Apocalypse King: Recruiting S-Tier Beauties With My Ruler System
Chapter 74: A Ragtag Bunch of Wrangled Cats...

Chapter 74: A Ragtag Bunch of Wrangled Cats...

[Shen Yifei cooked an [8.9/10] rated meal for her master and enjoyed the compliment!]

[89 EXP | 15 Affection]

——

The walls came down faster than I expected.

One by one, apartments folded beneath the system’s glow. I started with Unit 501, then worked my way down through 504, 506, everything except Jiang Roulan’s place on the fifth and cleared the entire sixth floor with her permission.

Rooms collapsed in light. Beds evaporated into thread. Cupboards burst into nothing, their contents flaring into blue motes and then vanishing completely.

[Dismantled: 2 Floors of Interior Structure]

+225 Metal

+230 Wood

+210 Plastic

+200 Glass

+215 Cloth

My resources swelled. The raw weight of it didn’t touch my shoulders, but I still felt the cost. Sweat clung to my back. My breath came slowly and much deeper. It wasn’t just the labour. It was the noise.

The quiet.

The empty.

The fact that every room I dismantled once held lives. Messy ones. Loud ones. Families who screamed at each other. Couples who made love. Students who ate cup noodles over plastic desks. All gone now.

Reduced to numbers and particles.

I stopped for a moment in the hollow frame of an old hallway and saw a red calendar pinned against the wall, shoes by the door.

A cracked picture of a young girl in a graduation cap, half-buried under the frame of a dismantled bunk bed.

I didn’t pick it up.

Didn’t need to.

The building was mine now, but the memories didn’t belong to me.

When I finished, my actions reshaped the entire first floor. All ten units had merged into a wide, rectangular space with proper partitions for each family, a single dining hall in the middle, and a fenced-off training room near the front door.

One-sided glass, allowing the people to see outside, but zombies couldn’t see inside, and it could endure a Stage Four level of damage.

The children would sleep in the east corridor, closest to the blast door, ironically.

Maybe it made sense. I decided to protect the children and use their parents. That’s the promise, right?

I sat down on a crate on the first floor and opened the system.

"Time to make it official."

The people who would become our foot soldiers and would help me rank up after it became so difficult. Though cruel to make them fight the undead, it would also help them all reach a level of self-protection so that they didn’t need to fear the darkness or monsters.

[Base Expansion Complete. First Floor Designated as Civilian Block.]

[Safe Zone Extended.]

[System Construct: Approved]

[Ten new units logged as bunk space.]

"...Now let’s see who’s worth feeding."

——

March 17th, 2025 — 6:24 PM

Zone 2A-Δ – First Floor, Civilian Block

They trickled in.

One by one. Two by two.

Some families. A few loners. Two pairs of brothers with tired eyes and dirt-caked nails. None of them looked like soldiers. None of them even looked like fighters.

But they came.

The open space echoed with their quiet footsteps, their whispers. Children clung to their mothers. Men kept their hands close to their belts, eyes scanning the room, still unsure if this was a trap or if I was the real threat.

I stood beside the steel table I’d forged an hour ago. Plain. Rectangular. No markings. Behind me, the makeshift board displayed names and roles—the beginnings of a structure, a hierarchy. Something they hadn’t seen in a long time.

Mu Qinglan sat in one of the corner chairs, legs crossed, silent, her eyes like ice over deep water. Jiang Roulan stood by the entrance, arms folded, a hand brushing her necklace. Watching. Calculating.

I didn’t speak right away.

Didn’t have to.

Their eyes all eventually landed on me. Not out of reverence. Not even hope.

Just curiosity.

Survivors wanted one thing above all else: routine. If I could give them that, even for a few days, they’d cling to it like rats on driftwood.

When I finally stepped forward, no one moved.

"I’m John," I said simply. "I will be your leader, boss and guardian from this moment on." I scanned the group watching them with a calm gaze, seeing each of their potential and abilities and followed. "If you don’t like this, challenge me now or leave."

A few murmurs.

I kept my voice low, but even. "You get food. Water. A safe place to sleep. However! To gain this, you must work. Children will be free to do modest tasks until turning thirteen but adults no matter who or what you might be, will help."

