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

Having left Owen, Derek, and Liam behind, Adrian ran up the tunnel at full speed.

Although his body was still heavily injured, his speed was several times that of a normal person. Under ordinary circumstances, such a speed would’ve been impossible for someone in his condition.

It wasn’t completely because he was a genuine D-rank awakener, but also because of his class.

Unlike Derek, whose class boosted his strength and muscles, Adrian’s class enhanced his overall speed and let him move considerably faster than an ordinary human, even without using any complicated abilities.

Because of this, even while injured, Adrian could still force his body to run much faster.

But speed alone didn’t mean that his body’s condition was getting better.

In fact, it was doing the complete opposite.

A lot of blood had already been lost from his previous injuries, and because of his increased speed, Adrian’s heartbeat had risen significantly. It forced his blood to circulate faster throughout his body while simultaneously causing even more blood to escape from his wounds.

The situation had truly become a double-edged sword to him—the faster he ran, the quicker he could escape. But the faster he ran, the quicker his body would weaken.

"I need... to get out..." Adrian’s voice came out bleakly, becoming heavier with every breath he took.

His footsteps echoed through the passage, occasionally becoming uneven as his injured body struggled to maintain its balance.

One floor, then another—soon, Adrian reached the second floor.

By this point, his speed had naturally fallen by a considerable amount.

The powerful movements that had allowed him to rush through the tunnels earlier were now becoming increasingly sluggish.

His face had nearly lost all of its color, while an unsettling blue hue had begun spreading across the tips of his fingers and parts of his face.

His lips were pale, and his breathing had become extremely shallow. Every breath felt as though it was barely reaching the bottom of his lungs.

Grunting out loud, Adrian stumbled several times while running, nearly falling onto the ground before desperately catching himself against the wall.

"Not yet..." He clenched his teeth desperately. "Just a little more..."

The entrance wasn’t far anymore; if he could reach the surface, then he had a chance at surviving.

His thoughts became increasingly disorganized as his consciousness slowly began slipping away. At some point, his eyelids started becoming incredibly heavy.

His vision blurred with every step, and for a moment, Adrian thought he was hallucinating.

The tunnel in front of him seemed to stretch endlessly, while the walls appeared to shift slightly whenever he looked away from them.

His vision split into two, then three.

The overlapping images moved imperfectly against each other, making it increasingly difficult for Adrian to determine which path was real.

’I’m almost there.’ He desperately tried to convince himself. ’I’m almost...’ Then, his thoughts suddenly stopped as a strange sound entered his ears.

Footsteps.

Someone was approaching from ahead, or it seemed like it. At first, the sound was faint, almost indistinguishable from the noise produced by his own movements.

However, as the seconds passed, the hurried steps gradually became louder and sharper.

Adrian, barely conscious, easily confused them with his own footsteps and continued moving forward with his head dangerously drooping low.

Then a voice suddenly came through the darkness: "Looking pretty rough?" The sharp voice immediately froze Adrian’s movements.

His entire body stiffened in place, while his eyes regained their focus almost instantly.

His pupils forcefully became sharp as his survival instincts awakened from their brief period of weakness.

He immediately jumped backwards—or at least, he tried to.

His body had already grown far too weak to properly follow his own commands. Adrian’s legs tangled with one another, causing him to lose control of his balance before he slammed heavily onto the ground.

"Ah..." A painful groan escaped his mouth as his head tilted upwards.

His eyes darted in every direction, desperately searching for the source of the sudden voice. But he found nothing.

The tunnel remained empty, with only the sound of his own heavy breathing echoing around him.

With time, Adrian’s expression became increasingly tense. Even if he had heard the voice only once, he could tell that it wasn’t Owen, Derek, Liam, or anyone from the Radiant Stars.

"Who..." His voice barely came out as he swallowed painfully before forcing himself to continue. "Who are you?"

Several more breaths passed, yet no figure appeared while the darkness remained completely still.

For a moment, Adrian wondered if his weakened mind had simply created the voice itself.

Perhaps he really was hallucinating.

Perhaps his blood loss had finally reached a point where his brain could no longer properly distinguish reality from imagination.

Thinking so, his breathing gradually became calmer.

’Yeah...’

’It must’ve been a hallucination.’

He slowly pushed his palm against the ground, preparing to stand.

But just then—

Swoosh!

A swift sound suddenly resounded through the tunnel as Adrian’s eyes widened in shock.

He didn’t even have enough time to react; his vision slowly turned upside down.

The ceiling became the ground, while the ground became the ceiling.

His body remained completely motionless for a brief moment as his brain struggled to understand what had happened.

Then his pupils trembled violently, and his mouth opened, though no voice came out.

