Li Xinyi felt the cold before she saw the blood. The air was thick with the scent of rust, sharp and choking, and the floor beneath her was sticky. Her fingers trembled as she lifted them to her face and stared. Blood.
Her heart raced. Her last memory was falling asleep in her apartment after angrily typing a rant about the stupid second female lead of that apocalyptic novel. She had fallen asleep cursing the character for being so blind, so weak, so dumb. Now here she was, waking up in a scene that felt ripped from the pages of that very book.
No. This could not be real.
A loud crash jolted her. Her head snapped toward the sound, and she spotted a cracked window. Outside, the world looked familiar but wrong. Buildings stood tall and proud, but the sky had a strange reddish glow. It was the calm before the storm. The calm before the apocalypse.
Her gaze dropped to her hands again. Pale. Slim. Not hers. A jade bangle gleamed on her wrist, its surface smooth and cool against her skin. The moment her eyes met the bangle, memory flooded in.
Tang Shuang. The tragic second female lead. The so-called best friend of the heroine who gave everything and died forgotten.
She felt the blood drain from her face. She knew this part of the story. Today was the day Tang Shuang would smile sweetly and hand over the jade bangle to the reborn heroine Zhang Yumi. A treasure with a space dimension that could store endless supplies. A treasure that would decide who lived and who died in the coming chaos.
Li Xinyi clenched her fist so tight her nails bit into her palm.
No.
This time, she would not give it up. She would not hand over her only chance at survival. She would not play the fool in someone else's script.
A knock came at the door. Soft at first, then more urgent.
"Shuang Shuang, are you in there? Are you alright? I brought you soup."
The voice was sweet, almost too sweet. Li Xinyi felt the chill of recognition. Zhang Yumi. The reborn heroine with her innocent face and heart full of schemes. In the original story, she had smiled like this too, all kindness and concern. And later, she had left Tang Shuang to die at the hands of the infected.
Li Xinyi stepped back from the door. She wiped the blood off her face with the hem of her sleeve and stared at the jade bangle.
If she gave it up, she would follow the same doomed path. But if she kept it, if she used the seven days before the apocalypse hit, she could change everything.
Her mind raced. Supplies. Weapons. Medicine. Fuel. She had knowledge no one else did. The timing. The disasters. The betrayals. The safe zones. She could turn this fate around.
"Shuang Shuang? Please, open the door. I'm worried about you."
Xinyi took a breath. She forced her voice into a weak tremble, the kind Tang Shuang would have used.
"I'm fine, Yumi. I just need some time alone."
There was a pause. Then the sound of retreating footsteps.
Xinyi waited until the hall fell silent. Her hands moved fast. She touched the bangle, and just like that, the space opened before her mind's eye. Rows of shelves. Empty. For now.
Not for long.
Her heart pounded with a strange mix of fear and excitement. This was no longer a story she was reading. This was her life now.
And she would not die forgotten.
She grabbed her coat and stuffed cash into her pockets. She had seven days. Seven days before the world burned. Seven days to gather everything she could. Seven days to prepare.
And this time, when the apocalypse came, she would not be the one begging for scraps. She would be the one others feared.
Li Xinyi opened the door and stepped out into the world that would soon fall apart. The game had begun. And she intended to win.