She turned her gaze back to Ah-Hao outside the window.
“Alright,” Su Wan’s voice was calm and steady, yet it carried a sense of control that Ah-Hao couldn’t fathom. “From now on, you are a tenant of this building.”
“Your room is Room 104, right across from mine.”
Su Wan glanced at Ah-Hao’s information on the system panel:
【Health Status: Heavy Injury with Infection, Severe Frostbite, Malnutrition】, and the faintly flashing 【Malice Level: 85 (Highly Dangerous, Close Monitoring Required)】.
“I’ve already unlocked the door. Come in yourself. Once you’re settled, we’ll discuss the rent.”
Having said that, Su Wan ignored Ah-Hao and turned to inspect her properties, specifically the newly appeared convenience store.
However, she had only taken a few steps when she heard the boy’s desperate whimpering.
“Sister... I... I can’t climb up... The steps are too high... Please, give me a hand...”
Ah-Hao lay sprawled at the base of the concrete steps outside the fire door. He looked up, his pleading gaze enough to melt the hardest heart.
One of his hands reached out weakly toward the top of the steps, his fingertips less than half a foot from the edge of the first step.
Su Wan paused and looked out through the window.
In the system’s notification, Ah-Hao’s 【Malice Level】 had briefly dipped after she announced him as a tenant, but now it was quietly climbing again, becoming even more hidden and persistent.
He still hadn’t given up.
Su Wan frowned slightly.
She truly didn’t understand. Why, even at this point—with a contract signed and a room provided—was this boy still refusing to abandon his schemes?
Could it be that he had some other trump card?
Fine. Since his wicked heart remained unchanged, she would extinguish it completely.
A flash of coldness crossed Su Wan’s eyes.
She walked out of her room, pushed open the fire door, stepped across the threshold, and stood on the stairs outside.
The freezing wind whipped snow into her face, carrying the silence of the ruins and a latent sense of danger.
Su Wan narrowed her eyes, looking down from her high vantage point at the dying Ah-Hao at the bottom of the steps.
She stood there, her figure appearing somewhat fragile under the dim yellow light spilling out from Room 102.
Ah-Hao’s pupils constricted almost imperceptibly.
This stupid woman finally came out! This was the opportunity he had been waiting for!
Now!
Whiz!
A sharp, piercing sound tore through the wind and snow, erupting without warning from the shadows of a pile of collapsed concrete debris beside the unfinished building!
A dark shadow, like a viper’s tongue, tore through the air at an incredible speed, flying straight toward Su Wan on the stairs!
The target—her temple!
It was a crude but exceptionally sharp metal arrow. The archer possessed immense strength; the shot was fast, ruthless, and aimed from a tricky angle, clearly intended to be a killing blow!
The moment the arrow’s whistle sounded, Su Wan’s heart lurched. Blood seemed to rush to her head, and a massive sense of crisis made her scalp tingle, her instincts screaming at her to duck or dodge!
But at the very moment her muscles tensed and her pupils shrank—
About half a meter from her head, the arrow slammed into an invisible wall with a muffled thud, its kinetic energy instantly neutralized!
It hung there in mid-air, suspended in a bizarre, impossible manner!
The tail of the arrow even quivered slightly from the momentum, but the tip could not advance another inch!
This terrifying scene caused the brains of both the hidden attacker and Ah-Hao to go momentarily blank.
However, the attacker was clearly an experienced and ruthless character.
Whoosh!
A tall, burly figure, like a human beast, lunged out of the shadows immediately after the arrow!
He was incredibly fast, leaping across the snow-covered ruins in several bounds to close the distance!
In his hand, he gripped a gleaming military dagger, thrusting it straight toward Su Wan’s unprotected neck!
He was a man in his thirties with a face full of scars, including a hideous one that slashed from his left forehead to the right corner of his mouth, nearly splitting his face in two.
His eyes were as fierce as a hungry wolf’s, his muscles were corded, and he carried a thick scent of blood and murderous intent.
This was Scar Wolf, the accomplice Ah-Hao had secretly contacted!
No matter what strange ability this woman had, she wouldn’t escape his close-quarters combat!
As long as he got close, he was confident he could slit her throat in under a second!
However, the moment he charged within two meters of Su Wan, just as the tip of his dagger was about to touch her slender neck—
Time seemed to freeze.
No, it wasn’t time that froze; it was Scar Wolf himself.
He remained in a lunging position, his right foot forward, body leaning, arm extended, the cold blade of the dagger less than a foot from Su Wan’s throat.
But his entire being was frozen in place as if under a paralysis spell, unable to even move his eyeballs!
Only the extreme shock and a deep-seated fear in his eyes remained, etched clearly onto his face.
For Scar Wolf, the entire world was reduced to an endless silence and the despair of being unable to move.
He couldn't move! Not a finger, not a single strand of hair!
It was as if an irresistible force had locked him down completely, from the inside out!
At the bottom of the steps, Ah-Hao had long forgotten his act. His mouth hung open wide enough to fit an egg, and the color had drained from his face, leaving only boundless terror.
He looked at the arrow suspended in mid-air, and then at Scar Wolf, who stood like a statue before Su Wan...
A chill shot from the soles of his feet to the top of his head, making him feel as though he had fallen into an ice cellar. He trembled more violently now than when he had been faking it.
Su Wan slowly took a deep breath of the freezing air.
The moment the arrow had flown at her, her heart had indeed leaped into her throat, and she had been so tense she could barely breathe.
But now, looking at this frozen scene and feeling the clear feedback from the system regarding the “Absolute Safety Zone” and her “Absolute Control,” her heart grew strangely calm.
She surveyed her surroundings.
The wind howled, and the ruins remained silent.
She believed that in the shadows of this endless darkness, behind those crumbling walls, there was more than one pair of eyes watching.
Greed, testing, malice...
It would never stop.
If not for this Absolute Safety Zone today, and if the system hadn’t warned her of Ah-Hao’s malice beforehand, she might already be a cold corpse.
She needed to establish her authority; she needed to make an example of him.
She needed to let all the eyes hiding in the dark see clearly that this building, and she who resided within it, were not prey to be trifled with.
Ah-Hao was a tenant; he had signed a contract and was still useful, so she couldn't kill him yet.
But this Scar Wolf...
This man who had taken the initiative to attack her with the intent to kill was the perfect “chicken” to be slaughtered.
Su Wan’s gaze fell upon Scar Wolf’s scarred face, which was frozen in horror.
She could even see her own calm, expressionless face reflected in his pupils.
“Attacking me on my own territory,” Su Wan’s voice wasn’t loud, but it reached the ears of Scar Wolf and Ah-Hao clearly, seeming to pierce through the wind and snow toward the distant darkness.
“How do you want to die?”
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