Tires rolled over the overgrown weeds, emitting a crisp cracking sound like dry bones snapping.
When Wu Xiaolan drove her second-hand moped into the Songshan suburbs, the moonlight was being swallowed by drifting clouds.
The road without streetlights extended into bottomless darkness, with only the headlights cutting through a tiny patch of vision.
This broken place was even more desolate than she had imagined.
Passing another stretch of unfinished skeletons of buildings, Wu Xiaolan finally arrived at the Songshan Villa District.
The terrain here was very high, surrounded entirely by standalone villas, but almost no homes had lights on.
Wu Xiaolan relied solely on the mindset of “I have a system, what am I afraid of?” to muster the courage to step out of the car.
When she finally found building number 8-12 near the mountaintop, her mood sank completely to the bottom.
This ruined house was simply a concrete skeleton, with windows where the glass had been smashed everywhere, totaling six floors including the attic.
The beam of her flashlight swept across, revealing a few owls that had made their home there.
If this kind of place were used to shoot a movie, it would be the absolute best filming location for a horror film.
“As expected…”
What good thing could Chen Tao possibly give her?
This place didn’t even have the value of being used as collateral.
She shouldn’t have had any expectations.
The exact moment Wu Xiaolan turned around to leave—
A strange, intense flash of light suddenly erupted from the distant horizon, persisting without fading, dyeing the sky a sickly white.
Wu Xiaolan instinctively turned off her flashlight and held her breath.
The existence of the system in her mind made her exceptionally sensitive to supernatural phenomena.
Just as she walked toward her car, preparing to leave this ghost of a place, a fireball suddenly smashed down from the horizon and exploded abruptly not far from the car.
Wu Xiaolan stood frozen in place, for a moment not knowing where to run.
In the middle of nowhere, driving away seemed to be the safest option.
Fortunately, her car wasn’t caught in the blast, and the fire quickly extinguished itself.
She waited for a bit behind the villa wall, confirming there was no possibility of a secondary explosion, before running toward her car.
Just as she was about to open the door and get in, a glowing object not far away caught her attention.
A dark purple mechanical creation about two meters tall lay collapsed on the charred earth.
Its outer shell flowed with a luster like liquid metal, and blue electric arcs pulsed through intricate patterns.
What is this?
Wu Xiaolan was completely stunned.
The thing in front of her looked very much like a product that would only appear in a sci-fi movie.
“Crack.”
The crisp sound of shattering was exceptionally harsh in the silence.
Wu Xiaolan watched in astonishment as the “egg” before her fractured bit by bit, finally dissipating into a sky full of light particles, revealing a curled-up humanoid figure inside.
A young man wearing a black combat uniform lay on the ground, unconscious.
Cyan blood vessels were faintly visible beneath his pale skin, and most peculiarly, there was a pale golden pattern between his brows that flickered with his breathing before finally vanishing.
This has to be a human… right?
An alien?
Wu Xiaolan wasn’t certain.
However, minding her own business was always the right choice.
Just as she was about to get in the car and leave, the system’s voice suddenly rang out.
[“Detected energy fluctuation of the Light Domain system.”]
Light Domain system energy?
Wu Xiaolan turned back, curiously walking toward the man on the ground.
This was already the second time she had heard of this place called the Light Domain.
“The people in that Light Domain of yours should all be good guys, right?” she asked.
[“Ding! The system cannot determine this character’s stance, but successfully rescuing a resident of the Light Domain will grant the host reward points. Please weigh the options yourself.”]
Wu Xiaolan decisively turned around.
How could those few points be more important than her life?
Who would have thought that at this moment, the man suddenly moved, startling Wu Xiaolan.
She watched as he slowly opened his eyes, revealing a pair of exceptionally rare, pure amber pupils that shimmered with an otherworldly glow in the night.
His gaze was first hollow and dazed, then rapidly focused, ultimately locking firmly onto Wu Xiaolan’s face.
The next second, an immense, almost overflowing shock and ecstasy appeared in his eyes.
