Apocalyptic Flood: Sexy Beauty Neighbor's Midnight Plea for Food Chapter 1 The Great Flood
"Boom!"
A fierce lightning bolt tore through the inky black sky.
The stark white flash acted like a deadly blade, slicing the night apart and lighting up the whole area for a moment.
In that short burst of light, an infinite sea stretched out, dotted with houses that popped up suddenly from the waves.
They resembled lonely isles amid the flood, while massive shapes darted by and vanished now and then.
Once the thunder faded, the rain-soaked heavens plunged back into total blackness.
This spot was the High-tech Zone of Linjiang City.
The relentless storm had raged for half a year!
All of Linjiang City lay drowned under water.
As sea levels climbed higher, the city's shorter structures sank completely.
Anything under ten stories mostly vanished beneath the surface.
Just the levels over ten floors clung stubbornly above the floodline.
By the window on the highest level of block 66 in Meidu Garden, a man lingered after the storm's roar, staring into the void.
"Half a year gone by."
Liang Yuan's brow creased, though he felt thankful for grabbing this 32nd-floor penthouse years ago.
Sure, when he got it, the top level came with issues like dripping roofs and bad heat retention.
Back then, he hounded the building managers and builders nonstop, begging for a swap.
Nobody gave him the time of day.
He was at his wits' end.
He'd poured half his lifetime earnings into that place.
Plus, he borrowed more than a million, trapping himself in debt chains.
His plan was to wed his girlfriend using this home as bait.
But right after they settled in, she picked fights with him over a dozen times in mere days.
The surface gripe was her hating the apartment.
Deep down, though, she refused to shoulder the crushing loan payments alongside him.
The final straw for Liang Yuan was her mom demanding a 300,000 dowry.
He lost it completely. In southern Linjiang, 100,000 for a bride price was already steep; 300,000 was outrageous, sparking a huge blowout with his girl.
He learned later her little brother, fresh out of school, was also seeing someone.
That brother's girl came from Akalin Province, infamous for sky-high dowries.
Liang Yuan never saw it coming that the sibling's costs would land on his tab.
End of story—he cut ties fast.
Any family like that, any woman like her, let someone else deal with them.
The 300,000 sitting in his account earned close to 10,000 yearly in interest.
Who knew that after splitting in May, June brought Linjiang's rainy spell.
Then the skies lost control, dumping rain nonstop for six straight months!
For the first month, folks barely registered it.
They just thought this year's rains were unusually fierce.
But reports soon buzzed with freak floods killing people across regions.
Linjiang hadn't hit crisis yet, so residents watched as distant drama and kept commuting.
By month two, the downpour refused to quit.
Linjiang got hit with massive flooding too, saltwater surging inland.
Panic gripped the city, sparking urgent evacuations.
In Liang Yuan's Meidu Garden neighborhood, basements and street-level units flooded out.
Folks from the ground floors, scared stiff, begged higher-up neighbors for refuge.
It held for a bit, but another week's rain swallowed the second level, sending everyone into frenzy.
Those with nowhere left kept scrambling upward.
Supplies untouched for a month ramped up the fear.
Then headlines broke: sea beasts lurked in the waters.
Mutated ones no one had ever spotted!
That report rocked the globe!
The era of the mega-flood kicked off for real.
Half a year on, everything under ten floors in Meidu Garden drowned fully. Tents crammed the stairs and halls then.
Homes above ten locked tight, owners too wary to shelter strangers.
Liang Yuan followed suit, since two months back, ninth-floor residents housed some outsiders.
Come morning, that whole family's corpses bobbed in the flood, snagged on balcony wires, bloated and decayed.
The tale flew through the complex's chat groups, killing any willingness to help.
Besides, no one had spare room—their own stocks dwindled fast.
Liang Yuan thanked his stars endlessly for hoarding tons of grub that first month when trouble loomed, keeping him alive so far.
At the window, he seized the final plank and hammered the pane sealed, blocking climbers from above.
He glanced at his wristwatch next—it read 9:18 AM.
Daylight hours normally, but endless night ruled, no light piercing through.
"Sigh, how long till this storm ends?"
Liang Yuan let out a heavy breath, fretting that nonstop rain might swamp even his 32nd-floor haven eventually.
"Knock-knock-knock—"
Out of nowhere, furious pounds echoed from the entrance.
Liang Yuan's expression shifted sharp, snatching the nail gun off the desk and bolting to the reinforced door.
Peering through the spyhole, he spotted three guys in their forties hammering away.
He knew their faces from ninth-floor sightings around the grounds, trading casual nods before.
They belonged to the local running crew, fit from constant workouts.
Over the flood's six months, old acquaintances morphed into monsters in disguise.
These three screamed that type.
The front man gripped a fire axe, snarling, "Open up, damn it, open the door!"
Thud-thud-thud!
The blade slammed the metal with thunderous bangs.
Liang Yuan stayed silent, leveling the nail gun at the hole!
Boom!
It blasted off, launching a steel spike.
"Ah—"
Yells erupted outside.
"Old Wu!"
"Oh crap, President Wu, President Wu!"
"Hurry, bolt—they're armed inside!"
Chaos followed as they fled in panic.
Liang Yuan hovered at the door, ears strained, but doubt lingered so he fetched the hallway mirror.
He angled it to peek via the spyhole's bounce.
Instantly, he caught another fellow jamming a slim metal bar at the opening!
Liang Yuan's pulse raced, grateful for his caution!
Staring straight would've meant the bar spearing his skull!
Fury boiled up at the thought.
He snatched the nail gun again, shot through the hole!
Bang!
"Ah—"
Fresh howls rang out; the rod-wielder's palm got skewered, blood gushing.
Liang Yuan yelled through the barrier, "You bastards, scheming against me. Keep lurking here, and I'll turn you into pincushions!"
"Curse you, punk, you'll regret this. I doubt you'll hide forever!"
The outsiders fired back with venom.
One, gritting through agony, spat, "Boy, hole up if you dare. We'll see your food last."
"Screw your family, rot in there. Step out, and I'll flay you!" A third bellowed, barely holding it together.
Liang Yuan grinned coldly, "Fools, those nails steeped in toilet water and corroded. You're infected now."
Panic hit the trio hard; they hurled insults from afar but steered clear.
One muttered, "Old Wu, head back and wrap it up. Twelfth floor has a med kit with iodine solution."
"Right, right, flush the injury. Hell, this guy's no pushover. We'll call Brother Erlong next."
Footsteps faded as they descended.
Liang Yuan waited a beat more, tension easing a tad.
Fourth raid this week alone.
Without the stockpile of fix-up gear from renos, he'd be defenseless.
He set the nail gun aside, headed to the sleep room. Empty crates stacked high there renewed his dread.
"Supplies are nearly gone."
Concern etched his stare.
"Ding, you've slain a mutated sardine. +1 point earned. System activation underway..."
Abruptly, an odd alert flashed in Liang Yuan's head, stunning him still.
"What the hell?"