Even a European's Luck Runs Out Eventually!

"So… the zombies here didn't just hide away like in Shanghai because of territorial instincts, but completely vanished?" Mei asked, astonished, looking at Shu.

"Shu, do you know what could cause this?" Bronya pulled out a pair of rubber gloves, squatted down, and collected some of the dust into a test tube. Even though they knew its composition, it was best to bring a sample back for Otto.

"I don't know…" Shu's brow furrowed deeper, his reconnaissance vision focusing on the ground, searching for more clues.

The dust was everywhere, thicker and more unevenly distributed indoors than outside. In some rooms, practically sealed chambers, the dust was concentrated in small areas…

Wait a minute… Shu suddenly realized something.

"Kiana, extrapolation," he said, turning to Kiana, who had been unusually quiet. He held out his hands expectantly.

"Oh, oh!" Kiana nodded repeatedly, clasped her hands together in front of her chest, closed her eyes, and muttered a prayer. When did she learn to do that so perfectly? Shu thought, an eyebrow twitching. He pushed the thought aside and began projecting a series of models in front of him.

A sealed room, containing a humanoid figure. Under Shu's control, the model rapidly decayed and dehydrated, eventually crumbling into dust like dried leaves. But the dust on the ground wasn't a thin layer, but a small, cone-shaped pile. No, rewind, try again.

The second time, Shu slowed the decay process and had the humanoid model wander around the room. This time, the result wasn't a pile, but a trail like a sand drawing. Still not right… the dust distribution in these trails is too uniform, while the dust in those sealed rooms is extremely uneven…

What's the missing piece…

Besides Shu, who was orchestrating the simulation, the other three watched the projected scene, understanding that Shu was trying to deduce the cause of the zombies' unusual demise. With the real-world model beside them, they watched as he sped up and slowed down the simulation, but it just wasn't matching the real-world evidence.

"It kinda looks like someone rolled around on the floor," Kiana mumbled, breaking her silence.

Shu froze, turning sharply to look at her.

Kiana, seeing Shu's furrowed brow, quickly covered her mouth and zipped her lips, miming locking them shut. She knew she wasn't cut out for these serious discussions. She simply couldn't grasp the complexities, and speaking out of turn would only disrupt the others' train of thought. But she had spoken without thinking… again.

As she worried about whether she had interrupted Shu's thought process and whether she should apologize, Shu suddenly gave her a thumbs-up.

"You're a lifesaver!!"

He refocused on his model, with a wave of his hand, changing the humanoid figure's appearance from a pale, decaying zombie to… a terrified, normal human.

After undergoing natural decay, the remnants of a human and a zombie would be indistinguishable.

He restarted the simulation. The human figure in the sealed room suddenly looked at its hands, then, exhibiting intense fear, began to back away uncontrollably, stumbling and falling.

Simultaneously, its body started to crumble into dust. It screamed, rolling on the floor, crawling to the door, frantically pounding on it, desperately trying to cover its disintegrating body with its hands.

Finally, in a scene of palpable despair, the figure completely dissolved into a fine dust.

The simulation stopped, leaving behind a pattern of dust identical to the real-world samples.

For a long moment, no one spoke.

"This dust… so…" Kiana stared at the ground beneath their feet, her eyes wide with horror. "…it's made of people who… turned into this… alive?"

The thin layer of dust bore the imprints of their footsteps, and some of it clung to their shoes…

"It appears so…" Bronya looked at the half-filled test tube in her hand, her expression grim.

The dust outside, unlike the dust within the buildings, couldn't be easily traced back to individuals. The remains of countless people, transformed into dust, had been scattered and mixed by the wind, forming the even layer beneath their feet.

What Bronya held in her hand was likely the "remains" of thousands of people.

"Shu… are these the people you mentioned, the ones with no Honkai resistance, who turned to ash in the eruption?" Mei asked urgently, recalling Shu's earlier explanations.

Shu's head throbbed. Mei's theory was the most plausible explanation he could think of. But his reconnaissance had covered a radius of over ten kilometers. How could there be no zombies in such a vast area?

ARC City was a megacity with a population exceeding thirty million! There had to be at least some people with even a sliver of Honkai resistance.

Was the Honkai energy concentration higher here? High enough to reduce nearly everyone to ashes?

That didn't make sense either. Shu had tested the Honkai energy levels in ARC City before the train arrived, and they were similar to, or even lower than, those in Shanghai…

Concentrated? The thought suddenly struck him. If that were true… wouldn't that imply something far more dangerous lurking here?

The thought filled him with a strong urge to retreat. There was no need to confront such an obvious, unknown threat.

"What should we do… should we keep going?" Mei asked softly. All three looked at Shu, awaiting his decision.

Dammit… another one of these blasted choices… Shu scratched his head in frustration. Then, he pulled a gleaming coin from his pocket.

"I choose you! Kiana!" He presented the coin to Kiana, his gaze fixed on her bewildered face.

"Huh?!" Kiana exclaimed, a sense of déjà vu washing over her. "Why me again?!"

"Because you have good luck!" the other three chimed in, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Kiana: "..."

Even a European's life is still a life! she thought. And luck can only take you so far!