Yaso City

These events happened immediately after Kojiro had been left stranded on the deserted island.

Aboard the cruiser piloted by Captain Fujioka, the agitated passengers were making a commotion.

“S-Sawada-san…”

“Captain, what the hell is going on?!”

“What was that thing?”

The captain steered the boat with a bitter expression as he listened to the uproar. He felt guilty about abandoning Kojiro, his part-time employee, to die.

“Captain, have you heard anything?”

Nagase, who was in charge of the training trip, asked. The captain shook his head and replied that he knew nothing.

“Try contacting the police or the Japan Coast Guard.”

“It’s no use. I’ve been trying the radio for a while now, but nobody’s answering.”

“This is terrible. And to think Sawada is dead… It wasn’t my fault, though. He’s the one who failed to board the boat in time.”

The female employees were crying hysterically. Meanwhile, the male employees had gathered around Yodai, a member of the Mitarai family, and were talking among themselves in hushed voices.

“Yodai-san, what do you think that monster was?”

“I have no idea. Whatever it was, it certainly looked real. But monsters like that shouldn’t exist.”

“What on earth is happening? Do you think the phenomenon was limited to that island?”

“Are you suggesting something might have happened elsewhere, too?”

All the male employees wore grave expressions. Yodai turned toward the captain.

“Captain, hurry. I’m worried about what’s happening in Yaso City.”

“Understood.”

The cruiser picked up speed. They arrived at Yaso City’s harbor approximately an hour and a half later.

“W-What happened?”

Nagase exclaimed involuntarily. Smoke was rising from various parts of the city. There seemed to be particularly numerous fires in the city center.

Yodai took out his smartphone and tried to contact the chairman of the Mitarai Group. However, his phone had no signal.

“My phone has no signal. What about yours?”

“No luck. Mine doesn’t have a signal either.”

They discovered that none of their smartphones worked.

After parting ways with the captain and disembarking, Nagase and the others headed toward their workplace on foot. They had arrived by minibus earlier, but without any means of communication, they couldn’t even call a taxi. Walking would probably take about an hour.

The harbor was deserted. Normally, there would always be people around.

Nagase started walking, muttering complaints under his breath. Just as they entered the city from the harbor, a shocking sight greeted them.

Five wolves, each about the size of a large dog, were devouring a human being.

“Dogs? No, aren’t those wolves?”

Yodai voiced his doubts in a whisper.

“Who cares which they are?! They’re eating a person! We need to get out of here!”

One of the male employees spoke sharply.

Hearing his voice, the wolves turned their attention toward Yodai and the others.

“You idiot! You just had to raise your voice!”

Yodai shouted. However, there was no time to waste blaming anyone. The wolves had already started running toward them.

“This is bad! Run!”

Nagase shouted. Yodai and the others sprinted toward a nearby building. The wolves closed in behind them. Several male employees grabbed the female employees’ hands and began pulling them along to protect them.

The oldest among them, Nagase, ended up at the rear. As his somewhat overweight physique suggested, Nagase was a poor runner. He ran as hard as he could, but soon began struggling to breathe. Gradually, he started falling behind.

Eventually, a wolf caught up with him and sank its fangs into his leg.

“Aaaaaaagh!”

Nagase was dragged to the ground, and the wolves swarmed over his body. He desperately thrashed his arms and legs in resistance. However, the wolves mercilessly sank their fangs into his throat.

Nagase wasn’t the only casualty. The only ones who managed to escape into the building were Yodai, Mika, Ririka, and two male employees named Kusaka and Hibino.

Once inside, the five headed for the elevator, intending to escape to an upper floor. However, the elevator wasn’t working. Apparently, the power was out.

“What should we do?”

Mika asked Yodai. Yodai instructed everyone to take the stairs. The five began climbing toward the upper floors.

When they reached the fourth floor, they sensed someone’s presence and began searching. They found people hiding on that floor. A law firm occupied part of the building, and two of its employees had taken refuge there.

“Do you know what’s happened?”

