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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Simzy
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Honk! Honk!
I honked the horn and turned on the high beams. The excited zombies gathered one by one. But some of them smartly moved out of the way to the side of the road.
“That’s it!”
I tore open the snack bags and canned goods placed on the passenger seat and threw them to the ones standing by the roadside. Some hit their bodies, but most plopped onto the ground.
“Gurgle.”
Then, they happily ate them. The ones gathered in front of the truck also subtly retreated to the side of the road, extending their hands as if they didn’t know.
I purposely drove the truck slowly and shouted at them.
“Aren’t snacks better than raw meat?”
One or two of them growled, but soon they became more interested in the open can of yellow peaches.
Unfortunately, I had no idea what food zombies liked. They just ate whatever I threw to them with pleasure. Once, I even threw pebbles mixed in, and they surprisingly managed to pick them out.
However, there seemed to be a definite tendency for them to be drawn to stronger and more unique smells. I had once grilled salted pork, which I had luckily found, in the middle of a parking lot, and the zombies had pounded on the research institute’s fence as if asking for a bite.
If they were drawn to food, and could distinguish between edible and inedible things, I thought training would be possible with that level of intelligence.
So, that’s what I was doing. ‘Honk the horn, move to the side of the road, then throw food.’
It was, so to speak, ‘positive reinforcement.’ Engraving the idea that good behavior, pleasing to the owner and trainer, is followed by a reward. Until when? Until they understood.
Of course, zombies were stupid, stubborn, and had serious antisocial tendencies, not letting anyone who angered them go.
Either stupid. Or, they recognized it but had no intention of listening to me. Like the one standing in front of me now, who had been following well until now, but was now growling for some reason.
Can’t keep up with the lesson? Then you have to die.
Bang!
I shot it. The ones smelling blood gathered around the corpse.
Honk! Honk!
I honked the horn again. A military police zombie shuffled out. Seeing the fallen body on the road, it dragged it to the side.
A clever one. I threw a unwrapped chocolate to it. Then, the others followed the military police zombie.
Interestingly, not all zombies moved aside when I honked the horn. Perhaps three out of ten would. The rest simply followed because the one next to them moved. Or, because there was food there.
The smart ones, or those with even a little bit of intuition. Those could be trained. The others, I killed.
While they were distracted by eating, I opened the research institute’s main gate and parked the truck.
“So, it’s an era where even zombies have to be smart to survive, huh?”
Camilla, who had locked the door behind us, folded her arms. I shrugged and opened the truck’s cargo bed.
It was full of items from the mart. Half of them were groceries, and the other half were moving-related items like tape, cardboard boxes, and hand trucks.
“Hmm, being smart isn’t everything. You need to have enough social skills to interact with others. At least, you need to be able to listen to and understand the instructions of the person who feeds you.”
“It’s a little chilling to hear that from you, Johan, of all people.”
“No wonder you and I get along so well, Camilla. Where’s Cassandra?”
As soon as I asked, Cassandra walked out of the lobby, carrying her laptop bag. Perhaps because of continued late nights, the area under her eyes was very dark.
“You’re here. I heard the truck.”
“Is the data migration going well?”
“Yes. I’m pulling out all the HDDs from the PCs. It’s definitely an intuitive and simple method. Primitive, even, but effective.”
Since we knew that agents and mercenaries would be sent from Minsk in the Western Bloc to raid Elza’s Cybele research institute and steal information, we couldn’t just stand by.
First, we needed to find a safe settlement. And we also needed to establish a research facility to track, manage, and analyze the virus-related research, and the virus in my, Camila’s, and Cassandra’s bodies.
However, finding a place that met both conditions was very difficult and time-consuming. Because my knowledge could differ greatly from reality, I had to go and check it out myself.
Naturally, the question of how to move the existing research data became critical, and Cassandra’s answer was surprisingly intuitive. It was to simply take out the hard drives.
It wasn’t a bad method. In case of a difficult situation, it could even be used as a bargaining chip with Minsk, Elza, or Romer.
In times like these, information, especially about viruses, was incredibly valuable. Why else would Minsk have mobilized so many mercenaries?
“But, Johan. There are a lot of people in Elza who have completely turned into zombies. But in Romer and Minsk, the spread rate seems slow. Is it because of strict media control there too?”
During a short break, Camila wiped the sweat from her forehead and asked. Cassandra quickly provided the answer.
“The slow spread rate is true. Until Cassandra left the CDC, the spread rate in Romer and Minsk was only about a third of Elza’s. It’s probably due to the virus concentration.”
“Concentration?”
“Yes. Our bodies have an immune system that can defend against viruses entering from outside. But if too many viruses enter, more than the amount that can be defended against, then defense becomes difficult. Elza was an environment where the Kro virus could spread easily, and there were sources of contamination everywhere, so the infection was faster.”
