“May I suggest trying to think of a name that doesn’t include Ren, if you want people to join your group that is.”

“Oooh you’re just a program, of course you can’t recognize a good group na-“

“KYAAAAAAA !!!”

I hear what sounds like a girl screaming in the distance, the screaming came from the opposite direction as the cafeteria…. No don’t hesitate, just go rescue those people, you can always head to the cafeteria after you checked out the situation. You didn’t get your title for nothing… besides they might be people who want to join our group.

The screams are getting louder and louder as I head towards them. I can now see 3 people fighting of a zombie with make shift weapons, there is a guy cowering behind a girl who is holding the zombie back with a broomstick, the other girl is just standing there with a bat in her hands, too afraid to do anything.

My body moves before I know it, I’m excited, I’m heading straight towards the attacking zombie. A little earlier than I expected but it looks like I can finally test my abilities.

After I activated blood Talons three sharp blades suddenly grow out of the sides of both my forearms, the blades gradually get bigger the closer they are to my elbow.

“FUCKING SHIT, MY ARM !” – god dammit I didn’t expect the blades to actually rip through my own skin, fuck that hurts.

The girls kind of stares at me funny, the guy looks embarrassed, but due to my distraction the girl holding the zombie back with her broom loses focus, the zombie makes use of this opportunity to lunge forward and attack the girl holding the bat.

I try to strike at the zombie with my blood talons, but the placement of the blades are kind of awkward and I only manage to scratch the zombie, fuck I should have practiced first before playing the hero. Oh well at least the zombie is now focused on me.

I realize I can only use these weapons effectively by throwing upper cuts and punches that just barely miss the target, this way the blades will rip into them.

I defend a bite attempt by shoving the blades on my right arm in his mouth. He chomps down on my blade and I quickly throw a punch with my left that just barely misses his neck.

*SLASH* --- *THUNK*

His head topples to the ground, the blades on my left arm sliced clean through his neck. Blood spurts out of his neck-hole, I retract my blood talons and turn around facing the girls to celebrate.

The girl holding the bat stares at me, but I can only see a look of terror on her face.

“B-BEHIND YOU !”

The girl with the broom warns me just in time and I manage to dodge the bite attempt of another second zombie that probably went to check on all the screaming it heard.

I manage to create some distance between me and the zombie, I panic, raise my hand and shout: “Blood Spear!”.

I can see blood getting sucked out of the wounds where the blood talons used to be. The blood pools together just above my head and hardens in the shape of a spike.

I bring my hand down and the spike flies towards the zombie.

*SCHING*

I lodge the spear in its stomach, but it doesn’t seem to have much effect. I quickly make another blood spear but this time I aim it at the zombie’s head.

*SPLASH*

I managed to shoot the spike through its eye socket and out the back of its head. It falls to the ground lifelessly… “hmm so it really does behave like a zombie?”

“Really Ren? Did you only figure that out just now? And what were those red daggers that came out of your forearms?”

N-No…. It couldn’t be…. What are the changes?

“A-Aoi is that really you? What a coincide-“

-

I suddenly wake up on the lap of a strange girl with blond hair. As soon as I open my eyes, she gets flustered and quickly stands up, pushing my head on the hard concrete.

“Auwtch…. What happened?”

“Y-You suddenly fainted after defeating those zombies.”

“Then why the hell was I laying on your lap?”

“W-Well Mary was giving you a reward for defeating those monsters…. T-Thank you.”

This Mary chick actually looks quite cute up close.

“Hmmm, you’re still desperate I see! Still trying to follow me around, I can’t even escape from you during the end of the world.”

“This is just a coincidence Aoi, I wasn’t stalking you or anything…”

“Ooh shut it, I don’t want to hear it…. You better not try to corrupt Mary, you hear?”

“Oh come on, I just saved your lives, why can’t you just be thankful. At least introduce me to everyone.”

“F-Fine… we are here to look for resources, we wanted to raid the supermarket but got ambushed by a zombie. This girl here is Mary, and that guy there is Tanaka. We came from the girls dormitory, we sort of made a camp there. You remember Rina right? Well she is still there, together with 5 other girls.”

Ugh… yeah, of course I know Rina. She was the Gyaru that used to always hang out with Aoi and Sarah. She was so outgoing that I didn’t really know how to handle her back then, interacting with her really drained my HP.

“Then why was this creep hanging out in the girls dormitory with you guys?”

“H-Hey! I’m not a creep. I just happened to be walking next to the girls dormitory when that rabbit suddenly started talking to me. I freaked out and ran inside where I found the other girls. I knew that when I found those girls that it was my duty to protect them! That’s why I risked my own life to secure food from the supermarket.”

“yeah right, didn’t you scream and cower behind Aoi as soon as you saw that zombie?” – “S-shut up Mary, that was just a tactical retreat since I didn’t have any weapons.”

Aoi seemed to agree with her childhood friend:

“Y-Yeah Mary don’t be so rude to Tanaka, I’m sure he would have come up with a plan to rescue us if he had a little more time. And you don’t deserve to call Tanaka a creep Ren!”

Still defending her childhood friend I see… Ooooh wait a minute, now it makes sense! No wonder I couldn’t recognize Aoi’s scream when I rescued them, turns out this guy can really hit those high notes.

“Whatever, here Tanaka carry this bag of food if you want to be useful. I know a relatively safe place where the students have gathered, it’s the cafeteria, Rio is the leader.”

“Oh, great we should go there right now!”

“Eeuumm Tanaka, let’s first go to the dormitory to bring the girls with us, you know, the girls that you were going to protect?”

“O-Of course, I meant ‘now’ as in ‘after picking up the girls’… Who are you to talk to us like that anyways? You better be careful, Aoi was, and still is, one of this school’s most beautiful girls, her status is way higher than that of yours. She’s especially popular now that she finally isn’t dating you anymore!”

“Ooh wow, well congratulations on your popularity Aoi, glad to know that I’m not holding you back anymore. I really hope your Tanaka isn’t such a coward in the sheets”

“Hmmph its your own fault Ren! B-Besides me and Tanaka are just friends!”

Aoi was blushing and Tanaka pretended that he didn’t hear my last remark, when I saw his face, he seriously looked like he wanted to fight, but almost as if remembering the scene where I decapitated a zombie in one strike, he refrained from doing so.

Mary tried to salvage the situation by making some jokes, but eventually she gave up and simply said:

“Let’s just go back to the dormitory guys.”