Zack’s mind raced. Could it be a side effect of her mutation? "Annie, I want you to trate oV. Really focus on it," he instructed.

  "Okay," she said, tilting her head curiously but obeying. As she did, her perception shifted again. To her, the TV’s smooth pyback turned into a series of frozen frames, like a slideshow.

  "It’s not stuck..." Annie murmured, realization dawning on her face. "I’m the one who’s faster!" She looked at Zack, her excitement repced by nervousness. "Brother, what’s happening to me? Am I turning into a monster?"

  Zaelt in front of her and pced a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "You’re not a monster, Annie. You’ve just developed superpowers, like Erza."

  Her eyes widened. "Really?"

  Seeing Aill didn’t believe him, Zack grabbed the water gss from the table and suddenly threw it at her! Annie’s room TV had a refresh rate of 120Hz. That meant in one sed, 120 frames fshed by. Aen pihat watg TV at 120Hz felt “ggy.” What did that mean? She had extraordinary dynamic vision aion speed!

  “What are you doing?!” Sophia screamed, terrified, as she saw Zack hurl the water gss straight at Annie.

  But then… The pani Sophia’s expression, the motion of Zack’s throw, and eveh of the water gss in the air— In Annie’s eyes, everything slowed down like a se in a movie pyed in slow motion. She could see every detail. The water gss spun slowly, a drop of water sliding down its rim. “So slow…” Annie sighed inwardly.

  She raised her hand to catch it, fident iiming. But then—Her heart sank. Her rea was there, but her body wasn’t cooperating. It was like she, too, was moving in slow motion. Her small hand rose painfully slowly, nowhere he trajectory of the gss. “Oh no...” Ahought, brag for impact.

  Thud!

  The water gss hit Annie squarely on the forehead. Fortunately, it stic. If it had been gss or ceramic, she might have been knocked out. “Ouch, ouch, ouch!” Annie clutched her forehead, a red mark already f. Tears welled up in her eyes. “’t you think of another way to test me?!” she cried.

  “Sorry!” Zack scratched his head, looking sheepish. “Didn’t you react? I thought you’d catch it!”

  “I did react, but my body couldn’t keep up…” Annie pouted, clearly upset.

  “Oh, I see,” Zack said, finally realizing Annie’s abilities didn’t include super speed.

  At that moment, a familiar voice chimed in from behind him. “Messing around again, Zack? Who tests someone like that?” Turning around, Zack saw Erza leaning casually against the doorway, holding up his phone. “And I got it all on video,” Erza added smugly, shaking his phone for emphasis.

  “You—just mind your own business,” Zack retorted, irritated.

  Erza walked n him. “What Annie needs right now is rest, not your half-baked experiments.” His tourned serious. “You know as well as I do that f abilities right after awakening damage brain nerves.”

  “Fine,” Zack grumbled, realizing Erza was right. He muttered a quick apology a Annie’s room. After making sure Annie had rested properly, Zack resumed the tests. The results were astounding. First, Annie demonstrated the same extraordinary dynamic vision aion speed as the night before. Under extreme ditions, she could clearly see the lines on the wings of a fly mid-flight.

  However, her ability had a limit. Prolonged use for more than two minutes left her dizzy and unfocused. Additionally, Annie exhibited agility several times greater than the average person. This expined why, under normal ditions, she could have caught the water gss st night. Her failure was due to her weakeate and ck of trol over her newfound abilities.

  “Baseball test! Three secutive pitches at 160 kilometers per hour!” Zanounced in the basement.

  Aood 10 meters away, wearing a baseball glove. She nodded, signaling she was ready. The homemade uncher fired three baseballs at lightning speed. With ease, Annie caught all three. “Yeah! I did it!” Annie cheered, jumping with excitement.

  “Stop celebrating and look at the data,” Erza interrupted, walking over to the analysis instruments. “Dynamic vision aion speed are impressive,” Erza noted, “but the biggest improvement is in your flexibility. It’s off the charts.”

  He looked at Annie seriously. “You ow perform movements that would stump even professional gymnasts.”

  Zack chimed in, his tohoughtful. “With the right equipment—something that keep up with your reas—you could be unstoppable. You’re basically built for piloting a robot.”

  Annie’s eyes sparkled. “Does that mean I be as strong as you, brother?”

  “Hmm,” Zack said with a small smile.

  That simple reply was enough to fill Ah joy. She practically bounced in pce, her excitement tagious. “I ’t wait! I’ll go work on Tarantu right now!”

  Before anyone could stop her, she dashed into her small workshop, eager to upgrade her beloved robot. “Take it easy!” Zack called after her.

  “I will, brother!” Annie yelled back, already disappearing into her b. But once she was gone, Zack’s smile vanished, repced by a grim expression.

  “Ego,” Zack said coldly, “any updates on the Vanguard anization?”

  The AI’s calm voice responded. “I’m sorry, sir. The global work is still offline. I have no new data, and the existing database tains no relevant information.”

  Zack’s jaw tightened. “It’s fihey ’t hide forever.” He refused to let the ck of information about this shadowy anization stop him. If nothing else, knowing the location of one of their bases was enough to start unraveling their operations. All he o do was follow the breadcrumbs.

  But first, there were pressing issues closer to home. “Let’s figure out the Mansion’s security problem before anything else,” Zack muttered, shaking his head to clear his thoughts. Prioritizing was crucial.

  The attack st night had been a wake-up call. While the intruders hadn’t made it past the unity’s gates, the i revealed a gring vulnerability. The Mansion’s defenses were primarily desigo handle zombies—not human threats. Worst of all, it had no air defenses whatsoever.

  If instead of a small team, the attackers had unched something like a Tomahawk cruise missile... “No,” Zack said firmly. “Air defense is the top priority.”

  Once he pictured that horrifying sario, his resolve hardened. Zack was not the type to wait around for disaster to strike; he believed in eliminating threats before they could materialize. “Ego, pull up every anti-aircraft on and facility in your database,” Zaanded.

  The rge s in front of him lit up instantly, filling with rows of dots. Scrolling through, Zack realized there were far more options than he’d anticipated. He barely got through a few pages before stopping. “Sir, may I remind you,” Ego’s calm voiterrupted, “given the current circumstances, deploying air defense systems on short notice is unlikely.”

  “Laaterials?” Zack guessed.

  “No, sir. It’s a ck of personnel,” Ego crified.

  Zack frowned but quickly caught on. “Of course, it’s the people.”

  Teology wasn’t the issue—he had more than enough of that. Materials were plentiful if you knew where to look, especially in an apocalypse. But skilled workers? That was a different story. Advanced systems like dete radar, anti-guidanbs, ser interceptors, or even the Air Fortress Zack had been dreaming of building—each required highly skilled engineers, teis, and operators. These weren’t tasks a group of untrained survivors could handle.