“Sister? You’re still alive?”
Wu Xiaolan’s hair instantly stood on end.
She abruptly backed up two steps toward the car, holding the dagger she had originally prepared to die together with the Chen family horizontally in front of her.
“I don’t know you! Don’t come over!”
Seeing Wu Xiaolan’s agitated reaction, the man immediately stood still in place, wanting to say something, yet looking as if he didn’t dare.
“Sister…”
“Don’t call me sister!” Wu Xiaolan’s tone carried a threat: “I’m calling the police right now.”
The man tilted his head slightly, pure confusion reflecting in his amber pupils.
“Does Sister not recognize Gu Gu?”
With the way he said that, was she supposed to recognize aliens?
Wu Xiaolan quickly made a fake call to the police before lowering her phone.
“Go explain whatever problems you have to the police!”
“Sister, are you abandoning Gu Gu?”
He tried to move slightly, the pain in his body causing a trace of a painful expression to cross his features.
On his lifted face, a sense of a broken spirit blended with an unworldly handsomeness to create a striking vulnerability, enough to arouse pity in anyone.
However, it didn’t seem to work on Wu Xiaolan.
By this time, Wu Xiaolan had already gotten back into the car, starting the engine while observing him vigilantly.
Seeing Wu Xiaolan stay silent, his expression shifted slightly as he asked his second question in a low voice: “Could it be that the spacetime coordinates are disordered? Sister?”
Wu Xiaolan had nothing to say to that.
Meeting a stranded, handsome alien in the middle of nowhere calling you sister, and talking about spacetime disorders on top of that, was as dangerous as a scholar meeting Xiaoqian in a ruined temple offering herself in marriage.
Perhaps because her mother Wu Xuerou was killed by her father Chen Tao, Wu Xiaolan knew deeply that showing sympathy to men could bring endless trouble, and might even implicate future generations.
Just as Wu Xiaolan started the car to flee, the sound of police sirens drifted over from not far away.
Police officers who had just finished executing a mission nearby received the report and rushed right over.
For a split second, Wu Xiaolan felt like she had made the most foolish decision.
She hadn’t expected the police to arrive so quickly; right now, she just hoped the police could beat the alien.
A middle-aged police officer stepped out of the vehicle in uniform, gesturing for Wu Xiaolan to stop her car and stepping down.
Based on the situation at the scene, the other two officers quickly locked onto Shi Gu, who was dressed in strange attire.
“What’s going on?” the police officer asked.
“She is my sister,” Shi Gu spoke up first, his voice sounding aggrieved.
Wu Xiaolan didn’t speak, but gave the middle-aged officer a subtle signal.
Thinking she had something important to say that wasn’t convenient to voice out loud, the officer motioned for her to get into the police car.
Wu Xiaolan looked back and saw Shi Gu standing frozen in place, before following the middle-aged officer into the squad car.
The officer looked at her earnestly: “Tell me whatever is on your mind, I’ll handle it impartially.”
Wu Xiaolan hurriedly said: “Officer, that man is an alien—you all must be careful.”
The middle-aged officer was stunned for a moment, complex emotions immediately surfacing on his face.
“What did you say?”
Wu Xiaolan repeated word for word: “He—is—an—alien.”
Confirming he hadn’t heard wrong, the officer looked at Wu Xiaolan, his gaze revealing a trace of sympathy.
Such a fine young woman, how did she go crazy?
Wu Xiaolan read the officer’s thoughts right away from his gaze.
This matter was too bizarre; probably no one would believe it.
Rather than tangling over this matter, it was better to change her story and get away as quickly as possible.
She had no choice but to change her tune, altering the course of events to say that she had come to check out a house and inadvertently saw a man dressed in weird clothes collapsed in the bushes, leading her to suspect he might be an alien.
Hearing this, the police officer finally broke into a slight smile: “Little girl, don’t have such a rich imagination. We’ll investigate everything clearly.”
Wu Xiaolan finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Though she didn’t want things to turn out like this either.
