Today, the entire world was shaken.
From the highest echelons of power to the lowest strata of common people, everyone was astonished to learn that Scorpion—one of the strongest and most dangerous Level 5 Gastrea to ever exist—had been silently killed by someone or something else, without even a shred of its corpse remaining.
For a world already shattered into pieces, this was certainly news worthy of a celebration. But the upper echelons felt differently; mixed into their reaction was a deep anxiety. This was because no one understood the cause or consequences of this event. The higher one stood, the more one feared something beyond their control.
The entity was unknown, the power was unknown, the weakness was unknown, the form was unknown, whether it was friend or foe was unknown...
It was like a comet suddenly falling from the sky.
Everything remained a mystery, a report full of question marks.
However, the lower classes did not pay that much attention.
"What! A Level 5 Gastrea was killed! Is this a joke?!"
Inside a somewhat old and dilapidated traditional Japanese house, a young man looked in surprise at the news flooding his phone screen. This morning, the entire internet had practically exploded over this matter.
The young man felt admiration, longing, and curiosity, but that was the extent of it. This was the lower stratum; though they witnessed grand, sweeping events, if it didn't directly affect them, a fleeting feeling was all it took for the matter to pass.
What needed to be done was still done; what needed to be eaten was still eaten.
"Enju! Hurry up and let's go!"
The young man called out into the house, and immediately, a bright and innocent voice, like a young child's, replied:
"Coming!!!"
He didn't pay much attention, knowing for sure that it would still take a moment, so he continued to finish his breakfast and put on his outfit, casually reaching for his "occupation card." The place where his name was displayed:
Satomi Rentaro.
Ten years ago, the Gastrea virus—a bizarre, infectious virus with the most terrifying corrosive and assimilation properties ever seen in history—appeared and quickly spread across the globe. From the existing ecosystem, the Gastrea virus created the Gastrea, launching a full-scale war against humanity. The outcome: humanity failed. The majority of people were killed or infected, and the survivors were forced to huddle behind protective walls, living day after day in a state of terror, uncertain when disaster would strike.
The Tokyo Area—one of the relatively intact places where the remaining people continued to survive, one of the five protected regions in Japan, and one of the few "sanctuaries" that still preserved most of humanity's achievements. However, not all parts of Tokyo were this good, especially the outskirts.
This area was a chaotic mixture of architectural ruins and the existence of nature. Although traces of civilization could still be seen in the form of jagged steel skeletons, some houses, or the remains of high-rise buildings, this place had been completely abandoned by the very civilization that created it.
And it was also home to those rejected by civilization.
Today, like every other day, Nene led her "group" to start searching for food to survive.
Nene was a girl of about ten years old, but her body was somewhat stunted compared to a normal child. She had light brown hair tied into a long ponytail that reached her back. Her clothes were nothing more than a piece of cloth wrapped around her like a dress, covering only half of her thighs.
And her group consisted only of girls about her age or slightly younger. All of them shared one thing in common: they looked utterly ragged, or perhaps had not lived a decent life for a long time.
But today was destined to be different.
"Nene!"
While searching along the riverbank, a little girl suddenly spotted something floating aimlessly on the water. Overjoyed, she quickly shouted to inform the entire group.
The object floating on the river might have come from the Tokyo residential area, from that "sanctuary," that "paradise." If they were lucky, they wouldn't go hungry today.
Locking onto the target, Nene ordered another girl, one with deep blue hair, to approach it. The blue-haired girl nodded, her eyes fixed forward. Suddenly, her pupils turned crimson. Immediately after, she plunged into the river and began to swim.
The distance from the bank to the floating object was over a hundred meters. Furthermore, this was not a calm swimming pool; the water here was fast-flowing. Normally, a healthy adult would not be able to swim out there and drag something back, let alone a child.
But the situation here was different. The blue-haired girl, Kyoko, took to the water like a fish, swimming even faster and more fluidly than a fish—something no ordinary person could do.
The closer she got, the more she saw the object seemed to be glowing. Only, it wasn't an object at all; it was something with a human-like shape, yet definitely not human.
From the appearance alone, the strangeness of the thing was easily noticeable: its entire surface was covered in a silver layer, and its various components and shape reminded her of terrifying monsters. But the closer she looked, the more she felt that this thing was different from those pitch-black Gastrea.
"Kyoko! What are you doing?! Why haven't you pulled it back yet?"
On the shore, Nene shouted impatiently. Meanwhile, the blue-haired girl—Kyoko—was still hesitating. Three seconds later, she decided to take a gamble, grabbed the "arm" of the unidentified creature, and pulled it back.
Leading to the current scene.
Asahi opened his eyes and immediately shot up. But before he could determine his surroundings, he was met with dozens of screaming shrieks of fear, overlapping one another, causing his newly reconstituted consciousness to ring loudly.
"Wait, wait a minute!"
He quickly raised his hands, signaling that he had no hostile intent, which resulted in a group of children staring wide-eyed, creating an awkward silence.
...
"So... so... you're not a Gastrea?"
Although Nene was terrified, as the leader, she had to take the lead in questioning the entity. Even so, sweat was pouring off her, and the steel bat in her hand did little to reassure her.
"Calm down, I don't mean to harm anyone."
"D-Don't come any closer!"
Facing a group of children who posed no threat, he remained incredibly patient.
Seeing that the other party was indeed an intelligent being capable of communication, Nene trembled as she asked:
"You... won't hurt us, right?"
"I won't do anything."
He was very tactful, remaining standing in his original position, watching the girl who appeared to be the leader both intentionally stall for time and secretly urge the other children to flee.
Seeing this somewhat comical scene, Asahi couldn't bring himself to laugh. A group of children, the very demographic that civilization should be protecting, were in such a state. This, coupled with the surrounding ruins, made him unable to stop thinking.
The collapse of the social system, along with devastating war.
Could it be that he had been thrown into an apocalypse world?