Harem Legion: Queens of the Apocalypse-Chapter 215 16,000 Crystals or Certain Death

"Time’s running out! I say we move on Ridgehaven City now! Any later, and other survivor teams are gonna swarm in. Then we’ve only got two choices - wipe them out or pack up and leave..."

Lana was finally free from confinement. She spoke first, putting everything on the line. She wasn’t ready to lose faith in the team - not yet.

This was her last shot - to give the team a fighting chance and herself a reason to still belong here.

Magnus stayed quiet, puffing on his smoke. No matter how bad he felt inside, five hours had passed - still no red light. That was the hard truth.

"I’m with Lana. We should lock down Ridgehaven City, Hanford City, and every town around here. All of them. It ain’t just about the Crystals - it’s about the stockpile. We can’t let others get their hands on that many Crystals."

Dakota jumped in without a second of hesitation.

Charlotte, silent the whole time, turned to Emily and Liana. "What about you two?" No need to ask Sophia - Charlotte already knew she’d side with Lana. She always pushed for action.

"I say we wait a bit," Emily replied flatly. She knew Magnus felt the same.

"What about you, Liana?" Charlotte asked again.

"I..." Liana hesitated, voice low. "I handle logistics, so yeah, I want more Crystals. But... Emily makes sense too. Maybe we should hold off a little longer."

"Hold off?" Lana snapped. "Until all the Crystals in those cities are stripped clean? You want us to pick up scraps?"

She was furious they didn’t get it. "Ashbrook Town! Just a small place! Molly - give the report. Tell ’em how many Crystals we pulled from those 33 meteorites!"

Lana wasn’t Molly’s direct superior, but she glanced at Emily. Emily gave a nod, so Molly started.

"This time around, from those 33 meteorites in Ashbrook Town, we extracted 637 Crystals in total - 284 Water Crystals, 179 Fire, 132 Metal, 19 Earth, 12 Life, and 11 Deep Crimson..."

"Thirty-three rocks. 637 Crystals! That’s almost 20 per meteorite!" Lana raised her voice. "Twice what we got from the first meteor shower! Just now, Dakota and I looked over the nearby cities. Hanford’s a county-level city - at least eight times the size of Ashbrook. Ridgehaven? Thirty-two times the area!

If a small place like Ashbrook gave us 33 meteorites, then think: Hanford should have about 200, and Ridgehaven, 800. That’s over 4,000 Crystals in Hanford, and Ridgehaven? Try 16,000 at least!"

Lana didn’t hold back, voice sharp and urgent. "16,000 crystals! I don’t care which team it is - whoever gets them first will swallow every survivor group nearby in less than two months. And make no mistake, we’ll be the last on their list."

The words hit hard. Over twenty women sitting in the RV lounge quietly shifted. Lana wasn’t wrong. If a big team got their hands on those 16,000 assorted crystals, their underground grain stores would be as good as gone.

All eyes turned to Magnus. Sure, there were other team leaders in the room, but everyone knew his word was final.

Sighing inside, Magnus knew he had to speak. Whether they agreed or not, they deserved to hear his take. He put out his cigarette and glanced calmly at Emily and Liana.

"If I remember right," he started, "during the first meteor shower, each meteor held around 8 to 10 crystals."

"Sounds about right," Liana nodded.

"This second round, you all said meteors are bringing in about 20 crystals on average," Magnus went on.

"So?" Lana narrowed her eyes at him.

"That means this batch yields twice as many," Magnus said. "So here’s a thought - what if the timing of the Red Light is also doubled?"

"What?" Lana blinked, thrown. "That’s ridiculous! That’s pure guesswork!" She stared at him in disbelief - he was still stuck on the Red Light theory?

Magnus pressed on. "Last time, all meteors fell in rural areas. Not one landed in a city. But the Red Light? Only hit the city. Not a trace in the countryside. You think that’s a coincidence?" 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Silence. Even Lana was stunned. The other women simply stared at him, mouths slightly open.

"And the Anomaly Zones," Magnus added, locking eyes with Lana. "You know them best. I’ve been inside one with Abigail and Emma. Different zones, same fact - they always appear near prisons. You tell me, how’s that a coincidence?"

"Of course it’s a coincidence!" Lana snapped without hesitation. "What, you think some ghost decided this on purpose?"

Magnus ignored her jab, voice steady. "So, with the higher crystal yield, I’d say there’s at least a 30% chance the Red Light will be delayed. Maybe even reversed. This time, I’m betting it lands in the countryside, not in cities. Crystals and the Red Light won’t fall in the same place."

"Baseless! All of it!" Dakota shouted, her voice sharp with frustration. "Captain, we respect you - we know you built this team from scratch. We admire how you predicted the second meteor shower. But this? This is just you pulling things out of thin air!"

Emily cut in, tone cold. "And yet, when Magnus predicted the last meteor shower, none of you believed him then either."

"He..." Dakota had no response. Her voice trailed off.