"M... Mr. Crawford!"
Mandy Sinclair's voice was weak and trembling.
She thought Sebastian Crawford had already left, which was why she came out to get these things.
She never expected that Sebastian Crawford had only pretended to leave and was actually hiding in the shadows.
But it was useless to think about that now.
Mandy Sinclair squatted down and hurriedly picked up the things scattered on the floor, putting them all back in the box.
"Mr. Crawford! I... I wasn't trying to take them. I was just curious, so I wanted to take a look, really! I'll just be going now..."
As she spoke, Mandy Sinclair turned to leave.
But Sebastian Crawford sneered, "Did I say you could go?"
As he spoke, Sebastian Crawford extended his hand, palm up.
Above his palm, a ball of fire hovered.
Although the fireball wasn't large, it illuminated the entire area by the doorway.
Even though she had seen it before, seeing Sebastian Crawford unleash his Superpower again made Sierra Sullivan's heart beat a little faster.
It wasn't fear, but longing.
'A Superpower!'
'It must be incredible!'
'If only I could have a Superpower too!'
Mandy Sinclair stared at the burning fireball in Sebastian Crawford's hand, her eyes filled with terror as she kept backing away.
"Mr. Crawford... I was wrong! I was really wrong! Can you please spare me!"
With a thud, Mandy Sinclair fell to her knees on the ground and began to unbutton her top.
Mandy Sinclair's figure was very alluring.
Although she had been hungry for a few days and her face was a bit gaunt, her waist had become even slimmer.
Contrasting with her full bust, it made her proportions seem even more stunning.
In the glow of the firelight, her skin seemed to be luminous.
"Mr. Crawford, as long as you spare me, I'll do anything you want!"
Mandy Sinclair tilted her head back, twisted her body, and looked pitifully at Sebastian Crawford.
She had always been very confident in her figure.
Even if Sebastian Crawford was a Superpower User, he was still a man.
'How could he possibly refuse something offered to him on a silver platter?'
Seeing Mandy Sinclair like this, Sebastian Crawford's expression did indeed change.
But it only grew uglier.
"What kind of person do you take me for!"
As he spoke, Sebastian Crawford violently threw the fireball in his hand at the wall.
It was like an explosion; the wall that had just been snow-white was instantly scorched black.
Mandy Sinclair was so scared she covered her ears, collapsing onto the ground in a pathetic heap.
For a moment there, she thought she was going to die.
Without the fireball, the stairwell plunged into darkness once again.
Sebastian Crawford slowly began to speak, his voice as cold as a knife, "I'll spare you this time! If this happens again, don't blame me for being merciless! Get lost!"
The moment she heard she could leave, Mandy Sinclair forgot her fear, scrambled up from the ground using her hands and feet, and ran off in a panic.
The sound of hurried footsteps echoed in the stairwell, then quickly faded away.
Sebastian Crawford turned to look at Sierra Sullivan's front door.
"Sierra Sullivan, I know you're in there watching. I really don't have any malicious intentions toward you. Do you want to know how I got my Superpower? If you just open the door, I can tell you everything!"
Sierra Sullivan really did want to know, but there was absolutely no way she was opening the door.
The two of them remained in a silent standoff.
In the end, it was Sebastian Crawford who gave up first.
"Since you're not willing to open the door, then forget it. I won't force you. But I believe you'll come around eventually. The things are right here by the door. Don't forget to open it and take them inside."
After speaking, Sebastian Crawford turned and left.
Sierra Sullivan didn't continue to stand at the door watching. Instead, she went to her bedroom, locked the door from the inside, and entered her space.
This Sebastian Crawford... she had encountered him in her past life, and he wasn't like this back then.
In this life, how did he end up like this?
Or perhaps, it wasn't that he had changed.
It was just that in her past life, Sebastian Crawford didn't have a Superpower, so he was forced to hide his true self.
Now, Sebastian Crawford had a Superpower, felt he was no longer an ordinary person, and so he dropped the act.
The more Sierra Sullivan thought about it, the more plausible it seemed.
After gaining power, very few people would choose to continue suppressing themselves.
'Wasn't I the same way?'
'Wait!'
Sierra Sullivan's heart tightened as she thought of Autumn Lynch's family of three.
Compared to her last life, too many things had changed in this one.
Sebastian Crawford had a Superpower now; could Autumn Lynch and the other two have them as well?
If they really did have Superpowers, she feared they wouldn't die so easily.
The light in Sierra Sullivan's eyes darkened, but she was helpless.
All communication was down; she couldn't contact that family of three.
With Sebastian Crawford and Aberrant Beasts outside, she had no way to leave her apartment for now, let alone go looking for those three.
All she could do was wait.
'If those three aren't dead, they'll surely come looking for me!'
Having figured this out, Sierra Sullivan stopped dwelling on it.
A day passed, and the vegetables planted in the space were already fully ready to eat.
The branches and leaves of the fruit trees had also become lush.
Although the fruit trees grew slowly, at this rate, she estimated that in another ten days to half a month, she would be able to eat the fruit she had planted herself.
'I can be completely self-sufficient!'
Sierra Sullivan was in a great mood, and for a short time, she forgot everything outside her space.
She washed up, ate, and rested.
She dawdled until midnight before finally leaving the space.
The space was bright, the air was fresh, and it was filled with thriving green plants.
But upon returning to her apartment, she was met with endless darkness.
Sierra Sullivan was having some trouble sleeping, so she walked over to the floor-to-ceiling window.
Without the myriad lights of the city, the outside world was plunged into complete darkness after nightfall.
At this moment, she couldn't see a thing before her, and it was so quiet she could hear a pin drop.
It felt as if she were the only person left in the entire world.
Sierra Sullivan didn't let herself wallow in this feeling for too long.
Soon, she collected herself and forced herself to lie down on the bed and sleep.
「Three more days passed.」
Even though Sierra Sullivan never left her apartment, she could clearly feel that the atmosphere in the building had grown much heavier than before.
Every day, Sebastian Crawford would come to her door to ramble on, only to leave with a grim expression.
With nothing better to do, Sierra Sullivan would press her ear to the door to listen for any movements outside, occasionally hearing a scream.
The sound was always brief, followed by silence.
But Sierra Sullivan knew it had to be the people in the building starting to kill each other.
Sebastian Crawford had taken people out to search for supplies before, but only half of them had returned.
This just showed how dangerous it was outside.
No one dared to go out for supplies anymore, but not wanting to starve, they naturally started targeting the other people in the same building.
Sierra Sullivan was just thankful that when she had renovated, she had chosen the best of everything, which gave her a sufficiently secure shelter.
Otherwise, with her current abilities, she wasn't sure if she could protect herself amidst all this slaughter.
Although she had the space, she couldn't hide in it for the rest of her life.
With each passing day, Sierra Sullivan's sense of urgency grew stronger.
「Two days later, Sebastian Crawford returned.」
This time, his expression was terrifyingly grim, and his fair skin was spattered with specks of red.
'That was blood!'
"Sierra Sullivan, you don't actually think that just because you won't open the door, I can't do anything to you, do you?"