I already knew that the zombies coming out from the turtle zombie den were special. They could traverse waters and come on land to fight. However when I saw a few of them coming ashore back then, I mistook that I had enough time to prepare for them.

However from what Fang said, these zombies seemed to act cunning and sly. They spanned over a large stretch of land, covering almost the entire southern region.

If they keep increasing their numbers and expanding their reach, then in a matter of a few weeks or months they might be able to endanger my entire kingdom.

Zombies coming at my land from one point held a different level of threat than those coming at my kingdom from every corner.

This was bad. And I never expected this to happen. I was lost in deep thought, trying to find out a solution to stop this plaque from expanding.

Just to show how deadly this was, I just needed to take a peek at what was happening at the western border to know how black the future was.

So if we don’t stop them now, if we don’t prepare for the worst to come, we are going to be all killed! I imagined the all calm and collected Fang to start screaming in immense worry.

Despite the dire situation, it looked really funny.

Sending reinforcements won’t do

Then come in person and deal with this mess!

I wasn’t surprised by his weird change of demands. After all, I might be considered much stronger than many armies combined.

If I have the power and means to kill them, do you think I’d have stayed my hand back?

Then what shall we do? You do know that time isn’t in our favour

Retreat!

What?!!!

This was indeed shocking, but it was the only way I could think of to deal with this troublesome mess. The situation was desperate, and I lacked any means to properly deal with it.

If fighting wasn’t an option, and defending wasn’t possible, then retreat was the answer.

Your lands aren’t well fortified like mine but I knew giving such out of the blue order was hard to grasp for Fang and his people. Besides, he had to report this back to his superior and his people as well.

I was acting as their leader and lord, but if they didn’t properly understand my intentions and plans to the core, bad things might happen.

Last thing I wanted to see was to lose many good fighters like Selvators. They would also leave behind stronger zombies if they died. And that would make the situation more desperate.

We have enough defences!

Not like the ones I built all over my kingdom I didn’t doubt his words, but compared with my kingdom defences built by the genius Isac, theirs must pale against mine.

You didn’t see ours yet!

That’s not needed I paused, even with my kingdom dense defences, things are terribly bad here

You want us to defend your lands and abandon ours?

Don’t get the wrong idea, my point is even with much defences and endless forces, defending isn’t going to work

I knew dealing with smart people was quite tiring. They could easily see through many tricks and easily jump over terrible conclusions.

But I wasn’t lying or trying to bluff him. Even with my kingdom’s defences and armies, we still were going to be crushed.

Do you imply that you will even retreat inside your lands? He finally got what I meant.

That’s a loss indeed, but it’s a must to have one

Why? We have the alternative to fight, search far and wide for these bastards’ dens and crash them without risking anything

Tsk! Why are you suddenly acting like that warmonger? I sighed, Here are things you don’t know…

I started to give him a brief of the grand zombie lying in defence at the southern ocean. At the same time, I told him that I tried to fight and couldn’t leave a single scratch over that behemoth’s body.

After I explained how futile fighting or adopting his naive plan, he went into silence for a few minutes. I knew he was frustrating, I was too. But there was no other option but this.

What’s your plan then? Fang asked this after five minutes of silence.

Going all out, fighting over all fronts

Either crush all and live as the only king or end up defeated and lose everything?

Smart! my face cracked and showed a simple smile that surely wasn’t anything like it.

Is there any other option?

If so, do you think I won’t adapt it before going all crazy?

Fine! I’ll retreat with all, abandon the southern continents and lands… However after all this is done, I want ten times the lost lands as compensation

Ten folds? Why won’t you ask for half of my seat then? I scoffed, Don’t be greedy. The most I can do is give you double

Nine times our lost lands then

This isn’t a bargain! If you want more, join my crusade and accomplish great deeds. This way, you can have even more than ten folds!

Agreed! Wait for me until I arrive then

Time waits for no one, and I’ll start my plan right away

Can’t you wait for a few days?

Not a single day. Just come fast and be ready to join blood fights the moment you’ll arrive

I closed the chat and felt quite amused. This Fang got clues about what I meant earlier. Going all out didn’t include fighting zombies only. I thought and recalled that his information network was something praiseworthy.

He must have caught wind with the presence of Hescos here. It would be great if he knew where others were, but at least he’d know about their presence in the northern lands.

The most interesting part was his lack of hesitation to ask for a refund. It looked like he was sure of my victory, despite all the odds.

pan,da-n0v el That was interesting. Why was he this confident about this? Even my close friends weren’t!

As I closed the chat with him, I got time to start my big plans.

And as any grand performance required a speech in the start, I selected a name and sent a message over.

Hey bro, I hope you are still living well

Did you think about what I told you earlier?

Sure, tell these Hescos next to you this short message: You dared to invade my home, so I’m going to invade yours right away

The one I contacted with none other than Wryly. I knew about his dire situation right now. The Hescos were indeed unstoppable by any race, not in such early stages of the apocalypse.

So taking control over the Berserkers was indeed an easy feat for them. And it wasn’t strange though. Despite Berserkers were famous for their lust for fights, they were nothing compared with the mighty Hescos.

Even dragons and Selvators wouldn’t be of match to any of them. I sent this message over so I could stir the still water and even muddy it.

I didn’t plan to keep my actions hidden. I wanted them to know so they’d grow restless and decide to come to me here.

If not, then I’d simply bring chaos to their worlds. And they knew I’d do that. Or else, why would they fetch teams here, trying to burn my garden while I was away?

Cleaning this world from their presence was a must. At least those residing in the northern American continent had to be killed.

Wryly went into utter silence after that. And I didn’t expect any answer from him to be honest. I just wanted him to deliver a message, and I was sure he was watching forty-eight seven to make sure he wouldn’t leak any important news or secrets.

However when I was about to return and meet the expedition generals to set plans and tactics, I got a message from him.

Don’t act ahead of yourself. You are a mere useless human with nothing but a backing from such a cowardly race as the Toranks!

Once I read these words, I knew this message wasn’t sent by Wryly. One of the Hescos must be taking care of threatening me.

But did he think just by using empty threats like this I’d back off? Humph! Childish thinking!

If you have the power, then come and stop me I didn’t close the chat and waited in amusement for the next message he’d send.

You take my sincere advice as empty words? Interesting! I’ll promise you this, none will kill you. In return, I’ll make sure to capture you alive, imprison your soul for tens of thousands of years. Aside from agony and torturing your pathetic soul, I’ll show you every single victory we’ll have against those pussy-like backers of yours

Hahahaha! Empty threats, all you have is just empty threats, hahahaha!

We’ll see about that! Pretty soon, I promise you!