SSS-Class Zombie Overlord: My Undead Legion Evolves Infinitely!

Chapter 56: A New Emergency

For several hours, Ethan remained hidden in the thick vegetation as he silently watched the scene unfold before him.

The giant eagle had struggled at first, its enormous wings repeatedly slamming against the ground and making the chains around its body rattle violently. But as time passed, even those struggles began to weaken.

The creature was slowly losing its strength. Its enormous chest rose and fell with increasingly heavy breaths, while its once-sharp eyes had gradually become dull.

It was as though even the eagle itself had begun to understand that there was no hope left. The animals surrounding it, on the other hand, had only grown more numerous.

Rats, insects, birds, and several weak monsters continued crawling across its body, constantly tearing into its flesh whenever they found an opportunity.

Their bodies had changed considerably over the past few hours; some rats had grown nearly twice their original size, their claws becoming sharper while their teeth had lengthened considerably.

Several insects had developed strange shells, while others had begun growing additional limbs. They were getting closer and closer to becoming true monsters.

The more Ethan observed, the more disturbing the situation became.

’This is getting worse.’ His gaze remained fixed on the creatures feeding upon the eagle.

There was no doubt that the process would continue as long as the eagle remained alive. The longer it survived, the more biological matter the surrounding animals would be able to consume and become even more powerful.

Ethan’s gaze slowly shifted toward the surroundings. It was then that he noticed something he hadn’t paid attention to earlier.

A small trail passed directly through the eagle’s confinement area, clearly manmade.

Although nature had gradually begun reclaiming it, the trail itself was still visible beneath the vegetation.

Along its edges were several strange stones, emitting a faint yellow glow that illuminated the surrounding area.

’Those stones...’ Ethan stared at them for several moments.

They were clearly some sort of artificial lighting system that someone had deliberately placed.

That realization made the entire situation even stranger. ’Why is this eagle here?’ he couldn’t help but ponder.

The more he observed, the more questions appeared within his mind.

Who had captured it?

Why had they chained it here?

Why had they left it alive?

And why had they constructed a path through this place?

There were simply too many unexplained details. Frankly, Ethan was in a position where he could leave whenever he wanted.

Or at least it seemed that way.

He could simply turn around, return to the colony, and pretend that he had never discovered this place. But there was something Ethan had lacked ever since he awakened.

It was information.

Back when he had still been human, only a small number of monster species had become known to humanity.

Even then, most of the information had been incomplete. But after awakening as a zombie, Ethan had encountered monsters he had never even heard of.

It could even be considered a stroke of luck that the F-rank monsters had their stats capped at a relatively humane level of strength.

Because Ethan had evolved almost immediately after awakening, thanks to the Overlord System and his SSS-rank class, his attributes had already been considerably higher than those of ordinary F-rank monsters.

That advantage had allowed him to survive and hunt.

Eventually, it had also allowed him to establish his own colony... but what about now?

His eyes became increasingly serious. ’What happens when I encounter something I can’t understand?’

He couldn’t simply assume that everything in the forest would be as weak as the monsters he had encountered before.

This eagle alone was proof of that; its body was enormous, and even while severely injured, it had endured countless attacks from the creatures surrounding it.

If Ethan guessed correctly, its rank was far beyond his own. And that created another problem.

’I can’t simply leave this place.’

He briefly looked at the mutating animals, thinking. ’If I go back like this, they’ll continue multiplying.’

From what Ethan had observed, only a small amount of the eagle’s flesh and blood had already allowed nearly ten animals to begin mutating over the course of mere hours.

The creatures hadn’t even been able to consume much of the eagle’s body, since its flesh was simply too tough. Even while weakened to this extent, the eagle’s body could withstand most of their attacks.

It could still feel some pain, but its tremendous physical durability had delayed its death.

However, it was still eventually going to die.

’If they all evolve...’ Ethan’s expression became gloomy, considering the worst possibilities.

Perhaps not immediately, but they could eventually become a threat to the Blood Ant colony.

