Dimensional Codex System: I'm really not a cultist!

Chapter 778: Chapter 777: Zombie, Vampire, and...

”...Have you calmed down?”

Returning to the reception room, Fang Zheng looked helplessly at the twin-tailed girl in front of him, who blushed deeply at his question. Lowering her head, she nodded shyly in response.

”I’m, I’m sorry...”

”Although it was our responsibility, your response was indeed too abrupt...”

Seeing the cut on Rea’s neck made by the utility knife, Fang Zheng sighed helplessly, then reached out and gently touched her neck. In the next moment, the torn wound immediately healed.

”All in all, that’s the situation... Do you understand now?”

”Yes, I’ve pretty much got it.”

While answering Fang Zheng’s question, the girl looked at the Blood Bottle hanging beside her with a complex expression—the other reason she hadn’t been able to escape was that during the attempt, the Blood Bottle she was carrying had been flung away, causing her ”blood volume” to be insufficient to support her actions for an extended period. This led to her collapsing once more shortly after meeting Fang Zheng and the others. Left with no choice, they had to carry her back and reattach the Blood Bottle...

”I... I remember now, I was indeed... bitten by a zombie, and then...”

As she spoke, the twin-tailed girl looked at her right hand with a complicated gaze, the bite marks still clearly visible.

”So, miss, although it may be presumptuous... do you still remember your own name?”

”Of course... My name is Ebisuzawa Kurumi.”

...What kind of name is that? However, what caught Fang Zheng’s attention even more was her name.

”KURUMI? How is it written in kanji?”

”That... Walnut.”

”Oh... I see.”

Hearing Walnut’s reply, Fang Zheng nodded, thinking to himself that Tokisaki Kurumi’s Kurumi also sounded like KURUMI. It briefly confused him when Walnut introduced herself. As for the Japanese habit of having kanji and pronunciations that don’t match, Fang Zheng found it somewhat unacceptable. The kanji for Walnut and Kurumi did not seem like they should share the same syllables, and he couldn’t figure out how they ended up being pronounced the same...

”So... may I call you Walnut?”

”Of course, you can.”

Walnut had completely calmed down by now, not only because Fang Zheng didn’t look like a bad person but also because there were many younger-looking kids around. Even though she had been scared and hadn’t observed carefully when she first woke up, none of these children seemed frightening now.

Well... it was just that the scene she saw when she first opened her eyes was too terrifying...

Remembering the scene when she woke up, Walnut turned pale. She still remembered opening her eyes to a room filled with blood, her body covered with bloodstains, and more disturbingly, a person with pale skin and bright red eyes reaching out to her... Frankly, it was a nightmare!

”Then, Miss Walnut, it might be bold of me to ask... but may I inquire about your experience? From the outbreak of this crisis until you woke up, do you have any recollection of all your memories?”

”Of course...”

At Fang Zheng’s question, Walnut’s expression stiffened slightly, but she swallowed and then began to recount her ordeal to Fang Zheng.

Like Keiichi Shidou, Walnut was also a student at Megurigaoka Academy; however, she was a senior preparing for her university entrance exams. (By the way, it was at this point that Fang Zheng and Little Hei were surprised to discover that this girl, who looked exactly like Rishi but was shorter, was actually much older than Rishi, who was only a freshman...)

”At that time, I was made to stay for additional lessons because my grades weren’t very good... and then suddenly, the fire alarm rang throughout the school. We were surprised because it was already after school and nearly everyone had gone home, except for a few of us who stayed behind and some students on duty. We thought there might be a fire, so we hurried to escape, but unexpectedly, as we tried to leave the building, we encountered a group of frightening creatures covered in blood...”

Perhaps recalling the fear from that time, Walnut couldn’t help but reach up to her forehead.

”Those people rushed at us like they were insane, and we had no idea what was happening. We could only flee in all directions. Later, Sister Ci... ah, Teacher Ci, stood up and gathered us students, then led us to a safe area. We managed to secure a section of the second floor and kept those dreadful creatures outside. It wasn’t until then that we received an emergency message from the government on our phones about some biohazard threat and were instructed to stay indoors and not to go out...”

