"What should I do? What should I do?"

  She is presently sitting on the edge of the bed, gripping her head in distress as she freaks out internally.

  'How did I get here? Aren't I in Krua Village? Why am I in a zombie-infested city!?' She cried internally.

  Her heart is racing with anxiety, and she fears that she may have a nervous breakdown. Thankfully, after taking soothing breaths, she was able to relax.

  When she has calmed down, she begins to plot. She got up, then moved to the window to gaze at the damaged roads below.

  "Right. Just sitting here won't do anything. I have to focus on the important stuff!"

  She determined her location by looking through the window and figured she may be on the third story of this building. She can't see the outside world anywhere but through this window. She needs to explore if she wants to learn more about her environment.

  She looked at the sole door leading outside and thought, 'But... That's scary!'

  The fact that she knows there are zombies outside makes her wonder if this building is zombie-free. This room is safe, but what about the spaces outside? What would happen if a zombie was waiting behind the door, ready to attack her at the first opportunity?

  She isn't sure if she should leave the room due to such thoughts.

  She is aware, however, that such worry is pointless if she wants to live. In order to survive, she needs to find food and drink because she is alone in this location and just has her clothing. There was no doubt that there is none in this room. Despite its modest size, this room has no angles that may be obscured through a quick glance.

  That's how small the room is!

  So, she acknowledged instantly that nothing was hidden here. It is not possible to find any concealed food or water reserves in this room.

  Her only option is to leave this room and hope that there aren't any zombies in this building.

  'No, hold on. I have another choice!' Abruptly, she remembered what she had accomplished before falling asleep. That night, for the first time, she was able to sense Mana.

  Would she be able to use it here as well?

  'I'll give it a shot!' After cheering herself up, she closes her eyes and tries to do it the same way she did yesterday.

  Surprisingly, it felt natural to her to reach out to Mana with her soul. This enigmatic sensation was similar to attempting to control a second body solely with her mind. Since this is a spiritually oriented method of connecting with the Mana in the atmosphere, she only knew how to do it intuitively based on her hazy comprehension of the lesson her teacher had told her.

  She attempted to interact with the mystical element that is often present in the environment, but she soon discovered that something was wrong when she was unable to detect any Mana in the air. All that happened was that her spiritual reach touched nothing but air.

  'All right, so I can still interact with Mana using the basic principle of reaching out to it, but the issue is that Mana doesn't exist in this place! Now, what should I do?'

  At least Rio hoped there was Mana in the air. She could try magic on her own if only that were true. She could only attempt to do things on her own because Rudolph hasn't yet taught her how to use magic properly. She scowled at the realization that Mana does not exist. Being unable to even wield magic in this unfamiliar setting made it seem as though the weeks she had spent learning it had been in vain.

  When she realized that trying to apply her newly acquired understanding of magic was pointless in this world, she gave up trying altogether and began considering more useful things she could do in her current circumstance.

  After a moment of contemplation, she glanced again at the door with a feeling of uncertainty.

  "Leaving this room is the only option I have, isn't it?"

  Even though she didn't want to, she had no choice but to leave this small room. So she went to the door and, with a hesitant heart, grabbed the doorknob. The knob felt so delicate in her hand that she was startled when she touched it. It only took a turn of the knob to get it off its hinges. Additionally, she became aware that the door had been unlocked the entire time, which caused her to shudder in terror.

  "Oh no!" She stiffened, assuming the worst, only to discover that there was no sound outside. She took a moment to steady her twitchy breathing, and then she was at last at ease enough to go back to the door and gently push it. The sound of wood creaking made her tense up. She hoped that no zombies were prowling around and heard the noise of this creaky door she was opening.

  The door opened all the way, and as she looked out, she could only see the dimly lit hallways beyond. She eventually sighed with relief after confirming that there were no zombies in the area.

  "...Okay, let's do this."

  After motivating herself in her mind, she exits the room and steps out into the darkened hallways. She is gripping the rusty doorknob tightly. She can only carry this fragment of rusty metal as a substitute because the previous room did not have any functional weapons that she could use to feel at least somewhat secure. She understands, of course, that in addition to food and water, she must obtain a weapon to defend herself.

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  As she began exploring this abandoned building, she hoped that nothing bad happens.

  As soon as she reached the part of the building with the stairs—or rather, the lack of steps leading down to this building—she understood why there were no zombies on the third floor. Below the hole, all she could see was the wreckage of what she had thought were the steps, and this was the only location where a stair was built.

  Additionally, there were two locations on this floor with non-functioning elevator doors. She had already given up trying to open one since she lacked the strength to pry the doors open.

  There was nothing on the entire floor. The furniture was gone, and each room was occupied solely by various kinds of beds. Some rooms had futons or sleeping bags, while two rooms had a real bed. Most of the rooms appeared to be suitable for habitation. They had linked bathrooms to their rooms, but they were such a filthy mess with no running water or adequate cleanliness that she chose not to use them, even if she had to use the restroom.