Since Shi Gu insisted that Wu Xiaolan was his sister, yet couldn’t explain his origins or Wu Xiaolan’s name, and the place names he blurted out sounded entirely outlandish, the police had no choice but to take Shi Gu away for disturbing the peace, preparing to transfer him to a municipal psychiatric hospital first.
As Shi Gu was taken away, he kept looking back at Wu Xiaolan.
His strikingly handsome face wore a reluctant expression.
As he got into the vehicle, his tone was firm: “Sister, I will definitely come back to find you.”
“Don’t.” Wu Xiaolan remained completely unmoved by his beauty, waving her hand: “I don’t know you, please don’t pester me.”
Shi Gu once again displayed an aggrieved expression, but quickly spoke as if comforting himself: “It’s okay, it’s okay. Once my injuries heal, I’ll go look for Sister again.”
Wu Xiaolan felt a shiver run down her spine.
A grown man over 1.8 meters tall, what is he acting all cute for?
Though when he acted spoiled, it really was a little cute.
Still, she always felt that this man named Shi Gu was no simple character, especially the way he looked at her, making her extremely uncomfortable.
It was like looking at prey, or as if they were already very familiar with each other.
All the way home on the drive back, Wu Xiaolan felt somewhat restless.
She wondered if the police would be able to contain the alien.
Fortunately, a thrilling piece of news suddenly came over the radio:
[The Songshan suburbs have been officially designated as a key urban planning zone.]
For Wu Xiaolan, this was undoubtedly an unexpected pleasant surprise.
She had just been worrying about the Songshan villa, but now that the area was about to receive key planning, the value of this villa might also skyrocket.
This way, if she used the house as collateral, she could acquire even more capital to purchase supplies.
Thinking of all this, the psychological discomfort Wu Xiaolan felt because of Gu Gu was instantly cast to the remote corners of her mind.
Filled with joy, Wu Xiaolan returned home, washed up, and lay down on her bed, calming her mind to try communicating with the system.
The apocalypse was coming soon, and the system was her only hope, so she needed to figure out its specific functions.
At this moment, the system’s voice sounded: “Ding, welcome host to read the user manual, yo.”
A system panel appeared before Wu Xiaolan.
Name: Wu Xiaolan
Age: 22 years old (Permanent)
Identity: Cosmic Light Domain Probationary Tasker
System: Omnipotent Spatial System
Overall Analysis: Mediocre aptitude, subpar intelligence, weak physical fitness.
Summary: Novice crispy-skin period, apocalyptic small newbie.
Wu Xiaolan: “…”
Wu Xiaolan stared at the panel and the corner of her mouth twitched: “System, since I’m this terrible, why did you choose me?”
[“Ding, this system has its own considerations.”]
“Hah!”
Although Wu Xiaolan was dissatisfied with the system’s evaluation, she was helpless and could only click next to read the space user manual.
Function 1: Probationary period primary system basic spatial storage function, energy value converted size is a 12-square-meter portable space.
Function 2: Permanent space preservation function; items inside the space will remain in a special preserved and static state. Food will not spoil, medicine will not expire, and all kinds of supplies can maintain their best state from the moment they were put in.
Function 3: Living entity storage, accommodating live poultry, livestock, and other living entities that meet the supply evaluation criteria.
[Warm Reminder: The placement distance for initially collected supplies must not exceed the range of the portable space.]
[The space will automatically generate a supply report, letting you clearly understand the quantity of items inside. You can also organize them through the system panel, taking and storing as you please.]
[Simultaneously reminding you that to maintain spatial energy conservation and comply with the moral constraints of this world, the storage space cannot accommodate your fellow humans.]
[The more life energy entities collected, the larger the spatial proportion they will take up, at which point your other supply space will decrease. Please store with caution.]
Only 12 square meters?
Wu Xiaolan rubbed her eyes carefully, confirming she hadn’t read it wrong.
Wasn’t that just the size of her rental room cubicle?
