Chapter 1653: Chapter 1653
A powerful tingling sensation surged through every zombie as they began to march toward their queen. Some survivors, either preparing to fight back or fleeing in desperation, paused in disbelief as the undead turned away and began walking in the opposite direction.
Meanwhile, Maria floated high in the sky, sensing thousands, then tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, and ultimately millions—of undead suddenly fell under her control, tamed by her will.
The sheer number of undead now serving her filled her with strength. Her soul and aura brimmed with their combined power.
She sensed a handful of powerful presences resisting her dominion. Some of the undead under her command were being reclaimed, reverting to their previous state under different masters.
"Oh? Looks like we've got a few troublemakers. Three? No, four. Scattered across the globe."
Maria smiled and slowly descended to rejoin her family, not wanting to leave them in the dark about what had just occurred.
"So, what happened?" Emeraldine asked.
"What did you do?" Alma added.
"Ah, nothing major," Maria replied with a shrug. "I just tamed about 99% of the zombies in this world. There are a few thousand I couldn't control—they're too strong and already under the command of other powerful beings."
"Wait, what?!" Lucifer gasped. "D-Does that mean... how many zombies are under your command now, Maria?"
"Well, this world is a parallel version of Earth, right around the time its population was nearing seven billion," Maria explained. "So probably... a few billion. A lot of people must've died, but yeah."
"A whole world of zombies under your command?!" Jonathan exclaimed. "T-That's unprecedented! Even if they're not all strong, the sheer number is insane! You could practically overrun Yggdrasil with that army!"
"I plan to do more than that," Maria said. "This world will become the breeding ground for my army to grow and evolve. I discovered something fascinating—the virus that turned people into zombies here is highly mutagenic. It's practically part of this world's 'Calamity.' Not only did I gain power from taming them, but if I combine their strength with my own undead... I think I can achieve something even greater."
"Well, that's certainly interesting," Lucifer said. "With this, we'll be able to prepare a much stronger and larger army for what's coming."
"Yeah, but I still have a few things to take care of," Maria said, glancing around. "There's a shelter nearby with survivors. I want to ask them a few questions."
"I think we should help them if we can," Alma said. "Maybe guide them to another tower? Wait—why are there survivors here at all? Shouldn't they have escaped?"
"They did," Ferleen replied. "At least, those who completed the trial required to become Players. You remember the trial, right?"
"Trial?" Maria echoed. "We didn't really go through one. We stepped into Floor 49 right away, but... I guess what we faced there could be considered a trial too."
"I can't imagine what kind of trial that was," Ferleen said. "They're usually tailored to your original strength. Weaker people get easier ones, while stronger individuals face harder trials based on their capabilities."
"Ah, that explains a lot," Maria nodded, rubbing her chin as she gazed toward the horizon. Thousands of zombies were slowly marching toward her. She wanted to gather as many as possible in one place to experiment more easily. "Those survivors might know more about this world. Let's go."
Without delay, the group made their way toward the survivors' camp, located far to the southwest—well beyond a region filled with grotesque, fleshy trees and towering spires of white bone.
They passed through zombie-infested ruins along the way, but to the surprise of Ferleen and Melianna—who had both suffered in this world before—the zombies politely stepped aside wherever Maria and her family walked.
Eventually, after several minutes of navigating the devastated landscape and admiring the ruins of a fallen civilization, they spotted a massive fortress in the distance. It had been built inside an abandoned skyscraper, now overgrown with grass and trees, and surrounded by a makeshift wall of wood, stone, steel pipes, and whatever else could be scavenged.
A horde of hundreds of zombies surrounded the structure, groaning and clawing at the walls. Panic gripped the defenders atop the barricades as they fired arrows and hurled explosives in a desperate attempt to hold them back.
"Goddamn it, James! Why did you bring them here?! Without a Player, we can't even lure them away safely!" shouted a rough-looking woman with short blonde hair, blue eyes, and an eyepatch. She glared at a trembling black-haired man who was frantically throwing stones at the undead.
"How was I supposed to know they'd follow me?!" James shouted back. "I just went out to scavenge for food and maybe level up for once! I don't even know how people become Players—this whole thing is impossible!"
"Killing a hundred zombies on our own is insane," grunted a burly, bald man as he fired into the crowd. "It's like God's playing games with us, mocking us for surviving this long. Sure, we can buy food and bullets with System Points, but we need to kill a ton of zombies just to earn enough!"
"Keep firing the flame arrows! Don't let them breach the wall!" an elderly woman commanded, rallying dozens of survivors who loosed flaming arrows from makeshift bows.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Small explosions erupted across the battlefield, taking out a few dozen zombies at most. But the horde was too vast, too relentless. The undead pressed forward, hungry for fresh flesh.
From within the horde, a massive, muscular zombie charged forward. Towering over the others—more than three times their size—he slammed into the wall with his enormous fists. His grotesquely swollen muscles bulged like overinflated balloons, and his face was a twisted horror: a gaping mouth in the center of his head, lined with jagged fangs and a long, sticky tongue that spat acid in every direction.
"God damn it! Another Hybrid Mutant?!"
"A Muscle and an Acid Spitter? You've got to be kidding!"
"Who's going to take that thing down? We need someone with actual skills!"
"The last guy who reached Level 10 already left for the tower! We're the ones who got left behind!"
"But the children—they can't take the trial yet! Why did everyone leave? They didn't even care about the kids!"
As the defenders argued, the hybrid mutant continued pounding the wall. Cracks spread across the structure, and the acid weakened the materials, making them easier to break. The rest of the zombies pushed behind him, some climbing over each other like ants, trying to scale the barricade.
While the defenders were distracted, the hybrid smashed through. A massive hole opened in the wall, and the beast charged into the camp. Thıs content belongs to novelꞁire.net
With a monstrous roar, the creature sent the guards into a panic. They abandoned their posts and fled. The more experienced survivors could only watch in horror as their last line of defense crumbled.