It turned out that after the lightning strike, Yu Yao’s soul and the game spirit of Defying Fate left their original world at the same time and entered a rift in spacetime.
The game spirit possessed little intelligence and acted purely on instinct, attempting to devour Yu Yao’s soul so it could recover its power and escape the spacetime rift.
Unexpectedly, it was counter-killed by Yu Yao instead—refined and absorbed by her—and followed her into her new body.
As Yu Yao let out a soft laugh, a translucent light screen suddenly appeared before her eyes. On it were several options: [Backpack], [Character Attributes], [Friends], [Shop], and [Daily Sign-in].
Compared to the vast, complex worldbuilding of Defying Fate in her previous world, the current game system was so simple it was like a malnourished child still sucking on a pacifier, forced out to work early—pitiful, really.
She glanced over the options, but what caught her attention first was the mini-map in the top-right corner.
Once expanded, it displayed all building layouts within a ten-li radius centered on Yu Yao herself.
Within a one-kilometer range, the map was densely packed with small blue dots, most of them moving.
Yu Yao knew these represented the location coordinates of other people.
Once zombies and espers appeared, different colors would show up to distinguish them from ordinary people.
Not only that—she could freely select any area to zoom in for closer observation.
Buildings could be viewed floor by floor, with interior layouts, character positions, and movement paths all clearly visible.
It was essentially equivalent to the scouting ability of a psychic-type esper.
A huge win.
She minimized the map and checked her Character Attributes.
Very good—Level 0, all equipment slots empty.
Under the profession column, it read: Medical Immortal.
Medical Immortal was the healer class in Defying Fate. All its skills revolved around recovery and sustain, making it a support-type profession.
But choosing Medical Immortal didn’t mean one had to be purely supportive.
What set this game apart from most online games was its flexibility.
One of its key features was this: as long as a weapon existed in the game, any class could equip it.
Once equipped, the system would automatically match the weapon with its corresponding combat skills, leaving players to research combos and skill chains themselves.
For example, some players chose Medical Immortal as their class but wielded highly aggressive dual blades.
They had sustain and terrifying damage output—dubbed “violent healers”—bold enough to solo major bosses. Practically unbeatable.
And that player was none other than Yu Yao herself.
In the game, Yu Yao’s weapon was a pair of Tang horizontal sabers called Tiger Soul, ranked first among Defying Fate’s Top Ten Divine Weapons—the strongest of them all.
Thanks to her godlike hand speed and deep understanding of combos and skills, she had dominated the server leaderboards for years.
Feared by players, hated by monsters.
Of course, while the healer class had certain overpowered traits, it also came with many limitations.
In the early stages, there was no class-based attack bonus. Damage was low, survivability was poor, and leveling was slow.
To suppress overpowered healers, the developers even deliberately lengthened the experience bar for the class, requiring 30% more experience to level up compared to other professions.
That was why almost no one chose to play a solo healer.
Only a freak like Yu Yao could endure the brutal early game, grinding painfully into the late stage—where powerful offensive skills, attack-type artifacts, and strong sustain finally allowed her to rise.
In this life, she probably wouldn’t do that again.
After all, this was no longer just a game.
If you died—you died for real.
For the sake of her own life, it would be better to find a team and struggle through until level 30 first.
……
After reviewing her attributes, Yu Yao opened her Backpack.
The moment it opened, she realized that when applied to the real world, the backpack slots were somewhat similar to spatial abilities.
Both allowed storage and retrieval of items—but they weren’t the same as ordinary spatial powers.
Each system backpack slot could only store one type of item, but it could stack up to 999 units.
Once full, items would automatically move to the next slot.
Every ten levels, the backpack expanded by ten slots, with no upper limit.
Her backpack, which had expanded to 200 slots in her previous life, was now back to just 30 slots.
Aside from the first slot—which contained a pair of gray dual blades—the rest were empty.
Those dual blades were her Tiger Soul.
Seeing them, a flicker of joy flashed through Yu Yao’s eyes.
She had thought Tiger Soul would be reset along with the game. She hadn’t expected it to still be here—an unexpected bonus.
Although, due to its special nature, Tiger Soul had an equip level requirement of 50, so she wouldn’t be able to wield it in the real world anytime soon.
A pity—but she wasn’t in a hurry.
Basic early-game equipment would be more than enough for now.
Besides, from the original owner’s memories, as the apocalypse arrived, many dormant powers that once couldn’t manifest began to awaken again.
