Julian and the others bid farewell to Mr. Leighton. Julian turned to him seriously. "Mr. Leighton, you need to stay alert and never let your guard down against other groups. Don’t let yourself get defeated again."
Mr. Leighton burst out laughing, his expression relaxed. "Don’t worry about me. I’ll train hard to get stronger so I can protect my group."
With those final words, they parted ways. Julian and his group made their way toward the school’s exit.
As they walked, Emma glanced sideways at Julian, her tone stern. "You’d better not randomly add more girls to our group. I know your power grows the more women you dominate, but you need to be careful and discuss it with us first."
Veronica nodded in agreement, adding with her usual haughty tone, "Yeah, you’re catching girls like you’re scooping up stray cats from the street."
Julian sighed and said earnestly, "Alright, I’ll take your advice and be more careful from now on."
Hearing their conversation, Clarissa let out a small giggle. "Julian’s new Inventory skill is so practical. We won’t have to carry heavy stuff anymore, and we can store so many things."
Aya nodded, her voice nervous and awkward. "Y-yeah... I won’t have to lug around crafting materials for my skills anymore."
Veronica chimed in, crossing her arms. "And I won’t have sore feet anymore if we can put living things into the Inventory."
Julian shot her a pointed look. "Even if it has that function, you’ll still have to walk. I won’t let you get lazy."
Veronica glared at him, pouting. "Using a skill’s full potential is efficient, not lazy!"
Emma smirked, teasing Veronica with a mischievous glint in her eyes. "Aww, are you already tired? Want me to carry you, princess?"
Veronica’s face turned bright red with fury and embarrassment. "I’m not tired! This is nothing for me!"
Listening to them bicker, Julian couldn’t help but think that his group might just be the noisiest bunch in the entire apocalypse. With that, they continued walking toward the school’s outer gates.
As they reached the front gates of the school, the group came to a sudden halt.
Beyond the rusted iron bars stood a mass of zombies — dozens of them, groaning and twitching, their rotting limbs dragging across the ground as they turned toward the sound of approaching life.
Julian narrowed his eyes. The air was thick with tension, the scent of decay and blood wafting through the breeze. He drew his katana in one smooth motion, its blade catching the dim sunlight.
"Are you all ready?" he asked, voice calm but firm.
The others nodded without hesitation.
"Then let’s finish this," Julian said. "Attack!"
He surged forward first, vanishing into the shadows as his skill activated. His body flickered like a blur, reappearing right in the middle of the horde. With precision and deadly grace, he swung his katana in a clean arc, slicing through two zombies in one stroke. Dark tendrils burst from his body, lashing out and seizing control of several undead. With a flex of his will, he directed them to turn on their own kind.
"Clarissa, support from the rear! Use your telekinesis!" he shouted.
"On it!" Clarissa responded, raising her hands. A soft violet glow shimmered around her fingers as she focused. Several zombies suddenly jerked into the air, suspended by invisible force. She clenched her fist — their bodies crushed midair, bones snapping, blood spraying.
"Emma, with me! Flames front and back!"
Emma’s hands ignited with fire. "Gladly!" she yelled, launching fireballs that exploded among the horde. Flames engulfed the nearest zombies, their decaying flesh crackling under the heat. As two lunged at her, she ducked low, sweeping their legs with a fiery kick, then finished them with an upward burst of flame from her palm.
"Veronica!" Julian called.
"I know!" she snapped, her body glowing gold. "Enchantment: Speed, Strength!"
Her muscles tensed as the buffs surged through her. With a warcry, she dashed forward, her dagger flashing as she slashed through zombies at blinding speed, leaping and spinning with dangerous elegance.
Aya stood calmly behind them all, breathing slowly, her bow already drawn. One by one, she released arrow after arrow. Each shot was silent and precise, hitting zombies directly between the eyes or through the skull. Her expression was steady — every target that moved too close was put down in an instant.
The battlefield was chaos — fire, blood, shadows, and blades collided in a deadly dance. Clarissa crushed enemies from afar, Emma burned them down, Veronica became a whirlwind of death, and Aya kept the field clear with surgical precision. Julian carved a path through the center, his katana slicing and his domination skill bending zombies to his will.
Within minutes, the battle was over. The last zombie crumpled into a twitching heap at Julian’s feet.
Silence fell.
Everyone stood among the corpses, breathing heavily, blood splattered on their clothes. The stench of the undead clung thick in the air.
Julian wiped his blade clean and slid it back into its sheath.
But something... gnawed at him.
He looked around at the bodies.
They moved faster... took more hits than before...
"Was it just my imagination?" he muttered under his breath. "Or... are the zombies getting stronger?"
As the group caught their breath among the fallen zombies, Emma suddenly crouched beside one of the corpses. Her eyes widened. "Hey... look at this."
She reached into the split skull of a zombie, pulling out a small, marble-sized crystal. It shimmered with a faint red glow.
Julian stepped closer, his expression darkening. Embedded in the brains of several zombies were similar crystals, each pulsating weakly like dying embers.
"A crystal..." he murmured. "These weren’t here before."
He turned the gem in his fingers. Could it be...? "This might mean the zombies are evolving, like they’re gaining abilities."
Veronica’s face went pale. "Evolving?! How can they evolve? They’re dead, rotting corpses shouldn’t get stronger!"
Clarissa hugged herself, thinking hard. "If I had to guess... maybe there’s a kind of parasite or virus in their brains that keeps mutating. The crystal could be a byproduct of that process, like a concentrated core of energy. If it keeps growing, it could trigger sudden changes... maybe giving them new instincts, or even... skills."
The entire group fell silent as the realization sank in.
Aya’s hands trembled. "If zombies keep getting stronger... no one will be able to survive."
A cold shiver passed through all of them.
But Julian’s eyes remained steady. He clenched the crystal in his palm. "Then we’ll just have to adapt faster than they do." He looked at his group, voice calm but resolute. "These crystals might be useful, maybe they can be harnessed or studied. Gather them all and store them in my Inventory."
The others nodded, quickly collecting the red crystals from the fallen undead. As soon as each gem touched Julian’s hand, it disappeared into the black void of his new Inventory skill.
Once they were done, Julian looked up at the sky, dark clouds swirling overhead. "Let’s keep moving," he said.
Together, they set off into the ruined streets, the crunch of broken glass underfoot echoing through the desolate city.