Horrific Shorts: Zombie Edition - Chapter 456: Story : The Subterranean Threshold

A side story series featuring the girls of Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon.

Birth rates are decreasing. Hope is vanishing. The world has gone gray.Humanity, drifting in quiet collapse, receives an email.Every person on Earth. Simultaneously.The Aegis Mandate.Disguised as a cosmic aptitude test, it triggers The Incident of Separation—a global psychic cataclysm that erases identities, wipes memories, and divides all survivors into three factions: Law, Neutral, and Chaos. Overnight, cities become battlegrounds. Apartments become dungeons. Ordinary people become monsters—or the ones who hunt them.Ragnar Vhagar was just a loner university student. Now, thanks to a system he didn’t ask for, he’s a newly minted Demon King, locked in a crumbling apartment with goblins under his sofa and a glowing soul crystal next to his frozen peas. His new job? Build a deadly domain, defend it from invading “Heroes,” and somehow level up fast enough to not die.Alongside him is Isabelle Thorne, a razor-sharp warrior of few words and one very sharp sword. Their reluctant alliance, born in blood and snark, evolves into trust—and maybe something dangerously close to affection—as they rise together through the layers of the game-like world they’re trapped in.With each conquered domain and defeated boss, Ragnar realizes the truth: the dungeons aren’t meant to crown a winner. They’re meant to break the players. The Law faction wants control. The Chaos faction craves destruction. But Ragnar? He wants something they’re all too afraid to say out loud:Freedom.In the ruins of Kanta’s ogre stronghold, Ragnar and his misfit warband take their biggest step yet—claiming a kingdom, unifying a fractured system, and preparing for what comes next. The Heroes are watching. The gods are stirring. The world is watching a war.And somewhere deep beneath it all... Ragnar is rewriting the rules.

Welcome to Hell’s Game.[Entering instance: Bloody Restaurant][The position you applied for: Delivery Person][Your customers include: a fat otaku emitting a corpse stench, a maid who bursts at the slightest disagreement...][Your colleagues include: A boss who's too pretty to be human, A cow or a horse in the literal sense, a man-eating tree that swears in French...]Facing these incredible characters, Liu Zheng, who wanted to be a decent person, had no choice but to give up on humanity.

Ren Zhu: Quiet! Quiet! Look at the blackboard! I’m going to start teaching!

Bear child 1 [1]: Hahaha! Who is this weak chicken!

Bear child 2: May as well dance than listen to class. Why start the class!

Fake good child: Sit upright.

Ren Zhu: ……

Bear child 1: You received the class teacher’s quiet gaze x 1. Physical strength -500. Entered the weak state!

Bear child 2: You received the class teacher’s deep gaze x 1. Intelligence -50. Entered the mentally retar*ed state!

Fake good child: You received the class teacher’s gratified gaze x 1. Intelligence and physical strength +50. Entered the excited state.

Ren Zhu: My goal is to teach and educate people, and bring love to every bear child. Thank you.

- Description from Novelupdates