Hi guys, thank you for reading my fiction.

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Acma reached the border of Boulder Town, but didn’t proceed further. He took a good time to familiarize himself with the surrounding before deciding when to proceed.

Different from his memories, the current Boulder Town was elevated about 100 metres from the ground where he need to climb a slope which stretched for several hundred metres until he met the first building in the town. To his left or behind the town, stood proudly the solitary mountain which look more magnificent compared to when he saw it from afar.

“Alice, scan the town and look for the source of the flickering light we saw earlier” “Yes, Master”

That flickering light was like a beacon of hope for Acma. He hoped that he might found survivors who gathered at the place where the light came from. He knew that something had happened to the town. Something extremely bad that forced its citizens to evacuate like those he found at the overhang earlier. But, there were close to 20000 residents at Boulder Town, so there might be survivors.

“Let’s go Silver”, he nudged Silver to move.

After a while, he could see row of buildings at the side of the street, dark without light. Acma made an assumption that the town also suffered from a black out three nights ago, just like his villa and Orca Village. The buildings here were built partly wood and partly brick, mostly single stories. The street were wide enough to let two lorries went through side by side and spaces for pedestrians on both sides. There were other streets to go to and fro Boulder Town, but the street where Acma currently was considered the main street and this street divided the town into east and west district.

The visibility wasn’t good, only a few hundred metres with assist. This mainly due to a dark mist in the town which blocked the sight. Although it was dark, the town was far from been quiet. Acma could hear a lot of strange noises which sounds like animal growling. Whatever made that sounds, Acma knew it was nothing good.

He took out his Mithril sword and nudged Silver to go faster.

“Master, the light came from the north of the town. I didn’t scout that far because I found something else”, reported Alice who came out flying from his chest.

“What did you found?” asked Acma curiously. It piqued his interest after he felt relieved when he heard that Alice had found the source of the flickering light. Now he had a target to go.

“A lot of humanoid were walking aimlessly not far from here. They seem like human, but didn’t behave like one. I can’t detect a heat from their body and they walked staggeringly. They also growled like an animal”

“So, that’s where the sounds came from but what was that? Is it a kind of monsters or what”, he thought.

“Any resemblance in your database?” asked Acma.

“Most likely they were a walking dead or zombie”, answered Alice.

Acma took a deep breath. If Boulder Town were attacked by zombies, it was reasonable why the residents had to evacuate. He took out five Supreme Guardians and ordered Alice to cover his blind spot. He needed to reach his beacon of hope as fast as possible.

~ Ding

You’ve entered a lordless town

As a lord, you can claim ownership over territories, either by forces or negotiations. If you wish to claim ownership over this town, accomplish the following tasks

1. Destroy all the undead in the town

2. Rescue the survivor

3. Secure food and water supply

4. Restore the administration

5. Appoint 500 town guards

6. Build a wall

7. Get the recognition of the residents

“Tsk. So troublesome”, thought Acma as he stared at the notification panel. “1, 2, 3 and 6 wasn’t hard to achieve, but 4, 5 and 7... I wonder how to do that”

Destroying the zombies and rescuing the survivors could be done at the same time although it may take some times. About the food and water, the amount needed was depended on how many survivors he manage to rescue. He also have a lot of meat in his inventory so the survivors can use them for the time being. In the future, he could bring them to hunt or have some survivors farming. Building the wall also not much a challenge. He just need to convince the survivors of the current reality and wall is needed to keep them safe.

However, restoring the administration was something he didn’t have a confidence. Actually he never had any administrative experience before. He could read the theory from the books, but doing it is a different thing. Same goes for appointing the guards and getting the residents approval.

“I will think about this later. Right now, getting to the north is more important”, thought Acma.

After a short while, he met the first zombie. A one arm zombie with part of its stomach torn making it imbalanced and walked like it might fall anytime. It noticed Acma approaching from more than a hundred metres and moving toward Acma as fast as it could. Behind it were several other zombies.

