Over the next stretch of time, Ethan and the others settled into a brutal, satisfying rhythm.

During the day, they went out hunting red-skinned monsters.

At night, they returned to the compound, lay under the open sky, stared at the stars, and absorbed that mysterious energy.

Busy. Productive. Almost peaceful, in its own apocalyptic way.

After Ethan hit Stage B, killing red-skinned monsters stopped being a "send Dopey" situation. Ethan could bully them himself—no suspense, no struggle. Just clean, efficient violence.

And the more they killed, the more high-tier crystal cores piled up in their hands.

Red-skinned monsters started at Tier 16 minimum, which meant every core they got was Tier 16 or higher.

Chris and the others still couldn’t directly use Tier 16 crystal cores yet—but that didn’t mean the cores were useless.

Ethan, being Ethan, did something ridiculously extravagant: he used Tier 16 crystal cores to power the ritual circle and boost the mysterious energy density for cultivation.

And the effect was... obscene.

The mysterious energy got several times thicker, which made everyone’s tier-up speed jump hard.

The only problem was, it was kind of a waste.

A Tier 16 core could draw in a huge amount of energy, but most of them were still around Tier 14. They simply couldn’t absorb fast enough. A lot of that energy bled off and got squandered.

Normally, that kind of loss would make anyone sick.

But Ethan didn’t care.

If wasting some efficiency meant the whole team climbed faster, then it was worth it.

Day after day, they cleared out every red-skinned monster location Rowan had provided.

After that, it turned into a daily search.

Of course, Nova City compound wasn’t sitting around either. Every day, they sent out large numbers of scouts and drones to hunt for new sightings.

They found some almost every day.

And almost every day, they paid for it in bodies.

For recon teams, searching for red-skinned monsters was basically a death lottery. If you got spotted, you were dead. Period.

But there was no alternative. Nova City’s territory was too big. If Ethan’s small group tried to search it alone, it would take forever.

Meanwhile, the world outside slid into a "stable" phase of development.

Small and mid-sized compounds kept disappearing. At this point, you could barely find any out in the wild—either they’d been wiped out, or they’d been absorbed into something bigger.

Zombies kept evolving. Zombie tides kept getting larger.

Everybody understood the truth now: merging was the only path to survival. Whether you liked it or not, you had to consolidate.

As the smaller compounds vanished, more major compounds emerged.

By now, only major compounds could reliably withstand a true zombie tide. Even a "large" compound struggled.

After all the swallowing and merging, The Atlas Federation’s power map started to solidify. Along with it came compiled intel dossiers—detailed breakdowns of the major factions.

The most recent file listed every major compound still standing inside Atlas Federation territory:

The Atlas Federation — Major Compound Rankings (Latest)

#1: Fallen Star City

Population: 3.8 million

Location: Silverlake City

Commander: Ethan Cole

Faction Profile: Largest population. Strongest overall combat power. Shocking numbers of high-tier Awakened and Enhanced.

Top Combat Force: Fallen Star Squad — strength cannot be measured; estimated no lower than Tier 15.

Threat Level: ★★★★★★★★★★

Assessment: Extremely aggressive. Holds grudges. Don’t provoke them. If you do, you’re done.

#2: Atlas City Compound

Population: 4.0 million

Location: Atlas City

Administrator: General Maxwell Kane

Faction Profile: The Atlas Federation’s core compound. Strongest firepower. Highest-level research teams. Many high-tier Awakened and Enhanced.

Top Combat Force: Task Force Fang — 100-person unit, all members Tier 10.

Threat Level: ★★★★

Assessment: Federation central command. Don’t cross the line and you’ll be fine.

#3: Clearford City

Population: 1.4 million

Location: Clearford City

Administrator: General Adrian Cross

Faction Profile: Federation compound established by the military. Early on gained major resources due to Fallen Star Squad’s help. Population isn’t huge, but combat power is strong—over a thousand Tier 9 Enhanced.

Threat Level: ★★★

Assessment: Military-run. Disciplined. By the book.

