"What about the other Enhanced?" Ethan asked again.

"They’re doing pretty well too," Miles said. "With Fallen Star City backing them, crystal cores aren’t an issue. Anything below Tier 20, they can trade points for. And since we were the first compound to build a real training complex, their strength is way ahead of most other places."

He paused, then added more cautiously, "But if you really throw them against Void Realm creatures... it’s still a question mark. Low-Tier enemies, maybe. Anything higher, we’ll still have to rely on ourselves."

Ethan nodded. "Let them grow on their own. If any squads show real talent, we can pull them in and cultivate them."

"Got it."

"Then eat," Ethan said, finally relaxing back into the chair. "After we rest tonight, we’re back to the training complex tomorrow."

"Yeah."

The meal dragged on for more than two hours. When it finally ended, Ethan left with Mia to get some rest. Everyone else split off too—each of them heading to find their own partner.

Ethan’s talk about the Void Realm had lit a fire under the whole table. That kind of pressure had a way of making people think of unfinished business.

If there was something you hadn’t done yet...

Tonight was as good a night as any.

Outside, the night was pitch-black and the wind was sharp. Fallen Star City felt like it was soaked in hormones.

After that, they threw themselves back into absorbing mysterious energy and raising their Tiers.

A month later, Ethan stepped into Tier 25, and Miles finally broke through to Stage A.

Without crystal cores, relying on pure cultivation only got slower and slower the higher you climbed.

Even with the energy crystals and the ritual circle boosting efficiency, even with Ethan absorbing mysterious energy day and night, it still took him over a month just to climb a single Tier.

And that was with every advantage.

It wasn’t hard to imagine what Stage A would look like without those supports. If all you could do was absorb mysterious energy during the brief window each night when the Nine-Star Dipper appeared... you’d be lucky to gain a Tier in a year.

Two more months passed, and the rest of Fallen Star Squad reached Tier 25 one after another.

Around the same time, Fallen Star Squad’s second echelon also started stepping into Stage A.

That second team was ten people as well: Calvin, Vivian, Grace, Chloe, Skye, Iris, Aurora—and three handpicked elites drawn from the Fallen Star Guard.

All ten were Awakened too.

Their breakthroughs raised Fallen Star City’s overall combat power by a noticeable margin.

Meanwhile, the Fallen Star Guard as a whole had reached the peak of Tier 23. Before long, they’d start breaking through in batches.

And it wasn’t just the humans.

The five white-furred apes had already hit Stage A ahead of everyone else. Ember—the leader of the Flamebirds—had also broken through to Stage A.

By this point, Fallen Star City had built up a frightening number of Stage A powerhouses.

But in those same two-plus months, the outside world hadn’t been quiet.

Ironhaven City compound and Stonepeak City compound each suffered a siege by a zombie tide of more than ten million.

Atlas City had been tracking zombie movements, but sometimes the dead gathered too fast—by the time anyone noticed, the swarm was already at critical mass.

Both compounds took heavy losses.

Fortunately, Fallen Star City intervened and crushed the tides.

On top of that, Highspring City compound in Serravale State was hit by an enormous mutant beast siege.

This one was worse.

It nearly wiped Highspring City off the map.

Serravale State was mountainous, and mutant beasts were everywhere. Normally, they kept each other in check—predators and prey, territory and instinct—so humans weren’t their main concern.

But this time, for reasons nobody understood yet, the mountains erupted.

Mutant beasts poured down in a frenzy and slammed into Highspring City compound with savage force.

The attack came too suddenly. Highspring City’s Enhanced fought back with everything they had, but against that many mutant beasts, it was like trying to hold back an avalanche with their bare hands.

Mutant beasts were terrifying even one-on-one.

In packs, they were a nightmare.

By the time reinforcements from the major compounds arrived, Highspring City compound was already a slaughterhouse—blood everywhere, corpses layered over rubble.

