But There Was No Oriole

Chapter 30: But There Is No Oriole

Si Ming did not understand any systematic swordsmanship. Throughout his struggle for survival in other worlds, every technique he mastered stemmed from his own tempering through life-and-death situations.

And obviously, in such an environment, the combat techniques he comprehended and mastered would only take one form.

Fast, accurate, ruthless.

Discarding all flourishes, he required no feints or disguises. Aiming for the target's lethal point, he would deliver a swift and violent strike. Such techniques had spared Si Ming a great deal of trouble in the past.

And this time, on the battlefield of World Two, it was the same.

Slash—

A head tumbled to the ground.

The attacker with sharp bone claws had ultimately failed to even touch Si Ming's shoulder.

[Killed Night Demon King, obtained 1 C-rank side quest, 2000 reward points.]

Weaker than the three-headed dog—as expected.

The total reward points were also capped at the 2000-point floor for a C-rank side quest.

"Hmph." Si Ming chuckled softly, retracting the dark, baleful flames from the Profaned Greatsword. This special fire hadn't even had the chance to unleash its effects before the outcome was already in Si Ming's hands.

The Bone Golem, temporarily drained of its Necrotic Aura, reactivated and returned to the summoning realm with minor damage. The unique environment there allowed these small wounds to heal slowly. For standardized summoned undead units like this, the more they were used, the more powerful their combat capability became.

It was slightly different from the Burrowing Devil Worm, which had been raised as a corpse.

Thud— A light sound.

The headless torso of the Night Demon King, still maintaining its attacking posture, collapsed to the ground.

A strange shriek seemed to echo through the air.

It sounded like the dying wail of a giant beast, or perhaps the helpless screech of millions of smaller creatures. A sense of chaos welled up in Si Ming's heart; he felt as if he were watching a massive machine disintegrating, or a taut violin string suddenly snapping.

The Night Demon was dead.

The collective subconscious of the Night Demon, this new and massive race, was dead.

Even if it wasn't completely dead, it had certainly suffered a grievous blow. Until the next Night Demon King was born, the situation likely wouldn't improve much.

The quiet underground suddenly became noisy.

Those Night Demons, which had originally been intelligent, orderly, and already exhibiting early social structures, were now like a group of frightened wild beasts, becoming a pile of helpless, scattered sand.

They bumped into things everywhere.

They let out shrill cries.

Many of the confused individuals even blundered from strange corners into this arena that should have been sealed, only to be bitten to death in a few snaps by the Magic Wolves under Si Ming's command.

There were no longer any obstacles in this city. Si Ming could now walk on the surface or underground as he pleased, or head to any place that interested him.

Very good.

The Burrowing Devil Worm at his side began to squirm again, its flexible and sharp mouthparts and tentacles easily tearing through the concrete barrier of this abandoned subway station. Not to leave, but to go deeper. From the subway ruins filled with artificial traces, it extended all the way down to the solid rock layer beneath the earth.

A suitable node appeared in Si Ming's sight. He urged the instincts of the Burrowing Devil Worm, and this mythical creature fed back more fragmented information to him. It revealed the underground structure of the city to him and told him where to act to trigger a small-scale crustal collapse.

He was very interested in this, because he really wanted to verify a hypothesis. In his Dimensional Ring was a high-yield nuclear bomb he had obtained from the AVP world, its parameters already adjusted to a critical state. This was his trump card for dealing with unexpected situations.

Before stepping into World Two, he had truly prepared many things. And now...

"I really want to know just how big the difference is between Cairo and New York."

After that, the days didn't change much. Robert spent every day researching his Compound Six. At first, he cherished the captured Night Demon test subjects, but as more Night Demons were sent in, his experiments gradually became more reckless—one problem after another was discovered, and one hurdle after another was overcome. And cart after cart of Night Demon corpses were casually dumped on the side of the street.

The research progress was quite gratifying. And Si Ming's daily busyness certainly played a very critical role—he rarely slept, and almost whenever he had time, he would go out on patrol. He traveled through one ruin of a massive or ancient building after another, regardless of whether it was day or night.

He never counted the number of Night Demons that died by his hand.

But Robert felt it might be over ten thousand.

Sometimes, Si Ming would take Shizuka Ishikawa out with him to let her build up her courage and practice her marksmanship. The results couldn't be called excellent, but at the very least, throughout the entire process, this Japanese high school girl in her school uniform was quite obedient.

She obeyed his every command. She just couldn't do everything well. The difficulty of having her kill a Night Demon independently might have been slightly beyond her capabilities. But as long as Si Ming helped a little during the process, even if it was just whistling to attract attention, she could complete the goal Si Ming assigned after some effort.

