Whoooosh...
Countless meteors dragged long tails of flame behind them, crashing into the earth like rain. The entire villa shuddered.
At the same time, the chandelier overhead went dark. The power was gone.
Zhao Yin switched on his flashlight, walked over, and slid open the movable insulation panel on the window to peer outside.
The apocalypse he had witnessed in his past life was replaying before his eyes.
Blinding white streaks of light fell from the sky, filling the entire world.
Meteors, dense as raindrops, hammered down without end. The buildings in sight were quickly riddled with holes. The entire city was ablaze, smoke and fire rising in every direction.
The artificial lake outside the villa churned with bubbles, hissing as white steam rose from its surface.
"Help! Someone save me...!"
"Ahhh... What the hell is happening?! Why are so many meteors falling?!"
"I'm going to die! Why didn't the astronomy department give us a warning?! Damn it, ahhh-!"
"I don't want to die... The house collapsed, my leg is broken..."
People outside the villa screamed and wept. Some cried out in utter despair.
With a sharp crack, an old osmanthus tree in front of the villa was snapped in half by a bowl-sized meteor. It burst into flames amidst the relentless barrage.
A wave of choking smoke, laced with searing heat, rushed in through the small open window.
Zhao Yin slammed the movable insulation panel shut and quickly sealed it with high-temperature resistant glue.
The cruelty of the apocalypse's arrival could not shake his already numb heart.
The screams didn't stop until dawn. Perhaps everyone around the villa was already dead. Zhao Yin boiled water, made a bowl of instant noodles, and ate them with a salt-baked chicken leg.
At this moment, no one knew that hidden among the countless meteors were shards of blood-red crystal.
After the apocalypse, they would come to be known as Star Crystals.
Each Star Crystal could randomly yield items needed in the post-apocalyptic world. It might produce supernatural materials, equipment, weapons, or...
It might directly grant an ability that could elevate a person beyond the ordinary.
Someone had calculated during the apocalypse that most Star Crystals only produced low-grade supplies. Very few yielded equipment or evolution serums.
Star Crystals that granted abilities were rarer still-like phoenix feathers and qilin horns.
And whether it was supplies, equipment, or abilities, they all varied in strength.
After the apocalypse, a classification system was established, ranging from F-rank to SSS-rank.
Zhao Yin shook his head, pushing these thoughts aside. After eating his fill, he found the military greatcoat his father had left behind.
Outside the villa, fires raged everywhere, but inside, packed with ice, the temperature was dropping rapidly.
Zhao Yin pulled on the greatcoat and went straight to sleep.
A few minutes later, the sound of his snoring filled the room.
Seven years in the apocalypse, with no control over his own fate, had long taught him to sleep and wake at will.
Even if the world were destroyed, what did it have to do with him?
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
A frantic pounding on the door jolted Zhao Yin awake.
"Is anyone there?! Open up! Let me in!"
Zhao Yin frowned. It took him a moment to recall a memory from his previous life.
Outside the door was the community security guard, Dong Jun. He had been on duty in the underground parking garage and survived the first few hours of the apocalypse. But now, the garage had just collapsed.
Zhao Yin's villa was the only surviving building in the entire complex.
Dong Jun had managed to escape the garage and found this place.
In his previous life, Zhao Yin had let Dong Jun in. At first, Dong Jun was endlessly grateful.
But as their stored food dwindled, Dong Jun revealed his true nature. Relying on his strong physique, he began to enslave Zhao Yin.
A month later, when the meteor shower ended, Zhao Yin was too weak from hunger to search for supplies. Dong Jun was the reason.
If Dong Jun hadn't consumed so much of their food, the Zhao Yin of his past life might have discovered the secret of the Star Crystals sooner.
But just a few days later, after wasting a large amount of food, Dong Jun was hacked to death in his sleep by an enraged Zhao Yin, who had finally found his chance.
Zhao Yin had experienced too much darkness and bloodshed in the apocalypse. He had deliberately tried to forget those memories, which was why he hadn't immediately recalled this incident.
"Zhao Yin! Are you in there?! I saw you come back today! Open the door, or I'll break it down!" Dong Jun's impatient shouts came from outside.
A cold sneer formed in Zhao Yin's heart.
In this life, he would not make the same mistake.
He grabbed the bone cleaver beside him and walked to the small window. After prying it open, a smile spread across his face.
"Is that you, Brother Dong?"
"Zhao Yin! You really are in there! Hurry... hurry up and open the door! I almost died!"
As Dong Jun spoke, a meteor slammed into the ground right at his feet, making him leap back in fright. His voice grew even more panicked.
"Brother! Brother, just save me! I'll do anything!"
"I'm not sure you're really Brother Dong. What if you're a bad guy?" Zhao Yin said, his voice flat.
"How could I be a bad guy?! It's really me, Dong Jun! You passed by the security booth the other day and even offered me a cigarette. Don't you remember, brother?!"
"Brother Dong, come closer and let me see you."
Dong Jun, already suffering in the unbearable heat, stumbled to the small window, revealing a face reddened and blistered by the fire.
"It's really me, brother...!"
Pfft!
A bone cleaver shot out from the window.
It stabbed directly into Dong Jun's eye socket. When it was yanked back, red and white matter sprayed out.
Zhao Yin withdrew the cleaver and quickly sealed the small window shut again.
As if nothing had ever happened.
In this life, Dong Jun hadn't had the chance to harm Zhao Yin yet.
But killing him?
Zhao Yin felt no guilt.
The man wouldn't have left. He would have eventually broken the door down. Without the door's protection, the searing heat would have flooded the villa.
In his previous life, Zhao Yin had no preparations. For the first few days of the apocalypse, he relied on the villa's insulation to hold on. But after a few days, the walls became scorching hot. He had to dig through the floor and bury himself in the dirt-not just for himself, but for Dong Jun too.
Fortunately, dirty water from the sewer seeped through the sand and gravel into the pit, solving the drinking water problem and helping to cool things down. That was the only reason the Zhao Yin of that life had barely survived.
He had no intention of going through that again.
Tossing aside the bone cleaver, Zhao Yin went back to sleep. Soon, his snoring resumed.
In the days that followed, no one else came looking for him. The indoor temperature remained consistently a few degrees below zero.
He ate when he was hungry, slept when he was full, and when he woke, he exercised his frail body inside the villa.
Time passed quickly.
In the blink of an eye, it was the twenty-ninth day of the apocalypse.
Even with the insulation panels in place, the fifty tons of ice had mostly melted. Standing water covered the floor, but the temperature remained low.
Compared to the torment of his previous life, this month had been comfortable. He still had more than half of his food and water left, and he had even put on a bit of weight.
Zhao Yin opened the small window to check outside.
The meteor shower had lessened considerably. Only a few sporadic rocks fell now and then.
Sometimes, he wouldn't see a single one for half a day.
Twenty-nine days ago, everything in the city that could burn had long since finished burning.
The temperature was dropping. Thin smoke rose everywhere. The surviving people and animals had hidden away somewhere unknown.
Zhao Yin knew that some supplies had not been destroyed by the meteor shower. There were places the meteors couldn't reach. Those supplies might be buried, or they might be inside certain special buildings.
There were also ordinary buildings, like his villa, that had survived.
But Zhao Yin wasn't interested in ordinary supplies.
What he wanted most was Lin Tianfeng's SSS-rank ability.
And he needed to collect as many Star Crystals as possible before anyone else discovered their secret.
Finally, the meteor shower stopped.
Zhao Yin prepared everything.
He dismantled the insulation panels from the door.
And opened the villa's front entrance.40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxyNHlg09Zw
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