At the end of October, the weather in Haicheng began to cool down. Everything seemed exactly the same as every previous year, nothing felt unusual.
At Haishi Shucheng, Shen Hanyin purchased a large number of books under the pretense of making a library donation. Besides novels, she bought many books on practical life skills, medical knowledge, and natural disasters.
After paying, she loaded the books into her SUV. The ones that wouldn’t fit in the trunk were stuffed into the back seats. Once she found a secluded location, she stored everything inside her space before heading to another bookstore.
After a full day of shopping, combined with the books she had already brought from her family’s villa back in Nancheng, she felt it was enough. Realistically, she would probably never finish reading all of them.
Classes at the university continued as usual.
At noon she went home to feed the kitten.
After class, she went home to feed the kitten again.
Sometimes Shen Hanyin even regretted her impulsive decision to adopt Xiaobai.
She had already stopped attending both mixed martial arts and archery training. With only a few days remaining before the countdown ended, there wasn’t much improvement left to gain anyway.
On her way home every evening, she continued stocking up on various street foods and barbecue. The more, the better.
She also ordered large amounts of takeout food every night and stored it all inside her space.
Shen Hanyin purchased tea as well, Maojian, Da Hong Pao, various black teas, white teas, dark teas, and countless tea cakes. The total came to 3.2 million yuan.
Afterward, she spent another 7 million yuan on cigarettes and alcohol.
Cigarettes were difficult to purchase in large quantities. To avoid drawing suspicion, Shen Hanyin spent this period traveling all over Haicheng and neighboring cities. Fortunately, she wasn’t picky about brands and accepted whatever was available.
She didn’t smoke or drink herself.
But wherever there were people, there would always be favors and social exchanges.
Cigarettes, alcohol, and tea would never go out of style.
Meanwhile, the water quality test results from her space finally came back.
The report showed that the water was completely safe, essentially normal drinking water from a municipal supply.
Shen Hanyin silently thanked the peachwood sword once again.
It had solved what had been her greatest concern.
…
Catastrophe Countdown: 11 Days
Available Teleportation Charges: 6
A bold idea suddenly occurred to her.
She was going to visit the shooting range in Nancheng.
Since the coordinates of the shooting range appeared within her space, it meant she could teleport there.
The problem was that she didn’t know exactly where the firearms were stored.
Back then, the space hadn’t possessed this coordinate function.
This time, she intended to obtain the coordinates of the storage rooms and, when the opportunity came, collect everything into her space.
The drive between Haicheng and Nancheng took less than three hours round-trip.
If one day wasn’t enough, she would stay overnight and continue the next day.
No matter what, she was determined to succeed.
She immediately requested a day off from school.
Before leaving, she prepared an extra serving of milk formula for Xiaobai.
If she couldn’t return on time, the little kitten would have to endure a bit of hunger.
She departed at seven in the morning and arrived at the range at 8:10 a.m.
Previously, she had always trained quietly.
This time was different.
She had a goal.
The owner occasionally patrolled the range and sometimes fired a few rounds himself.
When the opportunity arose, Shen Hanyin deliberately complained that the gun she was using felt different from before.
She tried several others and claimed she still wasn’t satisfied.
The owner recognized her.
After all, during her summer break she had practically lived at the shooting range for an entire month.
As expected, he came over to chat.
They exchanged pleasantries. Shen Hanyin casually lied about being busy recently, then acted spoiled and asked:
“Do you have any other guns I can try?”
Although firearms of the same model were largely identical, long-term use could create subtle differences.
Besides, attractive people often inspired sympathy and indulgence from others, especially from the opposite sex.
The owner thought for a moment.
“I’ll see if there are any others available.”
Shen Hanyin immediately followed him.
She praised his business sense, his taste, his good looks, and even his shooting skills.
Her compliments flowed endlessly until the owner was practically floating on air.
Only when he reached the storage area and prepared to unlock a door did he suddenly realize she had followed him all the way there.
“You can’t come in here.”
Shen Hanyin immediately put on an innocent expression.
“Oh, sorry. I didn’t know.”
“You can’t approach either of these storage rooms.”
The club stored firearms and ammunition separately.
The ammunition room was directly across from the firearm storage room.
“Right, right. Sorry about that.”
She waved her hands apologetically.
At the same time, she secretly obtained the coordinates of both doors.
There was no way she could physically enter the storage rooms.
