“Dong, dong, dong…”
As the bells rang out one after another, people from all directions within the base rushed over to provide support.
Greenfield Star, 2058. The ninth year of the apocalypse. Outside Licheng First Base.
“Brothers, this is the last wave of zombies! Take down these damn zombies, and we can finally welcome a new beginning!”
A group of humans dressed in all sorts of bizarre outfits fought with increasing courage and excitement, almost as though they had taken stimulants. Wielding strange weapons in their hands, they charged toward the final wave of zombies.
“Wind Blade!”
A young man swiftly condensed a blade before him and slashed it toward the zombies.
“Go!”
He quickly condensed a crackling ball of energy between his hands and hurled it toward the zombies.
Just when everyone thought victory was within reach, a gigantic zombie radiating an eerie red glow slowly rose from within the horde. It threw its head back and let out a roar, causing the ordinary zombies around it to retreat like a tide, surrounding and protecting the giant zombie in the center.
“Not good! It’s a high-level zombie!” someone shouted in panic from within the crowd.
This zombie was immensely powerful and was on an entirely different level from ordinary zombies. The young man condensed another Wind Blade, but the Zombie King casually waved a hand, sending out a wave of energy that blasted him backward. The man who could condense crackling energy balls hurriedly formed another one and hurled it at the zombie, but it only made the creature stagger slightly.
Just as everyone was plunged into despair, Zhao Xiyan, who had been hiding among the crowd all along, suddenly felt a mysterious force surge within her body.
“Rise!”
With a furious shout, she raised both hands. The ground slowly split apart as countless vines as thick as wrists burst from the earth. Like snakes, they swiftly slithered toward the zombie, wrapping around it layer by layer and tightening with increasing force until they pierced directly into its brain. Its crystal core was swiftly extracted and appeared in Zhao Xiyan’s hand.
With one hand controlling the vines and the other absorbing the crystal core, Zhao Xiyan was already a ninth-level ability user on the verge of breaking through to the tenth level. However, her ability consumption was enormous. The low-level zombie crystal cores she had been using to replenish her energy were nowhere near enough, and she could feel her abilities rapidly draining away.
In the distance, dazzling beams of light flashed continuously in every direction. In an instant, the scene resembled a battlefield, with corpses strewn across the ground, blood and flesh flying everywhere, and severed body parts scattered in all directions.
These people who seemed capable of performing magic were ability users who had awakened special abilities among the small portion of humanity who possessed such powers after the apocalypse began.
They fought with blood and sweat to protect the human race and safeguard the ordinary survivors in the rear. Some had even sacrificed their lives, all for the future of humanity.
Zhao Xiyan eventually exhausted her abilities and, under the protection of her teammates, withdrew to the rear.
Everyone had long since become accustomed to ability users rotating out of battle. When some ability users exhausted their powers, they would retreat under the protection of their teammates and guard the rear while they recovered, allowing another group of ability users to take their places on the front line. In this way, they could do everything possible to protect everyone’s lives from danger.
That was why everyone was willing to follow the Base Leader to their deaths. The Base Leader treated everyone’s lives as precious.
Zhao Xiyan held a zombie crystal core in her hand and continuously absorbed its energy. The amount of power she had consumed was simply too immense. It was like pouring a tiny stream of water into an endless sea of stars, with only the faintest ripple appearing as her abilities flowed into her body.
While rapidly absorbing the energy, she watched the fierce battle ahead with nervous excitement. This was the final battle. As long as they defeated the Zombie King, humanity would win.
“Xiyan, come help!”
A cry for help rang out.
Zhao Xiyan immediately tore her gaze away and ran toward the injured ability users who had retreated to the rear of the main force.
She was a wood-based ability user and also possessed healing abilities. Most of the time, she charged straight into the front lines, but whenever she returned to the rear, she treated the injured ability users there.
One ability user after another was brought back. Some, like her, had merely exhausted their abilities, while others were seriously injured, had lost parts of their bodies, or were unconscious. If an ability user exhausted their powers and failed to retreat to the rear in time while continuing to fight, they would eventually lose consciousness.
Zhao Xiyan calmly extended both hands and continuously consumed her own abilities to heal her comrades.
Under her treatment, wounds rapidly closed, while missing parts of their bodies slowly regenerated.
Time passed without anyone noticing, and Zhao Xiyan’s face visibly grew paler.
She withdrew one hand, took out a crystal core, and quickly absorbed its energy, but her face remained as pale as a ghost.
“Xiyan, take a break. There are too many wounded people. We won’t be able to treat them all at once. Be careful not to exhaust your abilities.”
The words went in one ear and out the other.
