Takeru ignored the distant zombies. He first ensured the pinned zombie was finished, then searched the apartment for anything useful.
Luck was somewhat on his side. He found some bottled water, dried food, and rice. The apartment also held a large collection of figurines, game cartridges, and video tapes. Additionally, Takeru found several adult magazines.
Shaking his head, he gathered the usable supplies and moved on to investigate the next apartment.
Soon, with Takeru's forceful approach, only the last of the five apartments on the third floor remained unchecked.
"Rikka, this one is yours," Takeru said calmly, looking at the girl who had been mostly following along.
"I... I'll do my best!" Seeing Takeru's serious expression, Rikka took a deep breath.
Despite immense psychological pressure, she knew she had to cross this hurdle. After another deep breath, she forcefully kicked the apartment door open, revealing the scene inside.
First, a zombie stood behind the door, already injured. Another slow-moving zombie shuffled from the direction of the bathroom towards her.
"Fireball!" With a slight tremble, Rikka quickly conjured a fireball and hurled it at the approaching zombie.
A boom echoed. The fireball's impact knocked the zombie back, and flames rapidly engulfed it as if it were highly flammable.
Seeing the zombie engulfed in flames, Rikka stood frozen. Takeru, however, sensed danger and used his Psychokinesis to isolate the fire.
About ten minutes later, the fire finally died out, leaving behind only a charred and broken skeleton.
"There's still the other one. But don't use fire again," Takeru said calmly.
"Okay!" Hearing Takeru, Rikka snapped out of her daze.
She then slowly conjured an Ice Arrow in her hand and shot it at the injured zombie.
The arrow pierced the zombie, which emitted a mournful sound but didn't die.
"You need to hit the head," Takeru reminded her again, watching the struggling zombie.
"I... I see!" Realizing her mistake, Rikka quickly conjured another Ice Arrow and aimed it squarely at the zombie's head, finally killing it...
Seeing the gruesome result of her actions, she dry-heaved again. Takeru could only pat her back gently, saying nothing.
A quick search of the apartment yielded few useful items, but there were some. Takeru bundled them up and stored them in an item slot.
His item slots were now three-quarters full. Besides the one locked slot and the ones with Health and Mana Potions, four slots remained usable.
"Let's go," Takeru said, seeing Rikka had mostly recovered.
"Okay!"
Next, Takeru and Rikka proceeded to clear the floors above. As time passed, Takeru didn't even need to use his Psychokinesis or Shield Bash skills, as the zombies were far too weak for him.
Takeru understood that this mission was simply for adaptation. With a bit of courage, anyone could complete it easily.
…
Meanwhile, Umaru, along with the Hirasawa sisters, found themselves in another parallel version of the Gakkou Gurashi World. Clearly, the Reincarnation Space didn't intend to place everyone together, even if they chose the same world.
Yukino and Taihei were in the same world. After reading their mission, they fell into a brief silence.
However, both were rational. After a short discussion and some mental preparation, they ventured outside.
Seeing the terrifying zombies, they suppressed their nausea and killed them.
After the kill, the horrifying sensation and extremely bloody scene made both of them dry-heave.
The final pair was Hachiman and Yuta. Compared to Hachiman, Yuta was more timid. Seeing such terrifying monsters, his legs went weak.
However, in a moment of near-death when a zombie almost bit him, Yuta snapped. He narrowly avoided death and unleashed a Fireball, setting the zombie ablaze...
Though in different parallel worlds, everyone's starting point was the same: a relatively safe apartment in a building.
The slowest progress was made by Umaru, Yui, and Ui. Being girls, they had a natural fear of such things. It took them a long time to mentally prepare before they could start hunting zombies.
…
Takeru didn't know about the others' progress. After clearing the sixth floor, he and Rikka had gathered a fair amount of supplies. With careful rationing, it might even last them seven days.
Of course, while that was possible, Takeru didn't plan to just scrape by. Beyond the basic mission, he wanted to aim for higher mission rewards.
"Rikka, let's split up to search for resources now. You take the second floor, I'll take the first," Takeru said after clearing the last room on the sixth floor.
Hearing this, Rikka was taken aback, feeling afraid. Through their brief time together, she had developed a slight dependence on Takeru.
Takeru had noticed this, which was precisely why he suggested splitting up. In the Reincarnation Space, if one couldn't grow independent quickly, they wouldn't survive when left to complete a mission alone.