According to Walnut, at first, there were seven or eight survivors. Under the leadership of their teacher Sakurazawa Shizu, they barely survived the first night. The next day at dawn, when they saw the zombies had retreated, they planned to go home to check the situation. Then, like Kei Shidou and the others, they too encountered an attack by mutant zombies.

However, compared to Keiichi Shidou, Kurumi and the others faced a more dangerous enemy —— they actually encountered a Tyrant!!

Confronting a Tyrant, they, mere students, were of course no match for it. In the end, including Kurumi, only four people escaped the Tyrant’s assault, then under Sakurazawa Shizu’s leadership, they fled into an underground shelter. But to everyone’s surprise, there were also Zombies lurking within the shelter and, to protect everyone, Kurumi hurriedly stood out to fight desperately. Although she eventually killed those Zombies, Kurumi was injured in the process.

Fortunately, in the shelter, the group found medication to suppress the virus, which narrowly saved Kurumi from disaster.

But the medication wasn’t enough to cure Kurumi’s condition, not only that, due to a lack of sufficient food and water, they couldn’t stay in the shelter indefinitely. So, in the end, following Sakurazawa Shizu’s suggestion, they decided to take her car to leave Megurigaoka Academy and look for rescue —— which was somewhat akin to Keiichi Shidou’s thinking.

However, unlike Keiichi Shidou, the people who hid in the underground shelter were unaware of the Zombies’ habits, thus they chose a very bad time to escape the academy.

That was midnight.

As expected, not long after the group left the school building, they were immediately blocked by a horde of Zombies. To protect the others, Kurumi volunteered to stand up and hold off the Zombies, buying time for the others to flee, but she herself was consequently overwhelmed by those Zombies... Kurumi’s last memory was of being pressed to the ground and bitten and torn apart by those Zombies, and then... she lost consciousness.

”After that, I was always groggy, feeling like I was stuck in a nightmare... everything was red, there were Zombies everywhere, they wanted to kill me, and I could only eliminate them over and over again... I can’t even remember how long I had this dream for, when I woke up again, I...”

At this point, Kurumi sheepishly glanced at Rea.

”I saw her...”

”I see.”

After listening to Kurumi’s story, Fang Zheng nodded, then he and Tina exchanged glances, the latter shook her head helplessly. Although Kurumi said the others had escaped successfully, Tina had not found a trace of life in so many days, which meant they either left the city or... their escape failed.

Fang Zheng felt the latter was more likely, after all, Keiichi Shidou’s group at least had some understanding of the Zombies’ habits, but Kurumi’s group knew almost nothing about them, which might have brought significant danger, and a slight misstep could lead to errors.

”But it’s really incredible...”

At that moment, Little Hei also started to reflect.

”To be honest, when Big Brother brought you back, none of us thought Big Sister you would actually regain consciousness...”

”It’s not really a big deal, well...”

At this point, Kurumi seemed to hesitate, and noticing her expression, Fang Zheng raised an eyebrow.

”What’s wrong? Miss Kurumi, do you have something to say?”

”Well... it might be just a dream I had, but the truth is, I feel like what allowed me to retain consciousness was because of a song...”

”A song?”

”Yes.”

Kurumi nodded.

”My memory after becoming a Zombie isn’t very clear, I just remember feeling like I was thrown into a sea of crimson, surrounded by the scent of blood, surrounded by those Zombies crawling out of the sea, trying to pull me in and turn me into one of them. It felt like my body was going to melt and burn... then, I heard that song...”

At this point, Kurumi’s expression grew peculiar.

”I don’t know why, but after hearing that song, I felt like I perked up and had the strength to fight the Zombies again... Of course, this may be my illusion, but that song...”

”A song...”

Hearing this, Fang Zheng narrowed his eyes, recalling the song that Zombie DJ had played before. Could it be that the song Kurumi heard was that one?

It seems necessary to investigate this.