Chapter 58: Despair

Chen Zhenghao and the others swarmed around Zhang Yi’s apartment, smashing against the walls for an entire morning.

However, after peeling away the plaster, flooring, and ceiling, they found themselves blocked by a thick layer of steel plates.

A steel plate twenty centimeters thick was nothing short of a nightmare for them!

Relying purely on human labor, there was simply no hope of breaking through it now.

After all, working under ultra-low temperatures without an adequate energy intake to replenish their expended physical strength would only accelerate their demise.

Many of them collapsed onto the ground, utterly exhausted.

Sounds of rumbling stomachs echoed continuously.

They stroked their sunken bellies; hunger was on the verge of completely conquering them.

Yet, there was hardly any food left among them.

Some people caught sight of their neighbors beside them, glimpsing pale white flesh through the gaps in their tattered clothes.

A thought suddenly surfaced in their minds.

Isn't this... meat?

As soon as this horrifying idea appeared, everyone was chilled to the bone, desperately trying to banish the thought from their minds.

However, once the notion was born, it invisibly offered an option within a desperate situation.

They probably knew very well that if that day truly arrived, mutual slaughter and cannibalism would inevitably take place.

"Is there really no other way?"

Sun Zhichao's face was contorted in agony. He even felt that the wounds on his arm were beginning to fester and rot.

Without antibiotics, or even ordinary anti-inflammatory drugs, there was no way to properly clean his wounds.

At that moment, a large amount of rust still remained embedded in his injury.

Under such circumstances, death was virtually inevitable.

"Damn you, Zhang Yi! Why must you be so vicious?"

"How could the survival of just one person outweigh the survival of so many of us? What would it hurt for you to make a little sacrifice? What would it hurt, huh???"

Sun Zhichao roared toward the sky, despair utterly twisting his soul.

Just at that moment, Zhang Yi's neighbor suddenly stepped forward.

"Perhaps you could try going through the balcony."

"When they renovated their apartment, they turned the balcony into floor-to-ceiling windows, with a very large pane of glass. Maybe there's a chance to break in!"

The other residents couldn't see the back of Zhang Yi's apartment, but his neighbor could.

In Building 25, certain floors featured a balcony, and the 24th floor where Zhang Yi lived happened to have a small platform.

Normally, he used it to grow flowers and air out quilts.

Hearing what Zhang Yi's neighbor had to say, a crowd of people on the verge of despair suddenly raised their heads.

"Windows? Hahaha, yes! Since his apartment has windows, there must be an exit left! It couldn't possibly be completely sealed off!"

"As long as there are windows, we can charge in!"

Without another word, the group broke into the apartment next to Zhang Yi's.

In reality, there was still a gap of about fifteen centimeters between the balconies of the two apartments, with a metal railing installed in between.

However, these obstacles could no longer stop the maddened crowd.

Yet, the outside of the balcony was different from the hallway.

At that time, the hallways were sealed off by every household, airtight and offering at least some insulating warmth.

Outside, however, the north wind howled and snow swirled; a few hours out there could freeze a person solid.

Chen Zhenghao and the others couldn't care about such things anymore. As long as they could force their way into Zhang Yi's home, they would obtain everything!

Howling like madmen, the group leaped onto the balcony of Zhang Yi's apartment.

Zhang Yi naturally noticed the scene unfolding.

The two sides locked eyes for less than a second.

Then the neighbors swung the tools in their hands, frantically smashing against the massive floor-to-ceiling windows.

As for Zhang Yi, he dragged his white recliner over to the window, lay down leisurely, and poured himself a steaming cup of coffee.

The small balcony was quickly packed with over a dozen people.

Their faces were pale, bearing a striking resemblance to living corpses. Coupled with their crazed, distorted expressions, they truly bore no resemblance to the living.

Zhang Yi thought to himself that if zombies truly existed, they probably looked just like this.

"Clang!" "Thud!" "Crash!" "Jingle!"

Dull impacts echoed one after another against the floor-to-ceiling window.

braving the wind and snow, this pack of madmen struggled to shatter the glass.

Even when they accidentally struck their own hands, they felt no pain, letting blood flow freely before it instantly froze solid.

Back when they were smashing the walls, that craving sensation hadn't been quite so palpable.

Right now, however, with only a layer of glass separating them, they could witness all the more clearly just how extravagant Zhang Yi's lifestyle was!

Inside the room, a fireplace blazed furiously. Zhang Yi wore only a single layer of clothing, lounging in a white recliner like a wealthy landlord.

Beside his hand sat a freshly brewed cup of coffee, still rising with steam; judging by the milk foam, it should have been a cappuccino.

The coffee table was piled high with weapons, but that wasn't the main point.

The main point was that beneath the coffee table, a mountain of half-eaten snacks lay discarded.

Potato chips, hamburgers, cola, pizza, roast chicken, roast duck, and even oil-splashed noodles!

It was precisely these items that drove the neighbors on the balcony completely insane!

They had only been away from these things for half a month, yet they reacted with such agitation as if they had just encountered a long-lost father!

"Roar!!"

"Ahhhhhhh!!"

They were so excited they even forgot human speech, resorting to desperate shrieks to express their overwhelming emotion.

Then they smashed against the window with even greater fury, exerting every ounce of strength they had left!

Holding his coffee cup, Zhang Yi calmly appreciated this fine show.

He merely remarked indifferently, "Who said glass is necessarily weaker than metal?"

The construction cost of this wall had been exorbitant. To ensure his quality of life, Zhang Yi had rejected the proposal from War Dragon Security Company and opted not to use metal here.

Instead, he had spent a fortune custom-ordering an entire wall of bulletproof glass for his floor-to-ceiling window.

He still remembered what Wu Huairen, the manager of War Dragon Security Company, had said back then: "A wall this thick isn't stopping bullets anymore; it's stopping artillery shells!"

The specialized vehicles used by Western heads of state utilized bulletproof glass capable of withstanding sniper rifles made of this exact material.

Yet their thickness was less than half of this wall in Zhang Yi's home.

Sure enough, as the group continued smashing away, they realized something was wrong.

They had initially assumed it was plexiglass that would shatter after a few forceful blows.

Yet a dozen people had been hammering away for ages, and not even a single crack had appeared!

"What kind of glass is this?"

"Could it be bulletproof glass?"

"What? Bulletproof glass?"

The words rasped out hoarsely from the throat of a bespectacled man, dripping with despair as if originating from the eighteenth layer of hell.

If it could stop artillery shells, did they really think manual labor could break it?

"No, I don't believe it!"

A young man roared toward the heavens, "My fate is my own, not for the heavens to decide! I refuse to believe I can't break it!"

"As long as I break it, the fireplace inside, along with all the food and drink, will be mine! I have to break it, ahhhhhhh!!"

Trapped in the sub-zero temperatures, bouncing back and forth between hope and despair, their brains must have frozen solid.

They chose to cast away all reason, resorting to desperate brute force in a bid to punch their way into a future!

Zhang Yi applauded them, deeply touched by their effort.

However, he felt a bit hungry.

So he retrieved some more food from his spatial dimension—such as braised pork knuckles and pulled-sugar bananas—along with a few snacks, deciding to treat himself to some pure cocoa-butter chocolate.