Pain—such unbearable pain!
An agony carved into Zhang Yi's very bones spread through every inch of his body.
This was no illusion, but a cruel reality seared onto his flesh.
At that moment, he was being mercilessly beaten to the ground by the very friends and neighbors he had once trusted and helped. Fists, kicks, even sticks rained down on him without mercy.
In this post-apocalyptic world of scarce resources, they didn't care about the kindness Zhang Yi had once shown them—they turned on him for their own survival!
In his final moments, through blurred vision, he caught sight of Fang Yuqing, the goddess of his heart, standing at the back of the crowd. With a pitiful look, she shouted desperately:
"It was I who told him to open the door—give me an extra share of the supplies!"
It was this very woman who had deceived Zhang Yi into opening the door, only to bring about his death.
Staring at her, Zhang Yi's eyes burned with hatred and bitter regret.
If anyone was to blame, it was himself—for being too naive, too kind, and ending up as a mere stepping stone in this apocalypse.
How he wished he could live it all over again.
This time, he would never be merciful. He would live only for himself!
Zhang Yi's vision darkened, and consciousness slipped away.
Yet in the very next instant, his eyes flew open, and he abruptly sat up on the sofa.
The nightmarish scene he had just endured, the searing pain—it all still lingered vividly in his mind.
"What… what's going on? Wasn't I killed by those beasts—those neighbors?"
Coming back to his senses, Zhang Yi slowly looked around at everything near him.
This place felt strangely familiar—because it was his own home.
The comfortable warmth in the air, however, left Zhang Yi utterly bewildered.
After all, in December of the Year 2050 of the Blue Star Calendar, the planet had been struck by the effects of a supernova explosion fifty thousand light-years away, plunging the entire world into a global Cambrian Storm.
The temperature across the globe had plummeted, and in Tianhai City where Zhang Yi lived, the daily temperature dropped to minus sixty or seventy degrees Celsius. A blizzard had raged for an entire month, burying the whole city beneath ice and snow.
It was said that in the northern regions of Huaguo, the terrifying cold had reached more than minus one hundred degrees, entombing the land in frost. Countless living beings perished; more than ninety-five percent of humanity died in that catastrophe.
Zhang Yi stood up, opened the refrigerator, and grabbed a bottle of water. Tilting back his head, he gulped down more than half in one breath.
Though the water was ice-cold, to him in this moment, it was as sweet as heavenly nectar.
During the apocalypse, the only way for people to get drinking water was to go outside, brave the deadly minus-sixty or seventy-degree cold, and dig up snow to melt it. Such a task could easily cost a person their life.
After finishing the bottle of water, Zhang Yi unlocked his phone and took a glance.
The screen displayed the date: "November 12th."
There was still a whole month left before the apocalypse would arrive.
"It seems… I've been reborn."
Zhang Yi took a deep breath, quickly realizing what had happened.
That month of torment couldn't have been just a dream—the agony of being torn apart by others was far too real.
Lifting his head, he felt an overwhelming surge of relief at having survived.
At the same time, a sharp, cold gleam flashed through his eyes.
He remembered with perfect clarity the very people who had betrayed him and led to his death.
In this life, he would live for himself—he would never again show mercy to those beasts.
And when the time came, he would make them pay dearly.
But for now, what Zhang Yi needed to consider most was how to survive the apocalypse that would descend upon the world in exactly one month.
Fortunately, his own living conditions weren't bad.
His parents had passed away years ago, but he had inherited a spacious 120-square-meter apartment in Tianhai City.
The savings in Zhang Yi's hand amounted to more than two million.
In ordinary times, that would have been considered fairly comfortable.
But with the apocalypse approaching, the entire world was about to face a catastrophic shortage of resources.
With only this bit of money, he knew he wouldn't last long.
After all, to survive alone in the end times required an enormous stockpile of supplies.
Since he now had the chance to prepare in advance, Zhang Yi didn't just want to survive—he wanted to live with a certain quality of life.
Food, entertainment—both were essential, otherwise his spirit would eventually collapse.
Moreover, weapons and equipment were indispensable.
Only with them could he truly protect himself and exact revenge on those treacherous neighbors.
Just then, a sudden flash of white light appeared before his eyes.
