Lu Chen did not take the elevator and took the stairs reaching all the way down to the third floor without facing any surprises. However, he was unable to proceed beyond that point.

The stairwell pathway had been completely blocked with sturdy steel doors welded together into some sort of a barricade. It was like someone had plugged the various holes or pathways of entries using metal as if it was a sponge filling.

"Hmm… This definitely looks like someone has the ability to shape and mold metals." Lu Chen paused, pondering over his alternative route of action.

The stairwell was blocked and he was pretty sure that the elevator entrance was guarded by more men similar to those he had faced or in the worst case scenario someone even more powerful.

He would only be a sitting duck if he still used the elevator, so that wasn't an option. There was only one other option left.

Lu Chen clenched and released his fists a couple of times before entering the third floor and locating the fire exit. He quickly jumped down the ladder, reaching the ground in less than a minute.

However, the big herd of rats which they had seen before was no longer there. In reality, Lu Chen wasn't too worried about these rats. He was far more concerned about the other monsters that could be lurking outside, particularly the green-skinned creatures that could only be called goblins.

He silently looked around and walked around the apartment complex, extremely careful and cautious, ducking down close to the wall so that he won't be visible from the windows.

After covering about half the distance, he paused to see a corpse lying in front of him with its insides completely torn and lying in shambles, but the flesh was completely untouched.

Lu Chen sighed as he could tell that this was probably the handiwork of a fellow human being rather than the new beasts and monsters that roamed around.

"What the fuck?" He lowered his head and muttered under his breath. He was still not able to believe that he was actually doing this, trying to hide from his fellow human beings.

What a joke!

They hadn't even figured this new world out and the seemingly unrealistic things which have suddenly become very real, but humans had already started fighting with each other.

A cold glint flashed past his eyes he continued squatting and moving. A normal human being would have already gotten tired out from moving in such a weird state, but his muscles and his abilities were far more enhanced now, so he continued without needing to rest.

Lu Chen had now almost come full circle as he scouted the apartment complex. As far as he could see, all the windows and even the patio had been completely barricaded along with both the front and the back entrance.

The entire apartment complex or at least the bottom two floors had been completely secured!

The speed and the efficiency with which all of these seem to have been accomplished told him that there was probably a huge group of people inside, at least a dozen or so.

Moreover, he also had no idea if he was currently being watched or not. Even though he had been very careful, it was almost impossible for him to completely camouflage himself in the midst of the cemented parking lot and greenery less, bald surroundings. Where was he even supposed to hide?

"Alright. Let me check out the basement parking lot." Lu Chen began to move even though he had a feeling that they might have secured the parking lot as well.

However, before he could take another step, a loud buzzing noise sounded behind him and he quickly swung around to see a dozen yellow colored balls flying towards him, but how can balls buzz?

"Fuck. These are not balls! These are fucking bees! How are they so big???" Lu Chen knew that he didn't have much time. He had the advantage when it came to long-distance fighting and so he wanted to settle this as soon as possible.

But would he be able to? That was an entirely different question. Lu Chen had no idea about the strength and physical defense of these fattened-up bees who were somehow surprisingly very fast for their size.

Their front two stingers especially looked terrifying and their venom had probably mutated as well. All in all Lu Chen knew that his speed was the most crucial matter in this battle.

He was alone and there were about a dozen bees coming straight at him, all of them aiming for him. He did not hesitate and he stood up to instantly start shooting several ice spears.

Some of them hit the target while some of them did not. However, the very next second another batch of ice spears popped up next to him and flew towards the 7 bees that hadn't been hit the first time around.

These were now much closer to him and Lu Chen was easily able to aim for them and damage them with his sharp, pointed ice spears.

After battling with the little girl zombie, his control and his attacks were much smoother now. He had most definitely lost that battle but in return, he had learned a lot.

In less than a minute, all twelve of the bees had fallen to the ground, some of them dead, some still alive, and some partly frozen.

Lu Chen walked over and materialized another ice spear, a bigger one this time, and thrust into the bees that were still alive and struggling, completely killing them off in one hit.

"So not a strong defense huh? Then you guys must have been relying on the numbers to get by!" Lu Chen exclaimed, killing another bee. It looked like even the bees knew how to cooperate better than the human beings.

He searched all of their bodies for mana cores and managed to successfully retrieve cores from 5 out of the 12 bees.

As each core disappeared into his body, turning into a wisp of energy, Lu Chen felt his tiredness evaporate and his body brimming with power. He now understood why those two men who had attacked them had been very arrogant.

They had probably managed to clear a bunch of these beasts and had wrongly assumed that they were overpowered. However, he knew that different cores were different and these cores actually were a lot less useful even though their consumption stroked the energy swirling in his body.

Sighing, Lu Chen turned around when suddenly, the air around him twisted and a man appeared out of thin air, right behind him and placed a knife near his throat, making him completely unable to move or respond.