Lisa leaned back in her chair and waved her hand lazily. Philbert immediately stepped forward, slapping each of the prisoners hard across the face. One of them, a woman in her 50s, wailed, "You can't treat me like this! I'm one of the richest women in the city!" Lisa let out a sharp, cutting laugh. "Oh, really? A rich lady, huh?" She'd always hated the wealthy. Maybe she would have let it slide if the woman hadn't flaunted it. But the moment she opened her mouth to brag, Lisa's urge to make her suffer spiked. Lisa stared down at the group sprawled on the floor and sneered, "So, all of you are loaded, huh?" Before anyone could answer, she muttered under her breath, grinding her teeth, "Rich people ... never a decent one among them." Joe's father had been lured away by a rich girl, leaving Lisa to raise Joe alone. The betrayal had forced her to endure years of scorn and prejudice. Every time Joe asked, "Why does everyone else have a dad and I don't?" She never had a good answer. She could have told the lie she'd once used on Whitney, that his father had died heroically protecting his family. But the truth was far uglier. That man lived comfortably, abandoning his own son completely. His wealthy wife and her family looked down on Lisa, repeatedly humiliating her, even sabotaging something as simple as Joe's kindergarten enrollment. So when the apocalypse hit, the first thing she did was openly wipe out that arrogant family. Now, with venom in her eyes, she glared at the so-called "wealthy lady" before her. At her command, her men lined up and took turns slapping the woman across the face. Beside her, a man tried desperately to shield her with his own body. He looked like her husband. The beating went on until both were barely conscious, half-dead, and trembling. At that moment, Mark and his scouts returned from the Hillside Villa District. Mark strode in, heavy backpack slung over his shoulders, a triumphant grin on his face, while the two men behind him looked uneasy and hesitant. "Ms. Eland! Godfrey's crew is completely wiped out!" Mark shouted, his voice trembling with excitement. Seeing Godfrey's corpse, his first thought had been, Finally, I'll never have to worry about Mr. Olson coming after me again! Lisa's face lit up for a split second at the news, but then her expression hardened instantly with suspicion. "Wiped out? What do you mean by that?" Mark swung his backpack off and unzipped it, revealing its contents for Lisa and the others to see. Inside was Godfrey's severed head. "I couldn't carry his whole body, so I brought the head as proof. And it wasn't just him. When I reached the Hillside Villa District, the place was littered with corpses—every last one of Godfrey's men." One of the men who had accompanied him added, "We searched thoroughly. Not a single survivor." The room erupted. "No survivors?! How is that possible?!" "There aren't even that many houses there! How could over 200 fully armed men be wiped out?" "And Godfrey took a quarter of the gang's explosives with him! Guns, ammo, heavy weapons—how could no one escape?!" Lisa sat rigid at the head of the table, her face grim. Godfrey and his gang being dead should have been a relief, but she was planning to attack the Hillside Villa District next. If she didn't understand what had happened, she and her men could end up like Godfrey. She fixed her gaze on Mark. "Do you know how it happened?" Mark shook his head. "I didn't find Kennard. Every house in the Hillside Villa District was locked tight. All I saw were bodies, killed by gunfire." At the mention of the hillside villas, the half-dead woman on the floor lifted her head in surprise, but no one noticed her. All eyes were on Mark. Lisa's voice dropped, low and dangerous. "Killed by gunfire?" Mark nodded. "Yes." Lisa frowned. To wipe out Godfrey's men so quickly, it had to be guns or even heavier weaponry. Her first suspicion fell on the Mervyns in Villa 2. She had heard gunshots from their place earlier. But those were just pistols. How could that many men be killed with pistols alone? And the Mervyns weren't a gang. They were just a single family, maybe a dozen or twenty people. One household with handguns wiping out over 200 armed men? Something didn't add up. Lisa's brow furrowed even deeper. "If Kennard failed, then why would Villa 2 go after Godfrey?"Philbert spoke cautiously. "If Kennard went missing, the Mervyns probably caught him. And knowing him, his loyalty to you is absolute. Even if captured, he wouldn't betray you—he would pin everything on Godfrey instead."