Employment Ice Age of the Dead - Chapter 4

 Continued Collection

"From now on, food and supplies may never be transported from overseas or other regions again. And since the electricity is gone, refrigeration and freezing are no longer possible. Uncollected refrigerated and frozen food will melt and rot, becoming unusable immediately. Let's see..."

Using a map I found in a bookstore as a reference, I went around collecting refrigerated and frozen foods from local cold storage warehouses and shops.

The silver sword I became able to equip due to leveling up is really convenient. Silver equipment is effective not only against vampires but also against weak undead. When I slash the weakest zombies, they fall to the ground giving off a pale blue flame even without using magic power.

And again, only bones remain.

"When will the bones of the zombies I've defeated so far turn into skeletons...? Until then, I'll raise my level as much as possible."

Skeletons are stronger than zombies. I need to raise my level enough to defeat them reliably before they revive and appear.

"More importantly, let's hurry up with the collection of refrigerated and frozen food."

If I keep them in my 'Item Box', they will stay cold and frozen, so if it's just me, I shouldn't have trouble having civilized meals until I die. Since they will become valuable goods in a collapsed civilization, I'll gather as much as possible. It's completely stealing, but it's better than letting them rot.

"Is this... refrigerated tuna?"

There was a famous fishing port in this Shinmei Town, as well as a base for pelagic fishing. Since there is also a tourist market, being able to retrieve a large quantity of seafood is a huge win. Besides that, I was able to collect a large amount of imported food and alcohol that had been sleeping in warehouses.

"However, I don't have the leeway to reach out to other towns."

Unfortunately, it is midsummer right now. Without electricity, refrigerators and freezers don't work. Most fresh and frozen food items will quickly rot and become inedible. And as for what kind of situation that will bring...

"Without a doubt, a struggle for food among the survivors will begin."

People seem to think they can just eat emergency rations or preserved food that lasts long at room temperature, but in modern society, the proportion of refrigerated and frozen foods prioritized for taste has increased. You can tell at a glance by looking at the proportion the canned food section occupies in supermarkets. That shelf has gotten narrower compared to the past. Do you remember when was the last time you opened and ate a canned good?

The reason I started caring about such things comes from my experience in another world. There were refrigerators and freezers powered by magic in the other world, but those belonged to royalty, nobility, or a few wealthy people. When those stopped working... and even while being destroyed by the Demon King's army, there was no way to carry out the ingredients, so they rotted immediately... Farmlands and ranches were devastated, and monsters infested the roads leading to towns, making food transport difficult.

I actually saw it: there were far more people who died not from being killed by monsters or demons, but because living infrastructure was destroyed by monsters, resulting in essential supplies and food failing to arrive—causing them to starve to death, fall ill due to malnutrition, or die in struggles over food among fellow humans.

That's why I prioritized gathering fresh produce, refrigerated, and frozen foods that would otherwise just rot. Naturally, other food items as well, but...

"...Just as I thought."

When I opened the door to a food warehouse listed on the map, zombies were devouring the contents. Since zombies only have instinct remaining, if they can't eat human flesh, they remember their past lives and start consuming food. Among them, some zombies had their bellies torn open by other zombies, so whatever they ate fell right back out, but they didn't care and kept tearing open bags of raw rice stacked in the warehouse to eat.

It is not recommended for humans to eat food that zombies have already eaten due to risks of rot, foul odor, and bacteria. Above all, it doesn't feel right, and the attached zombie saliva or bodily fluids make it rot faster. Although zombies often feel hunger, they naturally cannot absorb nutrition even if they eat normally. It's troublesome because they excrete it undigested everywhere, which rots and causes epidemics.

"You can't digest it anyway. Don't eat any more of it."

I wiped out all the zombies in the food warehouse and then collected all the undamaged food.

"Since I have a car after all, maybe I should collect supplies and food from further towns..."

Now that the electricity has stopped, the shelf life of frozen and refrigerated food is probably about half a day. After that, I drove the car at full speed and continued to retrieve as much supply and food as possible from the municipalities around Shinmei Town where my house was located. All opposing zombies were defeated, and leveling up went smoothly.

"Phew... I guess this is enough for now?"

Three days since the zombies appeared. I continued my activities along the coast, but I still hadn't encountered any survivors. Checking the coast and sandy beaches, it seems the zombies came ashore from the sea after all. Many footprints remained, and come to think of it, among the zombies I defeated, there were some that looked like drowned corpses. Since drowned corpses rarely maintain their pre-death state like that, I don't think they swam from elsewhere. It seems people who died at sea in the past turned into zombies and landed from ports and coasts all over the world.

