The residential complex was nestled against the mountainside, with all its buildings constructed following the natural terrain. Qin Zhiyu lived in the highest area at the mountain’s peak.
The first Heavenly Disaster was not difficult; the real challenges were the subsequent extreme heat, torrential rains, and floods. Qin Zhiyu had managed to survive the heatwave, and her ability to endure the two disasters that followed was largely thanks to the complex’s elevated location, which ranked first in height among all the waterfront areas.
After running a full lap around the complex, Qin Zhiyu was drenched in sweat but not overly exhausted. She had always maintained a daily exercise routine, and now, running with added weight only increased the difficulty of her training.
While running, she observed the overall layout of the complex.
Winding footpaths meandered through the greenery, connecting every corner of the complex like a network. Navigating these paths often led to unexpected discoveries.
After completing her final lap, she returned home.
Qin Zhiyu lived alone in a two-story villa. As an adopted child, her relationship with her adoptive parents had grown increasingly awkward after they had a biological son. Nevertheless, her adoptive parents had been kind to her, never depriving her materially. In this third-tier city, they had bought her a two-story villa with a ten-square-meter yard and a Beetle car as her coming-of-age gift.
Qin Zhiyu did not refuse these gifts, intending to repay them properly once she started working. Upon turning eighteen, she moved out to live independently, using the opportunity to build her resilience.
Though they were her adoptive parents, over a decade of living together had fostered deep affection between Qin Zhiyu and them, as well as with her younger brother. Sadly, just as she was ready to care for them, they were no longer there. Two years ago, her adoptive parents had set sail on a cargo ship that struck a hidden reef and sank into the Pacific Ocean, never to return.
Since then, her brother had not returned to the country. After graduating, he became an adventurer, traveling the world alone. Qin Zhiyu remained in this city, found a job after graduation, and settled in Kangcheng.
“Time to rest again. Wishing myself sweet dreams tonight,” Qin Zhiyu thought to herself.
Little did she know that this final dream would be so long.
When she sat up in bed, drenched in cold sweat, a gray haze enveloped the land.
[Drip—, information reception complete. Cataclysm System successfully loaded.]
[System binding complete. This system is bound to Qin Zhiyu, non-transferable and non-detachable. Welcome to use.]
[Level: 0]
Upgrade method: Blood Sacrifice.
[Functions: Available for viewing after reaching Level 1]
[Catastrophe Countdown: 3 days, 5 hours, 34 minutes]
Another dream. Qin Zhiyu quickly recorded the details. This dream lasted 19 hours, and she woke up at 18:26—twice as long as her previous dreams. Yet, there was still no news of her brother, Qin Yanheng, in the dream.
Qin Zhiyu had initially thought the dream would end with her death in one of the Heavenly Disasters. However, after the fourth disaster in the dream, Wen Zhiyin used special means to reach her residential complex, Tai’an Community. The Resources delivered to her Sanctuary were seized by Wen Zhiyin through sheer force. Even when entering the Ruins, Qin Zhiyu was targeted by Wen Zhiyin’s admirers.
Though she managed to obtain an Advanced Blueprint by chance, the information was leaked by someone who had entered the Ruins with her. Wen Zhiyin’s admirers set a trap, and Qin Zhiyu not only lost the Blueprint but also her life.
Even after dreaming of her own death, the dream did not end. This time, the perspective shifted to a woman named Mei Xunmei.
Mei Xunmei, a highly skilled female special forces soldier, came from a wealthy family. Her birth mother died early, and her father remarried. As the saying goes, with a stepmother comes a stepfather. The stepmother gave birth to a pair of twins, an older brother named Mei Ting and a younger sister named Mei Chen.
From the moment the twins were born, they carried the halo of a wealthy merchant family. Born during the peak of their father’s career, they naturally received all the love and attention. The happy life of this family of four gradually made Mei’s father forget about his daughter from his late first wife.
Mei Xunmei was not the type to compete for favor or sweet-talk others. Instead, she inherited the genes of her maternal grandparents and aspired to join the military from a young age. Years of military life forged her resilient character, setting her apart from her pampered younger sister and her brother, who stood out for his business talent and earned their father’s high regard.
During an operation to apprehend a criminal suspect, she was forced into the jungle by drug traffickers. While fighting off wolves, she stumbled into a cave and became trapped. There, she unexpectedly discovered traces of human survival, obtained an inheritance, and unlocked a Pocket Dimension.
This Pocket Dimension allowed her to grow plants and store items, with time flowing twice as fast inside—one day in the space equaled twelve hours in the outside world.
Coming from a wealthy family, she didn’t see much use for this Pocket Dimension. Her ambition remained to serve as a soldier.
The benefits of the Pocket Dimension were merely to ease her daily missions, reduce the burden of marching, carry more medical supplies and Resources, and improve logistical support. She stored medicine, food, water Resources, simple survival supplies, and the like in the space. The rest consisted of Chinese herbal plants and other seeds she planted casually out of boredom, testing the soil and time flow.
She didn’t manage it meticulously because, as someone from a wealthy family, she didn’t need the Resources produced by the Pocket Dimension. It was just a pastime.
However, Mei Xunmei was well aware of the Pocket Dimension’s uniqueness and never revealed it to anyone. Later, when the Heavenly Disaster struck, the items she had stored provided immense assistance during the initial struggle for survival. Those precious seeds became invaluable treasures.
