Where Did All the Zombies Go?

"Do people here actually manage to navigate this themselves?" Shu muttered, staring up at the dense, crisscrossing network of roads overhead.

The others followed his gaze, pondering his question, and collectively winced.

"Maybe the people here are like… uh… old warhorses, still full of vigor?" Kiana blurted out after racking her brain, mangling an idiom in the process.

"Kiana probably means 'an old hand knows the way,'" Bronya sighed, correcting her.

"Right, right, right! An old hand knows the way!" Kiana's recent cramming sessions seemed to be paying off. At least, she was now making a conscious effort to use appropriate idioms. The problem was, her "rehabilitation" had only just begun. Despite her natural talent, she had a lot of lost time to make up for.

"I don't think even an old hand would be enough…" Shu walked to the edge of the road and peered down. Good heavens! he thought. There are like fifteen more levels below! This might not even be ground level!

"With navigation, people here wouldn't have too much trouble…" Mei mused, quickly grasping the locals' likely mode of transportation.

"True, but we don't have navigation," Shu stated flatly, returning from the roadside.

Mei fell silent. He was right. Navigation systems were for the people who lived here before the Great Honkai Eruption, not for them. Surely we won't get lost here, will we?

"Alright, enough chit-chat." Shu pulled Kiana back from the edge, where she had been peering down with a mix of awe and vertigo, his expression turning serious. "It's too quiet around here…"

The others exchanged glances, gathering around Shu, their eyes scanning their surroundings. They, too, had noticed the unsettling stillness.

The streets were devoid of visible zombies. Even the few cars parked along the road were empty. In their experience, this kind of unnatural quiet usually signified the presence of something far more dangerous than mere zombies.

They had already encountered this eerie silence at the train station and had been on high alert since. Now, having walked a considerable distance from the station, they still hadn't seen a single zombie. The potential threat within this radius was too significant to ignore. Finding and neutralizing the source of the anomaly was their top priority.

"Shu, do you need a 'reconnaissance' prayer?" Bronya whispered, standing back-to-back with him.

Shu nodded, and Bronya's [Prayer] was immediately ready.

It was highly likely that the same Honkai beast responsible for the eerie quiet at the train station was causing it here as well. Back at the train, their strongest fighters were a fully recovered Fu Hua (thanks to a considerable investment of Shu's [Prayers]) and Li Sushang, armed with her sword.

With that Divine Key in hand – a blade so sharp that even an ordinary person could slice through metal like butter, and even generate small sword beams – Fu Hua alone could hold her own against a Chariot-class Honkai beast.

But that was a gamble, heavily dependent on Fu Hua's performance. She would need to be flawless, with no room for error, to pierce the Chariot-class beast's core with that sword. Margin of error? Normal humans can't afford that luxury. Their opponents weren't stray dogs. A human mistake meant injury, maybe a surge of adrenaline. But against a Honkai beast, a single touch could be fatal, a glancing blow could cripple.

Thus, entrusting Fu Hua with the Divine Key was more of a gamble than a true safety net for the train. This was why Otto had repeatedly emphasized the importance of securing a mech.

Titan mechs existed in this world as well, and according to Himeko, they were nearly identical to the one Shu had demonstrated. A single Titan mech stationed near the train would effectively neutralize the threat of smaller Honkai beasts.

And who would pilot these mechs? Bronya's mastery of various weapons wasn't just Shu bragging! She could actually pilot a Titan mech!

And if all else failed, there was always Otto. These logistical headaches were best left for him to handle. Shu's job was to bring back a Titan mech, or something even more powerful.

But those were future concerns. Right now, their priority was finding the Honkai beast that might force Fu Hua into a deadly gamble.

The sensory perception described in those xuanhuan novels was truly bizarre. Shu felt as if his perspective had shifted, as if he were a drone soaring above the city, gazing down upon ARC City's distinctive steel-wool road system.

Shu: "..."

Increasing the [Prayer] input, the mental map in his mind instantly upgraded to 3D, rapidly scanning and marking points of interest in the surrounding area. But what struck him as odd was the complete absence of zombies, even within the deepest recesses of the buildings.

Back in Shanghai, even with a Honkai Beast Emperor lurking within the city – a unique variant, no less – the zombies had merely hidden indoors. According to Kiana and the others, after the Honkai Emperor's demise, hordes of zombies had poured out, flooding the streets, a seemingly endless sea of undead.

But here? Shu couldn't find a single one. Not one, in such a vast area…

This was even more unsettling. Where could they have gone? Could they have simply vanished into thin air?

Shu's brow furrowed. Suddenly, his gaze fell to the ground.

Perhaps because the city had been undisturbed for so long, a thin layer of dust coated the asphalt, like a long-forgotten artifact.

But there was always wind here… The city's designers weren't fools. They wouldn't create an airtight city, nor would they allow so much dust to accumulate within the city, only to circulate internally.

So, what was this dust?

It could only be dust that had appeared suddenly and in such large quantities that the city's ventilation system hadn't had time to disperse it.

"Don't move," Shu said, slowly crouching down, extending a [Prayer]-protected finger towards the dust on the ground.

Mei promptly provided him with an "analysis" [Prayer]. The results of the dust composition surprised him.

"This dust…" Shu rubbed the thin gray film between his fingers, astonishment in his eyes. "It's all… zombies?"

"What do you mean?" Kiana's eyes widened in confusion. The others, while having their suspicions, were equally perplexed.

Shu stood up, brushing his hand, and looked at the road ahead. "I mean, all the zombies in this city… have already decomposed naturally, turning into this dust."