When Narrow Paths Meet

Christmas Eve.

For the people living aboveground, this was a peaceful and tranquil night. Couples came out onto the streets, listening to Christmas Eve songs and taking pictures with Christmas trees. In brightly lit homes, parents and children gathered together to enjoy happy family time.

While people enjoyed peace and happiness, a bloody and brutal war was unfolding deep underground.

The ultimate battle between humans and ghouls.

The ghouls had nowhere left to retreat. The 24th District was their last refuge. Once they lost it, they would be completely annihilated—and that was precisely the Countermeasures Bureau's objective.

To completely exterminate the ghouls at any cost.

If they were aboveground, the ghouls might be able to use the open space to maneuver against the humans. But in the narrow underground tunnels, they could no longer do that. The means of battle were therefore simple and direct—when narrow paths meet, the brave win.

Only those who survived to the end would be the victors!

Gunfire and screams echoed through the narrow tunnel. A raggedly dressed woman hid in a cavern at the rear of the tunnel, clutching her daughter tightly. Listening to the roars and shrieks coming from outside, she gritted her teeth, her face flushed. The girl in her arms was deathly pale and trembling as she clung to her mother.

"Mommy, Daddy, he..."

"Ah-----!!!"

Before the girl could finish, a scream suddenly rang out from the tunnel. Hearing it, she immediately panicked.

"Daddy---sob---!"

But the moment the girl opened her mouth, the woman covered it. She stared at the dim tunnel outside in silence for a moment, then lowered her head and looked at the child in her arms.

"Leave this place quickly, child."

"Mommy, but Daddy..."

"Mommy will go save Daddy."

As she spoke, the woman rose solemnly to