Sunny gasped as her consciousness slammed violently back into her physical body.
The rusty springs of the cheap motel bed squealed under her weight as she jerked upright. She wrapped her arms around her chest, her teeth chattering uncontrollably. The freezing temperature from that endless, starry void had seeped straight into her bones.
It’s like a freezer in there. A very, very big freezer.
She rubbed her arms, trying to get the blood flowing again. Her violet eyes locked onto the glowing silver crescent moon resting against her collarbone.
In the novel, Donovan used this space to keep fresh, hot meals ready for years. But if the space was literally absolute zero, wouldn’t a hot meal just turn into a block of ice the second she stored it?
Hehe, time to test it out.
She snickered in excitement.
Sunny grabbed her shoes. She didn’t bother fixing her messy red hair. She marched right out of the grimy motel room and hit the cold night air of the Koria streets.
A neon sign buzzed halfway down the block. A 24-hour convenience store.
She pushed through the glass doors, the little bell chiming above her head. The clerk behind the counter barely looked up from his phone. Perfect.
Sunny walked straight to the back aisles. She grabbed two instant ramen cups, a large black coffee from the hot dispenser, and a cheap digital watch. She slapped a crisp hundred-dollar bill on the counter.
"Keep the change," she muttered, grabbing the plastic bag before the clerk could even process the transaction.
The clerk was confused.
She didn’t even get to check out?
She walked out of the store and immediately ducked into a dark, secluded alleyway next to a row of overflowing dumpsters. It smelled absolutely vile, but it was the only blind spot she could find.
She ripped the packaging off the noodles, poured the scalding hot water from the store’s thermos station into the cups, and closed the lids. Steam billowed up into the cold night air. The coffee cup was so hot it was actively burning her fingers.
Okay, moment of truth.
The next moment, a soft silver light flashed. The plastic bag, the steaming noodles, and the burning hot coffee vanished from her hands.
Sunny looked down at her newly purchased digital watch. She hit the stopwatch button.
Ten minutes. If time is frozen, the coffee will still burn my tongue. If it’s just a freezer, I’m going to pull out a coffee popsicle.
She leaned against the dirty brick wall, tapping her foot impatiently. The cold wind bit at her bare legs, but she didn’t care. Her entire survival strategy depended on this single test. She could not afford to get this wrong.
If she had to survive a literal apocalypse, she refused to do it eating cold, hard rations. She wanted hot fried chicken. She wanted spicy noodles. She wanted fresh, warm bread.
Five minutes.
Eight minutes.
Ten minutes.
Now.
She touched the pendant. The plastic bag materialised out of thin air, dropping perfectly into her outstretched hands.
Sunny didn’t even breathe. She reached into the bag and grabbed the paper coffee cup.
She gasped. It was scalding hot.
She ripped the lid off the instant noodles. A thick cloud of hot, spicy steam hit her face immediately. The noodles were perfectly cooked, piping hot, and completely untouched by the freezing void.
"Holy shit," Sunny whispered, a massive, unhinged grin spreading across her face.
If having a system was this good, why did it only happen in fiction?! It’s not fair!
The cold sky inside the pendant was just a visual. Time was literally completely frozen. The second an item entered the space, its state was locked forever.
I am going to buy so much food.
She marched back to the motel, eating her hot noodles with a vicious sense of triumph.
When the sun finally rose over Koria the next morning, Sunny was already on the move. She had exactly nine thousand, nine hundred Koria dollars left. It was a decent chunk of change, but in the grand scheme of an apocalypse, it was pocket lint.
She needed to stretch every single dollar.
She hailed a cab and gave the driver a specific address. "The southern wholesale market."
The driver dropped her off at a massive, sprawling industrial district. Huge warehouses lined the streets, with forklifts buzzing around and workers shouting over the noise of heavy diesel trucks.
This was where the restaurants and supermarkets bought their stock. Sunny pulled her red hair into a messy bun and got to work.
She walked into the first massive warehouse. "I need rice. The big bags. Give me twenty of them."
