I’m In A World Infested By Zombies… But I Have Special Perks As A Formerly Isekai’d Person! - Chapter 12: Searching for Trading Items

Chapter 12: Searching for Trading Items

“I’ve finalized the deal with Kirigaoka Agricultural High School.”

Hayato reported the result to Yui upon returning from Kirigaoka Agricultural High School.

“I’ll provide supplies, and they’ll teach me about cars. It might be a bit tricky, though.”

“Tricky? What do you mean?”

“It seems that just picking up any battery lying around and exchanging it for the one we have won’t make the car move. There’s also the issue of securing gasoline, and it all seems quite troublesome.”

Hayato sighed as he remembered the troublesome conversation.

“So it’s troublesome, but it seems doable?”

“Yeah, I’ll give it my best shot.”

The situation of staying cooped up in Yui’s house couldn’t be sustained forever.

The most pressing issue was water; currently, they were using water from space storage, but it would eventually run out.

Humans needed to drink water, and water was also necessary to flush the toilet.

Moving to a place where they could obtain water stably was essential, and using a car was indispensable to safely move Yui.

“I provided salt as the initial offering, but constantly providing salt seems a bit awkward. Tomorrow, I plan to go out and look for additional items to give them. That’s the current situation.”

“Where are you going to look?”

“I’m thinking of going to the shopping street in front of the station. There should be a pharmacy there.”

The shopping street that Hayato remembered was almost entirely shuttered.

However, there was a nightlife district near the station, and the pharmacy had remained open, seemingly due to demand.

Even after three years in the other world, it didn’t seem like the pharmacy would go out of business.

“Should I just wait here?”

“Yeah. If zombies come, feel free to run away quickly.”

“When I run away, where should I meet up with you? Your house?”

“For now, please go there.”

As an emergency escape route, Hayato had taught Yui his home address.

However, he believed that a situation where they had to escape was unlikely to occur. The risk of being noticed by zombies was low if they stayed cooped up at home.

Zombies had vision, hearing, and smell that were inferior to humans.

It was impossible for humans to find a person who was holed up in their house from the street.

“Please come back soon.”

“I’ll do my best.”

Hayato, who had heard Yui’s rare display of affection, promised to make an effort.

—

The air in the early morning of February was cold and clear.

Hayato, feeling a bit chilly, started pedaling his bicycle.

Along the way, he paid attention to his surroundings, especially being on guard against humans.

If Hayato was seen walking around alone, it would be recognized that he had the power to move alone in this world. This might lead to people approaching him, seeking new companions, information, or supplies.

If the people who approached him were the group that had expelled Yui, it would be even more troublesome.

—

There’s no benefit for me in dealing with them, though.

For this reason, Hayato chose to move around in the early morning.

He managed to distance himself from the zombies who were out for their morning walk and soon came into view of the shopping street.

A car was parked at the entrance of the arcade, blocking access for vehicles.

Hayato pedaled his bicycle past the car, and most of the stores had their shutters down, while those that didn’t had their glass windows broken, and the merchandise inside had been taken.

In the clothing store, mannequins had been knocked over and their clothes stripped.

It was fortunate that the fallen mannequins weren’t humans, but the sight of the mannequins being stripped of their clothes was quite impressive.

It was quite a post-apocalyptic situation.

Hayato arrived at the pharmacy he was looking for and heaved a sigh of relief to see that the store’s shutter was down.

“At least, I’ve cleared the first hurdle.”

If the shutter was up, it would mean that the survivors had already taken the supplies.

Hayato parked his bicycle in front of the pharmacy, and two zombies approached from behind.

They extended their virus-covered hands, eager to infect him.

Hayato stored his bicycle away and took out a spear instead.

“Namu Amida Butsu, or Namu Myoho Renge Kyo.”

Hayato wasn’t quite sure about the sect of his family’s religion.

His father and mother belonged to different sects, and they hadn’t forced Hayato to choose one, so he might not belong to either.

Hayato recited both prayers and then swung his spear at the closest zombie.

The sharp spearhead pierced the zombie’s head and knocked it down.

Hayato pulled out the spear, which had pinned the zombie to the ground, and took a light step, swinging the spear horizontally.

The spearhead hit the neck of the second zombie, breaking its bones with a loud crack.

The zombie was flung away, rolling and crashing into the wall of the store across from the pharmacy.

It then collapsed and stopped moving.

“I guess it’s the head or the neck, huh?”

