Absolute Dweller-Chapter 195

The capital city of Heilongjiang Province, a sub-provincial city—Harbin.

Before the monsters appeared, it was a megacity with nearly 10 million inhabitants.

Yet, by the time monsters emerged worldwide, Harbin’s living population had already dropped to zero.

The reason?

On that fateful day, a single entity descended upon Harbin.

A being that rejected death, trampled over life, and ascended to divinity.

Its arrival turned a city of 10 million into a legion of 10 million undead.

Thus, unlike most ruined cities, Harbin bore few signs of destruction.

Instead, the entire metropolis had fallen into a foreboding silence.

It was neither alive nor dead.

The city mirrored its master.

At its center—

Rattle.

The sound of bones shifting echoed through the still air.

A body composed entirely of white bone.

Hollow, empty eye sockets.

Though it looked fragile at first glance, the skeletal figure emanated an air of indifference.

Its empty gaze was fixed—toward the south.

It felt it.

A massive surge of power pulsing from the south.

Simultaneously, it sensed the shattering of countless entities, the very ones that had been feeding it life force.

......

It stood motionless, its gaze locked in place.

Then—

Swoooooosh—!

A sinister aura swirled around it, and three figures emerged.

Clank.

A Death Knight, clad in jet-black full plate armor, gripping a longsword.

A Lich, draped in white robes, holding a staff of ancient design.

A Reaper, garbed in gray, wielding a colossal black scythe.

Each of these terrifying existences turned to confirm their master’s gaze, then slowly followed it southward.

A brief silence.

Then—

Whoosh.

All three figures vanished like mirages.

And the moment they disappeared—

Boom!

The undead legions, which had been spreading outward from Harbin, suddenly froze in place.

Then—

Step—

As one, they began marching southward.

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The horde, which had been expanding into Russia, Mongolia, and deeper into China,

Pivoted.

Now, their path was set.

South.

And at the center of Harbin,

The hollow, skeletal figure’s expressionless eye sockets curved into the shape of a crescent moon.

***

[Tranquil Mind has activated.]

For a moment, I simply stared, observing the aftermath through Absolute Eye.

Fwooooosh.

Burning ground and charred trees.

A landscape overturned by the shockwave of the explosion.

Everything had been altered in a single strike.

‘This is several kilometers away from the impact zone...’

Yet, even at this distance, the destruction was immense.

Pure, unrelenting devastation.

As I took it all in—

"Uuugh."

The Avatar groaned, regaining consciousness.

Its body was in terrible condition.

One arm was completely broken, a fractured bone protruding outward.

Both legs were twisted in unnatural directions.

Vwooom.

Realizing its state, I immediately infused it with World Tree’s life force and used telekinesis to snap the limbs back into place.

Crack.

"AAAAAGHHH!!"

The Avatar shrieked, then passed out again.

Which, honestly, made my job easier.

‘Why do I feel like I’m the one in pain?’

Of course, I wasn’t actually sharing its pain.

I had the ability to toggle the Avatar’s sensory input—

Right now, I had it completely blocked.

Crack. Snap!

Once the bones were realigned, the World Tree’s life force surged into the wounds, accelerating the healing process.

Fortunately—

The Avatar possessed one of Oh Eon-ju’s passive skills, [Ancient Vitality].

[Ancient Vitality]—a passive that increased natural regeneration proportionally to the severity of the wounds.

Thanks to that, the Avatar’s body rapidly absorbed the World Tree’s energy, recovering in record time.

A while later—

"Ugh."

The Avatar shuddered, then began checking itself.

Then, muttering to itself—

"Felt like I just had a nightmare..."

Even after everything it endured,

I still had one more favor to ask.

[How are you feeling? You okay?]

The Avatar stretched, testing its movements.

"I think I’m fine. Why?"

[I need to gauge the full impact. Can you move back into the air?]

The Avatar’s expression hardened.

"What... exactly was that just now?"

[I enhanced the iron sphere before using it.]

"Enhanced? And that alone made it this strong?"

[I didn’t expect it to be this powerful either.]

The Avatar was silent for a moment before speaking.

"So, does that mean... as long as we enhance them, we can keep unleashing explosions like that?"

[Probably not. The enhancement results are random. We just got lucky this time.]

"I see... In that case, we should check the explosion’s center. If anything’s left, we should retrieve it."

[Good idea.]

"Alright, I’m going."

Strangely enough, the rain had stopped where the Avatar was standing.

Maybe it was due to the shockwave,

Or just coincidental timing.

Either way—

Fwoosh—

The Avatar ascended, granting me an unobstructed view of the devastation below.

Seeing the wreckage firsthand, the Avatar let out a low whistle—

"Hooo...."

