Chapter 63: Farming Attribute Points
[Ding! Allocation complete: Vitality +30!]
[Vitality: 228]
To speed up his physical recovery, Otonashi Chiya immediately dumped his newly acquired points into Vitality. The yakuza in the underground bunker were the organization's main force; since Chiya had wiped them out, the thugs in the villa above were nothing more than a disorganized rabble.
However, Chiya now had to deal with the remaining zombies. He couldn't transfer such a large number of them back into the Kamui dimension, and since these zombies were former yakuza members, there was no reason to keep them around.
Holding absolute control over them, he could decide their life or death with a single thought. Aside from the thirty zombies still safely tucked away in the Kamui dimension, he issued a "death order" to every other zombie in the bunker.
[Ding! Host successfully hunted a "Zombified Human." Reward: 1 Attribute Point!]
[Ding! Host successfully hunted a "Zombified Human." Reward: 1 Attribute Point!]
[...]
The system notifications chimed incessantly in his mind. But just as the sound had repeated itself countless times, a different prompt suddenly rang out.
[Ding! Detected Host suspected of exploiting a bug to farm points. Hunting "Zombified Humans" will no longer grant attribute points!]
[Ding! Host has activated the achievement "A Mature Host Learns to Exploit Bugs." Reward: 5 Attribute Points!]
"...What the hell?" Chiya was speechless.
He was now certain that the system lacked a soul or true sentience; it was just an Artificial Intelligence—or rather, an Artificial Idiot. If it had any real intelligence, it wouldn't have misinterpreted his actions as a bug exploit.
Regardless, it didn't matter. He had already gathered plenty of points. He wouldn't have many chances to hunt zombies in the future anyway, unless the Zombie Devil stepped out of line.
[Available Attribute Points: 105]
Chiya checked his system panel and saw he had harvested 105 points in one fell swoop. About 100 of those points were contributed by the zombies he just "re-killed." It seemed the system had flagged the repetitive gain of 1-point rewards in such a short window as a glitch.
Next, Chiya transferred thirty firearms and ballistic helmets from the floor into the Kamui dimension to arm his remaining thirty zombies. When it came to fighting yakuza, these zombies were arguably more effective than average devil hunters. You couldn't kill them without destroying the brain, and now they had bulletproof helmets—they were a living nightmare for any thug who lacked devil powers!
At the same time, just as Chiya finished clearing the bunker, the members of Special Division 3 above had the remaining yakuza running for their lives. By the time Division 3 discovered the entrance to the underground bunker, Chiya was already walking out.
"Vice-Captain Otonashi, are you alright? What's the situation down there?" Captain Furuta asked immediately upon seeing him.
"I'm fine. Every yakuza member in the basement has been dealt with."
"Is that so?" Captain Furuta felt a fresh wave of disbelief.
Observing Vice-Captain Otonashi, he saw the youth was completely unscathed. To wipe out an entire basement of yakuza single-handedly without a scratch brought back the same shock he had felt during their earlier phone call. While he hadn't had the chance to see what happened at the headquarters, he had the chance now. He was itching to go down and see exactly how it had played out.
"Thank you. I'll take some men down to check things out, just in case," Furuta said. He couldn't very well voice his suspicions out loud, so he came up with a reasonable excuse.
Chiya nodded slightly, unbothered by Furuta's behavior; such trifles didn't concern him.
Descending into the bunker, Captain Furuta found the floor littered with yakuza corpses. He estimated at least several hundred dead—and their appearances were bizarre. With distorted features, hideous expressions, and skin that had already begun to rot, they didn't look like people who had died naturally. Had they endured unimaginable agony before death?
Furuta didn't recognize them as zombified corpses immediately, until a member of Division 3 pointed it out.
"Captain Furuta... it looks like these guys turned into zombies before they died."
"Zombies?" Furuta froze for a moment before the realization hit. "So that's what they are. They really do look the part!"
Long-forgotten memories of zombie films resurfaced in his mind; upon closer inspection, these bodies were almost identical to the creatures in those old movies.
"But how did Vice-Captain Otonashi turn them into zombies? Does he have a contract with the Zombie Devil?" Furuta wondered aloud in awe.
He didn't know the specifics of Chiya's contracts, but rumors within Public Safety circles already credited the boy with two different devil powers. If you added the power of the Zombie Devil, wouldn't that make three?
For a devil hunter to hold contracts with three devils simultaneously was extremely rare. To his knowledge, only Captain Kishibe of Division 1 was the same—rumor had it Kishibe had contracts with three devils, though their identities remained unknown. It seemed fitting that these two were the S-Rank devil hunters of their respective generations...
Meanwhile, Chiya had already moved on to support colleagues at other locations. At every gang stronghold, he "deployed" a few elite, fully armed zombies to carry out a dimensional strike against the yakuza. He gave the zombies precise orders: kill only yakuza, do not harm allies.
Fearing his elite zombies might be mistaken for enemies, he took the precaution of notifying the police and Public Safety hunters, emphasizing that these creatures were "on our side."
This day truly became "Doomsday" for the members of this syndicate. In every targeted stronghold, not a single yakuza member was left alive. Those scattered elsewhere were few in number and would be easily rounded up and tried by the police later.
Once the "living" zombies were no longer needed, Chiya returned them to the Zombie Devil. He had no use for them, and since killing them no longer granted attribute points, he simply returned the goods to their original owner. Of course, he stripped them of their firearms and ballistic helmets first, just in case the Zombie Devil ever thought about stirring up trouble.
[Ding! Host has activated the achievement "Exterminator of the Syndicate." Reward: 50 Attribute Points!]