Stonebridge City Compound...
Stonebridge City Compound was a government-built stronghold. It covered several hundred acres and housed close to three hundred thousand people, making it one of the biggest compounds in the regionâa true large-scale settlement.
Still, Stonebridge City itself had a population of more than two million. So even though the compound wasnât weak, it could only hold a slice of the city. And it had to stay on constant alert for the day a massive zombie horde came crashing into its walls.
But a few days ago, a group of absolute monsters showed up in Stonebridge City.
A team twenty thousand strongâso powerful it was ridiculousâcutting through wave after wave of zombies like a rolling tide. They swept the streets clean with brutal efficiency.
Stonebridge City Compoundâs leader, Edward Grant, had been drooling over them ever since.
And once he found out theyâd come from nothing more than a small compound in some remote city, Edward couldnât stop thinking about how to get them to join Stonebridge.
The problem was, heâd tried. Over and over. Heâd opened negotiations again and again, offered piles of benefits... and they gave him nothing. Half the time they didnât even bother responding.
Edward was stuckâfurious and helpless. Their strength was too overwhelming to pressure them, and too valuable to let go.
At that moment, inside an office in the compoundâs central district, Edward looked at his younger brother, Andrew Grant, who had just returned from Atlas City.
"So whatâs Atlas Cityâs attitude toward all the other compounds?" Edward asked.
"Atlas City didnât say anything about unifying everyone," Andrew said, visibly relaxed. "They basically tacitly allowed the other compounds to exist. They even told everyone to focus on developing and growing stronger."
He leaned back, confidence creeping into his voice. "Looks like we worried for nothing. With the situation the way it is, even if Atlas City wanted to manage everyone, they couldnât. Theyâre stretched too thin. We can develop as boldly as we wantâand once weâre strong enough, Atlas City wonât be able to touch us anyway."
"Donât get careless," Edward said coolly. "Just because they didnât say it doesnât mean they wonât do it. They might simply not have the manpower right now."
He paused, then nodded slightly. "But youâre not wrong. If our compound becomes strong enough, even Atlas City canât control us. Weâre too far away. Thereâs not much they could do."
Edwardâs gaze sharpened. "Right. Did you exchange the crystal cores?"
"I did," Andrew said, excitement flashing across his face. "Just like you saidâwe synthesized everything into Tier 9 crystal cores. We traded in enough to get over a hundred Tier 9 cores."
"Good." Edwardâs tone turned decisive. "You and Iâand a few key peopleâuse those cores to push ourselves to the peak of Tier 9 first. We need to break into Tier 10 as soon as possible. The rest go to the loyal ones at the peak of Tier 8. Prioritize the Awakened."
"Understood."
Andrew hesitated, then sighed. "Speaking of Awakened... that lightning-type Awakened we brought back a while ago is seriously strong. What a waste. The bastard would rather die than submit. If heâd given in, heâd be a huge asset."
Edward chuckled, eyes cold. "Strong, sure. But his weakness is obvious. He actually surrendered for a bunch of people who donât even matter. That kind of person is a fool."
He tapped the desk lightly. "Controlling someone like that isnât hard. As long as we control the people in his compound, sooner or later heâll behave."
Then his expression shifted, the earlier amusement fading into something sharper.
"But our top priority right now is figuring out how to pull that twenty-thousand-man team into our compound. From what Iâve observed these past few days... thereâs a good chance every single one of them is Tier 9."
"Every single one?" Andrewâs eyes went wide. "Tier 9?!"
He nearly choked on the words. "Thatâs twenty thousand people. Twenty thousand... all Tier 9!"
Andrewâs mind raced, then he blurted, "From what I know, Atlas City Compound has less than a thousand Tier 9 Enhanced. How the hell could they have twenty thousand Tier 9s?"
"I canât make sense of it either," Edward admitted, voice low. "But judging by their combat performance, it really is Tier 9âno doubt about it. Maybe they ran into some kind of massive opportunity."
His eyes gleamed with a dangerous light.
"Either way, we
have
to bring them in. If we have that team, we wouldnât even be afraid to go to war with Atlas City Compound."