If the process continued for several days, there was no telling how many monsters would emerge from this single eagle.

At the same time, He couldn’t simply attack the eagle himself.

Even in its current condition, he doubted that he could subdue it.

A strange sensation originated from somewhere deep within his body, telling him not to attack the eagle.

Ethan slowly raised his hand and placed it against his chest.

’This feeling...’ His fingers rested directly above his heart, above the darkness that was around it.

Ever since his evolution, Ethan had felt that strange darkness lingering above his heart. Until now, he neither knew what it was nor had any time to know it any better.

However, at this moment, it was giving him an unmistakable warning: Don’t fight this beast.

Naturally, his brows furrowed in confusion. ’Why?’

The strange instinct was so subtle that he could have easily ignored it; however, he didn’t.

On the other hand, he had another option.

Flesh Assimilation.

His SSS-rank skill could potentially allow him to absorb the eagle’s biological matter after killing it.

If he could somehow accomplish that, the amount of evolution progress he would gain would undoubtedly be enormous.

But the strange manmade trail, the glowing stones, and the fact that someone had deliberately chained this enormous monster here continuously bothered him.

What if this was a lure?

What if someone had intentionally placed the eagle here to attract monsters?

And in case he revealed himself, what would happen if the person responsible for this returned?

What if it wasn’t a human?

What if it was a powerful monster?

Ethan’s fingers slowly tightened around his chest. ’I’d be walking directly into a trap.’

He had learned enough from Jake to understand that information was sometimes more valuable than strength.

However, the Overlord System’s information function could only activate once Ethan touched something with his own hands.

And he wasn’t foolish enough to walk up and touch an unknown monster simply because he wanted information.

*Ding!*

In that moment, a familiar notification suddenly rang inside Ethan’s mind.

His attention immediately shifted to the side as a soft cerulean screen appeared before his eyes.

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[#/System Notification/#]

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[Due to the host’s previous actions and influence, a new mutation has occurred.]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[A completely new undead mutation has been successfully registered.]

└ ■ New Monster Type: Pure Zombie Ant

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[A new achievement has been registered.]

[Reward: Soul Agreement]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[Soul Agreement]

A special agreement that allows two parties to establish an unbroken contract by wagering their own souls.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[The agreement cannot be broken through ordinary means.]

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’A new ant type?’ Ethan’s eyes brightened upon reading this.

’Pure Zombie Ant...’ He wasn’t expecting such a thing to appear.

But the reward confused him even further.

’Soul Agreement?’ Ethan stared at the description.

An agreement that wagered the souls of both parties—that sounded far more important than an ordinary reward.

Up until now, the Overlord System had acted as his greatest backing. Although there were times when it behaved strangely or lagged without warning, it had never truly failed him.

Every reward and skill had pushed him in the direction he needed. It was, without a doubt, the greatest advantage he possessed.

’So why would it give me something like this?’ He couldn’t figure it out. The reward didn’t seem connected to the achievement at all.

Ethan’s mind began working rapidly as he tried to understand the meaning behind it.

But before he could conclude, a strange feeling suddenly filled his heart, causing him to freeze abruptly.

Emptiness.

A deep, hollow sensation seemingly spread throughout his chest, his eyes gradually widening as he tried to absorb the sudden realization.

Shocked beyond his wits, his lips slowly parted. ’This...’

A sudden sense of panic flashed across his eyes.

*Ding!*

The notification sounded once again, confirming Ethan’s nightmare to be true.

’The ants!’

As his subordinates, the Zombie Blood Ants, Eris, and the newly evolved Zombie Blood Ant Soldier were all connected to him through his SSS-rank skill, Zombie Sovereignty.

He could always feel their existence, their presence.

But now, tens of those connections had suddenly collapsed without any warning.

Ethan’s breathing became heavy as several system windows began materializing before him.

This time, the familiar cerulean color of the screen couldn’t be seen. Instead, the system windows shimmered in an ominous crimson light.

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[#/System Notification/#]

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[Undead Loss Detected.]