Apocalypse: King of Zombies

Early the next morning, Ethan and the others were up before dawn.

Ethan hauled away one of the crystal-core synthesis machines, snagged two satellite phones on the side, then said goodbye to Maxwell.

After that, the Fallen Star Squad left Atlas City’s compound together with Grace and the other three women, plus Vivian and the three people she’d brought with her, heading toward Golden Valley State.

All of their compounds were in Golden Valley State anyway, so they were going the same direction.

Vivian also planned to check out the Void Realm Grace had mentioned.

And it wasn’t just them.

Aurora Kane came along, too.

In her words, she wanted to ”get some field experience.”

Ethan honestly wasn’t sure what Maxwell was thinking, letting her run off with them so easily. But Aurora’s personality was solid. Whenever she’d had free time lately, she’d show up where they were staying, hanging around and getting familiar with everyone. At this point, she was basically part of the group, so Ethan didn’t bother stopping her.

Besides, Ethan had been planning to build a second-tier combat unit anyway, and Aurora was a pretty good candidate.

They’d tested her Tier 6 skill—gravity manipulation—and the results were nasty. Used right, it could cripple an opponent’s fighting ability.

More importantly, maybe because she came from a military family, Aurora didn’t have a trace of that delicate, sheltered vibe. When it was time to fight, she went feral.

And her strength was already at the peak of Tier 9. By Ethan’s estimate, she’d probably hit Tier 10 within days.

Tier 10 still didn’t qualify for the Fallen Star Squad’s ”entry requirements,” but for a second echelon? She was absolutely good enough.

Ethan’s plan was simple: resources went to the Fallen Star Squad first. Whatever the squad didn’t need would go to the second echelon. Then whatever was left over would trickle down to the Fallen Star Guard.

Like right now—Tier 10 crystal cores were basically useless to the Fallen Star Squad already, so they could be fed to the second-tier fighters.

And thanks to the ritual circle Henry had created, they’d been absorbing mysterious energy through it nonstop. Everyone was already closing in on the peak of Tier 11. Give it a bit more time and they probably wouldn’t even care about Tier 11 crystal cores anymore.

This time, though, there were too many people. Five flying mounts simply weren’t enough.

Sure, Nugget and the other mounts could technically carry extra people dangling from their talons—but that only worked for short hops. For a long journey like this, hanging off a bird’s claws was just asking to die.

Even ignoring mutant bird flocks, the wind alone would rip you apart after hours like that.

So they decided to travel on foot.

With a group this strong, walking would only take a few days. And it was perfect—along the way, they could hunt high-Tier zombies and mutant beasts for better crystal cores, and keep an eye out for any Void Realm entrances.

Once the plan was set, the group moved out fast, heading in the direction of Starlight City.

Grace’s compound was in a small town south of Starlight City, and the Void Realm entrance they’d found was there as well.

The moment they left Atlas City’s controlled territory, they finally started seeing zombies again.

But zombies weren’t scattered in ones and twos anymore. Now they moved in packs—thick clusters roaming the ruined roads.

They were on a schedule, so Ethan usually led everyone around the larger groups. He only stopped when he spotted zombies at Tier 9 or higher.

Tier 9 crystal cores could be used to activate the ritual circle, so those were always worth collecting.

And killing a Tier 9 zombie wasn’t exactly hard.

Ethan would have Flint take him in. He’d swoop down, bring the poleaxe flashing through the air—one clean strike, a kill. He’d snatch the crystal core and pull out without getting bogged down fighting the rest.

Quick. Smooth. Like it was rehearsed.

Vivian and her people could only stare.

No wonder the Fallen Star Squad was so terrifying. With skills like that, how was anyone supposed to compete?

Most groups, even strong ones, needed a whole operation to kill a single high-Tier zombie. You’d bring a large team, smash into the horde, judge the zombie’s strength based on how it fought, then send the best fighters to surround and grind it down.

So even for a top compound, getting one Tier 9 crystal core usually meant burning a ton of time and effort.

