Before An Ziyu could make her move, Ye Zi'an quickly turned around and grabbed her by the neck.

"I told you, neither of you are my match."

With Ye Zi'an's cold words in her ear, An Ziyu felt that if he exerted even a little force, he could easily snap her neck. Fortunately, Ye Zi'an released her.

He then said, "If anyone is unconvinced, feel free to challenge me at any time."

The crowd obediently lowered their heads. With the strongest among them, Chen Ruoxue and An Ziyu, unable to withstand a single move from Ye Zi'an, the others naturally wouldn't overestimate their chances against him.

The selection process took a total of two hours, with no surprises in the outcome.

In the finals, An Ziyu made a careless mistake and narrowly lost to Chen Ruoxue, resulting in both women taking the top spots as champions and runners-up.

From now on, Chen Ruoxue and An Ziyu would serve as team leaders.

As night fell, the administrative candidates also selected the most capable individuals to take leadership roles.

Ye Zi'an announced, "Tonight, everyone will stay in the fortress. Six ordinary members will share one building, while two leaders will share another. Arrange your accommodations according to your respective roles."

Using the excuse of adapting to group life and the New Year celebration, he kept everyone in the fortress.

Seeing that the surroundings were filled with peers, the women didn't suspect anything; they were merely curious why no one was eliminated and why the interviews seemed so lenient.

Most of the supplies had already been stored in the warehouse by Ye Zi'an, with only the custom-made steel crossbows remaining at a processing factory a few kilometers away due to unpaid balances.

On his way back from Su Wei's house tonight, he could conveniently pick them up.

With tens of millions still available, Ye Zi'an arranged to take over a few nearby restaurants.

Under his direction, various delicacies were delivered to the fortress's cafeteria, with the excess discreetly stored in his space for later enjoyment.

Though referred to as a cafeteria, it was actually a two-story building made of concrete, featuring two or three serving windows on one side. Behind those windows was a fully equipped kitchen, capable of accommodating over a thousand people at once.

In front of the serving windows were hundreds of long rectangular wooden tables for six, as well as several round tables for ten, making the cafeteria suitable for meetings as well.

Zhao Wanrong sat at a round table, looking around in confusion.

Ye Zi'an's various actions over the past few days had left her perplexed.

This fortress appeared grand, but Zhao Wanrong knew it wouldn't be profitable, especially with the need to pay salaries; it felt like a bottomless pit.

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Noticing Zhao Wanrong's doubts, Ye Zi'an spoke up, "Sister Wanrong, after tonight, you'll understand why I've done all this. But you must stay here tonight."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Wanrong didn't press further.

After all, all the mysteries would be revealed after tonight.

Ye Zi'an surveyed the cafeteria; aside from his uncle still tracking Su Chen with the mercenaries, everyone else was dining inside.

Every table was laden with dozens of dishes—sweet and sour pork, spicy chicken, king crabs, Australian lobsters... After tonight, money would lose its value, so it was better to convert it into goodwill now.

After dinner, Ye Zi'an took everyone outside to introduce themselves around the campfire, fostering camaraderie to alleviate the anxiety that would arise after the apocalypse struck.

Meanwhile, Ye Zi'an prepared to head to the Century Community to make his final arrangements.

The streets were brightly lit, bustling with crowds celebrating the arrival of the New Year.

As he reached the stairwell, Ye Zi'an, despite the lowered voices of Li Wei and his accomplices below, still keenly overheard their conversation.

"You two, put on a show of resistance tonight. Afterward, I'll sneak in and extort a hefty sum from Ye Zi'an."

"Li Shao, won't that anger Ye Shao?"

"What's there to fear? The Liu family has approached me. They want us to gather some dirt on Ye Zi'an to threaten him into marrying Miss Liu. Once that's done, we each get ten million."

The two immediately brightened up, excitedly responding, "Thank you, Li Shao."

Ye Zi'an's brow furrowed at the revelation. The Liu family was indeed persistent; despite not hearing from Liu Qinghuan in a few days, they were still targeting him.

However, Ye Zi'an remained unfazed as he walked up the stairs, pretending as if nothing was amiss.

Seeing Ye Zi'an approach, Li Wei immediately greeted him obsequiously, "Ye Shao, I've brought the people you asked for, just as you requested."

Li Wei's demeanor changed rapidly; just moments ago, he had been referring to Ye Zi'an casually, but now he was addressing him respectfully as "Ye Shao."

