Apocalypse: King of Zombies

That night, thin trails of smoke rose from the mansion’s backyard where Ethan and the others were staying. The smell of grilling meat drifted across the compound, spreading block by block until people nearby started swallowing without even realizing it.

Life in the compound meant you wouldn’t starve, sure…

But nobody lived this luxuriously.

That aroma hit, and the steamed buns in people’s hands instantly felt like sawdust.

”Holy shit… who’s grilling? It smells so damn good.”

”Nope. I can’t take it. I’m going to go beg for a bite.”

Plenty of folks left their homes and followed the scent.

Then they realized it was coming from Fallen Star Squad’s mansion.

Their courage died on the spot. One by one, they turned around and went back to chewing bread like obedient civilians.

In the mansion’s backyard, grill racks were set up in rows. On each one, a Bloodfang Wolf was skewered and slowly turned over the fire.

Ethan and the others moved between the grills like a well-practiced crew—some rotating the meat, some sprinkling seasonings, everyone busy and weirdly cheerful about it.

They didn’t have a choice. Ethan had promised the white-furred apes.

And Ethan always kept his word.

But among the dozens of grills, two of them were… unpopular.

No one wanted to go anywhere near them.

Because on those two racks were two pitch-black, human-shaped things—turning slowly over the flames.

After Ethan realized the white-furred apes actually wanted to eat people, he decided he had to stomp that thought out completely.

Otherwise, it was guaranteed to turn into a disaster.

So Ethan had Sean and the others go out and drag back two Tier 5 zombies.

Zombies were human once anyway. Throw them on a fire and roast them long enough—no one could tell at a glance.

And zombie flesh was basically rotten. Even when a Tier 6 zombie still looked pretty close to human on the outside, the meat was nothing like real meat.

Roast zombie ”meat,” then add Ethan’s special seasoning…

He was confident the white-furred apes would take one bite and never want a second.

Still.

Roasting a zombie wasn’t something most people could bring themselves to do.

Watching a human-shaped body roll on the grill made even Ethan break out in goosebumps.

After a solid half hour, Ethan yanked the two roasted zombies off the racks.

That’s enough. If it cooked any longer, he was going to puke.

He quickly carried them over and handed them to the white-furred apes.

The apes took the roasted zombies, sniffed them… and immediately frowned.

The leader, cautious now, took a tiny bite.

”Blegh—”

It spit the mouthful out on the spot, then hurriedly shoved the roasted zombie toward the other apes.

The others didn’t believe it. They took bites too.

And then—

”Blegh…”

A whole group of white-furred apes squatted on the ground, retching in unison.

Ethan’s mouth curled in satisfaction.

Plain zombie meat was disgusting, sure, but it wasn’t necessarily instant-vomit disgusting.

What made the difference was Ethan’s ”extra touch”—a few specially chosen, nausea-inducing spices mixed in.

Now these white-furred apes probably wouldn’t even think about eating humans again.

And just like he expected, once they finally stopped gagging, the apes looked at the roasted zombies on the ground with open disgust…

…and the way they looked at Ethan and his team got a little weird, too.

Ethan didn’t care.

As long as they stopped getting ideas about people, mission accomplished.

Not long after that, the roasted Bloodfang Wolves started coming off the grills one by one.

After suffering through the nauseating zombie roast, biting into a fragrant, juicy Bloodfang Wolf was like going from hell straight to heaven.

Each white-furred ape hugged a whole roasted wolf to its chest and gnawed away, eyes half-lidded in bliss.

Ethan and the others grilled two for themselves too. Then they sat on the ground and split them up, eating with their hands.

Maybe it was the Void Realm’s environment, or maybe Bloodfang Wolves were just built different—but the roasted meat was insanely good. Even the two women in the squad ate with zero dignity, tearing in like they hadn’t had a real meal in years.

It wasn’t until ten at night that the barbecue feast finally ended.

The white-furred apes just flopped down in the backyard and went straight to sleep. Ethan and the rest headed back inside to their rooms.

At midnight, everyone got up again.

They’d spent days in the Void Realm unable to do their nightly star-gazing and absorb mysterious energy. Now that they were out, they could finally cultivate normally again.

But while they were looking up and absorbing mysterious energy, Ethan noticed something that made his scalp go tight—

The white-furred apes were doing it too.

And the amount of mysterious energy they pulled in was actually more than what Ethan’s group could absorb using the method from the Energy Absorption Technique book.

These white-furred apes definitely have some kind of special bloodline or innate talent, Ethan thought grimly.

To reach Stage C (Tier 12) in a place where mysterious energy was that thin, they had to have something abnormal. Now that they’d come to Earth—where mysterious energy was rich and full—their growth could turn outright terrifying.

Mutant beasts like this…

Either you completely keep them in your hands, or you kill them as soon as possible.

Otherwise the consequences would be ugly.

Ethan’s expression darkened.

Sure, things were fine right now, but that ”friendship” was basically held together by grilled meat.

In other words, if someone else offered them something tastier, there was a very real chance they’d point their fists at Fallen Star Squad instead.

That kind of relationship was way too fragile.

Ethan even considered sending them back tomorrow—but after getting a taste of Earth’s benefits, there was no way they’d quietly stay inside that Void Realm again.

So there was only one real option left: have Skinny Pete take control of the leader.

The problem was—easier said than done.

Skinny Pete was only Tier 10. Using Beast Control to control a Stage C white-furred ape leader? He couldn’t do it yet.

At minimum, he’d need to hit Tier 11 before it was even worth trying.

”Forget it. We’ll stabilize things for now and deal with it once our strength’s up,” Ethan muttered, shaking his head. He stopped overthinking and quickly entered a focused state of energy absorption.

At five in the morning, when the nine stars of the Nine-Star Dipper faded from sight, Ethan came out of his absorption trance. He glanced down at the white-furred apes… and his mouth twitched.

There’d originally been only one Stage C (Tier 12) white-furred ape.

Now there were four.

Meaning overnight, three of them had jumped from peak Tier 11 straight into Tier 12.

Ethan was stunned—until he thought it through.

They’d probably been stuck at the peak of Tier 11 for a long time. Their original world’s mysterious energy was too thin to break through. Now that they were on Earth, they’d used Earth’s mysterious energy to finally push over the wall.

If that was the case, the remaining white-furred apes would likely reach Stage C in the next few days too.

The pressure hit Ethan like a brick.

If Skinny Pete wanted to control them, the prerequisite was beating the leader down—beating it to the point it couldn’t resist.

But with things developing like this…

How the hell were they supposed to win that fight?

Ethan’s head ached. For the first time, it hit him that tricking these white-furred apes out might not have been such a great idea.

The benefits were real, sure.

But the headaches were piling up fast.

We can’t let them stay in the compound. If someone else stirs them up or takes advantage of this, it’ll be a disaster.

After catching a bit more sleep, at eight in the morning Ethan took Mia and headed toward the center of the compound.

He had questions for General Cross. And he wanted to ask about a satellite phone too—life without a phone was just too inconvenient.

He’d originally planned to bring Chris, but Chris said Henry wasn’t in a great headspace and he wanted to stay back and ”comfort” him.

Ethan knew the truth. The guy wasn’t trying to comfort Henry.

He was trying to comfort Emily.

Typical. Get a woman and suddenly your brothers don’t exist.

In the end, Mia volunteered to go with him, so he brought her along.

When it came to dealing with government and military types, Mia was better at it than he was.