"The survivors probably panicked and fled away from near the sea."

And right around that time, I returned to my room from the other world...

"Now then, what should I do from here on..."

Zombies are fast, but they are bad at vertical movement, so I moved my temporary lodging to a hotel I visited. There were employee zombies, but once defeated, they wouldn't come up the stairs from below...

"It happens occasionally, but zombies aren't that strong."

Zombie dogs and cats growled and attacked while drooling, but I slashed and defeated them with the silver sword. Just like in the other world, kept pets seem to have turned into zombies as well. Dog, cat, and bird zombies are weaker than human zombies, but they can move vertically. Since getting bitten even a little bit turns a person into a zombie, I used a 'Defense Barrier' taken out of my 'Item Box' when sleeping. Setting this up where I sleep keeps out weak monsters, zombies, and skeletons. It uses magic power, but that was supplemented with magic stones collected from defeated zombies.

"What should I really do from now on?"

I tried pushing the limits of the 'Item Box' which I hadn't tested before, but it's amazing that it can still hold more—or rather, the vast capacity of this 'Item Box' was probably a perk of being a hero in another world.

"It seems the mountain side is relatively safer. Should I move? In that case, maybe my late grandfather's house. There was farmland, too."

My deceased paternal grandfather did farming in a remote mountain village, but neither my parents, my older brother, nor I took over the farm. However, since farmland deep in the mountains couldn't be sold, it was left abandoned. The village became uninhabited a long time ago and turned into a deserted village.

"Should I head there..."

Come to think of it, what happened to my parents, my brother, and his family? It might seem cold to remember them only now, but I'm someone who was practically disowned. I recall my brother's children should be college students by now, but I've known for a long time that those nephews and nieces, as well as my brother and his wife, didn't think highly of me. That's why my parents prioritized my superior brother and his family, continuously calling me a useless guy. Since they are high-achieving people, I'm sure they are handling the zombies well. In any case, they live quite far from me, so there's no way to check on their safety anyway.

"Phone service doesn't work anymore either, and it's not like they sent me any messages asking if I'm safe. That's just how the world is."

Looking at my situation, former colleagues and relatives used to say irresponsibly things like, "You're family, so you should get along," or "If you work hard, get a full-time job, marry, and have kids, your family will look up to you." Even if I said, "If I could do that, I wouldn't be struggling," they would just say, "You're not trying hard enough." Since it was an endless loop, I cut ties with them as well. People who didn't experience the Employment Ice Age don't understand how tough it was, and once I realized they just preach down at you claiming you lack effort, I prioritized moving at my own pace. My desire to get married vanished too... I realized that the reason I wanted to get married when I was young was simply because everyone else was doing it, not because it was my own will.

"For the rest of my life, I'll just live a self-sufficient life at my grandfather's house."

Without bothering anyone, I'll just live as long as I can by myself and then die. Lately, the declining birthrate has been an issue in Japan, but now isn't the time for that because of the zombies. Besides, at this rate, not just Japan, but the entire world might be destroyed.

You ask why I, who was a hero in another world, don't save the world? Why should I have to do such a thing? Up until now, I worked and lived as hard as I could in my own way, but the evaluation from society and my family was just that I was an incompetent uncle content with non-regular employment because I didn't work hard enough.

"Those who actually worked hard wouldn't be happy being saved by such an incompetent guy anyway."

That's why I decided to live quietly alone at my grandfather's house.

"Even so, do I have to pass by that place..."

'That place' refers to the school where I work as a janitor. Banryu High School—an old, prestigious private high school located on the hillside where children of wealthy families attend.

Whether the students are safe or turned into zombies—I don't care either way, but the current me doesn't need to act like a janitor for that school. If there's no paycheck coming, I don't even want to see the faces of those kids who made fun of me for entertainment.

"...I wonder if that girl is safe?"

However, only that girl lingered in my mind. She always came to play in the janitor's room; despite looking like a gyaru, she was good at brewing tea. She was the only rare student at that school who talked to me normally.

Ruri Shirai. Is that girl safe?

"...Let's at least check on that."

There is no guarantee I'll meet her even if I go to the school. Since I don't know her home address either, that's the only option I have. No matter what happened to the other stuck-up kids, it has nothing to do with me, and I wonder how many people managed to flee to the school on the hillside.

"I hope she's safe."

Having completed all preparations, I selected a 4WD vehicle strong against mountain roads and rough terrain from among the cars I obtained, refueled it, and set off toward Banryu High School.

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