Harper’s voice remained calm as he gestured toward the cages. “Looking for food?” he asked.The three women nodded. Their faceless masks did not seem to bother him. In fact, from the way he regarded them, Riyah almost had the strange feeling that he could see through their helmets.She stepped forward. “Yes. Chickens… eggs. We’ve been searching all day.”“You’ve come to the right place. I’m Harper, a very normal merchant.”The introduction was suspicious enough to make all three women exchange a glance, but none of them commented on it.Harper continued carving the wooden figure in his hands as he studied them. There was something unusual about him. His presence did not feel like that of an ordinary merchant. He carried himself more like a seasoned warrior, and the fact that he seemed completely comfortable sitting behind a small stall in the middle of the chaotic Auction Realm only made him stranger.“These aren’t for medals,” Harper said firmly. “I don’t trade in your currency.”Aya

Tianna’s gaze moved across the shelter’s main gate, where five modified Reapers, X-02 through X-06, stood like towering guardians. Their armored bodies remained perfectly still, while their faintly glowing eyes scanned the horizon without missing anything. Plasma rifles rested against their armored frames, ready to unleash devastating firepower at the first sign of an approaching enemy.From the shelter walls, Zayne’s voice rang out as he directed the defenders.“Adjust the artillery! Aim higher… toward the sky!”The defenders immediately began rotating the heavy cannons upward.The angle looked almost absurd. The massive machines in the sky were so far above the ground that it was difficult to imagine ordinary artillery shells reaching them. Still, Zayne sounded completely serious.“Better to be prepared!” he shouted. “If those things descend, we’ll meet them head-on!”Tianna clenched her fist and looked toward the crimson sky again. The enormous flying structures filled her with dre

Max studied the young man with renewed curiosity. What shocked him was not that the boy was being sold at an auction, but the nature of his gene. It was an extraordinary ability, one that could protect the boy from mutation and allow him to return to his original human form regardless of how many modifications were forced onto his body. A safeguard like that was incredibly rare, and in the hands of someone cruel, its value could be exploited endlessly. Max could already think of several ways a twisted person might use the boy if they had no concern for his well-being.Looking around the hall, however, Max noticed the reactions of several elderly men and middle-aged women. Their expressions made it clear that the boy was not being purchased out of kindness. Whatever intentions they had, Max had no doubt the child would suffer if he fell into the wrong hands. He could not simply stand by and let that happen. “Whatever… I still have a couple of thousand,” Max muttered to himself before r

Meanwhile, over the continent of Versailles, the crimson sky remained stretched across the heavens like an open wound that refused to heal. The people of New Ark-45 had spent an entire day beneath it, yet they still could not become accustomed to the sight. A day had passed since the colossal mechanical structures appeared in the distance, and although they had not moved, their presence kept the defenders on edge. Nobody knew what they were capable of. Would they release enormous humanoid machines from the sky? Could they deploy dozens of Dragoons at once? The defenders had no answers, and that uncertainty was almost as frightening as the machines themselves.Tianna stood atop one of the watchtowers, her gaze fixed on the distant horizon. New Ark-45 had brought out every telescope and pair of binoculars available from Max’s Caches. Some of the telescopes were old relics recovered from abandoned observatories, while others had been salvaged during scavenger missions. Scouts took turns

Crash!A massive explosion shook the ground as the serpent-like vessel slammed into the Advanced Barrier System. The protective dome flashed violently under the impact before cracking apart and collapsing into nothing.“No way…”“It’s destroyed!”“Careful! Look above!”The serpent itself could not survive the collision either. Its segmented body broke apart in the blast, sending pieces of metal across the battlefield. The damage, however, had already been done. New Ark-45 had lost its barrier, leaving the shelter exposed to anything that could reach it from the air.Tianna’s expression turned grim. Without the barrier, there was nothing stopping flying vessels from entering the shelter directly. Their available weapons were limited to rifles, pistols, grenade launchers, portable disruptor units, and the traps scattered around the perimeter. None of those were designed for proper anti-aircraft combat. Their only real advantage came from the plasma rifles carried by the modified Reapers