Apocalypse: King of Zombies

It never expected that a flock of crows would come to help this human.

A strong sense of danger surged again.

Sensing that the situation was turning bad, the giant rat decided it was time to leave. It quickly tried to make its escape, preparing to leap into the sewer.

But before it could, the sound of rushing wind filled the air. Several crows dove down, surrounding it. One of them slammed heavily into the rat, sending it flying dozens of feet away.

Ethan glanced over, his eyes narrowing. He knew this was his chance.

”These crows are the real deal. When it matters, they really show up...” he muttered.

He leapt into the air, pushing his Absolute Domain to its limit. Every rat caught within its range exploded into pieces.

The rat king, now panicked, tried to flee. But suddenly, it felt an overwhelming pressure bearing down on it.

Its body froze.

It couldn’t move at all.

Looking up, it saw a tall figure standing before it. Ethan’s gaze was cold, filled with murderous intent.

The rat king, now trapped within the Absolute Domain, had lost all its arrogance. Its body trembled uncontrollably.

Its eyes, surprisingly, showed a hint of pleading, as if begging for mercy. It almost looked pitiful.

Ethan focused his thoughts, concentrating the pressure of the Absolute Domain into a single point. With a loud bang, the rat king’s body exploded into pieces.

A crystal core shot out from the remains, and Ethan caught it in his hand.

The moment the rat king died, the once-ferocious swarm of rats lost their leader. Chaos broke out among them as they screeched in panic and scattered in all directions.

The massive horde of rats, which had been like a tidal wave moments ago, now retreated just as quickly.

In no time at all, they were gone.

The street was left in ruins, littered with shredded rat corpses and chunks of flesh. The stench of blood hung thick in the air.

A flock of large crows landed on the ground, pecking at the remains.

”Goodbye, kind human...”

The lead crow circled Ethan a few times before flapping its wings and flying off with the rest of the flock.

And with that, the street fell silent once more.

...

Ethan watched the crows disappear into the distance. He couldn’t help but feel that this was karma—good deeds being repaid. Maybe he should start feeding small animals more often and try to be a ”good person.”

He glanced around. While the rat king on this street had been dealt with, there were likely other threats lurking in the surrounding areas. After all, the rat king wasn’t the true ruler of this place. The real overlord here was probably a zombie king.

Ethan decided not to push his luck. With two crystal cores in hand, he had enough to absorb for a while. It was time to head back to his base and lay low for a bit.

With that, his figure vanished as he activated his stealth ability and returned to his territory.

...

But not long after Ethan left, a group of zombies appeared on the blood-soaked street. Leading them was a zombie king with dark red skin and bulging black veins. It was the infamous Red-Faced Zombie King from the park.

Around its neck was something furry and pitch black. As it raised its head, the creature revealed a human-like face covered in black fur.

”Squeak—squeak squeak squeak—”

The human-faced rat jumped down from the zombie king’s neck and scurried over to the pile of rat corpses. It let out a mournful cry, filled with sorrow.

”My wife... how could you die? Who did this to you? I’ll avenge you, no matter what!”

The human-faced rat rubbed its grotesque face against the shredded remains of the rat king, its voice trembling with grief.

Before long, its fur was soaked in blood.

”Scarf, don’t be too upset. Anyone who dares invade my territory—I’ll make sure they pay with their life!”

The Red-Faced Zombie King’s voice was hoarse, like the sound of grinding stones.

Behind it stood several trusted subordinates, all highly evolved. Their intelligence was on par with beings like Bulldozer and Laura, showing signs of advanced thought.

”Boss... I asked around. It was that zombie from the tower who did this,” one of the subordinates reported.

”Oh?”

The Red-Faced Zombie King’s eyes gleamed with murderous intent. It had already been planning to eliminate that rival to expand its territory, but now the provocation had come straight to its doorstep.

”How many zombies does he have over there?”

”After some scouting, we’ve figured it out—about two thousand,” the subordinate replied.

”Only two thousand?”

The Red-Faced Zombie King tilted its head, finding it hard to believe.

It had expected the rival to be much stronger...

After all, under its own command, it had already gathered over twenty thousand zombies.

Twenty thousand against two thousand? That would be a walk in the park.

”Scarf, get ready. I’ll avenge you right away!”

...

Meanwhile, Ethan had no idea any of this was happening.

He had already returned home.

As usual, he started his routine: soaking in a hot bath, changing into clean clothes, and then beginning to absorb the energy from the crystal cores he had collected.

The rat king’s crystal core was pitch black, like a perfectly ripened cherry, and it gave off a faint, sweet aroma.

The energy within it was incredibly pure, providing a significant boost to Ethan’s abilities.

Perhaps it was because the rat king’s mental field had some similarities to his Domain of the Dead, making the energy particularly compatible with him.

...

Over the next few days, Ethan stayed low at home, sticking to his usual cautious approach.

Since taking down the rat king, neither rats nor zombies had come to bother him.

Occasionally, a crow would circle in the sky above, but that was the only sign of life.

During this time, Ethan used his phone to gather information about the outside world.

The Genesis Biotech website was especially lively.

The incident at the mall had been made public: several Awakeners had been killed, and billions worth of supplies had vanished.

The survivor forums were buzzing with speculation:

”Over ten Awakeners wiped out in a single night. What kind of monster could’ve done this?”

”Yeah, what level of zombie king are we even talking about here?”

”It’s terrifying. And on top of that, over two hundred survivors were involved, and all the supplies were looted.”

”Genesis Biotech isn’t as reliable as they claim. They were hyping up their ’Operation King Hunt,’ but it looks like they got hunted instead...”

”Could it be that it wasn’t zombies, but another human group that did this?”

”Hmm... that’s possible. I’ve heard rumors about rogue Awakener groups out there, doing all kinds of terrible things, even raiding official shelter supplies.”

”...”

The Westfield Century City Mall Incident had become a tangled mystery, leaving everyone curious about what really happened that night.

But there were no survivors left to tell the tale.

It was quickly becoming the greatest unsolved mystery of the apocalypse.

Still, Genesis Biotech wasn’t ready to give up. The billions worth of supplies were far too valuable to simply vanish without explanation. There was no way they’d let it go.

They immediately issued a public statement:

”Our company is committed to uncovering the truth behind the mall incident and honoring the memory of Marcus and the others who gave their lives. Effective immediately, Operation King Hunt will commence. We will hunt down every zombie king and recover the lost supplies!”

Ethan, lounging at home, muttered to himself as he read the statement on his phone, ”These people just can’t stay out of trouble, can they?”

Meanwhile, at Genesis Biotech, preparations for the operation were in full swing.

A group of Awakeners sat in a conference room, their attention fixed on a large screen at the front. The screen displayed a detailed map of Los Angeles.

A middle-aged man stood at the front, pointing to the map as he explained:

”After a month of drone reconnaissance, we’ve mapped out the basic distribution of zombies. In the area surrounding the mall, there are roughly ten zombie king territories. Based on their threat levels, we’ve classified them from one-star to five-star difficulty.”

”Five-star zones are the most dangerous, while one-star zones are relatively safer. For example, this area near the tower...”

He circled a spot on the map with a laser pointer.

”This territory has about two thousand zombies, making it the smallest of the zombie king territories. We’ve classified it as a one-star difficulty hunt.”

The Awakeners in the room exchanged glances, feeling like this was starting to resemble a video game dungeon raid.

Still, a one-star difficulty hunt sounded like an easy job.

Immediately, hands shot up as people scrambled to volunteer.

”This one’s perfect for me! I’ll take it!”

”No, no, I’ll go! Let me handle it!”

...