The Apocalypse Solution Provider

Chapter 36: The Collapsing 302

Several heads poked out from the sixth-floor window, their faces painted with stark terror.

Su Jin strolled among the Zombie corpses, his blade rising and falling in a rhythmic, mechanical chop.

Some were decapitated, some dismembered, and others diced into geometric chunks.

But regardless of the cut, every single one had its chest cavity hollowed out and its heart extracted.

After watching the butchery for a minute, Fu Qingdai gagged, covering her mouth as Zhang Wan helped her retreat from the glass.

The two elderly men, along with Fu Hu, observed for a moment longer before collectively pulling their heads back and silently sliding the window shut.

Earlier, the Talent Residential Community had echoed with intermittent cries for help. Now, with Su Jin’s gruesome display, the entire compound was dead silent, every curtain pulled tight.

The complex was a graveyard, save for the wet, rhythmic thud of a meat cleaver severing bone.

…

Tossing aside the heart of the final corpse, Su Jin let out a heavy, disappointed sigh.

Armed with his new Ability, he no longer feared the infection.

This field trip was supposed to be a resource run to farm Fleshy Orbs, double as a desensitization exercise to cure his squeamishness, and act as a live-fire test to analyze Zombie combat mechanics.

The R&D wasn’t a total bust. His brief skirmish confirmed that almost all Zombies shared a fatal structural flaw—intel that would definitely pay dividends later.

Armed with actionable data and a massive buff to his base stats, his risk tolerance had shot through the roof.

Tearing through two fresh corpses, plus this batch processing, practically guaranteed he wouldn’t suffer any stress-induced hand tremors in future live-combat scenarios.

The only downside was the abysmal RNG. The Fleshy Orb drop rate was absolute garbage.

He had hollowed out every single chest cavity, yielding zero drops.

High expectations, crushing disappointment.

After heading upstairs to swap into fresh gear, Su Jin marched right back down to the second floor.

He rapped his knuckles against the door twice and caught a muffled response.

Raising his pistol, he blew the lock off the hinges and kicked the door open.

The tenant was still peering through the peephole. Before he could even process the breach, Su Jin had the smoking barrel pressed firmly against his forehead.

Recognizing Su Jin’s face, the man’s legs gave out. He scrambled backward across the floor, his pupils vibrating with pure terror. “Brother, please don’t shoot! It’s me, Cheng Du! We literally smoked cigarettes together!”

Su Jin ran a quick tactical sweep of the living room, holstered his weapon, and offered a polite, corporate smile. “Captain Cheng. I’m here to facilitate a rescue. Stand down.”

Cheng Du was the captain of the Talent Residential Community security team, a title that mostly involved leisurely strolling around the perimeter.

Su Jin had bribed him previously to look the other way during a late-night grocery haul, so they were vaguely acquainted.

In his early thirties, Cheng Du had a cushy job, but he kept himself in decent shape and had solid self-discipline.

Even realizing Su Jin wasn’t there to assassinate him, Cheng Du remained rigid with fear. “Brother Li… you… down in the courtyard just now, you were…”

“Just optimizing my workflow on those Zombies. Getting some reps in. We’re going to be dealing with them constantly,” Su Jin stated plainly. “Do I look like a psychopath to you? Get up.”

“Ah… right! Right!” Cheng Du seemed to mentally reboot. Tears erupted from his eyes as he scrambled up, fully intending to tackle Su Jin in a desperate hug.

“Brother! I was losing my goddamn mind! I saw you through the window out there, I screamed until my vocal cords bled! What took you so long?!”

Su Jin lazily raised the pistol, using the barrel to wave him back. “Maintain your distance. I need verbal confirmation that you haven’t been exposed to the rainwater.”

“Hell no!” Cheng Du wiped a grimy tear from his cheek. “Some Good Samaritan taped my door shut and slid a warning flyer under the crack. Then the mass text went out… I knew that rain was toxic. I wouldn’t dare touch it!”

“Then what have you been hydrating with?”

“I rationed some soda for the first two days. Then I moved on to the toilet tank. After that… I drank mechanical lubricant… I was completely out of water. Today, I had to drink my own piss, sob…” Cheng Du wailed. “Why couldn’t you have breached this door yesterday?!”

Su Jin’s peripheral vision locked onto the dining table. A plastic cup sat there, half-filled with a warm, amber liquid. He felt a mild wave of relief.

The guy was clean. His survival instincts were top-tier—he literally drank his own urine to avoid the rain. Though the lubricant detail was a bit much.

“Poor inventory management. It shouldn’t have escalated to drinking piss this early.”

“How was I supposed to forecast the apocalypse?! I thought the government was coming!”

“Right.” Su Jin nodded, dismissing the excuse. “Pack your critical Supplies. My team is consolidated upstairs. We’ll extract you shortly.”

“Do you have any intel on the unit across the hall?”

