I Awakened The Ancient Vampire System

Chapter 76: Chapter 76: The Shopping Center

The industrial zone revealed itself in layers.

Beyond the residential blocks, the streets widened. Warehouses replaced apartment buildings. Factories with collapsed roofs loomed against the grey sky. The zombie density shifted — fewer normal zombies, more movement in the shadows that suggested something faster.

Lucian spotted the first Neophyte zombie inside a warehouse loading bay. It had been a woman once. Now its skin was mottled grey-green, its muscles bulging with unnatural density. It moved at a sprint — not the shambling gait of normal infected, but a predator’s run.

Early Neophyte. Maybe ten times stronger than a normal zombie.

Lucian met it head-on. The Moon Shattering Blade came down in a diagonal arc. The zombie raised its arms to block. The sword shattered both forearms and continued into its skull.

+50 EXP. Kill count: 213 normal, 1 Neophyte.

More appeared. Three Late Neophyte zombies emerged from a side street, moving in a loose pack. They flanked from three angles simultaneously.

"Mine," Clara said.

Ice walls erupted from the ground, cutting off two of the three flanking routes. The third zombie leaped over the wall. Clara caught it mid-air with Psychokinesis and slammed it into the pavement. The impact cracked the stone.

Rose stepped forward before the other two could reroute. Her Aegis ability activated — not a barrier this time, but a concentrated force pulse that hit both zombies like an invisible truck. They flew backward into a collapsed storefront.

Lucian finished them with two quick strikes.

Kill count: 215 normal, 4 Neophyte.

They pushed deeper into the industrial zone. The buildings grew larger. A shopping center came into view — a massive structure with shattered glass facades and a collapsed parking structure leaning against its eastern wall.

Inside, the zombies were thick. Normal ones shambled between overturned kiosks and broken escalators. Neophyte variants lurked on the upper floors, visible through gaps in the ceiling tiles.

"Biggest cluster in the zone," Ryan said, checking his wrist display. "At least six hundred in there. Mix of normal and Neophyte."

They cleared it methodically. Floor by floor. Lucian led with the Moon Shattering Blade, each swing carving through multiple zombies. Clara controlled the upper floors with ice and Psychokinesis. Rose funneled zombies into kill zones with force barriers. Ryan and Lumina handled stragglers.

By sunset, the shopping center was silent.

Night fell. They set up in an intact warehouse near the industrial district’s edge. Rose activated her barrier — a dome of translucent blue force that covered the entire building. Nothing was getting in without breaking through A-Rank defense.

Lucian checked his bracelet. Normal: 422. Neophyte: 56.

Total group kills for day one exceeded 1500. Arthur’s team had probably done more in the city center, but Lucian wasn’t thinking about rankings. At least not yet.

Clara sat against a wall, cleaning ice residue from her gauntlets. Rose was already asleep, her barrier humming softly around them. Ryan reviewed data on his wrist display with Lumina curled on his lap.

"Factory cluster hasn’t moved," Ryan said. "The Core Realm zombie is staying put inside the main building. All the other zombies seem to be avoiding that area."

"Territorial," Lucian said. "Core Realm variants establish dominance zones. Other zombies instinctively stay clear."

"Or it’s controlling them."

Lucian considered that. The Hive King in Vienne City had controlled zombies through a mental link. If this Core Realm zombie had similar abilities, the factory cluster wouldn’t just be a physical threat.

"We deal with it tomorrow," Clara said. "Get rest."

Day two. The shopping center’s deeper levels yielded more Neophyte zombies — Mid and Late realm variants. Lucian fought a Mid Neophyte that could harden its skin like stone. Three Moon Shattering Blade strikes to crack the armor, then a Blood Needle Rain through the gaps.

Kill count: 512 normal, 89 Neophyte.

The afternoon brought the shopping center’s parking structure. A Peak Neophyte zombie waited on the top level — a former security guard, now a hulking mass of grey muscle and calcified bone armor. It was eight feet tall. Its fists were the size of sledgehammers.

Lucian told the others to stay back.

He approached the zombie on the cracked concrete rooftop. Wind blew through the collapsed sections. Grey clouds rolled overhead.

The zombie charged. Fast. Faster than anything Lucian had fought in the residential blocks. Its fist came down like a meteor.

Light Steps.

Lucian repositioned three meters left. The fist cratered the ground where he’d stood. He was already swinging — Crescent Moon Slash. The mana arc extended a full meter beyond the Moon Shattering Blade’s edge, a crescent of white light that cut across the zombie’s torso.

The calcified armor cracked. Black blood sprayed.

The zombie roared. Swung again.

Phantom Walk. Lucian flickered through its guard and appeared behind it. Blood Needle Rain — forty crystallized needles materialized in the air and fired simultaneously. They punched through the cracked armor, embedding in the zombie’s back and neck.

It staggered. Turned.

Lucian was already mid-swing with a second Crescent Moon Slash. The arc caught the zombie across the throat. Calcified bone gave way. The head separated from the shoulders and hit the ground with a wet thud.

+200 EXP. Kill count: 524 normal, 90 Neophyte.

Quest Progress — Kill 200 Neophyte Zombies: 90/200.

Lucian cleaned the Moon Shattering Blade and walked back to the group. Clara raised an eyebrow.

"You’ve grown stronger," she said.

"Wasn’t that hard."

Clara smirked. "Show off."

By late afternoon, the group had pushed through the remaining commercial zones. About 1600 total kills across both days. Two hundred Neophyte zombies eliminated.

Then they found Marcus.

The Canadian from Sky High Academy was slumped against a wall near the factory district’s perimeter. His uniform was torn. Blood soaked his left side. One arm seemed broken.

His three teammates were nowhere in sight.

"Help," he croaked when he saw them. "Please. My team — we got ambushed near the factory. Peak Neophyte zombies. They’re dead. I barely got out."

Lucian looked down at him. The man who’d dare to eye Clara like meat.

Lucian’s expression was flat. "He’s not our problem."

Ryan adjusted his glasses. "Agreed. We have limited resources and a Core Realm zombie to deal with. Wasting time and supplies on someone from another academy doesn’t make strategic sense."

Marcus’s face went pale. "You can’t just leave me here—"

Clara stepped forward. "We’re not leaving him."

"Clara—"

"He’s wounded and he’ll die if we don’t help." Her crimson eyes were hard. "I don’t care what he said yesterday. He’s a person. We’re not animals."

Lucian stared at her. Clara stared back.

Ten seconds passed.

"Fine," Lucian said. "We stabilize him. Send him back to the command post. That’s it."

Clara nodded. She crouched beside Marcus and began freezing the worst of his wounds to slow the bleeding. Rose provided a barrier to keep any wandering zombies away while they worked.

Ryan watched with a neutral expression. When Lucian caught his eye, Ryan just shrugged slightly.

Twenty minutes later, Marcus was on his feet, arm in a makeshift sling, walking toward the command post with a written direction on a piece of paper.

"Thank you," he muttered to Clara as he left.

She didn’t respond.

Lucian checked his bracelet once Marcus was out of sight.

Normal: 688. Neophyte: 167.

Quest Progress — Kill 200 Neophyte Zombies: 167/200.

Quest Progress — Kill 1,000 Normal Zombies: 688/1,000.

"Thirty-three more Neophyte zombies," he said quietly. "Three hundred and twelve more normal ones."

"And one Core Realm," Clara added, looking toward the factory district. The main building’s smokestacks were visible against the darkening sky.

Ryan’s wrist display showed a dense red cluster inside that building. One thousand, one hundred and ninety-five zombies. One Core Realm. The rest a mix of Peak Neophyte and below.

Tomorrow, they’d go in.

Lucian sheathed the Moon Shattering Blade and looked at the factory one last time.

Early Core Realm. I’ve beaten Peak Neophyte zombies solo. An Early Core zombie shouldn’t be that different.

He turned and walked back toward the warehouse.

Rose’s barrier hummed softly in the gathering dark.