Li Wei had followed Ye Zi'an's earlier orders, bringing along two young women who looked decent and appeared pure, waiting at Su Chen's door.

"Hello, Ye Shao."

While the two women might not compare to the stunning beauty of Su Wei and Lin Qianqian, they were still attractive enough, and their physiques resembled those of Su Wei and Lin Qianqian closely enough to pass as substitutes.

Ye Zi'an nodded in satisfaction and instructed the two, "You two go inside first. I need to talk to Li Wei about some matters."

Once the two women entered, only Ye Zi'an and Li Wei remained in the corridor.

"Ye Shao, I'd like to know what benefits you promised me."

Before Ye Zi'an could respond, Li Wei suddenly felt a chill in his throat, incredulously clutching it, his face filled with shock as he stared at Ye Zi'an.

"Don't blame me; blame yourself for knowing too much and daring to conspire with the Liu family against me."

Li Wei never imagined Ye Zi'an would actually kill him.

With no one around, Li Wei's body was swiftly stored in Ye Zi'an's space, and the blood on the ground was cleaned up thoroughly.

Ye Zi'an wiped the ash from his hands, adopting a nonchalant demeanor as he walked into Su Chen's residence.

Inside, the two women hadn't seen Li Wei and assumed he was temporarily hiding outside, secretly delighted.

With Li Wei's ten million, along with the title of "Ye Shao," they felt they would never again have to worry about food and clothing.

"Ye Shao."

The older woman spoke up, her fair features charmingly drawing closer.

The other, although shy, understood well what was expected of her tonight: to please Ye Shao.

Ye Zi'an, having grown accustomed to fine dining these days, found it refreshing to sample some street food.

As he began to indulge, Ye Zi'an took a deep breath. The two women had already been thoroughly worn out by him.

Due to Ye Zi'an's power and Li Wei's orders, the women could only silently endure his aggressive advances.

However, Ye Zi'an was dissatisfied with their earlier performance, especially since he noticed they hadn't provided any attributes.

In his mind, Ye Zi'an silently pondered, "System, why didn't I receive extra attributes earlier?"

After his earlier training, he had determined that the two women clearly lacked any skills, indicating it was their first time training. The blood stains nearby confirmed his suspicions.

"Host, the Chaos Yin-Yang Technique has minimum requirements for the opposite sex; their potential must be at least B-level."

"What? There's a restriction?"

"There's no need for surprise, Host. If there were no limitations, wouldn't it be..."

Ye Zi'an coughed lightly, realizing the system had seen through his thoughts, but it seemed to be true.

The attributes he gained from Liu Qinghuan were more than those from Li Menglan, yet still less than from Su Wei and Lin Qianqian.

These two were ordinary individuals with mediocre talent, possessing only a bit of attractiveness.

"You two, put these clothes on."

Ye Zi'an tossed two outfits toward them.

"Ye Shao, I can't take it anymore."

"Me neither."

Wondering why Li Wei hadn't come back yet, the two women felt anxious.

They assumed Ye Zi'an wanted them to change clothes for another round, and they both pleaded for mercy.

"Stop with the nonsense."

Ye Zi'an frowned, causing them to comply immediately and start changing into the clothes he had tossed them.

Seeing that the bag contained nothing but two ordinary casual outfits, they let out a sigh of relief. Although they were somewhat perplexed, it was too late to back out, so they followed Ye Zi'an's instructions.

If they angered Ye Zi'an and Li Wei still hadn't returned, then all their previous efforts would have been in vain.

The outfits were indeed the ones Su Wei and Lin Qianqian had just changed out of. Over the past few days, Ye Zi'an had carefully noted their features, confirming they had no tattoos or distinctive marks. Just moments ago, he had observed the same about the two women now before him, finding no such markings.

•~~~•~~~•~~~•~~~•

𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗼𝘂𝘁: '𝗕𝗼𝗴𝗱𝗮𝗻 𝗣𝗼𝗽𝗲𝘀𝗰𝘂' 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗻 𝗺𝘆 $5 𝗧𝗶𝗲𝗿.

𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗼𝘂𝘁: '𝗝𝗰1202' 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗻 𝗺𝘆 $5 𝗧𝗶𝗲𝗿.

𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗺𝗲 𝗼𝗻 𝙋𝙖𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙤𝙣 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲'𝘀 35+ 𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲:

𝙋𝙖𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙤𝙣.𝙘𝙤𝙢/𝗚𝗼𝗱𝗢𝗳𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