Andrew swallowed. "But they donât even acknowledge us. Do you actually have a way?"
"I do." Edward sat forward. "I dug up some information. They came from Redmont City in Redwood County. Thatâs our entry point."
He spoke slowly, like he was laying a trap piece by piece.
"Their families are probably still in Redmont. While theyâre still operating over here, youâll take people to Redmont City and see if you can get control of their relatives."
Andrewâs eyes lit up.
"As long as we have their families," Edward said, voice calm and certain, "I donât believe theyâll refuse to join."
Andrew nodded hard. "Yeah. That works."
He stood up immediately. "Iâll go gather people and head to Redmont right now."
Edward lifted a finger. "Goâbut donât rush to act. Observe Redmont City Compound first. Get a clear picture of their strength before you make a move."
"Donât worry," Andrew said. "I know what Iâm doing."
"Good," Edward said, waving him off. "Go."
Elsewhere...
Garrett had barely made it back to the Riverton City compound when a report hit his desk.
His people had found a
special space
hidden in a mountain range.
The news nearly made him jump out of his chair.
After his trip to Atlas City, he understood exactly what a special space meant.
This could be it. This could be the chance for Riverton City Compound to rise for real.
Then the follow-up report landedâand it wiped the excitement right off his face.
Nobody who went in had come back out.
Since discovering the special space yesterday, theyâd sent four or five waves in. Every team vanished without a trace. No messages. No survivors. Not a single person returned.
Garrettâs stomach knotted.
Something was wrong. Whatever theyâd found... wasnât like Atlas Cityâs special space at all.
Just as Garrett was about to send in another group, one of his subordinates came sprinting in, pale and panicked.
"Bossâthis is bad... It... it came out!"
Garrett stared. "What the hell came out?"
"Boss! Something from inside the special space... came out!"
"You mean our people made it back?" Garrettâs face lit up, hope surging.
"N-no! Not our people. Itâs... itâs a few guys who look
wrong.
"
Garrettâs brow snapped down. "What do you mean,
wrong
?"
"A few people with a really weird appearance came out of that special space! And the second they stepped out, they killed everyone we had guarding the exit!"
The manâs voice cracked with fear.
Garrettâs blood ran cold.
"People with a weird appearance..." he repeated, the words tasting sour. "Youâre saying theyâre from inside the special space? Living beings?"
"Yeah." The subordinateâs hands shook. "Weâve never seen anything like them. They have to be from in there."
Garrett shot to his feet. "Move. Take me thereânow."
Meanwhile, in the Yamato Empire...
After the apocalypse hit, the Yamato Empire suffered even worse losses than the Atlas Federationâits population density turned cities into slaughterhouses. Out of roughly
130 million
, fewer than
ten million
survived.
Even so, the Yamato Empireâs military strength was terrifying. In the end, they managed to dig in and keep their footing in the ruined world.
With armed forces propping them up,
more than a dozen large compounds
endured. There were even
two major compounds
with populations over a million.
But a few days ago,
Mount Fuji erupted
, wiping out several small and mid-sized compounds in the surrounding area.
And that wasnât the worst part.
The worst part was what came with the eruption.
As the volcano blew, a group of
red-skinned humanoids
appeared out of nowhereâcreatures with strength so overwhelming it felt unreal. They moved in on the nearby compounds like an invasion force.
In front of them, even Enhanced were nothingâpaper tigers. They were slaughtered casually, like the fight wasnât even worth acknowledging.
The compoundsâ artillery was even more useless. Shells slammed into those things and didnât even leave a mark.
These red-skinned monsters loved to
drink human blood and eat human flesh
. Anyone they killed didnât even leave behind a corpseâjust a stripped skeleton.
It was worse than getting eaten by zombies.
Faced with monsters like that, the Yamato Empireâs Enhanced sank into pure despair. Nobody even dared to resist.
Against zombies, they could still imagine victory.
Against these things?
They couldnât even summon the idea of fighting. It wasnât a battleâit was a one-sided massacre.
And that despair spread fast, bleeding across the entire Yamato Empire.