LOGINThat night, Marcus personally went downstairs to Ruth's apartment and handed Maro the contact numbers for several contractors.Ruth was deeply grateful, holding Marcus's hand and chatting endlessly. Before he left, she packed two bags of local specialties that Maro had brought back from the South and insisted he take them home for the children.Marcus couldn't refuse. He accepted them with a grin."Elena may have grown up, but she's still the same little foodie she's always been. And Dion—he's at that age where no amount of food ever seems enough.""Having a good appetite is a blessing!" Ruth said cheerfully.Maro remembered the chubby little girl Elena used to be, and an involuntary smile tugged at his lips.He worked quickly, and once the workers had been arranged, he had the tempered glass and electrical equipment brought over to begin the renovations.Maro knew far more about what was coming than Elena realized. Besides replacing the windows with reinforced glass, he also cleared
Elena's eyes instantly lit up.It seemed having a former special forces soldier living downstairs wasn't such a bad thing after all.She grinned, showing off her pearly whites. "Thanks a lot, Maro."Maro gave a calm nod and opened his umbrella. "Come on, I'll walk you back."He escorted Elena to the hallway before leaving.Elena didn't mention Maro when she shared the day's news at home. After hearing what she found out, even Dion couldn't wait to go out shopping.They bought food, drinks, and daily supplies. Sophia made sure to pick up things they hadn't stocked before—bath towels, soap bars, steel scrubbers, instant noodles, and Dion's favorite snacks and sodas. Thinking her son might never get to enjoy these again once the apocalypse hit, she spent freely.Meanwhile, Elena made a special trip out to a wholesale snack market, buying an entire truckload of mixed nuts, candy, chocolate, cookies, and all kinds of treats. Realizing she only had ration bars for ready-to-eat meals, she ad
Elena nodded, still feeling uneasy. "I never really thanked you, Maro. If it hadn't been for your warning, I wouldn't have asked for time off from school and gone home. Now the news is reporting that half the southern states are already flooded."Maro's lips curved into a faint smile. "You don't need to thank me. If I'd realized it was you back then, I would've made sure to take you all the way home myself."But Elena knew the truth. She had come home for two weeks, while Maro had returned a full week later. That meant he must have been stocking up on supplies too.Still, how much did he actually know about what was coming?"Maro," she said carefully, "I need to tell you something. After you warned me about the bad weather, I went online and saw it was supposed to rain for weeks straight. So I told my parents we should stock up on food and water. But I didn't want them to think I was just making things up, so I used your name. I told them a soldier had warned me that extreme weather m
Chapter 29So, it was certain now—Maro hadn't come back in her last life.Why was it different this time?Had he missed the inside information before, only to learn it now? Was that why he retired early and returned home?Elena hesitated. She didn't tell Sophia that Maro was the same soldier she had run into.Her gaze shifted to the neighbor next door, Unit 3112, and a cold smile crept onto her lips.The Parkers used to live there. They ran a business out of state and eventually moved into a fancy villa.But the head of the family, Elbert Parker, was a man with foresight. Not long after the Floodfall began, he brought his wife and kids back to live in their old place.At first, he played the part of a friendly neighbor—helpful in community meetings, working hard to win benefits for their building, especially when disaster survivors started being relocated there.But once he was elected as the building manager, his mask slipped. He bullied the weak, took advantage of others, and extort
Ruth lived on the fifth floor, right below the Longs. The two families had always been close.Elena often heard Sophia grumble about how hard Ruth's life had been.Her husband had passed away young, leaving her to raise their son alone. Later, her son married a pretty woman, and they had a boy named Maro.But things didn't stay good for long. Once Maro's dad started making money in business, he grew careless and began seeing other women.Maro's mom was tough and proud. When she found out, she caused a big scene, divorced him, and moved south.She never came back. Word was she was beautiful, so it wasn't long before she remarried a man with good standing and had more kids.Maro's dad eventually married one of his girlfriends. He bought a big house in the state capital and brought Maro there to live.At first the stepmother pretended to be nice, but after she had a son of her own, she treated Maro badly.His family was wealthy, yet he often looked thin and underfed.Ruth clashed with he
On herbal remedies alone, they had spent over 300,000 dollars.It had been raining for days, and in some places hailstorms had even hit several times. Fields of wheat were flattened, and it was clear that this year's harvest would be poor.The heavy rain had also damaged fruits and vegetables, so the prices of rice, flour, produce, and fruit shot up almost overnight.People who had foresight immediately began stocking up on food.Bill's family lived out in the countryside and ran greenhouses for a living, so they felt the sting of rising prices firsthand.When they first got the warning call, they had already bought some food. But after they watched hail destroy nearby crops, they rushed out again and purchased several hundred pounds of rice and flour.Out there in the country, part of the harvest could be exchanged directly at the local grain station. So instead of buying flour from stores, they simply traded for a few hundred pounds.Bill even called Sophia, asking if she wanted him