At first, he thought his right eye was playing tricks on him, so he reached up to rub it.
But in that instant, a strange thought surged through his mind.
It seemed as though that very streak of white light was a part of him—and within his consciousness, information about the light began to unfold.
He stepped into the glow—only to find himself standing inside an unimaginably vast, boundless white space.
It was endless, stretching in every direction, nothing but an expanse of pure whiteness.
"Is this… another dimension?"
The thought struck him, and Zhang Yi's heart leapt with joy.
It seemed that after being reborn, he had acquired some kind of special ability.
Perhaps the passage of the gamma-ray storm had altered his body, granting him extraordinary powers.
With this enormous space at his disposal, storing supplies for the coming apocalypse would become so much easier.
Still, Zhang Yi wanted to know just how much this space could hold, and whether there were any limits to what he could store inside.
At once, his consciousness returned to his living room. He decided to experiment by placing items from his home into the space.
He started small—with a teacup, then a washbasin—both slipped in effortlessly.
Encouraged, Zhang Yi tried shoving in larger household appliances: the television, the refrigerator, the washing machine, the computer, even the air conditioner.
The vast white space accepted them all without resistance, swallowing everything whole.
And with just a single thought, Zhang Yi discovered he could call any of the items back out again.
However, some objects that were under immense external force or firmly attached to other things were difficult to store inside the space.
For example, when he tried to pry a floorboard from the ground and put it in, there was no response at all.
"It seems this otherworldly space has many rules," Zhang Yi muttered. "I'll have to figure them out slowly."
Still, just having this vast storage space where he could keep endless supplies was already enough to excite him.
He licked his lips, and a bold plan began to take shape in his mind.
Zhang Yi worked as a supervisor at the Walmart warehouse in the South China region.
As the world's largest supermarket chain, Walmart's goods encompassed nearly everything one could imagine.
In Huaguo alone, it operated three massive warehouses—in Central China, South China, and North China.
The scale of these warehouses was staggering, especially the South China facility.
Completed in 2040, it stretched 1,500 meters in length and 720 meters in width, covering more than a million square meters of land—
the world's largest mega-warehouse!
It was once praised by the president of Walmart Greater China as the "Eighth Wonder of the World."
Of course, the world officially recognized only seven wonders, and there were countless others claiming the same title.
Yet in terms of sheer size and storage capacity, the South China warehouse truly stood at the pinnacle of global logistics.
Inside the vast space, supplies were stocked in abundance—enough to sustain several entire cities, feeding tens of millions of people for a whole week.
In other words, if Zhang Yi could empty just one of Walmart's warehouses and transfer everything into his personal dimension, he wouldn't have to worry about resources in the apocalypse. Not only could he survive a lifetime—even ten lifetimes wouldn't be enough to use it all!
Most importantly, Walmart's quality control was extremely strict.
There were no cheap, inferior knock-offs stored inside.
Whether food, daily necessities, or even luxury goods, everything was from reputable brands.
If Zhang Yi could clear out one of Walmart's gigantic warehouses, he wouldn't just survive the coming end of the world—he could live in absolute comfort.
As the warehouse supervisor, Zhang Yi was intimately familiar with every shelf, every camera, and every shift schedule of the staff.
Emptying an entire warehouse would not be a difficult task for him.
Having made up his mind, Zhang Yi felt a weight lift from his heart.
"Gurgle~"
Just then, his stomach protested with a loud growl.
Rubbing his belly, he glanced again at the takeout box of Braised Chicken with Rice sitting on the table.
Zhang Yi stroked his chin, hesitating for a moment.
Zhang Yi touched his chin in hesitation, then finally smiled and shook his head, deciding to give up on the takeout.
"In just one month, the apocalypse will arrive. All those delicious foods will be gone, and I'll never have the chance to taste them again. Why should I still be so stingy with myself?"
He had endured a whole month of bitter cold and hunger in his previous life, and now he longed desperately for a hot, hearty meal.
What use was money if he just kept hoarding it?
Once the end of the world came, money would be nothing but wastepaper. It would be better to spend it all now, so it wouldn't go to waste.
With an easy smile, Zhang Yi turned around, ready to seek out a high-end restaurant he had never dared to visit before, determined to enjoy a feast to his heart's content.