Apocalypse: King of Zombies

”Annihilation Strike?” Chris leaned forward, eyes bright with curiosity. ”Sounds busted. Ethan, you mind showing us?”

The rest of them stared at Ethan like kids waiting for a magic trick.

”Sure,” Ethan said, nodding. ”I want to get a feel for it too.”

He led them out to the backyard.

Under their eager gazes, Ethan pulled out his poleaxe. His expression sharpened, the lazy warmth draining out of his eyes like someone flipping a switch.

A pitch-black glow seeped over the blade.

Then Ethan slammed the poleaxe down into the ground.

”BOOM!”

A violent roar shook the yard. The earth caved in, leaving a massive crater—five or six meters deep. Dust and grit blasted up and painted everyone gray all over again.

Nearby, people living around the mansion went pale with fear.

”Those monsters are playing demolition again! They better not bury us along with the house!”

”Screw this. Tomorrow I’m filing for a new place. This is scary as hell!”

Inside the yard, the squad didn’t even bother brushing off the dirt. They just stood there, eyes huge, staring into the pit.

”So… so strong…”

”Jesus. Against someone the same Tier, that’s basically a one-shot.”

”I feel like even Tier 13 couldn’t take that head-on.”

”That’s insane.”

Ethan rolled his shoulder, exhaling. ”It’s strong, yeah. But the cost is brutal.”

That strike had eaten up about a third of his mental energy to produce that kind of effect.

Still… Ethan couldn’t deny he was satisfied. At this level, even a peak Tier 12 probably wouldn’t survive it.

”Man, I want to hit Stage C already,” Big Mike said, pure envy on his face.

Chris immediately poured cold water on him. ”Even if you hit Stage C, you’re not getting a skill like that. Ethan got to handpick his. You? You’re rolling the dice.”

”…” Big Mike’s face twitched.

”What if I roll something crazy?” he argued stubbornly.

”You’re dreaming,” Chris said. ”The odds are worse than winning the lottery.”

”…”

”Alright,” Ethan cut in, tone turning practical. ”Either way, get your Tiers up as fast as you can. Even the worst Stage C skill is still better than Stage D.”

He looked at each of them in turn. ”And you all have Innate Abilities. Once you hit Stage C, your Innate Abilities will upgrade again. Your combat power’s going to jump hard.”

”Yeah,” they answered in unison, nodding seriously.

Over the next few days, they basically shut themselves indoors to train. Aside from sleeping and eating, almost every waking moment went into cultivation.

With Henry’s ritual circle, they could absorb mysterious energy day or night, and the speed was on a completely different level from before.

But the ritual circle’s strength came with a nasty price tag.

It took nine crystal cores each time. Even nine Tier 9 crystal cores only lasted enough to support one full day of absorption.

If they used Tier 8 cores, it burned through them even faster—two swaps a day—and the mysterious energy density was noticeably weaker.

Which meant their hunger for crystal cores spiked all over again.

Most of their previous stash had been handed over to Miles to develop Fallen Star City. The crystal cores they had on them now were mostly what they’d harvested killing zombies on the way to Atlas City—and that wasn’t much.

They’d looted over a million crystal cores from the Hale family, sure, but almost all of those were below Tier 6. Cores that low barely did anything for them now. Maybe they were great for Tier 5 or Tier 6 Enhanced, but they sure as hell couldn’t satisfy Fallen Star Squad.

And Tier 6-and-below cores… even if they handed them to the government to synthesize upward, they still wouldn’t get many Tier 9 cores out of it.

So once their Tier 9 supply ran dry, they had no choice but to go back out and hunt zombies.

Inside Atlas City’s borders, you could barely find any zombies anymore. The Atlas City Safe Zone was sending teams out every day to nearby cities to clear them.

Ethan and the others were in the same boat. If they wanted zombies to kill, they had to travel far out.

Luckily, they had flying mounts, so distance wasn’t much of an issue.

Tier 9 zombies were showing up in decent numbers now. If they put in a full day, they could take down dozens.

And that meant the high-Tier zombies around Atlas City had officially met their apocalypse.

Fallen Star Squad hunted almost exclusively high-Tier targets. Hiding in a swarm didn’t help—those lunatics came from the sky, and their eyesight was ridiculously sharp. No matter how well a zombie tried to blend in, they’d still get singled out.

Catch. Kill. Leave.

They hit so fast and so hard they were basically traumatizing the zombies.

And while Fallen Star Squad spent their days slaughtering zombies and using the ritual circle to absorb mysterious energy and raise their Tiers, compounds all over the Atlas Federation started receiving invitations from Atlas City.

Normally, in the middle of the apocalypse, people would refuse something like that.

Aside from government Safe Zones, most civilian-built compounds existed because someone had ambition. And ambitious people were the last ones who wanted to deal with the government—especially when Atlas City was that far away. The trip itself was insanely dangerous. One wrong move and you didn’t come back.

But Atlas City was offering something almost no compound leader could say no to:

Bring low-Tier crystal cores to Atlas City, and exchange them for higher-Tier crystal cores—trade a dozen or so to get one core that was one Tier higher.

Every compound out there had been built on piles of zombie corpses. By now, pretty much every compound leader had a stash of crystal cores.

And most of what they had left were low-Tier cores—because the high-Tier ones had been used up a long time ago.

The low-Tier cores were useless to them, but nobody wanted to throw them away either. So they just sat in warehouses, collecting dust.

Now they were being told those dusty low-Tier cores could be turned into real power.

Very few people didn’t feel their hearts jump.

Zombies were getting stronger. They’d started actively hunting humans. Every day, more compounds were being wiped out. Leaders everywhere were on edge, sleeping with one eye open.

So when Atlas City tossed out this offer, it wasn’t just temptation—it was a hook sunk right into their survival instinct.

Sure, some people questioned whether it was real. Whether it was a trap.

But most chose to believe it.

Because if you couldn’t even trust a message issued by the Atlas Federation’s highest command center… then what the hell could you trust?

In the end, plenty of people’s eyes burned with desire. No matter how hard it was, they were going to Atlas City.

The road would be dangerous, but if they only sent their strongest team, it should be manageable.

A compound might not be powerful overall, but most of them could scrape together a handful of real monsters.

Anyone who’d managed to found a compound—and keep it alive this long—had their own tricks.

Soon, teams after teams set out from their compounds, hauling crystal cores and heading toward Atlas City.

Fallen Star City…

Miles lowered the phone and murmured to himself, thinking out loud.

”The captain told me Atlas City’s synthesis rate is around ten to twenty cores to make one… meaning this exchange program isn’t even letting them profit off the spread?”

He narrowed his eyes, then gave a small nod.

”Looks like whoever’s running things in Atlas City isn’t bad. Next time someone from Atlas City shows up, I won’t kick them out.”

He scratched his chin.

”I’ve got a lot of crystal cores stored in my pocket dimension already. When I get a chance, I should go trade for some higher-Tier cores too.”

”Not this time, though. The captain and the others are already in Atlas City. No point in me going.”

He shifted gears, eyes focusing.

”Harrison City is basically cleared out. Next… I’ll wipe out the zombies in Stonebridge City too.”

”Stonebridge City used to have over two million people,” Miles muttered, anticipation creeping into his gaze. ”The zombie count should be… pretty nice.”

A spark of excitement flashed in his eyes.