“Hiss—!”
Lin Wan sucked in a sharp breath. Her whole body curled up, and cold sweat instantly burst out across her back.
The spot on her palm where the old man in the gray robe had grabbed her hurt—hurt terribly! It felt as if a red-hot branding iron had been pressed hard against it. The pain drilled straight into her bones, as if even the gaps between them were being burned through.
She bit down hard on her lower lip to keep the cry of pain from escaping.
Beads of sweat slid from her temples and dripped onto the bedsheet.
She did not know how long it had been when suddenly—
“Buzz…”
It felt as if something lightly knocked inside her head. Immediately after, a cold, emotionless voice—completely devoid of human warmth—sounded inside her mind without warning, like an electronic broadcast:
“Space Dimension binding in progress… Detecting host Lin Wan. Soul compatibility… thirty percent… seventy-two percent… ninety-eight percent… Binding successful.”
The instant the voice finished, the scorching pain in her palm vanished completely.
Lin Wan had barely managed to catch her breath and wipe away some sweat when—
Whoosh!
A semi-transparent panel emitting a faint blue glow suddenly appeared in front of her out of thin air! It looked exactly like some futuristic technology from a science-fiction movie, hovering silently before her eyes.
On the panel were a few simple lines of text:
【Survival Panel】
Name: Lin Wan
Gender: Female
Age: 27
Space Dimension Initial Area: 1000 square meters (Level 1)
Survival Points: 1 (Redeemed the dying Old Man in Gray Robe)
Storage Area: Activated (Time-stasis storage, non-living items only)
Dormancy Area: Activated (Any organism placed inside enters deep dormancy)
Lin Wan’s pupils shrank violently. Her heart nearly jumped out of her throat.
What… what was this thing?!
Her mind buzzed in confusion. Before she could even begin to understand what the panel was, a powerful, irresistible suction suddenly burst forth from it.
“Ah!”
Lin Wan’s vision went black, and the world spun wildly. It felt as though an invisible giant hand had yanked her consciousness out of her body and hurled it straight into a violently spinning black vortex.
Dizzy—so dizzy she felt like vomiting.
When the terrible vertigo finally faded, Lin Wan realized she was standing in a completely unfamiliar place.
Beneath her feet was a hard, icy floor, smooth like freshly polished marble. It was so reflective that she could see her own face—filled with shock and bewilderment—mirrored on its surface.
Above her head, there was no sun, no moon, and no stars. Only a boundless, grayish haze stretched endlessly overhead, an indistinct chaos where nothing could be seen clearly.
Yet strangely, the place was bright.
A cool, white light of unknown origin illuminated the entire Space Dimension evenly, as if it were broad daylight. Everything was perfectly visible.
The place was enormous—frighteningly so. Looking out, she could not see the edges at all. It felt as if the entire residential complex she lived in could fit inside with plenty of space left over.
Not far in front of her, the mirror-smooth ground had been divided into two large sections by strange, twisted patterns she could not understand at first (later she would learn they were seal-script characters).
Above the section on the left floated three large words: “Storage Area.”
Above the section on the right floated three words: “Dormancy Area.”
In the very center hovered a panel identical to the “inventory panel” she had just seen in reality, glowing faintly blue.
Was she dreaming?
Or had that old man’s grip somehow squeezed her wrist so hard that it caused hallucinations—maybe even dragged her straight to the gates of the underworld?
Lin Wan’s heart pounded like a drum in her chest.
No! I can’t panic! If I panic, I’m dead!
She fiercely pinched the inside of her thigh. The sharp pain cleared her head a little.
Taking deep breaths, she forced herself to calm down, just like when she faced a dying rare plant in the laboratory.
Her gaze swept over the floating inventory panel.
Suddenly, a thought flashed through her mind like lightning.
She held her breath and focused all her concentration.
She thought about the carton of milk she had bought at the supermarket during the day and casually left on her bedside table without drinking it.
“Take it in!” she shouted in her mind.
The moment the thought appeared—
In the real world, the carton of milk on the bedside table vanished instantly with a whoosh, disappearing into thin air.
At the same time, on the floating inventory panel inside the Space Dimension, a new entry silently appeared at the bottom:
Storage Area 【Fresh Milk ×1】
It worked! It actually worked!!
A massive surge of ecstasy shot through Lin Wan’s entire body like a bolt of high-voltage electricity. She was so excited she almost jumped on the spot.
Quickly, she focused her mind again.
“Let me out! Get me out!”
The scene before her twisted and blurred once more…
Her consciousness snapped back.
She suddenly opened her eyes.
The familiar room. The familiar desk. The familiar moonlight filtering through the gap in the curtains and spilling across the floor.
She grabbed the phone beside her pillow. Her fingers trembled slightly as she unlocked the screen and glanced at the time—
Only three seconds had passed since the moment her palm started hurting.
Three seconds!!!
Lin Wan collapsed onto the edge of the bed, her whole body trembling uncontrollably—not from cold, but from excitement.
The overwhelming shock left her mind blank. Her chest rose and fell violently as she breathed in shaky gasps.
Suddenly she wondered whether the Storage Area preserved temperature.
If she wanted to know, she would test it.
Without hesitation, Lin Wan jumped up and went to the living room to pour herself a cup of plain hot water. Carrying it back into her bedroom, she closed the door, placed the cup on the desk, and silently commanded in her mind:
“Store.”
The cup disappeared instantly.
Using her consciousness, she checked again. Sure enough, the cup was sitting inside the Storage Area.
That entire night, she barely slept.
Like a child who had just received a brand-new toy, or an explorer who had discovered a gold mine, she entered the white, boundless Space Dimension again and again, then exited again and again. She touched the cold, smooth floor, examined the two divided areas, and studied the glowing blue panel…
Only when the sky outside began to brighten and the pale light of dawn appeared did she finally manage to suppress her excitement a little.
As soon as daybreak arrived, Lin Wan eagerly began the next test—the one she cared about most.
Time Stasis.
She took a deep breath.
Her consciousness focused on the cup of hot water and the carton of milk listed on the panel.
“Take them out!”
The moment the thought formed—
A weight suddenly appeared in her right hand. The familiar carton of milk instantly materialized! The packaging felt cool and slightly damp, exactly the same as when she had bought it yesterday.
Her left hand held the cup of water, which was still scorching hot.
Lin Wan was so thrilled she nearly jumped with joy.
The Storage Area really preserved freshness! That meant anything placed inside could be perfectly preserved.
Barefoot, she rushed to the refrigerator, pulled open the fridge door, and looked inside.
Another identical carton of milk lay there—the one she had bought at the same time yesterday and casually tossed into the fridge.
Lin Wan placed the two cartons of milk side by side on the dining table.
Her heart pounded as if it were about to smash through her chest.