The King's Arrival

This zombie's physique was too powerful. It was practically a humanoid savage beast!

However, the heavy armored vehicle still slowed Tank's steps somewhat.

But before anyone could sigh in relief, a slender figure appeared behind Tank. A strange smile hung on her face, terrifying beyond measure, as she charged toward them at incredible speed.

Little Eight's evolution level was extremely high. She had now condensed a Crystal Core and awakened the ability Rapid Shadowstep.

Once her movement speed reached a critical threshold, she would enter an invisible state. This ability was rather strange, allowing her to approach her targets without anyone noticing.

One of the armed personnel was firing ahead.

The Female Zombie rushing toward him grew faster and faster, then vanished in the blink of an eye.

"Eh? Where did she go?"

The armed man immediately lost his target and froze in confusion.

He hurriedly looked around, searching for that terrifying figure.

But the next second.

A horrifying smiling face suddenly appeared before him. They were so close, their noses were nearly touching.

"This..."

The man turned pale with fright and instinctively dodged backward.

But Little Eight's sharp bone claws sank into his neck with the slightest touch, as easily as cutting tofu.

Then, with a fierce upward sweep of her bone claws, she sent his head flying far away.

"Shit! It's coming over!"

Several armed personnel nearby were instantly horrified. Among them was a Brain Core-stage Awakened, who reacted the fastest. Holding an alloy steel blade, he charged at Little Eight.

Little Eight flashed and vanished once again.

When she appeared next.

She was already behind the Awakened.

With a wet squelch, her sharp bone claws stabbed into his lower back and ripped out one of his kidneys!

"Ah—"

The Awakened let out a miserable scream, convulsing as he collapsed to the ground in agony.

"Too terrifying!"

"Th-this is a Wraith Zombie!"

"Run..."

Several armed personnel had completely lost the will to resist and turned to flee.

"Hehehehe~~"

Little Eight let out a strange laugh and immediately chased after them. Every few steps, she brought another person down.

Her bone claws were covered in blood, which dripped continuously. Her eyes grew even more excited as she savored the thrill of the hunt.

Lü Hao and the other main combatants noticed the disturbance. They discovered that even a Brain Core-stage Awakened was no match for Little Eight.

"We have to stop it! We can't let it keep slaughtering people!"

"I'll do it!"

Xu Jian volunteered again. He believed that with his lightning-based awakening, he should be able to keep up with its speed.

Of the five hundred armed personnel they had brought, two-thirds had already been killed, leaving only a little over one hundred.

Lightning danced around Xu Jian's body, and violent waves of energy surged from him.

He was just about to stop Little Eight.

When an even more powerful pressure suddenly spread through the air. From the distant street, it felt as if a sea of blood were rushing toward them.

Everyone's hearts tightened. Unease began to spread, a genetic suppression that made even their souls tremble.

The true king had appeared!

Everyone turned to look and saw a tall, slender young man standing in the street, dressed in a spotless white shirt.

His expression was indifferent, his eyes hollow. There was not a trace of emotion in the way he looked at them, as if he were looking at... corpses!

"Th-that... is that a zombie?"

The female Awakened was somewhat unsure.

Lü Hao's brows furrowed more deeply.

"Yeah. It's my first time seeing a zombie like this too. I think... he might be the true Zombie King!"

"He feels difficult to deal with..."

As a psychic Awakened, Xiao Wen's intuition was extremely sharp.

With Zombie Kings appearing one after another, they felt incomparably anxious, as though they were steadily stepping into an abyss.

Xu Jian was equally desperate. If they did not eliminate a few Zombie Kings, their situation would only grow more difficult, so he was becoming anxious.

"Then I'll deal with you first!"

Xu Jian abandoned Little Eight, turned, and charged at Lin Dong.

As a lightning-based Awakened, he was extremely fast. Lightning danced around his body as he became like a bolt of lightning!

Lü Hao did not stop him. In terms of offensive power alone, Xu Jian was the strongest member of their team, the "blade tip" of the King-Hunting Action Squad!

But what happened next left them completely dumbfounded.

The moment Xu Jian approached Lin Dong, his speed suddenly plummeted. It was as if he had fallen into a swamp, his movements becoming incomparably heavy.

"Not good, Xu Jian is in danger!"

Lü Hao quickly realized what was happening and considered how he could go forward to support him.

But Lin Dong's Zombie King Domain had already enveloped Xu Jian. While his body was stiff and his movements sluggish, Lin Dong passed by him and casually reached into his head, taking out a bright white Crystal Core.

The feeling... was like strolling through his own living room and casually picking up an apple from the coffee table as he passed it. It was effortless and natural.

Xu Jian's widened eyes began to lose focus. His horrified face still held an expression of disbelief.

Then his corpse fell limply behind Lin Dong.

The elite zombies immediately pounced forward.

They devoured the corpse!

"Oh my god!"

Lü Hao and the others were completely stunned. They had not even seen what had happened before Xu Jian was killed. He had been the strongest attacker on their team!

This zombie was too terrifying!

"Wraith Zombie!"

"This is a genuine Wraith Zombie!"

Lü Hao's brows twisted into a deep furrow, and his mood sank to rock bottom.

The others felt even greater unease upon hearing that.

"S-senior, are... are we all going to die?"

The female Awakened asked in a trembling, tearful voice.

Lü Hao hurriedly said,

"No. If we can figure out his ability, we may still have a chance to survive. We can't stay here now. Let's hide inside a building first!"

"Okay!"

The others agreed and headed toward a building beside the street.

The female Awakened used her ability to control metal.

She bent the steel reinforcement bars in the wall, opening a large hole.

The three of them immediately crawled inside.

Several Brain Core-stage Awakened and more than ten armed personnel followed behind them.

There were still a hundred armed personnel fighting in the street outside, and it was already too late for them to retreat inside.

"We can't worry about them!"

Lü Hao said with narrowed eyes, intending to leave them outside.

The female Awakened did not question him.

She used her ability again, repairing the hole in the wall.

Still feeling uneasy, Lü Hao used his earth-based ability to control sand and soil, piling it around them and reinforcing the wall layer after layer.

The doors, windows, and walls were all sealed tightly.

The walls alone were nearly ten meters thick.

This sturdy "fortress" completely shut out the clamor outside, making them feel as though they had instantly left the battlefield. Silence fell around them.

"Whew—"

Everyone let out a long breath, finally feeling somewhat safe.

The armed personnel especially felt incredibly fortunate. Because they had stayed near the Awakened the entire time, they had been able to hide inside.

If they had been abandoned outside, their fate would have been certain death.

Yet, while they enjoyed this brief moment of peace.

The outside had completely become a slaughterhouse!

The armed personnel fought back, only to suddenly discover that the Awakened had disappeared. Their faces immediately turned ashen.

"We... were abandoned!"

"What do we do?"

Two men stared around anxiously.

But the next second, several elite zombies pounced on them and began gnawing at them in huge bites, blood spraying everywhere.

Cries of grief and screams rang out without end. There was no path to heaven and no door into the earth for them. A powerful sense of helplessness rose in their hearts.

They could only wait for death, helpless and lost in this cruel apocalypse...