In the middle of the night, a loud CRASH from one of the rooms in the small building woke everyone up.

Everyone scrambled out of their rooms, cursing under their breath. ’Damn it! We finally had a good meal and were ready for a good night’s sleep, only to have it ruined! Still, what on earth happened?’

They weren’t the only ones wondering.

Paige Summers, who used Cultivation in place of sleep, had already followed the sound to its source.

The noise came from May Joyce’s room on the second floor, which she shared with three other female team members. Now, panicked screams of varying pitches echoed from within!

The door was locked from the inside. Paige Summers frowned in annoyance and kicked it open. But before she could step inside, Ben, who was beside her, rushed in first.

Ben was excited.

Paige Summers followed him in and immediately understood why.

A giant Zombie had broken in through the window.

It stood at least two and a half meters tall, with abnormally developed arms and bulging muscles. Its mouth was also exceptionally large, the corners splitting nearly to its earlobes. When it opened, you could see the sharp, massive teeth inside. Its appearance differed from other Zombies; it showed no signs of decay, its skin just a ghastly pale white that was jarringly conspicuous in the pitch-black night.

The room was filled with the thick stench of blood. One of the team members who had lived there had been snapped in half at the waist. The giant Zombie held one half in each hand, and just as the bloody entrails were about to spill out, it leaned over and licked them into its mouth... Fresh blood dripped from the corners of its mouth, a chilling sight to behold.

Paige Summers’s gaze swept across the room, and she immediately spotted another team member sheltering May Joyce in a corner near the door. They were both huddled there, frozen stiff, as if too terrified to even move.

’Good thing they aren’t members of Bloodfall, or I’d be tempted to kick them right to that Zombie!’ The thought flashed through Paige Summers’s mind. ’Freezing up in terror at a time like this... you’re better off dead than dragging others down! Bringing them along was a huge mistake!’

In the end, however, she suppressed her anger, quickly grabbed the two of them, and threw them out the door.

By this time, the giant Zombie had devoured the team member’s entrails and unceremoniously tossed the rest of the body aside. It howled angrily at Paige Summers, seemingly furious that she had taken the other two away.

A strange thought flickered through her mind, but Paige Summers had no time to dwell on it.

The giant Zombie lunged.

At the same time, Ben charged forward to meet it. He would never let it get near Paige Summers!

The two of them were soon locked in combat.

The room was too small, and after a few exchanges, they both crashed through the window to continue the fight on the ground outside.

Before jumping down herself, Paige Summers ordered the other team members to repair the window.

This was Ben’s fight. Paige Summers’s role was to stand guard and clear out any other Zombies drawn by the commotion. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to join in, but Ben had indicated his disapproval. He wanted to defeat this behemoth on his own!

Paige Summers respected his wish.

The battle was incredibly fierce.

Although the giant Zombie’s arm strength was astounding, surpassing Ben’s, Ben was more of an all-rounder. He compensated for his lack of raw power with speed.

To Paige Summers, his movements were more agile than any Zombie she had ever seen, especially his joints. Even the mutated Zombies they had encountered before couldn’t compare. This was one of the biggest changes in him since consuming the Rainbow Water.

What’s more, Ben also had an Earth Element superpower.

As far as Paige Summers knew, very few Zombies possessed superpowers.

Perhaps this was just a rule of evolution.

The lowest-tier Zombies possessed tough bodies and sharp claws and teeth, leaving them with few weaknesses. A step further in evolution, and some of them gained enhanced abilities, such as speed-types and strength-types. Others evolved in different directions; for instance, their methods of attack were no longer limited to hands and feet, but could involve their tongues, or they might develop stronger defenses.

But on the whole, this was still a mid-tier evolution. Evolving beyond that would likely result in something like Ben—a being with its own superpower.

To date, Paige Summers had only ever seen one Zombie with a superpower: Ben.

Based on this, she deduced that this evolutionary path was clearly quite difficult.

’That makes sense,’ she mused, cutting down an approaching Zombie. ’Humanity is already struggling this much just to survive against non-High-level Zombies. If this kind of advanced evolution were easy, would there be any hope for us left?’

Meanwhile, in the area she had cleared for him, Ben had already gained a significant advantage.

His method for dealing with the giant Zombie was remarkably clever.

Instead of pummeling it with dirt and rocks as usual, he took advantage of its enormous mouth. Whenever the creature instinctively opened its maw, he’d shove massive amounts of dirt down its throat.

After a few rounds of this, the giant Zombie couldn’t take it anymore.

The dirt was being forced in with such power that the creature had uncontrollably swallowed a great deal of it. Though its throat was wide enough to get it down, its stomach was visibly bulging, heavy, and clearly uncomfortable. As a result, its movements slowed, and it lost a significant amount of its combat effectiveness.

Ben saw his chance, shot forward, and clamped one hand onto its jaw.

With a CRACK, it shattered.

Before it could even howl in pain, his other hand plunged straight into its forehead...

With a loud BANG, the giant Zombie’s head exploded, sending the contents of its skull splattering everywhere. When Ben withdrew his hand, he was holding a Crystal Core.

After he started following Paige Summers, he had learned not to pop the Crystal Core directly into his mouth.

’At the very least, I should wash it first.’

This time was no exception.

Having dealt with the giant Zombie, the pair quickly returned to the front door of the small building.

Claire Chapman, who was already waiting, opened the door. He helped fend off any pursuers, allowing them to get inside safely before immediately bolting the door shut.

He glanced at the pair, who were now covered in filth, some of it even on their faces. He cleared his throat and said, "You two should go get cleaned up." ’Watching those two fight is a thrill,’ he thought, ’but it’s just so brutal! Especially the head-exploding part... I’m still not used to it!’

While the two went to their rooms to clean up, Claire Chapman didn’t remain idle.

What happened tonight was no accident.

A team member had carefully inspected the broken window in May Joyce’s room. Although the evidence was subtle, it was possible that the window had been deliberately damaged.

He’d figured as much. The building had been secure for so long, with no Zombies ever managing to break in. Why was tonight the exception? Even if their group’s arrival had attracted Zombies with the stronger scent of the living, why had they specifically targeted May Joyce’s room first?

He absolutely refused to believe it was all a coincidence!

As Claire Chapman hurried upstairs, he ordered the team member beside him to gather everyone.

He had to find the culprit, and fast.

This was no longer just a matter of May Joyce’s personal grudges.

Daring to make a move at a time like this was the same as making an enemy of the entire team!

He would absolutely not let this person get away with it!