Episode 2: Guns, Germs (Well, Zombies), and a Dash of Handsome, Seemingly as an Afterthought

Of course, the world outside the door wasn't the familiar nurse's station… It was an unfamiliar back alley in a bustling downtown district, a dreary, overcast sky hung overhead.

(...! No, I know this place! I’ve been here before!)

My eyes flew open.
Kiryu-kun, still holding my hand, yelled, "Run!" and then, without even waiting for my reply, he broke into a sprint.

"Wait—!!"

I cried out.
Please wait! If I suddenly sprint flat-out when I’m this sleep-deprived and haven't eaten properly, I’ll die!
…Or so I thought, but my body felt strangely light.
That feeling of being on death's door just moments ago had vanished, replaced by an almost refreshing sensation.

(My body’s moving… even though I was so sleep-deprived…)

I was internally bewildered. It was a mysterious phenomenon, like magic.
I don't remember anyone casting some kind of "Time to heal you up!" spell on me, though…

As we ran, I scanned my surroundings again.

A narrow back alley. Dilapidated walls. Grimy buildings.
Countless filthy outdoor AC units, ventilation shafts, and precariously hanging rain gutters clung to the walls…

I couldn't help but glance back.
Zombies were lurching after us in a stumbling jog.
If we stopped, they’d probably catch us in just over ten seconds.

(I thought I killed them earlier, but there are already so many spawning… Could this place be…)

I had no idea what was going on, but if I didn't deal with those zombies, I wouldn't even have time to think.
Telling myself to calm down, I looked around once more.

—Sure enough, this wasn't a place I was visiting for the first time.

The terrain, or rather… the map was incredibly familiar.

(…This is… a game world…)

Goosebumps prickled my skin.
This world was an exact replica of a stage from "Deadman's Conflict 3" (a console game released in 1998) that I used to play.
The world of a purely Japanese-made zombie game where you aim to escape ConfiCity, a town contaminated by a zombie virus…

"Downtown."

That was the name of the first stage that kicked off Deadman's Conflict 3.
The graphics were considerably improved, but there was no mistaking it.
A little further ahead, there should be a door leading to the next stage, "Uptown."

(It’s an area where beginners panic and struggle because it’s full of narrow paths that make it hard to escape zombies, forcing you to fight…)

Back in the day, I got lost countless times, chased by zombies, bitten, eaten, and painfully memorized the terrain.
Thanks to that, I had a perfect grasp of the layout around here, but…

(…Huh? The path ahead…)

I blinked.
Kiryu-kun was trying to go down the middle of a three-way fork.
That's no good, I thought.
I hurriedly pulled his hand to stop him.

"Whoa! What's wrong!?"

Kiryu-kun looked down at me, perplexed.

"No, Kiryu-ku… I mean, Kiryu-san! That way's a dead end!"

"This way!" I said, pulling Kiryu-san's hand and starting to run down the left path. It was blocked by yellow caution tape.

"Isn't that one more likely to be a dead end? It's taped off to prevent entry…"

"Normally, this is a place you can only access from your second playthrough! The tape… let's just rip it!"

The yellow caution tape, printed with "KEEP OUT" in black Helvetica font, was something that could absolutely never be broken in the game.
It was set up so you couldn't pass through until your second playthrough.
No matter how many times the first-playthrough protagonist bumped into it or slashed at it with a knife, normally, this tape would never break.

"This! Like this! …And this! Yes! We can get through even though it's our first playthrough! We've made the impossible possible!"

However, since we weren't bound by the game's character restrictions, we tore it down with ease.

"Who in the world are you…?"

Kiryu-san asked, but I had no time to answer.
Rip, rip, rip. After clearing away the multiple layers of tape in about five seconds, we hurried on.

—I hadn't played any games at all for the past six months.

I'd just been going home and sleeping, not even glancing at social media on my phone.
But… my body remembered.
My body remembered how much I’d played this game!!
My heart pounding with excitement, I found the large window I remembered, tucked away at the end of the narrow path, just as I recalled.
…It wouldn't open.
Left with no choice, I tried to force it open.

"Sera-chan… the window… Don't tell me you're trying to break the window with a body slam? Um, I already tried that earlier, but in this world, things like windows are basically just part of the background scenery, like in a game, and they don't open at all—"

"They don't open, right? Yes, that's exactly it! Windows on buildings in this game basically don't open. However, this window alone is special!!"

