Apocalypse: King of Zombies

Rivermark State…

Even after all this time—after the balance of power across the Atlas Federation’s Void Realm factions had shifted again and again—Rivermark State, with its mountains, forests, and rivers, was still ruled by Outland Beasts.

During that stretch, plenty of intelligent Void Realm races had tried their luck there too, coming to hunt Outland Beasts and harvest crystal cores.

None of them ever made it back.

Not even the so-called higher races.

Little by little, Rivermark State became a true forbidden zone to intelligent Void Realm species. They’d rather scour other places for prey than risk going anywhere near Rivermark again.

Last time, Ethan had taken the Fallen Star Squad in and only managed to last two days—even with True Sight. And if those Glacial Bears hadn’t suddenly shown up, they probably would’ve all died in there. That alone said enough about how terrifying Rivermark State really was.

Setting everything else aside, just the Lionfang King they ran into back then had been able to fight Dopey for a long time without losing. That wasn’t something a normal peak Tier 35 could pull off.

And Outland Beasts on that level? Who knew how many Rivermark State had.

So even for higher Void Realm races, stepping into Rivermark was basically walking into a grave.

Ethan suspected the Blackpine Wilds of Rivermark State hid an enormous Outland Beast world—one with a ridiculously high power ceiling. Those beasts had to be spilling out from that Void Realm.

And right now, over one region of this beast-infested land, a dimensional rift abruptly tore open.

The next second, a crowd poured out of it.

Rivermark State was dangerous—no question. But it was also a pure, unfiltered Outland Beast world, packed so full of them it was hard to count.

If Ethan’s group wanted crystal cores fast, there was no better place.

With their current strength, as long as they didn’t run into Stage SS Outland Beasts, they could basically do whatever they wanted.

The moment they appeared, the Outland Beasts around them noticed.

Roars erupted from every direction. Before the group had even fully landed, they were surrounded.

”Guh… this place really is terrifying.” Vivian swallowed hard as she stared at the dense mass of Outland Beasts pressing in from all sides. ”No wonder the Void Realm races don’t dare come close.”

”You think?” Henry said, still haunted. ”I’ve got trauma from this place. Last time, we almost all got wiped.”

”With you there, you still almost died?” Vivian looked at him, genuinely surprised.

”I’m not all-powerful,” Henry snapped back.

”Enough chatter,” Ethan cut in. ”They’re coming.”

Sure enough, Outland Beasts were already lunging from all directions.

Ethan flicked his hand and released every soulless thrall at once, forming a defensive ring around the team like a living wall.

There weren’t any particularly strong Outland Beasts in sight yet, but Ethan knew how this worked. In Rivermark, the second you started fighting, it didn’t end. The noise would pull in more and more Outland Beasts—until the real monsters started showing up.

They needed to be ready for a long one.

The Outland Beasts crashed in, and a sky-filling barrage of skills came slamming down toward them.

The soulless thralls struck first, surging forward to meet the wave head-on.

The others moved too—attack after attack blasting into the beast horde.

Most of the Outland Beasts were only Stage B, with just a small portion at Stage A. Against the group, they barely qualified as a threat.

Beasts dropped in sheets. Whole chunks of the swarm got erased.

But just like Ethan predicted, the moment the fighting started, more Outland Beasts began flooding in from every direction.

And when they saw intelligent life, their eyes turned vicious—pure killing intent. They piled into the assault. Ethan’s team was slaughtering them fast, but the reinforcements came even faster.

Before long, everywhere they could see was Outland Beasts. No end in sight.

They didn’t seem to understand fear. They threw themselves forward in endless waves, dying and climbing over the bodies just to reach Ethan and the others.

Still—Ethan’s group wasn’t what it used to be. Especially the soulless thralls, each one stronger than the last.

The Outland Beasts were ferocious.

Their defense, though, held like a mountain.

Whole swaths of Outland Beasts dropped—plenty of them Stage A.

Ethan immediately assigned part of the group to start cracking open the Stage A beasts’ skulls and digging out the crystal cores. If they found a core they could use, they used it on the spot.

They had to feed the battle with the battle if they wanted to keep fighting.

This time they’d brought enough people—over three hundred. Half fought, half harvested cores, rotating in shifts so their overall output stayed brutally efficient.

And every so often, they’d dig up a higher-Tier Stage A crystal core that actually matched someone’s path. That meant they could fight and grow stronger at the same time. The longer it went on, the more fired up everyone got.

As for Ethan and the core fighters?

They just killed.

Especially Ethan. The moment he opened his Nullspace Domain, he blinked straight into the middle of the horde. His poleaxe turned into a blur, carving lanes through flesh and bone. Wherever the blade passed, Outland Beasts fell in piles.

Chris and Sean chose to fight inside the swarm too, while everyone else stayed under Garrick’s protective dome and spammed skills like their lives depended on it.

They all had AoE abilities. And now that their strength had climbed, a single group skill could wipe out a whole patch of beasts at once.

The battle dragged on.

Slowly, the number of Stage A beasts pouring in kept rising. And about half an hour later, Stage S Outland Beasts finally appeared.

Ethan warned everyone the moment he sensed them—but instead of panicking, eyes lit up across the team.

”Ha! Finally, Stage S!” someone yelled. ”Holy hell, we’ve been stuck farming Stage A forever. It’s about time we got a real upgrade!”

They were practically buzzing. In just that half hour, a bunch of the Fallen Star Squad’s second tier had already broken through. Calvin and a few others were even at Tier 29 now, and the rest had been watching with pure envy.

Now it was their turn.

Before Ethan even moved, they were already barking orders. Their thralls surged out, charging straight at the Stage S beasts.

Chris was faster.

He vanished—one second he was there, the next he was gone—and reappeared right beside a Stage S Outland Beast like he’d been born in its shadow. His spear shot forward.

The beast didn’t even get a chance to react.

The spear punched through its skull in a clean, brutal line. One hit. Dead.

A real assassin in the dark wasn’t a joke. Chris’s burst was only a hair behind Ethan’s—and when it came to killing, the difference barely mattered.

He flicked the spear tip. A crystal core popped free.

Chris snatched it and melted back into invisibility like smoke.

By then, the other thralls had arrived too. Peak Tier 35 thralls against a few Stage S beasts? It was almost unfair. They tore through them with hardly any effort. The Stage S beasts that had just rushed in were wiped out in moments.

Six Stage S Outland Beasts total.

Chris took one himself. The other five crystal cores were delivered by thralls straight into their masters’ hands.

”Heh… finally.” People stared at the cores in their palms, faces tight with excitement. ”Time to level up.”

Big Mike’s gaze snapped to Skinny Pete’s core like it was a steak in a starving man’s hands.

”Skinny Pete,” Big Mike said, trying to sound casual and failing miserably, ”how about you give me yours? Let me upgrade first, yeah?”

Big Mike didn’t have any Tier 35 thralls yet, so of course he couldn’t compete for the good drops.

Honestly, it shouldn’t have mattered who upgraded first.

But there was one exception.

Nobody wanted Skinny Pete to be that guy.

His mind-reading ability already had everyone feeling like they were walking around naked. If he powered up first while some of them were still stuck at the old level… the ones who didn’t upgrade would be doomed.

Everyone had secrets. Everyone.

And if Skinny Pete peeled them open in public?

Instant social death. Right there on the spot.

So Big Mike wasn’t about to let Skinny Pete take the first step. Not a chance.