Monster Summoning Handbook

"No! Help me, someone, please help me!"

"What's wrong with you? Stop biting! It hurts, it hurts so much!"

"Everyone, take shelter in the nearby buildings—run! Lift your head, no… no… don't come any closer… ah!"

Fan Li sat at the edge of his bed, listening to the chaos outside, frozen as though in a daze, his only betrayal the cold sweat on his forehead revealing the panic roiling inside him.

There had been no prophecy, no warning, not even the faintest sign of anything amiss. And yet, a catastrophe called the apocalypse had descended upon this land.

The news ran continuous coverage of the upheaval; almost simultaneously, massive outbreaks of bizarre incidents erupted around the globe. Friends, family—those once so familiar—were suddenly transformed into monsters out for blood.

Zombies.

For people of the twenty-first century, this was not an unfamiliar word.

The news continued, with reporters risking their lives to capture scenes of horror. At a time like this, there was no room for censorship or shielding children from distressing images. Whether to expose the calamity or to preserve the last spark of humanity, the footage on TV seized every eye as vividly as the most dazzling oil painting.

Fan Li was among those transfixed.

Those people—no, they could no longer be called people—staggered toward the living, their nails and teeth now weapons. Teeth once used to chew cooked food had become the fangs of beasts, tearing into human flesh.

In the chaos, corpses chewed to d