“Chief, we’ve managed to collect 38 Agate this time. It’s a better haul than before.” Derisher saluted, saying in response, “We’ve also located an exit that leads into a waterfall. We can obtain a steady stream of freshwater supply from there. And most of all, no zombies can come from there.”
“A Freshwater supply from a waterfall…” The Chief muttered, “That’s great. With the recent influx of people, the water in our pools has proven insufficient for all our needs.”
He then nodded at Derisher, “Good work out there, Captain. You can submit all the Plasma Blades for maintenance and rest for the day.”
“Thank you, Chief,” Derisher said with the utmost respect before getting up, motioning for the scouts to do the same.
“Who’s this child?” The Chief suddenly pointed at Rael.
“A survivor we found. He was the one that showed us the route to the waterfall.” Derisher said, patting
“That’s…a zombie? It’s huge!” Rael exclaimed, tumbling onto the roof of a house as the momentum generated by his Pulsor wore off. Deriri got up with a start, turning around to see a boulder at the place where she had been just now, shuddering to think about what would have happened had Rael not saved her. She then looked at him, noticing that he was staring at the ceiling, pale-faced, trembling in fear. And…when she turned to gaze at the ceiling, she froze up. A massive zombie head was peeking through the ceiling, grinning with a humanlike semblance to it as it slowly wriggled its head, causing large blocks of the ceiling to collapse. A large piece of rock that formed the ceiling collapsed, breaking the house it fell upon, killing the people hiding within. Screams resounded as a result as everyone began to scatter in panic. “Dammit, the situation is the worst.” Deriri s
Boom! “Ugh!” The Chief grunted in response as he crashed into the ground, forming a long trench before stopping. It had begun to rain, the skies darkening while the rainwater flowed into the trench, covering his body soon after. His hands splotched the muddy water as he slowly got up, watching the twelve-eyed zombie walking towards him, with each of its steps quaking the ground. It was a fourteen-metre-tall zombie with a tremendously powerful physique. It was not to mention the fact that this zombie was capable of regenerating its limbs by devouring other zombies. That was why, even after he had hacked its limbs to pieces countless times, it had managed to survive until he had begun to get tired. On the surface, there were hundreds of zombies, as from time to time, they jumped into the hole on the ground to target the people living underground. “D
The Chief landed before him, coughing out blood before asking in response, “Are you okay, kiddo?” “Y-Yes Chief.” Rael nodded like a chicken, still reeling from the fact that he was on the verge of becoming zombie food. “You’ve done well. Now,” The Chief condensed five Plasma Fishes, “Let me end this battle!” Upon his order, the five Plasma Fishes swerved through the streets, gobbling up every zombie along the way in a single gulp per each. Within a dozen seconds, they arrived before the zombies that were targeting the escaping populace, eating them up. “Kya, no!” A lady screamed as a two-eyed zombie grabbed hold of her, about to eat her. “Mommy!” The lady’s eight-year-old daughter screeched in fear, watching her mother struggling to escape from the zombie’s grasp but failing to do so. But, just when the zombie was about to b
“Hmm, the candidates are faring worse than I had expected.” A young boy that seemed around fifteen years old commented, standing on an elevated platform that was situated within the centre of a massive dome. And, embedded on the inner walls of the dome were TVs, each spanning 100 inches in size. There were thousands of such screens in the dome. And each screen showed the POV of the candidate in the screening trial. It displayed everything they were going through within their trials, also displaying the number of Agates they had accumulated. “It’s just the start, so that’s to be expected. Most would take time to adapt to the situation before showing their actual capabilities.” A girl nearby said calmly, “Personally, I’m quite curious about a few candidates myself. I’ve been watching them for the past couple of weeks.” “To think the picky Tina Vink has already picked a few of her members.” The
“637 people…that’s our death count…” Derisher said with a heavy tone, watching the pile of bodies before them. Not every corpse was there, just the ones they could find. The rest of them were in the bellies of the zombies that had already been melted by the previous Chief. The atmosphere was heavy, the air of sadness, anger, and despair coagulating around them as Rael stood in the centre, gazing at the rows upon rows of corpses with darkened eyes. “Derisher…” He muttered, watching the people pile the bodies after the identities of the corpses had been tallied, “How many people lived on the surface before?” “Around thirty to forty million in our Empire at the very least. If you count the rest of the Empires, the number would become huge. So, I can’t give an accurate estimate.” Derisher said, watching Rael slowly walk towards the pile of corpses. “I see,” Rael muttered, g
Pulsor! Rael unleashed the Plasma Skill and leapt, continuously activating it as he flew through the air like an aircraft, making convoluted aerobics as he used the ability to its limit. Suddenly, he unleashed Needle Swirl, piercing its tip through a building wall as the tube part stretched taut, pulling him towards the wall. Rael unleashed Pulsor through his legs, accelerating as he arrived before the wall, but just when it seemed like he would slam into it, his other hand shot out a Needle Swirl on the opposite side, causing it to pierce through a large boulder as it shrunk in length instantly, pulling him accordingly. Dissipating the first Needle Swirl, Rael used the free palm to unleash Pulsor, preventing himself from slamming into the wall as he diverted his linear momentum into radial, making an arc in the air as the Needle Swirl remained firm, attached to the boulder.
Five days had passed since Rael had arrived at the settlement, the underground city of Lereal. Currently, a group of seven were inside a house, gazing at the underground map that they had made in the past year through their numerous scouting. As it was a mining city, there were detailed maps about most of the tunnels in the region. But, the mining city had existed for more than a few centuries. So, a lot of routes were forgotten with time. And even if they had been recorded, they weren’t updated once they no longer served any purpose. The routes could have changed due to the intervention by the zombies. After the apocalypse struck, the scouts had been mapping out the routes constantly in the sample copies of maps they had and once they returned, they updated the main map. “The Red Gecko Brigand would proceed towards the waterfalls on the east while the Green Gecko Briga
“Let’s return,” Rael spoke after a minute. “But that…zombie…” One of the scouts in his team hesitated. “That’s not an opponent we can think of defeating.” Rael said, “Let’s not waste our time and deal with the rest of the zombies in this region.” “But, will it be possible to ever defeat it?” One of the scouts asked, gritting his teeth as he was still reeling from shock and fear of seeing the hill-sized zombie. “Yes,” Rael nodded confidently, “The size of the Agate Stars can be increased. I’ll need to manually refine more Agates into them. But it’s possible.” “So, once everyone in our settlement has the power, we’ll work on strengthening ourselves.” Rael nodded, “Over time, as we defeat more and more zombies, we would eventually be able to take on that zombie, given we save it as the last zombie that we face on the surface.” “Alright, hope we get t