Hire the Dead, Reap the World

In the third year of the apocalypse, a zombie virus has devastated the world. Cities lie in ruins, and survival belongs only to the strong. Felix Carter, a lesser member of the Carter family, is abandoned in the Infected Zone after failing to awaken abilities, becoming the laughingstock of powerful ability users like Yale Carter. But at the brink of death, he awakens a mysterious Zombie Contract System. He can control zombies and even form permanent contracts with them using the Cores. With his new power, he recruits powerful zombies like Iron the Attacker and Shadow the Runner, turning the Infected Zone into a thriving farm where zombies grow crops and raise livestock. While trading supplies with the Scavengers led by Claire Sutton and Harlan York to help starving Safe Zones, Felix Carter’s rise attracts the jealousy of Yale Carter. As his zombie army grows—including the formidable Blair Loren, an Apex zombie—a conspiracy unfolds. Yale Carter and a mysterious doctor unleash a new virus to create chaos and seize control. Facing mutated Apex zombies and dark experiments, Felix Carter and his allies fight to expose the mastermind behind the catastrophe. In the end, the once-abandoned outcast discovers a way for humans and zombies to coexist, becoming the unlikely guardian of a new world rising from the ruins.