Chapter 7

At first, I watched their struggles with genuine amusement.

But after a while, even that became boring.

Just how much had Sharon promised them?

Enough for them to keep climbing up and sliding back down over and over again like my walls were some kind of amusement park?

I narrowed my eyes and stared coldly at the surveillance feed before beckoning one of the guards over.

I’d earned more than enough survival points.

It was time to teach them a lesson.

Not long after, I heard complaints starting to spread through the crowd outside.

One man grumbled that Sharon clearly had plenty of food inside her convenience store, yet all she’d promised them was a single loaf of bread per day if they succeeded.

Meanwhile, the guards inside my estate were eating gourmet meals alongside me every day.

At that point, someone bluntly suggested they should just switch sides and work for me instead.

I nearly laughed out loud hearing that.

I already knew Sharon was stingy, but I didn’t expect her idea of winning loyalty was handing out bread.

As for those people trying to defect, I didn’t trust them for a second.

Anyone willing to betray their employer the moment they encountered someone stronger would eventually betray me too once an even bigger threat appeared.

Besides, they’d come here intending to kill me in the first place.

If I were the kind of saint who could forgive that, I would’ve opened the gate for that girl days ago and none of this would’ve happened.

Before I realized it, evening had arrived.

I specifically instructed the chef to prepare foie gras braised in red wine for dinner.

While he cooked, I deliberately opened the windows just enough for the rich aroma to drift outside with the wind.

I enlarged the camera feed and watched several people instinctively swallow.

Even some of the men who had already wanted to give up and leave stopped in their tracks, staring hungrily toward the estate.

I packaged one serving of the foie gras and tied it beneath a drone, then remotely flew it above their heads.

Someone immediately jumped up trying to snatch it, but I skillfully kept the drone hovering just out of reach—close enough for them to see and smell but never touch.

Then my voice slowly echoed from the intercom mounted on the gate.

I told them I heard every word of their conversation.

But I had no interest in feeding useless people.

I only wanted the strongest among them.

Whoever managed to claim the food would earn a place inside my estate.

In an instant, the way they looked at the meal changed completely.

Greed flooded their eyes.

Every single one of them understood what that meant.

Winning didn’t just guarantee one full meal—it meant safety, shelter, and survival for the foreseeable future.

The mob that had come to destroy me immediately fell apart.

Instead, they began viciously attacking each other in hopes of joining my side.

Their weapons were no longer aimed at my gate.

Now they swung them directly at the people who had been their allies moments earlier.

Dark blood splattered across the camera lens until even my live feed was stained a deep, violent red.

In the end, only Scarface remained completely unharmed.

Out of the dozen or so people there, he was the only one carrying a firearm. No one else dared challenge him directly.

He swept a contemptuous gaze across the injured men sprawled on the ground, then sneered at the others glaring at him from a distance—too angry to accept it, yet too afraid of the gun in his hand to do anything about it.

With absolute confidence, he removed the food from the drone and was just about to enjoy his reward when a piercing alarm suddenly exploded through the air.

Did he really think I’d let him eat, recover his strength, and calmly figure out how to deal with me afterward?

Long before sending out the food, I had already rigged a simple trigger mechanism onto the drone.

The moment the food was removed and the weight changed, the alarm automatically activated.

Scarface’s expression instantly darkened.

Everyone present knew exactly what that sound meant.

Zombies were attracted to noise.

Before arriving at my estate, they had already cleared the surrounding area of zombies.

The few drawn over by the noise at the gate had only been isolated roamers, easy enough to deal with.