Chapter 5: Saved By Instincts!
In a desolate, dead-silent street, a group of zombies was running in the opposite direction of the giant tower.
Ethan, leading the group, was frowning. What the system had shown him before was nothing short of a death sentence.
Narrowing his eyes, he increased his speed. ’This is bad! I’ve been running for the past thirty minutes, but I’m still not sure of my safety.’
’Not to forget, this damned son of a system actually led me to this useless bunch!’ Grimacing, Ethan glared at the zombies following him from the corner of his eyes.
The tutorial task was created solely to ensure fairness and familiarize Ethan with his skills.
However, not only was he not able to test his strength, but he automatically tamed the subordinate group of a territory lord.
Now, the territory lord had begun hunting for him out of his rage.
"I might have some stupidly awesome class, but I’m not stupid enough to go against a territory lord from the start." Right now, Ethan was a bit confused.
From what he had known, he was the first to possess the SSS-ranked class. He also had a unique system, built purely to help him grow better.
Yet, it seemed to have made a fatal mistake. How could that be?
’Maybe the system is truly guiding me into fighting a territory lord... Maybe I can even defeat him... Who knows, maybe my special class will help me overpower him at the last second like some third-rate superhero movie...’
Thinking so, Ethan squinted and sighed sharply. "Fuck off. Even if all of that is true, I’d much rather cherish this second chance at life."
Although Ethan became unconscious shortly after the dawn of the apocalypse, he remembered minimal information such as this.
’The beasts who devour enough souls and come to awaken their intellect automatically become the territorial lords. Unlike lower-ranked monsters, they’re much trickier to handle due to their human-like intelligence.
"Inherently, all the territory lords are ’D-rank’ and dominate over hundreds of monsters living inside their territory." Ethan’s panic was justified.
At the moment, his skills only made him invincible to F-rank ’zombies.’ How could he, without knowing his strengths, face hundreds of F-rank non-zombies, multiple E-ranks, and an intelligent D-rank?
It was simply calling for one’s own death.
’Hmm...’ Reaching a half-destroyed highway across a dried-up river, Ethan became restless.
If he crossed over, he’d be able to escape the monster. But if he did, then there was a good chance he’d be stepping into yet another lord’s territory.
The situation was precarious, and his subdued monsters were good for nothing. Just from running, they had shed half the mass of flesh from their bodies.
Clay white bones smeared in thick green blood clanked with each movement.
"After getting the system’s notification, I even tried to get some information out of them, but they’re just mindless puppets." Coldness flashed across his eyes.
He was now standing at the edge of the broken highway. Ahead of him was a cliff that ran at least 100 meters deep.
The other side of the highway was quite far as well. Even if Ethan sacrificed the other zombies, the chances of him making it out alive were extremely slim.
"Urgh." Gritting his teeth in anger, he couldn’t help but ask himself meekly.
Not like this...
I refused to rot away for decades only to die an hour after regaining my mind.
"Gruu"
Several muffled groans echoed in Ethan’s ears. He opened his eyes by a slit and hopelessly stared at his surroundings.
The zombies that were standing behind him were now lying by the edge of the broken highway. Looking down at the abyss-like ravine, desperately trying to get something that was out of their reach.
Although death was impending upon Ethan, his curiosity still got the best of him.
"I am about to die in a few moments anyway, so it shouldn’t be that big of a deal." Muttering so, he scratched the back of his head and treaded toward the edge.
Slowly, he extended his head and stared right below. Instantly, his eyes widened, and irises shrank to the size of a pin.
Ethan was half expecting the floor to be filled with common rocks or just a line of clean water flowing through the ridges.
But the ravine, on the other hand, was filled with a murky stench of aged blood. On the floor, countless corpses piled upon one another, completely covering the floor by several meters.
Some of these corpses had almost completely decomposed and dissolved into the blood.
Seeing this scene, Ethan was, quite frankly, shaken.
He had killed hundreds of thousands, but this was the first time that he saw such a bloodbath.
But for a moment, his thoughts came to a halt. As if his undead instincts were suddenly going out of control, his mind was filled with inhumane ideas.
Isn’t this it?! I should just jump in already!
That’s a great amount of food; I should eat it all before anyone else!
Unexpectedly, his lips curled, and a stream of saliva flowed out. But soon, he managed to dominate over his instincts—barely.
Ethan didn’t clean the saliva off his face but instead observed the bloody ravine carefully.
Then, he smiled.
A new fire of hope ignited within his eyes as he quickly looked towards his zombies and ordered.
"Everyone, get up and form a line towards the edge!"
[Your skill—Undead Command—has been activated!]
[All of your subjects in the vicinity submit to your command.]
Immediately, the zombies abandoned their instincts and followed Ethan’s command perfectly.
’I can live!’ The thought continuously rang in Ethan’s mind.
He quickly came behind the line of zombies and held onto the shoulder bone of the zombie in front.
"At three, jump at once and make sure to stay on top of each other while falling!" He issued another command.
"Gruu," the zombies groaned softly, as if accepting his command.
Clearly, his skill was proving itself to be of great use.
One.
Two.
Three—!