Charles turo them. He pulled out his own pistol and held it out. “Here. Take it a on the wall.”

  A heavy silence fell over the group. No oepped forward to take the on. They wao be armed, but none of them were brave enough to face the danger head-on. Charles shook his head in disgust, pocketed the pistol, and climbed the wall himself, rifle in hand.

  Zack had left behind small-caliber rifles and submae guns during his st supply run. While these ons were far from ideal, they were all the defenders had to hold the line against the zombie horde.

  “Steady your aim!” Charles barked as he fired round after round, each shot finding its mark. Despite his age, his precision was remarkable, with every bullet striking a zombie’s head.

  “When I was a soldier, if I missed a shot from this range, my squad leader would’ve had my hide,” he muttered to himself, his voice carrying a mix of pride and grit. The acrid smell of gunpowder filled the air, dragging memories of his military days to the surface. But there was no time to dwell on the past. The zombies kept ing, and the worst was yet to arrive.

  The wave surged forward, a dark, seething mass of the uhat stretched as far as the eye could see. Even the most seasoned defenders froze at the sight, their hands trembling as they reloaded.

  “It’s over… we’re done for!” someone shouted, their voice crag with despair.

  Charles ched his teeth, his heart pounding in his chest. “Don’t panic!” he called out, though the strain in his voice betrayed his own fear. He stared out at the approag swarm, realizing just how badly he had uimated the scale of this attack. This was unlike anything he’d seen before. Hundreds of thousands of zombies surged toward them, unstoppable—and this was just the beginning. The real horde, millions strong, was still out there, bearing down oy.

  A terrified scream snapped him back to reality. “Charles! Help me!”

  He turo see a group of mutated zombies breaking through, their speed and strength overwhelming the defenders. Small-caliber bullets barely slowed them down. The wall was starting to colpse.

  A loud thud sounded behind Charles, snapping his attention away from the fight. He spun around, eyes widening at the sight of a massive meical spider decorated with cartoonish designs. From ihe mae, a voice called out, “Grandpa! We’re here to help!” It was Annie.

  “Annie!” Charles excimed, his worry momentarily repced with relief as she piloted the mecha closer. Standing over three meters tall, the spider-like mae darted forward with surprising speed. It reached the wall, leaping effortlessly over it and nding with a crash, immediately blog the advang zombie horde. With fluid precision, its twin meical arms lifted, unleashing a torrent of mae-gun fire that tore through the undead. Despite its enormous size, the mech moved gracefully, almost like a gymnast, belying its close-to-a-to.

  Though spider-like in appearahe mecha walked upright on two legs, with its other limbs verted into highly funal arms. Its design gave it an almost human-like stance. Charles’s deepened when he realized Annie iloting the armor herself. “Annie! Get back here! It’s too dangerous!” he shouted, his voice ced with fear. Seeing her alone on the frontlines made his chest tighten with worry.

  “Don’t wrandpa—I’m not alone,” she replied with calm fidence.

  Heavy footsteps echoed from behind, catg Charles’s attention agaiuro see another familiar figure in exoskeleton armor—MV-01—apanied by five more spider-shaped robots marg in formation.

  “Sir Zack?!” he called out, hoping it was Zack who had arrived to back them up.

  Annie’s voice quickly corrected him. “Grandpa, that’s not my brother—it’s Sister Sophia!” she said, revealing the ued ally.

  As it turned out, before Zack left, he had given Sophia permission to use the MV-01 armor for self-defense. Now, Sophia and Annie had brought the entire spider squad from the mansion to reinforce Charles and his group.

  “Charles, leave this to us! You and your team fall back to the sed line of defense,” Sophia ordered, her voice steady despite the chaos. She stood atop the wall, gripping a heavy mae gun in one hand and a belt of ammunition iher, spraying bullets at the undead with practiced precision.

  Realizing the ptform was too crowded for everyoo fight effectively, Charles nodded and rallied his group. “Everyone, retreat to the sed line! Move to the factory roof!” he anded, leading his team away toward a ring of barbed wire they had set up as a st-resort defense.

  “Spiders, bat mode—activate!” Sophia anded as Charles and his group retreated. The meical spiders immediately deployed onto the wall’s ptform, log their light mae guns onto the advang horde. In perfectly coordinated bursts, they unleashed waves of bullets, each bot firing until its magazine was empty. When one side of the gun ran out, they rotated to use their sedary ons, ensuring stant firepower.

  Sophia, still adjusting to the MV-01 armor, struggled slightly with the recoil of her heavy mae gun. “Annie, how do I fix the force feedba this suit? My arms are going numb!” she called out over the .

  “Sister Sophia, the MV-01 doesn’t have force feedback!” Annie replied, sounding amused even in the chaos.

  From her position on the ground, Annie fired relentlessly at the zombie swarm closing in. But uhers who saw a horrifying, bloodthirsty mob, Annie’s view was entirely different. In her eyes, the zombies appeared like characters from a video game—cartoonish and exaggerated. Each shot she fired brought up effects like “MISS” or “Headshot!” above her targets. It was Zack’s doing—he had desighe interface for Annie’s mech to shield her from the battlefield’s grim reality, turning it into something pyful aerrifying.

  Annie smiled softly, reizing her brother’s effort to protect her in his own way. “Sister,” she called out to Sophia through the , her voice carrying a teasing tone, “do you like my brother? Because I do—I always have.”

  Sophia chuckled, assuming Annie was just being lighthearted. “Be careful, Annie! If it gets too crazy, fall back to the wall!”

  Sophia kept firing, the meical dog beside her barking as it unched a volley of miissiles into the horde. Explosions tore through the undead, scattering limbs and blood everywhere. The gruesome sight almost made Sophia gag, but Annie remained focused, unbothered as she calmly tiaking her shots.

  When her clip ray, Annie switched tactics. Bdes extended from her mech’s arms, and she charged headfirst into the horde, slig through the undead with precision and ease. “e on, Sister! Join me!” she shouted, her excitement evident. Every kill added to her score on the HUD, with cheerful notifications like “+100 points” popping up in the er of her dispy.

  “Aay focused!” Sophia’s tourned serious. Just then, a chilling warning echoed over the .

  Annie gnced up and froze. Charging toward her was a massive, monstrous zombie t over everything else otlefield. Her HUD beled it as a “Boss.”