Apocalypse Star House Hoarding

Chapter 100

Based on his knowledge of Yu Xi, he knew that although she seemed aloof and taciturn, that was just on the surface. Even though she said, “Not close, do as you please,” his memories told him that she knew Feng Xu, so there was no way she would truly disregard his life.

In other words, if he continued lying here, he would only bring her trouble.

With that in mind, “Feng Xu” moved.

Exerting force with his wrists, he snapped the ropes binding him. He pushed off the ground with one hand, while his other elbow struck upward, landing hard on his captor’s stomach.

Caught off guard, the man clutched his abdomen in pain, staggering back.

“Feng Xu” swiftly twisted forward, grabbing the man’s wrist, forcing him to drop the cutter. He maneuvered the man’s arm around his neck and yanked downward.

What met the man’s neck was “Feng Xu’s” rising knee.

Yu Xi heard the clear sound of bones cracking. The man who had just been so arrogant, holding Feng Xu hostage, collapsed to the ground with a thud.

The entire sequence was quick and precise. The others hadn’t even reacted before their leader was lying unconscious. They couldn’t be sure if he was still alive.

The group exchanged glances, considering rushing forward together, but a gunshot echoed. They glanced at the ground in front of them, where the bullet had landed. Realizing they were outnumbered and had lost their hostage, they carefully retreated, carrying their fallen comrade away.

Yu Xi put away her gun, her gaze meeting Feng Xu’s. She narrowed her eyes, silently observing him with caution.

Her intuition was sharp, and the Feng Xu standing before her now exuded an odd aura. His swift, skillful moves were noticeably different from the Feng Xu she knew.

She glanced around. Bai Yu, her wrists tied, was looking at her pleadingly; she was sharper than Feng Xu and had likely guessed who Yu Xi was upon seeing her here.

A few people were still trapped in the electric fence in her yard, trembling like quails, both wanting to flee and unable to escape. She could also sense wary, fearful eyes watching her from the surrounding villas, though she couldn’t tell if they were the original owners or other intruders.

This crowded environment wasn’t the right time to probe into Feng Xu’s sudden change.

Feng Xu seemed to want to approach her, but he also noticed the situation around them. With other matters still unresolved, he simply told her that he would come find her later.

She looked at him, noting the composed air he now carried. A stream of questions and speculations flooded her mind, but she suppressed them for the moment.

She didn’t respond, just nodded slightly, then headed toward her villa to deal with the intruders.

Five minutes later, she released the people trapped in the electric grid but only after they were incapacitated with a stun baton. She tied their wrists with strong ropes and bound them all together.

She dragged the five of them to the overlook and left them there, confident someone would come to handle them.

Aside from the yard, there were no signs of intrusion in the villa. The stealth alarms she had installed worked exceptionally well, keeping the villa secure.

While there wasn’t much food in the villa, only what was in the kitchen and fridge for daily meals, the previous Yu Xi had left behind various appliances, furniture, and personal items like clothes, bags, and skincare products. If someone had broken in, the place would have been ransacked by now.

She still had to survive in this world for two and a half months—about eighty days. With such well-equipped shelter, she intended to make the most of it.

She entered the villa from the indoor pool area at the back, turned on the shower, and checked the pH level, confirming it was normal before rinsing her protective gear.

Once clean, she stowed the protective equipment in her Star House storage but kept her moisture-breath face mask on. She then took out an air quality monitor she’d purchased in this world and checked the air levels throughout the villa.

Since it had been two days since the acid rain had passed and Yu Xi had shut all retractable metal panels when she left, with the air filtration system constantly running, the air quality was only slightly acidic—still within a breathable range.

Yu Xi took out a smart cleaning machine from the cabinet, set it to clean the entire villa, and headed to the upstairs bedroom to take a shower. Though the machine couldn’t match the thoroughness of a housekeeper’s touch, it saved her time and effort.

Previously, the subway station’s water source had been contaminated, and the power had issues by the second morning. Fortunately, the backup generator automatically activated, preventing them from being stranded in darkness.

The villa, however, was different; water and electricity were still functioning normally. She recalled that one of the selling points when the character in this world purchased this villa was that it came with a complete supply system on the mountain peak, including water, power, a signal tower, and an underground shelter stocked with canned food, water, medicine, and daily supplies.

Whether Fan City became a battlefield or was hit by a tsunami, the villa residents were promised maximum security for their lifestyle.

Initially, this had seemed like a mere marketing gimmick, but after the first gray acid rain, everyone started to take this supply system seriously.

