Apocalypse King: Recruiting S-Tier Beauties With My Ruler System
Chapter 206: A Team of Survivors?

Chapter 206: A Team of Survivors?

The red dots on my map interface vanished when my gauntlets blasted buckshot at the zombies ahead of me. I collected the yellow brute cores and strode forward to face the remaining Blade types.

Though there were several stage three close, none of them seemed willing to fight me.

’Or are they watching, observing how I fight?’

I turned to face the stage ones, a couple of them remaining as they dragged their broken bodies across the ground.

"Hm..."

Opposite them, the blade-types started approaching, wanting to kill him. Their accuracy and strength are deadly, but not enough to bother me.

A dull ache pulsed in the back of my mind, warning me of the danger with each slight vibration of the Stage Three zombies’ movement.

My predator instincts sometimes acted like a double-edged sword.

The Blade-types moved.

Their bodies were lean, half-mummified, and their skin stretched tight over the bone with sinewy muscle underneath. Each carried a jagged bone blade fused to one arm, curved and hooked like a butcher’s cleaver. They didn’t groan like the others. Just the sound of bare feet tapping concrete and the soft scrape of bone against stone.

The first one attacked me with a low posture.

Its legs coiled like a spring before it darted forward, too fast for its rotting frame. The blade came in wide, aimed for my gut. I shifted my weight, turned my left hip back, and smashed my elbow into the side of its head.

Crack.

The skull folded under my gauntlet as the zombie slashed again.

I ducked and buried my blade into its torso, cutting deep until it hit the spine. I kicked the corpse away and moved before the next two reached me.

Clang!

One scraped its weapon along my gauntlet, sparks dancing across the metal. The edge nearly reached my face. I pivoted, caught its throat with my left hand, and slammed it into the wall hard enough to leave a crater.

Blood sprayed from its neck as the spine cracked.

"Too slow."

Although I was a little too cocky, as the third one managed to cut me.

A faint slash across my ribs. Just deep enough to sting. If I hadn’t twisted at the last second, that blade might have opened me up like a fruit.

I growled and spun into a wide backhand, my gauntlet catching the Blade-type’s head with a sickening crunch. The weight of the hit sent it flying across the street and into the windshield of a half-buried van.

Another leapt from the top of the awning above, dropping like a shadow. Its arm blade aimed straight down toward my spine.

I rolled forward, felt the wind slice behind me, and came up swinging.

My Flaming gauntlet slammed into its chest before a volley of slugs and fire qi burst from the eight nozzles, turning flesh and bone into steam as the zombie disintegrated.

With another flashing blade, lunge, and a rapid dash, these bastards didn’t stop, circling and attacking from blind spots or using stage one to mask their approach.

I bit my tongue hard enough to send a painful jolt through my mouth and forced myself to breathe slower.

Sloppiness meant death.

"Hah!" Desperate to end the battle, I went on the offensive.

One ducked my black, before swinging for my knees. I jumped and twisted mid-air, blades sweeping like flame and ice arcs, cutting two clean in half. They fell twitching with their legs still kicking, torsos flopping to the ground like sacks of wet meat.

The last one hesitated for the blink of an eye.

I grabbed it by the face and crushed its skull against the pavement.

Blood ran into the cracks.

I stood there, chest rising, breath calm again.

The Blade-types wiped out; I could now take a moment to breathe.

"Phew... that was good exercise."

Despite fighting for half an hour, my body felt cold, and the air felt heavier.

[System Message: Survivors Detected!]

"Huh? Here!?"

I turned toward the eastern edge of the ruined block, my boots crunching over broken tile and scattered bullet casings. The notification pulsed again at the corner of my interface—soft green markers blinking from behind a nearby building, about 300 meters out.

’They’re close... closer than I expected. And alive.’

A low growl echoed from the alley behind me. I glanced back. Just a Stage One missing half its face, dragging its gut like a leash. No reason to bother raising a weapon. Just crushed its head underfoot and kept walking.

My eyes flicked through the current information, and I learned something interesting.

"The Stage Threes didn’t attack me because of these guys?"

