Apocalypse: King of Zombies

"This time, the intel was definitely wrong. With the Zombie King's bizarre abilities, this mission should've been rated at least four or five stars in difficulty!" Michael said, his brows furrowed.

Even now, thinking back to what had happened earlier, he couldn't shake the lingering fear. That tall, slender figure… it was utterly terrifying.

Faced with such a hopeless situation, the female Awakener couldn't hold back her tears. Her voice trembled as she choked out, "I… I don't want to die yet."

"It's okay. At least we're safe for now. Let's rest up a bit and—"

Evan started to comfort her, but his words suddenly trailed off.

A heavy sense of foreboding crept over him. As a psychic-type Awakener, his sensitivity to danger was far sharper than most. And right now, he felt it—something was approaching them.

Evan's body tensed as if he were sitting on needles. A chill ran down his spine. Instinctively, he turned to look behind him, but all he saw was darkness. Nothing was there.

"Evan, what's wrong?" Michael asked, noticing his strange behavior.

Evan's brows knitted tightly. "I think… something's here."

"What?"

The others froze, their faces filled with disbelief.

"Evan, don't scare me like that!"

"Yeah… the walls are so thick, and they're reinforced. There's no way anything could get in."

"Didn't we just say this place was safe?"

"..."

The group murmured nervously among themselves.

"I'm not sure," Evan said, rubbing his temples. "Maybe I overexerted myself earlier. My nerves are probably just too wound up."

It wasn't impossible. When someone was under extreme stress, hallucinations weren't uncommon. Maybe his instincts were just off this time…

But just as Evan turned his head back, a tall, slender figure materialized behind him out of thin air. Its white shirt was pristine, its expression cold and emotionless—like the grim reaper himself.

Michael and the female Awakener, sitting directly across from Evan, saw it first. Their eyes widened in sheer horror, as if they'd just seen a ghost. Their faces twisted in disbelief, and for a moment, they even questioned their own sanity.

"He… he… he's here!" the female Awakener stammered, her voice shaking uncontrollably.

Evan frowned, confused. "Who?"

But before he could finish the question, he realized something was wrong. Everyone's eyes were fixed on the space behind him, their faces pale with terror.

There really was something there.

A suffocating sense of danger surged through him again. He could feel the cold breath of death on his neck. He didn't dare turn around, afraid that doing so would seal his fate.

But he couldn't stop himself. The urge to look was overwhelming. Slowly, he turned his head—only to feel a massive hand clamp down on the top of his skull. The hand pierced through his head effortlessly, extracting his crystal core in one swift motion.

Thud!

Evan's body collapsed to the ground as he turned, lifeless. In his final moments, he caught a glimpse of that pristine white shirt.

The figure of death had truly arrived.

And with his last thought, a chilling realization struck him: Everyone here… is going to die.

Michael's eyes were wide with shock, his entire body frozen. He had hunted Zombie Kings before, but he had never seen anything like this. The sheer brutality of the kill, the way the figure moved—it sent shivers down his spine.

What made it worse was the impossibility of it all. The walls around them were reinforced, impenetrable. Yet somehow, this thing had slipped in without a sound.

A deep, unsettling dread settled in his heart.

This was a true Phantom Infected.

The female Awakener's face turned deathly pale as she stared at Ethan's figure, her body trembling uncontrollably. Fear gripped her so tightly that she couldn't even move.

"This graveyard… not bad," Ethan said, his cold gaze sweeping across the room.

Michael wasn't about to sit there and wait to die.

"Fire! Open fire!" he shouted.

Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat!

The armed personnel pulled their triggers, the muzzle flashes lighting up the darkness as a storm of bullets rained down on Ethan.

But Ethan's body shimmered with a faint red glow, and in the next moment, it was as if he had turned into a phantom. The bullets passed straight through him, slamming harmlessly into the reinforced walls behind him.

"What the…?"

The group was paralyzed with fear. Their hearts sank as they realized the truth—this Phantom Infected was no ordinary enemy. Their weapons were completely useless. A wave of despair washed over them.

Still, they kept firing, the deafening roar of gunfire echoing through the space. It wasn't just an attack on Ethan anymore—it was their final act of defiance against the cruelty of this world.

Why… why is it like this?

But before they could even process their hopelessness, Ethan unleashed his Domain of the Dead. The oppressive energy spread out, blanketing the entire area. The gunfire abruptly stopped.

The armed personnel, mere humans with no special abilities, couldn't withstand the overwhelming pressure. Their bodies burst apart like overripe watermelons, one after another, leaving nothing but blood and gore in their wake.

It was a massacre.

Michael and the female Awakener, already drained from their earlier battles, were no exception. The Domain of the Dead pressed down on them like an unrelenting tide, leaving them in excruciating pain.

The female Awakener gritted her teeth, her mind racing. Facing a Phantom Infected like this, the odds of survival weren't just 80% against them—it was more like 99.99999%.

"Die!" she screamed, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth as she pushed her body past its limits, unleashing the last of her energy.

From the reinforced walls around them, countless steel rods shot out like arrows, slicing through the air and converging on Ethan from all directions.

These rods weren't ordinary—they were infused with the energy of her crystal core. Ethan didn't take them head-on. With a casual wave of his hand, the power of the Domain of the Dead condensed, sending the steel rods flying in all directions.

In the blink of an eye, Ethan appeared in front of the female Awakener.

Her eyes filled with despair as she watched him reach out and effortlessly extract her crystal core. Her body crumpled to the ground, lifeless.

As her consciousness faded, one final thought crossed her mind:

Who the hell gathered the intel for this mission? They called this a one-star zombie nest? I hope that intel officer runs into zombies like this every damn day…

With the female Awakener's death, the Operation King Hunt squad was almost entirely wiped out. Only Michael remained.

But Michael's will to survive was strong. Seizing the brief moment when the power of the Domain of the Dead dispersed slightly, he unleashed the last of his energy.

"Armor of Earth!"

With a single thought, the dirt and debris from the surrounding walls surged toward him, wrapping around his body. In an instant, he transformed into a towering earth giant.

Now standing over ten feet tall, Michael's body was covered in thick, rock-like armor. His massive arms were as thick as a grown man's waist, radiating raw power.

Under the crushing pressure of the Domain of the Dead, Michael forced himself to move. He raised one of his massive arms and swung it at Ethan with all his might, the sound of the air splitting under the force of his punch echoing through the room.

Ethan didn't dodge. Instead, he raised his own fist and met Michael's attack head-on.

This opponent… was a little interesting.

So Ethan decided to use 80% of his strength.

In the darkness, the sound of a sonic boom tore through the air as Ethan's iron fist shot forward like a dragon breaking free from its chains, unstoppable and devastating.

BOOM!

The moment their fists collided, it was like two mountains crashing into each other. The deafening impact reverberated through the space, followed by the sharp sound of cracking.

Michael's earth-armored fist, which had seemed so indestructible, began to fracture. Spiderweb-like cracks spread across it, and chunks of the armor started to fall away.

In mere moments, the armor on his arm shattered completely, revealing his real arm underneath. It hung limp at his side, completely numb and useless.

"So… strong…" Michael muttered through gritted teeth, his face twisted in pain. His heart sank further as he realized the truth: this Zombie King wasn't just bizarrely powerful—it was physically unstoppable.

It was an enemy without weakness.

...