Chapter 175: Chapter 175: The Neighbors on the 6th Floor

"I don’t need anything, thank you. Please don’t disturb my sleep."

Stella Sterling rubbed her eyes, so drowsy she could barely keep them open.

Out of consideration for the fact that he had helped her quite a bit before, she didn’t just shove him away, but instead asked politely, "Could you please back up a little?"

Louis Grant subconsciously took a few steps back. The next moment, a loud BANG echoed in his ears as the door was slammed shut.

Louis Grant froze. He took two steps forward, intending to knock again, but then he remembered the impatient look in her eyes and lowered the hand he had just raised.

His intuition told him that it was best not to disturb that woman right now, or she might actually get violent.

Remembering how she had taken several lives with a machine gun that day—RAT-A-TAT-TAT—he dismissed the thought. He had no desire to be turned into a honeycomb.

Once it was quiet outside the door, Stella Sterling quickly fell back asleep.

This time, no one disturbed her, and she slept straight through until her internal clock woke her up the next day.

By the time she finished meditating, it was already very noisy outside.

Noises came from all over the residential building, and mingled with the clamor was a sense of urgency.

The sounds of footsteps, running water, conversations, and cursing all mixed together, creating a surprisingly lively atmosphere.

In the two years since the apocalypse began, such liveliness had become rare.

Stella Sterling was a little dazed.

Inside the base, one could temporarily forget the cruelty of the apocalypse outside. For a moment, it was as if normal life had returned.

Pushing open the window, she took a deep breath.

Looking out the window, she could see the base residents hurrying off in different directions.

Mixed in among them were people in work uniforms, most of whom were heading toward the office building up ahead.

Others were heading to various other designated zones.

Of course, there were also quite a few people just wandering around the base, looking at everything.

From this, she could tell that these were people who had also just recently arrived at the base.

The ones who had joined the base long ago were all busy earning points; they didn’t have the leisure to be wandering around aimlessly.

Stella Sterling quickly washed up and took out a mirror. She smiled with satisfaction at the dark-complexioned face reflected back at her, then slung the big black bag over her shoulder and headed out the door.

The black bag was now an essential item whenever she went out.

It was packed with all sorts of miscellaneous things, but its main purpose was to act as a cover for her to take things out of her dimensional space whenever she needed something.

CREAK—

CREAK—

The sound of two doors opening came at the same time. Stella Sterling turned her head to look to her left.

She saw a scruffy man with slightly long hair and an untidy beard emerge from the small room next door, wearing a tattered long-sleeved shirt.

The man looked extremely unkempt. His hair looked like it hadn’t been cared for in ages, his face was grimy as if it hadn’t been washed in a long time, and his clothes were old and torn.

Their eyes met for a moment. Stella Sterling looked away, but the man whistled at her. "Well, hello there, beautiful. I’m your next-door neighbor. The name’s Shawn Bell. If you ever run into any trouble, you can come to me for help."

As he spoke, he ran a hand through his messy hair, then walked downstairs, his flip-flops slapping against the floor.

He didn’t even close his own door, just left it wide open as he departed.

Stella Sterling didn’t pay his words any mind. After closing her door properly, she also went downstairs and left.

When Ms. Ward had brought her here yesterday, it was still early and the others were probably still at work, so she hadn’t seen any of the other residents on the sixth floor.

But this morning, as she went downstairs, she saw many people coming out of the rooms on the sixth floor.

They saw her, gave her a curious glance, and then nodded politely, which counted as a greeting.

They weren’t overly warm, but they weren’t cold either.

The sixth floor was where the skilled professionals lived.

She recalled what Ms. Ward had told her when bringing her here yesterday and understood the special status of these sixth-floor residents. They were probably all capable people.

They were being so polite and curious toward her now, probably because they assumed she was also a new skilled professional recruited by the base.

Stella Sterling nodded back to each person who greeted her and soon fell into conversation with a girl about her own age.

The girl was in her twenties, and when she smiled, she had a pair of cute, very charming dimples.

Through their conversation, she learned that the other girl was a scientist who researched new agricultural crops.

But according to the girl herself, she was just an assistant, currently working under her mentor.

Her mentor was highly valued by the base, which was how she got brought along. However, her mentor didn’t live in this building but was housed elsewhere.

From her conversation yesterday, Stella Sterling had learned that Meridia Base had more residential areas than just this one.

But those other places weren’t for just anyone to live in.

Besides those, there were also places one could "buy" with points to get more comfortable accommodations.

However, the point cost for those places was extremely high, and most people weren’t willing to spend their points on housing.

Besides, even though this residential building was inconvenient in many ways, it only cost a few dozen points a month to live here, making it the choice for many people.

She, however, was starting to think about spending points to move. This single room was fine, but the building was too noisy, and the room was too small. She couldn’t even bring out the large bed she had been sleeping on for the past two years.

’Anyway, I’m not going to stay in the base for long. There’s no other use for these points, so I might as well spend them in the next few days to make my life a little more comfortable.’

She decided she would ask someone later where she could go to change her accommodations.

"What about you? I haven’t seen you before. You must have just arrived in the last couple of days, right? What do you do?"

Vivian Larkin asked, clutching a notebook and looking curiously at Stella Sterling.

A while ago, a great flood hit Mirefall, so the base sent people to search for survivors. That’s why a lot of new people have been trickling into the base recently. But it’s rare for anyone to be able to live in the rooms on the sixth floor.

The girl in front of her didn’t look very old, so she had no idea what she did.

Stella Sterling thought for a moment. "I know a little bit about medicine."

She wasn’t lying. Ethan Young had tried to recruit her for this very reason before, but she had turned him down.

"Oh, so you’re a doctor."

Vivian Larkin exclaimed in surprise. Doctors were also rare skilled professionals. They could save lives in critical moments, so they were highly valued in the base.

Moreover, medical personnel were also very popular with the base residents, in a way that was different from other skilled professionals.

The way she looked at Stella Sterling immediately changed, becoming much warmer than before.