Some people said Lauren's own son had been set up by her—designed, step by step, to die.Why? For the compensation money.To be able to lay hands on her own child—how poisonous did a woman have to be?So what happened to the Gantt family could only be called karma. Evil begets evil, and villains meet their own kind. There was no room for sympathy.…Morning came. A little after ten, Ray woke up and stretched.Waking up naturally felt wonderful.He washed up and made breakfast. One portion for himself, one for Leo—so lavish it made your mouth water.Without exaggeration, even Honey didn't eat as well as Leo. After all, how could a woman meant only for casual amusement compare to a loyal dog?They had barely finished breakfast when Ray's phone chimed with an intrusion alert.Someone was outside.At first, he thought it was Honey and Amanda again, but a closer look showed it wasn't them. It was a woman he'd never seen before. The infrared camera rendered her face in black and

Ray smiled as the door to the otherworldly dimensional space silently opened.He pretended to lower his head, the beam of the flashlight sweeping across the ground.Now.Moe charged first."Die!" he roared.It was the signal.Troy and the other five saw Moe rush forward and immediately followed with a shout, all of them surging toward Ray.Then—one by one—they vanished. No sound. No trace.Ray swept the space with his mind. Inside the other dimension now lay six lifelike corpses. Their expressions were vivid—ferocious, twisted—yet each still carried a faint hint of fear.Huh. That meant people didn't die instantly after entering the other space. There was a process.Even if that process was incredibly brief.Heh. These people had planned to do him harm—was he supposed to spare them?Their only purpose had been to bring pain and humiliation to the Gantt family. That purpose had already been fulfilled. What reason was there to keep them alive?Ray smiled.With a thought, he

Wesley had been under immense pressure lately, and it was only getting worse.At the very start of the disaster, he'd spun a lie. He claimed he had a relative working in a government department, and that the state had established a shelter, allowing a very limited number of people inside to survive the catastrophe.And he had claimed that he just happened to be holding three spots.A handful of people actually believed him. Not only did they obey his every command and flatter him endlessly, they even handed over all their possessions.There weren't many fools—only nine in total, and two of them were women.Of course he slept with them. Their looks were nothing special, but he wasn't anyone important himself. Free women, with no strings attached, and he could do whatever he wanted. How could he not enjoy it?But…As the days passed, food and clean water dwindled. The promises he'd boasted about never materialized. The nine of them were growing anxious, asking every day when the

What were they here for? To kill Ray and seize his supplies.Of course, killing was secondary. If Ray were willing to submit obediently, they didn't necessarily have to kill him.After all, aside from born psychopaths, who truly relish murder?But now, killing Ray seemed far too risky.They could die.And faced with that reality, who wouldn't hesitate?They were ordinary people, not professional killers.Wesley, however, hesitated for a different reason. If they retreated now, everyone would once again be pushed to the brink of starvation and dehydration. And when that happened, he would become the target of all their resentment. They would pin the blame for their predicament on him.He might even be beaten to death.So… no, they couldn't go back.If he wanted to shift the conflict elsewhere, he had to take Ray down.What did a few deaths matter? As long as it wasn't him."Once the bow is drawn, there's no turning back," Wesley said coldly. "We have to take Ray down today

Ray opened the door and let the two women in.Amanda looked a little timid and uneasy, but Honey was relaxed and open, a smile on her pretty face as she asked, "Same as usual? Let us eat our fill first?"Ray gestured for them to go ahead. He already had the food prepared.Once the two women began eating and drinking, he casually asked, "Why didn't you come yesterday?"Honey paused, then said, "I thought about a lot of things yesterday. I even thought about killing myself. But then, I realized—dying over some worthless man just isn't worth it."She shook her head, her expression seductive and unapologetic. "I'm this good-looking. Shouldn't I be enjoying men's affection? From now on, I won't be sad over any trash man ever again."Sure enough—when things reached an extreme, they rebounded.If this weren't the apocalypse, she wouldn't have had to sell her body to Ray just to survive. In the old days, sheesh—half the leaders at her workplace would've fallen at her feet.Ray didn't c