Beta: Jeannette
The zombie tide had been going on for three hours now, but there were still zombies stumbling toward Silver Base. Jun, watching this, discovered that it appeared to be worse than described in the original plot. The first zombie tide only took an hour to handle and in reality, it had been fewer thanks to Eli's contribution.
As for this zombie tide, it should have taken at most three hours, considering the base was made aware of the tide ahead of time and was able to make more than enough preparations. The difference, then, was in the number of zombies. At this rate, it looked like Jun, Azel and Eli would have to make their appearances.
Just his luck, this had to happen the night before his birthday, not to mention zombies were harder to deal with during nighttime. After he finished the last of his milk tea, Jun silently went to gather up his crossbow and dagger. Just in case, he also packed a standard bow and arrow set. Together with Azel and Eli, he started to make his way toward Silver Base.
By now Azel's psychic ability had upgraded to the point he could use it to float and fly, though his speed was nothing compared to zombie emperor Eli, who was tasked with carrying Jun, the very normal human.
Half an hour later, they landed on one of Silver Base's watchtowers and assessed the situation, which was being heavily besieged by zombies of all kinds. There were even the new variant C-Zombies. Those types had lost all human features and stood at nearly 3 meters tall with long, slinky arms.
Their power lay in their ability to throw zombies or pieces of debris at large distances, which was critical against the walls of Silver Base. Sometimes they'd even kill a human with their hits.
"Can you control them to turn back?" Jun asked Eli. The zombie emperor, who hadn't had the opportunity to exercise his powers other than to destroy and ward against zombies, laughed awkwardly. Seeing his helpless expression, Jun sighed. "Then I guess you'll have to do the usual."
Eli smiled and gave Jun a quick peck on the lips before jumping off the watchtower and down into the fray, his dual swords at hand. Azel's range had increased since upgrading, so he stayed with Jun to protect him and crush zombie brains from above. As for Jun, he shot down various normal zombies with his crossbow while wearing a disgusted expression on his face.
Although it was nighttime, there were many ability users in Silver Base with heightened vision and senses, so Jun and his team were easily spotted. Dahlye and her harem hadn't expected them to help but they were grateful. Just Eli alone would have been more than enough. Oriana spotted Jun and mouthed 'little Jun' as she waved, forgetting that Jun was a normal human with no abilities whatsoever.
"Your friend just waved at you," Azel mentioned.
"What friend?"
"... The one with a harem."
Jun frowned. Amazingly, there were many people with a harem in Silver Base, and he had no friends. There was one that could be considered an acquaintance maybe.
"Oriana?"
"Yes."
"Oh, that's nice. Maybe I should wave back?"
Azel shrugged and pointed in a certain direction. "She's that way if you want to."
Jun looked at where Azel was pointing and waved. The other ability users nearby Oriana, who didn't know him, half-heartedly and with much confusion, waved back, some of them blushing. It was a cute girl waving at them so how could they not wave back. If Jun heard their thoughts, he'd probably have thrown his crossbow at this crowd. Seeing their reactions, Azel narrowed his eyebrows and crushed about a dozen zombie brains.
An hour later, the zombie tide was pretty much resolved, though there were a few stragglers left. Most of the ability users were exhausted but persevered until the end. Eli had returned to the watchtower at some point, feeling rather bored.
"Should we go?" He asked.
"Let's stay until it's completely resolved," Jun said.
"Whatever you want, baby."
Azel just hemmed in agreement. Eventually, all was settled and it was nearing midnight. Jun was just an hour away from completing his mission and was standing atop the watchtower with pride. What he had believed to be a pretty hard world turned out to not be so bad. Life was easy in the apocalypse when you had an indestructible shield.
"Ouch!" Jun smacked the back of his neck when he felt a bug bite. With his hand in front of him, he saw an abnormally large mosquito and flapped his hand to try and get rid of its dead carcass.
|Host!!!|
|What?|
His vision swirled and he felt nauseous, his head throbbing with piercing pain. As his consciousness was slipping, he remembered something.
'Shit. Weren't zombie insects supposed to show up half a year later?'
|System, how much time...|
"Jun!"
—
The last thing he heard was the voices of Azel and Eli calling his name, and when he opened his eyes again, Jun found himself back in Limbo. He looked around for that odd-looking furball and couldn't find it. "System?"
"Yes, Host?" System 00 appeared right in front of Jun's face, startling him.
"... Did I fail?"
System 00 hopped up and down in an excited manner. "No, you completed your mission, though just barely."
"Just barely?"
"You survived until just a minute past the deadline."
A minute? Jun was certain he still had an hour left before the deadline when he was bit by the zombie mosquito. How did he last until then? "You mean I was 19 for just a minute?"
"A 19-year-old zombie, to be exact."
Jun sighed in relief. "That's not too bad."
"Since you've completed a mission, you've retrieved a memory fragment from that world just now and can view it any time while in this space. Just let me know."
"Give me a moment. My death was so sudden..."
