Chapter Thirty-Seven: Brother Crow

It never expected that the flock of crows would come to the aid of this human.

A powerful sense of danger surged once more.

Sensing the unfavorable turn, the giant rat realized it shouldn’t linger any longer. It decided to flee at once, getting ready to leap into the sewer.

But a sudden gust swept the air as several crows swooped down, encircling it. One crashed heavily into its body, sending it flying dozens of meters away.

Lin Dong watched intently, sensing his chance had arrived.

“These crows are reliable—they really come through when needed...”

He leapt forward, unleashing his domain to the utmost. All the rats caught within were instantly crushed to pieces.

The rat king panicked, trying desperately to escape.

But then, an immense pressure bore down on it.

Its body went rigid.

It could no longer move an inch.

Looking up, it saw a tall figure standing before it, eyes icy, murderous intent radiating.

The giant rat, now trapped within the domain, lost all its arrogance.

It trembled uncontrollably.

A pleading look appeared in its eyes, almost pitiful.

With a thought, Lin Dong focused the pressure to a single point; with a resounding crack, the giant rat’s body exploded.

A crystal core shot out; Lin Dong caught it in his palm.

The moment the giant rat died, the ferocious horde lost its leader. Chaos erupted as the rats screamed and scattered in all directions.

In an instant, the dense swarm receded like a tide.

Moments later, not a single rat remained.

The street was now even more devastated, littered with shredded rat corpses and flesh, the stench of blood thick in the air.

A group of large crows pecked at the remains.

“Good man, goodbye...”

The lead crow circled Lin Dong several times, then, with a rustle of wings, led the flock away.

Silence returned to the entire street.

...

Lin Dong watched the crows disappear, thinking this was a case of kindness being repaid; perhaps he should feed small animals more often and strive to be a “good person.”

Looking around, he noted that though the rat king here was dead, there must be other creatures lurking in the surrounding area. After all, the rat king was not the true overlord—this place was ruled by a corpse king.

Lin Dong had no intention of exploring further. With two crystal cores in hand, enough to sustain him for a while, he decided to return to his own territory and lay low.

In the blink of an eye, he vanished, activating his stealth ability and making his way home.

...

But just after Lin Dong left, a group of zombies appeared on the street strewn with corpses. At their head was a corpse king with dark red skin and bulging black veins—the same red-faced corpse king from the park.

Around its neck hung something furry and black, which now lifted its head to reveal a human face covered in black fuzz.

“Squeak—squeak squeak squeak—”

The human-faced rat jumped from its neck, approached a pile of rat flesh, and let out a mournful cry, filled with deep sorrow.

“My love... How did you die? Who did this? I will avenge you!”

The human-faced rat rubbed its bizarre face over the bloody remains.

Soon, it was stained crimson.

“Collar, don’t be too sad. Anyone who dares invade my territory—I will kill them!” rasped the red-faced corpse king, voice as rough as grinding stones.

Behind him stood several trusted lieutenants, highly evolved and intelligent, much like Tank No. 8.

“Boss... I asked around—the zombie in that building did it.”

“Oh?”

A glint of killing intent flashed in the red-faced zombie’s eyes. He’d already planned to wipe out that rival and expand his domain, but he hadn’t expected to be provoked first.

“How many zombies are there?”

“After some investigation, we’ve confirmed there are about two thousand.”

“Only two thousand?”

The red-faced corpse king tilted his head, incredulous.

He thought his opponent would be far stronger...

After all, under his command, he’d already gathered a horde of twenty thousand.

Twenty thousand against two thousand—wouldn’t that be a walkover?

“Collar, get ready. I’ll avenge you soon!”

...

Meanwhile, Lin Dong was unaware of all this.

He had already returned home.

As was his habit, he took a hot bath, changed into clean clothes, and began to absorb crystal core energy.

The rat king’s core was jet black, like a ripe cherry, even more fragrant and sweet.

Its energy was exceptionally pure, greatly enhancing his power.

Perhaps it was because the rat king’s psychic field was similar to his own corpse domain.

The days that followed passed quietly.

Since eliminating the rat king, neither rodents nor zombies had come to trouble him.

Only, from time to time, a crow would circle overhead.

During this period, Lin Dong gathered information from the outside world on his phone.

The official website of Tek Corporation was especially lively.

News of the mall incident had already been made public: the awakened had been killed, and over a billion in supplies had vanished.

Survivors left many comments:

“Over a dozen awakened, all slaughtered in one night—what kind of monster could do this?”

“Exactly, what level of corpse king could it be?”

“It’s terrifying! And there were more than two hundred survivors, plus over a billion in supplies gone.”

“Tek Corporation isn’t so great after all. They bragged about the ‘King Hunt Operation,’ but ended up hunted by zombies...”

“Could it be the work of another human faction, not zombies?”

“Hmm... That’s possible. I heard some rogue awakened have formed their own gangs and even robbed official shelters...”

“...”

The mall incident remained shrouded in mystery. Everyone was curious what had transpired that night.

But no living soul could tell them.

It had become the greatest unsolved mystery of the apocalypse.

Still, Tek Corporation refused to give up. The missing supplies were too valuable to let go without answers.

They quickly issued a statement:

“Our company will thoroughly investigate the mall incident to honor Li Nan and the others. The ‘King Hunt Operation’ begins now. We will hunt down every corpse king and reclaim the lost supplies!”

“These people are getting restless again,” Lin Dong muttered.

At that moment, Tek Corporation was in the midst of planning their operation. A group of awakened sat in a conference room.

On the large screen up front was a map of Jiangbei City.

“After a month of drone surveillance, we’ve mapped the basic distribution of zombies. Around the mall, there are roughly ten corpse king territories. Based on risk, we’ve rated them from one to five stars.

“Five stars are the most dangerous, one star is relatively safe—like here, near this building.”

A middle-aged man explained, circling an area on the map.

“There are about two thousand zombies here, the smallest of the corpse king territories. We’re assigning this as a one-star difficulty—hunt the corpse king here!”

The awakened looked at each other, feeling as if they were signing up for a game raid.

But clearly, a one-star mission was a good deal.

They all raised their hands, eager to volunteer.

“This spot looks good—I’ll take it! Me too!”

...