"The recent frequent occurrence of the flu, everyone please pay attention to personal protection, try not to gather, do not go to public places, wear masks when going out..."
"Experts predict that the peak of flu infection has arrived, many schools, including universities, have suspended classes..."
"Weather forecast, a strong cold wave will soon hit Country S, the strongest wind can reach level 16, heavy rain is coming..."
In the tidy living room, with light-blue floral wallpaper, a brown bookcase, a marble dining table, the warm sunlight shined through the white window gauze, casting in the living room.
Each view, each object, was so familiar. This was her home.
This was her home, just before the end of the world...
Xia Zhihan's heart was beating violently, nervously watching the time on the tablet...
September 27, 2025!
Three days before the end of the world!
She clearly remembered that on October 1, countless people were infected with the virus overnight, becoming bloodthirsty and fierce zombies.
The climate changed drastically, natural disasters occurred frequently, countless animals and plants died or mutated, the earth's ecosystem completely collapsed, and it rained heavily for ten days.
Ten days later, the heavy rain stopped.
Humanity also underwent mutations, some people awakened special abilities, some became zombies, and some remained unchanged as ordinary people, colloquially known as "waste!"
And she, was one of those "wastes!"
Her shoulders couldn't bear the burden, and her hands couldn't lift it...
Faced with a massive onslaught of zombies, she could only rely on her boyfriend who had awakened his water-based superpowers.
After making the difficult journey to the Lim City base in S City, however, her boyfriend promptly traded her in without a second thought, getting together with her best friend right in front of her.
Her friend, Lin Jingyi, possessed a coveted spatial ring, making her extremely desirable in this apocalyptic world.
The ring was something her grandmother had left her on her deathbed. It was a silver ring with a pea-sized green jade embedded in it, the kind usually worn by elderly women.
Old-fashioned and worthless, she dismissed it, throwing it into her jewelry box.
On her birthday, October 1st, Lin Jingyi happened to see the ring and begged to wear it.
She didn't think much of it and gave it to her without a second thought.
Now she understood that the love and care shown by family was always genuine. Her grandmother, even on her deathbed, had chosen not to bring the small ring with her, wishing instead to leave something behind for her granddaughter.
And she hadn't valued it!
Filled with regret, Xia Zihan shot up from her seat and ran to her bedroom upstairs.
Holding the tiny ring in her hands, her emotions were all over the place.
This time, she was determined to rise again from the ashes. She would do everything she could to protect her brother, the ones she cared for, and struggle to survive.
As soon as she thought of her brother, her body started to shiver uncontrollably. A wave of intense pain shot through her, the pain of being gnawed to death by a zombie.
During her two months at Lim City base, she had been living in hell. Being powerless in an era of superhuman abilities, she had had to trade her body for food to survive.
What was even more pathetic was that despite her dire condition, the food she managed to acquire was often stolen by her ex-boyfriend and Lin Jingyi.
Until one day, a man stumbled upon her.
He was a member of her brother's special abilities team, and according to him, her brother has been looking for her.
While her brother was on his way, Lin Jingyi and that douchebag, afraid that her brother would find out about all the unspeakable things they had done to her, hesitantly pushed her into a horde of zombies.
Pain of being devoured, resentment of unwillingness, deeply ingrained in her bones, Xia Zhihan clenched her fists tightly.
"Ding, Ding!"
Just then, the cellphone on the bedside table, chimed twice.
Xia Zhihan picked it up and saw that it was a WeChat message from that scumbag.
"Baby, have you eaten? It's your birthday in three days, I have a surprise for you!"
Xia Zhihan sneered, with cold eyes.
The 'surprise' was that scumbag bringing a bunch of his cronies, preparing a cake for her, and partying all night at her place.
Looking at it now, she found it incredibly disgusting, repugnant...
How could she have been so stupid to believe that this man was deeply in love with her, and even quarreled with her brother over him, causing a fuss.
Xia Zhihan picked up her phone, quickly typed: "Yang Feng, let's break up!"
Following that, she blocked Yang Feng on WeChat, blocked his phone number, deleted everything about them together.
After doing all this, Xia Zhihan felt as if a heavy burden had been lifted off her shoulders and she laid back on the bed.
In this life, she never wants to see that scumbag again.
Taking a long breath, Xia Zhihan suddenly sat up and picked up her phone to call her brother.
The other end of the phone indicated it was turned off.
It was the same in her last life, her brother's phone was always off. It wasn't until her birthday that he finally gave her a call, telling her he was stuck at the airport in Yang City and might not be able to come back to celebrate with her.
She, unenthusiastically, hung up the call.
There were still three days left. This time, she planned to go to Yang City to find her brother because he was her only relative in this world.
Before this, she had many things to do.
In the apocalypse, money is of no use. Only a sufficient amount of supplies can guarantee survival.
With this thought, Xia Zhihan took her house book, ID, bank card, and all the valuable jewelry at home and left the house.
The house was a birthday gift from her brother when she turned eighteen, but there wasn't much money in her bank account.
Half a day later, Xia Zhihan's bank account increased by three million...
She had mortgaged her house to the bank. She used all the credit cards and online loans that she could.
After doing all this, she excitedly went towards the largest supermarket in Lin City.
Instant noodles, self-heating hotpot, flour, rice, bread, compressed biscuits, pork, beef... As long as it was edible, Xia Zhihan didn't hesitate, not until her shopping cart was full, did she regain her senses. She didn't have any space right now.
Where should she store all these supplies?
Thinking of this, Xia Zhihan felt somewhat disheartened. It seemed that she still needed to create a safe house first, to survive the ten-day storm safely.
However, she couldn't bring any of these things with her now, because she needed to find her elder brother first.
Holding a pack of instant noodles in her hand, Xia Zhihan lamented mournfully, "If only I could put these in a storage space."
At this moment, a mechanical voice sounded in her mind, "Ding—Space activation successful!"
"Spatial Butler Xiao Bei at your service."
On Xia Zhihan's finger, a jadeite ring emitted a hint of green light.
"Congratulations host for possessing a one square meter space, the next upgrade will be ten square meters."
"Upgrade condition: carry items worth over one thousand yuan."
"Detected a packet of instant noodles, worth 2.5 yuan…"
In her mind, a one-square-meter empty space appeared, with a length, width, and height all of only one meter, roughly the size of a street trash can.
The pack of instant noodles lay alone in the space.
Xia Zhihan paused for a moment, then her face filled with ecstatic joy.
She had activated a storage space.
This was great.
Moreover, it was a space that could be upgraded.
And she finally understood why Lin Jingyi, who has a space, would still steal her food.
In the post-apocalyptic world, with the scarcity of resources, gathering resources worth a thousand yuan is an immensely difficult task.
But now, it's different. The contents of this shopping cart alone are worth more than a thousand yuan.
Xia Zhihan tried to silently summon the packet of instant noodles, and instantly, the packet of instant noodles returned to her hands.
It turns out to be exactly as she had thought!
Xia Zhihan was overjoyed and wanted to crazily hoard items into her space.
However, after all, she was in a supermarket, with surveillance cameras and bustling with people, she had to act low-key.
