The chaos that ensued in the apartment complex would have been almost comical to John if he wasn’t so tired and in a moderate amount pain from the earlier fighting. His back and shoulder were both screaming at him, but he only had enough mana left to cast middle heal once, so he wanted to save his powerful spell for a real emergency.

For his own aches and pains, the basic heal spell just never seemed to be to able to help.

The new arrivals were all surprised at the number of armed teenagers that greeted them at the door, several of which  were brandishing weapons that most of them had only seen in television shows or movies. John thanked them for the help, then had Tsunoda and the girl Miku, show the new arrivals where to get cleaned up.

On the way to the bathrooms, they discovered the perfectly cubed blocks John had dug out of the walls, causing more than a few questions. Their jaws dropped when he demonstrated his ‘Dig’ ability for them, proving again he could use magic and it wasn’t a just trick. He then told them his story about meeting a higher being that gave him the magical powers. 

Finally, one of the women mentioned quietly that the ‘kids’ were all half naked wandering around, causing Saeko and a few of the other girls to blush a bit. That was when Rei, back from her mission of doing the laundry, show up and promptly tripped on the last stair, landing face first in the pile of clothing she was carrying. 

“I gud ta clothes Johnnn… Zzzz” she said, and passed out. 

And of course, she hadn’t dressed herself yet, so her naked ass was stuck up high in the air.

He just shook his head. Yeah, he was already done with this night. 

“I should have done this sooner. Detoxify!” He admonished himself while curing Rei’s inebriation.

He picked the naked girl up then, not caring about the shocked looks the adults were giving him. He princess carried her back to the master bedroom where Shizuka was still snoring away. He tucked her in, detoxified Shizuka while he was there, then moved back down stairs.

While he was dealing with a few other things, Saeko had enlisted one of the women to help her in the kitchen, finishing their midnight meal finally. She stood beside John’s chair at the table while he took the first bite of the pork dish she served him. He wasn’t sure what the battered thing was supposed to be exactly, but it melted in his mouth when he bit into it.

“My god Saeko, this is delicious!” He said, truly meaning it. It was as good as Gulgar’s cooking in The Great Cleric. 

“Thank you John-Sama. I am pleased you enjoyed my humble meal.” She said, bowing her head slightly to him, a small smile on her face.

He was too tired to notice the self-depreciation in her tone, the flavours that were exploding in his mouth taking all the bandwidth his tired mind was capable of at that moment.

“Seriously Saeko, I could eat something like this everyday. You will make your future husband very happy if you can cook like this! Mmm!” He continued, digging into the meal, unaware his statement might make her uncomfortable.

She just looked down at him for a moment before replying softly. “Yes. I think he will.” 

After the meal, John set up a watch rotation for the remainder of the night, keeping two people awake at a time to quietly patrol the house and check on the balcony for activity happening in the streets. 

Once that was done, he flopped down on the couch in the living room, falling asleep immediately. He did not notice the presence that curled up beside him, sharing in his warmth. He was just to tired to care.

When dawn arrived, someone opened the curtains in the living room, bathing the apartment in sunlight. People started to wake up, but no one made much of a sound, moving to one of the further apartments to talk or get cleaned up for the day. They did not want to wake up the “Magic Man’ who saved them all yesterday.

For John’s part he continued to sleep upright on the couch, unconsciously stroking the warm thing laying on his lap. Eventually though, he did begin to stir, something lightly shaking his shoulder, rousing him from his slumber. 

“Mister Wizard, it is time to get up.” A small voice said by his ear. 

“Hmm… where am I?” John said, opening his eyes groggily. The little pink haired girl was sitting beside him, tugging on the sleeve of his jacket. On his lap was that little black and white dog from last night, sleeping soundly across his thighs. “Oh, when did you get here?” 

“We slept on you all night silly. He protected me from the bad people, and he really seems to like you, so you must be a good people, so we slept here.” She said, her youthful logic going over John’s head at that moment.

“I see.” He said, ruffling her hair a bit causing her to giggle. He then asked. “Do your parents know where you are?” 

