Chapter 23: Corpse Unification

For evolution, efficiency was as important as strength. What was the use of expelling undead from the horde if one could devour them and get stronger?

Blaze smiled as he watched Breaker fill its stomach. Despite being focused on defense, Breaker had no issues tearing through the walkers. Soon, their limbs and rotten blood were scattered everywhere.

Do I look this disgusting while eating?

[Entry #6: Brute-class has been added to the encyclopedia.]

Blaze ignored the unnecessary prompt. The undead encyclopedia was perhaps the most useless function he had awakened. Its only function was to register the class of new zombies Blaze came across.

Breaker was the sixth class he found, after walkers, crawlers, ghouls, a bloater, the form David turned into, and mutant rodent, i.e. Fester.

This function, however, is something worth trying.

Corpse Unification.

A simple yet boundless function.

Necroseed couldn't turn mutilated corpses into zombies. That severely limited its use case. The Corpse Unification function existed to undo the said limitations.

No. It goes beyond that.

Blaze thought, ordering Breaker to step aside as he wanted to use the skill. Breaker grumbled and refused to move. Since it was new to the horde, Breaker wasn't loyal to the master like Fester.

Blaze raised his eyebrow, impressed by Breaker's guts.

Did you forget who killed you? Looks like I was too lenient since you were the first to receive my seed.

Claws popped out of Blaze's hands, and he walked toward the rowdy child. Breaker saw a threat and immediately reacted, thumping his chest. But the next second it relaxed, its arms falling to the side.

Blaze didn't attack Breaker, he didn't have to. The rules of the horde were enough to put him in place.

No horde member can attack the horde master.

The moment Breaker turned its arms toward Blaze, the system triggered a response in the undead's mind. Breaker lost control of his limbs and was essentially in a coma until Blaze lifted the curse.

However, Blaze wasn't in a hurry to do that. Leaving Breaker standing like a statue, he turned his gaze towards the remains of both human and undead, noticing something strange.

Do you like the taste of rot more?

Blaze asked Breaker. Unlike the walkers, who ate a good chunk of human flesh, Breaker had stayed away from it, preferring to eat the walkers instead. It was almost like Breaker was after the zombies' nuclei.

Blaze laughed, patting Breaker's shoulder. The poor guy was just reanimated and already wanted to evolve. No, it wanted to get stronger, perhaps to take revenge.

It would seem Breaker kept some memories from back when he was a human. Since Darnell died because he was weak, he wanted to get stronger, even though he was a zombie now.

Looks like I have a challenger for my position.

The next second, Blaze backhanded Breaker. Its lower jaw got shattered by Blaze's claws as the latter yanked it closer.

Get that ridiculous thought out of your mind. Or else, you won't just lose a jaw next time.

"Roar!"

After saying his piece, Blaze kicked the creature away, undoing the system-induced paralysis. Yet, Breaker didn't dare move from its spot. Slowly but surely, the undead realized his place in the horde. Its purpose was to serve, not to lead.

With any chance of a coup out of the way, Blaze reverted his attention to the human corpses. One had nothing below its waist, while the other only had its legs left behind. Everything else had been devoured.

But Blaze still smiled. After all, it was the perfect scenario to test the [corpse unification] function.

A massive screen appeared before him. It showed three sections. One for each corpse and a bigger slot in the middle. Below the slots, two options shone brightly.

[Manual Assembly] and [Auto Assembly].

Blaze scratched his chin, an old habit that had followed him through the gates of reanimation. Sensing his confusion, the system eagerly stepped up to help.

[Manual assembly can create unique zombie forms, but has a higher failure rate.]

[Auto assembly has a higher success rate, but cannot create unique forms. It can only create forms already listed in the Undead Encyclopedia.]

I see.

In simple terms, Blaze could create never-before-seen zombies from scratch via manual assembly. Hence, the higher failure rates. While Auto assembly was a sure-shot way of creating undead.

For a moment, Blaze wondered if he should use the girl's corpse from his vault. She had some missing organs and stuff, so it would be the perfect experiment.

No. It's too soon for that.

[Corpse Unification] was a function he hadn't used before. That's why trying it out of valuable corpses would be reckless, even for him. The skill needed to be tested before. Once he was confident in his abilities, he could use it as he pleased.

It's not like I have a shortage of test subjects.

Blaze looked around. There were a lot of body parts discarded around them. Plenty for him to use both manual and auto assemblies.

Evolution is a truly perilous venture.

He smiled and selected the manual assembly first.

+++

[Analyzing subjects…]

[Scavenging remains…]

[Dissecting subjects…]

[Special trait(s) found: eagle eyes, firm arms.]

[Negative trait(s) found: limp legs, disjoint bones.]

[Assembly might lead to the following weaknesses:]

— Poor mobility.

— Low muscle strength.

— Fragile bone structure.

Suggested gaining better materials and re-crafting.

Proceed anyway?

[Yes/No]

+++

Blaze's will didn't waver for a second. He wasn't scared of failure or he would have selected the auto assembly option.

Yes.

The corpses got dismembered right before his eyes. Their limbs, organs, and everything were pulled apart, ready to be put together again. Honestly, Blaze hadn't felt such a level of excitement in a long, long time.

However, that excitement didn't last long. He had barely started assembling his first creation when a disheartening message appeared before him.

[Integration progress report: Failure.]

[No material remaining.]

Fuck!

Blaze wasn't afraid of failure, but that didn't mean he couldn't get disheartened. Honestly, he was more pissed that the material he used was gone than he was about the failure.

Auto assembly… let's see what it does.

He quickly selected what remained of the walkers and hit [Auto Assembly]. This time he didn't get any information regarding the corpses' condition and all. The system was taking care of it all.

[Integration progress report: Success.]

[Subject: Merged Crawler LK#009 was created.]