The others exchanged hesitant glances.

Everything up to this point had been speculation. No one knew what was really going on in there. The screams had been so horrific; they worried that getting involved would only drag them down, too.

"I remember the owners of this apartment are three brothers. If it’s just them fighting among themselves, that’s one thing. But what if some thugs have broken in? If we don’t get to the bottom of this, none of us will be able to rest easy. Who knows whose home they’ll sneak into next? How could any of us feel safe!"

Hearing this, the group grew restless and uneasy. He was starting to win some of them over.

Just then, someone nodded. "Let’s go check it out. We all live in the same complex; we can’t just stand by while something bad happens. And if there’s real trouble, there are so many of us here. Are we supposed to be afraid of them?"

By now, over a dozen people had gathered. Aside from the three women, one of whom was Stella Sterling, the other twelve were all men. This gave the group a significant boost of courage.

"I’ll take the lead. As for you three ladies, you can follow behind us or find a safe place to hide. Just be ready to adapt to the situation."

No one else objected, and the other two women looked at River Larkin with open admiration.

River Larkin’s gaze, however, was fixed on Stella Sterling with an expectant look.

However, Stella Sterling’s expression remained placid, not at all like the other two women. A flicker of disappointment crossed his mind.

"I’ll take the lead!" he said, and with that, he moved to the very front and strode toward apartment 2508.

His courage earned him a new level of respect from the others.

Stella Sterling didn’t follow them. She and the other two women stood back at the corner of the stairwell.

The other two women both looked to be around thirty. Stella vaguely recognized one of them—she was one of the first people to venture out for supplies after the snow started. Stella remembered she had a child who was about five or six.

Noticing Stella’s gaze, the woman took a wary step back.

Stella didn’t recognize the other woman at all. She looked away, her eyes flicking toward River Larkin.

Then she turned and headed upstairs.

’There’s no need to watch what happens next,’ she thought. ’This whole incident is just a show River Larkin directed and is starring in himself.’

Still, she had to admit, the man was very good at seizing opportunities to make himself look good and win people over.

She was almost certain he had orchestrated the entire incident, which was why he knew better than anyone that there was no actual danger.

But the others didn’t know that, so his recent words and actions were very effective at winning their goodwill.

On her way up, she passed the young man who lived across the hall. They nodded as they passed each other, one going up and the other down...

’He must be going to check on the situation,’ Stella thought, and continued up the stairs.

The door across the hall was open, and Willow Young was standing outside anxiously. She spotted Stella immediately. "Stella Sterling, have you seen Finn?"

Finn was her boyfriend. Stella nodded. "I saw him. He just went downstairs."

Before entering her apartment, she turned to the anxiously waiting Willow Young and said, "You should keep your door closed. If I were to get any funny ideas right now, do you think you could win a fight against me?"

As she spoke, Stella even took two steps in her direction, scaring Willow Young so badly that the color drained from her face and she immediately slammed the door shut.

Stella Sterling shrugged with a small smile, then turned and went into her own apartment.

「The next morning.」

By the time the other residents were gradually waking up, Stella Sterling had already eaten breakfast, finished her daily exercises, reviewed the medical books she had long ago finished reading, and spent some time organizing goods in her space.

When she’d rented the warehouse, it had come with a lot of shelves. On her last trip to collect her goods, she’d also moved those shelves into her space, tossing them into a pile of miscellaneous items.

Now, they were finally proving useful.

She couldn’t stay inside the space for long. After organizing for a while, Stella picked a few eggplants and then left.

Around this time, sounds began to break the silence of the residential complex as other residents gradually woke up.

That afternoon, River Larkin came looking for her and told her what had happened after she left last night. When they opened the door, there was no bloody scene—just the three brothers, who furiously drove everyone away.

But those bizarre screams left the other residents suspicious, and rumors began to quietly circulate that the three brothers were up to something illicit.

River Larkin didn’t say much else, only assuring Stella that he would help her resolve her troubles very soon.

When she had free time, Stella would take out her binoculars to look at the distant scenery.

Unfortunately, no matter how beautiful the buildings had been before, they were now all buried beneath a blanket of white snow. The streets were empty of pedestrians, and the entire city had fallen silent.

Previously, when she looked through her binoculars, she could occasionally spot uniformed workers in various corners of the city clearing snow or repairing electrical lines.

Stella knew these were the authorities at work. Even in this blizzard, there were still people trying desperately to salvage the situation.

But over the last two days, those figures had disappeared. She knew this meant that those in charge had also realized how serious the situation was—that it was now impossible to enact any large-scale change with human labor alone.

"The bases must be under construction by now," Stella murmured.

In her past life, she had joined a base, but it was a privately established one—a camp spontaneously organized by a group of people, with no real foundation or power.

Her mood soured at the memory of thinking she had finally found hope, only to nearly end up as someone else’s meal.

In this life, she didn’t lack food or drink, and she wouldn’t choose to join a base again. With all the supplies she had, finding a safe place to hole up by herself was the smartest move.

But she couldn’t stay in this apartment for long, either. It was fine during the snowstorm, but things would grow more chaotic over time. It wasn’t just the natural disaster; there was also the danger from other people. No place was absolutely safe.

Besides, she remembered that later on, the buildings in this very complex would collapse—

The sky gradually darkened until it was pitch-black outside the window.

Yet in the city, there were still certain places from which light emanated.

’Just as I thought. I’m far from the only one who was prepared for the apocalypse.’

Then there was the Sterling Family. Yara Sterling had been missing for so many days. Given how much Mr. and Mrs. Sterling doted on her, she wondered if they would risk going out to look for her in this kind of weather.

She let out a low laugh. Noticing it was getting late, she put away her binoculars and closed the window, shutting out the bone-chillingly cold air from outside.

Then, she drew the curtains, switched on the lights, and headed into the kitchen to start her evening routine.

For several days in a row, the horrific screams would erupt in the middle of the night, always coming from the 25th floor and disturbing everyone so much that they couldn’t sleep.

Over the past few days, Stella Sterling hadn’t gone out to investigate the situation, but she hadn’t missed out on any of the relevant news.