Reborn One Week Before the Apocalypse

Chapter 455: Chapter 445: Widespread Panic

A security door was no indestructible barrier for Zhang Laohu. With his strength, he quickly tore the door down with brute force.

By the time Tao Jiayun and his group arrived, it was already too late.

The person in the room was already cold to the touch, and the entire space was filled with bloodstains.

The home had clearly been ransacked; all the food was gone.

This had been about finding food, and also about seeking revenge.

Others might not remember him, but Tang Mo had some impression of this man. After the falling out with Zhang Laohu, he had been the one slinging the nastiest insults in the group chat.

His typing speed and talent for vitriol were something that not even the three most notoriously chatty women in the group could match combined.

Back then, Tang Mo had found it incredible that a man could produce such an output, but now it seemed that being too "talented" in certain respects wasn’t a good thing.

Zhou Jingyi was terrified, so this time she didn’t let Xu Jinsan go out to help as he had wanted.

Tang Mo’s family saw the state of the scene through photos and videos shared in the group chat.

The crime scene was more terrifying than any they had seen before, making it easy to imagine just how savage Zhang Laohu was now.

After two near-death escapes, Zhang Laohu’s personality had undergone a complete transformation. He had become even more bloodthirsty.

Tang Mo looked at the bloodstains on the floor. ’This man can’t be left alive any longer.’

However, everyone had been through some storms recently. They quickly recovered from the shock of the man’s death and began to plan for their own sakes.

Zhang Laohu had suddenly reappeared, and he still hadn’t been caught.

Their security doors were practically useless against him. Didn’t that mean he could go after whomever he wanted next?

Anyone who faced Zhang Laohu alone would be completely powerless to resist.

The group chat fell silent. Everyone was plunged into a state of panic; after all, nobody wanted their home to become the next crime scene.

Before, when their food supplies had been exhausted and their lives were uncertain from one day to the next, their survival might not have seemed so valuable.

But now, every household had a small stockpile of food. They had worked so hard to buy themselves a few more days of survival, and they absolutely could not let it all be snatched away by a man like that.

But what could they do?

Just as everyone was pondering this, a message popped up on all their phones at once.

It was from the original homeowners’ group chat, the one Zhang Laohu had first created. Although everyone had since moved to a new group, no one had actually left the old one.

Tang Mo opened the old group. The message was from Zhang Laohu.

[Zhang Laohu]: Put half of your food supply at your door, and I’ll spare your life. As for those who disobey, just you wait. I’ll come to reap my harvest, slowly.

This simple sentence was packed with meaning.

Zhang Laohu was a man of some cunning. He knew that breaking down doors with brute force would cause widespread panic.

To avoid being ganged up on, he had deliberately given everyone a way to save their own skin.

All they had to do was place half of their food outside their door. If they happened to be his next target, that food would act as a get-out-of-death-free card.

This would not only allow him to accumulate food faster but also shatter the residents’ solidarity, minimizing any potential threat to himself.

As for the man he killed today, the reason he had left the scene in such a brutal state was precisely to intimidate everyone else.

The more people who were afraid, the more smoothly his plan could be executed.

In fact, Zhang Laohu had planned all of this before he even made his first move.

He was alone, so he had to move fast. He needed to strike quickly and decisively before a large support group could arrive.

He even had a plan in case he ran into them: don’t get bogged down in a fight. Just break out of the encirclement and run.

To this day, Zhang Laohu still couldn’t figure out why his group of five had lost last time.

He had tested his Strength before. Even seven or eight ordinary people attacking at once couldn’t do a thing to him.

Of course, Zhang Laohu had no idea that Tang Mo—someone who shouldn’t have been there—was present at the scene. And Tang Mo was no ordinary person.

’To be on the safe side, if I can’t win, I can always run, right?’

Zhang Laohu was confident that with his current power, breaking through an encirclement to escape would be absolutely no problem.

Besides, he was a superpower user. He could survive out there for much longer than an ordinary person. When it came to running for his life, no one could compare to him.

It had to be said, all of Zhang Laohu’s arrangements were meticulous, with each step linked to the next.

[Zhang Laohu]: I’m at the property management center. Come and get me. But as long as I don’t die, the next to die will be your entire family.

Zhang Laohu was truly a master of psychological warfare.

Originally, Tao Jiayun had already planned to organize a group and go to the property management center again, just like last time.

They had won against his group of five last time; there was no reason they should lose now.

And this time, they had to cut the problem off at the root.

But after Zhang Laohu’s last message, everyone’s courage evaporated.

The cautionary tale was right in front of them, the bloodstains shockingly vivid.

Everyone knew how formidable Zhang Laohu was. What if...

What if they failed to kill him for good this time and gave him a chance to retaliate?

At this moment, everyone wanted Zhang Laohu to drop dead, but no one wanted to be the one to get involved.

It wasn’t even safe to stay in their own homes anymore. For many, their sense of security had completely crumbled.

Many people had even begun taking inventory of their food, thinking that perhaps trading half of it to no longer live in constant fear was a good deal.

It was better than jumping at every little sound in the middle of the night, worrying that the mad killer had come for them.

Meanwhile, Tao Jiayun had come up with a counter-strategy, but with hardly anyone responding to his call, he was at a loss.

In truth, he was the most panicked of all. After all, he had organized the previous confrontations, so he was surely one of Zhang Laohu’s primary targets.

Although Tao Jiayun was both bold and meticulous, he was no match for Zhang Laohu if no one answered his call and he had to face him alone.

Tao Jiayun was already preparing for a life-or-death struggle against Zhang Laohu. He had placed kitchen knives by his door and next to his bed.

But what Tao Jiayun didn’t know was that while he had indeed been Zhang Laohu’s next target, that was no longer the case.

When Zhang Laohu returned to the property management center with a variety of food, Xu Ru gave him a rare smile.

Although she despised the man, in their current situation, no one would turn their nose up at food.

Seeing the woman who usually ignored him finally show some emotion, Zhang Laohu felt a surge of satisfaction. He then proceeded to boastfully recount his recent series of exploits to Xu Ru, complete with dramatic gestures.