After another ten-plus minutes of walking, they finally reached a building near the compound’s center.

Miles was already waiting out front.

"Captain—welcome back!" he said, clearly fired up.

Ethan nodded. "Yeah. Come on, let’s go in first."

"Right."

They filed straight into the briefing room.

Miles had barely sat down before Ethan pinned him with a look. "Miles. You knew we were coming back today?"

"No," Miles said quickly. "But our people saw those red birds. So, yeah—they knew you guys were back."

Ethan frowned. "How’d they know the red birds were ours?"

Miles blinked at him. "Because... Captain, everything you did in the Yamato Empire was public." 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

"...Since when?" Ethan looked genuinely lost.

Miles stared at him like he’d just asked whether the sky was blue. "You had cameras on. It was livestreamed across the entire Atlas Federation. If that’s not public, what is?"

"Livestreamed across the whole Federation!?" Ethan and the others froze, eyes going wide.

Then Ethan’s expression changed. Slowly.

He turned his head and looked at the little camera clipped to Henry’s clothes. His face went dark.

"...Rowan."

His voice was dangerously calm.

"That son of a bitch lied to me. Told me we were ’recording video’—and he was running a full-on livestream the whole time!?"

Miles coughed lightly, suddenly realizing the truth. So the captain didn’t even know they were live. No wonder some of those moments had been so...

"Ahem," Miles said carefully. "Captain... honestly, it’s not that big a deal. You were going to show people the video afterward anyway."

"That’s the whole point!" Ethan snapped. "If it’s a recording, we can edit. We can cut things. A livestream gives you zero chance to clean anything up!"

He dragged a hand down his face like he could physically wipe the memory away.

"My heroic image is dead... it’s gone..."

Then his eyes sharpened again, vicious and bright. "Rowan. You just wait. I’m going to peel your skin off."

Miles hurried to smooth it over. "It’s really not bad, Captain. You guys didn’t lose face. If anything, your image is... kind of perfect right now. I’m not exaggerating—there are tons of girls across the Federation totally obsessed with you."

"Seriously?" Big Mike’s head snapped up, eyes shining.

"Seriously," Miles said, grinning. "Big Mike, even you—if you went out now, I guarantee you’d have a line of girls wanting to marry you."

Big Mike scratched the back of his head, instantly forgiving. "Alright... if you put it like that, I guess I won’t hold it against him."

Miles leaned forward, tone turning more earnest. "Captain, the livestream was actually a good thing. It hit people like a shot of adrenaline. The whole Federation’s mood was sinking before that—confused, scared, tired. This broadcast snapped them out of it."

"Right now, Atlas Federation morale is sky-high. That matters in the apocalypse. I’m pretty sure that was Rowan’s goal from the start."

"And for Fallen Star City specifically?" Miles spread his hands. "This broadcast did more than any speech I could’ve given. More than any ’motivational work’ I could’ve pulled. The city’s more united than it’s ever been. People are proud to call themselves Fallen Star."

He paused, then added, "And it’s good for you guys, too. Your prestige across the Federation just jumped to a level nobody else can touch. I’m telling you—if you raised your hand and called for it, more than half the Federation would come running to Fallen Star City."

Ethan snorted. "And if they all came, you think you could manage that?"

Miles choked a little. "...I mean, hypothetically."

Ethan waved him off.

Miles kept going anyway, trying to land the point. "Even if we don’t want them to move here, it still helps. When something worse shows up—and it will—you’ll be able to mobilize manpower from the other compounds. That’s still a win for us."

"I get it," Ethan said, still clearly irritated. "I just hate that Rowan played me."

Then he narrowed his eyes at Miles. "You’re defending him an awful lot. What, you two got something going on?"

Miles threw both hands up like he’d been framed. "Captain, that’s not fair. I just think Rowan’s... a decent guy. There aren’t many people like that left. I’m worried you’ll actually kill him."

"Relax," Ethan said. "I’m not killing him. But he lied to me, so a beating is happening. No negotiation."

