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

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

[89 EXP | 15 Affection]

——

The walls ca down faster than I expected.

One by one, apartnts 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 tal

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 ca 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. ssy ones. Loud ones. Families who scread 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 mont in the hollow fra 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 fra of a dismantled bunk bed.

I didn’t pick it up.

Didn’t need to.

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

When I finished, my actions reshaped the entire first floor. All ten units had rged 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.

"Ti to make it official."

The people who would beco our foot soldiers and would help rank up after it beca 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.

So 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 ca.

The open space echoed with their quiet footsteps, their whispers. Children clung to their mothers. n 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 , the makeshift board displayed nas and roles—the beginnings of a structure, a hierarchy. Sothing they hadn’t seen in a long ti.

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 . 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 mont 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 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," soone 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.

So flinched. So nodded.

Mu Qinglan leaned forward then. Her voice was smooth. "You won’t find better. And if you leave, you won’t co 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 won 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 soone—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 Confird]

[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 na flickered, decreasing for all to see.

[Chen Han Rations: 3 --> 2]

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

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 seed 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 realise I wasn’t looking at the people close to enough.

I couldn’t let them break or fall apart.

"Roulan, can you co 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 while rubbing her cheeks, though she couldn’t hide her vibrant smile.

With a click, I slamd 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 flas 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 calr and more serious.

"Sothing like a judge right?"

The fact that she rembered helped a lot. "Yes, from now on, I will leave you to train the people who will beco our soldiers and Militia. Not just them, give the won 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 sothing happens."

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

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

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

"I know, Roulan..."

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

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

"Mm... that’s right."

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

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

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

Words ant for myself... like so kind of oath, rather than words of comfort.

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