Chapter 133: Incident, Changes in the Community

The underground ice tunnels were a tangled mess. Stella Sterling hadn’t counted how many she’d passed through, and deep underground, she had no idea of her bearings.

Fortunately, her sense of direction was quite good. She remembered the terrain she’d covered crystal clear and smoothly found the path back to Orilon Complex.

She encountered no trouble on the way back. Aside from the number of bodies on the ground having increased, everything was quiet.

But as she drew closer to her complex, she saw a few familiar bodies.

For example, Attorney Miller, who had always been highly respected in the building, was dead. He had been stabbed several times, his body simply discarded in the hallway.

One lens of his glasses was shattered, the broken shards piercing his eye. Blood streaked down his cheek—it was a terrifying sight!

A short distance later, she saw the bodies of the elderly couple.

She paused for a moment to look. Even in death, the couple’s hands were still tightly clasped, their expressions relatively peaceful.

Grandpa Lawrence had suffered numerous injuries and had likely been beaten to death. Grandma Lawrence, however, was in much better shape, with no visible wounds.

It looked as if after her husband died, she had sat beside him and simply passed away.

She had no idea how much time had actually passed while she was searching the office buildings!

But it was clear that something terrible had happened to the people in the complex.

Judging by Attorney Miller’s wounds, he had clearly died during a fight.

’Was this an internal struggle within the complex, or did they run into another group while digging the ice tunnels and a fight broke out?’

Stella Sterling didn’t know. But on her way back, she had seen not only the bodies of acquaintances from the complex but also many strangers.

From the looks of it, that meant they had clashed with another group.

Stella Sterling didn’t linger. The closer she got to her building, the fewer bodies there were, but the stench of blood grew much stronger. Even the freezing temperature couldn’t suppress it.

Soon, she reached her apartment building, only to be surprised by an iron gate blocking the way up the stairs.

The gate looked vaguely familiar to Stella Sterling. It looked like the door that was normally on the roof.

’It wasn’t here before. The people in the building must have moved it here in the past couple of days!’

Remembering what she had discovered in the ice tunnels, she guessed the gate’s purpose.

She walked up and shook the iron gate, which made a loud RATTLE!

The noise immediately woke the person standing guard in the second-floor stairwell.

The man shot upright and shouted, "Another intruder!"

He hurried down to check, only to find that the person standing outside the gate was none other than Stella Sterling.

The female fiend who had killed so many people.

Over the past few days, they had seen plenty of killing; they had even killed quite a few people themselves.

But Stella Sterling, who had so brazenly drawn her blade from the very beginning, had left a special impression on them.

"Stella Sterling, you’re not dead?"

The man’s tone was one of surprise.

Stella Sterling’s expression darkened, her voice turning dangerous. "Do I look dead to you?"

The man seemed to remember something and spoke sheepishly. "Oh, that’s not what I meant, don’t get me wrong. It’s just, the people who went out with you that day said they didn’t know where you went. And you’ve been gone for so long... we all thought you must have run into trouble!"

As he spoke, he scratched his head. He had said she’d "run into trouble," but everyone else in the building had figured she was dead.

’Why else would she be gone for so long?’

She didn’t waste time arguing. She looked at him and gestured to the gate. "Open up."

The man, however, hesitated. He didn’t open the gate immediately, instead glancing behind her several times as if searching for something.

He asked tentatively, "There’s no one else behind you, right?"

"Don’t worry," Stella Sterling said coldly. "I’m alone."

’For the people in the building to be this cautious, something huge must have happened. It’s the only reason everyone would be so changed and on such high alert.’

’But since I was out scavenging for supplies, I missed it all!’

Even after hearing her answer, the man was still hesitant and didn’t let her in.

He couldn’t be blamed. When they were digging the ice tunnels, they had run into another group. Without a word, those people had started stealing their food and cutting them down.

Their side had suffered devastating losses.

After Felix Lawrence returned, he made the decision to stop digging the ice tunnels. The supplies they had already gathered were enough for them to survive on for a while.

Then, he had them use a gate to block the only way upstairs and posted guards. If they spotted anything unusual, they were to notify everyone immediately.

The gate had helped them fend off many groups who had found them and tried to take them over.

But just today, someone from their building had run back from outside. Since he was one of their own, the guard had let him in.

Who would have known that man had already betrayed them all, colluding with an outside group.

If it hadn’t been for Felix Lawrence and his wife fighting so ferociously—the two of them taking on more than a dozen people with weapons in hand—and for everyone’s unity, plus the help they got from the people in Building C, they all would have died here today!

So now, even though Stella Sterling was from their building, he had no choice but to be wary.

He recalled Stella Sterling’s volatile reputation, and fearing that his hesitation would displease her, he explained the reason for it.

Stella Sterling could understand their reasoning, but she still let out a cold sneer. "Do I look like the kind of person who can be coerced?"

The man shook his head.

He hadn’t dealt with her much before, but he had heard plenty of legends about how ruthless Stella Sterling was.

She was the one who terrified others; who would be able to threaten her?

Just then, the people who had heard the man’s earlier shout came rushing down the stairs, weapons in hand.

"Are there more intruders?"

"Has the world outside really gotten this chaotic?"

"There are so many places to scavenge. Can’t people just find their own spot instead of robbing others?"

"Kill these damn people! They really think we’re pushovers!"

They shouted as they charged down the stairs.

You could hear the anger and panic in their voices.

Stella Sterling looked up. The dozen or so people charging down were all injured to some extent, and their faces were grim.

After rushing down, they saw Stella Sterling and froze. "It’s another person from our building."

"Could she have teamed up with outsiders to come after us, too?"

Then, just like the man before them, they all looked past Stella Sterling, searching for who might be behind her.