Angela froze completely, her eyes widening in pure horror as she stared at the pale girl who had materialized beside her.
The first thing she noticed was the soft dimples and cute, chubby cheeks. Then she saw the glowing crimson eyes, icy pale skin, and an unnatural, terrifyingly calm aura in the middle of a warzone.
"Eeeek! A zombie!" Angela shrieked hysterically, her voice hitting a glass-shattering pitch as she threw her hands into the air and began stomping her feet in absolute panic. "Don’t eat me! I’m thin! I have no meat! Go eat Robin, he has way more muscle!"
Summer tilted her pale head in complete confusion, her dark eyelashes blinking slowly. She didn’t understand why the girl was screaming so loudly.
Summer was actually quite happy to see another girl roughly her own age, even if she herself was technically a zombie girl now.
She had approached with pure friendliness, wanting to make a new acquaintance outside of her controlled horde and the human family.
"I am not... eating you," Summer rasped out, her voice slightly awkward and rusty from disuse. "I just... wanted to say hi."
"A talking zombie! Oh god, it’s an evolved monster! It’s going to trick me and scoop out my brains!" Angela burst into fresh torrents of tears, hopping backward on one foot and waving her arms wildly like a wind turbine. "Leader! Captain Robin! Save me! The zombies are learning manners!"
Summer’s lips pouted slightly in mild annoyance. She looked at One, who stood tall and silent behind her like a loyal guard post.
She then looked back at Angela, who was currently hiding her face behind her arms, weeping hysterically.
[She thinks you are going to eat her, dummy. Though to be fair, your eyes are glowing bright red and you smell faintly of dried blood. You aren’t exactly presenting a welcoming human image.]
’I washed my face this morning,’ Summer argued back mentally, feeling a bit wronged.
Before Angela could continue her tearful performance, a deafening screech of grinding metal shattered the atmosphere.
The heavy, armored transport truck that their squad leader had just plowed into the horde suddenly slammed to a violent halt. The front tires skidded against the bloody asphalt, sparks flying in every direction.
Summer’s red eyes narrowed as she sensed a sudden, terrifying shift in the air.
Without warning, the rear axle of the massive diesel truck violently lifted into the air. The multi-ton vehicle was hoisted upward as if gripped by an invisible, colossal hand.
With a sickening crunch of tearing steel and shattering glass, the entire armored truck fumbled over in midair, flipping upside down before crashing heavily onto the pavement.
The impact sent a violent shockwave across the intersection, raining shattered glass and metal scraps onto the surrounding pavement.
Summer instantly tensed, her small hands pulling into tight fists. Her instincts screamed at her that whatever had just flipped a multi-ton armored vehicle possessed a level of power that was completely beyond any standard feral zombie she had encountered so far.
[Warning: High-Energy Biological Threat Detected.]
The system’s voice, usually mocking and playful, suddenly turned sharp and strict in her mind.
[Well, well... it seems you have finally encountered a different classification of Feral.]
’Different classification?’ Summer asked, her gaze fixed on the rising cloud of dust near the overturned truck.
[Listen carefully, dummy. Ferals are not all created equal. The common ones you have been slaughtering are merely ’Brutes’ or ’Speeders’—mutations that purely enhance physical attributes like strength or agility. They are mindless muscle. But above them are ’Boss Ferals’. These rare variants unlock unique, specialized powers.]
As the system finished explaining, an unnatural silence fell over the chaotic battlefield.
The loud, chaotic roars of the thousands of ordinary zombies vanished instantly. Even the hundred-plus feral zombies that had been circling the soldiers like proud predators suddenly lowered their heads.
Their glowing eyes filled with terror.
Without a single sound, the entire horde began to retreat, scrambling backward into alleyways and hiding behind ruined buildings as if an ancient predator had just stepped into their domain.
Through the clearing thick plume of dust and smoke near the wrecked truck, a figure slowly emerged.
Summer stared, her red eyes widening in genuine surprise.
The creature was surprisingly thin—even thinner than Summer herself. It looked like an emaciated human silhouette draped in a tattered black cloth, its limbs long and gaunt.
Its grey skin was stretched tight over visible ribs, and its fingers ended in elongated, needle-like black claws.
But what stood out the most was its head: its skull was unnaturally enlarged, with translucent skin revealing throbbing black veins pulsing around its exposed brain tissue.
It had not even touched the truck with its hands. It simply hovered a few inches above the ground, its hollow, glowing purple eyes staring directly at the overturned vehicle.
"What the hell is a Boss feral? And psychokinetic?" Angela, who had stopped her hysterical crying the moment the truck flipped, muttered aloud in disbelief as her Appraisal talent fed her terrifying data.
Her face turned entirely colorless. "It flipped a twenty-ton armored truck without even touching it..."
[It is indeed a Feral BOSS with Psychokinetic talent,] the system confirmed urgently in Summer’s head.
[Its physical defense is weak. Dump all your free attribute points into Agility immediately!]
Summer did not hesitate for a single second. She opened her status interface with a thought and poured all 16 of her saved free attribute points directly into her Agility stat, driving her speed to a staggering 34 points.
BOOM!
The concrete ground beneath Summer’s boots shattered into fine powder as she launched herself forward like a launched missile.
Her body blurred into a streak of pale white and black, completely bypassing the speed of sound as she crossed the fifty-meter distance to the Boss feral in less than a heartbeat.
The Boss feral’s throbbing head snapped toward her, its hollow purple eyes flaring with sudden alarm.
Summer reached the creature before it could even raise its hands.
Bringing her arm back, her Iron Brawler Gauntlet gleamed under the twilight sky as she poured every ounce of her boosted physical momentum into a devastating straight fist aimed right at the monster’s exposed, throbbing skull.
BOOM!
A thunderous shockwave exploded at the point of impact.
However, the Boss feral’s head did not explode into crimson mist as Summer had anticipated. Instead, a semi-transparent, shimmering purple barrier materialized an inch away from its pale forehead, absorbing the raw kinetic force of her strike.
Before Summer could recoil and throw a second strike, the invisible barrier suddenly flared with tremendous repulsive force.
BANG!
An overwhelming kinetic impact slammed straight into Summer’s chest like a hit from an invisible battering ram.
The sheer force lifted her tiny body off the ground, hurling her backward through the air at terrifying speed.
Summer flew across the intersection, smashing straight through the brick facade of a three-story commercial building and collapsing deep inside the dark, dusty interior as debris buried her body.
’I should’ve invested these free points into strength,’ Summer complained.
[That’s useless. Its psychokinetic power is beyond your level. The reason I asked you to dump all free points into agility was to scram away from it. You dummy rushed into it instead...]
’Oh..should I run now?’
[Well...]
The system didn’t get time to finish speaking as a huge boulder zoomed into her....