Chapter Forty-Five: Words of Goodness

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Lin Dong was analyzing as well. Among all the Awakened he had hunted, Lu Hao was probably the strongest. An earth-type ability, both offensive and defensive.

But it was time to bring this to an end...

With a single thought, Lin Dong expanded his domain to the limit. The overwhelming pressure slammed down, causing Lu Hao’s body to nearly collapse to the ground. He was already severely overdrawn, pushed to his limits.

Lin Dong flashed forward, raising his fist and slamming it into Lu Hao’s chest.

A thunderous boom. The earth armor around Lu Hao shattered, and his body flew out like a severed kite, smashing through the rear wall and landing outside the building.

Coughing, choking on blood, Lu Hao lay on the ground, unable to get up again. The bright light outside stung his eyes.

He was quickly surrounded by a horde of zombies. Among them was Tank, who was tossing a head in his right hand like a ball—the head of the Red-Faced Corpse King.

Little Eight stood nearby, blood still dripping from his sharp bone claws, his face twisted in a strange smile as he cocked his head to study the man on the ground.

Behind them were more than a thousand elite zombies, still brimming with the excitement of battle after having just defeated Red Face.

Is this the end...? Lu Hao stared into those grotesque faces, his vision growing dim. He had always known this day would come, just not so soon. He was about to leave this cruel world, and from now on, nothing would concern him anymore. For a moment, Lu Hao felt a sense of relief.

Time to say farewell...

Lin Dong stepped forward, looking down at him, noticing the complicated look in Lu Hao’s eyes, but also a hint of liberation.

“Any last words?” he asked.

Lu Hao was stunned. He hadn’t expected this zombie to speak, and with a deep, magnetic voice, nothing like the cold-blooded killer he’d just witnessed. For a moment, he felt as though a human stood before him.

“Kid... I know you’re strong, but don’t get cocky. Tech Corp... they’re not as simple as you think. They have many secret projects... things they never make public. That’s where the real danger lies...”

Lin Dong nodded. He had already guessed as much—the real trump cards were never discussed openly. The so-called “Zombie Purge Project” and “Hunter King Operation” were just for show.

Lu Hao’s gaze grew even more unfocused. He began to murmur two words.

“Strange... strange... they’re feeding zombies... cultivating anomalies...”

A cold wind swept by. Lu Hao’s pupils lost their light.

He was dead.

A heavy silence fell around them. Tank stopped playing with Red Face’s head and quietly turned to the doctor nearby.

“Hey, what did that human just say?” he whispered.

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“Emmm... with your level of intelligence, I don’t even know how to explain it to you,” the doctor mused.

“Oh...” Tank nodded, half understanding, but something didn’t feel quite right. Was the doctor calling him stupid?

Little Eight and the others gathered around Lin Dong, tilting their heads as they looked at Lu Hao’s corpse.

“Sire, I think what that human said before dying wasn’t half bad.”

“That’s called ‘a dying man’s words are always kind,’” Lin Dong replied, quoting an old saying.

None of the surrounding zombies could grasp the meaning of this, especially Tank, whose curiosity was insatiable.

“Eh? Boss, what does that mean?”

“It means... when humans speak harsh words, you beat them until they’re about to die. Then their words become much nicer.”

“Oh, so that’s what it means!” Tank finally got it, delighted to have learned something new. He took it as a proverb to live by. As expected from the boss—his words always made sense. He shot a disdainful look at the doctor, as if to say: “If you can’t explain it, clearly your intelligence is the problem!”

...

Thus, the great battle came to an end.

The street was littered with chunks of flesh, severed limbs everywhere, a scene of utter devastation. A flock of pitch-black crows cawed as they pecked at the remains—zombie meat was a delicacy for scavengers.

“Let’s go home,” Lin Dong ordered.

A chorus of guttural roars rose behind him. Victorious in their bloody battle, the horde was as jubilant as a returning army. They had slain the Red-Faced Corpse King and expanded their territory—now, from the skyscraper all the way to the park, their domain had tripled in size.

In this battle, Lin Dong had harvested six crystal cores—a bountiful reward.

Over the following days, Lin Dong resumed his reclusive lifestyle at home, absorbing crystal cores, eating flesh, drinking blood, constantly replenishing his energy.

Tank, Little Eight, and the doctor, however, were kept busy. With the expanded territory, the three kings recruited many new followers. Their numbers swelled from two thousand to ten thousand, and the ranks were still growing.

Lin Dong had become the Corpse King ruling over a horde of ten thousand zombies.

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But he still felt it wasn’t enough. If only there were a “hundred” in front of that—then it might be barely satisfactory...

Moreover, the new recruits weren’t as elite; they were stationed around the periphery of the territory. The original two thousand elite still guarded the skyscraper—Lin Dong’s “personal guard.”

After the territory expanded, Tank was the happiest of all. He took to patrolling the streets, searching for intruders or anything sneaking in. On a lucky day, he might even catch a few survivors for a snack—life was good.

If even his followers were enjoying themselves, Lin Dong was even more at ease. After that battle, no one dared provoke him.

Unbeknownst to him, Lin Dong had become the stuff of nightmares for humanity.

On the Tech Corp official website, the photos of Lu Hao and his team had all turned gray, signifying that the entire Hunter King Operation squad had been wiped out.

Since Tech Corp launched their operations, casualties had been common, but this was the first time an entire squad had been annihilated.

People paid special attention to this incident.

“Lu Hao was a B+ Awakened, and yet he was killed by zombies!”

“That’s terrible... The whole team is dead!”

“I really wonder what they ran into.”

“A Wraith Zombie, apparently! I heard there was a drone photo!”

“Really?”

...

As Lin Dong scrolled down, he found there really was a photo. Though taken from a great distance and rather blurry, it showed a young figure standing at the edge of a skyscraper’s rooftop, surrounded by crows—a scene with a distinctly dark, gothic flair.

The comments on this photo far exceeded those about the annihilation of the Hunter King squad.

“Whoa! Is that really a zombie?”

“It’s so... oppressive!”

“It’s just too blurry, and the crows are blocking the face. You can’t see clearly.”

“This is no ordinary zombie. That’s a Wraith! Who knows how many it’s killed?”

“Still... why do I think he looks kind of handsome?”

...