An area that could be filled to the brim with a few dozen boxes of instant noodles, to say nothing of raising poultry and livestock.
Compared to those magical spaces in apocalypse novels—which could either farm, build infrastructure, or even store an entire large supermarket—this 12-square-meter space was simply too small.
[“Ding, detected a drop in the host’s mindset value.”]
[“The current space level is limited. Completing missions and accumulating points will allow you to upgrade, gradually unlocking larger areas and permissions. Please maintain a good mindset and focus on the missions, host.”]
It could be upgraded?
Wu Xiaolan’s mood instantly relaxed.
Giving it a second thought, even though it was only 12 square meters, having such a portable space in the apocalypse was already extremely fortunate.
At least when moving out of her rental apartment, she wouldn’t need to spend money contacting a moving company anymore.
With a casual wave of her hand, all her belongings would be taken away together.
[“Ding! Congratulations to the host. Successfully binding the system for the first time grants a random extra surprise lucky bag. Please click to check and claim it.”]
“A lucky bag?”
This powerful?
Wu Xiaolan took a nervous, deep breath.
Hoping to roll good items.
She reached out and touched the red lucky bag on the system panel before her, and instantly fireworks special effects burst across the screen.
[“Congratulations to the host for unlocking the E-grade skill, obtaining primary permission for spatial projection, with a cumulative duration of three hours.”]
“Spatial projection?” She murmured these four words under her breath, her fingertips hovering in mid-air, her face full of bewilderment. “What can this thing even do?”
[“Host, this skill is a purely auxiliary function with no attack or defense attributes.”]
Wu Xiaolan’s mouth twitched, her tone disappointed: “So I basically rolled nothing of use?”
[“The host can record real-time footage of any duration in the current environment, and then project and play it back at any location.”]
It sounded completely useless.
In fact, it wasn’t very useful either.
Sitting in the slightly cramped and compact room, Wu Xiaolan felt that her luck was truly a bit poor.
Heavy, dragging footsteps suddenly sounded from outside the door, mixed with the rustle of slippers scraping across the floor—it was that person from next door coming out to use the restroom again.
Always rushing and making a huge commotion.
Wu Xiaolan seemed to have already gotten used to it.
The rental apartment had a layout of four bedrooms and two living rooms. The master bedroom she lived in came with an en-suite bathroom, meaning she didn’t even need to step a foot outside her door on regular days.
The largest master bedroom was occupied by a young couple preparing for their wedding and getting ready to move out; next door was a reclusive otaku web novel writer who rarely left his room all year round. What made people feel the most disgusted was the room that had opened up a few days ago, where an idle, big-built man named Li Daqiang had moved in.
Li Daqiang drank heavily every night, staggering back in the dead of night, slamming doors, cursing on the street, and kicking walls—every time making a huge commotion.
Even worse, he specifically only knocked on her door.
At first, Wu Xiaolan had been terrified, pressing tightly against the door panel and not daring to make a sound.
Outside the door was the sound of heavy pounding mixed with alcohol-tainted curses, which took a long time to stop.
The second day, she went to find the landlord.
The other party simply dismissed it lightly with: “He was just drunk, he didn’t actually break in.”
Wu Xiaolan knew clearly in her heart that Li Daqiang was completely doing it on purpose.
Aside from Li Daqiang, there were three other households living in the apartment.
He never knocked on the young couple’s door, nor did he disturb the web novel otaku next door, yet every single night he targeted the door of her, a single girl living alone.
It was obvious he saw her as alone, weak, and easily bullied, deliberately using the pretense of alcohol to threaten and intimidate her.
Previously, she had only wanted to drag that disgusting family down to hell together. As for Li Daqiang’s harassment, she treated it as an insignificant, annoying problem before dying, planning to just grit her teeth and bear it.
But now, she had survived.
Then this score had to be settled properly.
An idea struck Wu Xiaolan. Carefully cross-referencing the instruction manual for spatial projection, she made all the necessary preparations.
Without a doubt, Li Daqiang would come knocking on her door again tonight.
