I, the Supreme Overlord, Start by Enslaving the Zerg Queen
Chapter 57 - 57: Node Mutation

At the eastern node of the Serene Forest.

As a flash of light flickered, Little Green, who had swapped places with Catherine, appeared.

"Roar! Roar! Roar!" The monsters in the area, upon seeing Little Green land, charged at her frantically. From the desire in their eyes, it was clear they intended to rip her apart and devour her alive!

Seeing this scene, Little Green recalled her master's words and Catherine's warnings before she left, prompting her to put away her playful demeanor.

The contact medium for the Land of the Dead was through these resurrected monsters. The longer their bodies remained here, the more death energy they emitted, eventually allowing the Land of the Dead to successfully locate and breach the world's barriers!

Remembering the gravity of the situation, Little Green dared not be careless.

She lifted her head, a bloodthirsty cruelty flashing in her eyes—a reflection of the Zerg's combative and bloodthirsty nature now awakened within her.

"I've always used the poison screen before. This time, let's try the poison array. After all, Master said it's best not to let those monsters survive here for more than a minute." she muttered to herself.

With those words, Little Green activated the primal toxins within her body, expanding the poison array's range to cover all the monsters.

In the next second, endless toxic fumes, accompanied by a green poisonous dragon, ravaged everything in sight.

The once-arrogant monsters, just emerging from the node, were now terrified as they were instantly turned to air by the poison—this time, not even leaving behind any pus!

Adorned with the crown of the Poison King, Little Green looked down from on high at the monsters that died as soon as they arrived, her eyes devoid of sympathy or pity.

As the dead, why couldn't they stay in the underworld instead of coming here to cause trouble?

...

With everyone's tasks assigned, Charles arrived at his designated node, the most secluded spot in the western region.

Here, the returned dead had already begun showing signs of cannibalism. Among them were several third-tier beings evolving towards the template of the big fat creature they had encountered previously in The Mysterious Space.

And those stitched-together skeletal beings... this only confirmed that his choice was correct. Probably, no one was more suited to guard this node than him.

"Delicious living human, are you here for us to devour?"

"I'm in so much pain, come kill me, come let me devour you, so my pain will end!"

"He's alive, why must we die while he lives? I want him dead, to become one with us!"

Charles had barely landed when he heard the dead's most venomous curses towards the living and the chilling sounds of chewing.

It seemed quite a few living people had ventured here, only to be devoured by these terrifying creatures!

Yes, according to the records in the mural, the returned dead initially act according to the obsessions of their lingering souls.

Only after truly tasting the flesh of the living do they quickly become addicted to it, leading to endless slaughter.

This was how the kingdom was destroyed!

As for him...

Charles immediately deployed the Thousand Insects Devouring Heart array, an enhanced version of the poison screen, which instantly obliterated any trace of those monsters.

In the presence of this fourth-tier powerhouse, the so-called monsters were like paper tigers, swiftly annihilated by the boundless Zerg army and powerful skills.

Charles's abilities functioned like a ruthless clearing machine, any monster emerging from the rift was instantly killed by the array's skills.

Moreover, as these monsters died, their soul fragments were absorbed by the array, serving as an energy source to continue its function.

A once-terrifying node, known to strike fear into the hearts of many, was now firmly suppressed. The monsters died the moment they landed!

This was the power of the Serene Forest's sole overlord, the Zerg Overlord himself.

With the strength of himself, he dominated and suppressed the nodes!

High above, Rose flicked her tail, watching the handsome Charles with idle curiosity from the clouds.

"Hmm, not bad. At least that guy didn't die upon exposure to light, and he's quite good-looking..." Rose muttered to herself, occasionally popping a grape into her mouth, looking utterly at ease.

Perhaps it was because this place was marked by the Will of the Continent of Overlord as the new Overlord's beginner's area. Even the Land of the Dead could only release creatures up to high-tier second rank at most.

Unlike the previous unrestrained necromantic domain, where the Land of the Dead had barely emerged, and a horde of necromancers sacrificed their lives to unleash a catastrophe far surpassing forbidden spells.

That scene was so terrifying that even the Succubus clan didn't dare to approach, fearing accidental death.

