NOVPUBChapter 484: They’re here…
After Leah and the others returned to San Antonio, they headed straight into a dimly lit room. Frank was still tied to a bench, his hair a tangled mess, his body crusted with dried blood. He looked like he was hanging on by a thread—barely alive after relentless torture.
“The ransom for Richard’s release has been paid,” Leah said flatly.
“Huh?” Frank’s head jerked up at her words. His dull, lifeless eyes flickered with a spark of hope.
“Does that mean… you’ll let me go now?”
“Sure,” Leah nodded, but there was a cold glint in her eyes. She pulled out her phone and tapped the screen to start recording.
With her other hand, she drew a knife and walked straight toward him.
“W-what are you doing?” Frank stammered, panic rising in his voice. A sick feeling twisted in his gut.
“Sending you off,” Leah said matter-of-factly.
Then, without hesitation, she drove the blade into his chest. The knife pierced his heart cleanly.
Blood gushed out in a hot, red spray, the metallic stench instantly filling the room. Frank’s head slumped forward, the light in his eyes fading until there was nothing left. He was dead.
Leah kept the camera rolling the entire time, capturing every brutal second.
But she wasn’t done.
She stepped forward, grabbed Frank’s lifeless body with one hand, and dragged it toward a shattered floor-to-ceiling window. With a grunt, she hurled the corpse out.
“Raaaghhh—!”
Below, a pack of grotesque, mutated alligator-like creatures had been lurking. The moment Frank’s body hit the ground, they swarmed it, tearing into the flesh with jagged teeth. They devoured him in seconds—bones, skin, everything—until there was nothing left but bloodstains.
It was savage. Utterly merciless.
“Now that’s more like it,” Leah muttered, satisfied.
She stood there, calmly fiddling with her phone, then uploaded the entire video straight to the Genesis Biotech official website.
. . .
At Genesis Biotech’s North American headquarters, the video hit like a bomb.
Everyone who saw it was outraged.
“This is insane!”
“She’s a monster! That was straight-up terrorism!”
“She’s taunting us!”
“We can’t let this slide. We need to talk to Richard. One of his people just got butchered—he has to respond!”
Voices rose in anger and disbelief.
Meanwhile, Richard sat alone in his office, fingers pinching the bridge of his nose, eyes closed in frustration. His thoughts were a mess.
Another team of Awakeners sent to ambush the shelter—wiped out. Again.
And now Leah had retaliated by executing Frank and broadcasting the footage for the whole world to see. The company was in chaos. Morale was crumbling.
It was obvious now—Leah had joined forces with the Zombie King.
She’s in bed with the enemy.
“Damn it…” Richard let out a long, weary sigh. He was out of moves. His original plan had been to lay low, avoid provoking the Zombie King. But that strategy was falling apart—especially now that the enemy was making the first move.
His people were dying in the field. Those still alive were panicking. And as the man in charge, the pressure on him was suffocating.
“What the hell am I supposed to do now?”
Just then, a soft chime came from his computer. A new email had arrived.
From Genesis Biotech Global Headquarters.
“Huh?” Richard’s eyes lit up. The despair that had been weighing him down suddenly lifted, replaced by a flicker of hope.
He quickly clicked it open.
The glow of the screen lit up his face. First came surprise. Then excitement.
And finally, a slow, confident smile crept across his lips.
“They’re here…”
“They finally made their move…”
He whispered to himself, heart pounding.
It was the moment he’d been waiting for.
The ‘Perfect Team’—his long-anticipated trump card—had arrived.
The email from Global Headquarters was short, but it hit like a thunderclap.
The Perfect Team was fully assembled. They’d already departed—onboard the most advanced aircraft Genesis Biotech had ever developed—and were en route to Texas. ETA: soon.
Attached to the message was a full dossier on the team members.
Richard’s eyes scanned the screen, and with every line he read, his excitement surged.
It was everything he’d hoped for—and more.
Trackers. Spatial manipulators. Psychic-class Awakeners. All rare, all elite. But these weren’t just any Awakeners—they were fourth-generation Cyborgs, custom-built using cutting-edge biotech to replicate and enhance those rare abilities.
Each of the three Cyborgs had power levels ranked S+ and above.
But that wasn’t what made Richard’s hands tremble with anticipation.
What truly stunned him—what made his heart pound—was that these monsters of power weren’t even the main force.
They were support.
The real firepower of the Perfect Team came from two human beings—two living legends pulled straight from The Awakened Files, Genesis Biotech’s top-secret archive of the most powerful Awakened humans alive. If the Zombie King Dossier was a record of the enemy, The Awakened Files was the answer: a catalog of humanity’s apex predators.
Richard’s fingers hovered over the mouse, then clicked on the first profile.
A photo popped up.
A young man, maybe in his early twenties, with a relaxed smile tugging at the corner of his lips. There was something effortlessly confident about him, like he didn’t need to prove anything—because he already knew he could crush anything in his path.
Name: Sable
Designation: Super Awakened
Ability Type: Meta-Ability
Richard’s breath caught.
Most Awakeners simply had “awakened abilities.” But a Meta-Ability? That was something else entirely. A class of its own.
The first line of his profile read:
Possesses [Absolute Domain of Sand]
“Holy shit,” Richard muttered, eyes wide.
He’d heard of the Zombie King wielding an Absolute Domain—but a human? This was the first time he’d ever seen it documented.
He couldn’t even begin to imagine how powerful Sable must be.
And then came the second profile.
Another photo. This time, a girl—maybe seventeen or eighteen—with long, dark brown hair and striking hazel eyes. She looked like a mixed-race teen, her expression calm, almost serene, with a quiet sweetness that made her seem harmless.
But her codename said otherwise.
Bloodrose
Ability: Blood Rite
She could sacrifice blood—hers or others’—to unlock devastating power boosts. A living weapon fueled by carnage.
“Unreal…” Richard whispered, his heart thudding in his chest.
Two of the most powerful Awakened humans on the planet. Backed by three S+-rank Cyborgs. All in one team. All headed straight for Texas.
All to take down one target: the Zombie King.
He leaned back in his chair, exhaled slowly, and let the weight of it all settle in.
This was it.
The tide was about to turn.
“Let’s see how long you keep that smug grin, Leah,” he muttered, a cold smile creeping across his face.
Then, with hands still trembling from adrenaline, he opened the company’s internal comms and typed out a message:
“Notify all partner corporations: defensive lockdown protocols are lifted. Operation Iron Wall resumes. The strongest line of defense is back online.”
. . .
San Antonio.
Buddy Crow had just returned with urgent news: a zombie horde—hundreds of thousands strong—was closing in on the Texas border.
Big Ears and the others were practically buzzing with excitement.
The real war was just beginning.
“Hey, Little Gator,” Big Ears called out, waving a hand.
Gatorax, who’d been soaking in the artificial lake like it was a spa day, perked up and leapt onto the shore.
“Big Ears, what’s up?”
“Well, our boss’s bounty just hit five million dollars,” Big Ears said, cracking his knuckles. “And as his number one lieutenant, I can’t be lagging behind, can I?”
Gatorax nodded seriously. “Makes sense. Gotta keep up appearances.”
“Exactly,” Big Ears grinned. “So I figure it’s time we raised our own bounty a little.”
He turned toward the city skyline, eyes gleaming.
“Let’s go make some noise.”
…