Mangled Zombie LVL 6

‘Swissh’

Without pausing any second, Acma swung his sword from Silver’s back and decapitated it instantly. The body of the zombie disintegrated into nothingness right after it was decapitated. Then he proceeded to the next one, followed by his guardians.

The zombies were swarming him right after he destroyed the first one, not just the nearby zombies but also those at several hundred metres away. It made him thinking, how did these zombies sensed him? His armour should sealed his scent and Silver’s step was careful enough not to make any noticeable sounds. Even when destroyed any zombies, he did it with a calculated move to prevent any noises. It’s not like he was afraid of being swarmed by the zombies, it’s just bothersome if they gathered too much because it would delay his journey.

He could understand if the nearby zombies somehow able to detect his presence, maybe through vibration or something similar, but it would be strange if those who were far away also able to do it. Did they have a collective mind? But do they have a mind? Maybe there was a controller who could detect him from afar and then ordered the zombies to attack him. If this is true then he need to find the controller as soon as possible before he reached the town hall.

“Zombies, zombies, zombies. Zombies everywhere. I wonder if there still survivors other than those who too refuge at the north”, thought Acma while his eyes wondering between the zombies and the buildings surrounding him.

“Could they sensed life?”, he speculated. “These zombies only reacted to me but ignored Silver and the guardians. Damn, I want to test this speculation, but getting to the north is more important”

He tried to spot the place where the zombies gathered in large number but he didn’t find any. He couldn’t see beyond several hundred metres because of the dark mist hindering his sight. He could see the dark mists all thanks to the moon. Although its light to the town were blocked by the mountain, but the reflected light from the ground around the town were bright enough to let the eyes to function normally.

“Alice, do you see any place swarmed by zombies around us?”

“At the center of the town, Master”

“Huh? Why they gathered there?”

“I don’t know”

“Any survivors?”

“No survivors”

“...”

“No survivors, but a large amount of zombies gathered. That was suspicious. There must be something”, thought Acma.

He couldn’t come out with any answers so he just left it. Since he need to cross over the town center to reach town hall at the north, he will know the answer eventually.

After a long while, he was closing in to the town center. That place was a field where the residents gathered for festivals, events or just for recreation. The field was enough to host five thousand peoples at a time and if they could pack in, even close to ten thousand peoples also possible if they were standing on the road surrounding the field. But their sight will be blocked by the trees which were planted around the field.

Alice was right. When Acma reached the field, there were a huge number of zombies, far from his expectation. Too far that he started to feel regret making a decision to cross over this field because if these number of zombies tailed him to the north, it would put the survivors in a great danger.

But something at this place made him confused, the zombies didn’t bother him at all, unlike their previous ‘brothers and sisters’. They just standing in the field gazing at the center. Acma looked at that direction and discovered a dense dark mist that blocking any light to go through. Acma got a sinister feeling from that mist, but not enough to make him wanted to avoid the place.

“That sphere of dark mist or something in it must the one controlling all these zombies”, thought Acma.

Acma stopped at the border of the field, standing under a tree among the zombies. Silver and the guardians were not far from him. Next to him was a ‘young lady’ with half of it face ripped off, showing its finely cared white teeth. ‘She’ had a short hair, showing ‘her’ neck with a small golden necklace. A bright bi jade pendant was hovered above her cleavage. Suddenly, ‘she’ turned ‘her’ head and looked at Acma.

“!!!”

Startled, Acma quickly turned his head. Both of them continued looking at the center of the field without bothering each other.

Acma was thinking, considering his options about his current situation.

“Should I destroy all these zombies or should I cross the field quietly?”

Both options were good.

Killing them would greatly reduce the threat to the survivors and also make his job wiping out the zombies in the town easier since a lot of them were gathered here. When he joined the survivors, he could tell the stories of his fight and probably captured their heart.

Avoiding these zombies also a good choice because he could reach the survivors faster. When he joined the survivors, he could discussed the plan to clear the town from the zombies together, giving the a few good suggestions and worked with them. More zombies means more time to build rapports with the survivors.

But, would the dark mist at the center of the field or something in it let him do as he please?

Probably not.