Chapter 700: Grudge Eater

“No—he’s not dead!” the woman shouted, eyes wide with shock.

At that exact moment, Ricky’s eyes snapped open.

But they weren’t the same as before.

Now, they were pitch black, swirling with a seething, living darkness—pure, undiluted rage. The grudge energy inside him pulsed like fire, flickering violently, growing thicker by the second.

“Die!”

He snatched the short blade from the ground and lunged forward, driving it straight into a City Guard’s chest.

He moved so fast, he left afterimages in his wake. The guard didn’t even have time to react before the blade punched clean through his heart.

The sudden, brutal kill sent a wave of panic through the squad.

“Open fire!” the Captain barked.

The surrounding guards didn’t hesitate—they all pulled their triggers at once.

Crystal core energy lit up the alley like a fireworks show, dozens of blasts screaming toward Ricky.

These weren’t toys—every weapon here was at least B-grade, some even A-grade. Under normal circumstances, they’d tear a man apart.

But now?

They couldn’t even touch him.

A dense wave of grudge energy exploded from Ricky’s body, distorting the air around him. The incoming blasts were deflected mid-air, ricocheting off in all directions.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Explosions erupted all around him, but Ricky stood in the center of the chaos, untouched.

Bathed in the flickering light of the blasts, he looked like something reborn from fire and fury.

The charred skin that had covered his body peeled away completely, revealing smooth, pale flesh beneath—like a butterfly shedding its cocoon.

“So this… is what power feels like,” Ricky whispered, staring at his hands, now wreathed in writhing black energy.

Just like Ethan had predicted—his suppressed energy had finally found its trigger.

He had awakened.

His ability: Grudge Eater.

It let him absorb the resentment and hatred of any living being—his own, or others’—and convert it into raw power. It was overwhelming. Limitless.

The City Guards around him were stunned.

“What the hell is happening to him?!”

“He’s awakened—right at the edge of death,” the Captain muttered, eyes narrowing. “This isn’t good. We’re not equipped to handle this. We need backup—now.”

But Ricky wasn’t about to give them the chance.

The bloodlust in his eyes was uncontainable.

With a snarl, he launched himself into the group, blade flashing. The grudge energy wrapped around him like armor, boosting his speed and strength to terrifying levels.

He moved like a phantom—one second here, the next slicing through a guard’s neck, sending his head flying.

As the man died, a surge of fresh grudge energy poured into Ricky’s body, feeding the storm inside him.

“Heh… that’s the stuff,” Ricky growled, grinning wickedly.

He kept going—blade stabbing through hearts, slashing through throats. Every strike was lethal. Every kill made him stronger.

“No—please, no!” the Enforcer woman who had electrocuted him earlier screamed, backing away in terror.

But Ricky didn’t hesitate.

He drove the blade straight into her forehead, piercing through her skull with surgical precision.

With a sickening twist, he yanked out her crystal core, still glowing faintly in the dim light.

“Captain,” he said, voice low and cold, “I’ve learned everything I needed to.”

…

Ricky’s location was still within the Outer Edge—just barely clinging to the city’s perimeter.

But the real action, the eye of the storm, was dead center: the entrance to the lab.

Above it, the sky was thick with drones, swarming like mechanical hornets. Their searchlights cut through the night, turning darkness into daylight.

On the ground, the city’s elite had gathered.

Pinnacle Academy’s Instructors were front and center—most of them S+ ranked, with a few terrifying SS-level Awakeners among them. Alongside them stood high-ranking Enforcers from the Bureau of Law and top-tier City Guard operatives.

And then there were the Guard Mechs—towering twenty-foot-tall alloy giants, fully deployed and combat-ready. These weren’t prototypes anymore. They were the real deal.

Layer upon layer of psychic barriers shimmered in the air, forming a near-impenetrable dome over the lab’s entrance.

Not even a fly could get through.

Every ounce of force the city could muster on short notice had been funneled here—for one reason: the lab breach.

High above, in a sleek black aircraft, Howard Hawke—the patriarch of the Hawke family—was en route, eyes locked on the live feed from the lab’s entrance, displayed across the control panel in front of him.

“Sir, all units are in position,” a subordinate reported. “The moment the Zombie King shows himself, we’ll have him surrounded and neutralized.”

Howard gave a curt nod, satisfied. “Good. This whole thing came out of nowhere, but we responded fast. We can’t afford to lose what’s inside that lab. This operation must succeed.”

“Understood, Mr. Hawke. Also, we’ve located the one who released the virus—Ricky. But he’s proven extremely dangerous. He’s already killed over a dozen City Guards and is currently fleeing toward the Outer Zone.”

“Forget him for now,” Howard said, waving it off. “He’s just a pawn. He won’t make it past the Skywall anyway.”

His eyes narrowed as he leaned closer to the screen. “The real threat is the Zombie King. I want to know where the hell he came from—and how he got this bold.”

…

Back at the lab entrance, the atmosphere was suffocating. Everyone stood tense, weapons ready, eyes scanning the shadows.

The city behind them still smoldered—some buildings coughing up smoke into the night sky.

Then—

ROOOAAARRR—!

A chorus of guttural, blood-curdling howls ripped through the air.

“They’re coming,” someone muttered.

The speaker was a middle-aged man with silver-streaked hair, neatly combed, his sharp eyes gleaming with focus.

He was Dr. Elias, a guest professor from Pinnacle Academy and an SS-ranked psychic-type Awakener—one of the most powerful minds in the city.

“Dr. Elias, can you sense the Zombie King?” a young man beside him asked.

“Not yet,” Elias replied, shaking his head.

But even as he spoke, something shifted.

The infected from the surrounding districts—those who hadn’t yet been neutralized—began to move. As if summoned by some invisible force, they turned and started sprinting toward the lab entrance.

Their howls echoed through the streets, their twisted forms charging forward in a frenzy.

City Guards opened fire, and drones rained down energy blasts from above. Zombies dropped by the dozens, their bodies piling up in the streets.

Blood soaked the pavement. Corpses stacked like sandbags.

But more kept coming.

Wave after wave.

“They’re… they’re coming to greet their king,” someone whispered.

The tension ratcheted up another notch. Even the veterans felt it—the weight of something unnatural pressing down on them.

Then—

SCREEEEECH!

A shriek tore through the air, louder than the rest. From the lab’s entrance, a flood of zombies burst forth, pouring out like a ruptured dam.

“There they are!”

The defenders didn’t hesitate. They’d been waiting for this.

Crystal Core Firearms lit up the night, unleashing a storm of energy blasts. The first wave of zombies was shredded instantly, their bodies torn apart mid-charge.

“Where’s the Zombie King?!” a City Guard shouted, scanning the chaos.

“Don’t waste your ammo on the fodder,” another snapped. “That bastard’s too scared to show himself. He’s just throwing low-level trash at us to buy time.”

The battlefield was a mess—burned flesh, shattered limbs, and the stench of death everywhere.

But beneath the noise, something else stirred.

A presence.

A pressure.

Dr. Elias’s eyes narrowed. His psychic field stretched outward, sweeping the battlefield like a radar.

And then—he felt it.

“No… something’s wrong,” he said, voice low.

“The Zombie King… he’s already here.”

“What?!”

Everyone turned to him, stunned.

“Where? Where is he?!”

Elias’s gaze sharpened, his voice grim.

“He’s moving… and he’s heading straight for the City Guards.”

…