Chapter 38: Evolution

Dark energy surged outward from Summer’s small frame, pouring through her boots and sweeping across the cracked concrete like black ink.

The dark mist swirled around the forty-three ordinary zombies and Two, wrapping them in thick, writhing cocoons of dark energy. Loud, wet cracking sounds echoed off the ruined concrete walls.

Bones snapped, muscles swelled, and black veins bulged beneath pale, dead skin as the evolution process took hold.

Summer waited patiently from her high perch on One’s shoulder, watching with glowing ruby eyes to see what kind of unique abilities her puppets would gain from this transformation.

After several long minutes, the dense black fog slowly dissolved into the cool afternoon air.

Summer looked down at her newly evolved army, but her excited expression quickly faded into a small, disappointed frown.

They weren’t unique like One at all!

With her intelligence attribute now sitting at twenty, Summer could control a total of one hundred zombies in her army. After evolving all forty-four of her existing puppets into Feral stage monsters, she now had fifty-five open slots left to fill.

However, looking over her newly transformed troops, she was in no hurry to fill those empty slots with just any ordinary zombies.

As per the system, even though she could potentially evolve her zombies whenever she wanted, their final abilities depended entirely on the innate talents each zombie possessed before evolving.

Summer saw this reality clearly as she examined her newly evolved army.

She had expected all of them to be unique and powerful, just like her deputy One. However, except for Two, the rest of them were merely physical brutes.

They gained rougher grey skin, longer jagged claws, and thicker muscle density, but possessed no magic or elemental traits whatsoever.

Two was the only one among them who appeared unique after the transformation, but unlike the mighty, towering feeling that One gave her, Two was far from stronger.

[His ability is called ’Administrator’,] the system explained in her mind, sounding thoroughly unimpressed. [Well... it is pretty useless for you in direct combat.]

Summer nodded silently in agreement, her ruby eyes examining Two’s unusual appearance.

Two possessed a distinctly bookish, quiet look. His frame remained surprisingly slender compared to the bulky brutes around him, and he slouched slightly as if carrying an invisible weight.

His skin had turned a pale, ghostly white, covered in a web of thin black lines that looked like porcelain fractures spreading across his face and neck. He wore dark, ragged clothes that hung loosely off his shoulders, making him look more like a fragile clerk than a terrifying undead monster.

Seeing this result, Summer decided to be far more critical in choosing the next zombies to control. She preferred to find zombies with useful, versatile traits, like the Psychokinetic zombie she had fought and killed earlier in the city.

Anyway, she was not completely disappointed. She now had a full squad of Ferals under her direct command.

She leaned forward slightly on One’s broad shoulder and looked over her forces. The forty-three brute Ferals stood in orderly rows, their thick arms hanging low and their dull eyes fixed on her.

One stood beneath her like a massive wall of muscle, while Two stood quietly near the flank, his cracked face staring blankly ahead.

Though these Feral zombies could not fight Elite zombies alone, Summer was not planning to make them fight powerful enemies by themselves anyway. Rather, she was planning to use them to find Elite zombies, as the number of Elites she needed to evolve was pretty high.

Summer raised her hand and called up her status screen once again to check the exact requirement.

[Status]

Name: Summer

Evolution: Elite Zombie Girl (0 / 1000 Elites)

Racial Traits: Undead Body, Shadow Mirage

Class Skill: Elite Puppeteer

Level: 10 (800 / 1000)

HP: 240 / 240

Mana: 200 / 200

STR: 24 | AGI: 29 | CONST: 24 | INT: 20

Free Attributes: 18

Skills: None

Equipped Gear: Iron Brawler Gauntlets (Common), Swift Strider Boots (Common)

Summer stared at the bracket next to her evolution line.

’1000 Elites...’ she repeated in her mind, her pale lips twisting slightly.

It was not merely the difficulty in hunting them down, but also finding this amount of Elites which Summer believed was nearly impossible here in the city. Because if such an amount of Elites were present here, the overall situation of human survivors would not be this calm.

A single peak Feral zombie had almost wiped out an entire heavily armed military squad in the previous district. An Elite zombie could easily devastate any human teams and even tear down whole survivor settlements without much effort.

’Where can I find more Elites?’ Summer asked inwardly.

[A week is not enough for Elites to appear in large numbers,] the system replied in her head. [It may take at least a month for wide-scale mutations to happen across the population.]

’That is so long,’ Summer complained, puffing out her cheeks in frustration.

[It is what it is,] the system noted flatly.

Summer sighed softly, deciding not to dwell on the delay. She leaned down and assigned her team a simple, straightforward mission: spread out quietly through the surrounding sectors and find Elites.

With her orders conveyed through their mental link, the forty-three brute Ferals turned and filed out of the ruined courtyard, leaping over shattered walls and disappearing into the dark city alleyways. Two quietly followed behind them to oversee their patrol routes, making use of his administrative focus.

Only One remained behind, carefully lowering Summer to the ground before slinking back into the shadows of a nearby broken building to stay on guard.

Summer dusted off her clothes and returned to the settlement.

However, as she entered through the main gates, she found the atmosphere here was completely wrong.

The usual noise of traders, armed scavengers, and tired survivors had vanished. Even as people saw her walking down the corridor, they ignored her completely.

Everyone had a panic look on their faces, moving around in sharp, rushed movements while clutching their supplies and weapons tightly.

Summer wondered what the reason was for all this commotion. She walked past scattered crates and crowded tents, observing the humans as they whispered frantically to one another.

As she neared the central courtyard, she saw Ilas, Ella, and Angela standing near a heavy transport truck. All three of them looked visibly pale and shaken, talking in hushed, urgent tones.

Summer walked over to where they were standing.

The moment Ella noticed her approach, her eyes widened in deep relief. She immediately rushed forward, catching Summer by her shoulders and looking her up and down.

"Summer! Where were you?" Ella asked hastily, her voice full of panic and concern. "We were so worried you would have gone to that dangerous place alone!"

Summer frowned slightly, her small eyebrows knitting together as she looked at Ella’s distressed face.

"Where?" Summer asked, her voice calm and straightforward.

Ilas, Ella, and Angela looked at each other with heavy, grim expressions. Ilas ran a hand over her face, letting out a tense breath before turning back to the pale zombie girl.

"You really do not know?" Ilas asked, her voice shaking slightly.

Summer nodded her head once, waiting silently for an answer.

"The Seattle river suddenly dried out..." Ella said softly, her face devoid of any color. " overnight, the entire riverbed turned completely bone dry."