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

--Translated by likesnovel--

Jiang Fan emerged from underground.

In front of him was the entrance hall of Building C in Fortune Center.

He turned around and looked back.

The roads surrounding the residential district had completely vanished.

All that remained was an endless sea of vegetation stretching in every direction.

Human civilization… had truly come to an end.

Jiang Fan let out a soft sigh.

Just as he was about to walk up the stairs—

Something unexpected happened.

Whoosh!

Something glowing with a sinister red light shot into his perception range at lightning speed.

In that instant,

everything around him felt like it had frozen.

His consciousness remained perfectly clear, and countless thoughts flashed through his mind in a fraction of a second.

“What is that?!”

“Its target is me!”

“Run!”

He tried to move his body with all his strength,

but it felt like he was submerged in thick glue.

His movements were extremely slow.

“It’s not that I’m slow… my thoughts are too fast!”

“My body simply can’t keep up!”

Compared to his speed,

the elongated creature rushing toward him was like a speeding truck.

Its red glow was blinding and terrifying.

And finally… Jiang Fan saw it clearly.

It was a tongue.

A massive tongue, like a giant weapon!

“A mutated frog?!”

He immediately understood.

This tongue was even thicker than when it had previously devoured a woman.

“What should I do?!”

He tried to move bit by bit.

Until the very last moment, he realized—

He couldn’t dodge it.

He made a split-second decision.

“Etherealization!”

In an instant,

the giant tongue passed straight through his body—without obstruction.

BOOM!

It slammed violently into the wall behind him,

blasting a hole the size of a water barrel instantly.

The entire wall shattered.

The moment the tongue passed through his ethereal form,

Jiang Fan felt a massive wave of exhaustion surge through his body.

His energy dropped rapidly.

“Too powerful… just letting it pass through me drained this much energy!”

If he had to phase through the entire creature…

he might collapse instantly.

Without hesitation,

Jiang Fan immediately dove underground.

Whoosh!

The tongue was quickly retracted.

“Croak! Croak!”

The frog’s loud cries echoed across the area.

Even though Jiang Fan was about 2 meters underground,

he could still hear it clearly.

Soon after,

the mutated frog—now the size of a car—entered his 50-meter perception range.

In his perception view,

it looked like a blazing sun, radiating overwhelming energy.

Compared to it,

his own energy looked dim and insignificant.

Inside its body,

there was a glowing blue energy core,

far brighter than his own core,

and clearly far more complex in structure.

Jiang Fan stared at it with a serious expression.

“My perception range has a weakness.”

“If an enemy attacks from beyond 50 meters, I won’t even notice.”

“But its tongue can extend far beyond that range.”

The mutated frog walked slowly,

occasionally letting out deep croaks as if claiming its territory.

“Croak! Croak!”

“Croak! Croak!”

All surrounding creatures immediately hid, not daring to move.

Suddenly—

its tongue shot upward again.

Whoosh!

A cat was instantly hooked and dragged back, swallowed in one motion without any resistance.

The entire process gave it almost no chance to escape.

Jiang Fan watched silently from underground.

“It moves slowly, but its attacks are extremely fast.”

“And it likely has long-range detection ability, otherwise it wouldn’t be able to hunt so accurately.”

“Overall strength… at least 3 times mine.”

“How did it get this strong? Did it also consume multiple Enlightenment Fruits?”

“But it doesn’t seem very intelligent.”

“After missing its target, it doesn’t even continue searching.”

The mutated frog slowly walked away, like a king leaving its territory.

A few minutes later,

Jiang Fan carefully resurfaced again.

He jumped slightly.

His head almost hit the ceiling.

“Blur!”

His body phased upward to the 2nd floor without a sound.

He moved through walls and floors silently, avoiding every occupied room.

Before long,

he returned to Tang Xuerou’s room.

Tang Xuerou was standing by the window, staring outside with a worried expression.

Xu Mengqian was sitting nearby scrolling on her phone, but she didn’t look calm either.

Jiang Fan’s disappearance had clearly made the two women increasingly anxious.

So much had happened that day.

From murders and assaults in Building A, to the violent killings in the afternoon—everything made it painfully clear that “social order” had completely collapsed.

The peaceful world they once knew… would never return.

As their last sense of security shattered, their dependence on Jiang Fan grew stronger without them even realizing it.

Neither of them was naive.

In such a chaotic era, if a beautiful woman did not have a strong protector, she would inevitably end up as someone else’s prey.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, Jiang Fan emerged from the floor.

The two flinched slightly, but once they saw it was him, they immediately relaxed and smiled.

“Brother Jiang, you’re back! Dinner will be ready soon!”

“Brother Jiang, are you tired? Here, drink some water!”

They quickly moved to cling to his arms.

Jiang Fan felt a slight sense of relief.

Having two top-tier beauties by his side really did ease his mental pressure.

Night was approaching.

He took out a large amount of supplies.

Potato chips, canned food, frozen fish, frozen shrimp, and even a full rack of black pork ribs.

The eyes of both women lit up instantly, their sense of security returning.

Xu Mengqian quickly said,

“I’ll cook!”

Tang Xuerou immediately refused to lose,

“I’ll help too.”

She had also begun learning how to cook.

Xu Mengqian glanced at her unhappily.

While they prepared food, a sudden scream echoed from the balcony outside.

Jiang Fan turned his head.

Across the entire Fortune Center district, all buildings simultaneously went dark.

The power had really gone out.

He watched silently.

This was already within his expectations.

The rampant plant growth could easily destroy electrical systems.

In fact, he was even surprised that water, electricity, and gas in Mo Hai City had lasted this long.

Under the moonlight, he could see people rushing onto balconies, shouting in panic.

When they confirmed the entire district had lost power, screams of fear filled the air.

In this terrifying post-apocalyptic world,

losing “light” meant losing more than half of one’s survival capability.

The higher the building—especially anything above 20 floors—the darker and more terrifying it became.

Below 20 floors, everything was already swallowed by red mist.

A darkness beyond comprehension.

Xu Mengqian and Tang Xuerou stood by the window, worry written on their faces.

“Will our place lose power too…?”

Jiang Fan answered calmly,

“It will definitely go out. Tonight or tomorrow—it’s only a matter of time.”

“Modern cities… are more fragile than you think.”

The two women’s faces turned slightly pale.

A power outage meant water would soon stop.

Gas would not last long either.

And once communication systems collapsed, mobile signals, internet, and base stations would all fail.

The world would become completely disconnected.

Jiang Fan picked up his phone and searched for information about the blackout.

He quickly discovered this was not an isolated case.

Multiple cities had already begun experiencing blackouts to varying degrees.

Some coal power plants had run out of fuel, and supply chains had collapsed, preventing replenishment.

Solar power stations in deserts were already overrun and covered by plants, making them unusable.

Only hydropower stations were barely keeping the system alive.

But as equipment continued to fail,

the entire grid would eventually collapse.

The electrical network that humanity once took pride in was slowly being dismantled piece by piece.

When energy becomes scarce,

human life will fall to its lowest point.

Megacities would turn into brutal survival arenas.

Humans would not only fight nature,

but also each other for survival.

Cities were dangerous.

But the countryside was not much better.

Although human conflict was lower there, vegetation density was far worse, and the environment more brutal.

The two women ate quietly, anxiety lingering in their hearts.

Even Jiang Fan felt the pressure of the approaching blackout.

He thought to himself firmly:

“I need to become stronger.”

In an environment getting worse by the moment, only one thing could truly be trusted—

his own power.

Jiang Fan took out a handful of Enlightenment Fruits

and began eating them immediately.