"So this is the place, huh?" I thought as I looked at the makeshift, post-apocalyptic town in front of me. Most of the buildings were made of wood, including the walls and guard towers. There were people with guns visible at a distance from here and a few more inside the town.

"While Mallorn is a son of a b*tch, I won't deny that his contribution to the safety of the town is most among the people here. You see those zombies roaming outside the town? Those are his,"spoke Irene as she pointed at the zombies at a distance.

While it was a bit hard to differentiate between the zombies and the humans from this far, it was still visible that the horde of walkers around the town was nothing to scoff at.

"So, we like? Just barge in and start killing everyone?" asked Miya with a serious voice and I shook my head before turning to Walter,"take us directly to Mallorn. There is something that I want to see first," and he nodded. Irene looked at me for a few seconds, but didn't say anything.

Reaching closer to the Town, I saw the zombies moving to the side, clearing a path for us into the town without any resistance. The men on the watchtower had their guns pointed at me and Irene but they did not shoot.

"I'll take them to Mallorn," spoke Walter in a serious tone as the guys behind the doors observed all of us. Their main focus was Irene and George, who were really powerful among us. As for Miya, I had asked her to cover her face for now, so as to not cause a scene.

I had read the status of many here, and yeah, they were anything but good people. Though that changed as we entered deeper into the town and more 'normal' people started appearing. The one on the inside looked like common folks who helped with non-combat works and supported the combat recruits. Unsurprisingly, they were all gifted. In fact, I didn't see even a single one here who was not gifted.

Walking further into the town, we soon reached the back area where a certain castle-like area was present made up of tin and wood. It was heavily guarded with men with guns at every point.

Walking through the gates, as those men nodded at Walter, we slowly entered into the building, which was reshaped into a fortified castle.

My eyes observed each of those men carefully, while almost all of them were looking at Irene with a lustful gaze, while some of them were trying to look through the covered face of Miya as well.

The only reason they hadn't jumped at us was because Walter was walking with us and George wasn't something that they could handle. Perhaps Irene's power was also something that they were being careful with.

After another minute of walking, we soon reached the end gate where I saw a hunky guy with brownish hair smoking a cigarette as he turned towards us. He had a nice facial feature, and the scar near his eyebrow only made his facial feature much more prominent. Wearing a black dress shirt, he looked like a mafia boss of some sort, those tattoos on the back of his neck only added to it.

"Walter. Where is Irene?" He asked as he looked at all of us. He had an unreadable expression on his face, and I understood a few things immediately.

"There she is," Walter spoke as he pointed at Irene, whose features had totally changed from how she looked previously before evolving into A-Grade. Then how did the others notice her?

'Did one of those guys have an ability related to it or something?' I thought as I looked at Walter as he too immediately figured out about Irene in a second.

"She?!" Mallorn's eyes focused on Irene in disbelief as he confirmed,"but her facial features and power.. are you sure it's her?"

"Yes," Walter spoke as he looked at Mallorn for a few seconds before

-Whoosh!

I saw Irene jumping at Mallorn as her chainsaw increased twice its size, and she proceeded to slash at Mallorn.

-BOOM!!

Though before she could reach him, someone else came in between and kicked her back to us. Before she could fall on the ground

[Temporal Deceleration!]

[Temporal Deceleration(copy)!]

I stopped time, moved around, helped her stand properly, and then once I was done with that, I moved back to where I was. Because of my current enhanced state, plus with my skills and movements that I had picked up while learning the spear art from Armes, I could easily move swiftly without anyone noticing.

'My skills at this point are just an added bonus here,' I thought as I looked at Irene standing back where she was as if nothing happened.

The atmosphere here then began tensing as I saw that zombie

[Inspect!]

[The Bulked (A-Grade Zombie)]

It was one of the strong zombies with his physical capabilities much stronger than the others. Plus, being an A-Grade, it took his physical ability to quite another level, honestly. Even his gift, [Physical Avoidance] allows it to increase his already enhanced strength to another level.

'Perhaps Mallorn was able to control it because it had low wisdom?' I thought as I checked the stats of the zombies before looking at Mallorn carefully.

Even though Irene has attacked him, he still didn't look shaken at all.

"She is Irene all right. Only she would be this crazy to attack me without any prior warning," he spoke as he sighed before looking at the rest of us. His eyes concentrated on Miya and they widened for a few seconds before he spoke,"Remove your mask."

I could already see the anger rising inside Miya when she heard his command, though before anything could proceed, Walter spoke,

"Sir Michael. You should take over from here."

Which changed the direction of everyone's gazes from Miya to me, as she started looking at me along with Walter and Mallorn. Even Irene, who was getting irritated, turned at me with a slightly calm expression.

"Hmm? Michael. Is that the guy whom you were waiting for?" Mallorn asked as he looked at me with an analyzing gaze as he looked at me from top to bottom with his eyes glowing red before he lost interest and spoke to Walter,

"No offense, Walter, but your savior.. looks really pathetic-"

-Whoosh

-BOOM!

-Slash!

-Whoosh!

Irene, once again, had jumped at him while Walter had prepared about 10 fireballs in the air. George had already slashed down the [The bulked(A-Grade Zombie)] into pieces while Miya's eyes had turned into deep green from previous heterochromic purple and blue.

I could sense a couple more powerful zombies almost coming at me, but before they could reach here, they all melted down as if they hadn't even existed. Perhaps Miya was responsible for it?

"Stop it already," I spoke as I sensed Miya killing more and more zombies with her ability, which she stopped before it could escalate to a certain point. Perhaps Mallorn had felt the pain of the zombies. His expression had turned ugly as he tried looking at the source of the power, Miya.

"Sigh.. you guys go out. Take the others with you. I will meet you in a couple of minutes," I spoke as I looked at Mallorn. When I meant others, I meant the men of Mallorn who were almost there to attack us. While I do wish to kill them, honestly I would rather sell them than killing them.

Miya didn't exactly calm down at that, but she nodded as she looked at them, turning her eyes deep red, making them drop their weapons. Before she looked at Irene and the others and said,"Let's go."

Irene and the others sighed as they looked at me before nodding and then moving away from this room, leaving me and Mallorn by ourselves.

Mallorn was still confused at what just happened in a few moments as he observed them all go without making any resistance at all. His eyes shifted between me and them many times as his expression turned complicated.

I then looked at Mallorn carefully as I took out an apple from the storage which Irene gave me before and then, as I took a bite from it, I spoke to Mallorn,

"You know Mallorn. Your father was a really good guy. One of the best people that I had met in my life.. can you tell me how you ended up becoming something like.. this?"

[Name: Mallorn Iris

Race: Zombified Human (A-Grade)historical

Class: The Watcher

Description: A normal average guy who lost his father, Trevis Iris, in the Valentine incident and his life turned completely upside down that day. From a normal average kid, he became a kid who made plans on how to take revenge on those who have wronged him by taking all the measures he could. He didn't like people who held him back and soon started cutting off all the things that held him back. After he received his Gift, he became even more rough with his methods to achieve what he wanted.

Zombification: 72%[Reach 100% to get to the next Grade]

Cessation Energy: 150,000,000/150,000,000

Status: Healthy

Gift: Undead Manipulation

The user can create, manipulate, and destroy physical and ghostly undead, command dead souls, condemn them to torment, or steal the souls of the dead/dying to increase their legion of the undead.

Skills*

Strength: 1040(+94)

Constitution: 367

Dexterity: 1045(+67)

Intelligence: 13490(+2300)

Wisdom: 18900(+1230)

Charm: 11423]