The impact site was instantly recognizable.

A massive crater, flames raging, and scattered, uprooted trees formed a ring around it.

From the terrain, it was clear—there had once been a mountain here.

Now?

Not even a trace of it remained.

The landscape itself had been rewritten.

The Avatar stood in stunned silence, then finally spoke.

"I'll head to the center."

[...Go ahead.]

Swish—

The Avatar teleported to the heart of the blast zone, and through Absolute Eye, I immediately sensed the lingering heat waves.

Activating defensive aura, the Avatar searched for any remains of the iron sphere.

But—

"No luck. It’s completely gone."

[That’s unfortunate.]

I had hoped that the reinforced durability and the [Auto Repair] skill from +5 would allow it to survive, but—

Apparently, it wasn’t strong enough to withstand its own impact.

Despite the loss, it was well worth the investment.

One strike had altered the battlefield entirely.

Even the Ice Dragon I had seen before—

It had flown with the size of a mountain, but now, knowing that this sphere had erased an actual mountain—

It wasn’t impossible to kill it with this.

‘The ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) real issue is the probability of getting [Impact Fuze] again.’

The exact odds were unknown, but the fact that I got it on the first enhancement suggested it wasn’t too rare.

I’d have to experiment further.

Regardless, the Iron Sphere Meteor was going to see frequent use.

The undead army’s advance wasn’t stopping anytime soon, so I’d need to periodically thin their numbers.

‘The failures can just be used for general bombardment.’

But—

This time, I may have overdone it.

This wasn’t just thinning their numbers—it was wiping out an entire sector.

I hadn’t just cut down the enemy’s advance; I had created a complete void.

An entire mountain and all the undead within its range were gone.

This gap in the horde’s formation would even be felt at the frontlines.

‘Well, it’s fine. A break in combat isn’t a bad thing.’

Meanwhile—

The artillery barrages were still ongoing.

And my wallet was growing in real time.

Checking the Absolute Dweller’s balance,

My total funds had once again surpassed the trillion mark.

Even a rough estimate showed that I had earned over 800 billion won.

And that was in just 10 minutes.

But even more important than the money—

Was the growth of my Absolute Territory.

As my level increased, the expansion rate of my territory had become significantly larger.

After fully absorbing Changwon, my domain was still expanding.

With this latest level-up, my secondary safe zone in Seoul had completely engulfed Incheon and Paju.

And now, it was approaching the Imjin River, where Lee Joon-hyuk was engaged in battle.

Vwooom.

The expansion halted—the level-up process complete.

‘This opens up Plan B.’

Plan A had been to establish a new DMZ using outposts and territory holdings.

A defensive line could be built, utilizing fortified zones to control the undead's advance.

However, there had been issues.

For one, Oh Eon-ju and Ha Dong-geon already held major territories.

Until their domains were fully integrated into Absolute Territory, they couldn’t acquire new lands.

The only available lands were Viscount and Baron territories,

But a Baron’s land only had a 1km radius—too inefficient for large-scale defense.

‘The idea was to block key locations and link them into a coordinated defense.’

But—

The artillery battalion's performance had exceeded all expectations.

And now, at level 41, the territory expansion rate had surged.

‘It might be better to turn the gunners into vassals instead.’

Right now, regular citizens gained three times the EXP and settlement funds compared to me.

But if only vassals were allowed to fire the guns, that multiplier would jump to 9x.

‘No need to hesitate.’

These soldiers may have been unawakened,

This chapt𝙚r is updated by freeωebnovēl.c૦m.

But their self-propelled artillery was more destructive than most awakened combatants.

And I intended to keep training them.

Fortunately, the requirements for vassal registration weren’t strict.

As long as someone entered the system and acknowledged me as their lord,

Gaining the necessary loyalty and trust was easy.

The proof?

All the soldiers already met the conditions.

I started by registering Alpha Battery’s gunners as vassals.

All three batteries—Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie—each operated 10 howitzers,

But Alpha Battery was by far the most devastating.

It was the only unit where [Multiplying Shells] applied to all 10 guns simultaneously.

With their new vassal status, every soldier awakened a special ability—

Though none were particularly outstanding.

That was expected.

What mattered was—

[You have hunted a Corrupted Corpse (Lv. 23).]

[You have hunted a Corrupted Corpse (Lv. 22).]

[You have hunted a Corrupted Corpse (Lv. 29).]

......

......

[61,099,232,477 won has been deposited into the Absolute Dweller’s wallet.]

Now, every time Alpha Battery fired, I earned 600 billion won.

‘Good.’

As I continued registering more soldiers,

A new system notification appeared.

[Your number of vassals has reached 100.]

[A new Vassal Corps System has been unlocked.]

A new mechanic had just been activated.