These hundreds of people fleeing in absolute panic—men, women, elderly folks, even young children—were clearly local residents.
All of them were sprinting with everything they had, raw terror written across every face.
"Monsters?" Elric narrowed his eyes with interest. "More supernatural creatures already?"
He immediately activated his Clairvoyance ability, his vision extending far beyond the fleeing crowd to see what exactly was chasing them...
And what he saw made him pause completely.
It wasn't supernatural creatures at all.
It was—
"Humanoid corpses? Seriously?"
Dozens of them.
The dead bodies of refugees that had been lying in the streets just days ago—lifeless, ignored by survivors, slowly rotting—were now standing. Moving. Chasing. Attacking.
Some ran on all fours like animals, some staggered forward with unnatural speed, but all of them shared the same characteristics: sharpened teeth, clouded eyes, and pure animalistic hostility toward anything living.
"Zombies," Elric exhaled sharply, stating the obvious.
Anyone who'd ever watched even a single apocalypse movie would instantly recognize them.
Dead humans somehow reanimating and mutating into aggressive corpse-creatures with only one instinct—feed.
"This apocalypse really does have every single element possible," Elric muttered with dark amusement. "First superpowered beasts, then mutated plants, now actual zombies. What's next, vampires and werewolves?"
Supernatural creatures were genuinely dangerous but relatively scarce—maybe a few dozen in any given area.
But zombies? Zombies were an entirely different kind of threat:
Numerous—every corpse was a potential zombie. Fast enough to catch fleeing civilians. And worst of all, corpses constantly turned into more zombies through bites and infection.
Humanity's survival situation had just become exponentially worse overnight.
Elric found himself wondering briefly—
Do zombies drop ability crystals when killed? If they do, that would actually be pretty convenient for farming resources...
But before he could think any further—
"Elric! We need to drive—NOW!" Elsa shouted from the driver's seat, panic rising in her normally composed voice.
The SUV had just turned a corner—straight into the absolute chaos.
Dozens of zombies were spilling into the street from every direction, cutting off potential escape routes with their numbers.
Both Nina and Elsa shrieked in genuine shock.
"Holy shit—what kind of messed-up crap is this?! ZOMBIES?!" Nina yelled, her usual foul language momentarily overtaken by actual fear.
Even her crude street-tough persona sounded genuinely shaken.
Elsa gripped the steering wheel so tightly her knuckles went white, her face pale.
"I thought this was supposed to be SAFE! That's what everyone said!"
Even Elizabeth—calm, analytical, unflappable Elizabeth—visibly widened her eyes behind her stylish glasses.
But her reaction wasn't fear at all.
It was pure scientific excitement.
"Fascinating... reanimated corpses capable of independent locomotion and coordinated hunting behavior..." she murmured, almost to herself. "I absolutely must obtain a live specimen for cellular analysis."
She turned to look at Elric, the unspoken request crystal clear even without words.
Elric understood her meaning instantly.
"Fine. I'll catch one for you to study."
Elizabeth nodded with obvious satisfaction, though visible disappointment flickered in her eyes when he immediately added:
"Later though. I'm definitely not letting you perform zombie dissection experiments at the residential building where we're staying."
She accepted that logical restriction quietly, already mentally planning her future research protocols.
Ahead of their vehicle, the chaos intensified dramatically.
The zombie horde tore through the panicked crowd with horrifying speed and efficiency.
A middle-aged woman screamed desperately as one particularly fast sprinting corpse launched itself forward and latched onto her calf with its teeth.
She fell immediately, hitting the pavement hard.
Within seconds, two more zombies swarmed over her fallen body.
"MOM! MOOOM!" A young man maybe eighteen or nineteen years old collapsed to his knees right there in the street, sobbing completely uncontrollably.
Next to him stood a middle-aged man—probably the father—clutching a young girl about seven or eight years old protectively in his arms. Both were frozen in absolute shock, unable to process what they'd just witnessed.
The undead closed in around them from all sides, shambling forward with terrifying focus.
The teenage son was devastated and furious, but with more zombies closing in from behind, all he could do was try to drag his crying family members forward to safety.
Suddenly—
BANG!
A sharp gunshot cracked across the street, echoing off the buildings.
The zombie that had been tearing into the woman's leg suddenly had its entire head explode in a spray of dark fluids.
