True Apocalypse Game

The birth of consciousness was so serendipitous and precious that these Symbiotes deeply loathed any attempt to strip them of their free will.

Not even a Divine Messenger was an exception.

At this point, only these five powerful Symbiotes remained in all of Mexico City, each composed of tens of thousands of zombies.

Given their current scale, a war among them would only lead to a tragic, mutually destructive outcome. The one to initiate a war would even risk being attacked by all the other powerful Symbiotes combined.

Thus, they reached a tacit understanding and chose to call a truce, joining forces to confront the formidable Transfer Tower.

The five strongest Symbiotes in Mexico City gazed at one another. Though they were five individual consciousnesses, they resembled five distinct tribes.

"Red! Do you wish to battle me?" the Hannibal Symbiote's thirty thousand zombies cried in unison, their collective voice tinged with madness.

The Red Symbiote it provoked was composed of fifty thousand zombies, making it far more powerful in terms of sheer numbers.

Yet, the Hannibal Symbiote showed no fear whatsoever, its presence as imposing as a grand army.

The Red Symbiote fell silent for a moment before speaking:

"Our common enemy is the Transfer Tower. Fighting now would only deplete our strength. If you wish to know my intentions, then let us destroy this damned tower. After that... perhaps we can have our decisive battle."

The Hannibal Symbiote let out a dark chuckle:

"Excellent. I imagine the others feel the same. Come! Let's destroy this tower! Raze it to the ground! Pulverize it!"

The other Symbiotes roared their agreement:

"Let's do it!"

"Break our chains! We are free!"

"Free will shall never yield!"

In the face of the Transfer Tower, even these powerful Symbiotes, predators at the apex of the food chain, had no choice but to unite.

As they spoke, the assembled Symbiotes, the Hannibal Symbiote included, began rolling out cannons and rocket launchers. The Red Symbiote even brought out a tank.

Although they couldn't precisely control every constituent zombie, they could always manage a few with enough accuracy to operate human heavy weaponry.

In battles between Symbiotes, they avoided using such powerful heavy weapons to ensure they could devour as much of each other as possible.

But the battle against the Transfer Tower was another matter entirely.

Shen Feng slowly retreated through the horde of zombies that composed the Hannibal Symbiote, gradually staggering toward the entrance of a building at the fringe of the crowd.

BOOM! With a deafening roar, the tank's cannon spat a tongue of flame, launching an armor-piercing shell toward the distant Transfer Tower.

As the Symbiotes watched with bated breath, the shell exploded violently dozens of meters from the Transfer Tower, as if it had slammed into an invisible barrier!

This massive explosion, however, served as a starting gun, instantly triggering the Symbiotes' all-out assault!

Shells and rockets screamed through the air, hurtling toward the towering structure.

On the Transfer Tower, the ring of eyes snapped wide open, instantly releasing an invisible electromagnetic field.

Instantly, all incoming ordnance detonated dozens of meters from the Transfer Tower!

The electromagnetic field radiated outward in all directions, generating an intense pressure that even disrupted the connections among the constituent zombies of the Symbiotes.

The Hannibal Symbiote's zombies all clutched their heads at once, letting out bursts of pained and frenzied howls.

'Now's my chance!'

Shen Feng's Silicon-Based Brain instantly blocked the signals released by the Hannibal Symbiote, severing his connection to the collective. While the other constituent zombies were distracted, he slipped unnoticed into the adjacent building.

Meanwhile, the five great Symbiotes present let out a collective roar. The brains of their constituent zombies emitted even stronger telepathic waves, linking together to form their own Consciousness Fields and resisting the Transfer Tower's assault.

Previously, when the Hannibal Symbiote was only composed of ten thousand zombies, it had been completely unable to resist the Transfer Tower's influence.

Now, however, it was capable of doing so.

It was a struggle, but it could still maintain its independent will.

This was one of the reasons these Symbiotes had started fighting and devouring one another.

Without a sufficiently powerful Consciousness Field, they couldn't even stand in the Transfer Tower's presence!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The explosions were incessant. The Symbiotes were still using their heavy weapons to attack the Transfer Tower.

However, the fuses on the shells and rockets were being detonated in mid-air, while simple metal projectiles couldn't even penetrate the Transfer Tower's outer shell. The resulting shrapnel and stray rounds ended up causing some damage to their allies on the opposite side.

Shen Feng had now reached the third floor of the building. It was a bar. The zombies that had once been inside had long ago been absorbed by the Transfer Tower, leaving the place eerily quiet.

The explosions continued just outside. The windows had been shattered by the shockwaves long ago, but that didn't bother Shen Feng.

Right now, apart from the five great Symbiotes, there wasn't a single other zombie near the Transfer Tower. With only himself around, Shen Feng knew he wouldn't be disturbed.

Now, all he had to do was wait.

Shen Feng went behind the bar and found some good-quality whiskey and brandy. He washed a few glasses, poured himself a drink, and sat down on a sofa. Then he took a bag of peanuts from his backpack and emptied them onto a plate.

Sitting on the bar's sofa, smelling the drifting aroma of liquor and watching the blossoms of fire bloom before the Transfer Tower, Shen Feng was suddenly reminded of his last night in the post-nuclear wasteland. He recalled watching the "nuclear blossoms" with Firefly in the Death Forest.

The release of light and heat... it seemed to be a direction human civilization had always pursued.

Soon, the explosions died down.

