Apocalypse: Resources consumed by women will be returned ten thousandfold.

--Translated by likesnovel--

Jiang Fan picked up his phone and typed a message into the **[Fugui Center Community]** group chat.

**Room & Board Provided:**

"@Everyone, I'm recruiting beautiful women. Free food and accommodation included. If you're interested, send me a private message. But first, I need a full-body photo with no filters."

The group chat instantly exploded.

**Brother Jun, Room A-1201:**

"Bro, have you lost your mind?"

**Handsome Since Birth, Room B-809:**

"Are you using fake photos to scam people? This bait is way too obvious. Nobody's falling for it."

**Sun Jianmin, District Office Director, Room B-1808:**

"Young man, we're in the middle of a major disaster. Food should be shared equally among everyone, not hoarded selfishly."

"Besides, using food to attract women is illegal. Send me a private message immediately and hand over all your supplies. I'll distribute them fairly and won't pursue this matter any further."

**Little Bunny, Room A-303:**

"You bastard! Just wait until I find out who you are!"

**Aunt Zheng, Room A-705:**

"Why hasn't this scumbag changed his nickname yet? Does anyone know which room he's in? I'm going to curse him out right at his doorstep! Call the police already! What are you waiting for?"

**Happy Every Day, Room B-1802:**

"Where's the admin? Kick this pervert out of the group right now!"

Jiang Fan calmly read through the messages without changing expression.

Kick him out of the group?

Impossible.

Because his main account was the **group owner**.

Jiang Fan worked at a 24-hour convenience store just outside the residential complex. Residents often asked him to deliver items directly to their apartments, so he created this group chat for convenience and kept records of everyone's names and room numbers.

As time passed, more and more people joined until it eventually became the public community group for the entire complex.

Of course, the reason he had posted that message wasn't because he was horny.

It was because of the **System** he had obtained yesterday.

---

## [Divine Return System]

**Number of Women Under the Host:** 1

**[Divine Return Effect: Any resources consumed by the Host's women will be returned to the Host at a rate of (Number of Women × 100).]**

**Current Multiplier:** 100×

**[Dimensional Storage Space: Unlimited Capacity, Time Frozen Inside.]**

---

Jiang Fan had an ex-girlfriend named **Song Siyin**.

Even though they had broken up **15 days ago**, the System still counted her as one of his women.

"When will I get Woman No. 2..."

Jiang Fan muttered to himself, though he wasn't in a hurry.

Most residents of Fugui Center were young adults, which meant they hadn't stockpiled much food in their apartments.

And now...

There was no way to buy more.

Because the entire world had changed.

Jiang Fan put down his phone and walked toward the window with a serious expression.

Outside, the entire city of **Mohai** was covered by an endless sea of crimson fog.

Only the tops of skyscrapers, apartment buildings, and the city's television tower protruded above the fog, resembling isolated islands rising from a blood-red ocean.

Jiang Fan lived on the **32nd floor**.

The second-highest floor in the building.

Yet everything from **Floor 1 to Floor 20** had already been swallowed by the red mist.

Even more terrifying...

Several pine trees inside the residential complex had grown tall enough for their tops to emerge above the fog.

What kind of pine tree could reach the height of a **20-story building**?

---

**3 days ago**, crimson fog had suddenly appeared across the entire world.

Plants began growing at insane speeds.

Animals started mutating.

Jiang Fan had personally witnessed a cockroach larger than a rat.

He pulled his gaze away from the window and opened the refrigerator.

Inside was half a loaf of bread he had eaten earlier that morning.

Now it was already covered in grayish-green mold.

The moment he opened the bag, a damp, rotten smell hit his nose.

Food was spoiling faster and faster.

Jiang Fan sighed softly.

It wasn't only plants and animals that were evolving.

Even microorganisms were changing.

Any food that wasn't vacuum-sealed would spoil rapidly.

As for packaged food...

Once opened, it could develop mold within **3 hours**.

Jiang Fan walked onto the balcony and tossed the moldy bread over the railing.

The bread traced an arc through the air before disappearing into the crimson fog below.

Suddenly, ripples spread through the fog like waves across the surface of water.

Beyond **Floor 20**, he couldn't see anything at all.

And he had no intention of going down there to find out.

---

On the very first day the red fog appeared,

Jiang Fan had once descended to **Floor 19** and stepped directly into it.

The crimson mist severely limited visibility.

He could only see about **5–6 meters** ahead.

Even a flashlight couldn't penetrate the darkness.

Every direction was shrouded in eerie red gloom.

He hadn't walked far before hearing a blood-curdling scream echo from deep within the fog.

The scream was filled with agony and despair.

Terrified, Jiang Fan immediately turned around and ran back upstairs.

Since then, he had never left his apartment again.

---

Jiang Fan opened a fresh bag of bread and ate quietly.

Meanwhile, the internet was in complete chaos.

### [Dragon Kingdom National News]

"The Crimson Fog Disaster has spread across the entire world, causing rapid evolution among plants and animals. The government will spare no effort in protecting the lives and property of its citizens..."

### [Emergency Notice from the Dragon Kingdom Department of Security]

"All survivors are advised to remain indoors."

"Stay inside the nearest secure structure and wait for government rescue operations."

