Chapter 53: The Refuge in the Villa Area

Chapter 53: The Refuge in the Villa Area"Brother! Don't tell him! If this devil finds our refuge, everyone there is doomed!" the silver- haired girl screamed with a trembling voice.

Without a word, Alex viciously whipped the silver-haired girl with his salt-coated iron whip.

"Crack! Crack! Crack!" The sensation of the whip lashing against flesh was strangely satisfying for Alex.

"Ah!!!!!" The silver-haired girl let out a heart-wrenching scream, enduring unspeakable agony both mentally and physically.

Yet, remarkably steadfast, she clenched her teeth fiercely and roared, "Kill me! Even if you torture us to death, we won't tell you anything!!"

Alex grinned and turned to Ma Chenbin, who had once again wet his pants, and asked, "Esteemed leader of the human survivors, is what this beautiful lady saying true?"

Ma Chenbin, with wide eyes full of terror, screeched at Alex, "I'll talk! I'll say anything! Just don't hit me!"

"Brother!! What are you saying?!!! Letting this devil know our refuge means putting mom and dad in danger!! He won't spare anyone! Have you lost your mind?!" the silver-haired girl shouted angrily at Ma Chenbin, "Do you want to kill mom, dad, and everyone?!"

Alex smirked again, picked up a branding iron from a nearby brazier, and gently pressed it against the silver-haired girl's fair skin.

With a hissing sound and the girl's piercing scream, the air was suddenly filled with the smell of seared flesh.

Unexpectedly, this girl, who seemed like a delinquent, had quite a sense of justice.

"Are you siblings? Biologically related?" Alex walked over to Ma Chenbin, picked up another branding iron, and scrutinized him, trembling like a leaf, as if searching for a spot to apply the iron. Finally, Alex's gaze settled on a particularly vulnerable spot on Ma Chenbin's body.

Feeling a chill from Alex's gaze, Ma Chenbin yelled frantically, "Yes! Yes! I'll confess everything! I'll tell you everything! We are biological siblings!! My sister's name is Ma Beili!! My father is Ma Gang!!"

Perhaps fearing a slow response would lead Alex to use the iron on him, Ma Chenbin blurted out, "Please don't use that on me! I'll tell you everything!"

"Ma Gang?" Alex slightly furrowed his brows, muttering to himself, "That name sounds familiar." He couldn't immediately recall where he had heard it.

"The Jiangcheng City Public Security Bureau!" Ma Chenbin hurriedly added.

Alex then remembered. "Heh, kid, you've got quite a background! No wonder you have so many guns and ammunition, and so many subordinates." Alex patted Ma Chenbin's pale face. "Tell me about your refuge."

"Our refuge is in Baihe New Town! There are a few hundred survivors, mostly former residents, and a few members of our princeling gang," Ma Chenbin detailed.

"Baihe New Town?" Alex's eyes lit up slightly. "Is that the only golf villa area in Jiangcheng City?"

Alex had some recollection of the Baihe New Town villa area in Jiangcheng City. S~eaʀᴄh the NôᴠeFire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

What is a golf villa area? It's a place with an expansive area, exceptional greenery, mountains, water bodies, and picturesque scenery, comparable to a tourist attraction. Moreover, each villa covers over 400 square meters, exuding extreme luxury in its design.

The security in this villa area is also very strict. Apart from the residents, outsiders cannot enter without permission. Additionally, it's said that beyond the high perimeter walls of the villa area, each villa has its own individual fencing, much like private estates.

Similarly, the real estate prices in this villa area are astonishingly high. Starting at over 90,000 per square meter. To put this into perspective, even the cheapest and smallest villa here would cost over forty million.

Alex once calculated that an average wage earner would have to work relentlessly for four to five hundred years without spending a single penny to afford the cheapest villa in this area!

Of course, for someone from a background like Ma Chenbin's, buying a better villa in this area wouldn't be a problem. Therefore, the residents of such villa areas are either rich or of high social status, simply because ordinary people cannot afford to live there.

"Yes... It's also said to be the only golf villa area in Jiangcheng City... Because of the sparse population, tight security, individual fences for each villa, and specially treated drinking water, Baihe New Town became a sanctuary when the apocalypse broke out," Ma Chenbin explained in detail, fearful of provoking Alex and enduring more of the brutal treatment.

"Hmph, rich and powerful people always have it damn easy, even in the apocalypse, they naturally have advantages!" Alex cursed discontentedly, then asked, "I've heard some rumors about the Taizi Gang.

