Fredrinn had to be careful about the overhead bombing, though he realized that the bombing had slowed down significantly.

Maybe the targets were already taken care of by now or maybe the government realized that bombing the zombies was futile as they multiplied worse than cockroaches.

Whatever the reason was, he watched several of the jets fly away while the zombies loitered around eating corpses or searching for new targets.

He also noted that although zombies liked to devour each other’s bodies, they didn’t attack their brethren directly and only feasted if the other zombie was already dead or had its flesh sliced off like Fredrinn did.

It was a strange sense of team spirit between them.

With Fredrinn’s speed, it barely took him two minutes of a sprint to reach the Shimada mart, feeling excited about finally getting some answers for himself.

But a single look curbed his excitement significantly.

Many zombies were wandering near the store’s entry gate, blocking the entrance with enough manforce that even a Fredrinn with his spells wouldn’t dare to engage with them.

He quickly pulled out Richard’s phone and called Naomi again.

She picked up in a heartbeat.

"Hey!" She chimed in with a lot of emotions behind her voice.

"Hi." Fredrinn replied awkwardly, feeling overwhelmed about the strange excitement behind her voice.

He hadn’t been treated ’this’ preciously by anyone.

"I called to tell you that the door of the store is completely swamped with zombies." He chose his words carefully as he pretended to act like how a normal human would.

"Oh..." Naomi went silent as Fredrinn caught some low whispers passing around, hinting that she was talking to someone else.

After keeping him waiting for nearly half a minute, Naomi finally returned to the call.

"Richard, some people here have told me that the back entrance of the Shimada mart is cleared and safe. You can come from there, though make sure that no zombies follow you here... okay? And please stay safe, I don’t mind waiting longer if it improves the chances of you coming back safely." Naomi whimpered pitifully, giving Fredrinn another punch in the gut for tricking the sweet woman.

However, she mentioned something he hadn’t expected to hear at all.

"Also, before I forget, you became an awakener right? I believe you did."

This was a curveball for him.

Yes or no? And what even was an awakener?

In Apolasia, awakener was a slang used to define the newbies that recently awakened their magic circuits for the first time.

Was it something similar here? Though he remembered that Earth didn’t have any mana or magic at all.

But then again, he also remembered that there was no species such as zombies in reality.

And since Naomi had such trust in him saying yes, he chose not to break her heart as he hummed, "Yes, I am." in response.

He felt Naomi’s happiness through the phone as if she was practically bubbling, "That’s amazing! I am so glad! Please come faster– Oh I mean come safely, time doesn’t matter."

Although slightly weirded out, Fredrinn ignored the red flags, mainly because he had forgotten how manipulative and evil the women on Earth could be.

In Apolasia the women were very honest about their wants as well as their loyalty.

He hung up the phone and began to circle around the Shimada mart’s building carefully.

Luckily it was on a corner so it wasn’t too difficult to go towards the backside of the mart.

The metallic door was bolted shut and chained up, but Fredrinn was athletic enough that he didn’t need a door to vault over a mere 1.5 meter tall wall.

He didn’t directly drop onto the floor, cautious about zombies hiding in blind spots since no matter his skills, underestimating zombies was a death sentence.

But after checking for danger, he smoothly landed on the ground and made his way towards the metallic door that led to the Shimada Mart’s basement.

During the walk several thoughts clawed at him. Mainly about what he was going to tell Naomi. She believed he was Richard, but in reality he was just another man pretending to be her lover.

The closer Fredrinn got, the faster his heartbeats became until his trained nose picked up the scent of food wafting under the narrow slit in the door.

He didn’t recognize the scent, but he knew one thing.

It must be damn delicious.

After all, despite forgetting most things about Earth, Fredrinn never forgot the cuisine.

Apalasia was eons behind Earth when comparing the two’s food.

So the excitement of learning more about his circumstances was suddenly replaced with the thought of getting his hands on the divine food inside.

The nervousness evaporated and he cautiously knocked on the door.

"Passcode?" A bored voice responded to his knocks.

"..." Fredrinn thought about calling Naomi, but before he did, another voice questioned him, "Name?"

"Richard." Fredrinn played along, watching as the iron doors were unbolted and he was welcomed with open arms.

And the poor wizard could only look at the fellow humans blankly, wondering if they were always so helpful and nice or what?

But he blamed his hazy memories for assuming the Earthlings as selfish and untrustworthy.

The basement was tiled neatly and stocked with enough cartons of food and supplies that they could really last for years inside here.

The current group was nearly 25-30 strong, with only 7 being females while the rest were males.

It was no wonder that Naomi was worried for her safety. Any normal woman would be.

Some of the humans had dried blood on their clothes, suggesting they didn’t just run but also had their fair share of hell.

However just when he was getting welcomed into the basement and getting asked about any injuries, a young woman pushed herself off her feet and dashed towards the door only to freeze midway.

She had silky long black hair and a slim build with moderate proportions. Her face was oval shaped and cute while her clothes appeared to be slightly torn around the places, but not lewdly so.

"Th..." Her eyes were widened, staring at him in pure horror as she hyperventilated, "That’s not Richard..."