NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 7: Chapter 7
"Weird that this place still has power." The lights inside were still on, casting an eerie glow over the struggling undead.
This wasn't just any containment chamber—this was built to suppress mutant abilities. Which meant that the zombies locked inside weren't ordinary. If the power keeping this place functional failed, there was no telling what kind of abilities they might unleash.
Ashburn exhaled sharply, thoughts drifting to the mutant massacres that had happened in some Marvel universes, where their numbers had been reduced from millions to mere hundreds of thousands. He wasn't sure if this world had suffered a similar event, but it didn't matter.
Mutants were dangerous. And right now, he had no way of knowing just how dangerous the ones inside could be.
"Better not take any chances." His decision was made. He would go in and kill them all, just in case they possessed any overpowered abilities.
[New Mission: Free the Zombies]
Objective: You came across mutant zombies trapped within a room that suppressed their powers. Free them and fight them at their best—otherwise, you're just being rude.
Targets: 0/43
Reward: [Bloodlust], [+30 Intelligence]
Punishment: [None]
.
"Damn…" Ashburn stared at the mission prompt, weighing his options. The system wasn't forcing him to take this mission. He could walk away if he wanted to. But +30 Intelligence? And a skill called Bloodlust? Those rewards were too good to ignore.
The system wouldn't offer this mission if there wasn't an overpowered mutant in there… That was the real concern. But was it worth the risk? After a moment of deliberation, he made his choice. With a thought, he recalled all his shadow soldiers into his shadow.
"Torch, melt the door down." His fiery shadow soldier obeyed, stepping forward and unleashing a wave of heat, metal hissing as it began to liquefy and crumble away. The containment had held for who knew how long, but against Torch's flames, it didn't stand a chance.
As soon as the door weakened enough, Ashburn gave his next order. "Return to my shadow." Torch vanished, slipping back into the darkness beneath Ashburn's feet. And before the first zombie could step out, Ashburn activated [Stealth]—his presence disappearing entirely.
"Roar!" The first zombie to step out was a young man with orange-black hair, letting out a growl that sounded far too much like a tiger. A second later, his entire form shifted, transforming into a massive beast. But this wasn't just any tiger.
Before Ashburn could analyze it further, another figure emerged—an old man whose body suddenly regressed in age, growing a tail and dragon-like horns as his transformation took hold. One by one, the rest of the zombies stepped forward, only to change.
Each underwent physical mutations, their abilities once suppressed now running rampant. Ashburn stayed perfectly still, cloaked in Stealth, silently watching as the chaotic transformations unfolded.
Then… One of them… grew five eyes. And the moment those five eyes opened, all of them locked onto him.
'Shit.' The zombie lunged straight for him, drawing the attention of the others. For a split second, confusion flickered through the remaining undead, their instincts struggling to process what their ally had reacted to. All but the tiger. Its nose twitched. It was nose had seen through [Stealth] him. Stealth had failed.
With a burst of darkness, a shadow bear emerged, its razor-sharp claws slicing cleanly through the five-eyed zombie in a single strike. The bear wasted no time—it turned and ran, bolting toward the exit.
Fighting in such a tight space wasn't ideal. They needed to draw the zombies out. The horde immediately followed instincts overriding thought.
But Ashburn had other priorities. His eyes locked onto the dragon-like mutant, a clear threat. Seizing an opening, he appeared before him, knives in hand, and drove them straight into the man's eyes.
The mutant howled in pain, but the attack wasn't enough. The knives stopped just short of piercing through the thick bone of his skull. Before Ashburn could react, the man's fist slammed into his stomach, the sheer force launching him backward. He crashed into the metal wall with a sickening impact, a mouthful of blood escaping his lips.
Pain flared through his body, but there was no time to recover. A sharp whistling sound cut through the air, Ashburn rolled to the side just in time to dodge as a jet of water shot past him.
His pupils shrank as he saw the aftermath. The metal walls of the facility, thick, reinforced metal, had been pierced straight through. That wasn't just water. That was a high-pressure cutter, slicing through steel like paper. If that had hit him, he wouldn't have gotten back up.
"At least it lost its eyes… next is the tiger." Ashburn gritted his teeth. He wanted to use [Stealth], but with his MP barely above 4, he could only afford three more activations at best. That wasn't an option.
Instead, he made his move. In an instant, he activated [Flash Step]. His speed exploded, boosted by a staggering 50%. At this velocity, no supercar on Earth could hope to catch him.
The world blurred around him as he shot past the zombies, rapidly closing the distance on the tiger, which had paused to glance back. Ashburn struck without hesitation, knife flashing toward its eyes.
But the tiger wasn't slow. With a burst of shocking agility, it dodged, leaping aside with ease. Ashburn's attack hit nothing but air.
'Shit!' Wasting no time, he abandoned the pursuit and raced toward his shadow bear, catching up as it neared the exit.
His mind worked at high speed, analyzing the situation. The tiger zombie was too fast. A head-on fight would get him killed. The dragon mutant was powerful, he couldn't even damage its bones. He couldn't one-shot Ashburn…yet. If he could transform into a full dragon, that might change. Best to avoid that risk. The other zombies hopefully were manageable. They needed to be eliminated first.
He made a calm decision. Torch would handle the Tiger. Unless that thing was immune to fire, Torch's flames should be enough to kill it.
The dragon mutant would fight his army. They had the numbers, surely they could buy time or do some good damage to that thing. Ashburn himself would focus on eliminating the weaker zombies, reducing the chaos, and gaining new powerful allies before dealing with the bigger threats.