Lan Jin's eyes snapped open. She shot up from the couch, drenched in sweat, her damp hair clinging to her forehead. Her eyes brimmed with raw despair.
Scrambling upright, Lan Jin lunged for the bottle of mineral water beside her like a starving wolf. She chugged half of it in frantic gulps before suddenly setting it down. Her legs gave out, and she slumped to the floor.
She stared around the familiar living room. This was her home, no doubt about it. But hadn't her ex-husband thrown her off the 28th floor? How was she still here?
Ding-dong.
A text message notification chimed. Lan Jin glanced at the phone on the coffee table. When she picked it up, it was just a spam message. But when her eyes landed on the date and time displayed on the screen, her hands began to tremble uncontrollably.
January 5th, 2121. 2:31 PM.
That... wasn't possible.
Had she been reborn?
Lan Jin pinched her own cheek, hard. A sharp jolt of pain struck her. This wasn't a dream. She had really come back, three months before the apocalypse began.
Her expression darkened.
Just yesterday, she had finalized her divorce. The reason? A mistress, with overwhelming evidence of their affair. She got custody of the child, the house, and all their money. Her ex-husband left with nothing.
But he wasn't willing to accept that outcome. He and the mistress moved into the apartment directly across the hall. Part of it was to spy on her. The other part? Pure malice. During the three months leading up to the apocalypse, the three of them had countless arguments. She had been looking for a new place to move, but before she could finish relocating, the world ended.
After that, with all order collapsing, those two became completely unhinged. They broke her lock while she was asleep, kidnapped her child, and used the child as leverage.
First, they forced her to hand over her food, little by little. Once that ran out, they used her child to coerce her into scavenging for more supplies.
If she came back empty-handed, they beat the child. If she brought too little, they beat the child anyway. Every time she heard those cries, her heart broke. But in the cold, selfish world of the apocalypse, no one helped. She had no choice.
Eventually, when she could no longer find any food at all, the two monsters starved the child to death. Then they blamed her. Said it was her fault for not bringing back enough food. Utter filth.
By that point, she hadn't eaten or drunk anything in five days. She had no value left to them. To get rid of her once and for all, they threw her from the 28th floor while she was still clutching her child's corpse.
And now, when she opened her eyes again, here she was.
The clash of grief and joy made her body tremble. But with the tremor came clarity. Since fate had granted her a second chance, this time, she would survive. With her child.
As for that ex-husband and the mistress? There was no rush. The apocalypse hadn't begun yet. She had time to settle that debt, slowly.
At that thought, Lan Jin suddenly remembered something. Right before she was thrown from the building, the pendant she had been wearing glowed with a brilliant gold light. She hadn't felt much pain during the fall. In fact, there had been a strange comfort, as if her body was protected.
She quickly removed the pendant and pricked her finger with a needle, letting a drop of blood fall onto it.
A familiar golden light flashed. When she opened her eyes again, she was in a completely different place.
The air was filled with the fresh scent of grass. A warm, gentle temperature wrapped around her, relaxing every muscle. This must be her space.
Lan Jin stood in front of a small thatched cottage. From the outside, it looked tiny and rundown, maybe eight square meters at most. But when she stepped inside, the interior revealed something far beyond expectations.
A full three-bedroom, two-living-room layout with a retro Chinese style. Over 160 square meters of space, fully furnished, with a kitchen and a bathroom. Though it lacked running water and electricity, it was complete in every other way.
To the left of the cottage was a stretch of rich black soil, about 100 square meters, perfect for growing vegetables. At the far end of the field was a natural spring. The water was crystal clear. In the center of the spring, a lotus flower bloomed, surrounding a single seed pod. The entire lotus glowed faintly with golden light. It was obvious this was no ordinary plant.
Beyond that, the remaining space stretched as far as a soccer field. It would be more than enough to store supplies.
After surveying the area, Lan Jin began testing it. She tossed a popsicle from the fridge into the space to check how things interacted. She didn't have time to sit and wait, so she immediately shifted to planning what resources she would need once the apocalypse hit.
She had only survived a single year during her first life. She had no idea what disasters might follow. Pulling out her phone, she searched online for post-apocalyptic scenarios.
The walls of text from various users made her head spin.
"Surviving really is fucking hard."
Still, the signs of the apocalypse hadn't come out of nowhere. Frequent solar storms had bombarded the planet with electromagnetic radiation, high-energy particle flows, and plasma clouds. These wreaked havoc on the Earth's magnetic field, ionosphere, and atmospheric layers. In short, the planet's protective systems were crumbling. That was what triggered the coming catastrophe.
Natural disasters knew no mercy. There was no stopping them. All she could do was prepare.
The first event that marked the official start of the apocalypse was a magnitude 9.5 earthquake. It was followed by a massive tsunami caused by tectonic shifts. Fortunately, J City wasn't on a fault line or near the coast. The quake was felt strongly, but the damage here was negligible compared to other places.
But just as the earthquakes and tsunami subsided, a deadly fog descended.
It came silently, riding on the breeze. Inhaling it would clog the airway and lead to suffocation. Contact with the skin caused swelling, ulcers, and rot. But as long as full-body protection was used, it was safe to move through the fog.
Oddly enough, animals didn't seem affected. Even without protection, they survived just fine.
The fog was clearly targeting humans.
It killed quietly and efficiently. For a full week, no one understood what was happening. Eventually, the authorities found a way to counter it, and society slowly regained order.
The fog lingered for six months. When a tornado finally swept through, it dispersed. But then came five days of unrelenting rain. Floodwaters rose up to the seventh floor of most buildings. Many older and shorter apartment complexes were submerged. Luckily, when the rain stopped, the water slowly receded.
After that came the insect plague.
Possibly caused by the previous disasters, countless insects mutated. People bitten by them developed fevers, seizures, even infectious symptoms. Fortunately, standard pesticides still worked. Unfortunately, the prices became outrageous.
And then came the final disaster: a torrential downpour that lasted for three whole months. If the previous flood was a disaster, this one was absolute annihilation. The water rose up to the eighteenth floor. People had to travel by yacht or inflatable boats.
That was when she died, right after the rain finally stopped.
With conditions that brutal, was it any wonder how hard it had been for her to scavenge for food?
She would never forgive those two.
Not in this lifetime.