Not perfect. But as a newcomer, she was already far above all the other East Sea Team newcomers Si Ming had encountered in his two worlds.

Perhaps the Japanese of the Heisei era have their merits, too; it's just that I hadn't met them before.

Si Ming thought, and he stopped raising his requirements for Shizuka Ishikawa. He felt that he might be able to meet more suitable East Sea Team newcomers in the future. And when that time came, there would naturally be leisure to consider ways to make the best use of them. But for now...

Ishikawa's cooking is actually quite good.

That was the truth.

Robert and Sam both rated Shizuka Ishikawa's culinary skills quite highly. The Colonel would praise her almost every time they ate, and Sam's tail would wag frantically the moment he saw Shizuka Ishikawa walk into the kitchen.

Si Ming also thought it was quite good. Although it was a bit strange, he could indeed taste a hint of his hometown in the meals Shizuka Ishikawa prepared. It might have been an illusion, or perhaps the effect of self-suggestion. But regardless of which it was, Si Ming admitted that the value of Shizuka Ishikawa staying at the base to cook, tidy up, and help Robert was far greater than her going out to hunt Night Demons with him.

Time flowed slowly and smoothly. The total time the reincarnators needed to survive was fifteen days. And two weeks of time was not very long.

Anna swallowed hard. As she drove the SUV equipped with ultraviolet lights into New York, she suddenly felt that her mission might be a complete and utter mistake. She saw corpse after corpse of Night Demons lying dead by the roadside—creatures that, under normal circumstances, possessed such high metabolisms that they would never waste even a single scrap of flesh.

New York was... not normal.

But...

"Sister Anna, are we slowing down?" The little boy in the passenger seat, traveling with her, looked at her obediently.

He was Ethan, an orphan and the youngest child in their settlement. She and he were carrying the hopes of their community as they headed toward this place.

They should have arrived half a month ago. Three weeks prior, the people hiding in the mountain settlement had finally repaired the only radio that wasn't completely broken, picking up a survivor signal from New York. The man who called himself Robert Neville—someone who seemed quite famous during the early days of the outbreak—had brought news of a New York sanctuary, which was exactly what the settlement needed.

The settlement could no longer hold on; the appetites of the Night Demons were growing, while food in the mountains was becoming increasingly scarce. Even though the survivors had managed to scrape by thanks to the key realization that the KV Virus became inert in cold environments, they knew they had to make a decision in the face of the worsening food crisis.

Thus, Anna, who had the most harmless appearance and was the most skilled at negotiation, volunteered to step forward, bringing the youngest, Ethan, along. They had come to New York to seek help. If the situation at the New York sanctuary wasn't as good as hoped, then at least the youngest, Ethan, might reach a place where he could survive.

They should have set out twenty days ago, but a sudden North American storm had delayed their progress. By the time the weather cleared and road conditions improved, half a month had been wasted. Fortunately, the broadcast from New York had never stopped playing during that time, which gave them confidence and strength.

Until...

"Don't look outside, Ethan, don't look..."

Her heart was pounding violently. Anna didn't know what kind of monster could be entrenched in New York to hunt the nearly endless swarms of Night Demons with such rampant ferocity. Every cell in her body was screaming at her to turn around immediately, to floor the accelerator. However...

She had to find out.

Deep in her heart, a sense of wishful thinking was erupting.

Perhaps it wasn't one person, but a group of people who had established a sanctuary in New York. Perhaps these people possessed such formidable military power that they could slaughter Night Demons as easily as killing chickens.

The little boy reached out and tugged gently on the corner of her clothes.

And in the very next moment, her heart nearly stopped!

A sharp intake of breath hissed from her throat. Her hands and feet turned icy cold in an instant, because a stark white human skeleton was blocking the path of the SUV as it crawled through the city!

No, that wasn't a skeleton. It was an undead, a monster. It was moving; it was sprinting toward the SUV with long strides!

Her fingers trembled violently, and fear gripped her heart in an instant. She tried her best to stomp on the accelerator, but her legs, usually so nimble, were now incapable of even obeying her commands!

"Anna... Sister..." Ethan's voice became stuttered with terror.

She turned her head with great difficulty. The moving car had stopped—no, it hadn't stopped; it had been lifted by a powerful force, losing all traction. The fully powered front and rear wheels were spinning uselessly in the air. A human skeleton, with cold, ghostly flames leaping in its eye sockets, was already standing beside the car.

The skeleton's jaw opened and closed, as if trying to convey something. Shattered sounds emerged from the spinning of the wheels, filled with an eerie and incomprehensible flavor.

It sounded like a curse, like madness.

With a soft thud, she fainted right there in her seat.