Chapter 30: Found her...

To outsiders, Salma Al Mansari was the absolute epitome of perfection.

Born as the prized princess of a world-spanning, immensely powerful conglomerate, there was truly nothing on earth she could not possess.

Whether it was obscene wealth, supreme political influence, or raw social authority, she had everything handed to her on a silver platter from the very moment she took her first breath.

Yet, despite her seemingly flawless existence, there were two bleeding regrets that carved a path of silent agony through her life.

The ancient Al Mansari family governed their bloodline with a set of ironclad rules so strict that they dwarfed even the most rigid royal dynasties of history.

It was precisely because of these unyielding laws that the family had successfully survived multiple industrial revolutions, global wars, and economic collapses, standing unshakeable for centuries.

Every official heir was strictly required to follow every single rule without question.

However, the family ancestral code granted every heir a single privilege: a one-time choice in their entire lifetime to break any single family rule they wished.

That choice was absolute, binding, and completely beyond the veto of the family elders.

But once an heir used that sacred privilege, they would never, ever get a second chance.

One of the most rigid rules enforced by the Al Mansari family was that no heir could ever marry a foreigner.

But love held no respect for ancient family doctrines.

Despite the endless warnings from her parents and relatives, Salma decided to use her one-time life privilege to break that specific rule.

She chose to marry a man, throwing away her lifelong privilege out of pure love.

What she did not know until it was far too late was that the man she loved was actually a deeply embedded spy, sent by a rival global syndicate specifically to infiltrate her house.

By the time his true identity was exposed, the man had already vanished into the dark, carrying away core industrial secrets that nearly caused the Al Mansari family to go extinct from the world overnight.

He left nothing behind in his wake except a growing life inside her womb. That child was her little baby girl, her blood and soul.

A baby who would have lived as a princess...

But...

When the betrayal came to light, the enraged Al Mansari family elders mobilized every asset they possessed to hunt down the traitor.

They executed a brutal, merciless blood debt, completely eradicating the traitor and every single person connected to his lineage across the globe.

Naturally, that absolute death sentence included the newborn child in Salma’s belly, as the elders refused to let the traitor’s tainted bloodline survive within their sacred family tree.

This was Salma’s first, most agonizing regret: wasting her sacred lifetime privilege on a completely unworthy, treacherous man.

However, Salma refused to let her innocent newborn baby be butchered by her own ruthless family. Using every shred of residual influence, wealth, and personal loyalty she had left, she secretly bribed an international medical team.

She successfully swapped her newborn daughter with another infant born that day, sacrificing that child for hers.

Someone else did, and they almost destroyed her poor daughter.

When Salma received the news, she went entirely feral. She was forced to stall her long-awaited reunion, diverting all her personal power and resources to hunt down every single monster involved in the orchestrated attack on her daughter.

She swore to skin them alive before she would allow herself to hold her child’s hand.

Yet, before she could finish eliminating the final conspirators hiding in the shadows, the global zombie outbreak suddenly erupted without warning.

This was Salma’s second, most painful regret: failing to meet her daughter in time and losing her amidst the tide of the apocalypse.

Driven like a madwoman by absolute desperation and grief, Salma personally captained a high-speed warship, risking her life against mutated sea monsters in the open ocean just to rush across the sea toward Lancity.

She had spent the entire past week frantically searching the ruined, blood-soaked streets of the city, sifting through mountains of decaying corpses and endless zombie hordes, but found zero results.

She had nearly fallen into utter despair.

However, after standing in the shadows of the civilian camp and hearing the bitter, gossiping words of those daring survivors around the bonfire... a brilliant, blinding spark of wild hope ignited deep within her chest.

Her daughter... her precious baby girl... was she truly alive? Was she right here inside this very settlement?

Salma did not care in the slightest about the crowd’s disgusting insults, the fabricated scandal, or their ignorant talk about zombie infections.

The only thing that echoed continuously in her mind was the name and the location.

Leaving Dereck standing completely bewildered near the supply truck, Salma turned on her heel and sprinted through the dark pathways of the settlement.

She ignored the military checkpoints, the warning shouts of patrolling guards, and the curious gazes of survivors huddled near the campfires.

Her heart hammered against her ribs like a trapped beast. Every single second felt like an agonizing eternity.

What if those people were lying? What if it was just a sick coincidence? What if she arrived at the building only to find another mindless, decaying monster waiting in the dark?

Self-doubt, sheer terror, and desperate hope fought a violent war inside her mind as her boots slammed against the dusty asphalt path.

She pushed her physical body to its absolute limits, her glowing green eyes cutting through the darkness like twin daggers as she neared the far western edge of the amusement park.

Finally, the massive, decrepit structure of the abandoned aquarium emerged from the night shadows.

The building stood isolated, surrounded by tall, rusted iron fences and dark, silent trees.

Two heavily armed military guards stationed near the cracked glass entrance flinched in shock as a dark red blur bypassed them before they could even raise their rifles.

* * *

"What the fuck was that?" a soldier asked.

"Something we can’t fight. Stay still. That’s beyond our pay slip," another muttered.

"Then should we run?"

"Can you?"

The soldier looked down at his shivering legs. "Seems no."

"Same..."

* * *

BANG!

The doors slammed against the interior walls, echoing loudly throughout the vast, dusty main hall.

Salma rushed inside, her chest heaving as her breath caught right in her throat.

She took three slow, trembling steps forward into the grand display hall.

Right in the center of the vast chamber, surrounded by shattered display cases and rusted steel support beams, sat a massive, crystal-clear aquatic pool.

The pristine water shimmered gently beneath the pale shafts of moonlight filtering down through the cracked glass skylights above.

Sitting right at the edge of the deep pool, her small, pale legs dangling casually in the clear water, was a young girl wearing simple dark undergarments.

Her long, jet-black hair flowed wildly down her back like a curtain of dark silk.

As the loud bang of the doors echoed through the hall, the girl slowly turned her head back over her shoulder.

Salma’s breath dropped completely. Her entire body froze as if struck by lightning.

The girl had soft, pale, remarkably full cheeks marked by subtle crimson veins, and her large, unblinking eyes shone like twin polished rubies under the moonlight.

Despite the unnatural, undead features, the face staring back at her was a carbon copy of her own, except for that wavy dark hair that mirrored that treacherous man’s.

The cold, hardened leader of the Rogues, a woman who had faced mutated boss Ferals without blinking an eye, suddenly lost all strength in her knees.

Salma fell heavily to her knees on the dusty concrete floor.

Hot, heavy tears broke through her defenses, streaming uncontrollably down her scarred face and dripping off her chin.

"My... my baby..." Salma sobbed, her trembling voice echoing softly through the silent aquarium.