The green markers moved—four of them. One stayed stationary while the others shifted positions every few seconds. That meant they weren’t amateurs or had adapted to the current situation.

Two of them seemed to lure in the zombies, then the last one, appearing to be their ace, rushed in and managed to kill them.

Although not fast, they were killing Stage Ones at a decent pace, but the

’Military or hunter group?’

Either way, they’d have nice gear, or have reached Stage Two or maybe even Three.

Maybe intel.

Maybe a leader worth talking to.

A few strays skulked in the streets ahead, gnawing on a half-eaten corpse. I sent a blade clean through all three and didn’t slow down. The last zombie twitched once before falling.

’I should approach them carefully.’

The building between us looked like an old convenience store, half-collapsed with broken bricks, scorched glass and a melted sign. The survivors and Stage Three zombies were on the other side, and judging by their signal strength, it was probably a few hundred metres at most.

I squatted twice, my bones and limbs flexible and easy to move, twisting my hips and waist before leaping onto the wall. "Woah, holy shit!?" I jumped over three metres with a slight run-up and gripped the broken window ledge.

No time to waste; I scaled the wall.

It would be easier to watch them from above without being seen to get vital information about them than to expose myself and get in trouble. I flicked my gauntlets into my inventory and grabbed my upgraded Type-9k with .45 ACP +P tungsten-fragmentation rounds.

From here, I spotted them.

Four figures were moving like trained hunters, two held rifles, one had a halberd with a bloody blade, and she seemed pretty interesting. The last carried a combat crossbow and moved between the trio, wearing a black hood covered in dust.

"Interesting..."

They weren’t struggling, and their unique dusty clothes seemed to help with avoiding detection.

My fingers twitched slightly as I watched the white-hooded figure draw back her bow and pierce a zombie’s skull from thirty meters without adjusting for wind.

"Really skilled."

I crouched lower and watched’

’Maybe it’s time I introduced myself.’

I crouched lower and watched.

The woman with the halberd moved with crisp, practised rhythm—chopping low at the ankles, pivoting into clean sweeps, using the weapon like an extension of her body. She was tall and strong. Her movements didn’t have the speed of Shen Yifei, or the grace of Lan’er, but something about her was brutal... amazing.

’She’s got a nice abdomen...’

Every one of her movements was solid, deliberate and well-planned. She wasn’t flashy, but steadfast. Her hair was striking—bright red even in the dusk. Untied and free, she let it whip around as she fought.

She didn’t seem to care how visible it made her.

’Bold.’

I adjusted the grip on my submachine gun, took one quiet step across the rooftop, and knelt beside the ledge.

There was barely any wind or zombies around me, but the Stage Three zombies were like me, sitting on top, watching.

’Where did they gain this intelligence?’

The halberd woman slammed her blade into a hunter’s skull and turned around. Her head lifted, just slightly, like she’d felt something.

I swore her eyes locked with mine for a moment.

A heartbeat passed, and then she looked straight at me again.

"Tch..."

She broke into a dash.

I blinked.

Her speed didn’t match her size.

She cleared the ruined car, the sidewalk, the broken sign, all in a single sprint and leapt up the wall like it was muscle memory.

I raised my weapon, not aiming, just ready to guard

***

The halberd came down like thunder.

CLANG!

Steel-on-steel. My gun took the hit on the frame as I twisted aside. The strike knocked me backwards a few steps, but the woman crumbled and almost fell from the building, boots scraping against the roof tiles.

"Hah..." I exhaled, eyes narrowing at her striking figure. "Fast."

She didn’t hesitate.

Another step, another strike. Her halberd whirled around like a scythe aimed to cleave through my side. I slid back, dropped the rifle, and summoned both gauntlets with a metallic flash.

Shhk—click!

The black and silver metal locked around my arms as I caught her next blow on the bracer.

"You’re not a zombie," I said flatly.

"No. But I don’t like being watched," the woman snarled, eyes burning with anger—and a little pride.

The halberd twisted again, this time aiming for my leg.

’So that’s how it’s gonna be?’

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