The gale howled.
Heavy dark clouds, like leaden curtains, hung low over Okayama.
The wind whipped at their robes. Several thousand low-order Awakeners gazed eagerly at the heart of the Safe Zone, their eyes filled with anticipation and longing.
Gray all over and built solely of concrete, the Safe Zone now resembled a military camp from before World War II—crude beyond compare.
Tightening the blanket around himself, Harano, the leader kneeling on the ground, instinctively huddled up despite being an Awakener. His eyes remained fixed on the return point.
He did not know whether it was the damp chill carried by the sea wind in the island climate or the unease that had lingered in his heart. He only felt that today's temperature was much lower than usual.
"One minute until the return."
"One final minute until the return!!"
He kept muttering under his breath.
The former higher-ups of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department and a group of cabinet officials constantly stretched their necks, their eyes locked on the empty ground before them.
With the entire scene tense to the extreme, all that could be heard was hurried breathing and the rumbling of hungry stomachs.
After days of hunger, their bodies were issuing a warning.
Ever since they had calculated two days ago that the East Ying War Zone would soon return and the Confrontation Tournament would end, all the Survivors in Okayama had stopped going outside and waited for their heroes to come back.
There was no point in going outside anymore.
Even though their food supplies had dwindled to the extreme, with each person unable to receive even a single rice ball a day.
But if their people could return, none of those problems would matter. The East Ying War Zone, squeezed to its limits, could rise again