The first thing she needed to do after leaving the hospital was check her mother’s inheritance.
She needed to know exactly what belonged to her.
After that, she could decide what to do.
If her investments could be liquidated quickly enough, she would have significantly more money.
If the property was useful, she could inspect it.
If it wasn’t, she could sell it.
Or perhaps use it as collateral.
Nyx’s thoughts paused.
Collateral.
Loans.
She frowned slightly.
Could she borrow money?
The thought immediately became complicated.
A loan would give her access to more money, and Nyx wouldn’t have to worry about repayments after Realmfall.
But it would also create obligations.
Before the apocalypse, she would need to pass financial checks, provide documents, and deal with banks.
Time was also a problem.
Thirty days wasn’t enough to deal with complicated financial arrangements.
Nyx dismissed the idea for now.
She would first find out what she already had.
Then she could decide whether additional money was necessary.
[Current Synchronization: 60%.]
Nyx looked up.
The System panel remained before her eyes for several seconds before disappearing.
Nyx placed the empty spoon down.
She had just reached for her phone again when Lucian stirred.
His brows furrowed slightly.
Nyx immediately turned toward him.
Lucian slowly opened his eyes.
For several seconds, he looked confused.
Then his gaze landed on her.
"You’re still awake."
Nyx looked at him. Was that the first thing he said?
Her lips twitched. "So are you now."
Lucian slowly sat up, rubbing his eyes. He glanced around before looking out the window. "How long was I asleep?"
"Long enough to wake up with a sore neck."
Lucian quickly straightened.
Nyx almost laughed, almost.
"You should have woken me."
"You were tired."
"So are you." Nyx fell silent.
Lucian looked at her injured arm. His expression changed slightly. "Does it hurt?"
It was a simple question. But Nyx remembered another time Lucian asked her the same thing.
They had been hiding inside an abandoned building’s ruins. She was bleeding. Lucian was terrified. She had lied then, saying she was fine.
Nyx looked at the cast on her arm. "It hurts." Lucian blinked, surprised.
Nyx gave a faint smile. "But I’ll live."
His face relaxed a little. "Good."
The single word made something tighten in her chest.
Nyx looked away. "Are you hungry?"
Lucian hesitated. "Maybe."
Nyx raised an eyebrow. "Maybe?"
"I don’t want to leave you."
Of course he didn’t.
Nyx sighed. "There should be food nearby." She reached for the call button by the bed.
Lucian immediately stood. "I can get it."
"No."
"But-"
"Sit down." Lucian froze. Nyx stared at him.
He slowly sat again.
"Good." Lucian looked like he wanted to argue but decided against it.
Nyx pressed the call button.
A few minutes later, a nurse returned, slightly surprised to see Lucian awake. "Is everything okay?"
Nyx nodded. "My brother hasn’t eaten. Can he get something?"
The nurse looked at Lucian. "Of course. There’s a cafeteria downstairs."
Lucian instantly stood again. Nyx watched.
The nurse smiled slightly at his movement. "You can go downstairs. Your sister isn’t going anywhere."
Lucian hesitated.
Nyx waved her hand. "Go eat."
He looked hesitant.
Nyx kept her gaze on him. "Lucian."
"I’ll be back," Lucian said as he glanced at her repeatedly before following the nurse toward the door.
Nyx watched him leave.
The moment the door closed behind them, the System appeared again.
[Current Synchronization: 70%.]
The number had jumped.
Before she could react, another notification appeared.
[Current Synchronization: 80%.]
[Current Synchronization: 90%.]
The System panel remained before her eyes.
Nyx didn’t move.
For some reason, she suddenly felt nervous.
The System had come back with her.
It had bound itself to her soul.
And now—
[Current Synchronization: 95%.]
A faint sound echoed through her consciousness.
Click.
Nyx’s breath caught.
The sensation was unmistakable.
[Current Synchronization: 100%.]
For several seconds, nothing happened.
Then every translucent notification disappeared.
Nyx stared ahead.
The hospital room was silent.
Even the pressure inside her consciousness had vanished.
Nyx slowly frowned.
"That’s it?"
A new panel appeared.
Unlike the previous notifications, this one was larger, clearer, and more stable.
[Realmfall Survival Apocalypse System]
[Host: Nyx Arden]
[Status: Activated.]
[Temporal State: Pre-Realmfall.]
[Realmfall Event: 30 Days, 11 Hours, 23 Minutes Remaining.]
[Storage Slots: Available.]
[Spatial Seed: Available — Dormant.]
[System Functions: Partially Unlocked.]
