After that, she turned without hesitation and knocked on the door across from Stella Sterling’s, abandoning her plan to ask Stella for help.
Even the people who were normally so good-tempered had been hostile today. That young woman was fierce enough on a good day; if she went to her now, who knew if she’d co out with a knife.
Stella Sterling watched the scene unfold clearly on her security cara. She shrugged and smiled. It just went to show, if you were a little fierce, no one would dare to bully you.
But the more accommodating you seed, the more people thought you were a pushover, and they’d single you out.
’Hmm, good. I wasn’t fierce enough before. I’ll have to keep working on being even fiercer.’
Many people assud this outage would be like the last one, with the power returning the next day. Because of this, everyone was much calr this ti, and their reactions weren’t as intense.
But when the next day ca and there was still no internet or power, the panic started to set in again. Without internet access, they couldn’t contact the outside world or vent in the residents’ group chat. Their only outlet was to shout out their windows.
Throughout the day, Stella Sterling could hear sporadic cursing from outside. Eventually, she just put on her headphones to block out the noise, and her world finally grew a little quieter.
As for the snow-clearing effort organized by Ms. Larkin, it had to be abandoned as the snow began to fall even more heavily.
With a blizzard this intense, going outside carried the very real risk of freezing to death. Besides, what was the point of clearing it? The snow was coming down so thick that any cleared patch would be instantly buried again. It would be a completely futile effort. In the end, never mind the others—even Ms. Larkin herself fell silent and said nothing more.
The second and third days passed with no internet and no power. People were stuck in their hos, cursing their situation daily, their anger growing more vicious with each passing hour.
But this ti, no matter how much they raged, no one responded. Several days went by. Not only did the power and internet not return, but the water was shut off as well.
That was the last straw. Even in the freezing weather, people started leaving the complex to track down and berate the property managent staff. But there was nothing the staff could do.
At first, the managent tried to explain the situation. But after a while, they gave up completely. They stopped managing anything and would sotis get into shouting matches with the residents who ca looking for trouble.
The complex was filled with the sound of shouting matches every day, which provided its own kind of entertainnt. Stella Sterling would stand by her window and watch, enjoying it all as if it were a live show.
With the internet down, watching the drama unfold in real ti was the best entertainnt available.
’In a few more days, I probably won’t even see any more argunts,’ she mused. ’Most people’s food supplies won’t last much longer. Soon, they won’t even have the energy to quarrel.’
The days trickled by. It was still June, a month that should have been scorching hot, but a heavy, fluffy snow had been falling for nearly half a month. Not only did it show no signs of stopping, but it was actually getting worse.
With no internet and no power, everyone’s initial panic had long since spiraled into deep-seated dread. Days had passed. They had cursed, they had vented, but nothing had changed. Gradually, they began to accept their new reality.
They even started to believe the doomsday rumors that had been circulating online, convinced that this was the end of the world.
If this wasn’t the apocalypse, how else could they explain everything that was happening?
Just as Stella Sterling had predicted, even the argunts stopped. The complex fell silent as people stopped going outside. Most residents stayed in their hos, and if soone occasionally visited a neighbor to chat, no one else was the wiser.
And so, after days of chaos, a quiet calm settled over the residential complex.
Stella Sterling observed all these changes in the complex. Every day, she would spend so ti monitoring the situation around her before going about her own business.
Beyond that, her daily routine was her own. She ate and drank as she pleased, worked out, and studied her dical texts. In her remaining ti, she would enter her space to tend to her plants, watch shows, or play offline gas.
’This life feels like an early retirent.’
At this point, besides Stella, who was still able to eat three full als a day, most other people couldn’t even manage two. They were down to a single al each day. And even that one al had dwindled from several dishes and a soup to just one dish and one soup. Those in worse shape had resorted to making porridge or eating plain rice.
In the current situation, even those who still had food reserves didn’t dare to eat their fill. They just ate enough each day to stay alive.
No one knew when the blizzard would finally end. All hope was lost. They had to save what they could, preparing for the worst.
"AHHHH!"
One morning, a piercing scream shattered the silence of the complex.
The commotion continued, and from the panicked voices, Stella Sterling pieced together what had happened.
It turned out the weight of the snow had beco too much. The windows of two first-floor apartnts had buckled under the pressure, and a massive amount of snow had poured into both hos.
Of the two first-floor hos, one housed a family of six, with three generations living together. The other was ho to a family of three. The family of three was relatively young—the parents in their thirties or forties and their teenage son. They reacted quickly, rushing outside imdiately. They were all unhard, but their apartnt was completely filled with snow, much of their furniture was destroyed, and the place was no longer habitable.
The other family, the one with three generations, had a much more tragic fate. The two elderly mbers of the family moved too slowly and were instantly buried when the snow burst in. By the ti the young couple reacted, they could only grab their two children and rush for the exit.
But when the man realized sothing had happened to his parents, he glanced back. That montary distraction nearly dood them both. Luckily, he reacted fast enough to throw his daughter to safety. She was unhard, but he was caught, more than half of his body buried beneath the snow.
Now, the wife was frantically digging at the snow with her bare hands, her wretched cries for help drawing the attention of many neighbors. Seeing the situation, people rushed to join the rescue effort.
Stella Sterling saw what was happening and didn’t make a sound. Seizing a mont when no one was paying attention, she pulled a shovel from her space and joined the digging party.
Seeing her with a proper tool, the others were reminded that they had tools too. They ran ho to grab them and returned to help dig. The wife thanked them all through her tears.
For a mont, everyone worked together in unison. It was a moving sight.
They finally dug the man out, but he had been trapped under the snow for too long. His face was bruised and blue, and he was extrely weak. He couldn’t feel his legs at all, and it was impossible to know if the feeling would return once he ward up.
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