Apocalypse: King of Zombies

”What about your Innate Abilities?” Ethan asked.

”I gained Absolute Zero. It’s a large-area control ability. Once activated, the temperature within a thousand feet of me will plummet.

”Anyone weaker than me will freeze rapidly. Even stronger enemies will be affected—their movements will slow, and their bodies will grow stiff. The longer they remain within range, the worse it gets. Once they reach their limit, they’ll freeze too,” Mia explained.

”Not bad. Just remember, an ability like that hits everyone in range. Keep the rest of us in mind before you use it,” Ethan said with a smile.

”I will.”

Skinny Pete stood up next, and everyone turned to him expectantly.

None of them doubted he would gain a powerful ability.

He might not be able to view detailed information on every ability like Ethan could, but his Premonition could help him eliminate the bad options and find a good one. Naturally, everyone wanted to know what he had chosen.

Skinny Pete gave them a mysterious grin.

”Heh. The skill I got this time is incredible.”

”Spit it out! Stop keeping us in suspense!”

They were already dying to know, and his attempt to drag it out almost made them want to beat the answer out of him.

”My new skill is called Sacred Unbinding. It can dispel any sealing ability or ritual circle! Pretty awesome, right?” Skinny Pete said proudly.

Everyone froze.

An indescribable feeling welled up inside them as they looked at him with complicated expressions.

”Why are you all staring at me like that? Don’t you think it’s a great skill?”

”It is.” They nodded solemnly.

Of course they understood why he had chosen it.

Ethan had equally mixed feelings. He sighed. ”Skinny Pete, you didn’t have to do this.”

With Premonition, Skinny Pete could have selected an extremely powerful Stage SS skill and drastically increased his combat strength. He might even have surpassed some of the others in one leap.

Instead, he had chosen Sacred Unbinding, sacrificing an incredibly important opportunity for growth.

The cost to him was enormous.

”What are you talking about, Boss?” Skinny Pete didn’t seem bothered at all. ”I’ve wanted to do this for a long time.

”You’re the backbone of the squad. You need to have all the strongest skills so you can lead us against every race out there.

”So you can’t waste one of your choices on a skill like this.

”I’m different. Most of my abilities have always been support-based. Even if I picked a powerful combat skill later, all it would do is make me a little better at fighting. It wouldn’t change the bigger picture. I’d rather choose something we actually need.

”You said yourself that abilities like this are extremely rare, and they usually don’t appear until the higher tiers. There are more than ten million people in the Atlas Federation, and not one of them has a skill like this. No one knows if one will ever appear. We can’t stake everything on odds that small. Choosing one ourselves is much more reliable.

”I know how bad our situation is. More than twenty pinnacle races and over fifty Stage SSS fighters… You must be under a ton of pressure, Boss. If we could gain a Stage SSS fighter of our own, wouldn’t that make things easier for you?”

Skinny Pete rattled all of this off, leaving everyone stunned.

Was this really the Skinny Pete they knew?

He had always seemed straightforward, uncomplicated, and not particularly bright.

But after hearing him speak, they realized he might have been hiding how sharp he truly was all along.

Ethan patted him on the shoulder and gave him a firm nod.

Saying it would merely make things easier was an understatement. With a Stage SSS fighter on their side, Ethan could stir up some real trouble.

”Skinny Pete, you’ve grown up.” Sean patted his shoulder approvingly.

Sean had been the leader of Skinny Pete and Big Mike before they joined the Fallen Star Squad. The squad no longer made such distinctions, but the bond between them hadn’t changed, so the comment felt perfectly natural coming from him.

”Looks like we all underestimated you, Pete. You really came through.”

The others crowded around and patted his shoulder as well, making Skinny Pete grimace under the barrage.

”By the way, can your Premonition actually help you find a specific skill?” Ethan asked.

”Yeah, it can.” Skinny Pete nodded. ”I wasn’t sure at first. After I went in, I kept repeating in my head that I wanted an ability like Sacred Unbinding. Then I realized I could sense whether each light was what I needed.

”It took me so long because I checked a bunch of them, and none were right. I was about to give up when I finally spotted one. My Premonition told me clearly that it was exactly what I was looking for.

”So I chose it, and sure enough, I got the skill I wanted.”

”It can even do that? Your Premonition really is a God-tier ability.”

”What changed with your Innate Abilities?”

”Heh. Sacred Unbinding might not improve my combat strength, but my Innate Abilities gave me something insane—Astral Conjuration!”

”Astral Conjuration?”

Everyone’s eyes widened. Skinny Pete hadn’t even explained it yet, but the name alone gave them a pretty good idea of what it might do.

”Yeah. I can randomly summon a living being to fight for me for half an hour. The downside is that I can only use it once a day.”

”A random being? What if you summon some useless weakling?” someone joked.

”With a restriction like that, it probably won’t summon anything useless,” Ethan said.

”Right. The summon is random, but whatever appears won’t be weaker than me. It also seems to be a special kind of existence that’s immune to conventional elemental and physical attacks.”

”Holy shit! It’s immune to both?” Everyone stared at him. ”Wouldn’t that make it impossible to kill?”

”Uh, I think it can still be killed. It seems especially vulnerable to soul-targeting attacks,” Skinny Pete said.

”That’s practically invincible. How many people even have soul-targeting attacks?”

”Skinny Pete, you’ve hit the jackpot!” Everyone grew excited.

”I guess.” Skinny Pete scratched his head awkwardly. ”But I can only use it once a day, and it only lasts half an hour. That’s a lot of restrictions.”

”I’m telling you, the more restrictions a skill has, the more terrifying it usually is,” Chris said excitedly. ”Who knows? You might even summon a Stage SSS being.”

”No way… right?”

”Want to test it?”

Skinny Pete was clearly tempted, but he ultimately shook his head.

”Better not. I only get one use a day. It’d be a waste. I should save it for when we’re in danger.”

”Fair enough. But I have high hopes for this skill.” Chris patted Skinny Pete on the shoulder again.

”So do I.”

The others looked at Skinny Pete with equal anticipation.