Ray checked the surveillance feed first. Then he went out.Honey and the other three women were sleeping deeply. Not a single one stirred.Ray had slipped a bit of sleeping medication into dinner, ensuring they slept soundly and wouldn't notice him leaving in the middle of the night.The moment he stepped outside, a brutal wave of cold hit him, snapping him fully awake.Even fully geared up, he still felt the chill seep straight into his bones.At night, the temperature had likely dropped to minus thirty degrees Celsius—or even lower.Using a flashlight to light the way, Ray quickly reached Building 4.He climbed the stairs to the second level.In this residential complex, the first floor of every building was essentially open space—no residents lived there. It was used for parking electric bikes and storing delivery lockers and fresh-food crates.Ray stopped behind the fire door. With a thought, square blocks of ice appeared one after another.Why had he prepared ice blocks?

The entire residential complex convened another meeting.This time, the topic was how to prevent the people from Building 4 from getting out—how to lock them inside that building completely.Yesterday's meeting had failed to reach any consensus because no one wanted to confront a group of vicious criminals head-on. Everyone harbored the same thought: let others go first while they stayed behind to watch. With such divided intentions, nothing could be decided.But today was different.What threat did Building 4 pose now? None.If they wanted to come out, their only option was to climb or jump down from the second floor. That severely limited their numbers.So the question became—how do they block even that route?Ideas poured in.Some suggested digging a deep trench all around the base of Building 4, effectively turning the second floor into a third floor. That would make it much harder for people to climb down and would greatly increase injuries and fatalities.The workload wo

The bald brute froze for a moment, then split into a wide grin.Three women wanted to take him on?Fine. He'd kill the fat one first and see if the rest of them still dared to act tough.He raised his cleaver—only to see all three women lift their hands at the same time. In their grips were pistols, the black muzzles aimed squarely at him.Holy shit!The bald man's hand went slack. With a clang, the cleaver dropped to the floor. He immediately threw his hands up."Don't—don't do anything rash! Please don't! I was just joking around, hahaha… hahaha!"He laughed dryly, forcing the sound out."Kristen, tie him up," the fat woman ordered."Got it."One of the women stepped forward, yanked her bra out from under her clothes, and used it as a rope to bind the brute's wrists.At first, the bald man didn't take it seriously. A bra, of all things—one hard tug and it would snap, right? But once she finished tying him up, he tried to struggle free. To his shock, he couldn't move at all

Meanwhile, Ida and Suzanne led the six remaining women into the underground parking garage. They swept their flashlights around, then headed toward Building 8."Damn, it's freezing," someone complained.Suzanne laughed. "Once we're inside the villa, you won't feel cold anymore.""Yeah!" The women nodded vigorously.They were full of anticipation.The garage wasn't very large. Even though they weren't familiar with the layout and it was dark below, they reached the passage leading to the villa within a few minutes.They were well prepared and opened their umbrellas.You could never be too careful—especially when you were coming with ill intent. Naturally, they were even more cautious than most.They knocked on the door.The woman standing in front was named Liz Silverton, the most beautiful of the eight.If they wanted to lure Ray into opening the door, of course, they would send out the prettiest one first. Too bad Molly had left the group. If she were here, there was no way

Another night passed, and the apocalypse had entered its twentieth day.Ray stared out at the window as the world slowly whitened with dawn. He couldn't help but whistle in admiration. Human resilience was truly remarkable. Twenty days had passed, and yet, it seemed that at least half—or perhaps even more—of the residents in the neighborhood were still alive. Were it not for the endless slaughter among themselves, the number of survivors could have been much higher. It was awe-inspiring.After lingering in bed for a while, he got up and went downstairs. Leo wagged its tail at him, and Ray chuckled, tossing it two meat buns before opening the basement door and carrying breakfast down.Of course, he had already confirmed via the monitors that it was safe. He trusted only himself.Honey and the other three were still sleeping soundly. Compared to the bitter cold outside, this basement was a cozy haven. Snuggled in the blankets, it was almost unbearably warm. The only downside was th