Apocalypse: King of Zombies

Inside the compound, everything was as calm as ever. People went about their routines like nothing was happening.

But the sharper-eyed ones could tell the military was acting… off today.

Recon teams kept heading out in waves, and there was obvious movement around the armory—big movement.

It didn’t take a genius to guess something major was about to go down.

Meanwhile, fifteen miles out from Clearford’s compound, in a stretch of ruined buildings—

A group of scouts, dressed in clothes that matched the gray-brown rubble around them, were spread out with binoculars, carefully sweeping every inch of the horizon.

”Look—over there!”

A soldier on the left stabbed a finger toward the distance, his face going pale with shock.

The others snapped their binoculars up.

A second later, their expressions matched his.

In the distance, a massive pack of black-skinned—no, black-furred—mutant beasts came charging straight toward them.

They were built like gorillas, huge and thick, with tusks jutting out of their mouths.

Every single one of them looked absurdly muscular. And aside from the gorilla-like shape, their faces didn’t resemble any animal the soldiers had ever known.

”It’s really like they said,” someone muttered. ”Where the hell did these monsters even come from?”

”Who knows. Maybe they’re aliens.”

”Honestly… wouldn’t surprise me. Those things don’t look like anything from Earth.”

”You think they’re really as strong as they claimed?”

”You wanna go test it?”

”Uh… no. I’m good.”

”Notify the rear. Target confirmed. Execute the plan!”

Out in the middle of the Titan Ape horde, Sophia’s face was lit with excitement.

All along the way, she’d watched them roll forward like a black tide, crushing everything in their path. Any zombie that got near them was like wet clay—one touch and it shattered.

This was the kind of power she’d always chased.

Sure, she knew these Titan Apes were only moving because they wanted to find humans. They weren’t ”hers.”

Not yet.

But she’d already decided—no matter what it took, she was going to take control of this force.

Once she did, everything she’d ever wanted would be within reach.

For that goal, any price was worth paying.

As Clearford City drew closer, the smile on Sophia’s lips only deepened.

She was going to make all those familiar faces kneel in front of her.

And she was going to erase that so-called Fallen Star Squad from the world.

”Hmm?” Sophia frowned. ”Why are there so many zombies?”

They were practically at Clearford City already. Normally, there shouldn’t be many zombies around here.

But ahead of them, the road was packed—wall-to-wall bodies, a dense sea of undead.

Sophia didn’t understand it, but she wasn’t worried.

With Titan Apes like these, what did more zombies matter? They’d sweep through regardless. It would just take a little longer, that was all.

And it was perfect timing, honestly.

More crystal cores for her.

The Titan Apes didn’t seem to care about crystal cores at all, which meant she could scoop them up without competition.

Just on this trip alone, the high-tier crystal cores she’d collected already beat what her squad had gotten in months.

Now she only needed one Tier 8 crystal core to break into Tier 8 herself.

With a zombie swarm this big… there might even be a Tier 8 zombie in the mix.

The Titan Apes looked at the tightly packed undead ahead and barely reacted. To them, the zombies were weak enough that numbers didn’t mean anything.

Then the whole horde surged forward.

They slammed into the zombie mass head-on—hands swinging, palms whipping through the air.

Wherever a Titan Ape’s slap landed, zombies exploded apart.

In the distance, the scouts watched through binoculars, faces stiff with disbelief.

”Those mutant beasts are terrifying…”

”So they weren’t exaggerating.” Another scout swallowed hard. ”Their strength really might be exactly what Fallen Star Squad said.”

”Then what do we do?” someone asked. ”If that’s true, the zombies won’t stop them. And the mines we planted… they’re not gonna do much against something like this, are they?”

”General Cross never told us to stop them,” a veteran scout said quietly. ”Our orders were to slow them down as much as possible. He probably has something else prepared.”

”I just can’t picture what could deal with Tier 10 and Tier 11 mutant beasts at this stage.”

”That’s above our pay grade. General Cross has his plan.”

He lowered his binoculars. ”Tell the suicide team to keep drawing zombies onto the road behind them. If we can buy even a little more time, we do it.”

”Got it.”

The fighting dragged on…

There were a ton of zombies, sure, but most of them were only Tier 5 or Tier 6. Anything Tier 7 or above was rare. Against Titan Apes whose weakest members were already Tier 7, the undead were completely outclassed.

After slaughtering who-knew-how-many zombies, Sophia finally put it together—someone had to be deliberately herding the zombies onto this road. Otherwise there was no way this route would be packed like this.

But Sophia didn’t care.

No matter how many zombies showed up, they were just delivering crystal cores to her.

Half an hour later, the Titan Ape leader caved in a Tier 8 zombie’s skull with a single punch. That was the moment the rest of the horde finally learned fear. They broke and fled, sprinting off into the distance.

The Titan Apes didn’t bother chasing. With Sophia guiding them, they kept moving toward Clearford’s compound.

A few minutes later, suddenly—

Boom… boom… BOOM!

A chain of explosions ripped through the ground. Several Titan Apes were thrown into the air, and the earth beneath them was blasted into huge craters.

”Perfect!” Far off, a group of soldiers watched through binoculars, faces lighting up with excitement. ”That timing couldn’t be better! These mutant beasts don’t have a single shred of danger sense!”

But when the smoke cleared, their smiles froze.

One by one, Titan Apes climbed back to their feet. A few even scratched their heads, staring down at the shattered ground like they couldn’t figure out what had just happened.

That kind of blast should’ve been devastating.

Yet it barely seemed to matter.

Well… not barely.

Some of the Tier 7 Titan Apes were clearly hurt—badly, even. But most of the Titan Apes looked more annoyed than injured.

”Mines…!” Sophia gasped.

She was still fine, of course. The Titan Ape leader had her slung over its shoulder, and it hadn’t taken the brunt of the blast.

”So the compound really did find out ahead of time,” Sophia thought, eyes gleaming. ”They’re ready.”

A cold smile tugged at her lips.

”So what if you’re ready? Let’s see what you think can stop us. I’m taking this compound today, no matter what.”

”Roooar…”

The Titan Ape leader turned its head toward her, clearly demanding an explanation.

Sophia pointed toward the distant outline of Clearford City. ”They did this. The humans over there are trying to kill you.”

”ROAR!”

The Titan Ape leader erupted in rage. It surged forward, and the entire pack charged toward Clearford City like a black storm.

But mines were everywhere.

Every so often, a Titan Ape would step wrong and trigger another blast.

Over a stretch of just eight miles, they ate dozens of explosions.

In the end, they were still flesh and blood.

Under that kind of concentrated bombardment, Tier 7 Titan Apes started dropping one after another. Even plenty of Tier 8s took severe injuries.

The Titan Ape leader’s fury hit the breaking point.

Right now, it only wanted one thing—get there, and tear the people behind this into pieces.