The hybrid could only close his eyes upon seeing the sword descending towards his head. A trace of tears formed at the corner of his eyes as he waited for his demise.

However, a minute had already passed but he could still feel that he's still alive. It was then at that moment that he heard a doubtful and familiar voice.

"Istan?!"

Jellan could not help but yell in surprise as he saw the pale face of the hybrid that he was just about to kill, she is already a hundred percent sure that the hybrid in front of her was someone he knew before the apocalypse.

There were a lot of black and blue bruises on the surface of the hybrid's face.

The hybrid opened his eyes and stared at Jellan after hearing her scream. And when he recognized who it was, his face started to contort as he burst into tears while his hands reached to hug Jellan for comfort. "Si-sister Jellan!"

Jellan's eyes teared up as she also hugged the hybrid boy back. She rubbed his back as she tried her best not to produce a sound even though her eyes were already dropping tears like a river.

Jellan did not say anything and just waited for the hybrid boy to stop weeping. Although he's already a hybrid, she doesn't not have the courage to kill him just like that. After all, he was an acquaintance before the apocalypse and he was someone she considered as close to her.

However, the main reason why she doesn't want to kill him, 'yet', was because of the fact that Nile treated him as a younger brother before.

For Jellan, Nile's decision was what matters the most. No matter what reason Nile had for leaving before, she no longer wanted to pursue it as she was already satisfied with the fact that he came back.

Sometime later, the hybrid boy finally stopped sobbing. He released his hand from hugging Jellan before moving towards a corner to lean on the wall.

He then dropped his head to the ground as he started weeping again,

"I'm sorry, Sis Jellan! They forced me! They forced me to eat human flesh! They forced me!" He said in a cracking voice full of helplessness and anger.

He clenched his fist tightly as his eyes started to emit killing intent. If Nile saw it, he would surely be surprised by the animosity released by those eyes of his.

Hearing him, Jellan could also not help but clenched her fist in anger. She already knew who are those 'they' that Istan was talking about.

Hybrids!

The hate on both of their eyes was apparent as they did not try to hide it.

"They forced me not because they wanted me to join them! They forced me to eat human flesh just because they thought it was fun!"

Jellan's eyes were full of ferocity as she could not imagine how cruel those hybrids were. They even forced an innocent boy like Istan to commit such a heinous act.

"If I didn't follow what they wanted me to do! They said they will pursue the others and let them eat human flesh instead of me!"

"Sis Jellan… I-I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm no longer human!" With a cracking voice, Istan started weeping again. His fist never released the tight clenched as he gritted his sharp teeth like a madman.

Even Jellan could feel the hate he was emitting.

She rubbed Istan's back as she asked an important question. "By others, do you mean them?"

She was referring to the others that Nile treated as younger brothers and sisters.

Nile grew up in an orphanage and no one tried and wanted to adopt him. After all, he just has average features and oftentimes, those who wanted to adopt kids would always see their appearance first before moving to other characteristics.

That's how Nile saw it according to what he told Jalan. He said that those who remained unadopted are the most ordinary-looking ones, even those with shitty personalities get adopted first just because of their acceptable appearance.

Of course, those who adopted those kids are the ones who did not do a background check and instead adopted them immediately after seeing the fake attitude that those kids showed.

Nile said that he was never the smart one during his elementary days. He also claimed that he was no genius and he only obtained that title after working hard.

He also only gained that title during high school when he studied hard for the scholarship and for the competition he joined for their rewards.

The old house they were in right now was one of the rewards from those competitions. Nile treated it that way but in fact, it actually came from his sponsor during that time.

He also mentioned that he received the old house right after the adoption center closed due to no one managing it. He said that the old caretaker died for an unknown reason.

Instead of waiting for adults to adopt the others, Nile decided to take care of all the remaining unadopted childrens and made this old house their dwelling.

There were a total of eight other childrens aside from Istan in front of her. She was curious if the others Istan was talking about were the eight other childrens that Nile decided to adopt.

"Yes, it's them!" Istan had already started to calm down at this time after mentioning the others.

"A month ago, during that time, we wandered around the town in search of food. As the others were afraid to be left alone, we all decided to come together and search for food."

"It was at that time that two hybrids appeared and surrounded us all of a sudden. We still don't know their existence during that time and we let our guard down.

Fortunately, Sis Nalyn and I have already awakened, and Sis Nalyn was even stronger than me back then."

He paused for a moment before he continued, "But… those despicable hybrids, they are stronger than us! They toyed us around as if we were just bugs!"

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Thanks for reading!

Chapter 1/5 for the Mass Release event!