“Yeah. Sister Liu is a widow. We were actually chatting through our doors while you were outside… uh… carving the meat. She lives alone and has a water dispenser with two full backup jugs. Her inventory is fine.” Cheng Du paused, nervously licking his chapped, foul-tasting lips. “But the third floor… 301 right above me is gone. I heard the scuffle and the screaming.”

“302 is a new lease. A female college student. I don’t have eyes on her status.”

The briefing was concise, thorough, and highly actionable. Su Jin mentally upgraded Cheng Du’s employee rating from ‘liability’ to ‘useful asset’.

It made sense. The statistically average idiots were already dead.

Su Jin finalized his operational plan.

“Solid work. Liquidate all the usable Supplies in your unit and pack them. I’ll breach Sister Liu’s door, and we’ll convoy upstairs together.”

….

Inside Room 302, chopped furniture smoldered in an improvised fire pit. The apartment was sweltering; wearing heavy clothes would induce a sweat in minutes.

Li Fang sat paralyzed on the mattress. Her eyes were hollow, her hair matted, her chest rising in shallow, agonizingly slow breaths.

Slumped against opposite corners of the bedroom wall were two emaciated, sickly-looking male students.

“Li Fang… seriously… is there absolutely zero food left?” one of the guys rasped, his voice paper-thin.

Li Fang’s neck snapped toward him with mechanical stiffness, her sunken eyes burning with pure, unadulterated venom.

She had initially invited Cao Chengping and Li Kai over to collaborate on a midterm group project.

They had gotten hammered that night, and by morning, the apocalypse had locked them all inside.

She had a meager stash of snacks in the pantry… and these two leeches had devoured half of it.

If she had been alone, she wouldn’t be starving to death right now.

Met with Li Fang’s murderous glare, Li Kai whined, “Did you… did you stash something? You must have a secret stash… why else do you have more energy than me?”

“Drop dead,” Li Fang hissed, plunging back into silence.

“Who the fuck are you telling to drop dead?” Li Kai flared up, a weak burst of anger overcoming his starvation. “If you hadn’t dragged us here for your stupid project, would I be rotting in this hellhole?! If you hadn’t flushed the toilet on day one, we’d have water! Who told you to flush your shit with our drinking water?! You selfish bitch! Do you ever think about anyone but yourself?!”

“Shut up. Both of you,” Cao Chengping croaked. He swayed drunkenly as he forced himself to his feet, his trembling hands reaching for the hem of his shirt. He began peeling off his clothes, his bloodshot eyes locked onto Li Fang. “If the thirst doesn’t kill us, the hunger will. And if we don’t starve, we’ll probably die of carbon monoxide poisoning from this fire… The hallway is blocked by monsters, and now there’s a literal serial killer chopping up bodies downstairs. It’s over… we’re dead…”

Pausing, Cao Chengping swallowed thickly, his throat clicking. “Li Fang… go wash your ass.”

“Are you insane?!” Li Fang’s eyes blew wide with horror as she desperately scrambled backward against the headboard.

“Wash her ass… wait, you have water?!” Li Kai’s head snapped up, a manic gleam in his eye.

Cao Chengping’s features warped into a hideous sneer. “Yeah, I’ve got water! Saved a bottle from the day the rain stopped. I even tested it. Drank a sip. I’m perfectly fine! I’m not playing nice anymore. There’s barely any left, and splitting it won’t save us! So, Li Fang, hurry up and wash your ass!”

“Where is it? Where’s the water?! Give it to me!” Li Kai dragged himself across the floor, his filthy fingers clawing at Cao Chengping’s pant leg, only to be casually kicked aside.

“Fuck off… a few drops isn’t gonna save you.” Cao Chengping’s eyes were completely bloodshot now as he loomed over Li Fang. “I’ll ask you one last time. Are you going to the bathroom to wash up?!”

“No! Are you out of your mind, Chengping?!”

Tears spilled over Li Fang’s eyelashes. She shook her head frantically, sobbing as she tried to merge with the drywall.

“I’m not crazy… we’re all dead meat anyway! Before I check out, I’m going out like a real man!” Cao Chengping roared, spittle flying from his cracked lips. “You won’t wash?! Fine… don’t wash… my tastebuds are completely numb anyway! Move your hands, let me get a look!”

Riding a terminal surge of adrenaline, Cao Chengping lunged onto the mattress.

Li Fang shrieked, kicking and thrashing wildly against his weight.

“Chengping… Chengping, stop! You said you only saw me as a sister! Ahhh!!”

“Yeah, I always treated you like a stepsister… move your damn hands!”

“Li Kai… Li… Kai, help me! You said… you said you had a crush on me! Help… please!”

Hearing his name, Li Kai dug his nails into the plaster, dragging his emaciated frame up the wall. Fueled by his own sick, dying adrenaline, he bellowed: “Cao Chengping!!”

“What the hell do you want?! We’re literally dying, are you seriously trying to cockblock me?!” Cao Chengping snarled, pinning Li Fang’s wrists as he glared back with rabid eyes.

The muscles in Li Kai’s sunken face twitched violently before he finally spat out his demand.

“Count me in.”

“……AHHH!!!”