Li Huo, the first zombie to advance to King Rank.
It had happened roughly two years after the apocalypse began.
At the time, even the strongest survivors were only level nine. The highest was probably Ye Yu at level ten.
If the survivors had had a dozen or so level-ten fighters, they might barely have been able to put up a fight against Li Huo.
Unfortunately, they hadn't.
After appearing, Li Huo had unleashed his terrifying power, effortlessly wiping out a powerful base to make an example of it.
That horrifying display had shown every survivor what King Rank truly meant.
Afterward, Li Huo hadn't continued the slaughter. Instead, he had kept humans like livestock.
He had demanded that every base provide a batch of meat at regular intervals.
There was no resisting him. They truly couldn't fight back.
Anyone who dared resist would die.
The leaders of the various bases weren't hotheaded fools. They had all chosen to endure for the time being, catching some useless humans, washing them clean, and feeding them to Li Huo.
From time to time, Li Huo had personally selected some meat.
Li Huo hadn't eaten much, just two or three people a day.
That hadn't done much damage to the survivors' numbers.
But Li Huo had weighed on the survivors' hearts like an endless night, plunging them into an oppressive dark age.
Two and a half years after the apocalypse began, the first King-Rank survivor had emerged.
In other words, in another eight months or so, a survivor would reach King Rank.
Was that fast? No. By then, some zombies had evolved to level eight, greatly accelerating the survivors' advancement and increasing their chances of obtaining King-Rank Crystals.
It hadn't been Ye Yu. With his dual esper abilities, Ye Yu had been stuck