The main aisle of Supermarket A-117 immediately turned into a scene of acoustic horror. As the Ekorupt tide surged into the parking lot, Marsel immediately pressed the green crystal button on the cashier console, activating his reliable 800 XP weapon: [ACOUSTIC NOISE DEFENSE (SONIC BARRIER)]. Ultra-high sound waves burst from the black horn, striking the Horde's front line. Dozens of Ekorupt Drones that hunt with acute hearing immediately collapsed. A shrill, piercing hiss sounded behind the roar of the Beta Unit. Some Level 1 Drones and the smaller Wolf Ekorupts flinched, their internal organs feeling as if they were being ripped apart by the perfectly tuned sound frequency Tyrex had set. [System Log: Sonic Barrier Effective. 12 Ekorupt Drone Level 1 Terminated. Energy Consumed: 10/dt.] “Hold, Rex! Guard! Don’t let them cross the threshold!” Marsel shouted from his cashier desk. Tyrex was an incredible sight of brutality and loyalty. With twin shopping baskets integrated into

The coppery stench of the burned Beta Unit mingled with the scent of powdered detergent wafting from the modified trolley. Morning had arrived. The rain had subsided, leaving a cloudy sky. Outside, the parking lot was covered in ash and the scorched remains of the Ekorupt, a sight Marsel would remember as the symbol of a costly victory.Marsel stood on the roof, shivering, not just from the damp morning wind but because the Fortress Energy had been completely depleted. He felt the coldness of the Origin Codex Fragment in his pocket, his only source of morale.Below him, Nana and Tyrex worked in silence. Tyrex, though severely wounded and now heavily bandaged around the hip where Beta had bitten him, loyally cut the System wires left behind by the Beta Unit, preventing the Fortress Core from incurring a corrupt charge. Nana cleaned every System node on the roof while also repairing Tyrex's Basket Armor with salvaged materials.There were no silly jokes from Tyrex, and none of Nana's us

Marsel spent the rest of the night in critical analysis mode, momentarily forgetting about XP and structural losses. They stopped the Mobile Fortress beneath a collapsed multi-story parking structure, a location deemed sufficiently stable. Tyrex stood guard with the Knight Basket, which now featured several metal reinforcements salvaged from the pilings he had destroyed that afternoon. "His body was frozen. His eyes were black," Marsel whispered to Nana in the truck's control room. Nana, after administering the best possible first aid to Marsel and Tyrex, observed the body of the elderly survivor who had collapsed after uttering "Shadow Queen." "He didn't die from an Ecorrupt, Marsel. His internal organ systems are fine, but there are indications of massive neural failure. The System in his brain overheated, a kind of cognitive short circuit." "That's the effect of the Siren frequency," Marsel said. He had converted the truck's motion detectors and all

The group successfully escaped the frozen system trap at the Quarantine office, utilizing Tyrex's expertise in shattering ice layers with his physical strength. Now, they were speeding along again in the Mobile Fortress. Marsel targeted an area he called Monitoring Post 1-Zulu, a hotspot that had once served as a refugee center.Inside the Rhino, the silence was heavy. The psychic attacks from the Siren and the intelligent Ekorupt confrontations were starting to erode their morale, especially Nana's.Suddenly, Marsel received a message from an old satellite monitoring connection he had managed to restore.[WARNING: LOCAL EMERGENCY COMMUNICATION RECEIVED FROM POST ZULU. STATUS: SECURITY BREACHED.]The message was fragmented, but enough to make Marsel move quickly. "Post Zulu is under attack. It’s the last independent human post in this area. The Genetic Relic target is there."They arrived.Marsel parked the Rhino Truck behind the

Back at the Mobile Fortress, Nana secluded herself in the medical compartment. She was repairing her mana potions, not for Tyrex, but for herself, struggling to calm her corrupted Healing System after the cultist's final touch at Zulu Post.Tyrex strictly guarded the Rhino Truck's perimeter, his loyalty to Marsel slightly distorted after the order to 'just watch' the medic being attacked. He sensed a small moral fracture that he had to ignore.Marsel knew this. And this was the time to take the most selfish and most strategic step a Manager could take.He needed to face The Siren alone.Marsel descended from the Rhino Truck into the night environment shrouded in thick fog and moved toward the outer limits of the Quarantine Zone, where he had detected a high-frequency concentration back in Chapter 15.“Tyrex, if I don't return in two hours, activate the Automated Defense. Guard Nana,” Marsel said, putting on a thin, modified System Jacket.