  Then, there was a room on this floor that was full of old junk from which she was unable to determine its origin, and another room that had a creepy scene left in it. It was particularly that latter room that she found really graphic. Skeletons were everywhere, and the walls and floors were covered in dark stains. This mixture of staleness and putridity permeated the room's scent and stayed in her nostrils. It was like the scent of dead insects in a filthy attic, except worse. There were indications that the door in this particular room had been destroyed. Before she entered this eerie area, the entrance was littered with the decaying wood of what appeared to be the remains of a door. She left the site since it was too oppressive, and she didn't notice anything valuable there.

  The staircases that led to the rooftops came next. She has since changed the rusting doorknob she is holding into a legitimate weapon. She doesn't care that the metallic pipe had some grime sticking to it because it was preferable than clutching a knob that wouldn't even function as a legitimate weapon. She got this pipe in the room full of old junk. She took it and ignored everything else because it was the one item she thought would be helpful to her.

  Already, the door to the rooftop hung from its hinges. It tipped with a simple shove, then landed with a loud noise on the floor. The surroundings were too quiet, so the noise it produced made her wince.

  Nothing particularly noteworthy was visible on the rooftop, save for a glass construct that she quickly recognized as a greenhouse. In contrast to the windows on the third floor, the glass on this greenhouse was surprisingly intact. There was just a patch of dirt in this greenhouse where she could plant stuff. Living in an agricultural village for months gave her the knowledge to determine whether or not a soil was good for growing, even with her amateur eyes alone.

  A realization dawned on her after she had examined every possible spot she could stroll through. "I don't have access to food or water!?"

  She despaired at this fact. Without food and water, she couldn't survive at all. She has been ignoring it for awhile now, but she was slowly feeling the pangs of hunger in her stomach. Her throat also felt dry.

  She ignored the hunger and thirst she was experiencing and gritted her teeth. She currently has just two options. The options are to either keep looking for anything on the third floor that could help her survive or to jump into the destroyed stairs that lead to the second floor, which would entirely prevent her from going back to the third floor while also putting her in danger of coming into contact with the living undead.

  The choice was already obvious to her.

  "Ugh... I'm so hungry. Is there really nothing in this place?"

  The skies were already darkening as evening approached. Within the room full of old junk, she was trying to find anything that she could eat or drink. In the end, she gave up after sweeping through the entire room.

  There was no question in her mind that what she was doing was stupid. It was illogical to act in this way. She needed to get out of here and go outside if she really wanted to locate anything that might help her survive.

  Even if leaving this place was the most logical conclusion anyone could think of, she was scared. She has no combat experience, and of course that included killing. She also watched movies so she knew that even a single scratch by those walking corpses might turn her into a zombie.

  She doesn't want that!

  Reincarnating into a different universe and dying immediately was not what she had hoped for. She wanted to make the most of her life. She was aware of her limitations. She doesn't want to take a gamble based solely on any phony confidence she may have. Since one scratch would be fatal for her, she wanted to make sure she hadn't missed anything and tried to inspect this floor again.

  "Am I wrong? Is there really nothing I can find on this floor?" But as night fell and darkness gradually took over the room, she began to lose hope when her search yielded no fruitful results.

  With nothing else to do, she walked out of this room and, with a slouched shoulder, slowly made her way back to the room where she had initially woken up.

  She simply plopped herself on the bed after entering the room, ignoring the fact that she was covered in soot from dumpster diving in that area. After resting on the bed for a few moments, she curled into herself, her hand nursing her stomach.

  "How did I come to this place anyway...?"

  She muttered to herself, her heart feeling so tired due to her unfortunate circumstances.

  "I have to save up my energy." Gritting her teeth, she endured the pain in her stomach, curling into herself more as she tried to sleep it off.

  Surprisingly, sleep easily claimed her.

  When she came to, once more she found herself in a pitch-black space. The only thing that existed in this expansive darkness was her and the two floating portals showing the same images as the one she saw when she first found herself here.

  Her mind was still preoccupied with thoughts of her hunger and the bleak future that awaited her from that post-apocalyptic world that the sight of the second image made her steer clear of it. That's why she instinctively gravitated toward the picture of a dragon breathing fire on a castle. She was thinking solely about wanting to get out of that world and get back to Krua Village.

  It was not long before she reached the first portal, and she pushed her nonexistent body into it without hesitation.

  "Guaaaah!?"

  Rio jolted awake, her upper body bouncing up in shock.

  "Huh?"

  In her drowsy state, she blinked her eyes, trying to take in the surroundings, and then she noticed the familiar ceiling of the room.

  "Am I back?"

  She remained in her sitting posture, questioning the reality around her. She pinched her cheek in an attempt to determine whether this was all real or merely a dream and then winced at the pain that followed. She rubbed her cheek, nursing it, and was at last content with the realization that this was not just a dream.

  A sigh of relief escaped her lips as all the tension she hadn't realized was building up inside her left her body.

  "I'm so glad..." A smile graced her lips after she said those words.