So, there's no safe place left out there. If Theresa is lucky enough to hide a group of people a few thousand meters underground, they may be able to last for half a year or a little more. But as long as they need air, the Starborn Order's virus slips in through every gap. It finds them no matter what. There's no way out for any of them. Theresa is as good as dead. Everyone is. He kept quiet while Theresa's eyes drifted to the fresh badge on his chest. It gleamed with a clean SS Rank. "You got a promotion." She gave him a small smile. "Thanks to you." Sage lifted the badge a little. "You're the reason I kept moving up. Now I'm one of the Decision Makers in the Starborn Order." … Back at the Production Company, Theresa had wiped out all three managers for him. The manager of Workshop 1 went down in disgrace. She killed the manager of Workshop 3. The manager of Workshop 2 had his shipment burned by her. He was a perfectionist who never allowed himself to slip. The pressure crushed him, and he took his own life. Sage rode that achievement straight to the general manager. After joining the Starborn Order, he got even luckier a few days ago when Theresa happened to kill Decision Maker 3. He stepped right into the vacant seat and became one of the new Decision Makers. Theresa watched him with that same easy smile. "Then, you owe me a meal." Her words hit him hard. His gentle expression tightened and turned heavy. He suddenly snapped. "Theresa, why did you come here? Do you have any idea that you were walking into a death trap? Why would you pick a fight with the Starborn Order?" Theresa shot right back. "Because you started it." Sage froze. Yeah, it's me. So, I shouldn't be mad. Between her and me, it's all strategy and backstabbing, winners take all, losers get nothing. No one's supposed to go soft, especially now that I won. However, I still don't understand why I'm so frustrated, even after winning. It's like I'm pissed at Theresa for never giving me an inch, and that's why things turned out this way. If she had ever let me win once, just softened up even a little, I wouldn't be out here getting revenge like this. Even from the very start, she genuinely wanted to help me. But why couldn't she just ease up a little, let me win a bit more?"Hey, you're not having second thoughts, are you?" Theresa looked at him, her eyes sharp and piercing. "It's not too late to switch sides. Join us, the humans fighting for light and justice. Help me wipe out the Starborn Order, and I'll still consider you human." Sage lifted his head, giving her a smirk that dripped with disdain. "You're not seriously brainwashed by the Starborn Order, planning to become one of those zombies, are you?" Theresa pressed. "What's so bad about being a zombie?" Sage replied like they were old friends catching up, sliding into the seat across from her. "Being human is exhausting. All the scheming, the endless calculating. Might as well go zombie. At least it's simple." "Don't you have parents?" Theresa asked, then remembered what Sage had told her about being abandoned as a kid. "Oh, right. You don't have a mom or dad, do you?" Sage just stared at her. "Sorry, people with no parents at all tend to go to extremes." Sage stared again, completely unamused. "But you don't have a girlfriend or a buddy either, do you?" He shook his head with a proud, slight tilt. "I don't need any of that." "Or maybe nobody wants to deal with you because you're such a twisted, ruthless jerk. People help you, and you're just thinking of ways to screw them over." Sage was speechless again. Theresa laughed harder when she saw the frustration on his expression. After seeing her laugh, he finally looked down and chuckled. No matter how sharp the hatred had been between them, no matter how many times they'd stabbed each other in the back, laughing together slowly chipped all that away. By the end, nothing was owed, nothing left unsettled. Everything was evened out. … The helicopter started its final descent, and the mood inside cooled. Outside, the sky had turned a pale, lifeless gray. Giant, fluffy snowflakes fell relentlessly.Theresa spotted a military camp in the vast white wasteland. As the helicopter neared the ground, Sage turned to her one last time. "You sure about this?" "Absolutely. Those Starborn Order b*stards are all going down." Sage read her expression and said nothing else. The moment the helicopter touched down, he was the first to step off. Theresa followed and saw massive greenhouses buried under thick snow. Inside, it was pitch black, impossible to make out with the naked eye, but her right eye caught it clearly—inside were rows upon rows of zombie soldiers, lined up in perfect formation.