Another Old Acquaintance

"You can leave, but those two girls stay!" Upon hearing Deng Xinlai's words, Tom, who was about to leave, slowly turned around, placing one hand on the steel needle long spear slung across his back. "What did you say?"

"I said you leave those two girls behind, didn't you hear me?" Deng Xinlai didn't care at all about Tom's towering armor, and arrogantly continued, "I'll trade you with my three girls... no, four."

Feng Hanyun widened her eyes in disbelief, "Trade? What do you think we are?"

Deng Xinlai leered at her mature figure and was immediately attracted by Lin Meiqi's mixed-race face with three-dimensional features. "In the apocalypse, what are women for other than to play with? Hey, buddy, you haven't touched these two girls, have you? Your boss is really stingy. Unlike me, I share my women with my little brothers who have been with me!"

"You bastard!" Prince Xiong cursed loudly, "I don't have such thoughts. Don't think you're all that just because you have a superpower."

"Hey, sorry, but in this apocalypse, having superpowers is indeed something." Deng Xinlai was quite pleased with himself, then looked at Tom and said, "So, what do you think? Consider it?"

Tom stared coldly at him, waiting for his performance to finish before speaking, "Women are my companions, not goods to be traded. Trade? Don't even think about it. Want to fight? Then let me see what your superpower is."

With the arrival of the apocalypse, those who rely on superpowers to become overlords and treat women as playthings will inevitably appear. Tom had expected to encounter such people sooner or later, but not this soon.

"Hahaha!" Deng Xinlai laughed wildly as he took a ruby handed to him by a naked woman and tied it to his arm, "Take off that turtle shell, let's see who's stronger?"

Tom shook his head, "I don't have time to waste with you."

"Oh? Rescuing people, are you here to gather more people back to your camp? But wait, I went to the third and fourth floors upstairs a month ago, and there was no one in those rooms with open doors."

"You don't need to worry about that," Tom's heart skipped a beat, but he didn't show it on his face. He gestured to Lin Meiqi to lead the others out, "We're leaving. If you want to play dirty, just try it."

"Such a pity!" Deng Xinlai clenched his fist, his eyes glowing red, "Then go ahead and leave."

Seeing how easygoing the other party was, Tom was somewhat surprised, but he slowly backed away until Lin Meiqi and the others exited the suite door, then he turned and stepped out.

As soon as he stepped out of the door, he saw Deng Xinlai following him to the wooden tea table. Tom sneered and switched to strength mode, grabbing Carmen's slipper and flinging it directly at Deng Xinlai.

With no slippers blocking him, the cool breeze from the balcony pushed the security door, and Deng Xinlai's face changed drastically as he was about to rush forward. With a click, the door automatically closed.

Seeing this, Prince Xiong grinned and said, "Hey, big shot, you're ruthless enough. With the door closed, they're trapped inside."

Tom motioned for them to hurry up and climb up. "It's just temporary trapping. If he wants to come out, he still can. Let's go. We need to be careful later."

Although he could toss people up and then open the door, he still needed some tools. Tom's intention in locking the door was to temporarily trap the opponent, avoiding being ambushed when he came down later.

The opponent made threats, and his firm response made the opponent uncertain of his bottom line. After weighing the pros and cons, Deng Xinlai didn't dare to confront him.

But since the other party had seen through his plan to go upstairs, there was no telling if he would ambush him when he came back down.

As the sky darkened, it was already dark when they came down. With Lin Meiqi's modified flashlight, their visibility was limited. To avoid variables, Tom decided to lock the door, hoping to trap the opponent for a while.

Prince Xiong didn't expect this, and Feng Hanyun couldn't understand it even more. But as she looked at Tom staring off into the distance, she felt that perhaps his refusal to Deng Xinlai's advances had left some fantasies in her mind.

Lin Meiqi immediately understood his plan and said with a smile, "Rest assured, temporary worker, it's not easy to open these security doors. It'll be dark soon, and he'll have to wait until daylight to open the door at least. By then, we'll already be back at the shelter."

Tom nodded. Having a companion whose thinking was in sync with his own was indeed beneficial.

As a result, Feng Hanyun hesitated for a while before suddenly asking, "Tom... those four girls are also being coerced by him, right? Why don't you rescue them too?"

"I'm not a saint!" Tom didn't look back. "We have more important things to do. There's no need to create unnecessary trouble."

There were three groups in total, with the second floor having two more floors, the third and fourth floors. Judging by Deng Xinlai's domineering behavior, what he said about not seeing anyone upstairs should be true. Otherwise, with the power he currently possessed, he would probably have enslaved the other survivors.

However, for the sake of caution, Tom decided to take a risk. With only 16 points, he needed to rescue four more people to reach the nearest redemption standard of 20. After two days of hard work, it wouldn't hurt to spend a little more effort.