"You're also allowed to know what happened after you died. Though I can't show you what happened, I can let you read the world's updated plot. Would you like to read?"
"Yeah, I'm curious."
After Jun died, Silver Base was made aware of the next major issue, the zombie insects. With the help of the female protagonist, they were able to install special insect shields covering the base. At some point, she found out about Oriana's old crush on her and began to avoid her. The female protagonist and her harem lived through the apocalypse until they were old, and she was even able to have some children.
Though no cure was ever developed, humanity stayed strong, and near the end, they were able to overturn their situation. As for the zombie emperor Eli Rygg and Azel Barton, having had to personally end the zombified Jun, they were never seen nor heard of ever again.
"Hmm."
"What's on your mind, dearest Host?"
"There's not much."
System 00 wanted to poke his host and tease him, knowing what he had meant was that there wasn't much regarding Eli and Azel. But when he saw the serious frown, he didn't mention it.
"Well, it's just a summary. Do you wish to view the memory fragment now? Or enter the next world?"
"... I'll view the memory fragment."
"Alright, initializing memory fragment retrieved from the world 'Reborn to Bloom in the Apocalypse' in 30, 29, 28..."
...
The memory fragment was like watching a dream, fluffy and vague as if time and space weren't a clear concept. In it, there was a little brown-haired boy with green eyes wearing a light pink dress. He was sitting with his head down and arms wrapped around his knees.
'Wait, isn't that Jun Taylor...?'
On the pathway near the tree, an older boy walked up. With mid-length black hair and crimson eyes, the blank expression he wore made him look more like a little adult than a boy.
"Little Jun, are you crying?" He asked.
Some sniffles were heard before a stubborn soft voice responded. "... No."
"Who bullied you? You can tell big brother."
"No one did."
The young Azel sat down next to little Jun and patted his fluffy hair. "Then what's the matter?"
"... My little sister doesn't seem to like me."
"Oh, your little sister." Azel had never met this little sister, so he didn't know what to say. "Maybe it's just a phase."
"What's a phase?" Jun asked, curious.
"Oh? Azel and Jun?" Another boy, one with golden hair and golden eyes, walked up to the two and sat down on the other side next to Jun. Seeing the slightly swollen eyes, Eli gently rubbed the corner of little Jun's eyes with his fingers. "Why are you crying?"
Jun glared and shoved Eli's hand away. "I'm not crying."
With a grin, Eli put his arm around little Jun's shoulder. "Cheer up, it's almost your birthday. This older brother will get you whatever you want."
Jun thought about it with a tilt of his head and a finger on his chin. It was quite adorable and made Azel pat him on the head again.
"Milk tea?"
"Milk tea...?" Azel repeated.
Eli laughed and squeezed little Jun's shoulders. "Milk tea is too easy. Why not ask for something more?"
"... But I don't want anything else."
"Alright, then milk tea it is, but you have to promise me something," Eli said.
"What?"
"I have to return to my home country tomorrow, so I won't be able to get you your milk tea for your birthday. Azel can do it." Eli shared a tacit look and nodded at Azel. "Instead, I want you to think about what you really want for your birthday and be ready to tell me when I come back, ok?" One of Jun's hands was being held by both of Eli's, his eyes serious.
"Ok."
"Wait for me."
The scene of the three boys faded away and Jun Travis found himself at a loss, very confused. "I don't get it."
"What don't you get, dearest Host?"
"Isn't this supposed to be a memory fragment of my original memory?"
"Did I say it would be?"
"You did, didn't you?"
"I don't remember, but don't worry Host, there's a hint of your real memory in the memory fragment."
"You're just fucking with me aren't you?"
The furball shook left and right in an arc. "No, no, no. I'm on your side, dearest Host!" Taking a deep breath, Jun pinched the bridge of his nose and said nothing in response. A bit nervous, System 00 floated over to his Host with some concern. "Does the Host wish to proceed to the next world or take a break?"
"How long of a break am I allowed?"
"30 minutes at most."
"Then you might as well just send me to the next world now."
"Right away, dearest Host! Proceeding to the next world 'Capturing that Tsundere CEO with my Voice' in 30, 29, 28..."
(A/N: For those of you that don't know, tsundere refers to someone who is cold on the surface but hot/passionate on the inside. They usually treat their crushes like they don't like them when they really do and so on.)
Jun closed his eyes as the space around him swirled and collapsed into nothingness. Before his consciousness in the space completely faded, he seemed to hear Eli's voice.
"In the end, you didn't wait for me and you never told me what you really wanted..."
In response, Jun muttered, "You lied to me. What promise to marry...?"
—
A/N: Title for this chapter is inspired by the song "Never Let Me Go" by Ghostly Kisses. I think it's very suitable for a lot of BL QT stories. Some lyrics:
Tell me what you really want
Show me how to drift where you are
Where no one else has ever been before
[HTSCF can also be found on Scribble Hub or my website www.morinorin.com. If you want to support my sanity, please consider my ko-fi https://ko-fi.com/morinorin.]