The next second, Fiery stepped forward and slowly raised both hands.

An enormous amount of fire elemental energy gathered around his body.

The surrounding temperature rose rapidly.

"Flame Sea!"

BOOOOOOM—!!

An endless crimson sea of flames erupted from Fiery’s hands like a volcanic eruption.

The blazing inferno surged across the ground at astonishing speed, swallowing the retreating insect tide in an instant.

Screech! Screech!

Countless poisonous insects let out shrill cries before being reduced to ashes.

The flames spread for hundreds of meters, leaving no place for the insects to escape.

Wherever the fire passed, every poisonous insect was incinerated.

In less than a minute...

The previously overwhelming insect tide had completely disappeared.

The only thing left outside the Territory was a scorched wall and countless piles of black ash.

—

"Thank you all for your hard work."

During the battle just now, Vikram had observed everyone’s performance.

At least, he hadn’t seen a single member slacking off or trying to avoid the fight.

"It’s only right, Boss. You provide for us, so we won’t shirk our duties."

"That’s right. Besides, we only had to pull the trigger. That’s hardly any hardship."

"Back at Brown Wood Shelter, the old boss would’ve made us fight those insects hand-to-hand."

"And at Green Wind Shelter, we were nothing more than cannon fodder."

Having only been in Vikram’s Territory for a few days, everyone was already deeply impressed by the treatment they received.

In this Wasteland World, wasn’t survival all about living a better life?

It’s easy to go from hardship to comfort, but difficult to return to hardship after experiencing comfort.

Now, they had food, warm houses, proper equipment, and a Boss who genuinely cared about his people instead of treating them as disposable tools.

Who would want to return to the Green Wind Shelter, where they often went hungry and were treated like expendable cannon fodder?

Vikram nodded with satisfaction and smiled.

"Good. As long as you continue working hard and remain loyal to the Territory, none of you will ever have to worry about going hungry or becoming homeless."

The new members immediately laughed.

"Hahaha! Thank you, Boss!"

Vikram then turned toward Aunt Lily.

"Aunt Lily, gather the women and prepare some late-night snacks for everyone."

"The Shelter may still come under attack tonight, so everyone will have to stay on guard."

"If anything unusual happens, report it immediately in the Shelter group chat."

"Yes, Boss!"

Watching everyone answer in unison, the smile on Vikram’s face grew even wider.

"Brother Vikram, what about us? I want some late-night snacks too."

Ron rubbed his hands together and asked with a greedy grin.

Vikram chuckled.

"Don’t worry. None of you will be left out."

"Hehe, thank you, Brother Vikram!"

—

Meanwhile, in a smaller Shelter.

A group of people huddled by a bonfire, their eyes filled with a mix of strangeness and curiosity.

One survivor finally couldn’t hold back and whispered, "Boss, the natural disaster has already started. Aren’t we really going out to check the situation?"

"Check what? Didn’t you hear the voice say that the bugs have hatched?"

"Have you forgotten how terrifying these bugs are?"

The subordinate was reprimanded, and remembering his companions who had been bitten to death by bugs before, he immediately shook his head.

"They are terrifying, but it’s not a solution for us to stay in the shelter all the time, is it?"

"Hmph, that’s where your inexperience shows,"

"From what I, your boss, understand, these creature-type natural disasters, like the previous zombies or Crimson Creatures, as long as you don’t provoke them and get discovered, nothing will happen."

"Besides, just one of these bugs is enough to keep us busy for half a day. What good would going out now do, other than providing an extra meal for those beasts?"

"For these bugs, as long as we obediently hide in the room and wait for the hatched bugs outside to move far away, it will be absolutely foolproof to go out afterward."

The people around the bonfire listened to their boss’s well-reasoned analysis and were about to applaud in agreement.

Suddenly!

A piercing noise broke the silence in the room.

"Creak, creak."

Everyone’s breathing instantly hitched.

One survivor pointed in the direction behind his boss, his face pale, and stammered, "B-boss, it... it sounds like something outside is gnawing at our Shelter."

The Shelter’s boss also looked grim, but to prevent his subordinates from losing their composure, he glared at the speaker.

"Don’t talk nonsense, it’s just the wind!"

"From now on, shut your mouths, nothing will happen, understand?"

They were just a small Shelter, and the room they were currently in was already the strongest part of the Shelter.

Even if it truly was bugs tearing at the walls outside, they had nowhere to run.

Hearing this, the few people could only comply, covering their mouths, not daring to breathe a single loud breath.

Five minutes passed... Ten minutes passed... Perhaps their boss’s method really worked, as the strange noise actually stopped.

Even though everyone in the room was sweating profusely at this point, when the sound stopped, they instantly showed expressions of having survived a great calamity.

Everyone waited for a long time, and seeing that there was still no other movement, one of them immediately said excitedly, "Boss, there really is... *gasp*..."

Just as this person spoke halfway, "Pfft!", a vibrant, crimson flower burst open and bloomed from his mouth.

Accompanied by the wriggling stamens in the center of the flower bud and sticky saliva, the person had not even finished speaking before collapsing in a pool of blood.

Immediately after, the flower began to open and close repeatedly, "Rip!"

A sound of tearing muscle rang out, and half of the fallen Survivor’s face was directly ripped off, revealing stark white bones.

