Apocalypse: King of Zombies

After they got back from Atlas City, Ethan got to work on crystal core decomposition immediately.

Among the Infernals, Tier 16 made up the biggest chunk, so Tier 16 cores were what he had the most of—nearly two hundred thousand.

He had around a hundred thousand Tier 17 cores, and a bit over ten thousand Tier 18 cores.

Tier 15, on the other hand, was scarce. He only had a few thousand from the early days—back when they were killing Flamebirds. After that, basically nothing.

The numbers sounded insane on paper, but once you split them across twenty thousand Fallen Star Guard members, it stopped looking so generous.

If you relied purely on crystal cores, going from early stage to peak within a single Tier took a full ten cores.

For twenty thousand people to climb one full Tier, that was two hundred thousand cores.

Only his Tier 16 stockpile could even cover that kind of consumption. The other Tiers couldn’t support twenty thousand people advancing at once—no matter how he sliced it.

Ethan hesitated.

If he insisted on pushing all twenty thousand together, they’d probably cap out around Tier 16 at best—and that would still require breaking down a lot of higher-Tier cores.

But if he prioritized only ten thousand?

Then he could almost directly raise that ten thousand all the way into Stage B.

He ran the numbers in his head.

With 200,000 Tier 16 cores, he could peel off a portion, decompose them into Tier 13–15 cores, and push all twenty thousand up to Tier 15 peak.

Then the remaining Tier 16 cores would still be enough to push ten thousand of them to Tier 16 peak.

His 100,000 Tier 17 cores could take those same ten thousand to Tier 17 peak.

And the remaining 10,000 Tier 18 cores would be just enough to kick them over the line into Stage B.

After thinking it through, Ethan made the call—raise ten thousand first.

There was no comparison.

Two thousand… no, twenty thousand Tier 16 soldiers sounded impressive, but ten thousand Stage B fighters was a completely different kind of monster.

And once he had ten thousand Stage B under his command, he could take them and steamroll the Infernal territory in that dark red world they’d entered through Mount Fuji’s crater.

At that point, why would he ever worry about running out of high-Tier cores again?

Infernal tribes came in the tens of thousands. A single tribe usually had at least one or two thousand Stage B fighters.

That lineup? Ethan’s small group couldn’t handle it alone.

But with ten thousand Stage B subordinates, the ending changed.

The moment that clicked, Ethan didn’t waste another second. He moved.

Most of Fallen Star Guard was still at Tier 13, though a lot of them were late-stage or at peak already, meaning they didn’t need that many Tier 13 cores.

Ethan took out five hundred Tier 16 cores and decomposed them into over sixty thousand Tier 13 cores, then pushed every Fallen Star Guard member straight up to Tier 13 peak.

After that, he took out eight thousand Tier 16 cores, decomposed them into two hundred thousand Tier 14 cores, and raised the entire Guard to Tier 14 peak.

Then he took out forty thousand Tier 16 cores, decomposed them into two hundred thousand Tier 15 cores, and pushed everyone to Tier 15 peak.

All told, he spent 48,500 Tier 16 cores to raise the full twenty thousand Fallen Star Guard members to Tier 15 peak.

After that, he couldn’t keep boosting everyone evenly anymore.

From the twenty thousand, Ethan selected ten thousand members to continue—those with the most practical skills, or who had climbed higher on the Celestial Stairway.

He spent one hundred thousand Tier 16 cores to push those ten thousand to Tier 16 peak.

Then he spent one hundred thousand Tier 17 cores to push them to Tier 17 peak.

Finally, the last ten thousand Tier 18 cores drove all ten thousand of them into Stage B.

The whole process took almost three days.

When ten thousand Stage B fighters were born, the mysterious energy inside Fallen Star City surged like a storm tide. A crushing pressure rolled through the compound, so heavy it made people tremble without even knowing why.

Stage B.

In other compounds, it was the kind of existence people didn’t even dare fantasize about.

And in Fallen Star City?

There were over ten thousand of them.

For the Fallen Star Guard, the last few days felt like a dream.