She lay in bed, quietly listening to the movement outside.
With a loud “bang,”
The shoddy security door was forcefully kicked open, and a heavy stench of alcohol poured in through the door gap.
He had arrived.
Wu Xiaolan immediately activated the spatial projection function, projecting the previously recorded footage into the living room.
Li Daqiang, tattooed on his arms, swayed his body, carrying a half-empty wine bottle as he staggered into the place.
Not knowing what grievances he had suffered outside, he felt unsatisfied upon entering and lashed his foot out, kicking hard against the door panel with a loud crash.
No one answered; everyone stayed inside their own rooms and didn’t come out.
Li Daqiang raised his eyes, his gaze locking precisely onto Wu Xiaolan’s door, his eyes full of ill intent.
He carried the wine bottle and walked straight toward that door.
Just as he took two steps, his peripheral vision caught sight of a figure sitting on the sofa.
Li Daqiang paused in his tracks, an oily smile immediately piling up on his face.
“Yo, beauty, waiting here for big brother?”
As soon as the words fell, the living room lights flickered unpredictably without warning.
Wu Xiaolan sat on the sofa, looking at him with calm, waveless eyes, her voice cold without a shred of temperature: “Are you still knocking on the door tonight?”
Li Daqiang’s smile froze, feeling that this sentence inexplicably carried a strange vibe.
When he rubbed his eyes and looked at the sofa again, where was the girl looking anything like Wu Xiaolan?
Seated squarely on the sofa was a disheveled woman with unkempt hair.
She wore a blood-red dress, her lips dyed a dark, purplish black, the corners of her mouth pulled back into a sinister arc, her eyes staring straight at her, her voice cold as if wrapped in ghostly chills, echoing over and over through the empty living room: “Tonight… are you still knocking on the door?”
Li Daqiang stiffened all over, his drunkenness frightened away by more than half in an instant.
His legs trembled uncontrollably, cold sweat streaming down the back of his neck.
Just as he was scared out of his wits with his limbs going numb, the scene before his eyes abruptly vanished.
The lights returned to normal.
The living room looked just like it did moments ago, except there was simply no one in the living room at all.
Li Daqiang looked around blankly, still shaken with lingering fear, breathing heavily in large gasps.
The next second, that streak of blood-red dress suddenly appeared right beside his feet.
The woman lowered her head, slowly raised her face, and flashed a sudden, wide grin at him.
“Hehehe, tonight, are you still knocking on the door?”
“Ah! Ghost!”
Li Daqiang could no longer hold it together and screamed in terror.
Scrambling and crawling, he lunged toward the front door, rushing outside like a madman.
Through the crack of the door, Wu Xiaolan watched the whole process coldly, a satisfying smile curving the corners of her mouth.
She walked to the living room to turn off the phone recording the video, pulled out a tissue, leisurely wiped away the lipstick she had deliberately smeared on her lips, and turned back to her bedroom.
Until she closed her bedroom door, the two rooms next door remained quiet, without the slightest sound.
Everyone understood that the premise of peaceful solo living was not adding trouble nor meddling in other people’s trouble.
That was fine too.
Wu Xiaolan had originally wanted to remind them of the impending apocalypse to let them prepare early, but thinking about it now, it was completely unnecessary to do extra.
Given the attitude of the people in this apartment toward handling things, if she abruptly spoke up and talked about an approaching doomsday, she would only be treated as a babbling madman or a scammer with ulterior motives.
Everyone has their own fate; looking after herself was enough.
Before sleeping, the system issued another reminder.
[“Ding! You have over-fulfilled the startup capital mission. Currently, the shelter does not yet belong under your name. Once the shelter’s title is transferred to your name, the mission will be completed.”]
The mere thought that the suburban villa wouldn’t be transferred until tomorrow filled Wu Xiaolan’s heart with vague unease.
That family of Chen Tao’s had always been utterly lacking in credibility; she had no idea what kind of harassment she might face during tomorrow’s title transfer process.