These comrades were exhausting their very lives to protect everyone. They were not afraid of death, so how could she, who had retreated to the rear, not do her part to help everyone?
Gradually, the sounds of fighting from the front grew quieter, and the number of zombies on the battlefield continued to decrease.
In the end, only a few high-level zombies remained, protecting the Zombie King.
Then, the Zombie King suddenly stopped fighting. Its subordinates surrounded it, forming a circle around it.
Suddenly, the Zombie King looked left and right, then up and down, yet it did not look at the battlefield around it at all. Its expression was bizarre, almost as though it possessed some kind of consciousness.
According to the legends, a third-level zombie already possessed the consciousness of a four or five-year-old human child. A fourth-level zombie’s intelligence was close to that of a twelve-year-old child. A fifth-level zombie was comparable to an adolescent, while a sixth-level zombie possessed intelligence approaching that of an adult. Seventh-level zombies were even more terrifying. Their intelligence was extremely high, and they could even disguise their appearance as humans.
The Zombie King possessed intelligence that was even more terrifying.
Legends were one thing, but Zhao Xiyan only believed what she saw with her own eyes.
The entire force in the rear stared at the Zombie King. It seemed to be searching for something.
Suddenly, the Zombie King looked toward the rear of the troops. It stared for a long time before tilting its head and smiling eerily.
Everyone in the rear got goosebumps.
Please, could it stop smiling? Its smile was terrifying.
Everyone followed the Zombie King’s gaze.
What was it staring at? Could that thing really be watching someone?
Impossible. Absolutely impossible.
Just as everyone’s minds were running wild with speculation, the Zombie King suddenly made a move that stunned everyone.
It actually tore open space and instantly stepped inside.
Before anyone could react, the rift in space closed.
This sudden development left both the forces at the front and those in the rear completely stunned.
“Did the Zombie King escape? This is bad!”
“The Zombie King actually has the ability to travel through space. No wonder it became the Zombie King!”
No wonder it had become the only king among the zombies.
As far as everyone knew, no human ability user possessed the ability to travel through space. Yet somehow, this creature had one.
“Everyone, stay alert! The Zombie King is too strange. It could tear open space and appear at any moment.”
The moment those words fell, the Zombie King appeared directly behind Zhao Xiyan.
Zhao Xiyan was concentrating on treating the wounded and had not been paying much attention to her surroundings. It was only after hearing everyone’s cries of alarm that she turned around, only to find herself face-to-face with the Zombie King.
Zhao Xiyan jolted in fright.
What was wrong with this thing?
The Zombie King slowly tilted its head and stared at the human before it, its expression eerily terrifying.
Zhao Xiyan took a deep breath in fright and slowly backed away. Whether the Zombie King could not understand her movements or simply did not care, it remained completely still, continuing to stare at her.
No one dared to move. Everyone slowly backed away.
After they had retreated three hundred meters, the Zombie King finally moved and charged toward Zhao Xiyan.
“Rise!”
Zhao Xiyan shouted furiously as vines burst from the surrounding ground. The wrist-thick vines surged toward the Zombie King and wrapped around it.
The Zombie King expressionlessly watched as the vines tightly bound its body. It seemed rather interested as it observed them for a moment, but suddenly, an intense fire-based ability erupted from its entire body, burning the vines to ashes.
The Zombie King charged straight toward Zhao Xiyan.
Zhao Xiyan fought back with everything she had. When she saw that everyone had retreated to a safe zone, she looked at the Zombie King.
“Heh.”
Everyone smiled when they saw Zhao Xiyan.
At that moment, Zhao Xiyan abruptly redirected the energy within her crystal core and fiercely wrapped both arms around the Zombie King.
“Boom!”
An explosion erupted from the center where Zhao Xiyan and the Zombie King stood, spreading outward in a widening ring.
Zhao Xiyan and the Zombie King perished together.
When everyone saw this, tears streamed down their faces.
Humanity had won, but there was no joy on anyone’s face, only overwhelming sorrow.
She had been an orphan. Before the apocalypse, she had been cared for by the grandmother who ran the orphanage. But when she was thirteen, the orphanage director fell down the stairs and suffered a stroke. A year later, she passed away.
After that, a new director took over, but the warmth Zhao Xiyan had once known was gone forever.
During the early days of the apocalypse, she witnessed the darkness of human nature and the harshness of the world. She struggled to survive from one meal to the next and had even considered ending her own life.
It was the Base Leader who rescued her when she was surrounded by zombies and helped her awaken her abilities, along with that group of wonderful people.
At a time of such a crisis, what was there to fear when protecting their own people?
As time passed, Zhao Xiyan’s consciousness gradually faded away.
She sank into a world of darkness.