“Even if it’s Romer or Minsk, they probably didn’t thoroughly implement quarantine measures, right?”
“Hmm, to put it more simply, it’s because of poverty.”
Cassandra didn’t hesitate at all, and Camilla made a slightly displeased expression.
“What do you mean? That they got sick more because of poverty?”
At my question, Cassandra hummed and pursed her lips.
“Simply put, Elza neglected its poor. There weren’t many jobs, and the social infrastructure wasn’t very developed. But Minsk is a wealthy country, and individuals pay a lot of attention to their personal hygiene as well as public sanitation.”
“What about Romer?”
“Romer is a bit different. The poor simply join the military. And the military, if nothing else, is very thorough about disease control. The point is, Minsk and Romer had smaller blind spots in hygiene than Elza.”
Camila seemed a little heartbroken by Cassandra’s point. She replied with a somewhat sad face.
“…That’s true. But no one wants to be sick.”
Cassandra nodded at Camila’s words.
“Of course not. The CDC used to say that. That because we gave nothing to the poor and marginalized, they harbored resentment.
The urban and rural poor, the neglected… if we had shown them a little more interest, things would be very different now. Anyway, the spread and contamination in big cities originated from those very people.”
Listening to Cassandra’s words, the strange relationship between the three countries—Elza, Romer, and Minsk—suddenly came to mind. Elsa was a country that had been pushed around by Romer and Minsk.
But now, the virus that spread in Elsa was, in turn, hindering the two countries and slowly dragging them into a quagmire.
To call it poetic justice would be too destructive.
All the cargo from the truck was unloaded. Camilla stretched her body this way and that, then turned her head towards me.
“Anyway, when are you going to Hampton?”
“In two or three days?”
In the past, I would have immediately left to find a safe haven. But now the situation had changed. Because of the virus that had taken root in my, Camilla’s, and Cassandra’s bodies.
We had to observe what state the Cro virus in our three bodies was in, whether its nature had suddenly changed, or if it was still the same as before.
Also, since our three people’s ‘communication’ had become stronger than before, we had to check for any resulting changes in our condition.
That required research equipment and facilities. Cassandra said she could manage with minimal equipment, but it was still better to do it in a place that already had well-equipped research facilities.
Most importantly, the fact that the three of us knew the surrounding terrain well was crucial. At least we knew where the enemy was coming from and where they were going.
We also knew what traps we had set in the vicinity and what battles we had fought. But if we moved, if we changed our residence, we would lose all these advantages.
So, we devised a temporary plan. While I went to Hampton to retrieve the reagents as quickly as possible, the two of them would defend this base with the zombies.
“…In the early days, stories of people being locked in rooms after thinking zombie transformation was just a cold or high fever, only to be bitten, were common. But the idea of using zombies as guard dogs is something I’ve only heard from you.”
Even Cassandra was quite baffled, but she still evaluated the idea itself as not bad.
“It doesn’t seem like it’ll be bad. The Minsk guys took a pretty severe beating here, so it’ll take some time before the next team comes. Even if you’re not here, Johan, if Cassandra and I are entrenched with those zombies…”
Camilla was also quite positive.
“I think we just need to throw some food outside the fence occasionally. Not too much, mostly expired stuff. As for the Minsk mercenaries… well, they probably won’t come for a while, right?”
Thanks to the decent data the Minsk friends left in their RV, such as secret channels and access code tables, we were able to get a lot of information about Minsk’s movements.
Of course, it was not everything and limited, but it was enough to understand which teams were going on which operations. We’d have to pay more attention if the encryption system changed, but for now, Minsk was nothing to worry about.
“But Johan.”
Camila lightly tapped the back of my hand.
“Yes.”
“You’re sure you can come back as quickly as possible, right? Things in Hampton don’t seem good at all. The news is too unsettling. I’m really worried about sending you alone.”
I had to go to Hampton alone. Not only Cassandra, who had an arrest warrant out for her, but Camila too had been exposed too much and needed to lie low for a while.
“You don’t have to worry about that. A woman named Leti seems to be doing her job properly. She said she brought not only reagents but also various experimental equipment.”
If she had said something like, ‘The items aren’t actually ready, but they’ll arrive in two days,’ I would have left without looking back. I didn’t want to waste time on such nonsense.
“But Cassandra. Is that reagent only used for virus analysis?”
“No, it’s not. Analysis was sufficiently done with the reagents and equipment at the lab. What I’m trying to do is synthesize, decompose, and reorganize the virus. Why do you ask?”
So that’s it. In that case,
“Reinforcement is also possible, right?”
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