When Jun Jia announced they were going to search every single room, leaving no corner untouched in a full sweep for food, the fragile peace in the room shattered. Quite a few people finally lost their composure, their faces twisting in a mix of panic and outrage.
Every person in this room who still possessed food had secured it through luck, high-level connections, or sheer coincidence. Some had even been bold enough to bring their own stock to the auction before the crisis deepened. Either way, until a rescue party arrived, that food was their only true lifeline.
Jun Jia let out a laugh, the sound echoing sharply against the glass walls.
The room filled with a strange, vibrating tension. Some people lowered their heads, staring at their hands in defeat. Others stood up abruptly, their chairs scraping against the floor. A few even stepped forward, prepared to resist. After surviving four grueling years of the apocalypse, none of them were willing to simply hand over their private reserves.
Jun Jia's laughter only made everyone more uneasy. It was the sound of a man who knew he held all the cards.
Then, the middle-aged man sitting next to Jing Shu suddenly stood up. He pointed a trembling finger toward the center of the room. "Where is Boss Lü? There is no way the owner of New World does not have a massive stock hidden away. If he hands everything over, then I will do the same."
The spotlight shifted instantly to Boss Lü. Every eye in the room followed, including Jing Shu's. From what she had observed while her bugs were sweeping through the building earlier, quite a few people had managed to hide small stashes. But she was not entirely sure about the owner.
There was one completely sealed room she had encountered—a space so airtight that even her smallest insects could not find a gap to slip through. It had not been opened a single time since the flooding began.
If her instincts were correct, it was essentially a giant vault combined with a high-end cold storage unit.
"I wonder what is inside," she thought. For a fleeting moment, she was tempted to find out, then she shook her head. Boss Lü had not done anything to cross her so far. After looting high-end supplies from the city before, her standards for what constituted a "haul" had gone up significantly. If a stash did not contain rare livestock, fresh fruits, or viable crops, it was not worth the risk of exposing the existence of her Rubik's Cube Space.
Boss Lü lounged deeper into his chair, his expression lazy. "I have already handed over all my food. Brother Jun even said he will give me a first-class merit medal later."
People gritted their teeth at the blatant lie. No one believed him for a second. Still, the message was clear; he was firmly on Jun Jia's side, and he would not be providing anyone with a loophole.
The room grew heavy with frustration. No one wanted to give up their food, yet no one knew how to accept the loss.
Seeing their hesitation, Jun Jia added more fuel to the fire. "So, you do not want to be rescued? Fine. I am the only one who knows the satellite distress code anyway. Starting today, I will not send any more signals. Let us just wait here and die. Die early, reincarnate early."
The color drained from everyone's faces.
That was not just a suggestion; it was a direct threat. Stranded on this drifting, concrete island, if no rescue came, who knew how long they would last? Under such harsh conditions, every extra day spent in the dark meant more danger from the rising water and the things living within it.
"Be my witnesses," Jun Jia said, settling into his chair. He crossed his legs and took a slow, deliberate sip of hot tea, the steam curling around his face. "From now on, for the next twenty-four hours, I will not send any distress signals. Whoever does send one is a dog."
Jing Shu kept her head down, staying silent. She knew he was bluffing. There was not even any functioning satellite equipment in this building to begin with.
Still, the tactic did not seem very effective. Most of the people remained frozen, acting like ostriches with their heads in the sand, hoping that someone else would be the first to take the hit.
At that moment, an unremarkable, balding middle-aged man in the corner stood up.
"Director Jun is doing this for all of us, so we can survive," he said, his voice ringing out with practiced sincerity. "I want to get rescued and leave this damn place too. I will not say more. I have two hundred cans of braised pork hidden away. I will hand them all over."
"Lao Liu actually…"
"Since when did he get so righteous?"
In the wake of his announcement, one or two more people stepped forward, offering small stashes of dried plums, biscuits, and other preserved goods.
Jing Shu narrowed her eyes, watching the exchange. So Jun Jia had planted people in the crowd in advance to break the stalemate. It made sense now; even the reward she had received earlier, containing those cans of braised pork, had likely come from this coordinated effort.
Just as the momentum was about to stall again, Jun Jia stood up and waved his hand dismissively. "Aside from those who have already volunteered, search the rest. Clear out all the food."
The tone in the room shifted instantly. The period of negotiation was over.
Several people stood up in anger, their faces flushed. They had assumed that since Jun Jia was still talking, he would not resort to blatant force. They never expected him to flip the table so suddenly.
"You cannot do this! This is private property!"
"I will hand it over! I will contribute! Just do not search my room!"
"Too late." Jun Jia gave them a thin smile and gestured for everyone to sit back down. "There is no need to struggle. The search has already started. Just wait here and stay calm. Do not do anything reckless."
Jing Shu raised a brow. Now she understood the entire play. This had been staged by Jun Jia from the very beginning—a carefully choreographed drama designed to gather every scrap of hidden food in the building. The threat of cutting off the satellite was just an excuse, a classic "soft" approach followed immediately by "hard" force.
If she guessed right, several more of the people in this room were already working with him.
The room grew restless as minutes turned into an hour, but with armed guards at the doors, no one dared to act.
Before long, Li Chenglong returned with his team. They had completed their sweep of the private rooms.
They had found a significant amount. Boxes of instant noodles, bags of rice, and stacks of vacuum-sealed snacks were brought into the common area. A clerk began recording every item in front of the witnesses, and the pile of food grew continuously. Many people looked terrible, their hands trembling as they watched their security being hauled away, but there was nothing they could do.
They wanted to resist, to argue their rights. But with guns pointed in their direction, what could they possibly use to fight back? All that talk of reason and law from earlier was meaningless now.
Wang Miao entered with another team, looking slightly awkward as he approached the center of the room. "We searched from the third-floor residential area upward. Aside from Boss Lü's personal quarters, everything has been checked. There is basically no food left."
Jing Shu was not surprised. After so many days of isolation, even those who once had plenty had already used up their supplies. There was nothing left to hide.
"Keep searching," Jun Jia ordered with a wave of his hand. "Search the entire building. Do not miss the outside areas either. Look for loose soil, pits, or hidden compartments. Check everything."
The mood in the room grew even more dismal.
The only people who seemed unaffected were Boss Lü, who let out a lazy yawn; Jin Baba, who looked bored out of her mind; and Jing Shu, who did not care about the search at all.
As time passed, nearly all the food in the building was gathered into a central stockpile. Jing Shu estimated the total volume; it would only last two or three days if rationed with extreme care.
It was barely enough to keep the peace.
She closed her eyes, pretending to rest against the back of her chair. Inside her Rubik's Cube Space, she was busy. She fed her pigs, harvested the latest round of crops, and began the process of drying fresh vegetables into preserved food. Ever since she had gained the ability to manifest power inside the space, these chores had become much more convenient.
Soon, the sound of hurried footsteps echoed in the hallway outside the glass room.
"Report! A tunnel has been found in the first-floor plaza restroom. There is a large amount of edible supplies hidden inside!"
The middle-aged man sitting beside Jing Shu began to tremble violently. A moment later, his strength seemed to fail him, and he dropped to his knees with a muffled thud.
Everyone else in the room lit up with sudden excitement.
Jing Shu, however, felt a chill. She frowned, her mind racing.
A tunnel inside the restroom? That was the exact location where the countless sludge sirens had poured out during the last attack.
How had she missed a hidden tunnel there during her own sweeps?
Or was there something else entirely going on?