During the villa district’s nanoceramic alloy upgrades, in addition to the security room at the gate, the mountain peak facility housing the supply system was also fortified through a collective effort by the residents. Even the water pipes and electrical wiring were reinforced after discussions.

When the resident representative called to confirm, Yu Xi had promptly transferred her share of the money.

Now, the benefits of thorough planning were clear.

Back then, everyone had just been preparing for an unlikely scenario—no one anticipated Fan City’s situation would deteriorate this drastically. No wonder the villa district was now flooded with unfamiliar faces, drawn by both the secure, acid-resistant housing and the availability of water and power.

Among these people were regular civilians seeking refuge, as well as troublemakers like the ones she encountered earlier.

The fact that those people could act so brazenly in such a wealthy neighborhood suggested they knew they wouldn’t face any repercussions or punishment in this chaos.

This meant the situation outside was likely worse than she’d imagined.

Still, there were fifty villas in the area, many equipped with security systems like hers, so she doubted the entire district had been overtaken by outsiders.

After showering, Yu Xi changed into a clean tracksuit and began organizing the villa’s resources. She stored useful but dust-collecting appliances and electronics in her Star House storage. The frozen drinks in the basement freezer and other long-lasting provisions were also temporarily packed away.

In the kitchen, she left only enough fresh fish, meat, fruits, eggs, and milk to last two or three days, for convenience, and stored everything else.

The local TV stations had all turned into emergency broadcast channels, displaying a 3D map and subtitles indicating several official temporary shelters with provisions and medical care. However, these shelters were far from the villa district.

Of course, those were just the official shelters; she was certain Fan City had many other spontaneous refuge points. The villa district was essentially one, too—if someone capable took charge.

Switching to other news channels in the country, nearly every report was about the acid rain, but focused on other cities hit by black acid rain the previous night.

The footage, shot by drones, showed them dropping supplies over areas where survivors had gathered.

However, she hadn’t seen any such rescue drones between the subway and the villa district, whether because they’d already made a drop or had never arrived.

Afterward, she found her answer online.

The black acid rain that hit Fan City had also covered several nearby cities.

The acid rain had lasted for about twenty minutes, with the pH gradually returning to 2.6. Due to the surrounding cities dealing with their own crises, and other areas requiring aid, only one batch of drones had arrived in Fan City, delivering a limited amount of supplies.

In many areas of the city, the signal was down, while some places still had network access, mainly within the shelter zones. Yu Xi saw that people had uploaded descriptions and photos of the villa district, which is why people nearby kept coming here to seek refuge.

At noon, she didn’t cook, but after eating convenience foods like rice balls and sandwiches for two days, she didn’t want to skimp on herself anymore. She took out a small pot of oxtail radish vermicelli soup from her storage.

Looking at the soup, she felt a bit melancholic. This soup was a portion she had purposely saved from when she cooked it with Yu Qi and Ya Tong in the meteorite world.

In terms of the apocalyptic world’s time, it had been a long while since they made that soup together. Spatially speaking, her chances of meeting them again were infinitesimally small. Yet, the pot of soup before her was still hot.

She missed them and even felt a bit nostalgic for the days when the three of them traveled through deserted areas in a camper van, though time and space now separated them.

“System, you said that as long as I survive in the apocalyptic world, I can go back to that world, right? So, how can I return?”

“Host, returning to the same apocalyptic world is not necessarily a good thing.”

“Going to an apocalyptic world means completing a mission, and going again means facing a new mission, with increased difficulty.”

“Don’t worry, the likelihood of that happening is low.”

“Are you trying to comfort me?” Yu Xi chuckled. “Have you heard of Murphy’s Law?”

Murphy’s Law: if something can go wrong, no matter how unlikely, it will happen.

In the afternoon, while napping on the living room sofa, her phone vibrated on her wrist. It was a message from Feng Xu: Can you open the door for me?

The security system in the yard was still active, so his request likely referred to temporarily disabling the defenses.

Instead of turning them off, Yu Xi put on protective shoes and a water-breathing face mask before heading out.

The people she had left on the overlook were gone, likely rescued by their companions. Bai Yu was probably taken care of as well.

Feng Xu stood just outside the security line of the yard, accurately positioning himself there. He’d removed his protective suit, wearing only protective shoes, and had taken off his face mask, indicating that the air outside had almost returned to a normal range.

Yu Xi didn’t remove her mask and simply looked at him from across the security line, waiting for him to speak.

