Chapter 1

The warehouse was originally a two-story building with a basement. The two upper floors had collapsed beyond recognition, and the supplies inside had been crushed. Only the basement remained relatively intact. Lu Chi and his group aimed for the living resources within the underground storage room.

Squeak!

Squeak!

Heavy footsteps brought slight tremors to the ruins, and the exposed steel bars on the collapsed walls groaned under the strain.

"Tread lightly..." Lao Hei whispered, reminding them.

The ruins were in a state of precarious stability. The seemingly solid, stacked, half-destroyed walls above them could collapse again due to even the slightest movement, like an avalanche.

Their current position was at the entrance to the basement. If the ruins collapsed, they would all be crushed into mincemeat under the heavy walls.

Whoosh!

A strong man used two crowbars to pry open the lock to the basement warehouse. As the door was pulled open, rows of shelves came into view.

The shelves were filled with barrels of mineral water, compressed food, bread... These supplies probably weighed several thousand pounds, enough to sustain a dozen people for several months!

"Woo-hoo!" Someone shouted excitedly, laughing wildly as they ran in, hugging the food on the shelves and rolling on the ground.

They had endured hunger for a long time, and the daily allocation of resources was barely enough to sustain life. They had never felt "full." Seeing this scene, the emotion of狂喜 (kuang xi, wild joy) instantly overwhelmed them.

Including Lao Hei, four strong men pounced on the shelves, frantically tearing open the food packaging and stuffing it into their mouths. Bread crumbs and biscuit crumbs were scattered all over the ground, like four starving wolves.

Lu Chi also picked up two boxes of bread and ate them, but he did not stay at the shelves like the others. Instead, he picked up a flashlight and wandered around the basement, seemingly looking for something. After a while, he stopped and slowly squatted down.

Above the ruins, Hui Ge and four others were stationed at the entrance where Lu Chi and the others had entered. Because the ruins covered an area of over a thousand square meters, he didn't know if there were any other entrances directly to the basement besides this one. Therefore, he sent the other six to patrol the vicinity of the ruins, fearing that Lao Hei and the others would climb out from somewhere else with the resources and escape.

"Lao Hei, did you find anything?" Hui Ge held a walkie-talkie and asked in a deep voice, "Don't play dead, answer me!"

Sizzle...

As a burst of electronic noise sounded from the walkie-talkie, Lao Hei's voice rang out: "We've found the underground warehouse. There are at least several thousand pounds of living supplies in here. Get ready, we're bringing the stuff up!"

Hearing this, Hui Ge's eyes lit up.

...

Soon, boxes of supplies were hauled up from below the ruins by Scarface using ropes. Lao Hei and the others acted as diligent porters, constantly moving the supplies from the underground warehouse to the exit within the ruins. Soon, a small mountain of various supplies piled up above the ruins.

"Hui Ge, these things together are enough for us to eat for a year!" Scarface said ecstatically.

Hui Ge, unable to contain his excitement, had already cut open two packing boxes with a dagger and started eating the contents.

Although he was the leader of this group and enjoyed more resources than others, he had also been living on compressed biscuits during this time. Now, eating a sandwich, the long-lost aroma of grains exploded in his mouth, making him feel refreshed!

"Quick! Move faster!" Hui Ge commanded in a deep voice.

"How about we let Lao San and the others come back and help?" Scarface was sweating profusely, constantly using ropes to lift the heavy supplies from the underground ruins to the ground more than three meters above. Even for a few strong men, it was a bit too much.

Hui Ge's eyes darted around, and he decisively rejected Scarface's suggestion: "No, let Lao San and the others continue to patrol... We must not be careless."

Scarface raised his eyebrows.

Hui Ge subtly pointed to the ruins below, and then said softly: "We can't let狂喜 (kuang xi, wild joy) cloud our minds. What if Lao Hei and the others are up to something down there, taking advantage of the opportunity to deliver things to confuse us and run away from other places..."

Scarface immediately understood Hui Ge's intention.

"You mean..." Scarface lowered his voice.

"The supplies can be brought up, but Lao Hei and the others don't need to come up! When the stuff inside is almost moved, let Lao Hei and the others be buried inside!" Hui Ge's eyes flashed with a fierce light, his hand caressing the mottled barrel of the hunting rifle. In a few words, he had pronounced the fate of Lao Hei and the others.

"Actually, that kid Lu Chi is pretty good. It's a pity he's going to die like this... There aren't many young people like him who are so hardworking and have no temper," Scarface chuckled softly, "But who told him to be unlucky and be with Lao Hei?"

A large amount of supplies was transported up. Hui Ge used the walkie-talkie to ask Lao Hei how many supplies were still stored below.

"There are only a few hundred pounds of stuff left in the warehouse, at most two more trips and it'll be done..." Lao Hei's voice came from the walkie-talkie.

Hui Ge glanced at the mountain of living supplies piled up behind him. He didn't reply, but instead gave Scarface a look.

A few hundred pounds of living supplies might have been important in the past, but now, for Hui Ge, it was dispensable. He waved his hand at Scarface, who turned around and took out a crude homemade landmine from his backpack. Yellow tape was wrapped around the exposed fuse, making it look very simple.

But its power was not small at all, enough to make the ruins that had collapsed once collapse again, completely becoming a graveyard burying everything.

Just then, Lao Hei's voice came from below again: "This box is good stuff! It's braised meat and baijiu (white liquor) inside, don't drop it!"

Hearing this, Hui Ge raised his eyebrows, signaling Scarface to stop for a moment and drag this box of precious supplies up along the gap.

Baijiu and braised meat were really good things. In this environment, these two things could guarantee heat and nutrition supply!

A long cardboard box was tied with ropes and pulled up.

Hui Ge held a hunting rifle in one hand and a dagger in the other, raising his eyebrows at Scarface.

Scarface understood.

Hui Ge licked his lips and used a dagger to cut open the tape seal on the cardboard box. Thinking of the long-lost taste of meat and liquor, his palms trembled with excitement!

Scarface took out a lighter and directly lit the fuse.

Sizzle!

The long cardboard box was opened, but what came into Hui Ge's eyes was not the wine and braised meat he had imagined.

What greeted him... was a heavy iron hammer that broke through the wind!

Thud!

Crack!

Hui Ge's forehead caved in severely, and scarlet blood spurted out from his nostrils and wounds, along with the sound of broken bones. His eyes rolled back, and the hunting rifle and dagger fell out of his hands. His body fell heavily backward.

Hidden in the cardboard box was actually a person, Lu Chi!

Lu Chi was covered in blood and jumped out of the cardboard box in an instant, carrying the hammer and rushing towards Scarface a few meters away.

At this time, the fuse of the landmine in Scarface's hand had been lit and he was about to throw it into the gap in the ruins.

The sudden change stunned him.

After he reacted, he roared loudly: "He killed Hui Ge! Kill him!"

The nearby strong men rushed up madly with machetes, daggers and other weapons.

Lu Chi moved extremely fast, darting in front of Scarface in a few steps. His left hand grabbed the burning fuse of the landmine. In an instant, the smell of burning skin spread out. Lu Chi's left palm was directly burned and festered by the high temperature. Accompanied by a "sizzling" sound, there was actually a kind of meaty aroma permeating the air!

Black smoke rose from Lu Chi's left palm. In Scarface's horrified eyes, Lu Chi, with one hand grasping the fuse that had been pinched out, swung the iron hammer with the other hand and smashed it down on Scarface's head expressionlessly.

One strike!

One strike!

Another strike!