Chapter 457: Top secret

“Let’s go. We’ll head back to our territory in the city first,” Ethan said.

After all, that was still his turf—he couldn’t just abandon it.

The moment Fear and the others heard this, they lit up with excitement.

The days of running… were finally over.

They were going back to their lair.

Without wasting time, Ethan led the Overlord Squad, along with Fear and the rest of his underlings, back into the city.

Before the apocalypse, this place had been known as San Antonio—a pretty sizable city.

Now, though, it was a crumbling wasteland. Buildings had collapsed and were covered in moss. The streets were littered with bones and rotting corpses, half-buried in the rubble.

Ethan also noticed signs of recent human activity—footprints, empty instant noodle wrappers, the plastic skins from hot dogs.

“Humans have been here?” he asked.

“Yeah, yeah,” Fear nodded quickly. “After Genesis Biotech drove us out, the place turned into a ghost town. A lot of humans started coming here to scavenge for supplies.”

“Most of the big supermarkets and storage facilities have already been picked clean, but people still find stuff in old homes—canned food that’s still good for another couple years, and other useful things. Some folks even treat it like a game, exploring for fun.”

“Huh. That does sound kinda fun,” Ethan said, nodding. The idea of wandering through an empty city, going house to house, did have a certain treasure-hunt vibe to it.

Mist chimed in, “But the humans coming here are all from Genesis Biotech. They don’t let anyone from the nearby shelters or the Black Hand Legion step foot in this area. They say it’s their turf now.”

“Humans, huh… I haven’t killed one in two months,” Ethan muttered, stopping in his tracks and looking up at the sky.

For a Zombie King, that was a long dry spell.

“I wonder who the next lucky ones will be…”

…

After arriving in Texas, Ethan had set up base in San Antonio. He was planning to get revenge for Fear and the others—and he was also waiting for his first batch of prey to walk right into his trap.

Meanwhile, at Genesis Biotech’s U.S. headquarters, the mood was grim.

The zombie swarm from Los Angeles had broken loose and was heading straight for Texas. Everyone was on edge, like they had a boulder hanging over their heads, ready to drop at any second.

Richard had first called an emergency meeting with the top brass.

Then he sent out a notice to every Genesis Biotech branch across the U.S., summoning all regional heads to a virtual conference.

Now, in the digital meeting room, a circle of executives sat around a virtual table.

But the number of attendees had clearly shrunk. Many familiar faces were gone—some had died when their local branches were overrun, others had vanished for unknown reasons. A rare few had even defected… like Sophia.

“The fact that you’re all still here, sitting at this table, speaks volumes about your capabilities,” Richard began, offering a rare compliment.

Nathan, the head of the Los Angeles branch, was among them. He nodded slightly, agreeing in his mind.

“Damn right…”

Everyone else in the meeting wore tense, grim expressions. Nathan, on the other hand, was faking it. The zombie horde had left L.A. and was now heading farther and farther away from him—toward Texas.

Which meant he was safe.

It was like all his coworkers were stuck in a nightmare, drowning in pressure, while he was secretly on vacation.

Every time he thought about it, Nathan could barely hold back a grin. But he had to keep it together—if he cracked a smile now, he’d look like a total sociopath.

Richard continued, his voice heavy with gravity. “The zombie exodus from Los Angeles… it’s a catastrophe for every last human survivor.”

“Oh, absolutely—a total disaster,” Nathan chimed in quickly, nodding like a bobblehead.

Richard shot him a sharp glance, his brow twitching.

“Shut up.”

“Right… sorry,” Nathan muttered, shrinking back in his seat.

Richard turned his gaze to the rest of the group. “Anyone have any thoughts?”

A young executive spoke up, his tone urgent. “Richard, the horde’s not just moving—they’re absorbing every zombie faction they pass, like a snowball rolling downhill. They’re getting bigger and stronger by the day. We can’t just sit back and let this happen. We need to try and stop them—at least slow them down.”

But the moment he said it, the rest of the room started shaking their heads.

In theory, sure—it made sense. But in practice? It was suicide.

That horde was over a hundred thousand strong. Fifty thousand of them were elite-class, and among them were thousands of top-tier monsters.

There were multiple S-class Zombie Kings in the mix—each one a nightmare on its own. And they weren’t just brute-force types. There were speed-types, psychic-types, even fusion-types. Not to mention the mutated zombie beasts… and their terrifying leader.

So what the hell were they supposed to stop them with?

The room fell into a heavy silence. No one had an answer.

They couldn’t stop it. Not really. Not with what they had.

“But we can’t just sit here and watch them steamroll across America!” the young exec snapped, his face flushed with frustration. “That’s just waiting to die!”

Still, no one responded. Their faces were pale, their eyes hollow. Only Nathan sat there with his chin propped on one hand, two fingers pressed against his lips like he was deep in thought—looking every bit like someone who’d been “professionally trained” to look concerned.

Then Richard’s eyes narrowed, his voice dropping into something sharper, more focused.

“I don’t know… maybe I can stop them.”

That got everyone’s attention. Heads snapped up. Eyes locked on him.

Wait—did he have a plan?

Richard paused, letting the tension build before he continued. “Charging in now would be suicide. We’d just be feeding them bodies. But if we consolidate all our forces and build the strongest possible defense line—right at the edge of Texas—we might stand a chance.”

“The strongest… defense line?” someone echoed, stunned.

The idea hit like a thunderclap. It was bold. Massive. Unprecedented.

“Can that even work?” another asked, skeptical but hopeful.

“We won’t know unless we try,” Richard said firmly.

Of course, he knew the horde itself was terrifying—but the real threat wasn’t the numbers. It was the one leading them.

The SS-class Zombie King.

If they could take that thing down, the rest would fall apart. That was the key.

And with that thought, Richard knew it was time to revive a long-abandoned plan—Project Perfect Team.

A team designed specifically to counter that Zombie King’s abilities. A squad built to kill the unkillable.

The plan had been shelved for months. The requirements were too extreme. They couldn’t find the right people.

But now, with the emergence of the fourth-generation Cyborgs, Richard had hope again.

“I’ve already submitted a request to HQ to reactivate Project Perfect Team,” he said. “And it’s been approved.”

“Holy shit…” someone whispered, eyes wide.

The room, once filled with despair, now flickered with the first sparks of hope.

If the Perfect Team was back in play… maybe, just maybe, they had a shot at taking down an SS-class Zombie King.

“But,” Richard added, his tone turning cautious, “based on past combat data, even one Perfect Team might not be enough.”

Brows furrowed across the table.

Not enough? Even with a Perfect Team?

Damn, this guy wasn’t taking any chances.

“Then what else do we need?” someone asked.

Richard hesitated for a moment, then made up his mind.

“There’s one more thing. Top secret. Originally, this was classified above your clearance levels—but given the situation, I think it’s time you knew.”

Everyone leaned in, ears perked. If even they weren’t supposed to know, it had to be something huge.

Richard lowered his voice. “According to intel from HQ… one of our deep-space instruments picked up a signal. A transmission. From extraterrestrial humans.”

…