As for Wen Zhiyin, she grew up in poverty. While traveling in the Daba Mountains, the rugged mountain road caused the vehicle’s tire to burst, flipping it into a river channel. Fortunately, it was the dry season, and the water wasn’t deep. Accustomed to farm work from a young age, she was stronger than most women and quickly broke the car window to escape.
After being rescued, she unexpectedly discovered that plants grew exceptionally well and quickly whenever she did farm work. Being meticulous by nature, she soon noticed this peculiarity and realized she had gained this ability due to the accident.
Wen Zhiyin then used her ability to accelerate plant growth to manage and operate a farm. Unfortunately, fate had other plans. The Heavenly Disaster disrupted her plans. According to her original blueprint, she would have led her hometown out of poverty, built a national brand, and become a renowned successful female entrepreneur.
The Heavenly Disaster reduced everything to nothing, rendering all her efforts futile.
Wen Zhiyin secretly resented why fate had been so unfair to her. Her parents divorced and abandoned her to seek livelihoods elsewhere when she was young, leaving her to rely solely on her grandmother. Just as life was about to improve, a Heavenly Disaster mercilessly erased all her achievements.
However, she was not one to sit idly by and wait for death. Instead, she strived to survive. During a visit to a Divine Relic, she learned about Mei Xunmei’s ability and became intensely jealous. She believed that if she had obtained that Pocket Dimension, she too could have lived better during the Heavenly Disaster, unlike now—having the ability but lacking sufficient space to utilize it.
From that moment on, Wen Zhiyin felt she was the true protagonist, and Mei Xunmei’s arrival was merely to deliver the Pocket Dimension to her. She secretly investigated Mei Xunmei, scheming to trip her up at every turn…
The dream ended there. Qin Zhiyu sat on the bed with a bitter smile. What on earth was all that?
Thinking of the two female characters in the dream—their remarkable beauty and their robust Golden Fingers—and then looking at herself, who had experienced the heart-pounding terror of the apocalypse from every angle and still ended up dead, it was as if they were holding the protagonist’s script, while she was just a troublesome, tragically killed cannon fodder in the dream.
She didn’t know whether the dream was a premonition or if it was truly her own experience from a past life.
Qin Zhiyu didn’t dwell too much on which it was. Now, with this dream, she felt more confident about surviving and living longer in the apocalypse.
As for those with powerful Golden Fingers, she wouldn’t encounter them in the early stages of the disaster. The most important thing was to strive to survive, avoid their sharp edge, and become stronger than them.
As for revenge, she would need to find the right opportunity and plan carefully.
Carrying today’s food supplies—a live fish, a live chicken, and a live duck—Qin Zhiyu headed toward her apartment building. Under the dim streetlights, a few scattered fellow travelers walked alongside her, all bundled up tightly and moving hurriedly. Under the cover of night, no one felt inclined to strike up a conversation.
Unidentifiable black dust floated before her eyes, and wearing a mask made her feel even more stifled.
Qin Zhiyu wondered: since the Cataclysm System said “information loading complete,” did that mean the dream had ended, or that she wouldn’t dream again in the days leading up to the Heavenly Disaster?
Regardless of the reason, the information provided by the system was undoubtedly invaluable, making her even more eager for the day the system would activate.
According to the system’s requirement for a Blood Sacrifice, Qin Zhiyu had considered whether she needed to personally kill a living creature. The choice of creature would likely be something easily found in daily life, like chickens, ducks, or fish. It was impossible to kill a person in a stable, orderly environment, and besides, she had no justifiable reason to do so, nor could she bring herself to do it.
A leaf from the Osmanthus Tree above swirled down and landed on her head. Qin Zhiyu smiled bitterly. The countdown was growing shorter. Perhaps even the plants sensed the impending apocalypse, growing desperately and racing against time.
In the past, walking under this Osmanthus Tree, she could still look up and see the sky. Now, the branches completely obscured the view overhead, and passing beneath the tree made the light even dimmer.
In recent years, the environment had undergone drastic changes: floods in deserts, prolonged droughts in areas that should have been rainy seasons. The night air was murky, always faintly tinged with floating dust.
Experts claimed this black dust was harmless to humans, but who would believe that? No one wanted to use their own body as an experiment. So, those with strong safety awareness, whether going out at night or returning home, all wore masks without exception.
“Sigh, the apocalypse really seems to be shaping up this way. Why haven’t I seen any powerful superpowers emerge? Wind, water, lightning, thunder—any of them would do. The female lead and supporting characters even have Pocket Dimensions and plant-growth abilities.”
In Qin Zhiyu’s view, the conflict between Wen Zhiyin and Mei Xunmei involved abundant Resources and formidable abilities, with followers and admirers of both genders swarming around them. At best, she herself was just cannon fodder. If this were a web novel, she wouldn’t even qualify as a supporting character in this story.
While mocking herself, Qin Zhiyu observed her surroundings. The dense vegetation before her seemed to peer maliciously at passersby with its lush branches and leaves.
“Ah—” A man beside her screamed. “What the hell is that!” A dark shadow swiftly snatched his bag, slipping nimbly between his legs.
“Give it back, you beast!” The man cursed and immediately gave chase.
A blood-curdling shriek echoed from the darkness.