Chapter 126: The Zombie Boss

The F-grade zone is commonly referred to as the "Domain of the Cowardly." Only players who are weak and desperate to survive hide here, as the vast majority of zombies in the F-grade zone are low-level D-class. Occasionally, a few C-class zombies appear, but B-class are extremely rare, and A-class are virtually non-existent.

At this moment, a peculiar squad of twenty people was operating in the F-grade zone. They were all elderly, with the youngest being thirty-five and the oldest seventy. They were legally registered evolvers at the Evolution Center, each granted one chance per week to challenge the novice Evolution Orb. As for the high-level Evolution Orbs, one had to enter a lottery system where millions of evolvers competed for a mere ten thousand spots—one can only imagine how miserable the lives of legally registered evolvers truly were.

Because they rarely participated in challenges, this elderly squad was incredibly weak. Some didn't even possess a single skill, and most were still wearing their novice gear. However, they maintained an excellent mindset; being older, they were mature and steady, and each of them held high-level positions in major corporations in the real world.

The captain of the elderly squad was currently directing his team to take down a C-class zombie. Indeed, for this team, a C-class zombie was equivalent to a boss.

"Fireball ready! Draw the C-class zombie's aggro!"

"Melee units, be careful! Do not get too close. The C-class zombie has a slow turn rate. Mages, use Fireballs to force it to turn, then melee units, take advantage of the delay to strike its back and retreat immediately! Mages, keep pulling its vision!"

"First melee squad and first mage squad, second melee squad and second mage squad—keep your rhythm! Only look at your assigned targets!"

Despite their lackluster strength, their coordination was superb. The commander was a former guild leader from *World of Warcraft* who had directed thousands of large-scale raids.

*Bang! Bang! Bang! Clang! Clang! Clang!*

Under the brilliant command of Captain Wang Ma, the C-class zombie was run ragged, disoriented as the melee units executed coordinated flanking attacks.

*ROAR—!*

With a mournful cry, the C-class zombie finally collapsed.

"Haha! That’s the hundredth one! You’re amazing, Commander!" the team cheered.

Just as the elderly squad was enjoying the fruits of their victory and anticipating their rewards, a sudden, deep rumbling shook the earth. A sea of dust surged from the distance like a tsunami.

The members were stunned. "What’s happening? Look, what is that?"

As they squinted, they saw hundreds of thousands of C-class zombies charging toward them. Not only that, but following behind the C-class zombies were the rare purple-skinned B-class zombies.

"Cap-cap-cap-captain, wh-what is that?!" the members stammered, their voices trembling.

Behind the B-class zombies followed thousands of red-skinned A-class zombies—creatures they had never even seen before!

Captain Wang Ma’s expression darkened. "It’s over! A zombie tide! I read about this on the Evolution Forum; there is a one-in-ten-thousand chance of a zombie tide occurring in the *PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds* instance. I never imagined we’d actually encounter one!"

"Captain, what is that?"

Amidst the throng of A-class zombies, four zombies were carrying a wooden palanquin, and sitting upon it was a golden zombie! In the *Battlegrounds* instance, there were plenty of trees, so wood was abundant, but the idea of zombies building a palanquin was utterly bizarre.

The one sitting on the palanquin was, of course, Chen Mo. As the grand zombie boss, he felt he needed some flair. He had ordered the A-class zombies to fell trees and construct this solid wood palanquin according to his specifications. Being intelligent and agile, the A-class zombies had finished it quickly.

Opening his AI map, Chen Mo spotted a cluster of twenty red dots to his left. With a flick of his finger, he commanded, "General Five, take one thousand red zombies and ten thousand purple zombies to wipe those twenty people out!"

*ROAR!*

The red zombie with the character "Five" carved into its head roared with delight and, leading the massive horde, instantly surrounded the group.

The elderly squad panicked. "Cap-captain, what do we do?!"

Captain Wang Ma looked longingly at the golden zombie in the distance. "That must be the legendary S-class zombie. Who would have thought we’d run into one? We can’t beat it, so what can we do? Just like when I played *World of Warcraft*—when a world boss couldn't be beaten by hundreds of thousands of players for an entire month, what could you do? You just keep grinding, keep paying for upgrades. Teammates, if we must die, let us die heroically! Everyone, follow my lead! Melee units on the flanks, mages in the center, charge and carve out a bloody path!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than General Five and several hundred red zombies lunged forward, instantly shattering the team’s formation and slaughtering the twenty members.

"Sorry, my friends!" Chen Mo muttered from his palanquin as he watched the twenty red dots vanish.

"General Three, there is a squad to the east! Go kill them! General Four, there is a squad to the south—go kill them too!"

From the tens of thousands of A-class zombies, Chen Mo had selected the ten strongest and appointed them as generals, from General One to General Ten. Even among zombies of the same rank, they evolved into different entities based on the players they killed and their practical combat experience. This was the charm of the Evolution Orb.

Though they were just zombies, Chen Mo was undoubtedly enjoying the feeling of being a commander. Under the full coverage of the AI map, every player’s location was exposed to him. He only needed to lie on his palanquin, give a few orders, and the players were practically wiped out.

[Player killed, points +20]
[Player possessed 203 points, points +406]
[Player killed, points +20]
[Player possessed 400 points, points +800]

Chen Mo listened to the system notifications, now entirely numb to them. Points were less useful to him than a lollipop—at least you could lick a lollipop. He had already hit the one-hundred-million point cap.

*Roar~ Roar~*

From time to time, zombies would approach him as if seeking credit, offering up the gear dropped by the players. Though Chen Mo had turned into a zombie boss, the "Slaughter Mode" remained active. All zombies on the map counted as his subordinates, and all kills and loot belonged to him.

*C-class gear! Trash!*

Chen Mo was now so inflated that he didn't even care for C-class items, carelessly sweeping them into his storage space.

*Wait! What is that blood-red dot?*

Through his research, Chen Mo had discovered that red dots indicated ordinary players, while blood-red dots indicated players who had activated "Slaughter Mode." Killing such players was currently his greatest interest.

"Lift the palanquin! Move toward eleven o'clock!"