The vendor raised an eyebrow at the pretty girl in the black dress ordering a massive amount of grain. "Twenty? You running a restaurant, kid?"
Sunny didn’t flinch. She pulled a thick stack of cash from her pocket and slapped it on the metal clipboard in his hands. "I am feeding a very hungry family. Drop them in the loading bay out back."
She did this for three solid hours.
She was ruthless. She bargained, she threatened to take her business elsewhere, and she paid strictly in cash.
She bought fifty cases of bottled water. She bought towering pallets of canned beef, preserved vegetables, and industrial-sized tubs of cooking oil. She bought salt, sugar, and enough spices to supply a commercial kitchen for a year.
If I have to survive the end of the world, my food is going to taste good.
Her strategy for storing it was simple but highly effective. She paid the workers to drop the pallets in a blind spot behind the warehouses, right next to the cargo train tracks where there were zero security cameras.
She waited for the workers to drive their forklifts away.
Then, she stepped up to a towering pallet of bottled water. She placed her hand flat against the plastic wrapping.
Store.
The entire pallet vanished instantly.
She moved to the mountain of rice bags. Store.
Gone.
By noon, she had completely liquidated her cash. Her pocket was empty, save for a few crumpled single dollar bills, but her spatial domain was heavily stocked. She had secured enough basic calories and clean water to easily survive a few months without starving to death.
Her feet ached. Her black dress was covered in warehouse dust. She smelled like diesel fumes and cheap coffee.
But as she sat in the back of a cab heading back to her grimy motel, she felt invincible.
She had outsmarted a pirate boss. She had successfully evaded Donovan Fallon. She had secured the ultimate cheat code, and she had just stocked it with enough supplies to keep herself alive.
I am actually good at this.
She pushed open the door to her motel room and immediately collapsed onto the squeaky mattress. She stared up at the water-stained ceiling, letting out a long, exhausted sigh of pure relief.
Step two is complete. Now I just need to figure out how to get my hands on some more missions.
She closed her eyes, ready to take a well-deserved nap.
[Ding!]
[Host has successfully utilised the Spatial Domain.]
[New Mission Available.]
Sunny groaned, rubbing her tired eyes. "Give me a break. I just got back. Can’t the apocalypse wait like, two hours?"
She forced her eyes open and read the glowing text.
[Mission: Intercept Donovan’s secondary financial pillar.]
[Reward: A fully fortified, high-tech luxury mansion in the safe zone.]
[Additional Reward: 50,000 Koria Dollars in untraceable cash.]
Sunny stopped breathing.
She sat up so fast her head spun. Her eyes widened, completely glued to the blue screen.
A fortified luxury mansion? Fifty grand in pure, untraceable cash?!
That was life-changing. With a fortified mansion in the safe zone, she wouldn’t have to scramble for shelter when the monsters breached the city. With fifty grand, she could buy weapons, tactical gear, and a lifetime supply of hot takeout food to fill her frozen sky.
This is it. This is the jackpot.
Her heart hammered against her ribs. She was practically vibrating with excitement.
"Yes," Sunny whispered frantically. "Yes, system, give it to me. I accept!"
The blue screen pulsed. The text shifted, revealing the actual task required to earn the massive reward.
[Task: Infiltrate the Viper’s Den underground fighting ring tonight.]
[Objective: Steal the Black Lotus artefact from the Viper Boss before Donovan arrives.]
[Warning: The Viper Boss is a Level 1 Awakened individual.]
[Penalty for failure: Immediate death by dismemberment.]
Huh?!
The excitement instantly drained out of her body, replaced by a cold, heavy dread that settled in the pit of her stomach.
The Viper’s Den. She knew exactly what that was. It was a completely lawless, blood-soaked underground arena run by a psychopath. And worse, the Viper Boss was already an Awakened. He had supernatural strength before the apocalypse even officially started.
If she got caught down there, there was no bluffing her way out. There was no slapping cash on a desk. They would tear her apart.
She stared at the penalty. Immediate death by dismemberment.
"Fuck me," Sunny breathed out into the empty room. "I am going to die."