Their power had risen so fast it barely seemed real.

It wasn’t until they felt the new abilities that came with Stage B—until those skills settled into their bodies like a second heartbeat—that they truly understood.

They had actually made it.

People were shaking with excitement, fists clenched so hard their knuckles went white.

They trembled with excitement, looking at Ethan and the others with almost fanatical devotion.

Looking down at the ten thousand Stage B powerhouses—and the other ten thousand fighters sitting at Tier 15 peak—Ethan finally nodded, satisfied.

Now this… this gave him a little breathing room.

”Alright,” he said. ”All of you just made a real leap. You’ve finally got the strength to hold up the sky over Fallen Star City.”

”And it wasn’t cheap. We risked our lives in the Void Realm to get the crystal cores that made this possible.”

Thump.

In an instant, the Fallen Star Guard dropped to one knee as a unit, right fist pressed to their chests.

”We swear to follow the Commander to the death! We swear to protect Fallen Star City!”

Ethan nodded, smiling. ”I believe you.”

”Next,” he said, ”head to the Beast Enclosure and pick a Flamebird to be your mount. From now on, they’ll be your best partners. Treat them well.”

”Flamebird mounts!!”

The Guard erupted again.

A flying mount—soaring through the sky whenever you wanted—was the kind of thing people only ever dreamed about. Every time they’d seen the Commander and his squad riding around like they owned the world, the envy had practically eaten them alive.

And now?

Now they’d get one too.

”For the Commander!”

They took off in a wave, sprinting toward the Beast Enclosure.

Ethan chuckled and waved Skinny Pete along. With how obedient the Flamebirds were these days, there was no real worry they’d refuse to cooperate.

Once everyone had chosen a mount, Ethan sent them out to start sweeping zombies—getting used to their suddenly boosted strength.

A jump that big left you clumsy if you didn’t adapt. If they didn’t put it into practice, they’d never be able to bring out the combat power they were supposed to have.

Ethan’s plan was simple: once they’d stabilized, he’d lead them to the Void Realm in the Yamato Empire and wipe out those Infernals.

That was millions of high-Tier crystal cores waiting to be harvested. If they could take it all, it’d be a fortune so huge it was almost stupid to imagine.

While Fallen Star Guard was out clearing zombies, Ethan and the others headed to the Void Realm outside Riverton City.

Those ugly, nightmare-looking things had come out of this entrance.

Garrett had used them to take over the Silverlake City compound.

If that idiot hadn’t gone to Fallen Star City to die, he probably could’ve used those monsters to roll over the other major compounds too.

After taking Silverlake City, Ethan had learned where this Void Realm entrance was.

He just hadn’t gone in.

The strength of those grotesque humanoid monsters had left him wary as hell. If a few random ones could come strolling out at Tier 19, then you didn’t need a genius to guess what kind of danger was waiting inside.

So instead, Ethan had stationed people here—keeping others from entering, and making sure they’d get notified immediately if anything else came out.

Luckily, up to now, nothing else had emerged besides those few grotesque humanoids.

Just like on Earth’s side, these exits were hidden inside the Void Realm too. Unless you practically tripped over one, you’d never find it.

Ethan stared at the entrance, tension slowly crawling up his spine.

If he wanted to level up, the Void Realm was the best shortcut there was.

But this one…

This one made his skin crawl.

Then Skinny Pete’s expression suddenly changed—sharp, grim, like someone had dumped ice water down his back.

”Captain,” Pete said quietly, ”don’t go in there.”

Ethan’s heart clenched. ”You sense something?”

Pete nodded, face tight. ”Yeah. I can feel it. It’s dangerous in there—really dangerous.”

”…Fuck.”

Ethan’s stomach sank.

So it wasn’t just him being paranoid. This Void Realm’s ”tier” was high. Way too high. The kind of place that could easily be hiding monsters beyond anything they’d dealt with so far.

Ethan took a slow breath, then forced himself to step back.

There was a time to push.

And there was a time to live.

Right now, he chose to live.