will meet such bastards.
To prepare for that time, I too will grow my strength.
This island was the first button for that plan.
“It's because you guys haven't met truly scary zombies yet.”
“Truly scary zombies you say……”
“There are zombies that would make the variant zombie Urgon look cute in comparison.”
“That's an unpleasant joke.”
“You'll know once you meet them. It's about time to slowly meet them around this time.”
It has been nearly a year since awakening in this world.
If one survived until here, they were a player with considerable skill.
And from now on, a moment arrives when even such players find it burdensome.
Whether one passes that section or not.
That was the standard for dividing the rankers of THE Survival.
“Don't be relieved just because the situation has improved a little. The moment we forget that this world is a godforsaken world, we can die at any time.”