One-way traffic

The first one knew he was blinded by anger because the guy had completely disrupted his plans and put him in this predicament, leaving him with only the thought of killing him.

But clearly, just as Takibayashi said, now is not the time, or rather, he shouldn't have ended it all in such an exaggerated way.

The first superpowered user spread his arms, and the plasma above his head instantly dissipated.

"damn it…"

He stared down and made a fierce declaration to the enemy, whose exact location was unknown.

"Enjoy your last moments of pleasure, you bastard."

——————————————————————————————————————

Bang!

The man quickly closed the door.

This is an underground nuclear shelter, also known as a nuclear bunker.

A powerful shelter that can withstand even the power of a nuclear bomb—if that monster were to drop something of that caliber on it, could it really withstand it?

The man didn't know, and he simply didn't dare to try any of it.

"I've survived, at least."

He straddled the computer desk, staring at the three people inside the surveillance camera belonging to the nuclear bunker, the only source of backup power.

There are quite a few nuclear bunkers in this area, and there are quite a few zombies left inside, enough to put them back on the surface of the city.

The power that could even slow down the Earth's rotation, like before, is obviously a trump card for that white-haired guy, and he definitely can't use it many times.

According to the intelligence gathered from the surveillance cameras, what seems to be most important to that guy is the supply of electricity.

I've now completely cut off the city's power supply; sooner or later, that guy will be worn down and killed.

"But I can't just wait until he's finished."

This wasn't a statement about any ambition or anything like that; it was something I was forced to say.

For men, everything happening in the world is just a mission, and the mission has a time limit, probably only two days left.

He must find what he needs in this world within these two days—the source code of the zombie virus.

Only after finding it can he successfully leave this world; otherwise, the result will be an experience more terrifying than death for him.

He has to get all of this done as soon as possible.

"We might be able to find that thing using the remaining zombies, but those guys probably already know that I control the zombies... If we continue to do it so openly, they will only find out my real location."

By then, there will be absolutely no hope left.

Although he still had a final trump card, that power was a one-time use, and if he could, he would never want to use it in this fragile world.

More importantly, he must not be arrogant.

Knowing that there were three enemies and that the white-haired guy was terrifyingly strong, he was even less likely to remain arrogant.

We must analyze this calmly.

"……if."

He came up with a solution.

A method he has been using from the very beginning.

"If we let them find the code for the zombie virus themselves..."

He couldn't help but raise his eyebrows.

In that instant, his eye turned deep blue once again.

Chapter Sixteen: Obtaining the Virus Source Code

The time is 12:35 in the morning.

There were no zombies to be seen on the streets anymore.

Normally, this should have been a good thing for the three people present, as it meant they would no longer have to worry about these terrifying monsters.

but.

The price they paid was that they lost almost everything they had before.

"Hatsune-chan, how much of our stuff do we have left?"

"There's only... some canned food left in the car."

"……I see."

Takibayashi and Hatsune Miku sat in the back seat of the car with the door open.

The only expression on their faces was pure distress.

Just a few hours ago they were living a life of plenty, but now they don't even have a place to stay.

Not only that, but the city's most vital power supply was also completely cut off.

This means that their biggest trump card has been severely limited in its effectiveness.

Click.

Sitting on the hood of the car, Accelerator unplugged the power bank cable. It would take about two power banks to fully charge his current battery.

Now there's only one power bank left.

This means that if he completely depletes his battery within this period, he will have absolutely no chance of recovering.

Accelerator's superpower is the strongest, but this power requires a huge amount of electricity. If he loses electricity, he won't even be able to do the most basic things like walking and thinking.

They can no longer rely on this strongest ability user when faced with indecision, just like before.

"Hey, bring me the gun I found in that warehouse earlier."

"A gun? You mean this?"

Takibayashi immediately understood. He took out the pistol and magazine that he had previously put in the car and handed them to Accelerator.

There are ten magazines in total. The pistol is a fairly common, lightweight black pistol. Judging from its caliber, its power is far inferior to the Academy City-made air-enhanced gun that Accelerator is currently using.

But his gun was almost out of ammunition.

