"Wait a second…" Jaxon froze in place.
Did he just walk into the wrong room?
But when he turned his head, he saw Victor's half-severed head lying on the ground—his crystal core had been dug out.
"Go find your boss sowhere else," Ethan said casually, swinging his blade in a clean arc.
Jaxon felt the world spin around him—then everything went black. Forever.
Ethan flicked his wrist, collecting all the corpses into his storage space before turning and heading downstairs.
Outside, the Black Hand Legion was already dood. Mia had slaughtered them to the point where they were scattering in all directions. So tried to escape, only to realize the main gate had been locked.
Since the Legion had always been paranoid about survivors running away, they hadn't left any extra exits. The surrounding barbed wire fences? Fully electrified.
In the end, they had no way out.
With Ethan and Mia working in perfect sync, they wiped out every last one of them.
Over a thousand Black Hand Legion mbers—not a single survivor.
The massacre had finally co to an end.
But in the massive compound, not a single corpse remained. Everything had been cleaned up—Ethan had stored them all in his spatial storage ring.
Now, it was ti for the next step—looting.
They needed to see what Victor had been hoarding.
The group got to work, moving through the compound, checking every single room in the surrounding buildings.
In the storage area, they found a decent haul—wild vegetables, foraged fruits, a small stash of whole wheat flour, rice, and so cooking oil. There was even a Longhorn Beef carcass.
All of it had been plundered by Victor from various places.
Of course, they also uncovered plenty of personal belongings from the Black Hand Legion mbers—so of which were downright disturbing.
After all, the Legion was full of twisted individuals. So had a habit of collecting… questionable items—lingerie, vibrators, and other bizarre things.
"Hey, check this out!"
Inside Victor's room, Chris excitedly pulled out a sleek silver tal case.
What stood out the most was the circular emblem in the center, with a bold "GB" in the middle—the unmistakable logo of Genesis Biotech.
"Open it up!"
Everyone gathered around, curiosity piqued.
Chris wasted no ti flipping the case open—inside, rows of neatly arranged vials glead under the light.
"What the hell is this?"
"It's Human Evolution Serum," Ethan said after a quick glance. "Ordinary people can use it to condense a Neurocore."
"Oh…" Mia nodded. For regular people, this stuff was a huge deal. She couldn't help but feel intrigued.
"How do you know about Genesis Biotech's serums?"
"Because… we go way back," Ethan replied with a smirk.
"..." Mia and the others were speechless.
"That's weird, though," Chris muttered, frowning. "Why would Black Hand Legion have Genesis Biotech's stuff?"
Ethan leaned against the table, arms crossed. "Rember when we first got off the aircraft? The Black Hand Legion mistook us for Genesis Biotech people and ntioned a deal. My guess? This was the deal."
"Oh, right!" Chris's eyes lit up as realization dawned on him.
Damn.
The guy notices everything.
Just from a single offhand comnt, he had pieced together the whole picture.
Ethan rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Actually… I wouldn't mind making a little trade with them myself."
"..." Chris and the others fell silent.
Sothing about the way he said that made them very uneasy.
But none of them dared to ask.
And none of them dared to comnt.
…
The group was still busy looting when Sean and Leah erged from a small grove behind one of the buildings, looking absolutely thrilled.
"Guys, check this out! Look what we found!"
Everyone turned toward them—and their faces lit up with surprise.
Because Sean was holding onto a cow.
In the apocalypse, an animal like this was practically a legendary treasure.
The black-and-white dairy cow was spotless, clearly well taken care of. It was probably one of Victor's most prized possessions—sothing he wouldn't even consider eating. In this compound, it was likely treated better than most people.
And more importantly, it could produce milk—a rare and valuable food source in the wasteland.
"I can't believe this," Mia murmured, her bright eyes filled with amazent.
A short while later, they had completely cleaned out the compound. Everyone had made a killing in supplies.
"What's next? Are we heading back to L.A.?" Mia asked Ethan. She wasn't exactly taking orders from him, but she had to admit—he was ridiculously cunning and always had a solid plan.
"Hell no," Ethan said without hesitation.
They were still in Blackhand City, but this compound was completely isolated. The Black Hand Legion mbers outside rarely ca in here.
Hell, they had wiped out Victor and his entire crew, and no one had even noticed yet.
"We're staying here for now."
"Oh…" Mia nodded, realizing—as expected—Ethan was greedy as ever. He had already eaten at their buffet, and now he wanted free lodging too.
Ethan continued, "The Black Hand Legion was supposed to make a deal with Genesis Biotech, right? I wanna see what they were trading. It's been a while since I've checked in with Genesis Biotech… Feels like we're losing touch."
"Fair enough," Mia said, understanding his intent.
She pulled out a piece of dried jerky, chewing on it casually. After all, they had been fighting and looting for hours—it had drained a lot of energy. She needed to refuel.
The others felt the sa. They were exhausted, so they all grabbed sothing to eat—wild fruits, foraged greens, whatever they had on hand.
Ethan glanced around at them, then frowned.
"Why don't you guys just cook a proper al?"
"...Huh?"
Everyone froze.
The phrase "cook a proper al" sounded completely foreign to them.
Ever since the apocalypse started, they had been constantly on the move, fighting for survival, barely scraping by. Just having food to eat at all was a blessing. The idea of actually cooking had beco a distant mory.
But now…
They were in a secure compound.
They had electricity, water, fresh ingredients—and no imdiate threats.
They could cook.
"Wait… You're right! We can actually make a al!" Mia realized.
Ethan smirked. "So, what do you wanna eat? I'll cook for you."
"Hmm… How about beef pot pie?" Mia suggested.
The others imdiately nodded in agreent. Beef pot pie wasn't just food—it was nostalgia.
It reminded them of ho, of family dinners before the world fell apart.
It was comfort in a dish.
With that, everyone got to work, gathering ingredients and prepping for the al.
Ethan and Mia took charge of mincing the beef.
They stood at the counter, a fresh slab of newly butchered beef in front of them.
Mia grabbed a chef's knife and got to work. She was surprisingly skilled—her cuts were quick, precise, and efficient. With just a few strokes, she had already reduced the at to fine mince.
Ethan, on the other hand, stared at the at for a second.
Then he sighed.
Too much effort.
With a simple thought, he activated the power of Domain of the Dead—
And in an instant, the chunk of beef was obliterated into fine powder.
…
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