The precise shot had come from the far side of the intersection.
There, emerging from a side street in coordinated formation, more than a dozen heavily armed individuals appeared—each one holding either pistols or what looked like police-issue rifles.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Controlled, disciplined gunfire erupted in rapid succession.
In just seconds, more than fifty zombies were systematically dropped under their coordinated fire.
Soon, all the undead threats lay motionless on the blood-stained asphalt.
A stern-looking man in his forties stepped forward from the group, slinging his rifle over his shoulder with practiced ease and projecting his authoritative voice outward to address the terrified crowd.
"Listen up, all citizens!"
His voice carried clearly across the street.
"I'm Jack, former military veteran—now squad leader of the Jun Shelter defensive force."
He gestured broadly to encompass his armed team.
"Our shelter's primary purpose is simple: protect survivors, actively fight back against zombies and mutated creatures, and work to rebuild some kind of stable order in this chaos."
He knelt beside the middle-aged woman with the mangled, bleeding calf, helping her up as gently as possible despite her injuries.
"We sincerely invite every single one of you—please, come with us back to our shelter. The Jun Shelter will take you in, keep you fed, and keep you safe."
The shell-shocked refugees looked at him with a complicated mixture of desperate hope and cautious disbelief.
Was this real? Or just another trap in this nightmare world?
"A functioning shelter already organized?" Elric raised an eyebrow with genuine interest.
Only about twelve days had passed since the apocalypse officially began... and someone had already successfully gathered significant manpower, acquired weapons and ammunition, and established controlled territory?
That kind of rapid organization required several critical elements:
Substantial resources and supplies. Strong organizational skills and leadership. And most importantly—a genuinely powerful leader capable of commanding respect through force.
Elric found himself mildly curious about this Jack character—but only mildly.
He wasn't the type to waste valuable time investigating every potential rival or ally. If this 'Jun Shelter' continued growing in power and influence, he'd inevitably cross paths with its leadership soon enough anyway.
For now, he used his Clairvoyance to quickly scan all the fallen zombie corpses littering the street.
No ability crystals visible anywhere.
No special supernatural materials worth collecting.
"Figures. Zombies are the cheap trash mobs of this apocalypse," he exhaled with disappointment.
"Elsa, just keep driving. Let's get out of here."
As their distinctive SUV began rolling forward carefully through the carnage, a young woman from the Jun rescue squad spotted the vehicle.
She jogged up alongside with hopeful, earnest eyes—probably early twenties, fit and energetic despite the apocalypse.
"Hey! You folks in the car—three ladies and one gentleman, right?" She called out enthusiastically. "Are you interested in joining Jun Shelter? We'd love to have you! We can definitely survive better together as a community!"
Elric glanced at her once with his analytical gaze.
She was objectively pretty and seemed genuinely energetic and kind-hearted...
But she absolutely did not meet the system's strict adoption criteria for his retainers. Not even close to the threshold.
He simply raised one finger casually—
WHOOSH.
Instant spatial exchange-position teleportation activated.
Their entire vehicle blinked out of existence from that street location and seamlessly reappeared several full blocks away, leaving the confused squad girl standing there staring at empty pavement.
"Did... did that car just teleport?" she whispered to herself in disbelief.
"Head to Rachel's temporary location first," Elric ordered from the back seat.
Elsa nodded immediately. "Got it, understood."
Before returning to the main residential building—where Natasha, Jenna, Grace, and the other women were patiently waiting—Elric needed to pick up Rachel and Lily as promised.
Rachel had been waiting obediently for more than a full day now. Elric fully intended to officially bring her into his group today, no question about it.
During his entire return journey from Chicago, he'd used his newly upgraded Fixed-Point Clairvoyance ability multiple times to remotely check on:
The residential building and all its occupants. Rachel and Lily's temporary safe house. The general surrounding area for threats.
Everything had looked stable and secure.
Natasha, Jenna, Grace, and the others had stayed obediently inside the apartment exactly as Elric had instructed them before leaving.
They'd spent the day doing perfectly normal activities:
Playing card games to pass time. Sleeping when bored. Gossiping about various topics. And most importantly—staying completely safe.
There is 60 chapter Advance, in my patreon. If you are interested can check it out.
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