In a collapsed world, electricity and water sources were the keys to survival.
Especially after last night's EMP attack, the city was truly finished and would face nights without light, making it extremely dangerous.
Without electricity, humans became very vulnerable in the darkness.
However, from Soichiro Takagi's team, Koichi Shido had heard that a team stationed at the dam had prepared for the EMP attack.
If they were truly affected, they would immediately carry out emergency repairs.
Koichi Shido knew he couldn't enter the Takagi estate, so the remaining good option was this hydroelectric power station at the dam.
There couldn't be only Takagi family members here—there would be other people he could incite, so seizing this power station wouldn't be too difficult.
More importantly, he had Takashi Komuro, this so-called savior, in his hands, which would make it easier to sway the people at the power station.
If he really couldn't convince them with words, then he'd resort to force—his confidence came from the thing in his hands: guns.
He had to say he was truly lucky. On the way to the power station, not too far from the station itself, he had seen an armed rescue team that should have been a squad rushing over from a military base specifically to stabilize the power station.
Unfortunately, this squad hadn't succeeded in arriving. They had the bad luck of being hit by a small aircraft flying in the sky, and combined with being surrounded by dead bodies, they ultimately fell.
When his group arrived, they didn't see any dead bodies wandering nearby—they had probably been attracted away by some disturbance. They were lucky enough to discover firearms on the bodies of those who had been crushed to death or had committed suicide, and there were more in the military vehicle.
So if the people at the dam wouldn't listen, he could only resort to armed threats.
As they approached the dam power station further, they discovered many dead body corpses that seemed to have turned into chunks of meat.
Anyway, there was a pervasive smell of barbecue everywhere—someone had set fires to burn these bodies. So the "chunks of meat" appearance was because flames and black smoke obscured the view.
However, it was necessary to be vigilant—perhaps some special police or soldiers had already entered the dam area.
Soon enough, they reached the edge of the dam. There were electric fences and other seemingly temporary defensive facilities, and of course they could see the guards.
Not seeing any personnel wearing police or military uniforms, Koichi Shido's heart relaxed considerably.
He immediately approached to talk, but the other party was extremely wary and refused to let them in directly.
When Koichi Shido said he wanted to speak with the leader here, they said they'd call someone, but no one came for a long time.
With such delay, it was time for Takashi Komuro, this puppet savior, to take the stage.
"It seems you don't yet know the importance of our team. Do you know that this student Takashi Komuro might be humanity's future hope?"
This naturally earned him somewhat mocking looks from the other party—not strange at all, it was a normal reaction.
"Takashi Komuro, please bear with this."
After patting the other's tense body, Koichi Shido had people from the back of the team bring up a dead body—naturally one they had nearly crippled.
So, under the astonished gazes of several personnel at the dam power station ahead, they led it in front of Takashi Komuro.
"Takashi Komuro, time to prove yourself!"
"Right!"
Takashi Komuro took a deep breath, rolled up his sleeve to expose his arm, and moved it toward this dead body's mouth.
When he was about five centimeters away, the dead body suddenly stretched its neck further and bit down. The instantaneous sharp pain made his face slightly contort.
Then he forcefully pulled away, leaving an obvious wound on his hand.
Fortunately, most of this thing's teeth had been knocked out, otherwise it would have really torn away a large chunk of flesh.
Afterward, Takashi Komuro, with tense yet expectant eyes, raised his injured hand high, letting the people inside see clearly that he was this world's future hope.
"Watch the injured hand carefully, observe the changes!"
Koichi Shido also helped hold up this hand, and after these words, they fell into silence.
After continuing like this for a minute, more and more workers came over. They all understood what was happening and began discussing among themselves.
Among them, some words left Koichi Shido stunned. The other party seemed about to let something slip when they were suddenly signaled to shut up by someone nearby, even having their mouth covered.
He didn't quite understand, but they also watched Takashi Komuro with tension and anticipation.
Right, this was how it should be.
"Do you see? Student Takashi Komuro still has no problems, and there's no abnormality in his arm area. Look carefully—the wound is gradually healing. So don't you understand his importance yet?"
Koichi Shido said with a slight sigh.
"What are you still standing around for? He's a special human type immune to dead bodies. We can use his serum to develop vaccines. If he accidentally dies, don't you know what a great loss this would be to humanity?"
His tone carried both regret and anger.
So they should immediately hurry to open up and look over with eyes full of hope, and—
Huh?
Something seemed off—they remained unmoved.
"You're still unmoved?"
After these words, the people opposite said nothing, but some didn't hide their looks of contempt and even anger.
Suddenly, the crowd parted, and two figures appeared. One of these figures made Koichi Shido's face stiffen slightly.
"A-Aunt Yuriko..."
A somewhat trembling and panicked voice emerged from Takashi Komuro's throat.
He noticed that the gaze directed at him was no longer the gentle one of the past, but cold and disgusted.
This meant they all knew about his connection to Uncle Takagi's accident.
"Th-that, I didn't do it on purpose, Aunt Yuriko..."
Takashi Komuro began explaining, pale and powerless explanations that were somewhat incoherent.
"...Besides, Uncle Takagi might have had no effect after using it, so both of us would have died. But fortunately I succeeded. If we use my serum to develop vaccines, then Aunt Yuriko and Takagi-san could also be immune to the threat of the dead body virus."
From initially sounding quite guilty, his tone gradually changed to sound like he really hadn't done anything wrong—as if he actually deserved credit.
So upon hearing this, Yuriko Takagi's gaze remained unchanged, but her inner disgust for the man before her had reached its limit.
Yuriko could also see that Takashi Komuro's behavior was somewhat related to Koichi Shido—he seemed somewhat brainwashed by the other party, as some of the rhetoric wasn't something someone like him could come up with.
However, Yuriko Takagi felt no sympathy for Takashi Komuro either. Because being able to be incited by Koichi Shido to this extent meant that essentially, he was just that stupid and bad.
The reason she hadn't immediately appeared was purely to let the other party go from having hope to despair.
This suggestion had also come from the man beside her—he seemed to have somewhat malicious tastes.
Then, Yuriko didn't interrupt as the other party continued speaking eloquently. At her signal, several people stepped forward, also bringing up a dead body.
These Takagi family personnel let themselves be scratched and bitten by dead bodies right in front of Takashi Komuro.
Afterward, they all displayed their injuries to him and his group outside, remaining silent. This silence also infected Takashi Komuro, causing his face, which had been flushed red with excitement, to turn pale again.
"Takashi Komuro, it seems you're not the only one favored by heaven. All of us here who have taken the Panacea should be favored by heaven."
These mocking words shattered a high school student's savior dream, causing his expression to gradually collapse and twist.
...
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