Nyx stopped breathing.
Available.
Her eyes immediately moved to the next line.
Storage Slots.
Spatial Seed.
Were the storage slots what she thought they were? But what was the Spatial Seed? What did it mean?
Nyx’s pulse began to race.
"Open System Interface."
The translucent panel changed.
[Storage]
[Spatial Seed]
[Status]
[System Functions]
Nyx stared at the options.
For the first time since waking up, genuine excitement appeared in her eyes.
She thought she would spend the next several hours calculating money, warehouses, properties, suppliers, delivery routes, and storage.
But now—Nyx slowly smiled. Maybe she wouldn’t need as much storage space as she thought.
Her gaze settled on the first option.
[Storage.]
Nyx selected it.
The interface changed immediately.
Three empty spaces appeared before her.
Then another three.
And another three.
[Consumable Storage Slots: 3]
[Material Storage Slots: 3]
[Energy Storage Slots: 3]
All nine were empty.
Nyx stared at them.
For several seconds, she couldn’t move.
Then she laughed.
A disbelieving laugh escaped her before she covered her mouth with her uninjured hand. It didn’t help. The amusement continued bubbling up despite her attempts to suppress it.
Three years.
She had spent three years fighting over food, searching abandoned buildings, carrying supplies until her shoulders ached, and watching people kill each other over things as insignificant as a bottle of clean water.
She had once spent an entire afternoon searching through the remains of a supermarket for canned food, only to discover that another group had arrived before her and taken almost everything.
And now she had this.
Actual portable storage.
Her gaze moved between the three categories.
"How does this work?"
The System responded immediately.
[Storage functions through spatial preservation.]
[Stored items are isolated from external time and environmental conditions.]
Nyx’s eyes widened slightly.
So it really was preservation.
That explained why the System had separated the storage from the Spatial Seed.
But how much could each slot actually hold?
She tapped the first category.
[Consumable Storage]
[Available Slots: 3]
[Storage Capacity Per Slot: 100 m3]
Nyx stared at the number.
"One hundred cubic meters?"
[Affirmative.]
[Each storage slot is an independent spatial compartment.]
[Each compartment measures approximately 5 meters in length, 5 meters in width, and 4 meters in height.
To put that into perspective, one storage slot is roughly the size of a small bedroom or a compact garage.]
Nyx’s eyes widened.
The System continued.
[Items stored within a slot occupy physical space.]
[Capacity is determined by volume, not by the number of individual items.]
Nyx blinked.
"So if I put bottled water inside, I can keep adding bottles until they fill the available space?"
[Affirmative.]
"What if I put food in the same slot?"
[Permitted.]
"What about medicine?"
[Permitted.]
Nyx nodded slowly.
So the restriction wasn’t based on the exact type of item.
It was based on the category.
Consumables belonged in Consumable Storage. Weapons, clothing, camping equipment, vehicles, building supplies, and other physical goods belonged in Material Storage. Fuel, batteries, energy crystals, beast cores, and other usable energy resources belonged in Energy Storage.
Her eyes slowly brightened.
This was considerably more useful than she had expected.
She selected Material Storage.
[Material Storage: 3 Slots]
[Storage Capacity Per Slot: 100 m3]
"So each one is the same size?"
[Affirmative.]
"And the space doesn’t get bigger depending on what I put inside?"
[Negative.]
Nyx finally understood.
It was essentially a collection of separate storage rooms that existed outside normal physical space.
A hundred cubic meters was already enormous.
And there were nine of them.
"Can I store living things?"
There was a brief pause.
[Storage is intended for non-living objects.]
Nyx expected that but she wanted to be sure.
She looked at the interface again.
"What happens when I fill one?"
[Storage Capacity: 100%]
[Additional items cannot be stored in this compartment until sufficient space becomes available.]
Nyx nodded.
That made sense.
There was no mysterious limit on how many items she could store. If something was small, she could store a large quantity. If something was large, it would consume more of the available space.
She returned to the Consumable Storage.
Her eyes landed on the bowl of fruit beside her bed.
She picked up an apple.
For a moment, she simply held it.
Then she concentrated on the storage interface.
"Store."
The apple disappeared.
Nyx froze.
Her hand was empty.
She blinked.
Then she laughed again.
"That easy?"
"Retrieve."
The apple appeared in her hand.
Nyx turned it over.
It looked exactly the same.
She took a bite.
Fresh.
Exactly as it had been before she stored it.
Nyx swallowed.
"So... there’s really no passage of time inside?"
[Affirmative.]
This was too perfect, it felt like a dream but it was real. Everything was.