Reborn in Apocalypse

The Desperate Beggars and the First Face-Slap

​The frost on the exterior window pane of Penthouse A had thickened into an intricate, crystalline armor. Outside, the blizzard howled like a pack of starved beasts, driving ice needles against the glass at eighty miles per hour. The ambient temperature in the city had plummeted further to a horrifying -50°C. Down in the streets, abandoned cars sat buried under snowdrifts, their engines cracked open by the sheer force of the cold.

​Inside, the penthouse was a warm, pristine paradise. The ambient indoor temperature sat comfortably at 22°C (72°F).

​Lucas leaned back on his plush velvet sofa, wrapped in a lightweight fleece blanket, watching a pre-downloaded action movie on his 85-inch OLED television. On the marble coffee table before him rested a steaming bowl of hot beef noodle soup, freshly pulled from his Dimensional Sanctuary. The rich broth emitted a fragrant aroma of star anise, Sichuan pepper, and tender braised beef—a stark contrast to the desolate, frozen hellscape just beyond his walls.

​His burner phone on the table vibrated continuously.

​Because Chloe couldn't reach him through his primary number, she had resorted to texting and calling every single contact in her phonebook, begging for Lucas’s current whereabouts. Eventually, someone in their shared social circle had leaked that Lucas was living in Aegis Tower.

​A series of messages from an unknown, unblocked number flashed on the screen:

​Unknown Number: "Lucas! I know you can see this! Please, answer me! It's Chloe!"

​Unknown Number: "We're freezing to death at my mother's place! The heating system exploded, and the pipes burst! Ryan can't feel his fingers, and Mom is shivering violently! We have no food and no heat!"

​Unknown Number: "Lucas, please... I know I made mistakes. I know Ethan lied to me. He abandoned me! His mansion's heating system broke down too, and he locked himself in his underground bunker with his own family, refusing to let me in!"

​Unknown Number: "You always loved me, Lucas. You built that penthouse, didn't you? Let us come in! We're coming to Aegis Tower right now. Please open the door for us!"

​Lucas picked up his phone, his expression calm, detached, and utterly cold. He didn't reply. Instead, he took a slow, deliberate sip of his hot beef soup, enjoying the warmth spreading down his throat.

​In his past life, when the frost descended, he had begged Chloe and her family for just a cup of hot water. Mrs. Miller had thrown a cup of ice-cold tap water in his face, mocking him for being a useless cripple, while Ryan shoved him out into the freezing hallway. They had shown him zero humanity.

​Now, the tables had turned.

​An hour later, the heavy titanium blast doors of Penthouse A echoed with a faint, muffled thumping sound from the outer elevator lobby.

​THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

​"Lucas! Open the door!" a screeching, raspy voice echoed through the external intercom speaker.

​Lucas tapped his tablet screen, pulling up the ultra-high-definition feed from the external security cameras mounted outside his entrance.

​The video feed showed three pathetic figures huddled together in the dimly lit elevator lobby of the 45th floor.

​Chloe, Mrs. Miller, and Ryan were wrapped in layers of dirty, mismatched winter clothes, blankets tied around their waists with plastic rope. Their lips were swollen and dark purple, their eyebrows covered in frost, and their noses red and running. Ryan looked like a shivering corpse, clutching his bandaged nose with stiff, gloved hands, while Mrs. Miller was practically leaning against the wall, weeping hysterically from the sheer agony of the cold.

​"Lucas! I know you're in there!" Chloe sobbed, slamming her gloved fist against the solid titanium alloy door. The blast door didn't even vibrate; it was built to withstand explosives, let alone the weak pounding of a starving woman. "We walked five miles through the blizzard to get here! My feet are completely numb! Please, just open the door and let us warm up for five minutes!"

​Mrs. Miller collapsed onto her knees on the cold tile floor, wailing, "Lucas... my dear son-in-law! I was wrong! I was greedy! Please forgive your mother-in-law! Give us some hot water! Just a bowl of soup! Ryan is going to die!"

​"Lucas!" Ryan rasped out, his arrogant demeanor completely shattered. "I'm sorry for trying to hit you! I'm sorry for taking your villa! Just give us a blanket and some food! We'll do anything! I'll be your dog! Just let us in!"

​Inside the luxurious living room, Lucas tapped the two-way audio button on his tablet, bringing his mouth close to the microphone.

​His voice echoed clearly through the outer lobby's high-output speaker, crisp, smooth, and chillingly distant.

​"Chloe. Mrs. Miller. Ryan."

​The three of them froze instantly. Chloe’s eyes lit up with desperate hope as she lunged toward the speaker. "Lucas! You're alive! Thank God! Open the door, quick! It's so cold out here!"

​"Why should I open the door?" Lucas asked, his tone laced with quiet amusement.

