Pain. Excruciating pain.
A deep, unforgettable agony coursed through every inch of Liam's body.
This wasn't just a feeling; it was the reality of what was happening to him.
At this very moment, he was being greedily carved up by the very friends and neighbors he had once trusted and helped.
In this resource-starved apocalypse, they had completely disregarded the help Liam had given them and raised their butcher knives against him.
In his final moments, he vaguely saw the woman he adored, Claire Fang, standing behind the crowd. With a pitiful look on her face, she shouted forcefully,"I was the one who got him to open the door! You have to save me a piece of the ribs for soup!"
It was this woman who had tricked Liam into opening the door, leading to his death.
Liam stared at her, his eyes filled with hatred and regret.
He could only blame himself for being too foolish, too kind, which led to him becoming food for others in this wasteland.
How he wished he could do it all over again.
If he had another chance, he wouldn't be merciful to anyone. He would live only for himself.
Darkness quickly consumed Liam's vision, and he lost consciousness.
But in the very next moment, his eyes shot open, and he sat bolt upright on the couch.
The hellish scene he had just experienced, the terrifying sensation of pain, was still vivid in his mind.
Liam gasped for air, his entire body quickly becoming drenched in sweat.
"What's going on? Weren't I killed by those monstrous neighbors?"
After collecting himself, Liam began to survey his surroundings.
He was no stranger to this place; it was his own house.
The comfortable temperature in the air, however, felt incredibly strange to him.
In December of 2050, Earth was struck by a global Cambrian storm, the result of a supernova explosion 500,000 light-years away.
Global temperatures plummeted. The city of Sky Bay, where Liam lived, saw daily temperatures of eighty or ninety degrees below zero Fahrenheit. The blizzard lasted for a month, burying the entire city.
He had heard that in the northern states, the temperature had reached a terrifying one hundred fifty degrees below zero, and the land was completely entombed in ice and snow.
Countless species went extinct, and over ninety-five percent of the human population perished in the cataclysm.
Liam stood up, grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator, and chugged half of it.
Although the refrigerated water was cold, to him now, it was like the nectar of the gods.
In the apocalypse, the only way to get water was to venture outside, brave the extreme cold of eighty below, and dig up snow to melt.
Such a task could easily get a person frozen to death.
After drinking the water, Liam checked his phone.
The date displayed was"November 12th."
There was exactly one month until the apocalypse.
"It seems... I've been reborn."
Liam took a deep breath, quickly understanding what had happened.
The experience of that month couldn't have been a dream, especially the agony of being dismembered—it was far too real.
Liam looked up, a wave of profound relief washing over him for having survived.
At the same time, an incredibly sharp glint flashed in his eyes.
He remembered every single person who had caused his death.
In this life, he would survive, and he would never again show kindness to those animals.
But in the next moment, Liam began to think about how to prepare for the end of the world.
His parents had passed away years ago, leaving him a 1,300-square-foot house in Sky Bay.
He also had over$200,000 in savings, which would be considered a comfortable sum in normal times.
But with the apocalypse coming, the world would face a massive shortage of resources.
The money he had wouldn't last long at all.
After all, for one person to survive, a massive amount of supplies was needed.
Liam didn't just want to live; he wanted to maintain a certain quality of life.
Food and entertainment both had to be considered, otherwise, his mind would surely break over time.
Just then, a white light suddenly appeared before Liam's eyes.
He thought his eyes were playing tricks on him and rubbed them.
At that moment, a strange thought emerged in his mind.
It seemed as if this wisp of white light was a part of him, and information about it appeared in his head.
With a thought, Liam's consciousness instantly entered the white light.
He found himself in a vast, boundless white space.
The area inside was immeasurably large, just an enormous blank expanse.
"Is this... a pocket dimension?"
"It seems I've gained some special abilities after being reborn."
A surge of joy erupted in Liam's heart.
It appeared the gamma rays had granted him a special power.
With this huge space, storing supplies for the apocalypse would be incredibly convenient.
However, Liam wanted to know just how much this space could hold and if there were any restrictions on the objects it could store.
His consciousness immediately returned to his room, and he began trying to move things from his house into the space.
He started with a teacup and a washbasin, both of which went in with ease.
Liam then began to try putting larger appliances inside.
The television, refrigerator, washing machine, computer, air conditioner, vacuum cleaner.
The white space accepted them all without refusal.
Furthermore, with just a single thought, Liam could retrieve the items from the space.
Liam was overjoyed.
"With this massive space, I can store a sea of resources!"
He licked his lips, a bold plan forming in his mind.
Liam worked as a supervisor at a Walmart Regional Distribution Center for the West Coast.
As the world's largest supermarket chain, Walmart had everything one could possibly need.
In the United States, it had massive distribution centers for the East Coast, West Coast, and the Midwest.
These three warehouses regularly held enough supplies to sustain several cities with populations in the tens of millions for a week.
This meant that if Liam could empty out just one of those warehouses and move the supplies into his space, he would have more than enough to last not just one lifetime, but ten!
Most importantly, Walmart's warehouses didn't stock low-quality goods. Whether it was food, general merchandise, or luxury items, they were all major brands.
The quality was guaranteed.
If Liam could empty a Walmart warehouse, then no matter what apocalypse came, he could live better than a king.
As a warehouse supervisor, Liam was intimately familiar with every shelf, security camera, and employee shift schedule.
Emptying the warehouse would not be a difficult task for him at all.
Having made up his mind, Liam felt a great sense of relief.
"Growl~"
Just then, his stomach rumbled in protest.
Liam patted his belly and glanced at the takeout on the table.
Without hesitation, he picked it up and tossed it straight into the trash.
"The end of the world is in a month. I need to eat all the good food I can now, or I'll never get the chance again."
What was the point of holding onto money?
After the apocalypse, money would just be worthless paper. It was better to spend it all now so it wouldn't go to waste.
Liam turned around with a flourish, ready to find a Michelin three-star restaurant and treat himself to a proper feast.