In the end, with Fallen Star City and the other major compounds joining forces, they managed to drive the mutant beasts back.

But that battle still rang an alarm bell in every survivor’s skull:

Mutant beasts could organize too. They could siege a city.

Just because the zombie pressure had eased didn’t mean anyone could afford to ignore what was out there.

During the aftermath at Highspring City compound, Maxwell told them there was no point rebuilding. They were to merge directly into Goldcrest City.

At the same time, Maxwell issued an official notice: nearby compounds would begin merging with each other.

Right now, the Atlas Federation still had thirteen major compounds. Each one held millions of people—but plenty of them simply didn’t have the ability to withstand truly catastrophic disasters.

Merging compounds could lead to resource shortages, sure, but it would massively increase security.

Merging every compound into one was unrealistic. But merging neighboring compounds? That was doable.

Zombie numbers had dropped sharply. If a few nearby compounds cleared the routes between them, they could reduce casualties to the minimum during relocation.

However, the moment Maxwell’s order went out, the leaders of the major compounds pushed back almost immediately.

It wasn’t hard to see why.

Inside their own compounds, they were kings in everything but title. Authority. Resources. People lining up to obey them. Lives most survivors could only dream about.

But once the compounds merged, that power would shrink overnight. Some of them might even end up taking orders from someone else.

Of course they didn’t want that.

This time, though, Maxwell’s stance was brutally firm.

He’d seen Highspring City’s ruins with his own eyes. And he couldn’t forget what Miles had told him: the Void Realm passage might reopen within the next few months. When that happened, the next wave of threats would make zombie tides look like warm-ups.

With the Atlas Federation split into more than a dozen compounds, almost none of them could truly handle Void Realm creatures.

Only by concentrating their strength did they have a real chance to survive.

If they could merge those thirteen major compounds into four or five, Maxwell could allocate a few laser cannons to each one. He could also trade supplies with Fallen Star City for higher-Tier crystal cores, then use those cores to cultivate several high-Tier Enhanced per compound.

That would raise their odds—by a lot.

And even if a major disaster hit, fewer compounds meant reinforcements could arrive faster, with less chaos and fewer blind spots.

So this time, no matter how loudly the other compounds complained, Maxwell stayed set on merging. He even released a concrete plan.

Highspring City compound and Stonepeak City compound would merge into Goldcrest City.

Nova City and Lakehaven City would merge into Clearford City compound.

Ironhaven City and Ironvale City would merge into Atlas City compound.

Crownfall City compound and Rivergate City compound would merge into Heartland City compound.

Fallen Star City wouldn’t move. There was no need—it would remain independent.

Once the plan went public, resistance flared everywhere.

This wasn’t a small policy tweak. It was the Atlas Federation’s entire power structure shifting.

Relocating millions of people was an insane engineering project.

And once you relocated, everything you’d built up in your home compound—your operations, your networks, your "territory"—would basically be wiped clean.

After moving, food, housing, jobs... all of it would become problems overnight. How could a receiving compound possibly absorb several million extra people instantly?

So as soon as the notice hit, almost no one wanted to budge.

My compound’s fine. My life’s fine. Who are you to tell me to uproot everything?

Then Fallen Star City spoke up.

"We support General Kane’s decision. Merging is for survival. If any compound refuses to relocate, Fallen Star City’s surrounding hundred million zombies will pay them a visit."

One sentence.

That was all it took.

Every major compound went dead silent—then immediately exploded into panic.

"Move. Right now. Start moving!"

And so, while Ethan and his people stayed locked inside the training complex, absorbing mysterious energy and grinding their Tiers higher...

The Atlas Federation’s major compounds threw themselves into mass migration.

The compounds receiving them weren’t having an easy time either. They had to figure out housing and feeding millions of new mouths, and they had to start expanding their walls and infrastructure immediately.

Everyone was drowning in work.

Everyone...

Except Fallen Star City.