Apocalypse King: Recruiting S-Tier Beauties With My Ruler System Chapter 35: Dragged into a warm bed!?

I didn't aim for the monster's heart, though I suppose it didn't have one.

My spear plunged into the zombie's neck once again, the sa spot from before. My right thigh scread as it cramped and nearly gave out on my mid-lunge. The pain beca sharp enough to make groan. But I focused, locking my shoulder and the spear in place before twisting my hips and growled back.

The spear pierced through the horror's throat completely, a clean penetration.

It tore through the weakened flesh, splitting it apart like grilled at as I felt the cartilage tearing. My body sank, the blade hitting sothing hard montarily before the spear plunged even deeper, after a snap echoed.

"Die!"

The brute released a sound that I'll never be able to forget, sothing between a boiling kettle and a squealing pig. Its arms flailed in frenzy, missing my face by inches. One claw almost scraped my ribs, but the muscles tore apart and lost their strength.

'What... it's not dead?'

I grunted before yanking the spear out, spurting blood over my face.

The zombie's head swayed to the side as if its spine had turned into jelly. Despite this, it was still trying to crawl forward, dragging its deford legs across the gravel, almost desperate to bite .

Too big to avoid easily, I staggered to the side and dragged the spear over my shoulder. I struggled to control my body, with a heavy ache in my abdon, searing pain in my right thigh and a broken left arm. But I could keep fighting, just enough...

I placed my foot on its back, the soft, sticky flesh still steaming, almost glueing itself to my boot as I sucked in a deep breath of cool air, trying to brace myself.

"Haa....Haa...."

I raised the spear over my head once again and glared at the deford mutant. Its remaining eye slowly blinked at , and deep inside, I saw a glimr of intelligence, but there was no fear or emotion.

It just observed , an eerie and maddening stare.

Then, with one last breath, I brought the spear down, not like a spear but a hamr, brutally penetrating the brute without care for my current state.

Whack—! The tip penetrated the zombie's eye and pierced through the back of its skull with a low pop. A low gurgle reverberated from the monster's stomach as its body jerked like soone suffering a seizure.

"Grrrrraaaaaahh!" The monster howled, drawing the remaining dozen zombies closer.

Before it collapsed and... stopped.

No more noise.

No longer breathing.

Only the soft hissing from the still-burning flesh and the distant sound of zombies shambling towards remained as I panted, dropping to my knee from exhaustion.

'This isn't sothing I could do daily...'

My gaze remained on the incoming zombies while I stood swaying from side to side. Unable to stay focused, I almost collapsed. Blood dripped from my left hand and down the shaft of my spear.

"Damn it..."

Then I collapsed, beside my kill... this ti I defeated stage two alone. It slled horrible, like trash left in the sun for too long and caused my eyes and nose to burn, but I couldn't escape or move.

Ti almost felt slower as I gazed at the big bastard, side by side, like rivals who'd fought a duel to the death in so ancient arena.

And I was the one still breathing.

Barely...

In a mont of clarity, my hand dug into the zombie's broken skull, the milky red sphere glowing with an eerie hue.

Sothing about the ball called out to , different from the speed-type stage two zombie, which was green... this one felt like it was mine. And I felt a strange sense of hunger just looking at it.

Hiss—the monster's flesh was hot and made my hand sting. But the mont I touched the red orb, it beca cool. It felt like a gust of cold air brushed over my body when I grasped the glass orb with throbbing red veins inside.

At least it felt like a small crystal or glass orb.

"Grrr..."

"Arrr..."

The zombies approached closer than before, but my mind was dull and hazy after being thrown around by this dead lump. I struggled to recover myself, and a stupid yet strange idea seeped into my mind.

'Swallow the orb.'

'Accept the power!'

Because I closed the system panels after my evolution during the fight and couldn't snap out of this strange trance, and placed the orb to my lips. Sohow, it wasn't dirty, even though I had crushed the zombie's skull—it carried the scent of strawberries and wine.

Gulp—Instantly, my throat beca hot.

A searing feeling as if I had swallowed a bowl of burning coal, causing to grip my neck and squeeze while rapidly breathing through my nose as if the cold air might help cool the burning sensation.

"Ngh... damn it's burning my insides..."

The system ntioned that these orbs were better for zombies, but I couldn't stop myself. I wanted to be stronger. This orb was mine, and nobody would take it from . It was precious. My precious!

Clack—! The sound of sothing opening echoed behind . I couldn't turn around because the heat was blowing my mind. I could feel my veins throbbing, pulsing visibly under my flesh as if filled with glue or sothing sticky clogging them up.

"John! What's happening!?"

A cold... comfortable pair of hands grabbed ... but the words it said were jumbled, and I could only hear the hissing and ringing of bells in my head.

"Damn it! You're burning up and your pupils are dilated, hey, wake up!"

Her cold hands slapped my face twice.

The soothing sensation dispelled the heat for a few monts before she vanished... I heard the thud of several things hitting the floor and in my hazy vision I saw long brown hair and a huge ass bouncing across the car park.

'Ah... it's an angel.'

"John... oi, what's going on... wake up! Damn it..."

Feeling light-headed, I let out a long, grumbling sigh as the scorching heat in my body dispersed. In a mont of complete bliss and listening to the soft voice of the angel who ca to my aid, everything went black.

***

[Red Orb successfully absorbed: 0.2 Physique, 0.3 Strength]

▼ Killed a Brute-Type Stage Two

2000 ZKP

500 Experience (First Ti Bonus)

1000 ZKP (First Ti Bonus)

The sound of the system awoke . Groggy from sleep, I rolled over on the warm bed. Wait... a comfortable bed? My brain took a mont to wake up full as I examined the room with a dull aching throb in all of my muscles.

"It feels like I've done an intense full-body workout two days in a row..."

Clack! A noise sounded in the room across from before I heard bare feet slapping against laminate flooring. The next mont, Jiang Roulan rushed towards while wearing an almost see-through black nightgown.

"What..."

'She was hiding so huge..."

Before I could focus, she slamd into and grabbed my shoulders and shook .

"John? Are you alright? You were burning up all night... and I couldn't find any dicine in my draws so had to break into my neighbour's and—!" Her breathing beca disturbed as she stopped for a mont, huffing and panting.

"Roulan... stop, you're going to kill !"

The pain jolted through my body when she gripped my left arm, though she seed to have treated it with the bandages and numb sensation. I didn't think it would heal for a day or two unless I bought sothing from the system shop.

"Ah, yeah... sorry. I was just a little stressed and couldn't sleep."

When I gazed out the window, the sun still wasn't up, and so I shook my head. Thankfully, phones still worked right now, so I pulled out my phone to ssage Mu Qinglan.

"Huh, what the hell?"

"What's the matter?" Jiang Roulan asked, while leaning into my phone, before "Oh my god..."

She reacted like that because of my slightly cracked screen showing an interesting notification:

[Mu Qinglan: 22 Missed Calls, 50 Unread ssages]