On the third floor, the windows on the corridor cast a golden light, indicating that the sun was setting, and dusk was approaching.

The light in the corridor was also dimmer, and Tom led the three people past two room doors, but his watch didn't vibrate in this direction, indicating that there was no one inside.

Following the vibration indicator, they arrived at Room 306, only to unexpectedly glimpse the door being wedged open with a cigarette box, leaving a gap.

A strong wind blew in through the gap in the door, bringing a refreshing breeze and easing Tom's previous worries.

"Hey, there must be someone alive here, haha! But... little beauty, you better not come in later. So you won't see any forbidden 18+ scenes!" Lin Meiqi rolled her eyes and glared at Prince Xiong, "Hmph, in my opinion, human interaction is no different from the interaction between lab rats. I've seen enough of this stuff in the lab, just without so much fur on humans. It's even more disgusting that way. I really don't understand why you men are so fond of it."

"Disgusting?" Prince Xiong couldn't believe it, but seeing Lin Meiqi deliberately posing with a cute innocent face, and then looking at Tom who was coldly staring at him, he immediately suppressed the thought of educating the little genius and instilling in her the correct values ​​of adult films. "Alright, it's disgusting."

Prince Xiong immediately focused on the gap in the door, not noticing Lin Meiqi's smug face as she stuck her tongue out at Tom.

Tom shook his head. This girl knew how to act cute and innocent to dominate the conversation. He needed to be careful with her in the future to avoid falling for her tricks.

The strong wind pressing against the door was somewhat heavy, but only Tom had the six times the strength needed to push it open. He held the door steady, letting the three of them pass through one by one, and then instructed Prince Xiong to bring over a slipper from the side.

The wind was too strong, and the cigarette box might get flattened. It was safer to use a slipper.

After securing the slipper, Tom thought for a moment. To avoid retribution for what he did in Room 203, and for extra security, he decided to let Woody in as well. Even if the slipper was taken away and the door locked, he could still climb up on Woody and open the door lock.

"Is anyone there?" Lin Meiqi called out first.

By the time Tom confirmed that the slipper was securely wedged, she had already bounced over to the sofa.

"Stop!" Tom commanded loudly. This girl was too carefree, not at all cautious. If some mutated cockroach or something suddenly came out, it could be dangerous.

But as soon as he finished shouting, a sleazy man emerged from behind the sofa with a grin. "Hey, little beauty, hello there!"

This startled Lin Meiqi, who had just been feeling pleased with herself a moment ago. She stumbled backward, and Prince Xiong quickly rushed up, shielding her and assuming a defensive stance. "Who are you?"

"Hey, shouldn't it be me asking you? You suddenly barged into my home and now you're acting like you're in charge." The sleazy man brazenly retorted, then saw Tom approaching with a rumble, and this time he was startled. "Wow, what kind of monster are you?"

Tom recognized this sleazy man, and the man, in his surprise, also recognized Tom from the armor-clad helmet.

"It's you, Tom!"

"Liang Pingchuan!"

The sleazy man, Liang Pingchuan, immediately became excited upon recognizing Tom. "Wow, I almost didn't recognize you. What's with this getup? I can't tell at all. You're usually so low-key in the company. How come you've become so flamboyant now? Are you trying to scare someone with this outfit?"

Liang Pingchuan, or Manager Liang as Tom should address him, although not Tom's direct supervisor, often meddled in other departments due to his close relationship with the company's owner. For someone like Tom, who was quiet and diligent, he was the perfect target for exploitation.

Tom's direct supervisor was a bit of a pushover and was relatively good to Tom. But faced with Liang Pingchuan's meddling as a company big shot, he dared not complain. Thus, he turned a blind eye to Liang Pingchuan's overstepping of authority.

In order to fulfill the tasks that Liang Pingchuan pushed onto him, Tom ended up consuming the energy of everyone in his department, resulting in delays in his own work progress.

Even if he helped them succeed, Liang Pingchuan would take all the credit. If his subordinates messed up, the blame would still be pushed back onto Tom's department.

Last month, Liang Pingchuan had passed on a problem of his own making to Tom. Tom had pushed back in front of their boss, making the boss somewhat embarrassed. Because the blame was so obvious, the boss couldn't cover for him.

Afterwards, Liang Pingchuan made it clear that he would get back at Tom and disrupt his plans, which made Tom somewhat worried.

Of course, all those worries turned into nothing but clouds on June 4th, when the mini-apocalypse arrived at two in the morning, erasing the social order and rules of the past.

With new opportunities and growth, Tom didn't care at all about this so-called old colleague at the moment.

But apparently, the other party didn't have such enlightenment yet, still intoxicated in the dream of being a leader.

"Great, Tom! I've been eating raw rice and drinking tap water every day, I'm sick of it. Give me some food quickly, and then take me away from here. It would be best if you let me wear that outfit of yours. It'll be safer with a coat like that if I encounter rats or something."