He studied her for a moment, smiling. “Still as cautious as ever.” When she didn’t respond, his smile turned a bit resigned. “Do you still have millet cake and snowflake beef?”

Yu Xi raised an eyebrow. She had already suspected that Feng Xu might not be himself, but she didn’t expect it to be someone she knew.

Considering the tsunami apocalypse and the parasite apocalypse, this was already her third encounter with Lin Wu. The odds were too high.

The moment she recognized him, the system spoke, but only four words, and then fell silent: How could this be?

Yu Xi frowned. How could what be? What are you trying to say?

No matter how many times she asked in her mind, the system remained silent. But she could sense the surprise and confusion in those brief words. The system, usually calm and composed, had never shown such a reaction before—as if something had deviated from its precise calculations.

What kind of deviation?

Fifteen minutes later, sitting across the dining table from Lin Wu, who wore Feng Xu’s face, Yu Xi listened to him explain the current situation in the villa district.

After the black acid rain passed, a large number of refugees flooded into the area, including both troublemakers and radicals, who took advantage of the distraction to seize villas.

There had been two conflicts, and the villa owners, outnumbered, were ultimately forced to give up nearly half of the villas.

The closer the villas were to the top of the mountain, the more expensive they were, with better security systems. The newcomers had tried to occupy them initially but had failed and given up for the time being.

The owners who relinquished their villas temporarily moved to higher villas, and Lin Wu had already checked on the situation. Overall, things were fine; the villas were spacious, and there weren’t many owners.

But tensions were inevitable. It was hard for someone to accept that their own home had been taken over by strangers, forcing them to stay in someone else’s house.

Feng Xu’s parents owned a villa in the highest section, where the Feng family had two villas. It was agreed that one would be given up for other owners to share, which happened to be the villa next to Yu Xi’s.

Yu Xi’s villa was somewhat unique. With the owner absent and powerful security systems in place, it had been left alone. Her villa was situated in the upper-middle area, close to the overlook, with fewer nearby villas. Outsiders had been eyeing it, but after waiting a day, their attempts were foiled when the owner returned unexpectedly.

Of course, for Yu Xi, the situation in the villa district was minor; what Lin Wu shared next was far more important.

This was Lin Wu’s SS-level mission. He hadn’t unlocked it by completing ten S-level missions, but rather by obtaining a hidden item in his third S-level world. This item allowed him to attempt an SS-level world challenge. Unlike regular missions, because this was an up-leveled challenge, failure wouldn’t result in death—only in demotion.

With no risk of death, Lin Wu naturally decided to give it a shot, treating it as an early trial.

“An SS-level mission is indeed different. Starting with corrosive acid rain and wastelands, there are barely any resources to scavenge. Thankfully, I collected a lot of nutrient solutions in the last world. But it’s strange… I remember that this mission shouldn’t come with a world identity. So why…”

What also surprised him was finding Yu Xi here. He had all the memories of his previous host and knew that she was the one who had first upgraded the villas in this district with nanoceramic alloy, prompting everyone else to follow suit. Without that, his starting point would have been much harder.

While Yu Xi appeared to listen silently, her mind was racing.

SS-level.

So, the parasite world that had been a mid-level mission for her was an S-level mission for Lin Wu in his system’s ranking.

Now, he was clearly in an SS-level mission. So why had she seen a notification calling this a mid-low difficulty world?

That made no sense. The world’s difficulty level shouldn’t drop unexpectedly.

Yu Xi mentally addressed her system: System, I need an explanation.

A day later, as black acid rain fell again, the system finally gave her the answer.

The mid-low level acid rain world has been invaded by a world fragment. Difficulty has been adjusted to mid-high apocalypse level.

Temporary team mode enabled for host, with Yu Xi as team leader and Lin Wu as team member. Damage immunity between team members is active. Individual missions remain unchanged; if one party completes their mission, the other’s mission is deemed successful by default.

If both complete their missions, rewards are doubled. If both fail, host death is unavoidable.

Yu Xi: …

Simultaneously, in another villa, Lin Wu heard his system’s electronic voice.

Detected teammate in the same world; team mode automatically enabled. Team leader: Yu Xi. Team member: Lin Wu. Damage immunity between teammates is active. Individual missions remain unchanged; if one party completes their mission, the other’s mission is deemed successful.

If both missions fail, host death is waived.

If the team leader dies, host death is unavoidable.

Lin Wu: …

Author’s Note:

Yu Xi is truly a headache, but Lin Wu is even worse!