Chapter 1254: Ten Minutes to War

Capítulo 1254: Ten Minutes to War

“Henry—can you fix his arm?” Ethan asked, looking over at Henry.

Henry shook his head. “If the arm was still here, I could. But like this? No. My healing ability isn’t at the level where I can regrow severed limbs.”

“There’s one more way,” Henry added, thinking out loud. “We could chop off a fresh arm and attach it. But it might not… match right.”

“It’s fine. No need.” Calvin was surprisingly calm about it. He lifted the stump a little like it was just part of the conversation. “This is good enough. I’m keeping it as a reminder.”

“Good. As long as you’ve figured that out.” Ethan patted Calvin on the shoulder.

“Yeah.”

“Don’t worry, Calvin,” Henry said, trying to reassure him. “If my ability evolves again, I might be able to regrow limbs. It’s not impossible.”

“Really?” Calvin’s eyes flashed with hope.

If you could be whole, who the hell wanted to spend the rest of their life as a one-armed fighter?

“Really,” Henry said confidently. “My power’s insane. As long as you’re loyal to Fallen Star City, that day won’t be far off.”

“Relax. I’m not the kind of guy who forgets a debt,” Calvin said, voice hard as steel. “You pulled me out of hell, and you even let me join Fallen Star City. From now on, this life of mine belongs to Fallen Star City.”

“Yeah,” Ethan said, nodding. “That, I believe.”

Looking at Calvin now, Ethan figured the guy would probably put up a solid score in the Celestial Stairway trials later.

Calvin’s ability was strong. And after what he’d been through, his mindset had been tempered, sharpened. Even if he was only at peak Tier 9 right now, he was still good enough to slot into the second echelon.

In Fallen Star City, raw strength had never been the only measuring stick. If Ethan wanted someone to rise, that person would rise fast.

For him, getting a stack of Tier 10 crystal cores was basically child’s play.

“Oh—Miles,” Ethan said, remembering something. “Calvin said the Fallen Star Guard saved him when they attacked Stonebridge City’s compound. Weren’t they supposed to be out there clearing zombies? How’d they end up fighting a compound instead?”

Miles chuckled like it was no big deal. “Their leader took a liking to our Fallen Star Guard. Couldn’t get what he wanted, got mad, came to Fallen Star City to snatch people. So I just… took their compound while I was at it.”

Ethan nodded. So someone really had been dumb enough to come sniffing around Fallen Star City.

“By the way—how many people were in Stonebridge City compound?”

“A little over three hundred thousand.”

Ethan’s expression went a bit strained. “Uh… two more compounds want to join us too. Together they’re around six hundred thousand. They’re planning to migrate over in the next couple days. Add Stonebridge on top of that and we’re pushing a million people. Fallen Star City might be a little… small for that.”

He honestly hadn’t expected Miles to quietly swallow an entire compound without saying a word.

Fallen Star City was big—housing a few hundred thousand was fine. But a million? No chance.

Miles blinked, genuinely caught off guard.

The commander had been gone for how long, and he’d come back with that many people?

Still, Miles was Miles. He recovered fast, brain already spinning up a solution.

“A million-plus moving directly into Fallen Star City won’t work,” Miles said. “Let’s build a second major compound in Harrison City. Keep Fallen Star City as-is, as the core backline. Anyone coming over from those other compounds can settle in Harrison City instead.”

“Harrison City is only about sixty miles from Redwood County, so it’s easy to manage,” he continued. “And we’ve already cleared out the zombies over there. We can start construction immediately.”

Ethan’s eyes lit up. “That’s actually a great call. Do it.”

“Alright. I’ll get it moving in a bit.”

“Mm.”

“Oh, right.” Ethan pulled out two manuals he’d looted from the Void Realm and handed them over. “Miles—check these two out. What are they?”

This kind of ancient language was basically Miles’s specialty. Ethan had stared at it until his eyes hurt and still couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

The moment Miles saw the manuals, he perked up like someone had just handed him treasure. He took them and started reading with real focus.

After a while, his expression shifted—surprised, then outright pleased.

“These are good,” he said. “One’s an Energy Absorption Technique. The other is a Ritual Circle Compendium.”

“Ritual Circle Compendium?” Henry immediately leaned forward, interested. “Come on—translate it. Let me see.”

“You’re in a hurry for what?” Miles shot him an annoyed look. “I’m interested too, but translation isn’t exactly instant.”

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After that, Miles ignored everyone, holding the two manuals like his life depended on them, completely absorbed.

Ethan shook his head, amused, and didn’t bother him. He led the others out of the room.

This time, Ethan planned to stay in Fallen Star City for a while.

His strength had jumped too fast—he needed time to settle it, to stabilize. And it was a good chance to really get familiar with how Fallen Star City had changed.

Honestly… it was kind of embarrassing.

For a commander, he barely knew his own city.

Nova City…

As one of the major compounds, Nova City compound also had a population of over two million.

But unlike some places, Nova City compound hadn’t fully cleared the zombies out of Nova City itself.

The reason was simple: Nova City’s population base was just too massive—close to fifteen million, even higher than Atlas City’s.

And Nova City’s military, in both manpower and firepower, couldn’t compare to Atlas City’s either. Being able to clear even half the city was already impressive.

That was only possible because Nova City’s leader, Rowan Pierce, had been farsighted. He’d picked the compound’s location well. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been able to gain a foothold in Nova City at all.

After the compound was established, Rowan played it steady, steadily pushing outward and clearing the area around the compound—bit by bit, grinding down the zombie numbers.

But there were simply too many zombies in Nova City. Completely wiping them out was never going to be easy.

This time in Atlas City, Rowan had traded for a large number of high-tier crystal cores, sharply boosting the strength of Nova City’s Enhanced.

He’d honestly believed that would finally let them take the city back.

And then, today, he received very bad news.

Several Yamato Empire warships were sailing toward the Atlas Federation.

And their target was Nova City.

Rowan was instantly furious.

Those Yamato bastards were actually eyeing Nova City? Trying to replay their last sneak attack?

Rowan made the call without hesitation—he sent out a suicide squad to lure a massive wave of zombies to the shoreline to wait for them.

At that moment, in the central conference room of the compound, General Rowan Pierce was marking something out on a holographic sand table.

“How far out are the ships?”

“General, only seven nautical miles!”

“So they’ll be here in… ten minutes or so?”

“Based on their speed, yes!”

“Are the Super-Heavy Mobile Artillery Platforms ready?”

“Ready!”

“Good.” Rowan’s voice went cold. “Once they get close to the coast, sink their ships first. Let them go feed the sharks.”

“Yes, sir!”

After the soldier left, another senior compound official frowned, clearly puzzled. “General… aren’t we overdoing it a little? Zombies and Super-Heavy Mobile Artillery Platforms? That’s giving those Yamato guys way too much credit, isn’t it?”

Rowan glanced at him, then slowly shook his head.

“Never underestimate your enemy. Those Yamato bastards are slippery. If they didn’t have something up their sleeve, they wouldn’t send warships into Atlas Federation waters under conditions like this.”

“According to Atlas City, they sent over more than ten ships. A lot of them got smashed to pieces by mutant beasts on the way.”

“Paying that kind of price just to reach us…” Rowan’s eyes narrowed. “If you think there isn’t a plot behind this, you’re kidding yourself.”

“So this time, we treat it like it matters.”

The official’s expression sobered. “You’re right.”

“Keep the Recon Team on full alert,” Rowan ordered. “Anything at all—report back immediately.”

“Yes, sir!”