Reborn: Apocalypse Ready. War Goddess by My Side novel Chapter 242

Chapter 242 Outside the Walls

Small clusters of beasts turned up sporadically throughout the day; the ordinary manageable kind that came with life outside the walls.

It was nothing like the coordinated sieges they’d been bracing for.

The tension across the squad eased down to something bearable.

Peter drifted over to Steven’s side with a grin. “What level are you at now?”

Steven kept his expression flat. “Thirteen. You asked me that exact question yesterday.”

Peter laughed. “I figured you’d already be at fourteen by now.”

“I’m not a cultivation engine,” Steven said. “It doesn’t work that fast.”

Alan and Olivia both heard the exchange, and neither of them said anything, though the same thought moved through both of them.

3

When they left the city, Steven was at level 11.

Peter kept talking. “Still, the speed is insane. I kept wondering what was wrong with you when we first met. Now it makes sense. SSS–rank explains everything.”

Peter tilted his head. “But why hide it at all? If you came out with it openly, you’d get resource priority from the Academy. People would think twice before messing with you.”

The rest of the squad glanced at Steven with quiet, genuine curiosity.

This was a question most of them had been turning over privately.

Steven waved a hand with easy dismissal. “What’s the point of showing off? My girlfriend is SSS–rank and she already gets the resource priority. I’m not missing out on anything critical. And like I said before, announcing it just means getting put on everyone’s target list earlier than necessary.”

Silence settled across the group.

r

The real reason was probably something deeper than that. And a person Steven’s age being willing to set aside that kind of recognition for the sake of staying under the radar pointed to a kind of discipline that didn’t come from nowhere.

Someone significant had shaped his thinking, or perhaps it had something to do with needing the safehouse to advance.

Steven registered that everyone was reading into it.

He steered the conversation elsewhere. “Captain, when we requested Sentinel Eye support from the military and got turned down, and then our position got leaked right after, do you think there might be someone inside the military who…”

Steven left the sentence deliberately unfinished.

12:29 pm

1. PP.

Chapter 242 Outside the Walls

Alan went quiet for a beat.

Finished

“There are almost certainly compromised individuals inside the military,” he said, his voice carrying no particular emotion. “How many and who exactly, that’s unknown.”

The squad reacted with sharp, collective unease.

“You’re actually serious about that?” Mason’s voice came out tight and urgent.

Everyone looked at Alan.

Alan gave a calm, unhurried nod. “Yes. But no one knows who they are.”

The steadiness in Alan’s response seemed to settle something in the group. If their captain had already made his peace with this reality, there was a certain logic in accepting it without panic.

Mason pressed anyway. “But why? Why would anyone inside the military do that?”

Alan shook his head. “Nobody knows the full picture. Every time someone gets identified and pulled out, they end up dead before anyone can get much out of them.”

Mason started to ask another question.

Alan cut it off gently but firmly. “This isn’t something any of you need to carry. Do your jobs well. The military has people whose entire focus is handling this.

“The compromised individuals are few enough that they haven’t been able to change the larger outcome.”

Mason let it go.

Steven, though, understood the full weight of what wasn’t being said.

The biggest traitor wasn’t some nameless operative. It was the Divine Saint Marshal himself, and one unexpected strike from that quarter had already altered the course of so many lives.

Someday. That man’s mask is coming off.

Around midday, they reached the seventh target location and planted the Celestial Eye without incident.

Everyone took a short rest.

9 pm

“Old man Peter,” Steven said, “my guess is that Darlene joined for you. So what’s your story?”

Darlene glanced over at Steven with a raised eyebrow. “Are you seriously talking about me like I’m not right here, kid?”

Steven made a quick, conciliatory gesture.

Before Peter could respond, Uriah jumped in.

“He’s the same as me. The girl he liked also married someone else. The difference is he was lucky enough to run into Darlene afterward.”

Steven stared at both of them for a moment.

These two were genuinely something.

Peter grumbled under his breath with the energy of someone whose oldest wound just got prodded. “You think digging each other’s wound is funny?”

Darlene stepped in with the serene authority of someone who’d heard this story far too many times. “Steven, ignore them. The truth is they were both in love with the same girl at the same time, who was the top beauty of the Awakened Academy back in their day. She’s a high–ranking military figure now. She never gave either of them a second glance. It was completely one–sided from start to finish.

“So the two of them decided to process their shared humiliation by going into the field together, and they’ve been on Awakened Squads ever since.

12:29 pm PP

Chapter 242 Outside the Walls

Finished

Peter and Uriah both deflated simultaneously.

That was the actual wound, fully exposed.

Steven felt his own composure strain slightly

Uriah turned on Peter with deeply aggrieved eyes. “You tell Darlene everything, don’t you? Everything. Do you have no sense of privacy at all?”

Peter straightened up without apology. “What’s wrong with that? It means she knows exactly who she’s dealing with.”

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