Apocalypse: King of Zombies

According to the locations Miles had provided, four more Stage SS Beasts were scattered across different areas.

Ethan activated Riftwalk and took the others straight to the next target.

At their current strength, killing Stage SS Beasts was effortless. In less than an hour, all four were dead.

Ethan smiled at the five Stage SS crystal cores in his hand.

That had been almost too easy.

Back on the continent of Eldoria, they had risked their lives just to obtain a single Stage SS crystal core. Here, they had collected five in under an hour.

Unfortunately, those were the only five Stage SS Beasts the Fallen Star Guard had located. With those dead, there were no more known targets.

There were probably other Stage SS Beasts hiding somewhere within the Atlas Federation, but without knowing where to find them, Ethan could only leave the search for later.

After dealing with the five Beasts, he took everyone straight to the coast.

The endless ocean made them all uneasy.

”Boss, are we really going into the water to hunt Beasts?” Big Mike swallowed hard.

He was an Awakened with a fire-type ability. Fighting underwater would make him practically useless.

The others looked just as grim. There was something about the ocean that inspired a natural sense of dread.

Ethan stared at the water, his expression equally serious.

The sea looked calm, but he could sense something terrifying lurking beneath the surface. Even he felt a faint warning of danger.

”Wait here. Don’t enter the water. I’ll fly around and check things out.”

”All right. Be careful, Boss.”

Ethan nodded, rose into the air, and flew out over the ocean.

He didn’t dare enter the water without knowing what was down there, so he planned to scout from above.

He hadn’t gone far when an enormous fish covered in sharp teeth burst from the water, its jaws opening wide as it lunged at him.

Ethan raised an eyebrow and swung his poleaxe, cleaving the fish in half.

The two halves plunged back into the sea.

The calm surface immediately erupted into chaos. Countless fish swarmed the carcass, tearing it apart in a feeding frenzy.

At the same time, all kinds of strange, oversized fish began leaping out of the water to attack Ethan.

He frowned and climbed another thousand feet.

The ocean is even more dangerous than I expected.

Hunting underwater isn’t realistic, but I think I’ve got a better idea.

Ethan smiled, adjusted his altitude, and continued deeper over the ocean.

Sure enough, he hadn’t gone much farther when a gigantic tuna shot into the sky, opening its massive jaws to bite him.

This one had already reached Stage S. Both its size and strength far surpassed the fish he had encountered before.

”Oh, damn. Tuna’s delicious!” Ethan’s face lit up. ”And one this big would’ve been worth a fortune before the apocalypse!”

He drove his poleaxe straight into its head and killed it instantly. With the weapon still embedded in the tuna, he held its enormous body aloft to keep it from falling back into the sea.

”Seriously? It won’t fit.”

Ethan had planned to bring it back and find out what mutant tuna tasted like, but his spatial storage ring was too small.

”Damn it. I need to find a bigger storage ring.”

He swung his poleaxe and split the tuna down the middle, storing one half in his ring while the other fell into the ocean.

The water below exploded once more as countless creatures tore the carcass apart in seconds.

Many of them tried to attack Ethan as well, but this time he was flying too high for the weaker sea creatures to reach.

The ocean, however, had no shortage of powerful inhabitants. The commotion soon attracted the stronger creatures nearby.

Boom!

The water erupted as a two-hundred-and-forty-foot creature launched itself out of the sea and lunged at Ethan.

”Holy shit! An electric eel!”

The moment the words left Ethan’s mouth, terrifying bolts of electricity erupted from the eel and struck at him.

Ethan immediately activated Nullspace Domain.

The eel was only Tier 39, but getting shocked by that much electricity probably still wouldn’t feel good.

The bolts vanished the moment they reached Ethan.

Confusion appeared on the eel’s face, but it didn’t stop. Its long, slender body twisted through the air, trying to coil around him.

”These sea creatures really have no sense of self-preservation.”

Ethan shook his head and smashed his poleaxe into its skull.

Bang!

Its head exploded.

One hit, one kill.

Before Ethan could deal with the carcass, the ocean below erupted in a series of massive splashes. One enormous sea creature after another burst from the water and charged at him.

A quick glance told him that most were Stage SS, with several high-Tier Stage S creatures among them.

Excitement filled Ethan’s eyes.

”Looks like Miles was right. The ocean really is the perfect place to farm crystal cores.”

His mouth spread into a grin.

”Since you came all the way up here, none of you are leaving.”

He waved his hand, and every creature vanished.

Inside the Deadlock Dimension...

The sea creatures stared blankly at their surroundings.

A moment ago, they had been above the ocean. How had they ended up here in the blink of an eye?

This place was hardly suited for them to fight.

Unfortunately, there was nothing they could do about it. They were already here. If they couldn’t change their surroundings, they would have to adapt.

The entire group turned toward the lone human in the distance.

”Welcome to my world!” Ethan smiled.

”Now, let me enjoy my seafood feast!”

He charged into the group with his poleaxe.

Ethan was already far stronger than any of them. Combined with the suppression of the Deadlock Dimension, the fight became a one-sided slaughter. Every swing of his poleaxe claimed another life. Not a single sea creature could withstand one blow.

Before long, the ground was covered in corpses.

Ethan extracted all the crystal cores and happily stored them in his spatial ring.

Eight Stage SS crystal cores and four Stage S crystal cores in a matter of minutes.

Not bad at all.

After collecting the cores, Ethan looked at the sea creatures strewn across the ground and sighed regretfully.

They were all premium ingredients, but his storage ring couldn’t hold them. He had no choice but to leave them behind.

Shaking his head, Ethan released the Deadlock Dimension.

Outside, not long after Ethan and the sea creatures had disappeared, a colossal whale had risen from below. It stared curiously at the distorted space in front of it.

Then it opened its enormous mouth and swallowed the entire area.

The moment Ethan deactivated the Deadlock Dimension, he and the corpses of the sea creatures reappeared.

But as soon as he emerged, Ethan froze.

”Why’d it suddenly get dark?”