After sending the message, she quickly stuffed her phone back into her pocket, thinking to herself in frustration: Is the apocalypse even real? These people are acting crazy—stockpiling supplies, talking about abilities—it’s like some upgraded version of an apocalypse werewolf game. Boring beyond belief.
After waiting a while without any reply from Li Su, Chen Miao figured she was probably still busy and stopped dwelling on it.
“Since Xiaomei has awakened a spatial ability, for convenience and to reduce costs, everyone hand over the money you have on you,” Lin Tianrou suddenly changed the topic, her tone leaving no room for objection. “The 1.4 million we previously split, plus whatever cash you still have, all of it gets pooled together. We’ll make a unified stockpiling plan to maximize efficiency.”
These fools, already half-mad from the talk of superpowers, actually thought Lin Tianrou made sense. One after another, they took out their phones and transferred their money.
With the 1.4 million plus the 13 million in Shen Jianchen’s hands, Lin Tianrou and Shen Jianchen took control of the pooled funds and began aggressively stockpiling supplies. Meanwhile, Wu Xiaomei still foolishly believed she was the indispensable core of the group—unaware that she was nothing more than a free mobile warehouse.
“All supermarkets under the Shen family name—food, drinking water, vegetables, fruits—triple the usual stock! And send over all fresh perishables immediately!”
Shen Jianchen was also frantically making calls to purchase supplies. After all, with Wu Xiaomei’s storage space ability, nothing would ever spoil again.
“Jianchen,” Lin Tianrou said, “don’t your family also own pharmacies? I’ll stockpile medicines too.”
Shen Jianchen nodded. “I’ll immediately place an international call and order a Paramount Marauder.”
Since the final payment likely wouldn’t be collected anyway, they only needed to pay the deposit.
At the mention that they might actually ride in a Paramount Marauder in this life, everyone became excited.
“A Paramount Marauder?!” Feng Wanli rubbed his hands together. “My god! That’s basically a land aircraft carrier! We’re actually going to ride something like that? Even if the apocalypse comes, it’ll be worth it!”
Ning Tian got excited too. “Sister Xiaomei, with that vehicle, no one will dare mess with us when we go out to collect supplies!”
Only Chen Miao hid in a corner, secretly pulling out her phone and rapidly messaging Li Su.
Even though Li Su never replied, she kept sending message after message:
“Su Su! These people are getting more and more insane! It’s like they’re acting out a real apocalypse script. Shen Jianchen is actually ordering a Paramount Marauder! Oh heavens, I might actually get to ride a ‘land aircraft carrier’ in this life? This dream feels way too real!”
Meanwhile, Li Su was completely too busy to check her phone. She was inside the villa receiving deliveries.
The supplies she had ordered days ago were arriving nonstop. She chose to receive them at home because the back hill of the villa connected directly to her family’s abandoned mine shaft, making transport easier.
With no outside help, she had to handle everything herself. She rolled up her sleeves, sweat beading on her forehead, not daring to pause for even a moment.
Fifty thousand batches of pre-made meals were piled into the villa’s storage room. When there wasn’t enough space, they were stacked in boxes in the backyard.
The early winter wind in the north was biting cold. Everything left outside froze solid, forming a natural freezer—no worry about spoilage.
Sanitary pads, diapers, powdered milk, and baby food filled every corner of the storage room and basement. Even so, fresh vegetables kept arriving with nowhere to go, spilling out of the kitchen—cabbages, radishes, mushrooms piling up until there was barely any floor space in the living room.
Looking at the mountain of food, Li Su felt a headache coming on. Just thinking about hauling everything into the mine shaft later made her head throb.
“Spatial abilities really are convenient…” she muttered.
Medicine and medical equipment procurement had been handed over to her elder brother, Li You.
With wide connections and efficient execution, his only goal was to close deals fast and get pharmaceutical factories to deliver immediately—whether it was common medicine, specialized drugs, surgical tools, or emergency supplies, he ordered everything without hesitation.
“Mom, sister-in-law, Yangyang, stay home and supervise the deliveries,” Li Su called into the house after wiping her sweat. “When Dad and Brother come back, have them start transporting everything into the mine shaft. I’ll go out again to pick up some more things.”
She had already planned it—she was going to buy gold.
In the neighboring city, there was a mall linked to a gold mine. Investment gold bars there were only ten yuan above market price, making them extremely cost-effective. After natural disasters, during reconstruction, gold would still be hard currency.
At the garage, Li Su chose a sturdy vehicle. Just as she opened her phone to navigate, she saw a flood of messages from Chen Miao.
She casually opened them—and froze.
Wu Xiaomei awakened a spatial ability?
Li Su frowned, full of confusion.
She clearly remembered that in her previous life, Wu Xiaomei did not awaken this ability at this time—and it wasn’t even spatial.
Scrolling further down, she saw the message about Shen Jianchen ordering a Paramount Marauder. A flicker of emotion flashed in her eyes. That vehicle’s performance was extremely strong—definitely an excellent apocalypse transport. The thought of taking it for herself surfaced, and she could no longer suppress it.
She replied to Chen Miao from a burner account, “Walnut Puff,” simply:
“Thanks. Keep updating me. Contact me directly if anything happens.”
She also thought she would later bring Chen Miao some thermal clothing. If the extreme cold apocalypse became unbearable and Chen Miao came to her, she would help her.
After sending the message, Li Su sat in the car and took a deep breath.
A thought suddenly surfaced: the trajectory of the news had changed from her previous life, and abilities were awakening earlier. If even someone like Wu Xiaomei—whose luck was mediocre—could awaken spatial abilities, then could others have awakened early too?
A faint sense of danger wrapped around her instantly.
This world was no longer ordinary. She was no longer the only awakened one. Compared to stockpiling gold, survival now mattered more.
Without hesitation, she turned the steering wheel, abandoning her plan to buy gold bars, and headed straight to her rented apartment—where she kept “treasures” that could improve her self-defense.
The early winter was silent; even insects had vanished. But on the balcony of her apartment, several insulated boxes were hidden away—“gifts” left behind by Lin Tianrou.
Back then, Lin Tianrou had deliberately framed her, claiming Li Su bullied her, then pretended magnanimously that as long as Li Su helped raise these pets, she would forgive her.
But they weren’t pets at all—they were creatures most girls feared: geckos, spiders, crickets, a small turtle, and a neon fish.
Li Su had been terrified back then, shaking all over. But refusing would have confirmed the accusation of bullying, so she had no choice but to accept them and leave them on the balcony, feeding them perfunctorily once a week just to keep them alive.
Looking back now, Lin Tianrou’s intentions were vile and malicious—meant to disgust and humiliate her, to watch her embarrassed and miserable.
But no one expected it.
The apocalypse was coming.
And those things she once feared… had become her lifelines.