Apocalypse: King of Zombies

It took Ethan and the others a full hour-plus to climb back out of the pit.

Mostly because the shaft had been packed solid by the cave-in. They could only rely on Garrick to dig them up inch by inch—and digging upward was a nightmare compared to digging down.

Still, with Garrick there, they made it out in the end without any real danger.

When Oliver saw them emerge, something complicated flickered across his face. But he still walked up with a smile like nothing was wrong.

”Ethan—thank god you’re finally out. When that pit collapsed, it scared me half to death.”

”Yeah,” Ethan said, dusting off his clothes. ”Had a little accident.”

Oliver hesitated, then couldn’t help asking, ”I have to know… why dig that deep? Was there something down there?”

”Mm.” Ethan smiled. ”There was treasure.”

From Oliver’s expression, Ethan could pretty much guess what he was thinking. But there was no chance Ethan was letting anyone else lay eyes on what they’d pulled out.

”And honestly,” Ethan added, keeping his tone light, ”we only got it because you brought us here. If you hadn’t, we wouldn’t have been able to take it.”

”I wouldn’t say that,” Oliver replied quickly. The bitterness was there if you looked closely, but he didn’t let it leak into his voice. ”Being able to help Fallen Star Squad is my honor.”

His underlings didn’t have Oliver’s self-control. One by one, their faces darkened.

Anyone would be pissed if something in their hands got snatched away.

Ethan saw it all.

And he had to admit—Oliver really was somebody. He could bend when he had to. There was resentment in his eyes, sure, but no hatred. He’d clearly accepted reality.

Ethan thought for a moment, then reached into his spatial storage ring and pulled out dozens of Tier 16 crystal cores, holding them out.

”I’m the kind of guy who keeps things clean,” Ethan said. ”You did help us this time. Take these. They’ll be enough to push your strength up another step.”

”This is… Tier 16 crystal cores?!” Oliver and the others stared at the pile in Ethan’s hands, eyes wide.

”So many…” Oliver swallowed hard. ”All of this… for us?”

”Yeah.” Ethan nodded. ”Call it compensation. That Void Realm probably won’t have such rich mysterious energy anymore.”

”But with these crystal cores, leveling up will be way faster than slowly absorbing mysterious energy.”

”Atlas City has crystal-core decomposition tech,” Ethan continued. ”Go ask them for it. Once you break these down, your compound can produce a bunch of high-Tier Enhanced. And for you guys—Tier 16 is right there.”

”…Damn.”

Oliver and the others exchanged looks, each one seeing the same shock reflected back at them.

The rumors said Fallen Star Squad were brutally overbearing—if they wanted something, they took it, and if you refused, you died.

But what Ethan was doing now… didn’t quite match that story.

”In that case…” Oliver said finally, not refusing—because honestly, how could he? ”Thank you.”

Just based on the count, it had to be sixty or seventy cores.

With that, Stonepeak City compound’s strength would jump dramatically.

Yeah, losing their dense cultivation environment hurt—but getting this many high-Tier crystal cores took some of the sting out of it.

Oliver had always been good at reading the situation. If something was out of his control, then he’d lock down what he could control.

And these crystal cores were something he could actually hold onto—real, practical power.

When Oliver accepted them, Ethan nodded once, satisfied.

”Build your place up,” Ethan said. ”The apocalypse isn’t as simple as it looks. I want you to hold on until the end.”

”We will,” Oliver said, voice firm.

They left the Void Realm. Under Oliver’s enthusiastic hospitality, Ethan’s group stayed for a feast, then headed out of Stonepeak City compound.

Oliver stood there and watched them go, not moving until they disappeared from sight—his eyes burning with a renewed, fierce drive.

”Boss… even if they gave us that many high-Tier crystal cores, I still feel like we took a loss,” one of the underlings said. ”With mysterious energy that dense, we would’ve hit Tier 16 sooner or later anyway. This is basically killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.”

Oliver glanced at him. ”Greed makes a snake try to swallow an elephant. This is the best outcome we were ever getting. Even if they hadn’t given us crystal cores, what could you have done about it?”

”…Yeah. I guess you’re right.”

”Boss,” another underling asked, ”when Ethan said the apocalypse isn’t that simple… what do you think he meant?”

Oliver’s face turned serious. ”Void Realms.”

”It’s already been confirmed that some Void Realms have monsters in them. So think about it—if there’s a Void Realm as rich in mysterious energy as ours, and it’s been around for a long time… how terrifying do you think the creatures inside would be?”

”…”

A chill crawled up everyone’s spine.

”Plenty of Void Realm creatures have already shown up on Earth,” Oliver continued. ”Those ugly human-looking things in Silverlake City. The Infernals in Nova City. Even the red bird Fallen Star Squad rides—that all came out of Void Realms.”

”If this keeps going, it won’t be long before more and more Void Realm creatures start pouring onto Earth. And when that happens, surviving gets a lot harder.”

He paused, then exhaled.

”Honestly… this might not be a bad thing for us. Even if we lived in that Void Realm every day, it’d still take us about a month to climb to Tier 16. But with these crystal cores, we can hit Tier 16 fast. That boosts our survival odds.”

One underling nodded slowly. ”When you put it like that… I’m not as pissed anymore.”

”Good.” Oliver’s gaze sharpened. ”Remember this: if it really comes to that, Fallen Star Squad is going to be the Atlas Federation’s strongest trump card. No matter what, we can’t afford to become their enemies.”

”Who knows,” he added, voice low. ”We might need them one day.”

”Understood.” The group nodded solemnly.

Meanwhile, Ethan and the others returned to Fallen Star City and immediately went back to grinding—absorbing mysterious energy with everything they had to push their Tiers higher.

With the energy crystal in hand, their progress really did jump by several times.

And once Ethan took that massive energy crystal out…

The mysterious energy concentration across all of Fallen Star City surged.

So much that even during the day—when the Nine-Star Dipper wasn’t out—people could still absorb mysterious energy.

It didn’t take long for the city to notice.

Excitement exploded.

The whole of Fallen Star City fell into a frenzy of cultivation and power-ups.

Three days passed like that.

By the end of it, Chris and the others had all stepped into Tier 19.

On the morning of the fourth day, Ethan gathered every Fallen Star Guard member who’d reached Stage B—ten thousand people in total.

Then everyone mounted their Flamebirds and flew toward the Yamato Empire.

This time, the goal was crystal clear: the Infernals.

With ten thousand Stage B Fallen Star Guards behind him, Ethan’s confidence was through the roof.

But just as they were leaving Atlas Federation airspace—

Ethan’s phone rang.

It was Miles.

”Captain—something happened at Riverton City’s Void Realm. A group of humanoid creatures just came out!”

Ethan’s eyes went cold in an instant. He didn’t hesitate.

”Turn around,” he ordered.

”Back.”