Peace never lasts.
In a compound with dozens, if not hundreds of households, every family was in a different situation.
Some had no sick members and enough supplies.
Others were low on food, had infected loved ones—or had already been robbed.
And of course, there were those doing the robbing.
All kinds of hidden dangers festered beneath the surface.
It was only a matter of time before everything collapsed.
Lu Qingyuan had estimated things would fall apart in two days.
Reality beat him to it.
That night.
People in the compound were moving again.
Lu Qingyuan had always been a light sleeper. The faintest sound from outside—the scraping of something against the wall—snapped him wide awake.
Someone was climbing the building.
The apartment block had sixteen floors.
They lived on the twelfth—basically the upper levels.
Even a gecko would have a hard time getting up that high.
Which meant the climbers were targeting the lower floors.
Should he warn them?
Lu Qingyuan didn't even hesitate.
No.
He wasn't the kind of person to go out of his way to save strangers.
Ten minutes later, the familiar sounds returned: screaming, crying, yelling.
Chu Yian jolted upright in bed.
The noise was coming from right below them—their building.
She quickly messaged Lu Qingyuan.
After getting a simple "I know" in reply, she crawled to the window to check.
From their floor, she couldn't see much.
The group chat, however, was buzzing with updates.
[What happened in Building 2? Didn't they just say the cure is almost ready? Why is there another break-in tonight?]
[I saw it—someone climbed up to the third floor and smashed a window open. Two men went in. I don't know what's happening inside.]
[Aren't they afraid of getting caught? I already called the cops!]
Of course the burglars didn't respond.
But now, people with sick family members and no supplies were frantically asking in the group chat for help.
Food. Medicine. Anything.
When it came to condemning looters, everyone was loud.
But when someone was begging for help?
The group chat turned eerily silent.
There were quite a few people asking for supplies.
Chu Yian scrolled through the messages and couldn't help but feel that peace in this compound wasn't going to last much longer.
Game: Day Fifteen
In the morning, two bodies were found at the foot of their building.
From a distance, no one could tell who they were—just that it was a man and a woman, based on their clothes.
The police still weren't picking up.
Panic spread through the residents.
Between 2 and 3 a.m., another wave of home invasions occurred.
Bigger, more aggressive.
Some succeeded. Some didn't.
By the next morning, there were even more bodies scattered at the foot of various buildings.
That afternoon, cars started leaving the compound.
Not to search for medicine—to escape.
At least three vehicles drove out.
Most belonged to families with money and relatively healthy members.
Everyone saw them leave.
And by nightfall, several of their now-empty apartments had been completely ransacked.
Game: Day Sixteen
That day, Chu Yian used her "something from nothing" skill and drew a large bag of apples.
She hadn't had any fruit in ages—so it was perfect timing.
There were six apples in total.
At lunch, she washed two and shared them with Lu Qingyuan.
Game: Day Seventeen
The TV was still looping news about the upcoming release of the cure.
But the situation inside the compound was rapidly deteriorating.
Originally, only a small fraction of residents had both infection and food shortages.
Now, with robbery spreading, everything had spiraled.
Those who got robbed had to rob others to survive.
And both robbers and victims were being infected during the process.
"Someone was loitering outside around 5 a.m."
That was what Lu Qingyuan told her around noon.
Which wasn't a good sign.
He wasn't monitoring the cameras 24/7.
So chances were—they'd been spotted more than once.
"Looks like we've been marked. We should take turns watching the feed the next few days."
"Okay," Chu Yian nodded. "Half a day each?"
"Too long. You'll lose focus. Four-hour shifts. We rotate. Make sure to rest. Message immediately if anything looks off."
"Got it!"
They started splitting the surveillance shifts.
That evening around 8 or 9, Chu Yian spotted movement on the infrared feed.
Three people loitering near the entrance.
They lingered, poking around the door, doing who-knew-what, before finally leaving.
Chu Yian immediately texted Lu Qingyuan everything she'd seen.
By the time she handed off the shift, it was already deep into the night.
Technically, she should've gone to sleep.
But watching the footage gave her a bad feeling—
Like it wasn't safe to stay much longer.
So instead of sleeping, she got up and started packing.
Her magic box had one cubic meter of space.
Which… wasn't much.
The meds were the top priority.
She grabbed some plastic bags, removed the packaging from pill boxes, and transferred the tablets to save space.
Fever reducers were key.
Disinfectants could go on the outside, for quick access.
The most space-consuming items?
Medical protective suits.
There was no way she could cram fifty suits into the box.
So she packed twenty sets, estimating ten days' worth for two people.
She filled every remaining gap with compressed biscuits and bottled water.
Still not enough.
She pulled out a regular backpack and a massive roller suitcase.
The suitcase was something she'd bought just for emergencies.
The backpack had come with the game.
She stuffed six more suits into the suitcase, along with more medicine, instant meals, ramen, and 7–8 bottles of water.
By the end, the suitcase was heavy as hell.
For escape purposes, the backpack had to stay light—
She only packed a drone (for recon), a power bank, some homemade beef jerky, and two water bottles.
Even with all that packed…
There was still so much she had to leave behind.
Chu Yian looked at the stockpile she had painstakingly built up over the past weeks.
Every item had been carried up by hand.
Now, in a world where resources meant survival, leaving them behind felt like cutting off a limb.
She stared at her cache of self-heating meals.
If she couldn't take them with her…
She picked up her phone.
[Teacher Lu, it's going to be a long night. Want some midnight snacks?]