After wiping out the Stoneborn who’d escaped from the Void Realm, Ethan finally felt his shoulders loosen.

Those bastards were way too strong. Anywhere they went, they’d be a walking time bomb.

Now that they were dealt with, it felt like a rock he’d been carrying in his chest finally dropped away.

After dinner, Ethan handed Miles the twenty-plus Stoneborn corpses he’d been storing in his spatial ring and told him to feed them to the white-furred apes on a schedule.

Those apes had insanely high bloodlines, and their combat power was no joke.

Ethan planned to cultivate them properly. If he did it right, they’d eventually become one of Fallen Star City’s main pillars of force.

These Stoneborn powerhouses were all at least Stage A. Just the meat alone was enough to send the apes’ strength skyrocketing.

Miles watched Ethan for a moment. "Captain... you’re leaving again?"

"Yeah." Ethan nodded. "Time to check out the Infernals in the Yamato island chain. If they’ve come out, their strength is probably pretty nasty by now—which is perfect for us to level up."

"And if they haven’t come out, we’ll hit other countries. There’s no way Void Realm creatures only showed up in the Atlas Federation and the Yamato Empire. Other places definitely have them too."

"Some of them won’t have made it back. We’ll find leftovers."

His tone was practical, almost casual—but the logic underneath was ruthless.

"This is the shortcut to getting stronger," Ethan said. "If we rely on absorbing mysterious energy to raise our Tier, it’s way too slow."

He looked at Miles. "This trip, I’m bringing the Fallen Star Guard. We’ll probably be gone a while. Fallen Star City’s on you."

Miles grinned like he’d been waiting to hear it. "Don’t worry, Captain. I’m used to it."

"These last few days, the Guard picked up a ton of crystal cores," he added. "Enough for me to push the Fallen Star Corps members up another step."

Ethan nodded. "Good. That’s what I wanted to hear."

Early the next morning, Ethan led the Fallen Star Guard out of Fallen Star City in a massive wave, all riding Flamebirds.

This time, he only brought twenty thousand Flamebirds—one per person. The remaining ten thousand stayed behind to defend the city.

As for the second-echelon members, Ethan only took Vivian and Calvin. Everyone else also stayed in Fallen Star City.

Those two were monsters in their own right. Forget punching above their Tier—within the same Tier, they were almost undefeated.

The group flew straight for the Yamato islands.

Atlas City...

Thanks to the one hundred Tier 16 crystal cores Ethan had given them last time, Atlas City had managed to raise over sixty thousand Tier 12 Enhanced.

Then the mysterious energy surge hit.

Out of those sixty thousand-plus Tier 12s, a small portion pushed up to Tier 15, and most of the rest reached Tier 14.

And against zombies that had grown stronger but still fought like brainless animals, that army of Enhanced had been decisive.

Sixty thousand Tier 14–15 Enhanced—so long as they didn’t run into Tier 17+ zombies or massive hordes—could basically roll the map.

With that force, Atlas City became the biggest winner in the entire federation outside of Fallen Star City.

And the more zombies they killed, the more crystal cores they gained—feeding right back into strengthening those Enhanced.

Stronger Enhanced killed more zombies.

More zombies meant more cores.

More cores meant stronger Enhanced.

A clean, brutal positive feedback loop.

Under that cycle, Atlas City’s overall strength was growing at a frightening speed.

At the Atlas Federation’s highest command center in Atlas City...

Maxwell and the rest of the top brass from the Atlas City compound were in a meeting.

"General Kane," one of the compound executives said, barely containing his excitement, "at this pace, we might actually wipe out the zombies for good. End the apocalypse."

Maxwell shook his head, voice low. "It’s not that simple."

"The zombies went from shambling corpses to something that could think in a little over a month," he said. "This time won’t take long either."

"The moment they regain intelligence, they’re going to retaliate against human compounds like lunatics. When that happens, there won’t be many compounds left standing."

He looked around the room. "All we can do is take advantage of this window. Kill as many as we can while they’re still stupid—level ourselves up and cut down the threat at the same time."

"Yes, General."

Maxwell turned to another middle-aged man. "Give me an estimate. How many zombies are still active inside the Atlas Federation?"

The man’s expression tightened. "Based on satellite surveillance... at least two hundred million."

"So many?" Several people in the conference room went wide-eyed.

The man nodded grimly. "If anything, that number’s conservative."

"In the past year, we’ve eliminated over a hundred million zombies. But at the same time..." His voice dropped. "Humanity is down to less than fifty million."

The room fell silent, heavy and bitter.

Four hundred million people—reduced to under fifty million.

This goddamn apocalypse.

"Even if there are ’only’ two hundred million left," someone said, "we couldn’t kill them all in such a short time even if we never slept."

"Forget ’all,’" another person answered. "What we can do is use this time to raise the compounds’ overall strength as much as possible."

"Agreed."

Maxwell’s fingers tapped the table once. "And the Void Realm entrances. Keep eyes on them at all times. I’ve got a bad feeling those passages will open again."

"Don’t worry, General. Every confirmed entrance is guarded around the clock."

Maxwell nodded, then let out a slow breath. "Zombies aren’t the scariest part of this world anymore."

"The Void Realm is."

Someone across the table gave a strained laugh. "Seriously. If it weren’t for Ethan this time, those twenty-something Void Realm creatures alone would’ve been enough to erase us."

Charles leaned forward, curiosity winning over caution for a second. "I’ve gotta ask—where the hell did Ethan find that hitter? That guy’s too strong. Those Void Realm monsters were getting one-punched like they were nothing."

Maxwell shot him a look, and his tone turned sharp, warning wrapped in calm. "Don’t go digging into Ethan’s secrets."

"That kind of curiosity gets people killed."

Charles stiffened. "Understood."

He’d accepted reality a long time ago. He wasn’t stubborn like before.

He knew the Atlas Federation wasn’t really calling the shots anymore. Whether they lived or died depended on Fallen Star City.

Maxwell straightened, bringing the meeting back on track. "Right now, we have a few priorities."

"First: use every minute we have to kill zombies. Get more crystal cores. Raise more high-Tier Enhanced."

"Second: keep pushing the crystal core synthesis team. I want the tech upgraded as soon as possible—minimum target is being able to synthesize Tier 18 crystal cores."

"Third: accelerate research on optimizing the Energy Absorption Technique and on skill-combination builds. We need breakthroughs fast."

"Yes, General!"

Maxwell paused. "By the way—any movement from Fallen Star City lately?"

A young man spoke up. "Early this morning, a force about twenty thousand strong left Fallen Star City riding Flamebirds. They headed toward the Yamato islands."

"They went to the Yamato Empire?" Maxwell frowned. "For what?"

"We don’t know. You instructed us not to place eyes inside Fallen Star City, so we don’t have internal visibility."

Maxwell leaned back a little. "Fair enough. Probably cleaning up some loose ends over there."

Gabriel clicked his tongue, half regretful. "If Ethan took that many people, he’s probably about to do something big. Man... I really wish they’d wear body cams."

Maxwell laughed. "If you’re not afraid of ending up like Rowan, I can call Ethan and suggest it."

Gabriel’s expression froze. "Uh... yeah, no. I’m good."