"Almost silent. There's a distinctive sound from the air rushing in to the vacuum it creates, but that won't be heard from afar."

Cypress gives an approving nod at Tanya's change in wording.

"We don't have much time. Anything else?"

“Pink hairs, hostile? They were killing others on the way down.”

"Yes, the Fuchsia Coterie are dangerous. While you might have been one of them before and they'll see you as one of them at first, as a dream-skewered you won't know any of their names or countersigns to maintain that ruse."

“Dangerous how? Gang? Murder Cult? Likely to get me arrested in civilisation for sharing the hair colour?” What she really wants to know Is she socially allowed to kill them. Because if they need souls… But people get upset when you ask things like that outright.

"A paramilitary group, part of the Color Riot, used for deniable mercenary operations. Let's say it wouldn't come as a surprise for this many of them to be condemned to a Trial by Adversity. In civilization, that hair on a girl your age would be seen as a... tasteless, rebellious affectation. Appropriate disguises will only be needed later."

“Understood.” Enemy combatants are perfectly okay to kill. Mercenaries are even more acceptable targets than the Reds were. “Come on Joon, let’s go be Shinigami and collect some souls.”

The comment about a ‘girl her age’ stung a little. Cypress couldn’t be that much older than her at the worst. Tanya just happens to be very short from growing up without proper nutrition. 

Joon cringes at the edgy phrasing but follows her out with the void pistol raised, doing his best impression of how a SWAT team would clear an area. To someone with actual military experience, it's laughably amateurish.

"The game layer says 'Cypress' is slightly less loyal than you were when we first met," he reports. "What's the plan?"

“Plenty of people landed. Most of them probably didn’t make it due to the Fuchsia whatevers, or zombies. The mercenaries have been supplied by airdrop, I saw the crate while landing. We can spike corpses that look fresh and hope. And if the fuchsia weirdos get hostile….”

She honestly just wants to say they should go hunting for colour riot members and head towards the crate. But Joon is essentially a civilian. Most people get judgy about that sort of statement and it is too risky for someone so green.

"There was someone who got caught just after I landed, but she'll have been dead longer than the three minutes. You're thinking we follow the Coterie's trail and find the bodies they left behind? Let's do that."

As it happens, the trio they saw on the way in were running in the rough direction of the crate. Following the swathe of destruction left by Zombie Voltron chasing them through the town will lead to a dead-end alley where their three corpses remain, yet to reanimate.

The downside is that the undead making up Zombie Voltron haven't vanished. They've decohered, splitting back up into individual shamblers without a target in common, but there's a high density of them now spreading back out from that alley.

“You have videogame powers right? Like dragon quest? Do you get experience points? This seems like a good place to…” She searches for the word in english. It’s been a literal lifetime since she’s seen english gaming terms online. “Ground?”

This bloodthirsty child soldier living weapon also has memories of playing video games?

"The boxes say I'm level 1, it's worth a shot. Maybe whatever created this world drew on ideas from both of us."

He'll follow her advice, retreating back to the furthest point with view of a zombie umbral undead and peeking around that corner to shoot with the void pistol.

thwip

He's not very good at it, at first, but quickly familiarizes himself with the awkward grip

thwip

A few of the outermost undead notice the attacks and are drawn over, lumbering towards him. 

thwip

Critical hit!

Lesser umbral undead defeated!

Skill increased: Pistols lvl 1!

Level up!

He rises into the air for a moment, lifted by some unseen force and surrounded by a golden glow. A look of utter pleasure spreads over his face. 

"Whoa."

thwip

That display has drawn the attention of a few more undead, there's now a half-dozen moving towards them and the lead is over halfway there. 

“Was that a level up?” All that is missing is a little level up jingle.

“Run and gun. Don’t let them clump together and combine. Draw them away, the ones with… aggolo?” That sounds right. The memories of being online and playing games with americans as a teenager in her first life are vague though, and as an adult there was no time for childish things like that. And then she had a whole lifetime in a world without even television, much less the internet and online gaming.

 “I always thought videogames were childish, I should have played more of them if god is such a cheap hack that he rips them off for ideas to torture his victims.” She says the word god with such intense disdain and disgust. 

Joon follows her orders. He fires more beams of void at the approaching undead, with growing confidence, and retreats back at a jog when they get close.

"If we meet him we're going to have words," he agrees.

After another level-up, he starts pushing his luck more, waiting for them to get nearer before he retreats to get one or two more short-range shots in. 

“Don’t over extend.” She chastises Joon for getting cocky.

”Hmm you are getting better at aiming rather quickly… videogame powers? This seems entirely unfair that I do not also level. All I got was the power to make my sweat react like nitroglycerin.” First she gets stuck in the body of what feels like the tiniest girl in the world in a world of strong men. Now she doesn’t even have her mage powers and the other Isekai gets to level up. Is Being X trying to torture her with jelousy instead of fear? She isn’t nearly that petty.

”Speaking of speaking to god, I’d have expected him to come gloat by now…” Tanya mumbles to herself. Time hasn't stopped and Being X hasn’t talked to her through a zombie yet, he normally would have come gloat about what a dangerous situation he’s put her in by now and how praying to him is the one way to survive.

Joon looks like he wants to push back but follows her advice. 

Shortly after, she hears more sounds of movement, these coming from the level of the rooftops.

It's another member of the Fuchsia Coterie with a rifle, repositioning to a firing position on one of the taller buildings that would overlook the main road.

“Joon, gun, now.” She holds her hand open for him to hand it to her.

"Okay?" 

He hands it over without hesitation at the urgency in her voice, but he's unaware of why she needs it.