In the compound’s main conference room...

At Maxwell’s invitation, almost every senior figure in the compound showed up.

This time, it wasn’t just the Five Families. Even a handful of high-ranking people with real pull inside the compound came as well.

From the Five Families, Whitaker sent Charles. Mercer sent Gabriel.

The Caldwell family—since Benjamin Caldwell was dead—sent a different representative. The Hale family couldn’t make it.

"General Kane," Charles asked, frowning, "you called everyone here in such a hurry. Is something important going on?"

"Yeah." Maxwell’s voice was even. "Mr. Ethan has something he wants to tell everyone."

"Ethan...?"

The moment that name dropped, the whole room tightened.

By now, there wasn’t a single person in Atlas City’s compound leadership who didn’t know who Ethan was.

"Where is he?" Charles asked carefully.

Right then, the conference room doors swung open, and Ethan walked in like he owned the place—calm, unhurried, completely at ease.

The room went dead silent.

"Ethan," Charles Whitaker said first, "what exactly did you call us here for?"

"Nothing huge." Ethan glanced around, casual as if he were discussing the weather. "I’m just announcing something. The power structure in Atlas City’s compound needs to change. Cut the Five Families co-managing crap. One person’s in charge."

"What?!" 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

The room exploded with shocked exclamations. Nobody expected him to open with a bomb like that.

Charles and the others’ faces darkened on the spot.

So it’s finally coming...

Charles drew a deep breath. "Ethan, I’ll admit your people are strong. But being strong doesn’t mean you’re capable. Atlas City’s compound decides whether the Atlas Federation lives or dies. If you do this—"

"I knew you old guys wouldn’t agree," Ethan said, rolling his eyes. "Looks like I’ll have to wipe out one more family."

"!!!"

"Ethan," Charles said, voice hard, "even if you destroy the Whitaker family, I still won’t agree to you taking control of Atlas City’s compound. You don’t understand the compound at all. You’ll ruin it with your own hands."

"Who told you I’m taking control?" Ethan shot back, like Charles was being ridiculous.

"I’m not that bored. From now on, General Kane runs the compound. The other families assist. No more Five Families ruling together."

"Huh...?"

Everyone froze.

Only then did it click—they’d overthought it. They’d assumed Ethan was here to forcefully seize the compound for himself.

A low wave of whispers spread through the room.

Then Gabriel was the first to stand. "I agree with Ethan. The Five Families co-managing has caused too many problems. General Kane has always acted for the good of the Atlas Federation. I have no objections to him taking charge."

"I agree too. Back when the President was still here, the Five Families supported the President anyway. Now that the President’s gone, the Atlas Federation really does need a true leader again. If General Kane leads, everyone will accept it."

"I agree!"

"I agree!"

One voice after another joined in.

And honestly, the people who weren’t from the Five Families saw it even more clearly. They’d wanted a real leader for a long time—someone they could actually take orders from, instead of waking up every day unsure whose word mattered more.

If Ethan had insisted on taking the compound for himself, a lot of them would’ve "agreed" purely out of fear, but they’d never truly accept it.

Maxwell was different.

As the Commanding General of the Atlas Federation, he’d earned his position the hard way, with more real achievements than anyone could count.

If he ran the compound... everyone could live with that.

Before long, almost everyone below had made their stance clear. The only ones left were Charles and the Caldwell family’s representative.

"I don’t have any objections to General Kane taking charge," Charles said at last. "But you have to guarantee you won’t interfere in the compound’s affairs."

"Why would I bother?" Ethan said, rolling his eyes. "I can’t even be bothered to meddle in my own compound—why would I meddle in yours? I’ve got better things to do than babysit your politics."

"Besides, I’m not here asking permission. I’m notifying you. Whether you agree or not doesn’t really matter. If you don’t, worst case, I wipe you out and prop up a new family in your place."

Honestly, if Ethan didn’t know Charles was one of the rare leaders who genuinely cared about his people... with that stubborn streak, Ethan would’ve slapped him dead a long time ago.

"In that case, I have no objections," Charles said, visibly relieved once Ethan made it clear he wasn’t planning to stick his hands in everything.

He didn’t have any other agenda. He was just responsible for the several million people in the compound.

"Our Caldwell family agrees as well," the Caldwell representative said.

Ethan looked him over and smiled. "Earlier, I killed Benjamin Caldwell. Your family doesn’t have a problem with that?"

"Benjamin colluded with the Hale family," the man said righteously. "He deserved to die."

"Heh." Ethan’s smile didn’t change. "Hope you mean that. If not... I’ll just take the Caldwell family out too, while I’m at it."

Then he waved a hand like the whole thing was settled. "Alright. If we’re done here, you guys talk. I’m leaving."

"Um... Ethan," Maxwell called, suddenly sounding a little embarrassed. "About the... laser cannon..."

"That thing’s my loot," Ethan said without even slowing down. "Don’t even think about it."

And with that, he walked out of the conference room.

"..."

Over the next few days, Maxwell began fully taking over every aspect of the Atlas City compound.

Meanwhile, the members of Fallen Star Squad stayed holed up in their Atlas City mansion, spending their days playing cards, grinding video games, and stuffing themselves with good food.

To everyone else, it was absurd.

No one could wrap their head around how people this powerful lived like they were on permanent vacation.

What they didn’t understand was that for Fallen Star Squad, there just wasn’t much left that could hold their interest—other than conquering the various Void Realms.

And outside, there still wasn’t any news of Tier 11 zombies. If it wasn’t Tier 11, they didn’t even feel like stepping in.

Killing low-tier zombies? Completely meaningless.

Besides, Fallen Star City had twenty thousand Tier 9 Enhanced sweeping the area nonstop. Crystal cores weren’t something they needed to worry about anymore.

The biggest reason, though, was Ethan. For the past few days, he’d kept himself locked in his room, obsessing over how to control thralls. If he wasn’t going out, the others couldn’t be bothered either.

Aurora, on the other hand, came by a lot, taking Mia and Emily around the compound to explore.

Atlas City’s compound was way bigger than Clearford City. The facilities were already fully developed, and as long as you had money, you could still buy plenty of things you’d only seen before the apocalypse.

Aside from Ethan, Henry had also been hiding in his room these past few days, studying ritual circles.

He drew them on paper, then on the floor, on the walls—everywhere. Dense, intricate patterns covered every surface. Whether he was making progress or just going insane, nobody could tell.

Inside Ethan’s room, he once again pricked himself and let a drop of blood fall onto the thrall’s forehead. Then he used the secret technique, forcing the blood to seep in and fuse.

It was the method described in the manual—this exact step, he’d repeated for five straight days. How many times he’d done it, even he’d lost count.

All he knew was this: even at peak Tier 11, he’d bled himself so much his face had gone pale.

And still, the corpse didn’t move. It lay there like it was truly dead.

If it weren’t for that faint, intermittent connection in his mind—just enough to prove the method was working—he might’ve given up a long time ago.

Ethan was already bracing for another failure when the body lying on the floor suddenly twitched.