Nyx closed her eyes and took a slow breath in.
Then another.
And another.
She needed a moment to calm herself.
When she finally opened her eyes, the System panel was still floating before her.
Just then, another thought occurred to her.
"Can the storage capacity increase?"
The interface changed.
[Storage Expansion is available.]
[Storage capacity may be increased through System Rewards.]
Nyx’s eyes narrowed.
"How much can it increase?"
[Determined by the reward.]
"So I could eventually have more than one hundred cubic meters in each slot?"
[Affirmative.]
Nyx stared at the words for several seconds.
"Seriously..."
She breathed out the word, a wide, happy smile slowly spreading across her face.
"If I hadn’t already proved to myself that whatever is happening to me is real, I wouldn’t dare believe that you’re real."
She looked at the panel thoughtfully.
"Because, seriously, is this luck or what?"
Her smile faded slightly as another question surfaced.
"Tell me something. Why did you bind yourself to me?"
Nyx leaned back against the hospital bed.
"Was it because of my last life? Or because I was reborn?"
She paused before continuing.
"There are millions of other people in this world. So why me?"
For the first time since the System had become fully activated, there was a noticeable pause before it responded.
[It is understandable for the Host to be skeptical about this experience.]
[However, your connection to the Realmfall Survival Apocalypse System is not the result of luck.]
[You are the rightful host recognized by the System.]
Nyx’s expression became serious.
The System continued.
[As for the reason you were selected, I do not possess that information.]
[Your rebirth was also not caused by the System.]
Nyx blinked.
"So you don’t know why I was reborn?"
[Correct.]
"And you don’t know why you chose me?"
[Correct.]
Nyx frowned.
That answer was strangely unsatisfying.
She had expected the System to know everything, but apparently, it didn’t.
She looked at the panel again.
"So you can actually have a conversation like this?"
[The System is capable of responding to the Host’s questions.]
Nyx smiled faintly.
"That’s good."
She paused before adding, "And please stop responding like a machine reading from an instruction manual."
There was another brief pause.
[Host’s request accepted.]
[System communication settings have been adjusted.]
Nyx’s eyebrows rose.
"That was fast."
[There is no reason to make a simple adjustment complicated.]
Nyx stared at the response for a moment.
Then she laughed softly.
"Much better."
She looked at the panel again.
"Now, about what you said earlier."
Her expression became curious.
"What exactly did you mean by the Spatial Seed?"
The System responded.
[The Spatial Seed is an independent entity.]
[It contains a Living Space—a separate world connected to the Spatial Seed.]
Nyx’s eyes widened slightly.
"A separate world?"
[Yes.]
[The Spatial Seed is not a function of the Realmfall Survival Apocalypse System.]
[I can access the Spatial Seed, communicate information about it to the Host, and assist with its functions. However, the Spatial Seed itself does not belong to the System.]
Nyx slowly frowned.
"Then why is it connected to you?"
[That is unknown.]
Nyx’s expression changed.
"Unknown?"
[Yes.]
[The System does not possess information regarding the origin of the connection.]
[The Spatial Seed became connected to the System for reasons that are currently unknown.]
Nyx stared at the response.
"So even you don’t know how that happened?"
[No.]
She rubbed her chin with her uninjured hand.
This was becoming more complicated than she had expected.
The System was a powerful relic. The Spatial Seed was a separate entity. Yet somehow, the two had become connected, and neither the System nor Nyx currently knew why.
Nyx looked at the interface again.
"Then what can I do with the Spatial Seed?"
[If you want to know, open the Spatial Seed option.]
Nyx’s gaze shifted toward the menu.
[Storage]
[Spatial Seed]
[Status]
[System Functions]
Her eyes settled on the second option.
[Spatial Seed]
Nyx hesitated.
A strange feeling stirred inside her.
She had thought the storage alone was an incredible advantage. But now the System was telling her that there was an entirely separate world waiting behind another option.
She reached toward the interface and selected [Spatial Seed].
[Opening Spatial Seed. Spatial fluctuations detected.]
The next second, a tiny, dark seed appeared in her mind.
It slowly rotated in place, suspended within the darkness of her consciousness.
Nyx barely had time to register what she was seeing before the world around her vanished.
Her body disappeared from the hospital bed.
When she opened her eyes again, she was standing in the middle of a vast, unfamiliar space.
Nyx immediately turned around.
Gray fog surrounded her in every direction.
She took a cautious step backward and looked toward the horizon.
There was nothing to see.
The fog hung thickly in the distance, obscuring everything beyond it.
Nyx tilted her head upward slightly.
Above her was a muted gray sky.
There was no sun.
No moon.
No visible source of light.
Yet the surroundings were still dimly illuminated, allowing her to see several meters ahead.
She lowered her gaze.
The ground beneath her feet was uneven and dry.
Cracked, hardened earth stretched in every direction, the fissures running across the surface like old scars.
Nyx stepped forward slowly.
As she looked farther ahead, she noticed patches of withered grass scattered across the barren ground.
There wasn’t much of it.
In fact, some patches were so sparse that she could barely distinguish them from the dirt.
There were no trees whatsoever, let alone any vegetation large enough to provide shade.
Nyx slowly turned in place.
Was this what the System had meant when it said the Spatial Seed was available but dormant?
Honestly, that was a better way of describing the space’s condition.
It was more than dormant.
The entire place felt strangely still.
There was no wind.
No sound.
No movement.
Nothing seemed to be growing, changing, or even trying to survive.
In short, it looked like a dead land.
Nyx walked forward for a while before speaking.
"Is this what you meant when you said the Spatial Seed was available but dormant after activation?"
She looked around again.
"Because if that’s the description, I’d say it’s more than dormant. It’s dead and empty."
She stopped and looked down at the shallow depressions in the ground.
Further ahead, there were more depressions mixed with occasional raised sections.
The terrain was uneven but otherwise completely barren.