“Yep! Mommy and Daddy are outside.” She said, pointing to the balcony. “Dad just wanted to see if it was safe from the bad people.”

“That is smart of him. By the way, my name is John, or Mr. Wayne. What is yours?” 

“Alice!” She said, an adorable smile on her face.

“Well Alice, you were very brave last night. I will need you to be brave again today okay?” 

“I will be Mister Wizard!” She said, then hugged the puppy that had woken up finally. “Puppy!”

John smiled at her, her display of youthful innocence easing his mind as much as a good nights rest did.

This. This is what I want to achieve in this world. A place where children can feel happy and safe again.

He stood up then, leaving Alice and the dog to play. He made his way out to the balcony where Kohta, and the two adults were, the three of them silently looking down at the street. He nodded to them in greeting and moved up beside Kohta.

“Did you manage to get any sleep.” He asked, surveying the street.

“A little bit. Honestly I was too wired to sleep from the battle. It was incredible. And the way you shot through that magazine so quickly, how did you do that? Did you learn it in the army?”

“Ha! No actually, I drove a tank. That is just the product of over sev- err of shooting at the range since I was around seven. Do something long enough and you will get really good at it, even if it is just a hobby.” He replied, correcting himself before he said he had been shooting for over seventy years.

“A tank? What was that like?” He asked, and John started telling him some stories from the short time he was in the army. The other two were listening in on the conversation, which John didn’t mind. It might come in handy if they knew he was experienced in the American military.

The street below somewhat worried John. The racket they created last night had drawn in more zombies to the area, and there were easily over a hundred milling around on the street below. He pulled out his new ‘mint’ container and popped one of his Substance X balls. 

If he was going to destroy a hundred zombies, he might as well get the maximum gains from it.

It didn’t take him long to gather everyone in the dinning room, most were already awake and just wanted to let him sleep. No one wanted to bother the man who could use magic. There were a grand total of nineteen people now in the group, the mass of bodies crowding the small space.

He sat at the head of the dining table, Shizuka to his right and Saya and Rei to his left. Tsunoda and Saeko were standing behind him, both armed, acting like his guards. Kohta remained at the doorway of the balcony, where he could watch for any changes outside but listen in on the plan. Everyone else was either seated or standing around the room in front of him.

Good lord, I really do look like I am becoming a dictator.

“Good Morning everyone.” He said, and started laying out his plan. They would load up the vehicles with the supplies, then he would clear a path for them to leave this place. Their destination was the Takagi Manor across the bridge, where they would meet up with Saya’s parents. From there, they would look at mounting rescue operations to find as many family members of their group that they could.

After all that, they would have to see the state of the country before making any final decisions. He mentioned it would probably involve leaving the city to find safety from the zombies.

Once he finished that part, he looked towards the new arrivals. “I won’t presume to tell your group what to do, but soon as we are done here, we are leaving and taking everything with us. If you come with us though, that means you will accept my orders.” He paused, letting that sink in a moment.

“I can’t guarantee your safety, as there are many things in this world that are becoming unraveled due to societies collapse.” he said, gesturing to the television that was now just a ‘Please Standby’ screen. “What I can say is that I will do my best to keep everyone alive.”

They looked at each other, then deferred to the blonde man who had the shotgun last night. Saya had Tsunoda and Saeko disarm them when John was busy with Rei, not trusting the new arrivals to their group with weapons. John really didn’t blame her, but was too tired to think about it himself last night.

The man swallowed a bit, nervous now that his bloodlust from last night had worn off. “No problems on our end Boss. You saved our lives, and prevented me from becoming a… what did you call them? A Zombie? Yeah, we will follow you.” He said, then gave a little laugh. “I am just a bus driver. Worst part of my day was dealing with the odd unruly passenger. I’ll follow a former soldier like you are if it helps keep us alive.”

John just nodded, not really wanting to delve too deep into the three years he served over sixty years ago. If they wanted to think he was some battle hardened soldier, he wouldn’t dissuade them. The reality was, he was just an ornery old man who had a hard time holding down a job, and that had a soft spot for his family.

