Chapter 002: A Different Rubik’s Space

Jing Shu’s head went “boom,” and then she lost consciousness.

That’s right—activating this portable space didn’t require any blood or incantations. All she needed was to restore the scrambled Rubik’s Cube within the specified time, and it would take root in her mental world, recognizing her as the master. In her previous life, Jing Shu took a full nine years to activate the Rubik’s Cube space by sheer coincidence.

Who could have imagined that a toy Rubik’s Cube was actually a space? Other people’s spaces were usually rings, bracelets, necklaces, or, in the most bizarre cases, directly within their minds.

Moreover, the activation conditions for Jing Shu’s Rubik’s Cube space were so stringent that without being reborn, it would be impossible to know about such a thing.

No matter how you look at it, fate finally changed at this moment.

She regained consciousness when her phone’s ringtone jolted her awake. The phone kept ringing incessantly, like a death sentence. Jing Shu shook herself up from the ground, put down the fifth-order Rubik’s Cube (upgraded from the fourth order), and saw an incoming call from Zhu Zhengqi.

Jing Shu’s thoughts were pulled back, and memories from ten years ago gradually became clear. She pressed the answer button.

“Hello? Why aren’t you answering the phone? I’ve got great news! I’ve got you signed with ‘Star Dream Entertainment’! They handle promotion, marketing teams, character creation, and packaging—all in one package! Although it’s a bit pricey, the top few right now were all launched by them. Miss, you’re finally going to be famous!” Zhu Zhengqi on the other end sounded extremely excited.

Jing Shu’s memories were finally triggered. Her childhood dream was to become a star. Later, she attended a third-tier art college in Wucheng. It was only in university that she realized becoming an actor or a star wasn’t easy—you either relied on your biological father, a godfather, or had an interesting soul.

Because good looks are commonplace, having an interesting soul is one in a million.

Since Jing Shu was only slightly attractive and had nothing else, she decided to lower her standards. After graduation, she stayed at home, trying to become a popular live streamer, but no one watched. So, through her father’s colleague’s son, Zhu Zhengqi, she found a marketing team. In the initial phase, they used zombie followers, mass barrage comments, fake donations, and inflated popularity.

In short, they pretended that her live streaming persona was very popular to attract others to follow and donate to her.

“I’ve already sent you the electronic contract. Go to a print shop, get it printed, then sign and stamp it. First, pay a 300,000 yuan deposit…”

“Hello? Jing Shu, are you there?”

Jing Shu squinted her eyes and recalled her past life. At this time, after receiving Zhu Zhengqi’s call, she was very happy. Her parents fully supported her, and then, using money scraped together from selling the family car and commercial properties, she became an internet celebrity. They sold her persona, did marketing hype, and with tens of thousands of internet trolls manipulating the chatroom daily, she did gain some fame.

Unfortunately, just as she started receiving advertisements, the apocalypse began. It was like killing a chicken to steal some rice.

In this life, Jing Shu didn’t want to become a star or a popular live streamer. She just wanted to eat well, sleep well, stay healthy, and have a strong body in the apocalypse.

“Zhu Zhengqi, thank you. Sorry for the trouble I’ve caused lately. I suddenly don’t want to be an internet celebrity anymore,” Jing Shu said calmly.

Zhu Zhengqi was obviously anxious: “Why suddenly don’t want to be an internet celebrity? This is your lifelong dream! @#￥%……”

Jing Shu suddenly remembered that in her previous life, Zhu Zhengqi worked so hard because he took a 50,000 yuan commission. This approach wasn’t right. Taking commissions was normal, but she later found out that her father, to show gratitude, had sent several more red envelopes. What was most disheartening was that the normal price didn’t require so much. It turned out that by using Zhu Zhengqi and leveraging connections, it was actually half as expensive, clearly overcharging acquaintances and exploiting people.

“I just don’t want to do it anymore.”

Thinking about her space, Jing Shu hurriedly hung up the phone and closed her eyes. She silently recited “space Rubik’s Cube,” and the entire world transformed. Indeed, her spiritual body had arrived at her Rubik’s Cube space.

The surroundings were pitch black, with only a huge Rubik’s Cube emitting incandescent light. Each small cube had its own independent frame. Jing Shu could see through, zoom in, and overlook the Rubik’s Cube space from above.

Jing Shu’s Rubik’s Cube space was quite different from those in novels. Through a year of exploration, she discovered that first, besides humans (intelligent beings), she could collect anything by touching it into the space. Her own body couldn’t enter; only her spiritual consciousness could. The good thing was that she had absolute control over the Rubik’s Cube space.

Secondly, initially, the Rubik’s Cube space consisted of 4x4x4=64 one-cubic-meter small cubes. Oh, wait—not quite. The center already occupied a one-cubic-meter Spirit Spring. In reality, the Spirit Spring was shrunk to the size of a basketball in the center, and in her previous life, it never filled up the one cubic meter in a year, highlighting its preciousness.

The one-cubic-meter Spirit Spring was the unmovable core of the Rubik’s Cube space. It bubbled continuously in the center, and each of its six faces had a transparent transport line connecting to six movable, attachable black farmland plots for irrigation.

Jing Shu discovered that if she didn’t farm, the Spirit Spring could produce six more drops daily. Conversely, if she farmed, it could only produce 20 drops daily, about 1ml—roughly 1 gram.

The Rubik’s Cube space consisted of:

– 1 cubic meter of Spirit Spring

– 6 cubic meters of farmland

– 57 cubic meters of space

These 57 cubic meters could be divided into 57 independent one-cubic-meter spaces or freely connected, which was the most significant difference from spaces in novels. She maximized the use of space, leaving no room wasted. Even more astonishing, each farmland cube’s six sides could be planted, meaning there were 36 square meters available for planting.

Lastly, the farmland space’s time ratio was the same as the outside world. If vegetables weren’t harvested, they would wither; if harvested but not placed in the space, they would dry up. The growing and harvesting times were identical to the outside world. The Spirit Spring’s role was to accelerate growth time by twofold and increase yield. If there were seeds, the Spirit Spring would automatically irrigate one drop per farmland plot daily. If she felt growth was slow, she could add more drops.

However, the Spirit Spring accelerated growth by twofold daily, meaning vegetables would mature in about 6-10 days.

Spaces without living beings had time standing still. For example, hot water placed in the space would remain at the same temperature regardless of how long it stayed.

Jing Shu conducted an experiment by placing a live mouse inside. The time in that independent space started flowing, becoming synchronized with the external world. Jing Shu thought this was similar to the farmland—mice would age and die, or starve if they didn’t eat. If she placed vegetables inside, they would eventually rot, and hot water would cool down after a while.

This was Jing Shu’s Rubik’s Cube space—a magical, unique space. Looking at the neatly arranged Rubik’s Cube, the empty space, and the black farmland, Jing Shu felt a sense of satisfaction. In the apocalypse, where farming was impossible without sunlight, she relied on her Rubik’s Cube space.