What she was really doing was gambling.
If she teleported to the coordinates, would the space place her inside the room or outside it?
The mission had gone more smoothly than she expected.
In an excellent mood, she contributed another day’s worth of business revenue to the range before returning to Haicheng.
That night she slept wonderfully.
The following day after class, she purchased paints, paper, carving knives, canvases, easels, palettes, brushes, ink, and inkstones.
If she ended up confined indoors for a long period after the disaster began, she would need hobbies to stabilize her emotions and occupy her time.
Shen Hanyin also purchased two mobile capsule cabins.
They were difficult to store, so she had them delivered directly to a campsite outside Haicheng.
Late at night, while everyone was asleep, she secretly stored both units inside her space and then teleported home.
The campsite had no surveillance cameras.
If two capsule cabins vanished overnight, their owner probably wouldn’t even report it immediately.
And even if someone did investigate, they could investigate all they wanted.
The existence of her space was so absurd that no one would figure it out anytime soon.
Catastrophe Countdown: 8 Days
After dinner, darkness had already fallen.
Dressed warmly, Shen Hanyin went outside and walked around the residential complex.
She wanted to observe her surroundings.
Especially Building 9, the building where she lived.
She paid close attention to which apartments still had lights on.
For the remaining days, she planned to do this every night.
Since there was still some time before the countdown reached zero, she continued raiding supermarkets farther and farther away.
Daily necessities.
Chocolate.
Candy.
Milk powder.
Cookies.
Sausages.
All kinds of snacks.
She reviewed her inventory checklist and filled in a few overlooked items:
Mosquito nets.
Window screens.
Lighters.
Fire starters.
Various detection devices.
Silently, she prayed that she had remembered everything.
And that anything she hadn’t purchased would never become necessary.
During her final mixed martial arts class, the coach gave her an evaluation.
“Against a few adult men, you’d have no problem.”
“Of course,” he added, “that’s assuming they’re untrained.”
Shen Hanyin smiled and thanked him.
Then she walked downstairs and purchased fifty baseball bats.
A classic choice for fighting.
On the way home, she bought several outfits for Xiaobai, ranging from tiny sizes to larger ones, in every color and style imaginable.
Sunday night arrived.
The university’s campus performance was underway.
Listening to the cheering students below the stage, Shen Hanyin felt a complicated sense of helplessness.
She couldn’t tell them about the coming disaster.
Even she herself couldn’t fully prove it was real.
And even if she did tell them, how many people would actually believe her?
She couldn’t shoulder responsibility for other people’s futures.
She refused to believe she was the only person in the world who had mysteriously obtained a space.
Surely somewhere, in some city, someone else had received a similar opportunity.
Catastrophe Countdown: 2 Days
The sky remained a clear, brilliant blue.
Nothing appeared unusual.
Her bank balance had dwindled to 1,010,239.24 yuan.
There was still more money left than she expected.
So she purchased another batch of cigarettes and alcohol.
Then she drove to a distant market and bought dozens of crates of fruit, bottled water, and sparkling water.
The closer the countdown came to zero, the farther from home she chose to make her purchases.
She drove around and siphoned more fuel into her space.
At night she stocked up on barbecue and street food.
Money was useless if the disaster truly arrived.
Food, however, would always have value.
She drove to a stretch of road without surveillance cameras, stored her vehicle inside her space, and teleported back home.
The distance was considerable.
The teleportation left her with a pounding headache.
That night, rain began falling over Haicheng.
Nothing unusual.
Just an ordinary rainstorm.
The soft patter of rain was almost soothing.
Catastrophe Countdown: 1 Day
Shen Hanyin took another day off.
The weather briefly cleared before the rain started again.
Neither the news nor online media paid any special attention to it.
She fully charged her phones and tablets.
She downloaded television dramas and cooking recipes.
Her schedule had always been healthy.
She rarely stayed up late.
After checking her inventory one final time before bed, exhaustion quickly overtook her.
She fell asleep almost immediately.
The sound of rain woke her.
It was 5:52 a.m.
She pulled back the curtains.
Rain hammered against the windows as if trying to smash through the glass.
Picking up her phone, she saw emergency alerts everywhere.
Torrential rain warnings.
Flood warnings.
Reports from all across the country.
She glanced toward the countdown inside her space.
Catastrophe Countdown: 0 Days
“Has it finally arrived?”