**WARNING: Natural environments outside urban shelters are extremely dangerous.**

### [Dragon Kingdom Telecommunications Notice]

"To ensure that all citizens can continue communicating normally, all internet and mobile data services will be temporarily free of charge starting immediately and will remain so until the disaster situation comes to an end."

---

### [Help! I Got Bitten by a Mosquito the Size of My Palm, and My Face Is Completely Swollen!]

### [Oh My God! I Just Saw a Giant Sparrow Crash Into a Helicopter and Bring It Down!]

### [Hahaha! I Can Shoot Lightning Now! Call Me The Flash! I Am the Ruler of the New Era!]

[Image] [Image] [Image]

### [Another lucky guy awakened powers... When will it be my turn?]

### [Superpowered Beauty Looking for Sponsors. Fair-skinned, attractive, and skilled with traps. Also experienced with whips, candles, and chains. Add my WeChat: XXXXX]

[Image] [Image] [Image]

### [Hey, could you turn off the beauty filter first?]

### [Get lost!]

### [Announcement from Mohai Coastal District Police Department: Anyone who has recently awakened supernatural abilities is requested to report to the authorities immediately...]

### [Officer, I'm starving to death. Could you deliver some food to my apartment? Address: XXXX]

...

Jiang Fan scrolled through the endless stream of posts.

Unfortunately, there wasn't much good news.

As for those with supernatural abilities...

They had begun appearing from the very first day the crimson fog descended upon the world.

The world had changed completely.

Even Jiang Fan was curious about how these people had obtained their powers.

---

**Ding!**

**[Song Siyin consumed 1 Snickers bar. Divine Return activated. Reward: 100 Snickers bars. Items have been deposited into Personal Storage.]**

A faint smile appeared on Jiang Fan's face.

Ever since the System awakened,

Song Siyin had eaten quite a lot of food.

And everything she consumed was returned to him at **100×** the original amount.

Thanks to that alone, the food supplies he possessed were enough to sustain him for at least **1 year**.

Moreover, his Personal Storage was already packed with massive quantities of packaged food.

Canned goods.

Sausages.

Instant noodles.

And countless other products.

They were all near-expiration items from the convenience store where he worked.

The store owner was a man known as **Fat Hu**.

Back then, Fat Hu often forced Jiang Fan to buy those products at **50%** of the listed retail price.

But today...

Those same items had become priceless resources.

---

Jiang Fan took out some of the food supplies.

He snapped several photos.

Then uploaded them to the community group.

**Room & Board Provided:**

"Food available for every meal. Only recruiting beautiful women. Serious inquiries only."

[Image] [Image] [Image]

---

**Little Bunny, Room A-303:**

"You trash! Get out of the group! You think you're some big shot just because you have a little food?"

**Zhou Tianhao, Head Trainer of Tianxing Fitness Gym, Room C-1708:**

"Kid! Keep talking like that and I'll beat you to death!"

[Image] [Image]

Along with his message, Zhou Tianhao uploaded several photos of his physique.

In the pictures, his muscles shimmered with a metallic glow.

---

**Handsome Since Birth, Room B-809:**

"Huh? Coach Zhou, are your muscles actually glowing?"

**Zhou Tianhao, Room C-1708:**

"Hahaha! I don't even know when it started."

"But whenever I exert myself, my skin becomes as hard as steel. Even knives can't cut through it!"

"And more importantly, my strength has increased by over **2×**!"

---

**Little Bunny, Room A-303:**

"Wow! Coach Zhou is amazing!"

**Aunt Zheng, Room A-705:**

"Such a handsome young man. Auntie still has plenty of canned food stored away. Would you like to come and eat together?"

...

The atmosphere in the group shifted instantly.

Everyone began flattering and trying to curry favor with Zhou Tianhao.

---

Jiang Fan watched the conversation with a hint of envy.

Zhou Tianhao's ability...

Was incredibly useful in the current world.

As for Jiang Fan's Divine Return System and Personal Storage Space, while they were excellent for accumulating supplies,

they provided absolutely no direct combat power.

Even now,

not a single woman had sent him a private message.

Still,

Jiang Fan wasn't worried.

As conditions continued to deteriorate,

as long as the government failed to establish an effective supply distribution network,

sooner or later everyone would face food shortages.

---

He picked up a watering can

and watered the collection of succulents lined up along the windowsill.

They were plants that **Song Siyin** had left behind before she moved out.

Jiang Fan didn't even know the names of most of them.

But one of the plants was particularly strange.

Ever since the crimson fog appeared,

it had produced **2 pitch-black fruits**.

They looked somewhat like lychees,

yet their color was as dark as ink.

---

The **2 black lychee-like fruits** emitted an unusually tempting fragrance.

Every time Jiang Fan smelled them,

an intense urge to eat them surged within him.

Yet he always managed to restrain himself.

Because in an era where everything was evolving at a terrifying pace,

who knew what these strange fruits actually were?

Those black fruits

looked far too unnatural.

---

At that moment,

a terrified scream suddenly echoed from Building A across the courtyard.

"Help!"

Jiang Fan immediately looked toward the source of the sound.

On the balcony of **Floor 21** in Building A,

a young woman with disheveled hair burst outside in a panic...

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Chapter Summary