Talking about the future made everyone feel depressed. There were too many uncertainties ahead. Forget the raiders—just surviving the apocalypse was already exhausting, both mentally and physically. The easiest way to cope with anxiety was to eat. Olivia stuffed a big forkful of French fries in her mouth, then said, "Do we count as an organization? Should we come up with a gang name or something?" Harold shook his head. "At best, we're just a crew." Everyone laughed. Ghania shot her son a look. "You and your mouth! We're a righteous force, and you make us sound like a criminal gang!" Roderick, who was drinking wine, suddenly thought of something and choked on his drink, coughing. Nadia quickly patted his back. "What are you, a little kid? How'd you even choke on that?" Cassian's lips curved as he explained for him. "Roderick probably just remembered what those Maplecourt residents said about us." Olivia pointed at herself. "About us?" Cassian nodded, then glanced at Natalie and Harold. "They were in tears at the time, saying you were an infamous criminal gang." Thinking back to their days ruling over that neighborhood, everyone laughed. Olivia grinned. "Life felt so hard back then. Looking back now, that was nothing!" Harold agreed. "Yeah! Being together with friends is what matters most. When we face trouble, we face it together. Grayhound Sect, Moonrunners Sect, whatever—we'll just take them on!" At this, everyone raised their glasses. "Just take them on!"Dominic shouted the loudest of all. He managed to drink his juice box with the intensity of downing a shot of gin, making everyone burst into laughter. After the laughter died down, Olivia set down her glass. "Speaking of which, the problems we'll face in the future really will be trickier." With survival resources dwindling daily, survivors who'd adapted to survival-of-the-fittest thinking were becoming increasingly competitive and ruthless. Harold nodded. "Like our idol just said, in the future we won't just need to watch out for neighbors with bad intentions. More often it'll be organized, disciplined forces like the Grayhound Sect. "Super tough to deal with!" Natalie took the opportunity to suggest, "It's good to have backup. Have you guys considered buying a place at the official base like I did?" "Buy a house?" The room fell silent for a moment. Harold bit his fork and groaned. "The world's ended, and we still have to worry about a mortgage!" That's what he said, but even without Natalie's reminder, he'd been thinking about it. Last night while repairing the courtyard, he'd wondered if they'd been at the official base, would the Grayhound Sect have dared to be so arrogant? The government definitely wouldn't allow any force to run amok inside the base. When facing invasion from outside forces, it wouldn't be just the few of them resisting. The entire massive base would face it together. Olivia had clearly thought of this too. "If we were at the base, we'd definitely be a lot safer." She'd only planned to settle on the hillside before, never thinking about moving to the official base. After all, who would give up living in a free luxury villa to pay high prices for cramped quarters at the base? But after experiencing the earthquake, the fog, and the Grayhound Sect incident, she understood. What you were really buying wasn't the base's shabby little place, but the confidence and security the government provided. Like a government job—it's not about the money, it's about the stability. Roderick naturally didn't need much convincing. He never had many opinions of his own anyway. He only knew that wherever Cassian was, that's where he'd be. Being too far away made it inconvenient to serve him closely! Since Cassian might settle at the official base in the future, naturally he'd need to follow. Soon, they'd all agreed to go look at houses at the official base together tomorrow. Natalie even gave them the contact address the Griffith brothers had left her. "These are some middlemen I know who live at the base. If you run into any problems there, you can ask them for help." Before the Griffith brothers left yesterday, they'd said plenty of nice things. Might as well make use of those connections. "Oh, and," Natalie added, "check on my place while you're there and see what condition it's in." After all, they'd been through a major earthquake. Whether the building where she'd bought her unit was even still standing was anyone's guess. Fortunately, according to the Griffith brothers, even if the old building had collapsed, they'd rebuild and relocate people. Ghania had gotten used to living in a big house. Hearing Natalie say the largest units at the official base were only about 600 square feet, she couldn't help but grumble. "This cursed apocalypse! We've got good houses we can't live in, and we have to squeeze into tiny places instead. What kind of sense does that make?" Harold was afraid her anxiety disorder would flare up and quickly soothed her. "We'll still live here normally. The base place is just a backup."Olivia nodded. "Right. If there's another earthquake someday, or some powerful enemy shows up, the base house will be our fallback. Until then, we'll obviously keep living here."