The Symbiotes had given up on the bombardment with heavy weapons.

They had known all along that such conventional weapons couldn't even scratch the Transfer Tower. The recent barrage had just been to confirm it.

In the end, they had to rely on themselves.

The Red Symbiote's voice was grim:

"The weapons of the living are useless! We must use our teeth! Use the powerful bodies bestowed upon us by the Master of the Void and tear this tower to shreds!"

The Hannibal Symbiote roared in agreement:

"Exactly! The Transfer Tower can't suppress five powerful Consciousness Fields at once! We will devour this tower and claim its ultimate power!"

The other three great Symbiotes roared in kind.

The individual zombies making up the Symbiotes began to undergo subtle physical changes. Some grew sharp fangs, others sprouted razor-sharp bone claws, until they all resembled ferocious beasts.

This transformation was clearly achieved at the cost of the zombies' physical matter, but the Symbiotes could no longer afford to care.

"ROOOOAR—"

The Hannibal Symbiote let out a frenzied roar and was the first to charge the Transfer Tower.

The other great Symbiotes, the Red Symbiote included, also roared and charged the Transfer Tower. They would use the teeth and claws of their zombies to tear this damned tower apart and win their freedom!

From the bar window, the ground looked like a black tide, surging toward the cloud-piercing Transfer Tower!

Shen Feng took a sip of his drink. Watching the scene outside—far more thrilling than any blockbuster movie—he couldn't help but let out a heartfelt sigh of admiration:

"Now this is exciting..."

The vanguard of the Symbiote horde reached the base of the Transfer Tower and lunged!

The moment they leapt onto the Transfer Tower, the zombies were like Evil Ghosts from Hell. They opened their mouths, filled with sharp teeth, and bit down hard on the tower's shell, beginning to tear at it frantically.

At the same time, more and more of the Symbiote zombies swarmed the tower. They began to climb frantically, using their claws and teeth to rip off flakes of the tower's exterior and swallow them.

From a distance, the Transfer Tower looked like a bare tree swarming with ants.

The electromagnetic field that had blocked the explosives was still active, but it was ineffective against the zombies, who were controlled by the powerful Consciousness Fields.

Seeing this, Shen Feng's expression turned grim.

The Piranhas (also known as Cannibal Fish) of the Amazon River are only palm-sized, but a school of them can strip a person to the bone in minutes.

These Symbiote zombies were no different.

The Symbiotes seemed pleasantly surprised by the Transfer Tower's feeble resistance. Shen Feng could even sense the joy radiating from their Consciousness Fields. 'The destruction of the Transfer Tower is at hand!'

VMMMM—

A low hum echoed out as the Transfer Tower suddenly shuddered. The violent tremor immediately flung many of the zombies from its surface.

Immediately after, crevices split open across the Transfer Tower's surface, revealing thick, long tentacles. They began to whip about madly, snatching zombies from the tower's body—some were flung away, others were pulled into the tower's crevices and completely devoured!

From Shen Feng's vantage point, the massive Transfer Tower now looked like a monster covered in giant maws, constantly devouring the Symbiote zombies!

While the Symbiotes were devouring the Transfer Tower, the Transfer Tower was devouring them in return!

"Stop holding back, or we'll all die here!" the Hannibal Symbiote roared. Twenty thousand of its constituent zombies leaped from the Transfer Tower, piling up on the ground below.

At that moment, its Consciousness Field began to thrum wildly. The bodies of the piled-up zombies started to ooze a transparent liquid, their forms melting like wax.

In the blink of an eye, the spot where the Hannibal Symbiote had been was now just a giant mound of corpses.

Then, the corpses began to fuse and warp at a visible rate. Soon, a giant dozens of meters tall, formed from tens of thousands of zombies, rose to its feet.

Shen Feng had seen something like this before: the zombie tide controlled by Yamaguchi Sora during the great battle in the Tokyo Epidemic Zone!

On the surface of the giant's body, one could still see limbs and facial features that hadn't fully merged, making it look exceptionally grotesque and bizarre.

From the giant's hand, a massive Bone Saber gradually extended, formed entirely from the fused bones of the zombies.

Shen Feng couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

He understood that this transformation was completely irreversible.

The zombies could fuse and transform into a powerful giant, but that giant could never revert back into a horde of zombies.

Moreover, the source of the giant's energy was unknown, and its immense energy consumption could certainly not be sustained by Solar power alone.

It would likely disintegrate completely after a short time.

By doing this, the Hannibal Symbiote was betting everything on a single, desperate gamble.

It was victory or death.

If it succeeded in destroying the Transfer Tower, it would maintain its independent free will, perhaps even absorb the tower's nutrients and grow stronger.

If it failed, it would be utterly destroyed by the Transfer Tower, doomed beyond salvation.

At the same time, the other great Symbiotes also followed suit, fusing their own zombie hordes together into gigantic combat forms.

They didn't all stick to humanoid forms; two of them transformed into beasts resembling a cat and a wolf.

The Hannibal Symbiote then raised its massive Bone Saber—tens of meters long—toward the Transfer Tower and declared grimly:

"Whether it be a god or a Divine Apostle, no being can control my destiny!"

As soon as the words left its mouth, it leaped dozens of meters into the air and viciously plunged the Bone Saber into the body of the Transfer Tower!

Shen Feng drained the strong whiskey in his glass, slammed it down on the table with a CLACK, and applauded in admiration.

"Bravo!"