In the apocalypse, the first ones to act live. The rest beg.
Lin Xue walked out of her apartment at 6:13 a.m.
She wore a cap low over her face, a mask, and a simple hoodie. No makeup, no phone tracker, no attention.
This world was still asleep. Still safe. She knew better.
She took a rideshare to the nearest warehouse wholesale market and walked in with a calm face and blood in her eyes.
[08:12 a.m. — Storage Mart]
The clerk gave her a long look as she rolled three carts to the checkout.
Fifty kilograms of rice. Thirty packs of instant noodles. Twenty crates of bottled water. Six boxes of canned meat. Salt. Sugar. Coffee. Protein bars.
"…Opening a restaurant?" he joked weakly.
Lin Xue smiled beneath her mask. "Something like that."
She didn't waste time chatting. Paid in full, tipped heavily to avoid attention, and called for cargo delivery.
She had already rented a 200-square-meter storage unit two blocks from her apartment.
By the time the truck rolled out, she was already buying her next wave.
[09:50 a.m. — Hardware Zone]
Axes. Knives. Rope. Flashlights. Duct tape. Gloves. Lighters. Water containers.
Solar panels, portable batteries, multi-tools.
She skipped branded gear. Picked what was durable, not pretty.
The store owner gave her a weird look.
"You sure you need this many machetes?"
"I'm planning to hike," Lin Xue replied with a flat tone.
"Across the end of the world."
The man laughed. She didn't.
[11:30 a.m. — Medical Supply Outlet]
She slipped into a quiet clinic that sold direct to private caregivers.
Antibiotics. Fever meds. Sterile bandages. Burn cream. Multivitamins. IV fluids.
Even some low-dose painkillers—stuff you couldn't buy freely, but with enough cash and no questions asked?
She got what she needed.
"You have someone sick?" the nurse asked gently.
Lin Xue nodded.
"Yes. The whole world."
By evening, three truckloads had arrived at her storage space. She moved like a machine.
The jade pendant pulsed lightly against her chest. She reached inward—
— Hidden Realm Space: Active.
A swirl of golden mist enveloped her body.
The supplies vanished from the real world, sucked directly into the pendant's dimension.
Inside the space, crates stacked neatly along invisible shelves. Spiritual soil plots waited for seeds. The cold lake chilled meat instantly.
She breathed in deeply.
This was just the beginning.
Nightfall.
Lin Xue returned to her apartment and sat cross-legged on the wooden floor.
She closed her eyes. Her consciousness slipped back into the space. She walked barefoot across the soil and stood before the jade scroll she claimed the night before.
— Lotus Flame Art
She placed both palms on the stone pedestal and began to absorb the technique.
Images flooded her mind: A woman standing beneath a burning lotus. Her qi cycling through eight meridians. Her spiritual core pulsing with golden fire.
Lin Xue gritted her teeth as her own qi began to move—slow, clumsy, but real.
Pain lanced through her spine. Her meridians shook violently.
But she endured.
She had six months to turn herself into a weapon.
Let the world laugh now, Let them sleep. She was already moving.
In her past life, Lin Xue had waited. Waited for news, for safety, for someone to save her, and she died for it.
Now, reborn with memories of how the world ended and a jade pendant that could shape her future, she moved like a ghost through the city.
No hesitation. No waste.
The Next day.
[06:15 A.M. — Apartment]
She poured herself black coffee, opened her phone, and brought up three apps:
Online wholesale supply
Private clinic marketplace
Agricultural warehouse catalog
Her fingers danced across the screen. Check out, Pay in full, Same-day delivery.
The modern world still worked, card payments went through, drivers delivered without questions.
Lin Xue knew it wouldn't last.
[08:20 A.M. — Storage Unit]
She had leased a long-unused industrial space on the city's west side. It was hidden, cheap, and easy to fortify. She had signed the lease two hours after rebirth.
Steel doors. Reinforced locks. No windows. Perfect.
As crates arrived, Lin Xue personally inspected everything.
Dried beans,white rice, Salt, honey (never spoils), cooking oil, vacuum-sealed beef jerky, matches, lighters, solar flashlights, 12,000 water purification tablets.
All entered the pendant realm as soon as they cleared.
"You can't store supplies in a backpack when monsters start ripping through buildings."
[10:00 A.M. — Agricultural Market]
She moved quickly, barely speaking. Seeds. She needed seeds—not for now, but for later.
Cabbage, spinach, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, beans, chili peppers, fast-growth rice, high-yield sweetcorn
Chinese herbs: ginseng, astragalus, angelica root
"It'll grow 10x faster in the spiritual soil," she murmured.
With the right setup, she could grow spiritual-grade plants before other people even figured out how to boil mutant meat.
[12:00 P.M. — Clinic]
Cash spoke louder than prescriptions. She paid in stacks. Walked out with a black duffel full of medical-grade supplies, tightly sealed.
Ampicillin, Ibuprofen, alchohol wipes,surgical blades,bandages,antiseptics,two packs of naloxone.Emergency blood clotting powder.
Not just for herself—but in the future, these things would be more valuable than gold.
"When people bleed, I'll name the price."
[03:00 P.M. — Inner Space, Jade Realm]
She knelt on the spiritual soil, planting the seeds one by one.
"Grow."
Golden light flickered through the ground. Spiritual mist danced around her hands. She felt her qi circulate faster.
This wasn't some fantasy cheat.
This was her second chance, earned with blood.
She pulled out the jade scroll again. The fire-element technique branded into her soul the night before.
She sat. Crossed her legs. Focused.
Qi trickled through her meridians like melted wax. Her body ached. Her stomach turned.
"Bear it," she muttered. "Or die again."
On her third circulation cycle, her lower dantian sparked.
A golden lotus bloomed in her core, flickering with flame.
Her body trembled. She had begun the path of cultivation.