Other Major Compounds (7 total)

Nova City Compound — Population: 2.3 million — Location: Nova City — Administrator: General Rowan Pierce — Federation compound

Heartland City Compound — Population: 1.8 million — Location: Heartland City — Administrator: Graham Holloway — Multi-compound merger, led by an Awakened

Goldcrest City Compound — Population: 1.6 million — Location: Goldcrest City — Administrator: Damien Caldwell — Federation compound

Ironhaven City Compound — Population: 1.5 million — Location: Ironhaven City — Administrator: Roland Merceridge — Federation compound

Rivergate City Compound — Population: 1.4 million — Location: Rivergate City — Administrator: Tobias Wainwright — Semi-official compound

Stonepeak City Compound — Population: 1.2 million — Location: Stonepeak City — Commander: Oliver Grant — Private compound

Crownfall City Compound — Population: 1.2 million — Location: Crownfall City — Administrator: Edmund Fletcher — Federation compound

The report was new—freshly circulated—and it covered every major compound currently operating inside The Atlas Federation’s borders.

When people saw the number-one slot, a lot of them just stared.

Everyone assumed Atlas City would be first.

Nobody expected it to be anything else.

A lot of people doubted the ranking the moment it spread.

In their minds, there was no way it could be real. Somebody had to be trying to stir trouble for Fallen Star City. Atlas City was the capital of The Atlas Federation—how could they possibly allow another compound to outrank them?

But what happened next stunned everyone.

After the data went public, Atlas City... didn’t react at all.

No denial. No rebuttal. Not even a token statement.

Like they were silently acknowledging the list was accurate.

That only confused people more. The ones who actually understood Fallen Star City, though, weren’t surprised.

If anything, Atlas City’s response was the only sensible one.

With the ten major compounds entering a stable development phase, Atlas City didn’t interfere. They even distributed a translated version of the Energy Absorption Technique, passing it down so everyone could learn the method and raise their strength.

At the same time, Atlas City publicly encouraged nearby compounds to form mutual-aid relationships—if one got hit, the others were expected to support them.

It was obvious Atlas City had finally let go of the obsession with controlling the entire Atlas Federation, and switched to a strategy of shared growth.

In the apocalypse, total control was a fantasy anyway.

Let everyone develop on their own—so long as the people in charge weren’t depraved tyrants.

If a compound really did end up under some twisted, lawless ruler, then Atlas City wouldn’t sit back and watch.

Between Atlas City’s synthetic crystal core tech and the widespread adoption of the Energy Absorption Technique, humanity’s overall combat power slowly started catching up to the zombies.

At the very least, when zombie tides hit, most major compounds could hold the line now.

For a while, everything seemed like it was moving in the right direction.

On the zombie side, it was almost like they were stockpiling power. They weren’t attacking major compounds. If they found small or mid-sized compounds, they hit those. If there weren’t any left, they gathered up and occupied major cities instead.

Like they were waiting.

Waiting for what, nobody knew.

As for the Fallen Star Squad...

After more than a month of nonstop hunting, they finally wiped out every red-skinned monster that had landed inside Atlas Federation territory this time.

A lot of the Infernals had already drifted away from Nova City, but they’d gone on rampages elsewhere—so Ethan and the others tracked them down and finished the job.

Rowan’s side had been keeping a running count of the Infernals. Ethan did the math, checked the numbers, and confirmed it:

This wave was completely cleared.

The haul was massive.

In total—counting what Ethan had already used—they collected:

384 Tier 16 crystal cores

165 Tier 17 crystal cores

8 Tier 18 crystal cores

It was a clean, brutal harvest.

Once Chris and the others reached Tier 15 peak, the Fallen Star Squad could start pushing toward a future where everyone reached Stage B.

And in just over a month—thanks to that absurdly wasteful method of using Tier 16 cores to power the ritual circle and supercharge mysterious energy—everyone’s strength had jumped hard.

Ethan was already at Stage B peak.

Chris had reached Tier 15.

The others had been stuck at Tier 14 peak for several days now, right on the edge.

At this pace, a full squad of Tier 15 peak wasn’t far off.

The problem was the Tier 18 cores.

There were only eight.

Ethan had eaten one, leaving seven—nowhere near enough to push everyone to Stage B.

So if he wanted more Tier 18 cores, he’d have to go looking for more red-skinned monsters himself.

Rowan had also shared something else: based on intel, these red-skinned monsters had crawled out after a volcanic eruption at Mount Fuji. They were called "Infernals." And they’d arrived on Yamato Empire warships.

That settled it.

Ethan was going to the Yamato Empire.

One, to hunt down more Infernals.

Two... because Yamato had the nerve to steer disaster-class monsters into Atlas Federation territory. That wasn’t an "accident." That was intent.

And if they wanted to play that game—

Then Ethan was going to make sure they paid for it.