Snow Falling Between the Brows

The Fifth Manager Mission ended with the Seventh Branch's crushing victory. It could not have been more perfect.

And that was not even the true reward.

This dream was what Ji Li had longed for most.

After every Manager Mission, Ji Li dreamed of a nightmare from the past.

A dream spanning fifty years.

The setting of the previous dream had been the failure of the first plan.

"Mo became crippled, Ouyang was taken away by that thing, and Tong En and his wife were driven back to Branch No. 11."

This dream, however, marked the beginning of the second plan.

The second plan was also the final plan. It was the end of everything, yet also the beginning of the future.

Haruyama Mirai had died. All the branches from that group fifty years ago had shut down, and every employee had perished.

Thus, Ji Li had originally assumed that the second plan had failed.

But through the brief conversation in this dream, he suddenly realized he had been wrong.

Failure seemed to have been part of the second plan as well.

Within this plan, the deaths of Haruyama Mirai and the others had been regarded as liberation and escape.

Ji Li, the one who had survived, had instead embarked upon an even more tragic and painful road.

The original group of six: Ji Li, Haruyama Mirai, Mo, Ouyang, Tong En, and A Jing.

The final seven Stone Pillars bore seven severed heads. They were presumably all important figures from various branches.

Among them, Ouyang, Tong En, and A Jing were the people Ji Li valued most. Perhaps they could even be called his siblings.

The previous scene had shown Ji Li bidding Haruyama Mirai farewell and deciding to engage in a final battle with "it."

The following scene had