008 – Kitagawa's First Time... Touching a Corpse
"Every kind of power needs to be developed. Take your Yellow Temperance, for example — its defensive limits and characteristics, the specific scope of its mimicry, the method to increase its size, and the level of detail you can control — all of that can be explored," Lin Moze said. "What looks like a simple ability can become terrifying once it's fully developed."
"That... actually sounds really logical," Kitagawa Marin nodded blankly, before suddenly seeming to think of something. She looked at him and said, "Lin-kun, you really seem kind of mysterious. You took care of those monsters so quickly, and you seem to know a lot about these superpower things. Plus, you're an international student from China. You kind of remind me of those mysterious protagonists from anime."
"If we're talking about impressive people, I think you're the extraordinary one," Lin Moze said as he started organizing the water and food supplies on the ground. "Most girls in a situation like this would be panicking or crying, desperate to go home, right?"
"Honestly, before you showed up, I was terrified too," Kitagawa admitted. "I was trying to sneak out from among those monsters, but I was afraid that if I made a single wrong move, I'd get noticed and eaten."
Her cheeks flushed slightly as she waved her hand. "But I always felt like crying is the most useless thing to do in terrible situations, so I've just been holding it in."
"That's already pretty amazing," Lin Moze praised. "But that aside... the world's become a complete mess now. Have you thought about what you're going to do next? Are you planning to go back to Saitama to find your family?"
He pointed toward the chaotic city skyline in the distance and asked the most crucial question.
If Kitagawa Marin insisted on leaving Tokyo and heading back to Saitama, no matter how attractive she was, he wouldn't tag along.
The apocalypse was unpredictable enough as it was. At least in Tokyo, he had the advantage of knowing the area. But in Saitama, he'd be completely lost.
Thankfully, Kitagawa didn't disappoint.
"From now on... I guess I'll just focus on surviving. My dad travels a lot for work, and he's probably overseas right now, so I don't really have a reason to go back."
Hearing that, Lin Moze immediately suggested, "If that's the case, how about we stick together? We're both Saviors, so we can watch each other's backs."
"Really? That would be amazing!" Kitagawa's eyes lit up, visibly relieved. She clutched her chest in excitement, causing quite a noticeable reaction.
Lin Moze noticed, of course, but didn't linger.
In both his past and present lives, he wasn't some inexperienced rookie. Scenes like this didn't faze him.
Right now, he was more concerned with something else.
"Kitagawa, has your Savior interface unlocked the disassembly and conversion functions? And the exchange panel?" Lin Moze asked.
"Uh? What's that?" Kitagawa looked completely confused.
"Then it's not unlocked yet. Perfect, wait here a moment — I need your help with an experiment."
With that, Lin Moze leapt over the protective fence around the school rooftop and jumped straight down.
Before Kitagawa could even react, he reappeared — this time carrying a corpse of a Kabane.
He tossed the corpse in front of her and said, "Try touching it. See if your Savior interface reacts in any special way."
Kitagawa stared at the grotesque corpse with a hole in its chest. She instinctively hesitated.
But she wasn't a delicate girl — she knew Lin Moze must have a good reason for this, so she took a deep breath and reached out, touching a relatively clean part of its arm.
Immediately, a glowing prompt appeared before her eyes:
[Notice: Savior has made contact with dimensional invader corpse. Disassembly and Conversion modules now unlocked. Exchange interface generated.]
Seeing her expression change, Lin Moze asked, "So? Any special prompts?"
"Yes," Kitagawa nodded earnestly. "The interface says I've unlocked the disassembly and conversion modules, and there's also an exchange panel now."
"Try it," Lin Moze instructed. "See if you can disassemble this corpse."
Kitagawa did as he said, and the Kabane corpse before her dissolved into nothing.
Lin Moze nodded thoughtfully, as if he'd confirmed something important.
Kitagawa blinked. "So that experiment you mentioned... this was it?"
"Yup. I wanted to see whether a Savior could disassemble or convert a monster they didn't personally kill."
"And why does that matter?" she asked.
"It's actually really important," Lin Moze explained. "If Saviors could only convert monsters they killed themselves, the exchange interface would be a lot less useful."
"Because the starting rewards probably won't be that powerful, right?" Kitagawa guessed.
"Exactly," Lin Moze said. "Even if there are strong rewards, they'll be rare. That means most Saviors won't be able to kill lots of monsters on their own, at least not right away."
"I get it now. You brought up a corpse from below — even though I didn't kill it, I could still convert it into points."
Kitagawa's eyes sparkled with understanding. "That means... as long as someone kills a monster, even if it's a regular person, we Saviors can still use the body to gain resources?"
"That's right," Lin Moze nodded.
If Saviors could only use corpses they'd killed themselves, the point supply would be extremely limited. Most would choose to act alone or lead only small teams.
But if regular people could also contribute by killing monsters, the entire situation changed.
For monsters like Kabane, zombies, goblins, or slimes — enemies with weak individual strength but huge numbers — even normal survivors could handle them in teams with weapons.
In that scenario, a Savior becomes a literal resource exchange machine to the people around them.
If a Savior was willing, they could easily gather large groups of survivors around them.
Even if they were unwilling, if their strength wasn't high enough, they could be forced into becoming a walking supply depot.
From there, human civilization might shift into a post-apocalyptic "wasteland" structure, with countless camps and settlements forming.
And what happens next... depends on humanity's luck.
After all, nobody knew what kinds of terrifying monsters might emerge from the dimensional invasion.
In the disaster movies of Lin Moze's previous life, zombies were just the beginning — machine armies, alien beasts, undead, demons, and even malevolent gods could appear. If those things showed up, even Lin Moze wasn't confident he could handle them.
But there was no need to tell Kitagawa Marin all that. No reason to worry her needlessly.