"Ah!"
A sharp wave of pain shot through her wrist as Clara Raulerson hit the ground hard.
She stared in disbelief at what had just happened—
Her two closest friends had actually chopped off her hands.
Her jade bracelet clattered to the floor but didn’t break.
Lucas Carter rushed over and snatched it up, his face lit with unhidden greed.
"Clara, since you wouldn't be with me, don't blame me for going all in."
Next to him, a woman clung to his arm like nothing happened, voice dripping with fake sweetness. "Cousin, she had it coming. Acted all high and mighty—she totally deserved it."
"If we’d known her dad was such a jerk and wouldn’t even share food, we’d have made our move way earlier. Would’ve saved us a lotta starving."
Clara lay in a pool of her own blood, eyes wide with disbelief as she looked at the backstabbing pair.
They’d been through four years of hell together during the apocalypse.
"What are you glaring at?"
Isabella Collins let go of Lucas’s arm, stepping toward Clara with a boning knife in hand, eyes blazing with resentment.
"I’ve wanted to slash up that pretty face of yours for a long time!"
Before she even finished speaking, the blade flashed.
Clara had already lost too much blood to fight back. She could only lay there helplessly as life slowly slipped away...
Just before passing out, she vaguely heard Isabella’s fake-cutesy voice:
"Brother, we finally have fresh meat for tonight!"
Clara’s heart was drowning in regret.
How could she have been so blind? She never saw through these monsters in human skin.
After everything—four freaking years of surviving god-awful times—she ended up dying at their hands?
Unfair...
If there’s a next time, they’ll pay—no matter what.
...
"Ah!"
With a gasp, Clara shot upright in bed, heart pounding.
She looked around in confusion.
Wasn’t this... her room? From before everything went to hell?
She blinked in shock. She’d died, didn’t she? Didn’t Lucas and Isabella murder her?
Then why was she here again?
The room was calm, air conditioning humming gently. That kind of comfort was something she hadn’t felt in years of disaster and chaos.
She frantically reached for her phone.
The screen lit up: July 8, 2039.
Three days before it all began.
Her mind was racing.
She remembered dying in 2043. So how on earth was she suddenly back four years ago?
July 11 had been the start of the nightmare—rain that drowned entire cities and left bodies floating everywhere.
And that was only the beginning. One disaster after another followed, as the world descended into absolute hell.
Clara had fought tooth and nail for four straight years, and even then, the end had never come.
Could it be... the universe gave her a second shot?
Sent her back right before it all fell apart?
Her eyes darted to her wrist.
The jade bracelet was still there.
That thing had kept her alive through the worst of it.
Without hesitation, she bit her finger and let a drop of blood fall on the jade.
In a flash of white light, her consciousness entered an 800-square-meter space.
One side was completely empty, the other had a 60-square-meter house.
Seeing the familiar layout, Clara finally let out a shaky breath. Thank god. The space came back with her.
Last time, she’d only discovered it by accident when a bit of blood dripped on it during a robbery.
Anything she touched could be stored inside.
The little house had working water and electricity, perfect for hiding out in emergencies—but there was a catch: one hour max each day. Stay longer, and you’d get kicked out automatically.
There was also a secondary storage area—just think of putting something in, and it’d go. But no living things could get through.
The best part? Time didn’t touch anything inside. Food stayed fresh forever.She still clearly remembered how, in her previous life, whenever things got dicey, she'd drag Lucas Carter and Isabella Collins into that little house inside the bracelet's space. That was pretty much what kept them alive for four whole years during the apocalypse.
That space was basically a cheat code for survival.
Too bad she activated it way too late last time—by then, the world had already gone to hell.
By that point, food was long gone, streets were stripped bare, and decent stuff was nowhere to be found.
All they could do was scavenge what little they could and stash it in the space, just to avoid getting robbed. That’s how they barely made it through.
Isabella had been her college classmate, and somehow they ended up living in the same building after graduation.
Lucas was Isabella’s cousin, and once he met Clara Raulerson, it was like he flipped a switch—started chasing her like crazy.
Even though Clara turned him down straight up, the guy didn’t back off. He just kept trying to win her over.
When everything went downhill, since the three of them were already kinda close and living nearby, it made sense to stick together.
Over time, Clara started to treat them like family—life or death kind of bond.
Turns out, all they cared about was her family’s resources. They thought they could use her to get supplies from her dad.
That scumbag Robert Raulerson wasn't exactly the doting father type. He was more like a snake in a nice suit.
Back in senior year, when Clara’s mom suddenly passed away from a heart issue, Robert inherited tons of money and the family business—and his true self showed up fast.
He brought a woman home almost immediately, along with a daughter about Clara’s age.
Her grandma, who was mourning deeply, ended up dying of heartbreak, and Robert? He didn’t even blink. He kicked Clara out of their Yunjiang Villa like she meant nothing.
The only roof she had left was in Shuimutiancheng Residence—her mom left that place to her, luckily. Otherwise, she'd be out on the streets.
But right as she was still picking up the pieces from that mess, the apocalypse hit.
Robert, still living comfy in the fancy villa, had it all figured out. The neighborhood was rich and on high ground, and those folks had filled it with supplies brought in by chopper.
Later, when Clara, Lucas, and Isabella had run out of food and were completely exhausted, they clawed their way up the hill, hoping her dad might help.
But Robert was ice-cold. He clung to his stash with his new wife and daughter, wouldn’t even throw Clara a slice of bread.
To him, it was like Clara didn’t even exist.
Once Lucas and Isabella saw they couldn’t squeeze any more value out of her, they flipped faster than a switch, planning to snatch the space bracelet right off her.
Even wanted to chop her up for it...
What they didn’t know was, that bracelet was blood-bound. Even if they managed to grab it, it’d be useless in their hands.
The space only recognized Clara as its owner.
So let them go scavenge scraps without it. Let them rot.
Clara clenched her jaw, fury rising up again.
Sure, she wanted revenge bad, but right now, prepping for survival came first.
There were only three days left until it all went down, and a million things she had to stockpile.
As for those traitor siblings? Let them fend for themselves during the apocalypse. Watching them starve was a sweeter kind of justice.
And her heartless father?
She’d already died once, so any so-called filial debt was long gone.
Now that she had a new shot at life, no way she'd warn him that the end was near.
Let him rely on that villa stash and see how far that gets him.
This time, she was putting herself first—no more being a pawn in someone else’s game.
Clara tapped open her banking app and checked the balance.
A full million bucks.
Luckily, when Robert kicked her out, he didn’t clean out her entire allowance.
Last time, that cash became worthless numbers and scraps of paper not long after the apocalypse began.
Not happening again.
This time, she was gonna turn every cent into something useful—every single one.