Ethan, on the other hand, just locked on, flew in, beheaded it, and flew back out—sometimes in under a minute.

It was disgustingly easy.

Seriously. Comparing people was the fastest way to get mad at the world.

With Ethan leading the way, the whole trip felt less like a deadly trek through the apocalypse and more like a relaxed hike. The world was crawling with zombies, yet they moved through it like they owned the road.

For the first time, Vivian and the others finally understood what it felt like to be part of the Fallen Star Squad.

Ethan’s ability was honestly a straight-up bug.

With him around, not only did everyone’s survival odds shoot through the roof, but if they needed crystal cores of a specific Tier, he could practically point at the map and say, There. It was like playing with cheats on.

Vivian—and even Grace’s group—kept getting the same dangerous thought: Maybe we should just ditch our compounds and follow Ethan instead.

As for Aurora, she’d already been set on joining the Fallen Star Squad. Now? She was more determined than ever.

The biggest reason was that her father, Maxwell, supported it.

The fact she was able to come today meant she’d gotten his approval. If anything, Maxwell wanted it even more than she did—he was practically hoping she’d successfully wedge her way into the Fallen Star Squad.

While Ethan’s group traveled in an almost ridiculously relaxed way…

Fallen Star City welcomed some uninvited guests.

Up in the compound’s watchtower, a guard suddenly spotted a large crowd moving toward the walls. His expression turned wary.

Redwood County was already remote. Fallen Star City was even more out of the way. Aside from Jaxon’s group—refugees who’d fled from Harrison City—almost nobody ever came here.

And the group in the distance didn’t look like refugees at all.

They were moving cautiously, sneaking along instead of approaching openly. The kind of careful that screamed bad intentions.

The guard leaned down and called to someone below.

”Go report to the Deputy Commander. There’s a big group heading toward our compound, and they don’t look friendly!”

”Got it.”

At the same time, Andrew had brought several thousand high-level fighters from Stonebridge City Compound, carefully advancing until they were no longer far from Fallen Star City.

He’d barely gotten back to Stonebridge from Atlas City before turning around and racing straight to Redwood County with a team. Even for him, it was brutal.

But the moment he saw Fallen Star City’s massive compound—and the eye-catching steel sign that read ”FALLEN STAR CITY”—Andrew went blank for a second.

”Wasn’t this place supposed to be called Redmont City?” he muttered. ”Did they rename it?”

This was supposed to be a compound built out of some remote little city. Yet the scale of these walls… it looked bigger than Stonebridge City Compound.

Then one of his men tugged on his sleeve and pointed at the huge laser cannon mounted above the compound’s entrance.

”Andrew… what the hell is that thing?”

Andrew followed the finger. His brows pinched together.

”That’s… a cannon, isn’t it?”

”But they’re not a government Safe Zone. Where would they even get a cannon?” the man whispered. ”And I’ve never seen a design like that.”

Another guy swallowed. ”Andrew, do you think it’s strong?”

Andrew scoffed. ”All flash. Look how short the barrel is—how strong could it be? You’re all Tier 7 and Tier 8 Enhanced. What are you scared of? It’s a toy.”

”Oh… okay.”

Andrew turned his head. ”Golden Eagle. Get up that tree and check how many people are inside the compound.”

A tall, skinny man in the back nodded. His Tier 6 skill was Eagle Vision, letting him see extreme distances, which was how he’d earned the codename Golden Eagle.

”Understood.”

Golden Eagle scrambled up to the top of a nearby tree and stared toward the compound.

After a long moment, he dropped back down.

”Andrew, I checked. There aren’t many people inside. Some are farming, some are doing production and construction—looks like mostly normal civilians. I’d say at most thirty or forty thousand people.”

”So the walls are just built big,” Andrew said, a cold smile creeping onto his face. ”This compound isn’t even as good as a small one.”

He lifted his hand. ”Move. We go straight in and take control of everyone inside—fast as possible.”

”Yeah!”