Apocalypse: King of Zombies

Anyway, Sophia was convinced that someone as cold-blooded and ruthless as Ethan, the so-called Zombie King, couldn’t possibly have any sort of bond with Mia.

But she also knew better than to recklessly attack Los Angeles. That would be way too dangerous, and odds were, they wouldn’t stand a chance against him.

”The Phantom Infected files have already been sent back to HQ. Let’s wait and see what they decide.”

...

Meanwhile, Ethan was at home when his phone buzzed. He picked it up and saw a text from Mia.

”Those parasitic monsters last time—they were after you.”

”Oh.”

Ethan replied simply, though he couldn’t help but think to himself that she’d already said something like this several times before.

”Worried about me, are you?”

”What I mean is, because of you, the shelter suffered heavy losses,” Mia shot back bluntly.

”...” Ethan felt a headache coming on. ”You can’t pin all of that on me. My guys helped you clean up a ton of those ’Sandwich Cookies.’”

”Your ’guys’ were definitely parasitic monsters, but the cookies they were sandwiched between? Most of them were survivors from the shelter,” Mia replied.

Ethan paused, thinking it over. She wasn’t wrong...

Mia continued, ”According to the sole survivor from Santa Clarita, the leader of the parasitic monsters there has already found a Radiant Crystal and evolved into its ultimate form. We’re planning to team up with Awakeners from other shelters to take it down before it evolves any further.”

”The Radiant Crystal’s with me. Where’d the monster find one?” Ethan asked, surprised.

Mia explained, ”There were countless meteor fragments that day, scattered all over the world. So, there’s more than one Radiant Crystal.”

Ethan raised an eyebrow at that.

So, there were other Radiant Crystals out there.

Lately, parasitic monsters had been lurking around the outskirts of his territory, clearly eyeing the Radiant Crystal in his possession. Maybe getting their hands on it was the key to their evolution.

”This operation to hunt down the parasitic monster leader—we’re calling it the Decapitation Operation. You in?” Mia asked, laying out the shelter’s plan.

Ethan didn’t answer right away, mulling it over. An ultimate-form parasitic monster would definitely be stronger than S-rank.

On top of that, high-level Awakeners from shelters across various cities would be heading to Santa Clarita.

If the monster killed them, wouldn’t it be perfectly reasonable for him to swoop in and collect a few crystal cores?

And if things went smoothly, he might even snag another Radiant Crystal.

This could be a huge win...

”Hmm, sounds like a dangerous mission. I’ll come along to protect you,” Ethan finally said.

Mia’s only response was, ”Ha.”

After the catastrophe, the shelter had suffered massive losses.

While most of the buildings had been repaired, they were still critically low on supplies. They desperately needed to send people out to scavenge and get things back to normal.

So Mia’s goal wasn’t just to participate in the Decapitation Operation—she also planned to search for supplies along the way.

And if they were going on a supply run, they’d obviously need to bring along the ”movers” like Chris and Brandon.

”Hunting monsters is one thing, but why are we looking for supplies too? Do we really need to go that far for it?” Chris grumbled.

He’d had a few close calls with parasitic monsters before, barely escaping with his life. His old injuries hadn’t even fully healed yet, and now they were heading straight into the monsters’ lair. Of course, he was nervous.

Brandon chimed in, ”There’s nothing left around here. We’ve already scavenged everything nearby. If we don’t go farther out, we won’t find anything.”

”Yeah, the Santa Clarita shelter was overrun by monsters, but there’s still some sealed-off supplies there we can use,” Chloe added from the side.

”Ugh...” Chris sucked in a sharp breath. Just thinking about how the Santa Clarita shelter had fallen made his stomach churn. How many monsters would they be up against?

Brandon gave him a concerned look. ”Uncle Chris, if you’re scared, you can stay back. I’ll cover your share of the work.”

”Scared? Don’t be ridiculous!” Chris scoffed, trying to sound tough. ”I’ve been through worse, kid. What’s a few parasitic monsters? Nothing I can’t handle.”

”Well, as long as you don’t let their appearances fool you, you can avoid most of the danger,” Brandon advised.

”The first time, it was a sultry widow. Last time, it was an innocent-looking girl. Who’s the parasitic monster going to impersonate next? Kinda makes you curious, doesn’t it?” Chloe teased.

Chris: ”...”

Their group consisted of over a dozen Awakeners, with Mia and Sean leading the way. Most of them were familiar faces.

The group made their way through the crumbling streets of Los Angeles, eventually reaching the edge of Ethan’s territory.

Even though they’d been here a few times and were somewhat familiar with the place, the oppressive feeling never went away. It was like a weight pressing down on their very souls—something they couldn’t shake off.

Sean, however, seemed unfazed as usual. In fact, there was a glimmer of anticipation in his sharp, intelligent eyes. It had been a while since he’d last seen Ethan.

Before long, a figure appeared on the street ahead, walking toward them at a steady pace.

”Hehehe, Ethan! I’m here to see you!” Sean called out, waving enthusiastically from a distance.

Ethan’s gaze swept over the group. ”You got here pretty quick.”

”Of course,” Mia replied. ”The parasitic monster leader’s got its hands on a Radiant Crystal. We can’t afford to waste any more time—we need to take it out as soon as possible.”

That kind of monster, with its terrifying ability to infiltrate and infect, posed a massive threat to humanity. The nearby shelters had all agreed to join forces to eliminate the danger once and for all.

Ethan raised an eyebrow. ”You all sound pretty confident. Santa Clarita’s crawling with monsters. How exactly do you plan to kill the leader?”

”Stealth,” Mia said simply. ”They can disguise themselves as humans and infiltrate shelters, so we’re going to do the same—sneak into Santa Clarita.”

As she spoke, she pulled a small vial out of her pocket.

”This is a liquid extracted by our researchers from the corpses of parasitic monsters. If you apply it to your body, it’ll give off the scent of a parasite, confusing them into thinking you’re one of their own. Want to give it a try?”

”No thanks,” Ethan said flatly, shaking his head without hesitation. There was no way he was smearing some random substance on himself.

Besides, his Domain of the Dead ability could already mask his presence completely. He didn’t need that stuff.

”Oh, suit yourself,” Mia said with a faint smirk, her bright eyes glinting with amusement. It was almost like she was teasing him on purpose.

With that, they all started heading toward the river.

Santa Clarita was located upstream from Ethan’s territory, so all they had to do was follow the riverbank, and they’d eventually reach their destination.

As they walked through Ethan’s domain, Chris couldn’t help but glance around nervously. This place had a notorious reputation—it was known as one of the deadliest five-star corpse nests.

Naturally, he was on edge.

”Hey, Mia,” Chris whispered, lowering his voice. ”Aren’t we supposed to pay a toll to pass through here?”

Mia shot him a sideways glance.

”That last battle we fought here? We paid more than enough already…”

...