The Black Behemoth drifted high above the Pacific coast, its anti-gravity engines whispering beneath the clouds. Far below, the world burned. Inside Su Chen's pocket-dimension truck, Bone City thrummed like an industrial furnace.
Five thousand Skeleton Soldiers knelt in neat rows, their soul-fire flickering in the hollow darkness of their eyes.
Esdeath stood beside Su Chen, arms crossed, studying them like a general evaluating fresh recruits.
"Undead," she murmured. "Fearless. Tireless. Loyal. But brittle."
"Not anymore." Su Chen lifted his hand.
A storm of black blades rose behind him—thousands of cursed katanas hovering like predatory birds. Murasame Replicas forged with the Cursed Mold, Crimson Iron Sand, and Xiao Yi Xian's Poison Qi.
[Shadow Blade – Mass Production Model]
[High-Tier Magic Weapon]
[Effects: Necrotic Rot + Neurotoxin. Regeneration Block.]
"Equip."
The skeletons rose as one. Old spears clattered to the ground as each bony hand gripped a floating blade. The steel hummed with death energy.
Esdeath's lips curved. "You spoil me, Master. Are you letting me lead the vanguard?"
"Try not to kill everything before the test data is collected," he replied.
Her blush was immediate and unsettling.
---
The Coastline Defense Line
Ten kilometers below, the sea writhed like a living thing.
A hundred-meter tsunami smashed against the defense barrier—but the water wasn't the threat.
It was what crawled out of it.
[Deep Sea Titan – Kaiju Class]
[Level 25 – Lord]
[Height: 80 meters]
A grotesque hybrid of Godzilla and a horseshoe crab lumbered forward, its armored plates gleaming like wet obsidian. Its roar shattered windows miles away. Mermen and giant crab mutants swarmed at its feet.
Colonel Lin Que stood atop the ramparts, blood soaking her torn uniform. Her left arm dangled broken at her side.
"Fire! Don't stop!" she shouted.
Shells detonated against the Titan's shell—completely useless.
The Titan opened its maw.
A razor-thin jet of compressed water carved a bunker clean in half.
"Colonel! Ammo's nearly gone!" a soldier screamed. "HQ is offline! We're finished!"
Lin Que clenched her teeth. Behind her was a refugee camp. Failure meant a massacre.
She pulled out the Communication Crystal Su Chen had forced on her days ago.
"…Su Chen," she whispered, voice trembling. "I accept the deal."
---
The Arrival
The sky cracked.
The Black Behemoth did not descend—it manifested, shedding its cloaking like an eclipse sliding into place. Shadows swallowed the battlefield.
"Is that… the merchant?" Lin Que breathed.
A voice rolled across the coast, amplified until even the waves stilled.
"Transaction accepted."
Su Chen stood atop the truck, armored in Bone-Magitek plating streaked with neon lines. Purple Cloud Wings spread behind him.
"Open the bomb bay."
The ramp opened.
No bombs dropped.
Bones did.
Five thousand Skeleton Soldiers fell like meteors—no chutes, no fear.
CRASH.
CRASH.
CRASH.
Dust burst across the battlefield. When it settled, the Skeletons rose—unbroken, soulfire blazing.
And descending behind them, stepping down a staircase of ice, was Esdeath.
"Freeze."
[Mahapadma — Incomplete]
It didn't stop time.
It froze the ocean.
A tidal wave turned to crystal. Thousands of Mermen were trapped in an instant.
Esdeath snapped her fingers.
"Kill."
The Skeleton Army charged.
Shadow Blades carved arcs of black light. The Mermen's bullet-proof scales parted like silk. Every cut rotted flesh black; poison burned through their veins.
"One strike, one corpse," Su Chen said from above. "Acceptable performance."
---
Titan vs. Tyrant
The Deep Sea Titan turned and roared at the Behemoth.
Too slow.
Su Chen had already jumped.
[Shadow Step.]
He reappeared above its skull. His right arm twisted—bones merging into pistons, muscles weaving into cables, Magitek circuits threading beneath his skin.
A biological railgun.
"Biological Art: Star Destroyer Cannon—Miniature."
A sphere of blue light roared to life.
The Titan looked up.
BOOM.
The beam punched straight through its skull, down its spine, out its tail—boiling the ocean behind it. The massive creature collapsed, dead before it hit the water.
[Target Eliminated: Deep Sea Titan]
[EXP +5000]
[Level 7 → Level 8]
Su Chen landed on the steaming corpse. His arm shrank back to human form, smoking slightly.
"Cooling system needs work."
He touched the body.
"Copy All."
"Store."
Eighty meters of Kaiju meat vanished into storage.
---
The Price of Victory
Silence fell over the coast.
The undead army finished the last of the Mermen. Esdeath stood atop a mound of frozen corpses, savoring the carnage.
Su Chen flew to the ramparts.
Lin Que stared at him—half terrified, half in awe.
"You saved us…" she whispered.
"No. You honored a deal. I honored mine."
He placed a pill in her mouth.
"Swallow."
Heat surged through her body. Bones realigned with brutal cracks. Pain vanished.
She looked at her restored arm in disbelief.
"Who… what are you?"
"A collector."
Su Chen pointed toward the hovering fortress.
"This region is finished. Stay here and you'll die with it. Come with me, and you might actually influence the future."
Lin Que looked at her ruined base… at the bodies of her soldiers… then at the power Su Chen commanded.
"If I go with you, can I become strong enough to end this apocalypse?"
"You can become strong enough to rule it."
She exhaled, took off her military cap, and dropped it onto the blood-soaked ground.
"Colonel Lin Que, reporting for duty."
[Recruitment Successful: Lin Que – The Gun Goddess]
[Role: Ranged DPS / Tactician]
[Loyalty: 80]
Su Chen picked her up in a princess carry.
"Esdeath! Pack up the skeletons. We're moving."
Esdeath licked blood from her finger, smiling.
"Understood, Master. Next time, leave a bigger monster for me."