Queenstead City... word was it sat about fifty kilometers from Eastmark City, the old provincial capital. Before the world fell apart, folks called it Crestfall City. Name fit—province wanted a brand‑new county‑level city, so they simply took over a dozen villages nearby and started building like there was no tomorrow.

Reason was simple. Eastmark City was bursting with people. They needed space, and they wanted to lure those big international companies in, set up factories near the capital. Cheap land, good policies, close enough to Eastmark City to stay convenient, and it could solve Ridgehaven City’s job mess too. Too many advantages to count.

But that so‑called Queenstead City—back then still Crestfall City—wasn’t even finished when the apocalypse hit. Whole project had six phases, eight years to complete. They only reached the tail end of Phase Five. Most buildings stood empty, even the residential blocks were hollow shells.

Only a dozen or so large enterprises had moved in, their production lines humming, nothing more.

The prisoner Lana Stewart’s group caught—the one from Queenstead City—claimed he was a pilot, flew in on a helicopter, had some important mission in Blackdragon Province. Later, he crash‑landed near the Everrest Women’s Penitentiary, got bitten by a centipede, and Lana’s group dragged him back from death’s door. But by the time they stepped out and came back to question him, the poison had already taken him.

Simple story... but the way he described Queenstead City sounded unreal, almost dreamlike.

He said Queenstead’s founder was a woman—Bianca Fairchild. Half Novarican, half Sinovari. Father a big‑time OEM tycoon from Novarica, mother a Sinovari. Their family had come to Sinovar to invest in large‑scale factories, and Crestfall City was one of the projects, placed under Bianca’s full command.

Then the apocalypse came. Bianca gathered her factory’s workforce—over a hundred thousand, more than eighty percent women—and fought back the nightmare creatures. After that, she absorbed the workers and families of a dozen surrounding factories and built Queenstead City together with them.

Said the place had its own power plant, farmland, even a state‑owned grain company nearby. The whole area was full of molds, production lines, steelworks, hardware plants—all thriving because of Crestfall City.

They didn’t lack materials. They had electricity. Within two months, Bianca led everyone and raised a massive electrified wall, thirty meters high, around the entire city. Centipedes, spiders—none of them could crawl through. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

And according to the pilot’s dying words, right before he came to Blackdragon Province, Bianca was planning the “roof” of Queenstead City—wanted to seal the north, south, east, west, plus the sky above, all with electric grids.

He only gave them the tip of the iceberg. Death took him before he could finish.

There really had been a helicopter forced down near Everrest Town. That alone pushed Lana and her team to believe him enough to move. So they rallied everyone and began migrating—heading for this legendary Queenstead City.

Listening to Lana recount the whole thing again, Magnus Specter and the others stayed quiet, no one interrupting.

A long moment passed after she finished. Lana lifted her cup, took a sip of coffee, eyes sweeping over the others. Then she asked, voice steady, “You don’t believe it, do you?”

Magnus lit a cigarette, brows furrowed deep. Liana Jabbar glanced at him and then at Lana. “Lana, it’s not that we doubt you. But, Magnus—our school had plenty of students from Eastmark Province. I just... worry you might’ve been tricked too.”

“I get that.” Lana nodded, calm, not the least bit offended.

Magnus Specter understood exactly what Liana Jabbar meant. He rose, crushed out his smoke, and said, “Fine. I’ll walk through the other cars, see if we’ve got any students from Eastmark City.”

As soon as he stood, Sophia Reid stood up too. “I’m going with you.”

Lana Stewart followed, her voice calm but firm. “Take me as well. I want to hear what those locals have to say.”

“You wait here,” Magnus said, waving them down. “I’ll bring them over.”

He stepped out of the vehicle. This matter wasn’t something he dared treat lightly. He walked through more than fifty sleeper cars in one go, picking out eighteen women, all born and raised in Eastmark City. One by one, he brought them to the RV’s lounge.

Finally, with two more women in tow, he climbed back up the steps, shut the door behind him. The eighteen locals stood crowded in a corner, glancing at each other in confusion, unsure why they were being gathered like this.

Charlotte Renard didn’t waste a breath. She opened straight with questions about Crestfall City. Out of the eighteen, fourteen had heard of it. And when Emily Ward finished asking one girl a simple question, that girl suddenly covered her mouth and burst into tears.

“My home... my home is Crestfall City...” Jennie Wood sobbed, trying to speak through trembling breath. “My dad... my mom... both of them worked at Novacore Global. They worked so I could stay in school, they... they...”

Her voice collapsed into crying. She drifted off the topic entirely, but no one interrupted her. They just let her talk until the words ran out and she was left quietly sobbing. Charlotte Renard stepped over, handed her a cloth, and gently soothed her. Then, in a soft tone, she asked, “Jennie, the Novacore Global you mentioned... that’s the biggest factory in Crestfall City, right?”

Jennie nodded hard. “Yes... yes, it’s foreign-owned. My dad said there were over a hundred thousand workers there.”

“A hundred thousand?” Charlotte couldn’t help her shock. “One factory has that many people? Do you know the name of the owner?”

Jennie blinked, her mind momentarily pulled away from her grief. “My dad mentioned her once... said she was a mixed-blood woman, very pretty. Her name... something with Hongyan...”

“Bianca Fairchild?” Charlotte prompted.

“Yes!” Jennie straightened a little, nodding quickly. “That’s her! Bianca Fairchild. She’s only in her twenties. She’s beautiful. I saw her on the news once!”

Lana’s earlier words were basically confirmed. Still, Sophia Reid pressed, unwilling to give up her doubt. “Your father’s factory really had that many people? Over a hundred thousand? That’s true?”

“It is!” Jennie replied without hesitation. “My dad said that’s not even unusual. Big factories down south—those huge contract manufacturers—like the ones everyone knows? One of their sites alone has nearly four hundred thousand workers.”

Magnus exchanged glances with the others. None of them had ever dealt with numbers like that. Even Lana—who’d done finance work for a private company—had never touched anything near that scale.

Magnus questioned the other local girls who’d heard of Crestfall City. Their accounts matched Jennie’s. Some had relatives working there as well. The descriptions were the same...

Once Magnus sent the group back, he returned to the RV. The women inside were still arguing, voices low but tense. When they saw him step in, Sophia Reid rose immediately, eyes sharp.

“Magnus,” she asked bluntly, “what’s your take? Do you actually believe in that so-called Queenstead City?”