Quite a few people even obtained weapons and equipment imbued with special abilities.
Most likely, magical artifacts whose spiritual power had once been sealed were re-emerging.
If she was lucky, she might find something good to carry her until Tiger Soul unlocked.
Or—with even better luck—she might loot a couple of excellent blades herself.
……
In the bottom-right corner of the backpack interface, there was also a [Warehouse] option.
This was a system-provided storage space—an infinitely large, completely static dimension.
There was no air, no impurities, and no passage of time.
No matter what state an item was in when placed inside, no matter how long it stayed there, it would be exactly the same when taken out.
There were also no limits on size or boundaries.
In other words, if Yu Yao were willing and capable, she could theoretically stuff the entire world into it.
Living beings and air were the only exceptions.
Zombies were excluded as well—after all, they weren’t truly “dead”!
There were certain restrictions when using the warehouse. Items had to pass through the backpack first.
That meant if she wanted to store something in the warehouse, she had to put it into a backpack slot first, then transfer it from the backpack into the warehouse.
A bit troublesome.
But once she got used to it, it would be nothing more than a thought.
Besides, this was an infinite, time-stopped space—far more powerful than any spatial abilities the original owner had known.
Yu Yao wasn’t a greedy person, and she couldn’t find anything to be dissatisfied with.
At the same time, the backpack function granted her an ability—“Spirit Extraction.”
Whenever she killed a monster or enemy, the system would automatically extract the opponent’s energy crystal core and store it in the system backpack.
It would also extract the remaining energy, condensing it into items, materials, or weapon equipment of varying quality, and reward the player with gold coins that could be used in the shop.
In other words—what people commonly called killing monsters to loot gear.
Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant!
Moving on.
There was no need to check the [Friends] list—it was obviously empty. However, since the system had followed her into this world, it had automatically adapted itself to it.
In the friends list, not only could she view another person’s favorability rating, but also their abilities, age, and physical condition.
The [Sign-in] system was a built-in feature of Defying Fate, a small trick designed to retain players.
By signing in daily, players could receive rewards.
Yu Yao had played for over three years, so she knew that sign-in rewards were usually just things like gold coins and experience pills.
Only on the first day, the tenth day, and the twentieth day of a game cycle would there be a chance of receiving something good.
Of course, “the first day” referred to the first day you started playing the game, not the first day of the calendar month.
If she signed in today, it would count as Day One.
Having just arrived in a new world, she had no idea what kind of reward the sign-in system would give.
With that thought, Yu Yao quietly selected Sign In.
The next instant, a flash of golden light filled her vision.
She instinctively narrowed her eyes—then remembered that it was useless.
This screen only appeared to be in front of her; in reality, it existed within her sea of consciousness.
What she was seeing was merely a more intuitive projection.
As she pondered this, the golden light faded, and a small jade-like orb appeared at the center of the screen. Beneath it was written:
Marrow-Cleansing Pill.
Yu Yao froze slightly.
Was this the pill she was thinking of—the one from novels that cleanses the tendons and marrow, expels toxins from the body, opens the meridians, reshapes the physique, and changes one’s constitution?
This item had never appeared in the game before.
But that also indirectly confirmed that the game system had undergone significant changes after merging with her and this world.
Seeing the Marrow-Cleansing Pill stored in her backpack, Yu Yao didn’t rush to use it. Instead, she opened the [Shop] interface.
The shop unlocked progressively, and at the moment, there wasn’t much available for purchase.
There were only Spirit-Recovery Pills to restore energy, Healing Pills for injuries, and some attribute-less equipment, weapons, and basic talismans.
“So-called attribute-less” meant they had no enchantments or additional effects—
Such as increased defense, increased damage output, or boosted ability strength.
The shop also had a hidden mechanic: for every ten thousand gold coins spent, one lottery draw could be performed.
There was a wide range of possible rewards, with randomized quality tiers.
Yu Yao only glanced through it before closing the interface—she didn’t have a single gold coin anyway.
Once the apocalypse arrived, killing zombies and mutated animals or plants would grant experience for leveling up, along with gold coins, crystal cores, and crafting materials.
It was also worth mentioning that anything she looted had an automatic pickup function.
In other words, anything dropped by monsters she killed would automatically enter her backpack, without anyone else noticing.
Even zombie crystal cores and mutated beast blood essence would be collected automatically—no need to worry about others stealing the loot.
And no need to endure the disgust of digging crystal cores out of their heads.
That was—convenience upon convenience, straight-up luxury-level convenience!