Even if the other few people were any dumber, they now knew that what had bloomed from the mouth of the fallen Survivor just now was not a flower at all, but a terrifying worm with a mouthpart wider than a human face!

"Run!"

"Run fast!"

If they had run when the strange noise first appeared, they might have escaped, but these few people, harboring a lucky (stroke of luck) mentality, stubbornly waited for more than ten minutes.

The bugs had already broken through the Shelter wall, so how could they possibly escape?

As soon as everyone turned around, they felt something squirming inside their bodies.

"Gurgle, gurgle."

The next second, bugs immediately emerged from their bodies, blood stained the entire room, and the bonfire was extinguished as a result.

The venomous insects were abnormally restless.

Such a scene was not only happening in small Shelters; many medium-sized Shelters were experiencing the same.

Even if some people resisted, they ultimately met the same fate.

For most Survivors, tonight was destined to be a sleepless night...

The next day.

Vikram slowly woke up from bed, pulling out his numb arm from behind the necks of the four women.

Without disturbing the four women who were still sound asleep, he covered them with the quilt and went to the living room alone.

First, he checked the changes brought about by yesterday’s mental power increase.

His mental power had jumped from 160 points to 280 points in one go.

Yes, just like Divya, his spirit has also increased since he was the owner of the territory. But since he does not have any evolvable abilities like Divya.

"Hey, System, what did you mean yesterday b ’can fully utilize the power of ability?"

"Haven’t I been able to use special abilities with my mental power for a long time? I can even use them together, look."

Vikram was about to demonstrate his abilities when he was astonished to find that after just one night, his control over his abilities had become significantly smoother.

Previously, the maximum range of the Night Vision was only a few meters, but now it can reach hundred metres.

But this was the normal thing, the most various situation was now he can feel that he was connected with each of his Plants Team.

Like he can mentally order them, even when he is far away.

"So that’s what it is; the control of ability increases."

Without needing the System to explain, Vikram already understood yesterday’s System prompt.

At the same time, he paid even more attention to the mental power stat.

"It seems I still need to actively seek out and kill the bugs outside. Mental power is simply the most overpowered of the current five-dimensional stats."

After briefly experiencing the changes in his skills, Vikram sat on the sofa and checked the messages in the chat channel.

He had slept quite soundly last night; the members responsible for guarding the shift had not issued any warnings.

There should be no major problems outside.

That’s what he thought, but this was only the situation in his territory, completely unrelated to the other Survivors outside.

As soon as Vikram sat down, before the sofa’s self-heating function had fully activated, the wails in the channel already caught his eye.

In fact, there were always many such wails every time a natural disaster began.

However, compared to the previous few times of widespread complaints, this time there were very few people sending long strings of grievances in the channel.

Most were just a simple distress signal, plus the coordinates of their shelter’s location.

Vikram frowned slightly; this situation was actually not right.

Realizing something, Vikram immediately stood up and walked out.

He had originally thought that these bugs were only aggressive when they first hatched, and would calm down after being repelled.

However, as soon as he pushed open the Shelter’s door, the scene outside the Shelter immediately made Vikram’s breathing hitch, and his pupils sharply contracted.

Inside the walls, there was no damage. The bugs that had been killed, and new bugs didn’t attack the Shelter again last night.

The scene outside the walls was completely different.

Just one night had passed, and everything Vikram’s gaze fell upon had been transformed into a desolate, war-torn landscape of the apocalypse...

The originally tall trees were now nothing but stark white stumps, their bark ripped off in large pieces, and their trunks covered in grotesque bite marks.

The branches and leaves had long been gnawed clean, and the remaining twigs hung with the unknown poisonous insect’s mucus. With a gust of wind, powdery wood chips and insect droppings rustled down.

The ankle-deep snow was crisscrossed with wrist-sized tunnels dug by crawling insects. The cold, deep snow, which Survivors greatly feared, seemed to have no effect on these bugs; they scurried about everywhere in it.

Rather than digging holes, it was more like they were eating everything they encountered.

Rocks and dirt roads were no match for them. The paths previously carved by Vikram’s off-road vehicle going in and out now had no flat areas.

Potholes appeared in their line of sight from time to time.

At this moment, Ron, who had helped guard the Shelter all night, walked closer.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk!"

"These beasts are truly terrifying, Brother Vikram. You didn’t see it, but last night they only took three hours to gnaw this place into such a state."

"If it weren’t for us here, and a large number of bugs running off, I estimate our doorstep would have been razed to the ground by this morning."

As Ron spoke, his gaze swept over the poisonous insects. The remaining bugs outside the wall seemed to sense it and looked back.

Judging by their constantly opening and closing mouthparts and raised forelegs, it was clear they hadn’t had enough of the trees and rocks and wanted to make Vikram and the other person their breakfast.

Although the size difference between the two sides was enormous, Vikram knew that such bugs posed no threat to him.

However, a deep chill still rose in his heart.

"Besides gnawing on the surrounding trees and soil, did the bugs last night do anything else?"

Ron thought for a moment and said, "After you, boss, went back to rest, there was another attack, likely from bugs coming from elsewhere."

"However, the number of attackers wasn’t large, and the twenty-something of us quickly cleared them out with firearms."