Even If I'm Reborn as a Cute Dragon Girl, I Will Still Make a Harem-Chapter 85Book 6: : Rebels

The young girl opened her eyes in confusion.

It felt as though she had been dreaming forever. She couldn’t yet tell what was real and what was not, and her vision remained blurred.

Then, through the haze, she saw several familiar, tear-streaked faces leaning over her.

“Big Brother…”

“Bernie…”

“Donnie…”

“Little Brother…”

She struggled to breathe out the names of her loved ones through lungs that hadn’t been used in so long.

They all burst into tears at once and rushed to embrace her.

Then she noticed the old man standing quietly at the back, smiling as he watched her.

“Dad…”

“It’s been a long time, Susie. I’m so glad to see you awake.”

Even after everything that had happened, the old man couldn’t hide the joy in his eyes.

“Dad?” Her voice trembled with confusion.

Though he was smiling, the old man did not come forward to hold her.

He remained where he was, standing silently behind a metal door, gazing at her and the others.

And the more he smiled, the more sorrow radiated from him.

It felt like he was bidding her the final farewell.

“You older ones must take care of Susie. She has suffered the most among all of you. She’s been in this world so long, yet has never truly felt its warmth,” he said.

“The journey will be long. Wake from your hibernation pods from time to time and see the faces of your loved ones. It will ease the loneliness.”

“Dad?”

Realization dawned upon everyone. The way their father spoke was as if…

“Aren’t you coming with us?”

“The ship can only carry five.”

“You’re lying! It’s huge!”

“I have other things to do.” The old man’s eyes softened as he looked at them, pleading quietly, “Let me finish what I must. Please.”

No one spoke.

They knew their father was as stubborn as a mule. At this point, no words could sway him anymore.

Only Susie, who was still too young to understand their father, reached out with her hands.

“Daddy, hold me…”

He chuckled softly. “I can’t. I’m filthy, I’ll make my little angel stink.”

His clothes were still stained with blood.

“Hold me…”

She was as stubborn as he was.

“I worry about you,” he said, gazing at her innocent face. “I haven’t taught you anything yet. What if some scumbag steals your heart when you’re grown?

Finally, he turned to the eldest two.

“Remember, always protect your younger siblings.”

They nodded together. “We will.”

“It’s a promise then.”

The old man’s face softened into a satisfied smile. “May you find happiness on the far side of the starry sea.”

*CLICK!*

The ship’s door closed slowly.

“DAD! You must stay happy too!”

The old man heard the cries of his crying children.

He smiled bitterly. “Happy, huh? That’s a luxury for me.”

Feeling the lingering warmth in his palm, the old man clung to a fragile hope.

*It’s okay if it’s only for an instant… right?*

The spaceship slowly roared into life. Inside, the children obediently climbed into their hibernation pods according to the preset program.

Through the porthole, their world shrank rapidly.

They pierced the pale-blue atmospheric veil and emerged into the vast, endless cosmos.

When the full curve of the blue planet filled their view, the pods activated.

A heavy drowsiness swept over them.

One by one, the children surrendered to sleep, not knowing when they would wake up again.

Only Susie resisted, blinking stubbornly. She couldn’t understand why she had to fall asleep again so soon after waking.

But she eventually yielded, drifting into a deep, medicated slumber.

The vessel followed the course the old man had set. After five years, it would reach a long-abandoned wormhole hidden in the records and escape the galaxy.

The old man knew this war would spread swiftly to every world controlled by their species. No corner of this galaxy was safe.

So, after twenty years of traversing its mapped routes, the ship would finally break free from the galaxy ruled by their kind and drift into the unknown.

From that point on, unless the craft received a quantum signal from him permitting its return, it would continue its journey into the endless starry depths.

◆◇◆◇◆

The old man sighed. The basement suddenly felt so empty now.

“Alright, time for me to get to work.”

He donned the formal attire he thought he would never wear again. His steps felt heavier, like he had just aged ten years in an instant, as he left the house that had once been full of love and memories.

The situation outside was worse than he had imagined.

The resistance in the lower districts had far exceeded the predators’ expectations. What was supposed to be a two-hour feast had turned into a bloody stalemate lasting through the night.

Then, in the chaos, a visor was knocked from a kinetic armor suit—exposing the face of someone often seen on television.

That was when everything unraveled.

The desperate crowd, driven mad with fear and rage, began killing indiscriminately. Amidst the carnage, the most ruthless quickly rose in power and surged toward the middle-class districts.

The elites of the alliance, who was preparing to enjoy their “delicacies”, ironically found their mouths pinched by the very crabs they meant to devour.

Those who fled into the middle-class districts brought not just chaos, but also knowledge of what had truly happened.

When the situation in the lower districts spread like wildfire across the alliance, it was already too late.

Even when the authorities unleashed warships to obliterate the lower districts in desperation and the Gaia Center erased every trace of it online… it was meaningless.

Hundreds of new monsters, capable of flight and teleportation, had already broken free.

The rebellion had begun.

First the middle-class zones, then the upper districts, then the other planets.

Even the military fractured.

For even soldiers, trained for obedience, could not accept that their commanders saw ordinary people as livestock for slaughter.

Wars erupted everywhere.

Some fought with madness. Some with exhilaration. Others with terror and despair.

And the civilization that had taken hundreds of thousands of years to build crumbled, torn apart by the primal instincts of its own species.

Society teetered on the edge of ruin.

The old man seized the moment and raised a banner of resistance, gathering people to him with astonishing speed.

As Woodman had said, in this sea of despair, many clung to the man who had once discovered the theory of energy as a symbol of hope.

And when he declared his stand against cannibalism, vowing a return to civilization, countless ordinary people saw him as a beacon in the darkness.

The resistance spread like cells dividing, swelling across every colony of their race.

But soon, the old man realized that no matter how many rallied to his cause, they were nothing before the ancient beasts who had risen to power through slaughter.

Without a technological leap or something to tip the scales, how could the vulnerable masses contend with beings who could shatter stars and declare themselves gods?

And in the later chaos, after the prey of the jungle had all been consumed, the predators turned their eyes toward *here*.

*Oh, there it is… Ready-made delicacies.*

And so, despair arrived.