The three stared at each other, and the atmosphere grew silent as footsteps echoed.

Only Vikram remained calm and composed, arms crossed, waiting for the owner of the sound to appear.

Soon, the creaking of footsteps on the wooden stairs reached the trio’s ears.

A tall man then appeared before them.

With a long horse-like face, a full beard, and tattered clothing, he appeared to be a Survivor who hadn’t fared well in the Wasteland World.

The man looked down at Vikram and the three women in the villa’s living room, his eyes full of disdain.

Seeing not only three women but also a male survivor below, a flicker of surprise crossed his eyes, but it quickly returned to scorn.

"Are you also survivors from nearby?" he asked in a flat tone, tinged with contempt.

There was no other way; although the man and three women all had high combat power, in the Wasteland World, women were often looked down upon to some extent.

Vikram lost all interest in responding to the man who appeared from upstairs.

The moment he saw the other party, his physique was fully revealed to Vikram.

He was quite strong, similar to Anjali and Divya, but that was all.

The Epic-level vitality fruit dropped by the Mutated Zombie last time had served as a warning, indicating that the physical limits of ordinary Survivors had broken through.

That’s why he was so cautious when facing newly appearing Survivors, just in case someone with a similar physique to his own really showed up, which would be quite troublesome.

Now it seemed he had overthought things; even with his physique, killing a monster of that level was difficult.

Let alone other Survivors; they probably wouldn’t even have time to run, let alone kill and obtain an Epic-level fruit.

"I’m talking to you, are you all mute?"

"Give me an answer, or I’ll kill you all right now." As he spoke, a bow and arrow appeared in the man’s hand.

The meaning was clear: he was openly confident he could take on Vikram’s group of three.

"And you, little miss, keep your hands clean and put that down, or you’ll be the first to die." The bow was then aimed at Anjali by the side of the living room.

At this moment, she was still holding the television she had been coveting, about to put it into her bag.

Hearing the man’s words, she stopped her actions and looked at Vikram.

"Vikram, what should we do about this?"

"Should we work together to kill this idiot?"

Vikram simply waved his hand, signaling her to continue her work.

Anjali understood, directly packing the television into her backpack, then nonchalantly searched for other supplies in the living room.

Meanwhile, the man still standing on the stairs widened his eyes, furious at the trio’s complete disregard for the weapon in his hand.

He first glanced upstairs, then said, "You wouldn’t listen when I spoke nicely, so don’t blame me."

The man drew his longbow, an arrow appeared on the string, and it was about to be shot.

Just then, Vikram slowly spoke, "Alright, stop pretending. The one upstairs comes down quickly. If I have to go up and kill you myself, it won’t be so simple."

As he spoke, a small stone flew from Vikram’s hand, accurately hitting the bowing man’s arm.

The pain made him instinctively release the bowstring; the arrow flew off the string but merely fell weakly to the ground.

Vikram merely scoffed at this, then looked towards the upstairs.

Seeing this, the man first froze, then stared at Vikram with an incredulous look.

Not only because Vikram’s casual move had injured his arm.

But also because of what Vikram had just said.

Scratching his head, he couldn’t figure out how the male Survivor in front of him knew there was still someone upstairs.

However, looking at the situation, the man also knew it was unlikely they could keep it a secret any longer.

He immediately wanted to go upstairs and call down the rest of his companions.

But before he could return upstairs to deliver the message, footsteps from above sounded first.

Immediately after, two more Survivors appeared on the wooden stairs inside the house.

They also looked down at Vikram’s group of three with a condescending gaze.

Vikram’s face was expressionless at the two people who appeared, but he inwardly snorted.

His detection showed there was still one Survivor hiding upstairs; clearly, the other party intended to keep a trump card.

However, he understood this quite well; in the Wasteland, how could one survive this long without being more cunning.

At this moment, the two who came down from upstairs stood in a line with the previous man, blocking Vikram’s group.

Originally, they thought the previous man was the leader among them, but now a plain-looking middle-aged man who came later stood in the middle of the group.

Clearly, he was the one in charge.

Sophia, Divya and Anjali, realizing things were not so simple, also moved closer to Vikram.

"If there are no surprises, we arrive at this house first. May I ask what your intentions are now?" the middle-aged man stared into Vikram’s eyes and forced a smile.

"No particular intention. Since everyone has discovered this resource, it’s only fair that those who see it get a share."

"Living in the Wasteland World for so long, you wouldn’t still be thinking of using the old rules from Earth, would you?" Vikram didn’t fall for the middle-aged man’s moral blackmail.

But he also wouldn’t draw his blade and start killing just because of a disagreement; after all, one doesn’t hit a smiling face.

No matter what, they were neighbors from the surrounding area, so he would observe their intentions first.

He knew that ever since the land area of the Wasteland shrunk, he had gained many such neighbors.

And he was not so demon that he would kill everyone.

He had already killed a group last time, so this time he had to assess the situation first.

The reason he didn’t kill them immediately was that Vikram could tell the previous man hadn’t genuinely intended to kill; he merely wanted to scare them.

Having used the Elementary Archery Skill Book, Vikram knew from when the man drew his arrow that he hadn’t pulled the bow with full force.

All signs indicated that not everyone in the Wasteland World was evil; there were still many people earnestly trying to survive.

Today, Vikram, who was out exploring new resources, happened to encounter them.

However, judging by their quality of life, they indeed fared worse than those despicable people who plundered and killed.

Coming back to his senses, the middle-aged man did not strongly refute Vikram’s statement, merely frowning slightly.

After a long silence, he finally spoke, "Then how about this: you take the television, and we split the rest of the supplies in the building fifty-fifty?"

The two men beside him immediately became displeased upon hearing this.

"Harry bro, do we really need to split these supplies with these little brats? We can just scare them away," the previous man, clearly unwilling to hand over half the supplies so easily, turned and whispered.

"That’s right, Harry bro, there’s one more person here than on their side, and they even have three girls. Why should we be afraid of them?"