【Supernatural Item locking countdown: 10 seconds. Ten, nine, eight…】
Hearing the familiar mechanical voice in her ear again, Wen Xi grabbed her phone and smashed it onto the floor!
【One!】
“Crack!” The old phone was destroyed exactly on cue.
Two seconds later, amidst Wen Xi’s nervous breathing, the mechanical voice sounded: 【Ding! Supernatural item locked! Apocalypse loading progress: 80%】
“Hoo… cough, cough!”
Wen Xi sat on the floor, exhausted. Her gaze swept across the room’s furnishings, and she even saw the two hamsters she kept; it felt like a familiar sensation from another lifetime.
Only a moment ago, she had been backstabbed by her stepsister and strangled to death, and in her final moments, she had heard them discussing cannibalizing her remains. Yet, in the blink of an eye…
Wen Xi scrambled to stand up and checked the calendar to confirm:
June 10, 2027!
Was it the morning of the day the apocalypse arrived? She wasn’t dreaming! She had really been reborn!
Wen Xi’s fingertips trembled, her mind flooded with joy and shock.
On this day in her previous life, a similarly inexplicable mechanical voice had sounded in her ear, scaring her so much that she ruined her last heating pad.
She had assumed it was some child playing with a game on loudspeaker and didn’t pay it much mind, as she was in a hurry to get to her written exam. It wasn’t until later that she discovered everyone around her had heard that same sentence!
A prank? New technology? An alien invasion?
No panic occurred; people acted like sheep, waiting for an official announcement—
But at 6:00 PM, the apocalypse descended upon the globe.
First, a black rain fell for two days and two nights.
The rain was pervasive, carrying an unavoidable contamination. People who were rained upon gradually mutated and went insane, eating others.
Vegetables, water sources, and other things touched by the rain also carried pathogens; any creature that consumed them would be infected and trigger a mutation.
The world plunged into massive panic.
Even with the authorities stepping in to control the situation and suppressing public opinion, it only provided slight relief.
Even more terrifying, the contaminated rain was merely the beginning. What followed were extreme cold and high temperatures, famine and drought, mutated human-like beings… scene after scene of nightmares turned the world into a purgatory!
The only chance of survival was a supernatural item!
Thinking of this.
Wen Xi calmed down and crouched.
She pulled the SIM card out of the phone wreckage, washed up, changed her clothes, found her bank card, and headed out.
She wasn’t crazy.
This near-instinctual destruction was because after the apocalypse descended, a portion of the population—including herself—had activated supernatural items!
According to official data analysis, these supernatural items generally required two steps to be satisfied:
First, destroy an old item before the countdown ends to initiate the “locking” process.
Second, before the apocalypse arrives, use “cash” to purchase a new item of the same type to “activate” it!
The second condition was considered perverse in modern society and had trapped countless survivors!
If it hadn’t been for the fact that electronic devices were prohibited during her written exam, causing Wen Xi to prepare cash and buy a heating pad along the way, she wouldn’t have been able to awaken a supernatural ability!
“Hello, I’d like to withdraw all my money, including the small change.”
“I see. May I ask why you are withdrawing this money? We have regulations…”
“If you keep nagging, I will go to the China Banking Regulatory Commission to file a complaint against you.”
The teller: “…”
“The total is 49,913.17 RMB. Here you go.”
“Thank you.”
Wen Xi took the cash and walked out of the bank.
She was someone who neither her father loved nor her mother cared for; no one had paid her any mind since middle school. These savings were earned from tutoring, and they would be exactly what she needed to complete the second step.
Buying a new phone!
Wen Xi hailed a taxi.
“Young lady, where to?” the driver asked.
“MixC Mall.”
“Alright, get in.”
The taxi headed toward the largest shopping center.
Wen Xi took a deep breath and looked calmly at the rushing traffic outside the window.
In her previous life, she had blundered and only awakened a mediocre ability called 【Solar Heating Pad】, and she had always regretted it:
Why hadn’t she bound a more powerful item?
It wasn’t just Wen Xi; discussions on survivor forums about “If you were reborn before the apocalypse, what item would you bind?” were always trending.
Some suggested gold, some missiles, some air conditioners, but the most supported answer was—
“Mobile phone.”
The smartest, most advanced, and most functional new model!
You must know that in her previous life, a seven-year-old child had bound a “phone watch,” thereby activating all the software downloaded on it!
“Ele.me” could order food out of thin air, the camera could detect contamination, educational apps could provide escape routes…
Not only did that child live comfortably and happily, but they also partnered with the authorities to become a key protected figure, destined to be an apocalypse deity, with infinite glory!
If a low-intelligence phone watch could do that, what would happen if she bound a new phone with dozens of apps installed?
Unlimited shopping, endless food delivery, remote file transfer, pathogen sterilization…
It would literally be an apocalypse god-tier item!
It would be awesome!
This was why, as soon as Wen Xi was reborn, she smashed her phone without hesitation!
But in her previous life, she could only regretfully console herself: “No matter how trashy the ability is, it’s better than having nothing!”
Moreover, the 【Solar Heating Pad】 wasn’t all bad; Wen Xi relied on it to survive the early stages of the apocalypse and even saved her half-sister…
Fu Ruoyao!
Wen Xi clenched her fists, fury burning in her chest.
Her mother had been missing for many years, her scumbag father had remarried, and besides asking for money, his only contact with her was to coax her into taking care of his new daughter, Fu Ruoyao.
Yet, in her past life, she had acted as if bewitched, inexplicably giving them money to curry favor, and even after her scumbag father and stepmother died in the apocalypse, she had foolishly reached out to help her stepsister.
Who could have known that this animal would return kindness with vengeance and steal her supernatural item!
That animal…
She was going to kill those people!
“Young lady, we’re here.”
Wen Xi snapped out of her thoughts, paid the fare, and got out: “Thank you, driver.”
The mall was packed with people. Wen Xi headed straight for the mobile phone specialty store on the second-floor pedestrian bridge.
“Hello, how can I h—”
Before the clerk could finish, Wen Xi took a stack of red bills from her pocket and dropped them on the counter.
“Give me the latest model phone with the best performance and the largest storage! I’m taking it now.”