Apocalypse Descends: I Win Effortlessly by Turning Trash into Treasure

The hallway, once quiet, was now filled with complaints, arguments, and pleas from the crowd of people gathered inside.

Listening to the sounds from the other side of the door, Annie Sawyer’s resolve to leave grew even stronger.

It was the twelfth day of the game.

The rain was still falling. The only good news was that the wind had died down, no longer as violent as it had been in the past few days.

Perry Yates stood by the window, gazing at the sky and the scene outside.

She had already ascended most of her cards and food, so with nothing else to do, she found herself completely idle.

Her eyesight was so good that she could easily see what was happening outside, even from this distance. And that’s how she saw...

”Is that... a fish?”

Perry Yates muttered, uncertain, as she caught a glimpse of something flashing through the water.

’Still, Solara is a coastal city. With the recent torrential rains and typhoons, it’s probably normal for fish from the sea to show up in the city.’

Perry Yates tried to reassure herself, but she still felt a little uneasy.

With this in mind, Perry Yates decided to investigate the situation outside.

Of course, this ”investigation” didn’t mean she would go out herself. After all, even though the typhoon had weakened, it wasn’t over. The wind was still strong, just slightly less intense than yesterday.

Besides, the torrential rain was still coming down.

Perry Yates opened the window and lightly touched the rain-soaked sill outside.

The instant her finger made contact with the water, a blue light flashed. Immediately after, an aqua-blue vine sprouted from her fingertip.

The vine grew rapidly, quickly extending away from the building.

After an unknown amount of time, Perry Yates retracted her hand once she sensed the vine had reached the surface of the water below.

The vine vanished at the same moment.

Far below, a Water Lotus, seemingly no bigger than a thumb, slowly emerged from beneath the floodwaters.

From within her Safe House, Perry Yates began to explore the underwater situation through this tiny Water Lotus.

However, after about an hour, Perry Yates had found nothing of interest besides a lot of underwater trash and extremely poor water quality.

But Perry Yates didn’t give up. If she couldn’t find anything here, she would simply expand her search area.

Sitting inside her Safe House, Perry Yates took a deep breath and began to control the Water Lotus, making it spread out rapidly in all directions.

Since it was still raining, she kept the Water Lotus hidden beneath the surface as it grew.

In the process, Perry Yates did find quite a few fish, but they were all ordinary, small ones—nothing like the figure she had caught a fleeting glimpse of earlier.

Besides fish, Perry Yates also discovered numerous corpses in the water.

Some had clearly drowned, while others bore obvious signs of having been beaten.

’How long has it even been? Things have already devolved into chaos. Human nature really can’t stand up to the test.’

In addition to these discoveries, Perry Yates would also collect any useful supplies she spotted underwater.

She couldn’t put them directly into her Space Backpack, but she could use the Water Lotus to envelop them, protecting them from further water damage.

Just as Perry Yates was engrossed in her work, a platinum-gold figure suddenly flashed past in the distance.

Like a meteor in the night sky, it appeared and vanished in an instant.

This time, however, what Perry Yates ”saw” was much clearer. She was certain it was a fish.

Her attention was so focused on the fleeting figure that Perry Yates failed to notice one of the corpses near the Water Lotus had vanished.

Unfortunately, the Water Lotus’s growth speed was limited. Even though she had determined the fish’s escape route, she couldn’t give chase immediately.

Later that night, Perry Yates was suddenly jolted awake by a piercing Scream.

The sound wasn’t coming from her Water Lotus, but from downstairs in her own building.

’The building Perry Yates was in was an office tower in the city center. Logically, it should be empty.’

Perry Yates had spent the past few days in her Safe House, binging shows and ascending her cards. Since the Safe House was soundproof, she had no idea that several days ago, a group of people whose homes had been flooded had moved into the office building.

She had only deactivated the soundproofing today because she wanted to get a sense of the situation outside, which is why she heard the commotion.

This group that had entered the building consisted of both native residents of Solara and players.

At first, the relationship between the two groups was relatively harmonious. While they didn’t exactly help each other, they generally stayed out of each other’s way.

But as time went on and the floodwaters continued to submerge more floors, conflicts between the two groups began to surface.

First, there was the issue of living space. With so many people packed together, it was incredibly crowded.

Second, there was the problem of food.

Everyone had fled here to escape the disaster, so they hadn’t brought much with them. The players, however, were a different story.

Thanks to their Space Backpacks, the players, though looking haggard, were in no danger of starving.

The native residents wanted the players to share some of their food, but the players naturally refused. After all, in their eyes, no matter how realistic these natives seemed, they were just a bunch of NPCs.

They certainly weren’t willing to use their own pitifully small supply of food to save a bunch of NPCs.

Besides, they knew that giving a little earns thanks, while giving a lot breeds resentment.

There was no telling when the rain would stop, and their own supplies might not be enough to last. How could they possibly share with others?

And so, the conflict between the two groups began.

In truth, it wasn’t just a conflict between the two groups. They weren’t united internally either, and petty squabbles were constant.

With tensions constantly building, someone finally couldn’t take it anymore and resorted to violence.

”Help! Murder!”

A shrill female voice pierced through the thick concrete, reaching Perry Yates’s ears with perfect clarity.

The building’s soundproofing was good, so normally, Perry Yates shouldn’t have heard anything.

But, having ascended her hearing several times, she not only heard the scream, but heard it with crystal clarity.

Because she could hear so clearly, she knew that moments after the woman screamed, she was killed and her body was thrown out the window.

In addition, several other people were thrown out the window along with her.

Perry Yates had no intention of saving them. It wasn’t worth it.

First of all, they weren’t players. Secondly, this only happened because they were the ones who started the provocation.

Therefore, they weren’t worthy of sympathy.