Yodai asked the two men. They were Takigawa, a man in his forties, and Nishino, a young lawyer. Their law firm served as legal counsel to the Mitarai Group, so they were in no position to defy Yodai, a member of the Mitarai family.

“We don’t know either. We had some urgent work to finish, so we stayed overnight at the office. We were planning to go home once the other lawyers arrived and we handed over the work.”

According to Nishino, when the two woke up after taking a nap at the office, the power was out, and nobody had arrived for work. They tried contacting their superiors, but apparently even the landline phones weren’t working.

The two eventually gave up on going home and ventured outside to buy breakfast, only to be attacked by a pack of wolves and forced to retreat into the building.

“So you’ve been hiding here ever since?”

“That’s right. We don’t have any weapons, so we can’t fight those wolves.”

Yodai nodded in understanding. Then he remembered that the two men had mentioned going outside to buy food.

“This is bad. Is there no food here?”

“Actually, there’s a bakery on the first floor of this building. There should be food there.”

Looking out the window, they could see that the sun was setting and night was approaching. Resigning himself to spending the night there, Yodai decided to secure some provisions.

“All right. Let’s go to the bakery and bring back some food.”

After successfully obtaining food from the bakery, Yodai and the others discussed their situation while eating.

“We can’t stay here forever.”

Nishino expressed his opinion. Hearing this, Yodai replied,

“That’s true, but where are we supposed to go?”

“How about City Hall?”

“Of course. I’d forgotten about that place.”

City Hall had emergency food supplies stockpiled for disasters. It would probably be the ideal place to wait for rescue. The mayor was Yodai’s uncle, so he would surely help them.

“The problem is those wolves outside. We can’t reach City Hall without a vehicle.”

“Doesn’t this building have a parking lot?”

“Our firm’s vehicle is parked in the underground garage of the building next door.”

“Next door, huh? We’ll need weapons. Don’t you have anything?”

“Nothing except some golf clubs.”

Yodai grimaced and clicked his tongue.

“Tch. Can’t be helped. Bring the golf clubs. …Isn’t there a television or radio around here?”

There was a television, but the power outage rendered it useless. Their phones still had no signal here either, leaving them unable to obtain any information.

Since it had already grown dark outside, they spent the night in the building and began preparing to head for City Hall the following morning.

The next morning, the women woke up, apparently having barely slept because of their anxiety. Mika nervously sought reassurance from Yodai.

“Are you sure this is going to be okay?”

“If we stay in this building, we’ll die.”

“Why don’t we wait until the police or the Self-Defense Forces arrive?”

Yodai sighed before answering.

“We waited an entire day, and nobody came. We’d be better off taking action.”

Mika fell silent, still looking anxious.

Yodai and the others left through the building’s entrance and headed next door. They went down to the underground parking garage and climbed into a luxury commercial van. It had seven seats, so everyone fit without any trouble. Just then, wolves appeared at the entrance to the underground garage.

“H-Hurry up and drive!”

Mika shrieked. Ririka clung to her with a frightened expression. Yodai was behind the wheel. The van accelerated abruptly and charged straight into the pack of wolves.

One of the wolves failed to get out of the way and was sent flying by the vehicle. After they emerged onto the road and reached an intersection, an unidentified voice echoed inside Yodai’s head.

The next instant, excruciating pain assaulted Yodai. He released the steering wheel and began thrashing violently. Seeing this, Nishino, who was sitting in the passenger seat, quickly grabbed the wheel and stepped on the brake, bringing the vehicle to a halt.

“G-Get a hold of yourself! What’s wrong?!”

After struggling to take over the driver’s seat, Nishino drove toward City Hall. Yodai, who was suffering in the passenger seat, finally quieted down after about ten minutes. Then, without warning, he shouted at the top of his lungs.

“What the hell is this?!”

“W-What’s going on?”

Mika and Ririka watched Yodai with frightened expressions. He seemed to have calmed down, but he remained frozen in astonishment.

Concerned about Yodai, Nishino called out to him.

“What’s wrong?”

“Apparently, my level just went up.”

“Huh?!”

Yodai explained that something resembling a video game’s status screen had appeared inside his mind.