It's said to be full of second-generation rich kids using their parents' influence to cause trouble all over Jiangcheng City, untouchable before the apocalypse and a force few in Jiangcheng City dared to provoke. Are you a member of the Taizi Gang?"

"Uh... I'm the leader of the Taizi Gang..." Ma Chenbin shivered, sensing Alex's disdain for the Taizi Gang from his tone.

"Oh! I didn't see that coming! You're the boss of the Taizi Gang? A gangster boss? Pretty impressive!" Alex slapped Ma Chenbin's face hard twice, "Feels damn good to slap the boss of the Taizi Gang!"

Thinking about the Taizi Gang's notorious reputation in Jiangcheng, Alex felt a twisted satisfaction slapping Ma Chenbin. In school, it was rumored that when the Taizi Gang leader was at Jiangcheng University, the entire university was under his influence, and no male student wasn't afraid of this mobster scion. He even slapped the university president once. So, slapping Ma Chenbin now, Alex felt a faint sense of accomplishment. "Who exactly is in Baihe New Town? What weapons do they have?" Alex continued to ask. "Most of those left are the former residents, mainly wealthy businessmen and high-level executives with bodyguards. Our Taizi Gang is the most influential there. Plus, we have a lot of firearms and ammunition, so previously, they all followed my and my father's arrangements, especially in terms of security and going out to search for food. But other than that, everyone did as they pleased."

Ma Chenbin, reflecting back, said, "When we came out, we took most of the weapons with us. The remaining Taizi Gang members inside probably don't have many guns left now. But I'm not sure if other people still have firearms."

It seemed this group wasn't entirely unified, just an alliance that occasionally acted together. This made them easier to deal with.

"How did you find my city?" Alex then asked a question that had been intriguing him. Logically, people living in Baihe New Town had no need to venture near Jiangcheng University in a world overrun with zombies.

Twisting in his restraints, Ma Chenbin's expression was distorted due to continuous mental torment: "We didn't know about your existence before. My sister and the man you shot were just following orders to capture mutants to bring back for Dr. Zhu and others to research a cure for the zombie virus. Finding you was just a coincidence."

"Mutants?!!!" Alex was taken aback and asked with a surprised frown, "What are mutants?"

Hearing the term 'mutants,' Alex was somewhat startled and even a bit wary. If others could have strong physiques and evolved abilities like him, it would be a significant threat to him.

"Mutants are those who have been infected by the zombie virus but still maintain their original form. We captured one, and after research, we found that besides their skin turning somewhat blue and changes in pupil color, their strength is much greater than that of a

normal person."

"And also, ordinary zombies don't actively attack these mutants!" Ma Chenbin said, casting a fearful glance at Alex. He vividly remembered how the zombies had retreated from Alex, leading him to suspect that Alex might be an incredibly powerful and abnormal super-

mutant.

"Another thing, the mutant we captured still retained human intelligence, but seemed to have lost a lot of memory and appeared to have some intellectual impairments." Hearing this, Alex slightly relaxed. At least for now, it seemed that these newly emerged mutants weren't particularly formidable. They even sounded somewhat innocently dopey. "How did your search for mutants lead you to my place?" Alex continued with his questioning, curious.

"Our people spotted a female mutant who was different from the one we captured. This female mutant seemed to have merged with cat genes. She not only had cat ears and a tail but

was also as agile as a cat."

Cat-eared girl, huh? Alex thought, feeling somewhat amused. A human form, with furry ears

and a tail, agile like a cat...

"So this is like a cat-eared girl from an anime, huh? Or should we call her Catwoman, like in Hollywood movies?" Alex thought with a bit of wicked amusement, "I wonder if this cat-

eared girl is pretty..."

Ma Chenbin continued his recollection, "When we saw her, she was wandering around, looking for food, seemingly aimless."

"We initially wanted to capture her, but this cat-eared mutant was very cautious, and we

never got a chance to approach her."

"Eventually, we tried to surround and capture her by force. But she was incredibly agile and fast, just like a cat, and we couldn't catch her at all. We followed the direction in which she escaped, and it led us here, but then the cat-eared mutant disappeared."

"So, I sent my sister and some people to patrol this area, hoping to find an opportunity to

capture this mutant."

Alex nodded, understanding that these mutants were not all the same; some had even merged with other animal genes. But overall, the mutants seemed to be at a very primitive stage of development and were quite rare.