“Okay then, so now how do we get off this peninsula? There are two bridges yes, but last I saw, one of them was out and the other was a walking checkpoint only. Do any of you have any other options we could consider?” He asked the group. 

This led them to start hashing out the details of their plan. They were going to check the bridges first to see if they were passable, and baring that, they would head towards the marina to see if there were any boats remaining.  Saya brought up a low area upstream that the trucks might be able to ford across, but he wanted save that as a last resort. With the number of people coming with them, he would need to finally break out his toy.

They were also going to make a stop at the nearby police station and raid it for ammunition. With the police needing to abandon the peninsula so quickly, John had hopes to restock some of their ammo at the very least, if not gain more weapons.  

Finally, they were going to need to raid an actual grocery store to support their growing population for more than a few days. They would also need to be on the lookout for another truck or van that could hold some of their supplies. 

“Alright, if there are no further questions, let’s get to it.” He said, standing up. Everyone else at the table followed suit and got to work.

Once John had detailed everyone off to either load the vehicles or get kitted up with body armour, he pulled Shizuka to the side to talk about last night. It wasn’t the best time to do it, but he didn’t want to push it aside and forget about it. It was too important to him. 

“What is the matter John-San?” She said sounding concerned. 

He ran his fingers through his hair, buying himself a moment to get his thoughts in order. “Shizuka, you said a few things last night that I want to get some clarification on. Are you and Rika… dating?”

She blinked a few times, then laughed in her light hearted manner. “Dating isn’t what we do John-San. Rika and I have been friends for a long time and have had a lot of fun together, but we are not exclusive or anything. When she is between boyfriends, we fool around and have some fun. Sometimes, when she did have a boyfriend, I would join them, but that wasn’t often.

Lately, she has been so occupied with her career that we would go weeks without seeing each other, and there has been no time for men at all. As for me, I haven’t dated in years. Not since I left university anyways. Why do you ask?”

“Shizuka, I don’t sleep around.” He said bluntly. “I can count on one hand the number of women I have been with in my life and still have a finger left over. Last night, while wonderful, left me full of questions I don’t have answers to. What I mean to say is… Shizuka are you willing to be in a serious relationship with me, or was this just a fling for you?”

She took his hands in hers and stared into his eyes. “John. I graduated from university with my masters when I was twenty-one. I am now twenty-seven. You are the first man I have had sex with that wasn’t just a fun time with Rika in over six years.

I know I seem like an free spirited airhead, but I am actually very picky about who I spend my time with and what I find attractive. I don’t know what it is about you John, but when I met you yesterday, I was drawn to you immediately. Even without this zombie apocalypse happening, I would have gladly dated you. So yes John, I am serious about you.”

Their lips met then, a soft yet passionate kiss that made John’s worries disappear in a flash. Their relationship was still developing much quicker than he liked, but with this world falling apart, he was willing to make a few concessions with his morals.   

They ended the kiss after a few moments, Shizuka stepping back and giving him a playful little smile. “Just so you know John-San, I want to share you with Rika at least once, if you are willing anyways. I want her to be jealous over what she is missing.”

She came in and gave him a peck on the cheek while tapping his crotch with her hand lightly. He just smiled and shook his head.

That is literally what my wife said a long time ago when she brought her work friend over for a little fun.

“Oh. I almost forgot. The condom broke last night. I didn’t know until I pulled it out and you were already asleep.” He said, pecking her cheek back. He paused though, as he watched the blood drain out of her face.

“John-San… are you sure?” She said, her voice quivering slightly.

“Yeah? What’s wrong?”

“Ahh… This wasn’t a safe time. I am ovulating this time of the month.” She said, leaning into him. 

He embraced her then. “Hey, don’t worry too much about it okay? I’ll be here for you no matter what.”

The held each other for a while. Shizuka was worried over possibly becoming a mother while the world was collapsing. John was wracking his brain to recall what was in that last Eroge draw in DEN. Then he remembered he could bring up his status window.

DEN Status 

He scrolled down and there it was.

[Fortified Sperm – Your swimmers are stronger and will stay viable for longer. A must for anyone looking to begin a family.]

Uh-oh!

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep