Kahe man who’d taken charge of the Imperial Capital Base, barely had time to enjoy his newfound power. His dream of ruling like a king was shattered by grim news: a massive zombie horde was heading straight for them. It had started small. A regur zombie wave, nothing they hadn’t seen before. But this one didn’t stop. Every city it passed through swelled its ranks, turning it into an unstoppable, ever-growing force. What had started as a manageable threat was now a monstrous tide of death.

  The scale was beyond prehension. Satellite images showed an endless sea of zombies stretg as far as the eye could see. Even mutated zombies, numbering iens of millions, were just a fra of the total horde. The tsunami of zombies swept across the nd like a relentless, bck wave. Even the massive super zombie, powerful as a Juggernaut, was no more than a droplet in this dark o. “How... How could there be so many zombies!?” Kane’s voice trembled as he stared at the satellite images, his face pale with disbelief.

  Around him, the intelligence officers exged uneasy ghough some looked at him with thinly veiled pt, none dared let him notice. They had warned him days ago. Back then, the zombie tide was barely in the hundreds of thousands, not even close to a million. If it had been the old general in charge, he’d have taken decisive a—calling in bombers to obliterate the horde before it grew out of trol. But Kane wasn’t him.

  Kane’s priorities y elsewhere—parties, luxury, and turning the Imperial Capital base into his personal pace. He dismissed the early warnings, letting the zombie tide grow unchecked until it exploded into the disaster now staring him in the face. And now, a catastrophic super zombie horde threatened everything.

  Meanwhile, in NYC, Zack listened as Ego, his ever-reliable AI assistant, delivered a report. “Sir, we’ve intercepted unencrypted unications from several major survivor bases. The messages suggest—”

  “They want to uo pressure me, right?” Zaterrupted, already oep ahead.

  Ego paused briefly before tinuing. “Yes, Sir. They’re coordinating to—”

  “To what?” Zack cut in, a smirk f on his face. “They’re terrified of my space-based ons. None of them dare challenge me alone, scared I’ll wipe them off the map. So, what else they do but huddle together like scared children? A me guess—they’re plotting to get their hands on my tech, right?” His fidence was unshaken. “It’s not the space-based ons they hate. It’s the fact that I have them, and they don’t.”

  Ego firmed his assessment but issued a caution. “Sir, we shouldn’t uimate them. The Sky Air Defense System is robust, but it ’t shield NY ihreats. If they drop nuclear or dirty bombs on surrounding cities, the resulting ination would be catastrophic.”

  Zaodded, uanding the risks. “Nuclear pollution is a nasty problem. But that’s assuming they actually follow through.” He leaned back, a sly grin on his face. “I’ve got a pn to deal with them.”

  “Sir, the data suggests that preventing nuclear fallout from surrounding areas would be nearly impossible,” Ego pressed, its tone grave. “Even with our teology, the sedary effects would—”

  Zack cut it short. “Rex, Ego. I know how bad nuclear pollution be. But here’s the thing—if they ’t unicate, they ’t coordinate. Without that, their grand alliance falls apart like wet paper. So…” He leaned forward, his grin widening. “We’re pulling the plug. Activate it and take out every operational unication satellite in orbit.”

  Within moments, the space-based ptform sprang to life. High above Earth, sers and kiic warheads rained down with terrifying precision. Satellites in low-Earth orbit, geostationary positions, and everything iween were systematically obliterated. The dark void of space lit up as red beams sliced through the sky, and the debris of fallen satellites scattered like shooting stars. It’s area of ce was massive, enpassing nearly half the globe. By the time it was done, nearly every satellite on one side of the p was either destroyed or rendered inoperable. The few that survived, stu the opposite side of the Earth, were practically useless.

  Zack watched the results with satisfa. “No satellites, no guidano guidano missiles. It’s like trying to shoot a target while blindfolded.” He chuckled. “Good luck with that.”

  Elsewhere, several survivor fa leaders were already squabbling over the spoils of Zack’s downfall—spoils they hadn’t yet cimed. On their makeshift unicatiowork, their arguments grew increasingly heated. “Trinity Stronghold’s nuclear strike capability is unmatched. We deserve the rgest share!” boomed one voice.

  “Ha! You’re still ging to that outdated pn?” another leader from the Freehold federacy shot back. “Your submarines are rusting in some graveyard, and your missile range is a joke. You couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn!”

  The leader from Trinity Stronghold fired bagrily. “At least we’re not greedy like you Freehold sgers! We noble defenders of the Trinity should lead this operation!”

  Their bickering tinued, each side unwilling to back down. In their arroganone of them realized their unications were being systematically dismantled by Zack’s strike on their satellites.

  By the time the destru of unication satellites was plete, chaned among the so-called alliance. With no guidance systems, their nuclear capabilities were crippled, and their pns to pressure Zack fell apart.

  Sitting in his aer, Zack smiled at the irony. “They wao py games with me. Well, I just flipped the board.”

  A Few Hours Later In the basement of Mansion No. 6, Zack had finished setting up the high-energy particle accelerator for the creation of a new element—Singulium. “Okay, initializing the accelerator,” Zanounced, slipping on a pair of protective goggles. He pced a precision-engineered psma tai prism into the accelerator’s core chamber.

  The prism, a specialized tai vessel desigo stabilize superheavy isotopes during synthesis, adjusted its position automatically under Ego’s guidance. Absolute precision was essential, and Ego, his AI assistant, ehat every calcution was fwless. Zack stood by the sole, his hand h over the illumiart button. “Ego, status check.”

  “Sir, the particle accelerator is fully initialized and ready for activation,” Ego’s calm voice replied.

  Zack pressed the button without hesitation. The lights in the basement flickered briefly before stabilizing. A deep hum filled the room as the particle accelerator roared to life, its magic coils energizing to direct subatomic particles along the accelerator’s curved paths. Bright streams of ionized particles began their jourhrough the accelerator’s vacuum tubes, glowing faintly with high-energy emissions. “Begin particle collision,” Zaanded, gripping the manual override lever and pulling it down steadily.

  Ihe tai chamber, the accelerator directed streams of high-velocity oward the psma tai Cube. As they collided at nearly the speed of light, a dazzling cascade of energy erupted. The process created ditions simir to the core of a ron star—high enough te a superheavy element oheoretical isnd of stability. “Focus the beam,” Zack shouted, monit the fluctuating energy levels. The beam intensified, directed precisely onto the psma prism. The tai systems struggled to maintain iy, diverting excess thermal energy into the liquid-metal cooling system.