Just from the fact that Shannon Stone was willing to stay and face death, Zoe Pierce knew that threatening her with conventional thods wouldn’t get them what they wanted.
The woman wasn’t afraid of death.
She was clearly dissatisfied with the higher-ups—first, she had a public argunt with her colleague, and now, at the final mont, she had chosen to defy a direct order and remain behind.
Shannon Stone had her own principles and convictions.
That conviction was strong enough to let her face death without fear.
And the way to get her to talk was to make her understand, in no uncertain terms, that Planet B36 was no longer the place she thought it was.
"I felt it the mont I arrived on this planet. The Betas here don’t like Alphas and Ogas." Zoe Pierce brushed a branch out of her way. "It’s nearly everyone. They’re all smiles on the surface, but underneath, it feels like they don’t even see us."
"I just figured everyone on your planet was that arrogant."
She put special emphasis on the word "arrogant."
Behind her, Erin Xavier and Miles Sherman listened quietly to Zoe Pierce.
At first, they thought Zoe Pierce was just trying to make small talk. But the mont she opened her mouth, they knew this was anything but.
Because after she spoke, the expression on Shannon Stone’s face changed noticeably.
"If you think that’s arrogant, then I can only say you’re far too sensitive," Shannon Stone said coolly.
Zoe Pierce was unfazed by the rebuttal. "I’m just saying what I saw. Soone was bullying an Alpha boy, and nobody spoke up for him."
"So when I saw you defy a military order, I thought you were different."
This "sighting" was a fabrication, sothing Zoe Pierce had constructed from what Julian Chambers had told her. Yet, it wasn’t entirely a lie. "He was holding a test with a perfect score. They threw it on the ground and stepped on it, a group of Betas surrounding him, mocking him."
"I walked over, and I could tell they only backed off because I was an adult."
Zoe Pierce tilted her head slightly, eting Shannon Stone’s gaze. "Whatever it is you people are trying to do, I think this part of it... is rotten to the core."
Shannon Stone looked as though she had been dealt a heavy blow. She seed completely lost for a mont.
"We just want to investigate Arthur White. We have no desire to interfere in the affairs of Planet B36." Zoe Pierce spotted a flat patch of ground ahead and walked toward it. "That young Alpha told it wasn’t the first ti. He asked what he’d done wrong. Why were his own parents so cold to him? Why did his classmates bully him? Why did it seem like he was wrong just for being born?"
Her voice grew heavier with each question, as if she were channeling the young Alpha’s despair.
Then, her emotion abruptly cut off. She let out a soft sigh. "But seeing this place... I still can’t help but feel furious."
"I asked him, ’You’re an Alpha. You have spiritual power. You can fight back. Why don’t you?’"
"He told that spiritual power is ant for protecting people, not for hurting them."
"And he’s just a child."
He understood that power was for protecting what you cherish, not for harming your classmates.
And yet, the very people he wanted to protect were the ones stabbing him in the back.
The young woman’s tone was conversational, but every word she spoke was a sharp blade aid straight at Shannon Stone.
She instinctively wanted to object, but when she thought about the actions of the higher-ups in recent years, a chill ran down her spine. Because it all felt horrifyingly plausible.
The group ca to a halt. More and more chas were gathering in the sky, and they could hear the sound of their thrusters drawing nearer.
"He... never mind. You probably don’t want to hear it." Zoe Pierce stopped short. It wasn’t just Shannon Stone; even Miles Sherman and Erin Xavier had been completely drawn in. The abrupt cutoff was an agonizing itch they couldn’t scratch.
Shannon Stone took the bait. "What happened to him?"
Zoe Pierce glanced at her. "Tell about Arthur White."
The gambit was revealed.
Compared to Erin Xavier’s earlier questions, Zoe Pierce’s words had shaken Shannon Stone to her core.
Shannon Stone stared at Zoe Pierce’s face. The most captivating thing about the young woman right now wasn’t her overall appearance, but her eyes. They were so bright they were almost searing, making it impossible to look away.
The young woman looked at her and said, "I want to know everything about Arthur White. I may not get to et him this ti, but I won’t give up. I want to know what really happened. I want to know if my parents’ deaths are connected to him."
"I’m asking you. Begging you. Please, tell . Even the smallest piece of information would be an enormous help to ."
Just as Shannon Stone had her convictions, so did Zoe Pierce. Ever since she consciously realized she had likely been reincarnated into this world from birth, she had been desperate to learn the truth.
If she had started over from scratch, with amnesia erasing her mories of her past life on Earth, it might have been a blessing. She could have started a new life without a second thought.
But that wasn’t how it was.
She rembered her life on Earth with clarity, and she had a hazy mory of being loved. That’s why she was so fixated—fixated on her parents’ deaths, fixated on becoming stronger.
She never wanted to be caught defenseless and vulnerable again.
In Zoe Pierce’s eyes, Shannon Stone saw her unyielding determination.
For an Oga to personally venture into a strange place—the territory of the man who likely murdered her parents—took imnse courage.
She finally relented. "I don’t know that much about Arthur White."
"He’s not from Planet B36. It was more than ten years ago." Shannon Stone looked up at the sky, which was already beginning to lighten. "Twelve years ago, to be exact. He appeared after the Xenobeast Tide."
"I don’t know the specifics of the agreent he made with the higher-ups, but I do know that the reconstruction of Planet B36 after the Xenobeast Tide was largely thanks to him."
"I’ve only seen him once."
Shannon Stone recalled the eting. "It was seven or eight years ago. He showed up at the hospital after the first batch of test subjects failed."
That was the only ti she ever saw him.
"If you know him through the Energy Mine, that would make sense. He was responsible for the Energy Mine on Planet B36. Eighty percent of it was provided by him."
As a doctor, there were so things you just couldn’t hide from . For instance, the growing number of Betas dying because of the experints, all of them, without exception, from brain death.
And even the ones who didn’t die are still with us now, living in a vegetative state.
In that state, they probably won’t last much longer. Their lives are like paper—tear it just a little, and it rips completely.
Fragile and thin.
Shannon Stone leaned her back against a rock. "I don’t believe you’re completely in the dark."
"With chas swarming the sky, only a blind person wouldn’t notice. Besides, there are two Alphas and an Oga here. You can all feel the basic spiritual power fluctuations."
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