Apocalypse: King of Zombies

As Garrick kept pouring more power in, the crack on the altar started to stretch—slowly, painfully slowly—growing longer and wider millimeter by millimeter.

At this point, Garrick had several Tier 8 crystal cores tucked in his mouth, crushing and absorbing them as he went. Behind him, Emily kept firing off her recovery skill nonstop, keeping his mental energy topped up.

Even so, the sweat never stopped. His face was flushed a deep red, and it was obvious this was way beyond what his current level could comfortably handle.

But they’d gotten this far. No one was about to quit now.

Minute by minute, the crack crawled across the altar. Everyone watched with their breath held, tense enough that nobody even dared to whisper.

An hour later, Garrick was so exhausted he looked like he might pass out any second—when the crack finally spread across the entire altar.

”Break!” Garrick roared, wringing out the last scrap of strength he had.

The altar exploded into pieces.

And as it collapsed, whatever had been hidden beneath it was finally revealed.

The second they saw it, the entire group froze like their brains had bluescreened.

Right where the center of the altar had been… sat a coffin, made from some unknown material.

They stared at it for a long time, nobody saying a word.

Finally, blunt as always, Skinny Pete broke the silence. ”If I’m not seeing things… that’s a coffin, right?”

”…” Chris rubbed his face, at a loss. ”Yeah. You’re not seeing things. That’s a coffin.”

”Jesus Christ.” Big Mike’s irritation boiled over. ”We busted our asses all day, Garrick damn near collapsed like three times, and this is what we get? We break it open and it’s just… this?”

Ethan didn’t answer. He activated [True Sight] immediately and looked into the coffin.

The coffin’s material was strange, but with the altar gone, there was nothing blocking him anymore. Seeing inside was easy.

And the moment he did, a chill climbed up from the pit of his stomach.

”This… how is that possible?”

Inside the coffin lay a man—completely naked.

Maybe it was the coffin’s special material, because the body hadn’t rotted despite all the time that must’ve passed. But his clothes were gone—weathered into nothing.

Meaning the coffin couldn’t fully shut time out. Not completely.

The man was handsome. His build and proportions were so good even Ethan felt a flicker of envy. His eyes were closed, and at first glance he looked like he was just sleeping.

But Ethan knew better.

Looking closely, his heart wasn’t beating. The blood in his body had long since coagulated. His skin had a faint bluish-green cast—dead for a long, long time.

Still… why was there a corpse under the altar? Ethan couldn’t wrap his head around it.

”Ethan,” Chris asked cautiously, ”is there something inside the coffin?”

”Yeah,” Ethan said. ”A person.”

”A person?!” Everyone’s eyes went wide.

Ethan added, deadpan, ”A dead one.”

”Fuuuck…” Big Mike let out a long breath and slapped a hand to his chest. ”Captain, can you say the whole sentence the first time? You scared the hell out of me.”

Henry frowned, staring at the coffin like it might move. ”So this altar… it was meant to sacrifice that terrifying mutant beast to the man in the coffin?”

”Probably.” Ethan nodded.

”But why?”

Ethan’s mouth twitched. ”Who knows? This is already way past anything we understand.”

”…Yeah,” Henry muttered. ”Fair.”

Ethan walked up to the coffin and shoved hard on the lid. It shifted—just a little, but enough.

He let out a quiet breath. ”Looks like it opens.”

”Ladies, turn around. Chris, you guys get over here and help me. We’ll push the lid off together.”

”You got it!” Chris said, already moving.

Emily blinked. ”Why do we have to turn around? We can help too.”

”The body inside isn’t wearing anything,” Ethan said flatly. ”If you really want to look, then sure—come help.”

”…”

Emily’s face went red. She hurriedly turned around with Mia.

With everyone pushing, the lid slid open pretty quickly, revealing the inside.

There was nothing in the coffin except a naked man.

”Damn it,” Big Mike muttered, immediately annoyed for no logical reason. ”Handsome and built like that… this punk was definitely a playboy when he was alive.”

”Bro, you’re really beefing with a corpse?” Chris shook his head, then pressed a hand against the man’s body.

His expression flickered with surprise.

”His body’s… crazy solid.”

After that, the others couldn’t help themselves. They reached in and tested too, and one by one their faces changed.

Ethan’s eyes narrowed. ”Chris. Try it.”

”Alright.”

Chris drew his dagger and stabbed straight at the man’s chest.

The blade stopped cold—couldn’t even pierce the skin.

Chris frowned, then snapped black edge onto the dagger and drove it down again. Same result. No matter how hard he pushed, the skin wouldn’t break.

”This…” Chris stared, like the knife had betrayed him.

Everyone else was just as stunned.

The skeleton being indestructible was already insane. Now even a corpse had skin they couldn’t cut? What kind of joke was this?

A few of them refused to believe it and pulled out their own weapons, hacking and striking at the body.

Same outcome.

Nothing worked.

Big Mike, still not over it, even lobbed a couple of fireballs at the guy’s crotch.

All it did was burn off the hair. The skin didn’t even redden.

”…This is a little too much,” someone said, voice hollow.

They all felt it—the hit to their pride.

Out there, they were the kind of men who stood at the top of the food chain. But down here, they couldn’t do anything to the skeleton… and now they couldn’t even do anything to a dead body.

It was humiliating.

From behind them, Emily’s voice came, curious in that relentless, catlike way. ”Are you guys done? Or can you put clothes on him so we can look too?”

”Fine.” Ethan sighed and pulled out a set of clothes, tossing them at Big Mike. ”Big Mike. Dress him.”

Big Mike caught the bundle. ”Why me?”

”Because you’re the one who set his hair on fire.”

”…..”

After a long, awkward struggle, Big Mike finally managed to get the clothes onto the body, clumsy as hell the whole time.

Emily and Mia turned back around. Both of them visibly brightened.

”So handsome…” Emily breathed, practically starry-eyed.

”…..”

Chris cleared his throat and rubbed his nose, trying to sound casual. ”Uh… Emily, you know, I’m not exactly ugly either.”

She glanced at him. ”You? Not even close.”

”…”

Chris immediately turned to Mia like he was grasping for a life raft. ”Mia, you tell me. He’s handsome, right?”

Mia smiled. ”He’s alright. But he’s still a bit worse than our captain.”

Chris pointed at her like she’d just saved civilization. ”See? Mia knows how to talk.”

Emily huffed. ”Okay, okay. You look fine too, Chris. But yeah—you’re still not as good-looking as him.”

”...”

”Alright, quit staring,” Ethan said, rubbing at his temple. ”This is probably the main ’loot’ from coming into this Void Realm. We’ll take him back and study him.”

He shook his head, then waved a hand and stored the body in his spatial storage ring.

The ring couldn’t hold living things, but a corpse was fine.

After that, Ethan also collected the coffin itself, along with the shattered remains of the altar. Whether it was the coffin or the altar, the materials were clearly special—worth taking.

Once everything was packed away, Ethan looked up at the enormous skeleton and the chains binding it, regret tugging at him.

All of that was valuable too… but they couldn’t take it.

Skeleton, chains, even the pillars—none of it was something they could mess with right now.

They’d have to come back later.

When they were stronger.