A middle-aged man in the back raised his hand halfway. "What’s the catch?"

"There’s always a catch," someone else muttered.

I nodded.

"Fight if I tell you to," I said. "Build when I need you to. Follow the rules."

"And if we don’t?" A younger woman who looked like a teenager stood near the wall, arms around a boy too small to understand the danger in the room.

"You leave."

Simple. Cold.

Some flinched. Some nodded.

Mu Qinglan leaned forward then. Her voice was smooth. "You won’t find better. And if you leave, you won’t come back."

That settled them more than I expected.

Jiang Roulan added nothing, but her presence alone made it clear we weren’t just pretending.

These women weren’t decorations.

They were sharper than any blade in this building.

I turned my eyes back to the crowd.

"We’ll feed everyone tonight. You’ll get beds, blankets, and a ration card. If you want more—work."

A man in the front, lean with sunken cheeks, muttered, "What kind of work?"

"Defense. Patrol. Carpentry. Cooking. Cleaning. I’ll assign tasks tomorrow."

They all looked at each other.

Hesitation. Hope. Hunger. The usual mix.

Then someone—an older woman with a cane and three kids on her back—spoke:

"...Thank you."

I didn’t answer, but checked my system quietly and changed her job to "Nanny." Then looked at the new status of the first floor.

[Safe Zone: 1st Floor Population – 24 Confirmed]

[Morale: Neutral | Stability: Low | Threat Level: Moderate]

Defence Readiness: Minimal]

On the whiteboard were rules, and the system also created a small neon sign with current rations and who ate.

A man grabbed his rations, and the name flickered, decreasing for all to see.

[Chen Han Rations: 3 --> 2]

"Oh wow... it can tell our names...."

The man holding his rations nodded, then handed the foot to his wife. "Here, honey, you eat mine, let’s share for now and think about the future."

’Hmm... Chen Han, A C-Tier Soldier.... I should keep my eye on him.’

Jiang Roulan’s eyes widened watching the people eating and speaking, their smiles and emotions seemed to have improved. I noticed the slight tremble of her lips as she covered her face.

She was clearly a gentle police woman... because of the situation. It made me realise I wasn’t looking at the people close to me enough.

I couldn’t let them break or fall apart.

"Roulan, can you come here?" I called out to her and stepped out of the room. I spent a lot of resources to create enough beds for 40 people on the first floor.

When I ranked up, I planned to turn the second floor into a training room, and the third floor another survivor zone. Roulan jogged after me while rubbing her cheeks, though she couldn’t hide her vibrant smile.

With a click, I slammed the door shut and rested my back against the reinforced walls. To the left was the exit, and to the right the stairs.

"What’s the matter, John?"

I could see her current status, the feelings not visible, but her eyes shone like small amber flames as she pumped her fists and bounced with each step.

"You were a police officer, and now you know what role I gave you, right?"

She nodded, her face becoming calmer and more serious.

"Something like a judge right?"

The fact that she remembered helped a lot. "Yes, from now on, I will leave you to train the people who will become our soldiers and Militia. Not just them, give the women and children a mandatory 1-2 hour training in the morning to build stamina, discipline, and so they can at least run or escape if something happens."

"Wow..." Jiang Roulan gasped, looking at me strangely.

"What?"

"Are you really the boy I was teasing twenty-four hours ago? Or is this... the true John Wang?" Her voice lowered as she stepped closer and leaned on the wall beside me.

"This is me, before I was just excited to be with such beautiful women..."

"Don’t overwork yourself, though I can see the effort you’re putting in, we are here for you."

"I know, Roulan..."

"Call me Rou... at least when Qinglan isn’t here."

Her hand slipped around mine, and her fingers started to massage me. "Okay... Rou’er."

"Mm... that’s right."

Listening to the people gossiping inside made me feel calm. She tightened her grasp and tilted her head, leaning on my shoulder.

The time slowly passed as I listened to her soft breathing.

"I won’t let you die, Rou’er. Not you, Yifei or Lan’er."

Words meant for myself... like some kind of oath, rather than words of comfort.

I was now the master of a bunch of wrangling cats.

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