Chapter 237: Into The Death Zone

The wind howled softly as Liam flew across the night sky, cutting through the air like a shadow.Below him stretched the towering wall stretching endlessly across the horizon. The floodlights along its crest shone like a second dawn, piercing just the edge of the darkness that swallowed the wasteland beyond.

After twenty minutes of flight, he slowed his descent. His feet touched down lightly on the top of the wall.

From up here, he could see the silent city behind him, bathed in the glow of safety and the sprawling abyss ahead, where monsters roamed freely under a pale moon.

He walked to the edge and looked down. In the distance, the floodlights revealed the human perimeter made up of a military outpost and Hunter encampment pressed against the inner wall.

Armored vehicles lined the trenches. Soldiers and Hunters moved like ants along defensive barricades, watchful, weary, and small against the enormity of the night.


But beyond the barricades... A sea of monsters stretched as far as his eyes could see.

The land outside was alive with movement of monsters and their roars was carried through the wind. It sounded like a haunting orchestra of hunger and violence.

The death zone. Perfect, Liam smiled.

He stepped off the wall and descended into the night, gliding silently like a phantom. He didn’t fly at full speed—just below his cruising pace of five hundred miles per hour. Fast enough to cover ground, slow enough to stay unseen, masking his presence completely.

He passed over the military camp, the soldiers none the wiser. He crossed the barricade and the trenches, moving deeper into the wild where the air was filled the choking smell of blood and decayed corpses.

After flying a few kilometers further, Liam descended again, his feet touching the cracked, barren ground.

The silence out here was unnatural. It was like the land itself was holding its breath. The ground was dark, scarred, and littered with bones bleached under the cold light of the moon.

He took a few steps forward and summoned Silverleaf from the Dimensional Space. The elegant sword materialized in his hand. It had been a while since he’d held it. The familiar weight settled perfectly against his palm.

"Feels good to hold you again," he said with a smile.

He walked for a few minutes as silently as he could, making sure to mask his presence. It didn’t take long before he sensed movement ahead.

His telekinetic sense caught their small outlines when they entered its range. All ten of them. It was followed by a very strong rancid smell of corruption.

When he came closer, he saw them. A group of goblins.

They were exactly as he has read—short, green-skinned, with wiry limbs and twisted faces that looked like mockeries of humanity. Their jagged teeth glinted when they laughed among themselves. Their voices sounded like the grating symphony of guttural snarls and screeches.

Liam frowned immediately as their very existence offended him. Everything about them. Their small, green, sickly body disgusted him. Their face especially.

He had never seen anything so ugly and inelegant in his life. He felt a strong and inexplicable feeling of disgust, and hate towards them.

"Ugly doesn’t even begin to describe you," he muttered.

One of the goblins heard his voice and froze. Its head snapped toward him, eyes glowing faintly yellow. The others followed, and when they saw him, they began to laugh.

Their laughter was a hideous sound, like metal grinding on bone.

The largest among them—likely their leader—snarled something in its own tongue, a string of words that sounded like madness mixed with laughter. But to Liam, thanks to his Universal Linguistics, every word was crystal clear.

"A human, here? Did you lose your mother, little mortal? If you find her, tell her we’ll give her a good time before we eat her."

The words slithered through his mind like filth.

Liam’s expression didn’t change, but inside, disgust boiled. He didn’t care about his irresponsible and selfish mother but hearing those words come from such vermin was revolting.

He sighed quietly. "You know," he said softly, "sometimes I wish this skill didn’t translate everything so perfectly."

Then his tone shifted, still calm, casual, but laced with venom.

"Green monkeys," he called out in their language.

The goblins froze mid-laugh, confusion evident in their glowing eyes.

Liam’s smirk widened. "You heard me. Green monkeys. You all look like a bunch of kids that got kicked out of the cave for bad hygiene."

The leader blinked, stunned and lost for words.

"You... you speak our tongue?" it stammered.

Liam tilted his head slightly, staring at the goblin like he was looking at a fool.

"Fluently," he said, then grinned. "Now go fuck yourself."

The entire group stiffened, their ugly faces contorting in outrage.

"You dare insult us, human filth?!" one shrieked.

"You’ll regret that!" another roared.

They spread out, surrounding him in a rough circle. Their claws glinted in the moonlight, and their laughter returned, cruel and confident.

The oldest among them stepped forward, sneering. "We’ll cut you open slowly. Find out how you learned our tongue. Then we’ll keep you alive. Maybe as a pet. You’d look cute in chains."

Liam sighed and shook his head slowly, his disgust deepening.

"Enough," he said flatly. "Your voices alone are enough to make someone throw up."

He raised Silverleaf and rested it lightly on his shoulder. "Do yourselves a favor and stop talking. You green monkeys whose evolution got tired halfway."

That did it as the goblins screeched in fury and charged as one.

Their feet pounded the dirt, claws flashing. They moved fast for their size—but to Liam, they were so slow that they might as well have been crawling.

He smiled and when the first goblin leapt, he moved.

A silver arc cut through the dark, wide and smooth as flowing water. The goblin’s body split in half before it even touched the ground. Blood sprayed across the dirt, steaming in the cold air.

The others barely had time to react before Liam turned on his heel and swung again in one clean, horizontal slash. The next five fell instantly, their bodies collapsing like cut grass.

The remaining four froze, panic flickering through their eyes. One stumbled backward, shrieking something incomprehensible—Impossible! He’s a mortal without a drop of mana! Another tried to flee.

Liam didn’t bother chasing. He coated Silverleaf with his telekinetic field, extending the length of the sword with the field and he slashed.

The extended field from the blade cut through the air like a guillotine. The fleeing goblins stopped mid-run, with their bodies severed cleanly before they even realized it.

Silence returned to the wasteland.

Liam stood there, his coat fluttering softly in the wind. He looked down at the corpses and exhaled slowly.

"Vermin," he muttered, flicking Silverleaf to the side causing the green blood to scatter into the dirt.

He didn’t feel pride or satisfaction. Only mild disgust—and small amusement.

"This world’s monsters talk too much," he said, shaking his head.

He turned and began walking deeper into the death zone.

The air grew colder as he moved farther from the light of the walls. The sounds of the living city faded behind him, replaced by distant roars echoing across the wilderness.

The moonlight washed the barren land in shades of silver and blue, painting a hauntingly beautiful picture of ruin.

"Let’s have a little fun, shall we?"