​"Because we're family!" Chloe pleaded, tears freezing into tiny ice beads on her cheeks. "I was your wife! We were together for three years!"

​"Ex-wife," Lucas corrected smoothly. "We signed the divorce papers eighty days ago, remember? You stood right beside Ethan Cross and called me a penniless loser who deserved to beg on the streets."

​Chloe’s face flushed with shame and terror. "I... I was stupid! Ethan manipulated me! He promised me wealth, but when the storm hit, he kicked me out of his car! Lucas, I regret everything! I realize now that you are the only man who truly cared for me! Let me in, and I will be a good wife to you! I'll do whatever you want!"

​"Is that so?" Lucas smiled softly, though his eyes remained dark as an abyss. "Then tell me, Chloe... where is that arrogant pride you had at the law firm? Where is your wealthy lover Ethan?"

​"Ethan is a coward! He's a monster!" Chloe screamed, her voice cracking with desperation. "Lucas, please... Ryan is frostbitten! If he doesn't get warm food and heat right now, he'll die!"

​"Then let him die," Lucas replied without a second of hesitation.

​The outer lobby fell into a suffocating, dead silence.

​Mrs. Miller gasped, clutching her chest. "Lucas! How can you be so cruel?! He's your brother-in-law! Have you no human decency?!"

​"Human decency?" Lucas let out a cold, sharp laugh that rattled through the speaker. "Mrs. Miller, when you demanded I hand over my late father's villa to feed your greedy son, did you show human decency? When Ryan broke my face over half a tin of beans in my past life, did he show human decency? When you locked me out in the freezing dark to starve, did any of you blink?"

​Chloe blinked through her frosted eyelashes, confused and terrified by his words. "Past life...? Lucas, what are you talking about?!"

​"It doesn't matter," Lucas said flatly. "All that matters is that inside this door, I have thousands of hot meals, endless heating, and clean water. And outside that door... you have nothing."

​To drive the point home, Lucas tapped a command on his tablet.

​A specialized external hatch above the blast door clicked open. A automated mechanical arm extended outward, holding a steaming, freshly baked personal pizza—topped with extra cheese, sizzling pepperoni, and fresh basil. The delicious, hot aroma of melted cheese and baked dough wafted directly into the freezing lobby air.

​The three starving beggars gasped, their eyes turning wild with primal hunger. Saliva pooled instantly in their mouths.

​"Pizza... it's hot pizza!" Ryan whimpered, reaching out his stiff hands like a feral animal. "Give it to me! Give it to me!"

​Before Ryan's fingers could touch the box, the mechanical arm tilted downward.

​The steaming hot pizza slid off the tray, falling straight onto the icy, dirty floor tile right at Ryan's feet.

​"Oops," Lucas’s voice drifted through the speaker, completely devoid of remorse. "My hand slipped."

​Ryan dropped to his hands and knees, ignoring his pride, and lunged forward to grab the pizza from the dirty floor. But before his tongue could taste the warm cheese, the sub-zero draft sweeping through the hallway instantly froze the pizza solid, turning the soft dough and cheese into a rock-hard slab of ice within seconds.

​Ryan bit down frantically, only to crack his front tooth on the frozen crust, letting out a muffled scream of pain and agony.

​"No... NO!" Chloe wept, collapsing onto the frozen pizza, her spirit completely broken.

​"Listen to me carefully," Lucas’s voice turned icy sharp, cutting through their weeping. "If any of you remain in my elevator lobby in the next ten seconds, I will activate the automated high-voltage defense grid installed in the floor panels. You have five seconds to clear out."

​BZZZZZZT!

​A low, terrifying hum of electrical current echoed through the metal floor plates, blue sparks arcing along the baseboards.

​"Aaaagh! He's insane! He's going to kill us!" Ryan shrieked in terror, scrambling backward toward the emergency stairwell like a terrified rat.

​"Lucas! You monster! You'll burn in hell for this!" Mrs. Miller screamed, scrambling after her son as fast as her frozen legs could carry her.

​Chloe stood there for one final second, staring at the cold titanium blast door with a look of profound, agonizing regret. She realized with absolute clarity that the man inside was no longer the weak, submissive husband she could manipulate. He was an unyielding king sitting atop his warm throne, while she was nothing more than garbage waiting to freeze in the dark.

​"Lucas..." she choked out a final, pathetic sob before turning and fleeing down the dark, freezing stairwell after her family.

​Inside the quiet penthouse, Lucas watched the camera feed as the lobby emptied out. He tapped his screen, retracting the mechanical arm and deactivating the floor grid.

​He walked back to his velvet sofa, picked up his glass of red wine, and took a quiet, satisfying sip.

​"Eight days left until the first major mutant wave," Lucas whispered to himself, his eyes reflecting the warm glow of his fireplace display. "Enjoy the cold, my dear family. The real nightmare hasn't even begun."