Republic Reborn: Against the Stars and Stripes - Chapter 73: Sta. Cruz

They call him Ghost.A name whispered in fear across warzones, black markets, and underworld circles.To the world, he's a phantom—a faceless mercenary who leaves no trace but bodies in his wake.To his enemies, he’s a death sentence.To his brothers-in-arms in Graveyard, he’s family.But to himself... he's a haunted man searching for a past stolen in gunfire and smoke.After a flawless mission deep in the Eastern Province, Ghost returns to the hidden forest base he's called home for sixteen years. Yet the victory is short-lived. His foster father, the commander delivers an unexpected order:“That was your last mission.”Now, Ghost—real name Miles Sterling—must step out of the shadows of war and into a world he’s never known. Guided only by a scarred letter, a fading memory, and the voice of a woman he hasn’t seen since the day everything was taken from him.But war forged more than his body and name.Behind the mask, behind the scars, Miles has another secret.One he’s kept hidden even from his brothers in arms.He’s not just a weapon.He’s a ghost with a fortune—a hidden empire he built in silence, across borders and black markets, forged in strategy and blood.A man of many names, and many shadows.Beneath the bullets, tattoos, and silence lies a truth buried in ashes.And Ghost is about to dig it up—one letter, one enemy, one memory at a time.

Elyzara Thorne was just an ordinary woman until she died in the dumbest way possible. One moment she was walking down the street, the next, she was choking on a piece of candy and face-planting into the afterlife. Before she could even process her own stupidity, a snarky system appeared and dumped her into the body of a newborn baby.Sounds bad? Oh, it gets worse.Her new moms are the most terrifying tyrants the world has ever seen two ridiculously powerful empresses who rule with an iron fist, burn cities for fun, and make their enemies weep in fear. The entire kingdom is one bad day away from rebellion, and Elyzara’s new mission (whether she likes it or not) is to stop these two overpowered warlords from getting themselves overthrown.The problem?• She’s a literal infant.• Her moms worship the ground she drools on and think she’s the best thing since world domination.• Everyone around her is scared shitless of her “divine presence,” making diplomacy nearly impossible.Can Elyzara stop her bloodthirsty parents from committing war crimes before she’s old enough to walk? Or is she doomed to be the adorable mascot of tyranny?

The day a mysterious darkness enshrouded the world. It was theorized that the earth’s magnetic field had been changed, the data that corresponded to it also changed. The previous academic knowledge had been overturned, and numerous things had to be re-explored.

The science that humanity was familiar with had been disrupted, including the genes of human beings. One of the largest disasters brought by the change was that 80% of humanity transformed into zombies. After years of struggling, a few lucky survivors would evolve and awaken a power inside themselves. Chu Han was never that lucky.

While holding on against the first wave, humans weren’t the only ones getting stronger. Soon, stage 1 zombies evolved into stage 2 then 3 and so on. 10 years after the mysterious meltdown, the world of man belonged to the zombies. Humanity was nearing the of the end of the eschatology.

One day, Chu Han consciousness came back ten years before the end of the world came. He was awakened by a loud noise in a dormitory in Minqiu University. With only 1 day to prepare before the meltdown begins, he slowly begins to realised that he had undergone a rebirth. A power was awaking inside of him now despite never appearing in the hellish future. It calls itself the meltdown system.

Despite losing the monstrous strength gained through years of harsh training, this system claims to trade kills for talents. This is a story of a collapsing world, a meltdown system, and Chu Han being on stage as he travels to save those he could not save before.

- Description from Novelupdates

Even after knowing what came next....I still accepted.A deal with the devil herself.A devil, in the form of a goddess.I accepted a life that I knew wouldn't end well, a life that was worse off than the very curel one I already lived.But I still choose to do it.I chose to become the villain.