Zhang Yi lit the stink bomb and quickly threw it through the shooting hole above the door.
As soon as the bomb hit the ground, thick black smoke started billowing out rapidly.
A pungent stench filled the corridor in no time.
Upon smelling it, Fang Yuqing and Lin Caineng felt like they had opened a jar sealed with ten-year-old filth, and immediately started to retch violently.
"Ugh... What is this? Ugh..."
"Zhang Yi, ugh... You're so shameless!"
The stench in the hallway grew stronger, and the two women quickly fled.
Zhang Yi wasn't worried about the stench getting back into his house. After closing the shooting hole, the entire room was semi-sealed.
Although air could still circulate, the house was specially equipped with an air filtration system during construction, preventing any bad smells or harmful air from getting inside.
Seeing the two women walking away while vomiting in a panic on the monitor, Zhang Yi burst out laughing.
However, it wasn't long before he received a complaint from his next-door neighbors.
"Zhang Yi, what did you throw outside your door? It smells awful! Could you please be considerate of your neighbors?"
Zhang Yi's neighbors were a young couple who had moved in two years ago.
However, Zhang Yi never really interacted with them, aside from the occasional nod when they ran into each other in the elevator.
Given the current situation, he had no interest in maintaining any kind of neighborly relationship.
In this apocalypse, Zhang Yi only cared about his own safety, and couldn't care less about others.
In fact, he was willing to kill anyone who stood in the way of his own comfort and security without hesitation.
In the apocalypse, any sort of "savior complex" had to be immediately snuffed out!
"Don't like it? Come and fight me!" Zhang Yi said, before blocking his neighbor.
As always, he wasn't interested in wasting time arguing.
Soon after, Zhang Yi noticed that his neighbors were badmouthing him in the group chat.
But, unfortunately for them, no one else had the energy to care about their trivial complaints.
Zhang Yi chuckled to himself—it felt surprisingly good to be free from moral constraints.
...
That afternoon, Zhang Yi was abruptly awakened from his nap.
"BANG!"
A loud noise echoed through the corridor, reverberating throughout the entire building.
Zhang Yi's expression became serious; the sound resembled a gunshot.
Could there really be someone with a gun in this residential area?
Uncertain whether it was a gun or fireworks, Zhang Yi quickly rushed to the living room and turned on the monitor.
The scene on the screen made his pupils shrink involuntarily.
Standing in front of the third-floor apartment was Chen Zhenghao, holding a black gun, his leg missing.
The cold, dark gleam of the weapon was enough to make anyone's heart skip a beat.
The door to the third-floor apartment was open, and from the camera angle, Zhang Yi could just make out a pair of legs inside.
Meanwhile, Chen Zhenghao's lackeys, laughing gleefully, emerged from the apartment with food, candles, and other supplies in hand.
It was clear that the occupants of the third-floor apartment were either dead or wouldn't last much longer after being shot and stripped of their resources.
At around 10 a.m., it was customary for everyone to head outside together to dig up snow and melt it for drinking water.
This group activity helped temporarily raise the temperature in the hallways, keeping the cold at bay.
No one could survive without water, so this routine continued daily.
Chen Zhenghao had taken advantage of this timing to start killing and stealing supplies.
"Ding dong!"
Zhang Yi's phone pinged.
He glanced at it—there was a new message in the group chat.
Chen Zhenghao had sent a voice note.
"With the city now buried in snow, no one's coming to help us. We're on our own."
"I, Chen Zhenghao, will now assume responsibility as the leader of Building 25. From now on, I make all the decisions here!"
"If you follow my orders, I'll let you live. But if anyone tries to step out of line… heh heh!"
Immediately after, Chen Zhenghao posted two photos.
One showed him holding the gun, and the other was of the third-floor resident lying in a pool of blood.
The once lively group chat fell completely silent.
Everyone was shocked by this gruesome and brutal display.
Most of the residents were likely filled with fear at this point.
After all, when had anyone experienced something like this in peaceful times?
It was something they couldn't even imagine, yet here it was, staring them in the face—bloody reality.
In this building, now sealed off by a raging snowstorm, other people had become their worst nightmare.
No one dared to speak out against Chen Zhenghao; everyone was afraid of dying.
Lying on the sofa, Zhang Yi couldn't help but say, "Chen Zhenghao is pretty sharp. No wonder he was able to thrive in society."
Chen Zhenghao was using both carrot and stick, not solely relying on fear to control the residents.
After all, he only had one gun, and no one knew how many bullets he had.
But Zhang Yi knew the number wasn't high. Firearms were strictly controlled in the country.
Even when Zhang Yi had spent a fortune, they had only sold him 100 rounds.
Moreover, Chen Zhenghao only had five or six lackeys under his command.
With fifty households and over a hundred people in the building, if the residents were pushed too far, there was no way a cripple like Chen Zhenghao could hold them off.
That's why his strategy combined intimidation with the promise of safety. By offering people a lifeline, he could keep the residents in check without forcing them to revolt.
People, by nature, are afraid of death.
Even though everyone understood that if Chen Zhenghao could kill the third-floor resident today, he might come for them tomorrow, they still clung to the hope that they might be spared.
For instance, those living on higher floors might think, "He killed someone on the third floor today, maybe tomorrow it's the fourth floor. Even if he comes for me, it'll be a while—no need to risk my life now. Surely others will fight back first."
And those on the fourth floor might think, "Chen Zhenghao won't necessarily kill in order. If I resist, I'll definitely be killed, so it's better to stay put and wait. Maybe someone else will die first."
Zhang Yi shrugged—none of this concerned him.
While others were too scared to resist Chen Zhenghao, Zhang Yi simply didn't fear him.
If Chen Zhenghao dared to show up at his door, Zhang Yi would have complete control over his fate.
As for the lives of his neighbors? They meant nothing to Zhang Yi.
If they wanted to play ostrich and avoid fighting back, that was their choice.
Zhang Yi had no interest in playing the hero, risking his own life to save others.
Just then, Zhang Yi's phone began pinging rapidly with notifications.
When he checked, he saw that hundreds of new messages had appeared.
He discovered that he had been added to a new group chat.
Curious, Zhang Yi opened it and saw that the residents had created a new group, excluding Chen Zhenghao and his gang.
It seemed that the threat of death had prompted some people to consider banding together.
Zhang Yi didn't say anything. After all, he was confident in his own safety.
He was just curious to see what these people could come up with.