Leon sat on the edge of the bed, unmoving.
His elbows rested on his knees, hands hanging limp between them, fingers curled just enough to tremble. He wasn't thinking. Not really. The room had gone quiet, yet his ears rang with fragments of laughter—phantoms from the Awakening Hall.
His room had never felt this small.
A bed. A cracked mirror. A desk cluttered with notes he would never use again.
All of it pressed inward now, closing around him like a tomb.
He'd clung to one belief his entire life—that if he awakened a decent class, he could build a future, even if he had to fight for every inch of it.
That belief had died hours ago.
He closed his eyes.
"A Zombie Lord? Is that even real?""Might as well quit now.""Trash cleaning up trash."
His jaw clenched until his teeth ached.
They hadn't just laughed at him—they'd dismissed him. Reduced him to a joke. A shadow behind brighter names.
Leon looked up at his reflection.
The mirror was cracked, and the face looking back at him seemed... distant. Eyes ringed with fatigue. Hair unkempt. Skin pale.
A stranger.
"...Maybe they were right."
The words tasted like rust. Bitter. Unwanted. Real.
A hollow ache spread through his chest, deeper than shame, heavier than disappointment.
Was this it?
Would his life be written off before it even began?
Then—
Ding.
The sound struck through the silence like a knife.
Leon's back straightened instinctively.
His vision pulsed—blue light flooding his gaze. For a split second, reality stuttered.
Like the world had glitched.
A screen appeared in the air before him, faintly glowing, its edges sharp and clean. Unmoving. Unreal.
[System Detected… Initializing…][Zombie Lord System Activated][Beginner Summon Available]
Leon stared, frozen.
He blinked once. Twice.
The screen didn't vanish.
It wasn't like any necromancer interface he'd ever read about. There were no circles of binding. No chants. No ritual components. No crimson warnings from forbidden magic.
This wasn't magic.
It was programmed.
Structured. Cold. Precise.
His hand rose on its own, reaching toward the display—but stopped inches short. Hesitation gripped him.
What if it was another joke?
A glitch in the Orb. A final cruelty from a world that had already closed its doors to him.
But the interface waited. Patient. Silent.
The blue light washed across his face. And for the first time that day—he didn't feel judged.
A breath escaped his lips.
Hope tried to spark in his chest.
He crushed it.
Hope alone had never saved anyone.
Still, he needed to know what this was.
Leon touched the screen.
It responded instantly.
[Welcome, Zombie Lord. You have been chosen.]
The voice didn't echo in his ears. It rang through his mind—steady, emotionless, stripped of pity or mockery.
It spoke like truth.
More text flowed across the screen:
— Unlike traditional necromancers, your summoned undead are not mindless.— Zombies can gain experience, level up, and evolve.— You may customize your undead with equipment and skills.— Tactical autonomy available.— Your undead will obey battlefield strategies and adapt to live combat conditions.
Leon leaned closer, breath catching.
This wasn't necromancy as the world knew it.
The history books were clear—necromancers worked through quantity, not quality. Raise corpses. Control masses. Die first in battle. Their summons were tools, disposable and dumb.
But this?
These zombies would grow. They would learn. Fight smarter. Harder. Faster.
They were soldiers, not fodder.
And he—he was their commander.
His fingers tingled.
His heart pounded once—hard.
A screen slid into place.
[Choose Your First Zombie Type:]
Three icons rotated in slow motion:
Warrior Zombie – Durable melee bruiser. Shields allies. Absorbs aggro.
Mage Zombie – Weak initially. Ranged spellcaster with growth potential.
Healer Zombie – Regenerates undead. Low combat presence.
Leon exhaled, calculating.
A tank would protect him, sure—but it wouldn't scale damage. A healer had value, but not on its own.
The Mage Zombie...
If it could evolve, if it could master spells over time...
It could become something devastating.
He didn't hesitate.
[Selection Confirmed: Mage Zombie][Beginner Summon Initializing…]
The temperature in the room dropped.
A cold draft slithered across the floor, brushing past his ankles.
Mist gathered around his boots, rising slowly.
The shadows in the corners stretched, crawling up the walls. The air grew thick—saturated with something old, something unnatural.
The light from the system screen flickered.
Then dimmed.
Leon stood, his pulse spiking, every nerve in his body pulling tight.
He felt it.
Like the world had drawn a breath and was holding it.
And then—
The summoning began.