Even now, the cracks of the Land of the Dead had diminished to almost nothing, yet that forsaken place still harbored countless high-tier undead creatures.

After a few internal grumbles, Rose silently admired Charles's handsome face from the clouds.

After all, there were only so many nodes, and Charles had almost taken care of them all. Slacking off a bit now seemed reasonable, right?

Very reasonable!

With that thought, Rose felt at ease.

[Rose: Is the portal useful? Hurry up and thank me]

She knew Charles wasn't busy, so she felt no guilt in interrupting him.

Despite being only a cloud layer apart, the two chatted using the holy artifact attached to the Heart of the Overlord.

How to describe it? It gave Rose a novel feeling.

Down below, Charles glanced at the parchment and smiled faintly at the message.

[Charles: Very useful. We've successfully suppressed six nodes here. Once the weaker Overlords finish off the monsters around them, this ordeal will be over.]

Charles had initially thought this would be a major disaster, but after carefully mobilizing his forces, he realized his strength was more than enough to cover four nodes. His confidence radiated from within.

As an eyewitness to everything, Rose knew exactly what kind of prodigy the man beneath her was.

It was just a beginner's area, yet his current strength had already reached the fourth tier.

Even outside, a fourth-tier combatant could rule small regions.

In the history Rose knew, no one could compare to Charles.

After all, with most people struggling to survive at the first tier, reaching the fourth tier was almost unheard of.

[Rose: Since you put it that way, I am leaving. I believe with your strength, handling this invasion from the Land of the Dead should be a piece of cake!]

She was serious. Given Charles's fourth-tier strength in a beginner's area, dealing with a low-tier version of the Land of the Dead seemed easy.

With six nodes already blocked and the scattered monsters being slaughtered by the other Overlords, there seemed no reason to stay.

Charles frowned at the message. Was she planning to leave?

[Charles: Are you planning to leave?]

[Rose: Yes, as you know, I'm a homebody. Since you can handle things here, why should I stay?]

[Rose: Plus... because of the Will of the Continent of Overlord, there's a high chance that high-tier combatants like us might attract some bad luck when entering the beginner's area.]

[Rose: Given your fourth-tier strength, I doubt the Land of the Dead will send anything stronger. Consider the portal your reward for helping me out~]

The Serpent Emperor Yggdrasil knew the general location last time, why didn't he launch a full-scale assault to wipe out all life there?

It's because of the beginner's protection period.

After one year, when the spatial barriers between the Continent of Overlord and the new Overlords weaken significantly, the Will of the Continent of Overlord will no longer specifically protect this batch of Overlords.

This means... the intelligent races within the continent can launch large-scale attacks against them.

Yes, once the beginner's protection period ends, those races that thrive on hunting civilizations will likely seize the opportunity to target the fledgling Overlords.

Everyone has gone through this...

Charles thought about it and agreed. After all, he had known Rose for a while and had a good understanding of her nature.

A homebody, a Succubus seemingly not controlled by lust.

He didn't say much more, simply refocusing his attention on the task at hand.

Enough idle chatter, as she mentioned, he couldn't afford to be complacent facing the Land of the Dead!

Charles was well aware that Rose had probably checked on him without his knowledge, just without notifying him.

She was a seventh-tier Succubus, so such abilities were not surprising.

If he were in her shoes, knowing he had an online friend like her, he would have checked too!

As time went by, the rift leading to the Land of the Dead continued to shrink.

After four days of sleepless vigilance, the monsters gradually shrank from fused abominations to smaller and smaller beings, ultimately emerging as mere first-tier or even weaker entities.

A smile played on Charles's lips. After all this time, he had finally suppressed these creatures to this level.

Perhaps in another day or two, those tiny rifts would close completely.

The threat of the Land of the Dead would finally be over.

Thinking about it, he decided to use his Observer privileges to check on the other nodes.

First, he looked at his own team—no surprises, all good news.

The node guarded by Little Green was nearly closed, similar to his own.

Catherine and Medusa were slightly behind—one being the strongest single-target combatant but lacking in area-of-effect capabilities, and the other not even being a combat unit.

As for the others...