Chapter 3.

I pushed down the anger in my heart and walked up casually.

"Mr. Coleman, do you remember me?"

Zachary was holding a cigar, looking confused.

"You are?"

He didn't recognize me!

I felt a surge of joy - now I had the upper hand.

Looks like not everyone was reborn.

"I'm Kevin. I got a cruise ship over at Morninglight Village."

Zachary pretended like he'd heard of me, grinning away.

I got straight to the point, slapping the property deed, car keys, and the cruise ship's ownership certificate on the table.

Although I'd given Philip the spare key to the ship, the legal ownership was still in my hands.

"Car, house, cruise ship - I'll put them all up as collateral. I just need to borrow money for three days. You can set whatever interest rate you want, but I need the cash right now."

Zachary's eyes lit up as he picked up the ship's ownership certificate and looked it over.

For him, this was a huge profit opportunity.

He blew out a smoke ring and sneered,

"Kevin, you really need money fast! Well, I'll be straight with you - for all three of these, I'll give you five million dollars, cash on the spot."

My cruise ship alone was worth more than five million dollars, and he had the nerve to call that being straight.

"Ten million dollars."

"Mr. Coleman, if you can't do it, I'll go somewhere else."

I reached out to take back the ownership certificate, but Zachary pressed his hand down on mine.

Then one of his men standing nearby stepped forward, getting close to me.

I felt something pressing against my head.

"Kevin, once you walk through my door, you're doing this deal whether you want to or not."

His face was full of menace, his eyes vicious.

I laughed in anger, nodded, and added Zachary to my must-kill list.

"Fine."

"How about this - I'll leave you the car right now, and you give me six million dollars."

Seeing me back down, Zachary burst into proud laughter.

"Now you're being reasonable!"

As soon as the money hit my account, I left immediately and rented a large truck.

Less than three days until the apocalypse.

My top priority now was to find an absolutely safe base.

There'd be plenty of time later to deal with Zachary.

I drove straight to Red Maple Peak on the edge of the city.

The mountain wasn't high, and at the top was an abandoned resort hotel project.

The investor had gone to prison a few years ago, and the place had been completely abandoned.

The main structure was finished, and though it was just a shell, it had a commanding position, was easy to defend and hard to attack, and was far from the dense crowds downtown.

Perfect for defending against zombies.

I'd just parked the truck in the abandoned building's courtyard when my phone rang.

It was Philip.

"Kevin, the weather's getting worse and worse. I'll give you a chance - pay one million dollars, and I'll let you stay in a lower deck cabin."

I laughed coldly. "Don't trouble yourself. You all enjoy that ship."

I hung up right after.

Just then, a clear notification sound rang in my mind.

[Qualified building detected.]

[First task: Establish base - Complete!]

[Please choose one of the following rewards: 1. Personal storage space; 2. Food gift package.]

I chose the personal storage space without hesitation.

In my previous life, I didn't have time to prepare supplies in advance. For the villagers' sake, I'd chosen the food gift package reward.

But in the end, they accused me of hoarding food and beat me up.

This time, with time to stock up in advance, I didn't need the food gift package at all.

An unlimited capacity personal space where time stood still - that was the ultimate cheat for the apocalypse.

With the space secured, I immediately headed back down the mountain and started stockpiling.

A whole day.

I drove the truck and cleaned out three wholesale food markets.

Flour, bottled water, all kinds of canned goods, dehydrated vegetables.

Didn't matter what kind - as long as it was food, I loaded it onto the truck by the ton.

I'd drive to a deserted corner, and with a thought, an entire truckload would go into my space, then I'd continue to the next market to buy more.

By evening, I grabbed a quick bite at a roadside fast food place.

I ran into an old war buddy.

Learning he now worked in the military security department, I hesitated, wanting to subtly warn him about the coming disaster.

But as soon as I opened my mouth, the system alarm sounded in my head.

[Warning! Host must not reveal the apocalypse timeline to anyone, violators will be eliminated immediately!]

I swallowed the words on my lips, let out a helpless sigh, patted his shoulder and said goodbye.

The next day, I continued shopping.

I got a contact at a pharmaceutical company to hook me up with a complete set of antibiotics and emergency medicine.

I also bought generators, chainsaws, and lots of reinforcement materials.

Finally, I walked into the city's largest outdoor goods store.

Tactical knives, machetes, entrenching tools, compound crossbows, riot shields, pepper spray.

I bought every cold weapon they had.

The owner had just loaded the goods onto my truck when someone pushed the door open.

It was Jasper, with several swaggering villagers behind him.

Seeing me, Jasper had a nasty smile on his face.

"Well, if it isn't Kevin?"

He slapped a bank card on the counter and turned to yell at the owner.

"Every life jacket, kayak, and wetsuit in the store - I'm buying them all!"

"Don't sell a single one to this poor bastard!"

The owner looked at him like he was an idiot.

"He bought machetes and compound crossbows. He didn't even look at the water equipment."

Jasper and his group froze, then burst into thunderous laughter.

"That's hilarious!"

"Kevin, are you crazy? There's a rainstorm and tsunami coming, and you're not buying life jackets - you're buying knives? What are you gonna do, chop the water?"

"What an idiot, no wonder he got fed to the fish in his last life!"

"I'm not competing with you guys."

I laughed too.

"Buy plenty, don't run out."

I drove off right after.

That night, I stayed in the abandoned building on the mountaintop.

The system countdown showed that tomorrow morning, the apocalypse would officially begin.

Morning.

Light rain was falling outside the window.

The first call was from Zachary, his tone arrogant.

"Kevin, three days are up! If you don't have the money, I'm going to take your ship right now!"

"Be my guest."

I replied indifferently.

I'd just finished making breakfast and hadn't eaten yet when Jasper video called.

I answered casually.

Jasper was standing in the cruise ship's banquet hall, with villagers eating breakfast behind him.

Seeing the rough concrete wall behind me, Jasper laughed. He cast the video call onto the banquet hall's big screen so everyone in the village could see.

"Everyone look! Where did Kevin hide - some slum!"

Jasper pointed at the screen, laughing hysterically.

Philip also came close to the camera, holding a glass of red wine, his face full of pity.

"Kevin, it's already started raining outside. The rainstorm apocalypse is about to come. Yesterday I offered to let you pay to get on the ship and you refused. Now there's nothing I can do."

"You're on your own!"

Laughter erupted in the banquet hall.

Watching their smug faces, I took a bite of the bacon I'd just fried, my smile growing wider.

"We'll soon see who's on their own."

Jasper opened his mouth to snap back at me when screams came from behind him.

"Someone's biting people! Ronald's gone crazy!"

Ronald, who had been sitting in the corner eating a sandwich, now had blood all over his face. He grabbed a woman next to him and bit into her neck.

Blood instantly sprayed everywhere.

And this was just the beginning.

In the crowd, several villagers suddenly convulsed, their eyes rolling back, growling sounds coming from their throats as they lunged at the people around them!

The banquet hall instantly turned into hell on earth!

"What's happening?"

Philip's wine glass crashed to the floor as he screamed hysterically,

"Isn't it supposed to be a rainstorm apocalypse! Why is this happening!"