Although the gun found in the warehouse can be used as a weapon, it's probably unrealistic to expect it to have the same power as before, capable of blasting half a zombie's body apart with a single shot.

The weapons found included two pistols, a dagger, a samurai sword, several grenades, and a light pistol.

As for the remaining items, such as canned food, Accelerator simply didn't want to keep track of them anymore. Given the current situation, they basically didn't have the time to care about such matters that were only of concern in their spare time.

The current situation is very unfavorable for them, especially for Accelerator himself.

But there's really nothing we can do about it.

"Don't think so much."

The first man put his pistol in his pants pocket, carried the rest of the magazines on his person, and stuffed the rest into the car behind him.

"No matter how unfavorable the situation is, the things that need to be done will not change."

The two people sitting in the back seat of the car couldn't help but nod.

Instead of sitting here and feeling frustrated with the current situation, it would be better to take some practical action.

They have more important things to do.

"Just like that bastard hiding in the shadows said, the source code of the zombie virus is stored on one of the computers in this city, right?"

The first ability user got up and sat back in the driver's seat of the car.

"But... that computer has been destroyed by zombies, and it was even burned."

"So you're saying that once something is broken, it can't be repaired?"

The first person paused for a moment and then spoke to the two people behind him.

"We don't need to worry about that stuff anymore. We just need to go back to where we started."

"Huh? But the computer's already burned out, what's the point of going back..."

Hatsune Miku said with some confusion, but before she could finish, Takibayashi interrupted her.

He looked at the white-haired figure in front of him and said softly.

"You mean, there are other secrets hidden in that building?"

"Isn't this a very simple thing?"

Accelerator gave a dismissive laugh.

"Even a bird could figure it out: how could such a bizarre thing as zombie virus code be hidden in an ordinary school building?"

The point has been made very clear.

The building they were in before was not an ordinary teaching building at all.

——————————————————————————————————————

They arrived at their destination in just over ten minutes.

Given his immense computing power, the number one's memory naturally became even more outstanding. In the past, he could even remember countless long strings of data after just one glance.

They parked the car in front of the building, and the three of them went inside together.

"This is it."

Hatsune Miku gripped her katana tightly, Takibayashi cocked two pistols, and the first person simply walked in, holding a pistol and leaning on a cane.

Before leaving, he didn't forget to give some instructions to Takibayashi, who was standing to the side.

"Do you know how to use this thing?"

"Uh... I did have some training before, so just firing a gun shouldn't be a problem."

"That's good. Anyway, if something goes wrong, I won't be there to collect your body."

"...Don't say such scary things!"

The three of them entered the building, and what came into view was a very ordinary layout.

The first floor is the lobby, with the lower grade teaching buildings on the left and right sides. The second floor above is the upper grade teaching building and the teachers' offices, and the top floor is the office room of the school's senior management.

"But is it really possible that there's some secret about a zombie virus in a place like this?"

Hatsune Miku asked with some confusion.

"Well, after all, this just looks like a regular school building, a place only for educating middle school students. A place like this really..."

That's why I said you'd be the kind of pampered young lady.

The first one didn't bother to answer her, but simply led them step by step up to the second floor.

They returned to the third floor, the very place where Accelerator had rescued them.

The original room was at the deepest part of the corridor, and it has been so badly damaged by the fire that it is now unrecognizable.

They managed to pull open the door with some effort; the rooms inside were completely burned down.

"Sure enough, the computers here have all been burned to ashes, and there's no way to repair them now."

Takibayashi even went back to the original location of the computer to take a look, but now all that was left was a large area of ​​pitch black.

He couldn't help but shake his head.

"Really, if we had found this place sooner, maybe none of this would have happened...?"

He turned his head, only to see that Accelerator wasn't listening to him at all.

He was just fixated on one place.

"Excuse me, what's wrong here?"

Hatsune Miku blinked, somewhat confused, and at the same time looked at the spot where Accelerator was staring.

It was the kind of electronic blackboard that could connect to shared resources; it was the blackboard that Takibayashi found as soon as they entered the room.

But the blackboard was broken and completely unusable, so it was pointless.

Even so, the number one spot was still being watched.

"There's nothing we can do about it. I already saw this thing when I came here. It was broken from the start and can't be used at all."