Apocalypse: King of Zombies

Screams kept ripping through the battlefield, one after another…

Emily looked downright crazed. She hacked at Sophia with her sword again and again, swing after swing—every strike drawing fresh blood.

Sophia’s legs were already ruined. She couldn’t dodge even if she wanted to. All she could do was lie there and endure the endless slashing, her mouth wide with nonstop, tearing screams.

Everyone watching felt their skin crawl.

But not a single person dared to speak up and stop it.

Ethan and the others just stood there in silence. They understood—Emily had been holding things in for a long time. This was pressure built up to the breaking point. She needed to vent, or it was going to twist into something worse.

Henry did step in.

Not to hurt Sophia.

To heal her—quietly, in the middle of it all.

Emily kept cutting for more than ten minutes.

Sophia screamed for more than ten minutes.

And what shocked everyone was that with the way Emily was chopping her up… Sophia still wouldn’t die.

It wasn’t until the white-furred apes finished off the fleeing Tier 9 Titan Apes and ran back that Emily finally stopped moving.

By then, Sophia barely looked human. Not a single patch of good flesh remained.

And yet, the rise and fall of her chest said she was still alive.

A collective shiver went through the crowd.

How is she not dead? If it were them, they’d rather die earlier than suffer like that. It was torture.

When Henry saw Emily had finally gotten most of it out of her system, he’d originally wanted to take his own turn.

But one look at Sophia’s condition, and he couldn’t even be bothered.

A flash of black light—

Void Beam.

Sophia’s life ended on the spot.

The siblings’ blood debt was finally paid back. Henry and Emily stood there quietly, like they were telling their dead parents, It’s done.

Just then, the white-furred apes jogged up to Ethan and handed him a big pile of Tier 9 crystal cores.

”Nice work,” Ethan said with a grin as he casually stored the cores away. ”I’ll take you guys to eat something good in a bit.”

The white-furred apes broke into wide, satisfied grins.

Seeing that, everyone felt envy spike all over again.

Mutant beasts that terrifying… who wouldn’t want them?

A moment later, General Cross came out from inside the compound with Director Vaughn and the others, walking straight over to Ethan.

”Ethan, thank you,” General Cross said, sincere to the core. ”If it weren’t for you, our compound would’ve been finished.”

”No need,” Ethan said, waving it off. ”This started because of us, so it’s only right we’re the ones to handle it.”

”There’s no such thing as ’only right’ in a situation like this,” General Cross said firmly. ”No matter what, you saved the entire compound. If you ever need my help in the future, just say the word. As long as it’s within my ability, I won’t refuse.”

”Alright. I will,” Ethan said, not bothering to play polite. A compound as big as Clearford might genuinely come in handy later.

”I’ve always known Fallen Star Squad was strong,” Director Vaughn said with a long breath, ”but I never had a real sense of it. Today I finally saw it. Honestly… I’m shaken.”

Ethan laughed. ”We just got lucky.”

”Alright,” General Cross said. ”We’ll leave the rest to you. We’ll head back first.”

”Sure.”

”Oh—right.” General Cross hesitated, then added, ”On the way here, our mines and our Super-Heavy Mobile Artillery Platform blew up a lot of Titan Apes. About those crystal cores… would it be alright if—”

”The ones you killed are yours,” Ethan said, waving again.

He already had nearly six thousand crystal cores in his spatial storage ring—mostly Tier 7 to Tier 9. There was no reason to get greedy over someone else’s share.

Besides, General Cross seemed like a decent man. If this compound grew stronger, it might actually be able to help them down the line.

General Cross and the others lit up instantly.

Sure, the Titan Apes were killed by their weapons—but if Ethan wanted the cores, they’d have no choice but to hand them over. General Cross asking first was partly to avoid souring things if Ethan decided to take them anyway.

Thankfully, Ethan wasn’t some overbearing tyrant. With that settled, everyone’s nerves finally loosened.

And when General Cross thought about the dozens of Tier 9 cores, plus the hundreds of Tier 7 and Tier 8 cores…

Even men at the very top of the compound’s leadership couldn’t keep the excitement off their faces.

With this haul, their compound’s overall strength would jump multiple levels overnight.

General Cross immediately ordered Colonel Mitchell to take men and start digging out crystal cores.

Ethan and the others, meanwhile, headed back toward the compound—with the white-furred apes in tow.

On the way back, everyone parted like the sea. The guards even hauled tables out of the way to clear a wider path.

Staring at those terrifying white-furred apes, people’s faces were full of fear.

The white-furred apes, meanwhile, licked their lips at the packed crowd.

Haven’t eaten this before. Wonder if it tastes good.

The white-furred ape leader slapped Ethan on the shoulder and pointed at the crowd.

”ROAR…” (Are these things good roasted?)

Ethan wiped at a cold sweat and waved his hands fast. ”Nope. Doesn’t taste good. No meat.”

The ape leader gave him a look—pure skepticism.

Ethan’s heart jumped.

I have to kill this idea right now, or something is going to go catastrophically wrong.

He thought for a moment, then tried again. ”How about this—tonight I’ll roast you two to try?”

”ROAR.” (Deal.)

Soon, the group returned to the mansion inside the compound. Ethan and the others went in, and he let the white-furred apes hang out in the backyard on their own.

No choice. They were over ten feet tall—they literally couldn’t fit inside.

”Captain, you’re insane. You actually got those white-furred apes under control!”

The moment they entered, everyone was buzzing with excitement.

Ethan shook his head. ”I’m just keeping them steady with food for now. It’s not like Goldie and the others—I’m not controlling them with a Beast Control ability. I can’t just order them around.”

He frowned. ”And communication’s a pain. I have to keep coaxing them. If they get mad, the consequences are unthinkable.”

Chris’s expression changed. ”So they’re basically a ticking time bomb?”

”Pretty much,” Ethan said bluntly. ”That’s why we need to raise our strength fast. At the very least, we need to hit a point where we can suppress them. Otherwise, it’s going to blow up in our faces sooner or later.”

”…Damn.” Someone let out a breath. ”I thought we could use them to steamroll the apocalypse. Guess I was dreaming.”

”It’s not that bad,” Ethan said with a quick grin. ”We’ve already profited plenty thanks to them.”

As he spoke, he took out the Tier 10 and Tier 11 crystal cores.

”I’ll go up to Tier 11 first. The remaining six Tier 10 cores—Chris, Henry, Garrick, Sean, Skinny Pete, Mia—one each.”

”Got it.”

No one argued. The ones he named stepped up and each took a Tier 10 core from Ethan’s hand.

”Captain, you rank up first,” Chris said. ”We’ll guard you.”

”Alright.”

Ethan nodded and sat down on the floor. After consuming two more Tier 10 crystal cores, he finally pushed his strength to the peak of Tier 10.

Then he swallowed the Tier 11 crystal core.

A few minutes later, Ethan opened his eyes. He clenched his fist, felt the power humming through his arm, and smiled.

He hadn’t expected a single trip into the Void Realm to jump him from Tier 9 straight to Tier 11.

The speed was stupidly satisfying.

With his current strength, other than those white-furred apes outside, he probably didn’t have to fear anyone.

Once Ethan finished, Chris and the others sat down as well and began to rank up.

Before long, their strength all rose to Tier 10.

Now Fallen Star Squad had one Tier 11, six Tier 10s, and two peak Tier 9s—already a massive gap compared to other Awakened.