Miles let out a breath. "Okay. I can live with that."

Ethan leaned back. "Alright. Enough about Rowan. Tell me how the Atlas Federation’s doing."

Miles nodded, switching gears immediately.

"Right now, the ten major compounds are developing together. With Atlas City—the federal HQ—acting as a stabilizer, the compounds have formed a mutual defense pact. One gets hit, the others support. For now, that’s keeping the situation stable."

"Inside Federation territory, some of the larger compounds have completed merges too. Population numbers are way up across the board, and we’ve gained three new major compounds at around the one-million mark."

"Every compound is focused on steady growth—building strength, restoring production, rebuilding supply chains. On the Atlas City side, their crystal core fusion tech has advanced to where they can synthesize a Tier 12 crystal core. They’ve shared that method with the leaders of every major compound."

"At this point, each major compound should have at least a few Stage C powerhouses holding the line—and they’re mostly Awakened."

"Once you hit Stage C, the gap between Awakened and regular Enhanced starts widening fast. So every compound is putting their best resources into cultivating Awakened."

"On top of development, the compounds are organizing sweeps to clear zombies."

Miles’ expression tightened.

"But there’s something weird," he said slowly. "The zombies... they’ve pulled back. They’re avoiding areas where human compounds exist and clustering in places with no human settlements. They haven’t launched any major attacks lately."

He shook his head, uneasy. "It’s like they’re grinding levels too—laying low, building up."

Miles looked Ethan straight in the eye.

"I’ve got a bad feeling they’re waiting for something. And when they finally move again, it won’t be a raid. It’ll be a real offensive."

"And when that day comes... even the human major compounds might not be able to hold."

Ethan listened to Miles’s report without interrupting. But when Miles got to the zombies, Ethan’s brow slowly furrowed.

"Your gut’s probably right," Ethan said. "With how savage zombies are, they shouldn’t be playing it safe and ’developing.’ They’re probably holding back for something big."

He exhaled through his nose, already doing the math.

"Looks like when we get a chance, I’ll take the Flamebirds and do a real sweep of the zombies inside the Atlas Federation."

Then he looked back at Miles. "Any news about the Void Realm?"

"No," Miles said. "Right now every major compound is quietly sending people out to search for it. Honestly, I’d bet someone’s already found one... they’re just not saying anything."

Miles’s tone turned grimly practical.

"Everyone knows how important the Void Realm is. A lot of people think it’s basically the apocalypse handing humanity a power-up. So even if they find one, they’ll definitely go in secretly. No way they tell anyone else."

"A power-up?" Ethan gave a short, humorless laugh and shook his head. "More like a power-up that can kill you."

What scared him most was people messing around blindly. If some idiot cracked open the wrong Void Realm and let out a monster nobody could handle, they were all done.

But he also couldn’t stop people from going in.

Some Void Realms really were opportunities—massive ones—that could rocket someone’s strength.

And if he tried to block it, people would just assume he was trying to keep everyone else weak.

That was human nature.

"Keep an eye on the Void Realm situation," Ethan said. "If you hear anything, I want it immediately."

"Understood."

Ethan leaned back, letting his tone loosen a notch. "Oh, and we brought back a ton of supplies this time. Plus over a hundred million crystal cores. Enough for Fallen Star City to level up hard."

Miles’s eyes widened despite himself.

Ethan continued, voice firm again. "All resources go to the Fallen Star Guard first. Their strength has to come up before anything else."

Miles nodded fast. "Yeah. I get it."

Then his expression went a little strange, like he was trying not to smile. "So... those porn stars. Are they considered ’supplies’ too?"

"..."

Ethan stared at him for a beat, then looked away like the ceiling suddenly became fascinating.

"...Those are on you," he said, deadpan. "Just... arrange it."

He cleared his throat.

"I just figured—if we’re taking a trip to the Yamato Empire, we might as well bring back some local specialties."

Miles: "..."