Chapter 1: Reborn Before the Apocalypse

“Ah!”

A sharp pain shot through her wrist, and An Nan collapsed to the ground.

In that instant, the two people she trusted most—her closest friends—had hacked off both her hands.

Her jade bracelet fell heavily to the floor, yet remained completely unscathed.

Bai Wenbin picked up the bracelet like it was a priceless treasure, a greedy smile spreading across his face.

“Nannan, since you still refuse to be my woman, I can’t let you live any longer.”

The woman beside him clung to his arm. “Cousin, she brought this on herself. She deserves to die!”

“If I’d known her dad was so heartless, wouldn’t even give us a piece of bread, we should’ve made our move sooner. We wouldn’t have had to starve for so long.”

An Nan lay on the ground, staring at them in disbelief.

—These two people, who had fought by her side, struggling to survive through the apocalypse.

“What are you looking at?” Qian Yinger let go of Bai Wenbin’s arm, picked up a boning knife, and strode toward An Nan with a vicious glare.

“The first time I saw your pretty little face, I wanted to slice it up!”

With those words, the knife came down.

An Nan, lying on the ground and losing blood fast, was already too weak to resist. She could only feel her life ebbing away in waves of excruciating pain…

As her consciousness faded, she heard Qian Yinger’s sweet, syrupy voice:

“Brother, we’re eating meat tonight!”

In that moment, An Nan was filled with bitter regret.

How could she have been so blind, failing to see the true nature of these two wolves in sheep’s clothing?

She’d survived four years of apocalyptic hardship, only to die at the hands of her so-called friends!

So unwilling… so unfair…

If she could do it all over again, she would never let them off so easily!

……

“Ah!”

With another startled cry, An Nan jolted awake and shot up in bed.

She looked around, stunned by what she saw.

This was… the apartment she’d lived in before the apocalypse?!

Hadn’t she just been killed by Bai Wenbin and his sister? How was she back here?

The temperature around her was comfortable and warm.

Ever since that sudden catastrophe, An Nan hadn’t felt such comfort in four whole years.

She picked up her phone in disbelief—July 8th, 2039.

Wasn’t that three days before the end of the world?

What was going on? She’d clearly died in 2043!

On July 11th, 2039, a massive torrential rain swept across the globe.

Within days, cities were submerged, countless people perished.

At first, everyone thought it was just a flood, but it turned out to be the prelude to the apocalypse.

Torrential rain, floods, extreme heat, acid rain, thick fog, earthquakes, bitter cold… One disaster after another turned the world into a living hell.

For four long years, she’d struggled to survive, and even at her death, the disasters hadn’t ended.

Had she… been reborn? Reborn three days before the apocalypse?

An Nan was overjoyed, then quickly looked down at the jade bracelet on her wrist.

—If it hadn’t been for this bracelet, she might not have survived even the first year of the apocalypse.

She bit her right fingertip and let a drop of blood fall onto the jade.

In the next instant, a white light flashed, and in her mind, a space of about 800 square meters appeared.

On one side was a vast, empty expanse; on the other, a small house of about 60 square meters.

An Nan let out a long sigh of relief. Thank goodness—the space had come back with her.

In her previous life, she’d been injured during a home invasion by neighbors during the apocalypse. Her blood had dripped onto the bracelet, accidentally unlocking the space.

Anything she touched could be stored inside.

The little house in the space had water, electricity, and gas. In emergencies, she could hide inside, but only for one hour per day—any longer, and she’d be ejected.

The area outside the house was for storage only—no living things could enter, and she could store items there with her mind.

Time was frozen in that part of the space, keeping food fresh indefinitely.

In her previous life, whenever danger struck, she’d hidden in the little house with Bai Wenbin and Qian Yinger, which was how they’d survived four years of apocalypse.

This space was practically a cheat code for surviving the end of the world.

Unfortunately, by the time she unlocked it, the apocalypse had already been raging for a long time.

She had almost no supplies, and everyone else was already out of food—there was nothing left to store.

She and Bai Wenbin and Qian Yinger had to scavenge everywhere for supplies, hiding whatever they found in the space to keep it safe from others, barely scraping by.

Qian Yinger had been her college classmate, and after graduation, they’d coincidentally ended up living in the same building in the same neighborhood.

Bai Wenbin was Qian Yinger’s cousin. After meeting An Nan through her, he’d started aggressively pursuing her.

Even though An Nan had clearly rejected him, he refused to give up.

When disaster struck, the three of them—neighbors and acquaintances—naturally banded together to survive.

Gradually, An Nan had come to see them as true partners in hardship.

Who would have thought they only stuck around because they’d heard she came from a wealthy family, hoping to use her to get supplies from her father?

But her scumbag dad was no doting father—he was a cold-hearted, social-climbing jerk.

In her senior year of college, An Nan’s mother died suddenly of a heart attack. Her father, An Xingye, inherited her mother’s fortune and company, and immediately showed his true colors.

He brought home another woman, who had an illegitimate daughter about An Nan’s age.

Her grandmother, devastated by the loss of her daughter, soon passed away as well.

Her father didn’t care about An Nan at all—he cut ties and kicked her out of the villa.

Luckily, her mother had bought her an apartment in Maple Grove before she died, so at least An Nan had a place to stay.

But while she was still grieving her family’s collapse, the apocalypse struck.

Her father’s villa was on high ground, and the rich residents had airlifted in supplies as soon as the rain started, so they lived relatively well during the disaster.

After struggling for so long and running out of food, An Nan had taken Bai Wenbin and Qian Yinger to the villa, hoping her father would save her.

But, true to form, An Xingye was as heartless as ever—hoarding food with his new wife and daughter, refusing to give An Nan even a piece of bread.

He didn’t care if she lived or died.

Seeing she was no longer useful, Bai Wenbin and Qian Yinger revealed their true colors, trying to steal her bracelet and its space.

In the end, they even butchered her…

But they didn’t know that once the bracelet was bound by blood, it was tied to An Nan alone.

Even if they took it, they could never access the space.

This time, she’d like to see how long they could survive without her space!

An Nan thought bitterly.

As much as she wanted to take revenge on them right away, the more urgent task was to stockpile survival supplies.

There were only three days left until the apocalypse—so much to prepare.

As for those two, let them struggle in the hell that was coming.

That would be far more satisfying than killing them outright!

And her scumbag father.

In her last life, she’d died miserably—she owed him nothing now.

An Nan’s heart turned cold. This time, she wouldn’t warn him about the coming disaster.

Let’s see if the supplies in his precious villa are enough for his family to last a lifetime!

This time, she would only look out for herself, cherish this second chance, and live boldly and freely—even in the apocalypse!

An Nan opened her phone and checked her bank balance.

Exactly one million.

Thankfully, when An Xingye kicked her out, he hadn’t confiscated all her pocket money.

Last time, this money became nothing but useless numbers and scraps of paper after the apocalypse.

This time, she’d turn it all into supplies—make every cent count!"