Lahat ng Kabanata ng The Apocalypse Hoarder: Kabanata 361 - Kabanata 370

Zoey propped her chin on her hand, looking puzzled. "But doesn't that make people more suspicious?"Scarlett frowned slightly. "Yeah. Hyping this topic so suddenly is bound to draw attention."Cyrus took a bite, his expression calm. "Attention was unavoidable from the start. Whether I posted those messages or not, Dorian was going to release his."So I had to throw out some smoke. It muddies the water. With this much information flying around, I doubt anyone in the current world has the energy to verify every single piece."He took another sip of soup. "Besides, when my posts mention government agencies and major Volaris corporations, the odds that this involves a single individual drops to their lowest point."Scarlett's eyes lit up, and she looked at him in surprise. "That really is clever."She smiled, her voice carrying a hint of nostalgia. "It's just like the entertainment industry. When a small scandal breaks, it vanishes the moment a bigger star gets into trouble."She le

Zoey and Scarlett both sensed that real danger was closing in. They dared not relax, and the pressure sharpened their focus.Cyrus took out a wooden board and a hammer. "Loose nails on the ground won't hurt anyone. You hammer them into a board. Once it's buried under snow, it'll punch straight through the sole of a boot."He paused and shook his head. "But nails alone aren't enough. They're too smooth. Someone can yank them out."He opened a box of long screws. "These go with the nails. The nail punches through. The screw tears things up. Got it?"The two women sat nearby and committed every word to memory.As they studied the sharp steel spikes and spiraled screws, both imagined them driven into flesh. Pulling them free would rip skin and muscle apart.Scarlett shivered and instinctively curled her stockinged feet. The pain already felt real.Zoey listened without visible reaction. Compared to what she had seen as a doctor, this barely registered.Cyrus picked up a board and w

After setting the traps, the three of them went back inside. It was the first time Zoey and Scarlett had taken part in something this dangerous.Sooner or later, someone might die because of traps they had helped build. The thought tightened their nerves. At the same time, it stirred a sharp, nameless thrill. They had never felt anything like it before.A complicated light flickered in Scarlett's eyes. She almost looked eager. "Cyrus, when do you think the enemies will come?"Cyrus laughed when he noticed her expression. "I'd rather see all this work go to waste. You sound like you want someone to attack us. Still, it won't happen anytime soon."He tapped his temple. "Anyone with half a brain won't rush into a fight right now. People who survive this long aren't fools."Scarlett rested her chin on one hand and stared out the window. "Oh. That makes sense."She could not decide whether she wanted someone to blunder into her traps or whether she preferred a long stretch of dull but

What followed unfolded exactly as Cyrus had predicted. Dorian had set up an automated messaging system.Twenty-two hours after his death, a scheduled program sent a text to every remaining phone in Volaris City.The message named Cyrus, listed his current address, and claimed he possessed a large quantity of supplies stolen from the Volmart warehouse.Cyrus had been waiting for it. When it finally arrived, a strange sense of relief settled over him, because the wording mattered.The message said he held part of the stolen supplies and described the amount as "large." It did not claim he had all of it. "Large" was vague and unquantified. Dorian himself had no idea how much Cyrus actually possessed, and the possibility of a spatial ability had never crossed his mind.'That's good,' Cyrus thought. 'It drops my threat level by a lot.'In an era of extreme scarcity, if people believed he controlled the contents of an entire super-warehouse, no one on the planet would stay calm.As it

The mass-spread messages did not go unnoticed. Some people immediately sensed that the noise was meant to conceal something else.With hundreds of messages flooding the channels, however, there was no way to verify them one by one. Most gave up in frustration.A few, however, managed to pull useful clues from the chaos.Thirty-two miles west of Cloudcrest Manor lay the West Ridge District, named for the mountain range that dominated the region. As early as the 1960s, Volaris City's authorities began constructing bunkers across the city. Their original purpose was air-raid defense, later expanded to protection against nuclear strikes.Official records listed a total of 356 bunkers in Volaris. Most were basic air-raid shelters or underground emergency spaces with minimal construction standards and limited food supplies. These were intended for ordinary civilians.Where civilian bunkers existed, military installations and special facilities for high-level officials followed. These lo