"I’ll count to three," the cold voice in the sky said again. "If you still don’t move... you can go keep these Minotaurs company."

"Dig!" Graham shouted, cutting in.

Humiliation was written all over his face too. But if swallowing his pride meant more people would live, he had no choice.

At his order, the Enhanced—furious and unwilling—still clenched their jaws and got to work, ripping crystal cores out of Minotaur skulls with shaking hands.

In that moment, they hated themselves for being weak.

If they were just a little stronger—if they could’ve even managed to hurt the enemy—then they would’ve fought to the death without hesitation.

But reality was cruel.

Even the Minotaurs couldn’t stand up to these Void Realm beings. How could they possibly shake them?

It didn’t take long. The crowd down below dug out every crystal core, and a few squad leaders gathered them together. Faces tight with pain, they carried the haul up to the Void Realm beings.

The leader took one glance at the pile, then his expression turned colder.

"The count’s wrong."

He lifted a hand.

Several streaks of light dropped.

The squad leaders died on the spot.

"!!!"

A jolt of shock ran through everyone. Then the anger hit—hot and immediate, twisting their faces.

"All the crystal cores are here!" the captain in charge of counting shouted, so furious his features warped. "We didn’t hide a single one. How is it wrong?!"

"There were fifty thousand two hundred and five Minotaurs," the lead Void Realm being said, staring at him like he was dirt. "But there are only forty-seven thousand two hundred and twenty-nine crystal cores here. Tell me—is that a problem or not?"

"Some of them were killed by us!" the captain snapped, voice breaking with rage. "We fought for those—"

"I don’t care who killed them." The man’s tone didn’t rise. It didn’t need to. "All crystal cores get handed over. If even one is missing, you all get buried. I’m not saying it twice."

"Fuck you!" The captain finally exploded.

Pfft—

A beam of light shot out.

The captain’s head burst apart.

"Give them to them," Graham said, his hand lifting in a trembling, helpless gesture.

Those crystal cores really were bought with blood. With lives.

But what did that matter now?

To stay alive, they had to hand them over.

In the end, the low-tier Enhanced who’d been collecting cores could only grit their teeth and surrender every last one they had.

This time, once the count matched, the Void Realm beings finally nodded in satisfaction. They put the crystal cores away, then rose in a smooth, effortless motion, flying to the top of the wall. The light-wings folded and vanished as they landed.

"You’re the leader of these humans?" the young man at the front asked, looking down at Graham with a chill in his eyes.

"Yes." Graham forced himself to nod.

"Good. We’ll be staying here for a while. Arrange the best lodgings for us. And explain this world’s situation in detail."

He paused, then added like it was the most natural thing in the world:

"I’ve also heard humans are good at cooking. Starting tomorrow, you’ll serve us the best food every day."

Graham wanted to say something—anything.

But the words died in his throat.

He could only nod again.

"Alright."

Fallen Star City...

While Ethan and the others were still fighting elsewhere, Fallen Star City was welcoming its own visitors—an incoming force more than ten thousand strong.

Fallen Star City was too close to Riverton City compound. Even though Ethan and his group had intercepted two races, other races had come in from a different direction, winding around until they finally reached Fallen Star City anyway.

At the gate, Miles stood atop the wall, staring coldly as more than ten thousand figures sprinted toward them.

A moment later, the newcomers slowed as they drew near, faces shifting into surprise as they took in the dense crowd of people gathered before Fallen Star City.

But the instant Miles saw who they were, heat slammed through him.

He recognized these Void Realm creatures.

They were the same ugly bastards who’d attacked back in Redwood County—the ones who had killed Blizzard and the others.

"Ha! Humans!" A pack of Bloodfang Orcs sneered at the people ahead of them, contempt written all over their faces. "Weak little ants!"

Back on the Eldoria continent, the Bloodfang Orcs were a bottom-tier race. Their looks were so ugly they were constantly trampled and humiliated by stronger races.

So the second they saw humans—something even weaker than them—their confidence inflated like a balloon, swelling into something wild and mean.

Miles looked at those ugly creatures and curled his lip into a cold smile.

"Go get the white-furred apes," he said. "It’s time for them to take their revenge."

"Yes, sir!"

Someone immediately sprinted deeper into the compound.

One of the Bloodfang Orc elites stepped forward, voice swollen with arrogance.

"Human trash, I’ll give you a chance. Kneel down and become my slaves—or I’ll slaughter this whole city!"

Maybe it was years of being stepped on that made them desperate to claw back some pride. Either way, the way they talked was beyond obnoxious.

Miles didn’t even blink. "You? Do you honestly think you’ve got that kind of ability?"

Then his voice snapped across the wall like a whip.

"Fallen Star Corps—form up!"

As soon as the words landed, the Enhanced in front split apart, flowing to the sides like a curtain being pulled back.

A hundred thousand Fallen Star Corps soldiers surged out of the city in a black tide, moving fast and clean. In seconds, they’d surrounded the ten-thousand-plus Bloodfang Orcs in a tightening ring.

The Bloodfang Orcs’ expressions changed.

To bait them in, Miles had deliberately stationed only low-tier Enhanced outside the walls—none above Stage B.

The Bloodfang Orcs might’ve been bottom-feeders on the Eldoria continent, but their average strength was still above Stage B.

Their problem was talent. Bloodfang Orcs had an incredibly hard time breaking into Stage A, which was exactly why they were the lowest of the low back home.

So when they’d seen humans who were all below Stage B, they’d gotten cocky.

Now—

Now a hundred thousand Tier 22 humans had appeared out of nowhere, and the Bloodfang Orcs went dead stupid.

Back in the Bharat Republic, Ethan had slaughtered a massive number of mutated scorpions that had come out of the Void Realm. He’d harvested hundreds of thousands of Tier 22 crystal cores—and after he returned, he handed them over to Miles.

So while Ethan and the others were in the training complex grinding through special training, Miles had pushed the entire Fallen Star Corps up to Tier 22. The extra crystal cores were traded to the other major compounds.

Truthfully, Fallen Star City’s supplies were already more than enough. The reason Miles traded anyway was simple—he wanted to help.

It wasn’t really their usual way of doing things. But once you reached their position, the way you looked at the world changed. Miles didn’t want the Atlas Federation to be reduced to a single surviving city.

That said, help only went as far as it didn’t cut into their own lifeline.

Right now, Fallen Star City was the core of the Atlas Federation. If Fallen Star City fell, there was no "federation" left to save.

So every upgrade came to Fallen Star City first. Only by concentrating power could they squeeze out the maximum combat strength.

These ten thousand Bloodfang Orcs were all between Stage B and Stage A—Tier 18 to Tier 23.

So the moment they saw a hundred thousand Tier 22 humans, they didn’t just lose their arrogance.

They lost their breath.

The leader swallowed hard and forced a stiff smile up at Miles on the wall.

"Uh... hey. Misunderstanding. We were just passing through. We’ll leave right now."

Miles gave a soft, humorless laugh.

"Leave...?" His eyes narrowed. "Yeah, that’s not happening."