Having dealt with the two zombies, Hayato checked his surroundings to make sure there wasn’t a third one.

There were fewer zombies than he had anticipated, but perhaps they had left the shuttered street and gone elsewhere.

Hayato, satisfied with the situation, inserted the tip of the spear into the gap in the shutter and created a space.

Then, he inserted his fingers into the gap and forced the shutter up.

“Uraah!”

Hayato shouted, and the shutter rose with a rattling sound.

Hayato frowned at the sound, which might attract zombies.

But as the shutter rose above eye level, he smiled again.

There were untouched goods inside the pharmacy.

Perhaps the street was inaccessible by car, and the zombies had prevented them from raising the shutter.

The goods were neatly arranged, suggesting that the store manager hadn’t been able to take them out.

“What kind of goods are usually sold in a pharmacy, anyway?”

Three years ago, Hayato had entered a drugstore but had never set foot in a pharmacy.

The first thing he noticed was the stack of nutritional drinks near the entrance.

“I guess it’s for the older ladies to have fun with the younger guys at night?”

Hayato, who thought he might have entered the wrong store, realized the ingredients in the nutritional drinks.

Nutritional drinks contained various components.

Vitamins to help with energy metabolism, arginine to promote blood flow and aid in fatigue recovery, taurine to support liver function, glutamine and ornithine to boost the immune system, and caffeine to enhance concentration.

There were also nutritional agents containing ginseng, which promotes blood circulation, and guarana, which has a stimulating effect, but in any case, Hayato judged that the vitamins were a good thing.

“Is the expiration date still okay?”

The expiration date on the stacked nutritional drinks was about three months to half a year away.

The zombies had appeared three years ago, the Japanese had maintained order two years ago, and the collapse of civilization had occurred one year ago. If the store owner had been attacked by zombies two years ago, there might still be some safe-to-consume goods left.

And Hayato’s space storage kept the items in the state they were when they were stored.

If he stored them, their expiration and use-by dates wouldn’t pass. While he couldn’t give them to others if the labels’ expiration dates had passed, there was no problem if he and Yui drank them.

Hayato stored all the nutritional drinks in their cases and then turned his attention to the shelves.

There were various medicines lined up, including headache medicine, treatment for rashes and skin inflammation, pain relievers, fever reducers, and nasal decongestants.

Checking the use-by dates, some of the medicines at the front of the shelves had already expired.

However, those at the back hadn’t.

—

Holy magic isn’t all-powerful, after all.

Holy magic was something Hayato performed by manipulating the magic substance.

In other words, it wouldn’t work properly unless Hayato, who was doing the manipulation, understood it.

It was a blessing that there were medicines, and they could also be used as trading materials for Kirigaoka Agricultural High School.

“I wonder if they’ll get angry if I give them something with an expired use-by date.”

Hayato, who was troubled by this, decided to only store those that hadn’t expired.

Next, he moved to the area next to the medicine section.

There, he found a wide range of products, including sexual function improvement drugs, hair growth and regrowth agents, adult diapers, plasters, and various types of supports for hands, feet, and waists.

The first product was probably for the older ladies to have fun with the younger guys.

The next product was for the older gentlemen to make their hair grow back.

As for the plasters, perhaps they had tried a little too hard.

Hayato, who was thinking rude thoughts about Vice Principal Oomori’s hair, considered the possibility of using them as trading materials and stored everything.

“There’s quite a variety of things in this small store.”

At the back of the store, there were shelves with powdered milk, baby milk, and baby food.

The expiration date on the baby milk had passed, but the powdered milk and baby food were still okay, so Hayato stored them.

There was also a shelf with protein-balanced nutritional food.

Protein was a nutritional supplement that contained a rich amount of protein. While it could be obtained from food such as meat, fish, eggs, and soybeans, it was currently difficult to obtain.

There were calorie bars coated with cereal in chocolate, white, and strawberry flavors.

There was also protein jelly in mixed fruit flavor.

There were powders to be dissolved in water, available in coffee, cocoa, caramel, vanilla, muscat, and grapefruit flavors.

There were tablets in ramune flavor, and these were the protein corner.

“I wonder what this store was aiming for.”

Perhaps they wanted to create a muscle fire brigade in the shopping street with protein.

Next to the protein corner was a section with hair care, body care, and skincare products, and Hayato also collected all of those.

Finally, he found liver oil drops and, wondering what they were, collected them as well.