I rubbed my lightly bleeding forehead and brushed off my reddened shoulder from ramming it so hard, then hooked my fingertips onto the large window's sash and rattled it vigorously.
…Being called "Sera-chan" felt a bit odd, but the window was more important.
Maybe it was poorly fitted; the window wouldn't open no matter how much I body-slammed it, pulled it, or pushed it.
Reluctantly, I snatched the crowbar Kiryu-san was holding and started whacking the window frame, trying hard to dislodge it.
…First time holding a crowbar, but man, it’s heavy.

"You! Are set! To absolutely! Break… you are! Just… get broken already—!!"

"Are you some kind of gorilla that escaped from a zoo…?"

Kiryu-san muttered, clearly taken aback, but I paid him no mind.
I was so glad I’d played this zombie game so much.
I was truly glad I’d looked up an insane amount of strategy info.
Even if I’d been crushed by work for six months, even if I hadn't played any games at all,
my gamer brain had firmly remembered all the crucial intel!

CRASH!! The window shattered, frame and all, with a loud noise.

"Alright, destruction complete! Now we can get inside! Just be careful of the broken glass!"

Saying that, I forced my way into the room through the window,
and relying on my memory, pushed through the dilapidated room…

…There it was!

The corpse of an old guy sitting in a dining chair (in the game, it was an odorless CG texture) and the infinite machine gun he was clutching!!

I snatched the gun from the old guy, kicked him in the face when he suddenly reanimated as a zombie and lunged at me, and for good measure, fired a shot.
I didn't do this because I'm a violent psycho; I did it because in the game, if the protagonist doesn't do this, the old guy eats them and it's game over. Just to clarify.

…First time holding a machine gun, but man, it’s heavy.

"Corpses should act like corpses! Stay quietly dead!!"

"…What in the world is this creature…"

I sensed Kiryu-san muttering in a daze as he looked at me,
but I didn't have the luxury to care.

"…Damn it! Those zombies from earlier are catching up!"

Kiryu-san raised his voice sharply at almost the exact same moment
I broke into a grin.

"It's fine, just as expected. And this place will become their graveyard!!"

I let my skirt flutter.
Then, I readjusted my grip on the machine gun, aiming at the approaching horde of zombies.

—Rat-tat.

If you only heard the sound, it was a surprisingly light burst of fire.
Zombie number one, accurately shot between the eyes, crumpled to the ground easily.

"A headshot in burst mode while using the infinite machine gun—that gets you double points. It's common knowledge among us DeadCon 3 gamer brains."

"I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about."

I readjusted my grip on the machine gun and immediately shot the next zombie, my body remembered how to kill zombies, acting purely on instinct.

"…Wandering through a world like hell, I seem to have picked up a strange creature…"

It seemed my utter lack of hesitation in killing them had pushed Kiryu-san past simple shock.

"You can't let your guard down in times like these, Kiryu-san. Some zombies are just plain dirty. The kind that play dead to ambush players… despicable cowards… see?!"

Lowering my gun, I kicked at the corpses, stomping on them to check if any were playing dead.
"So gory…" Kiryu-san muttered; it sounded like internet slang, unbefitting his character, but I didn't care.

"Of course it's gory, they're zombies. In this series, if a zombie isn't bleeding after it falls, it's 'playing dead.' If you carelessly approach a zombie that's 'playing dead,' it'll attack you, so please be careful."

While explaining this, I finally registered that the area had become completely safe—clear—and managed to come back to my senses.

Then, my eyes met Kiryu-san's, who was watching me from a short distance away.

"……. …Ah, um. Uh, Kiryu-san!! It’s okay, we’re safe now!!"

The magic of my gamer brain wore off, and I reverted to a normal person.
Faced with Kiryu-san, who was staring at me with a deadpan expression, all I could do was offer a smile.

【Character Introductions That Are Utterly Useless for Understanding the Main Story (Sometimes Abbreviating Non-Characters Too)】

■ It's Not Like This is Some Web Novel

A line Kiryu blurted out at the end of Chapter 1. A web novel is a type of novel delivered directly by the writer to readers via platforms like large forum boards, personal websites, or dedicated hosting sites.
Writers often create these works driven purely by instinct, without an editor, and upload them as they are. Consequently, it's common for the writer's raw desires, personal pain, niche hobbies too unconventional for mainstream understanding, or values that might make many recoil if voiced publicly, to be laid bare. Fans, however, often appreciate these aspects (though sometimes they don't). The "web novel" Kiryu referred to fits a common trope frequently seen in such stories: the 'modern person transported to a commercial game world, often without fully understanding the mechanics' narrative.