Blood sprayed across the cave walls and ground as his ripped-apart head spun violently through the air.

His headless body remained standing for a brief instant before its remaining strength finally disappeared.

Thud!

The body collapsed onto the ground miserably. Blood slowly trickled from the ruined neck, spreading across the dirt beneath him as his remaining life completely disappeared.

Then, as the severed head began descending from the air, a jade-green silhouette suddenly appeared beneath it.

Ethan caught it with his right hand as his fingers wrapped around the head without hesitation.

Without even looking at it, Ethan adjusted his grip before grabbing it by its hair and lifting it slightly.

Blood continued dripping from the severed neck as Ethan remained completely expressionless.

His jade-green body stood silently within the dark tunnel, calmly recalling his own movements.

In that split second, Ethan had taken advantage of Adrian’s extremely weakened body and approached him through the shadows.

Thanks to Adrian’s severely damaged vision and his almost complete loss of strength, he had been unable to properly follow Ethan’s movements, allowing Ethan to grab his neck before using his overwhelming strength to rip his head out cleanly.

Because of the severe loss of blood, Adrian had already lost feeling in most of his body, which had allowed Ethan’s attack to work out even more perfectly.

The entire process had happened so quickly that Adrian hadn’t even realized what had killed him.

The way Ethan had killed him was, without a doubt, cruel. However, it was the most efficient.

There was no reason to waste time fighting an injured awakener when he could simply exploit their weakness and kill them before they had the chance to react.

༺━━━━━━༺༻━━━━━━༻

Several minutes had passed since then.

Owen, Derek, and Liam were still struggling desperately within the tunnel.

Their eyes trembled as though they could already see their ends approaching directly before their eyes.

Owen’s arms were barely moving anymore, his once dense hair gauntlets now covered in blood and riddled with gaps.

Derek had completely stopped trying to regenerate his body because he simply didn’t have enough energy left to accomplish anything meaningful.

Liam, on the other hand, was in an even worse condition.

By now, they had already started to understand Adrian’s decision.

In fact, they were wishing it were they who had run away instead.

"That bastard..." Owen muttered through clenched teeth as another ant slammed into his hair gauntlet.

"But..." His voice became quieter.

’...maybe he made the right choice. ’Derek,’ he thought in silence.

Liam didn’t say anything either. They hated Adrian for abandoning them, but deep down, they understood why he had done it.

The seven Radiant Stars weren’t a team that respected each other. Instead, it was a team formed through their own interests.

They had been brought together because their abilities complemented one another, because their status benefited one another, and because standing together allowed them to enjoy the position of being called heroes within Valeria City.

Even Jake had joined the team with the sole purpose of getting stronger.

But then, suddenly, the group heard footsteps as their eyes immediately lit up in unison.

Someone was approaching from the tunnel behind them. For a moment, they didn’t even dare believe it.

Then Owen’s face suddenly brightened as he called out a name: "Adrian?"

Derek’s eyes widened as he followed. "He’s back?"

Liam immediately turned around. "He must’ve realized his mistake."

A strange sense of relief flooded through their exhausted minds, and none of them cared about their earlier anger anymore.

In this moment, they didn’t care about defeating the ants either. Instead, their minds immediately began scheming.

’Good.’

’If Adrian came back, we can make him take over.’

’Then we can escape.’

Owen’s lips curled into a smile as he shouted towards the approaching footsteps. "Adrian! You finally came back!"

Derek quickly followed happily. "Thank god, you’re here!"

Liam’s expression became extremely sincere. "We knew you wouldn’t actually abandon us."

The three of them spoke as though they had never cursed Adrian even once.

"Come on!" Owen shouted while desperately blocking another ant. "Get over here and help us; we’ve been waiting for you!"

"Yeah!" Derek added, forcing a smile despite his bloodied face. "Once you take over the front, we’ll recover for a moment."

Liam nodded quickly as well. "We can still survive this if we work together."

The sound of footsteps gradually became louder while their eyes grew brighter with every approaching step.

’He’s really coming.’

’We’re saved.’

’Thank god.’

Owen even began imagining how they would escape once Adrian took over, while Derek had already started thinking about how to make Adrian fight the strongest ants first.

Thud.

Something suddenly flew out from the darkness and crashed onto the ground directly beside their feet.

The sound was strangely heavy, causing all three of them to freeze in their places.

Slowly, almost instinctively, their eyes lowered towards the object that had landed between them. For several seconds, nobody spoke as Liam’s pupils shrank, Derek’s face went pale, and Owen’s mouth slowly opened.

It was a human head—Adrian’s lifeless head.

His eyes remained wide open, his expression frozen in the final moment of his life, while blood stains covered his severed neck.