In the courtyard grew an enormous peach tree, but strangely, only the trunk remained. Not a single leaf or blossom was left, as though it had withered.
Beneath the peach tree was a well, its walls built entirely of white jade. But there was no water in the well. It was like a dried-up well.
Beside the villa stood a warehouse. It looked small, but upon pushing the door open, one realized the space inside was limitless, and it came with a miraculous preservation effect. Whether fresh produce, fruits and vegetables, or meat and medicinal herbs, anything placed inside stayed as fresh as the moment it was harvested.
Yuan Tao stood frozen in place. She remembered that in the original book, the space the female lead obtained couldn’t be entered by people. It was just a vast expanse of white, and anything placed inside could be preserved.
The moment Yuan Tao saw the warehouse’s description, she understood. The female lead had only obtained the warehouse portion of the space.
She just didn’t know why she could open the complete space. Could it be because this jade bracelet is mine? Was the original owner’s bloodline that powerful? It even beat the female lead’s protagonist halo.
Actually, Yuan Tao had guessed correctly. The female lead in the original book had only opened the warehouse portion of the space. But it wasn’t that the original owner’s bloodline could open the complete space. It was that only she could open the complete space. Yuan Tao simply didn’t know that yet…
While Yuan Tao was dazed, a small animal that looked like a cat came out of the villa and rubbed against her leg.
“Meow~ Hello, Master. I’m Lottery System 009.”
Yuan Tao snapped back to her senses and looked at the little cat by her feet. She was instantly captivated.
“Wow! So cute!” Yuan Tao scooped the fluffy little thing into her arms and buried her face in it, unleashing her cat-cuddling skills with abandon. Even her voice came out with a slight nasal tremor.
“A lottery system? So I can draw prizes? But I don’t remember ever binding a system.” Could I have bound a system without knowing it, and then transmigrated? But shouldn’t system binding require asking my permission first? Was it really that careless?
The little cat in her arms was kneaded until it was sprawled on its back, yet the tip of its tail still swished lazily in circles.
“Hehe, when you contracted the space, Master, you contracted me along with it. I’m also this space’s item spirit, you know. I can help you manage the space.”
Even more careless…
“Why would a system like you become a space’s item spirit? Aren’t systems part of the tech category? Item spirits should belong to the cultivation category. You two don’t seem to be the same type at all?” Yuan Tao was puzzled.
“This… Master, I don’t know why either. From the moment I gained consciousness, I was already an item spirit in this space.”
Looking at the little cat’s innocent eyes, Yuan Tao believed it was telling the truth. Though still puzzled, she didn’t press the system further.
Things will work out somehow. What I need to know, I’ll learn eventually.
“So what are your main functions?”
Yuan Tao plopped down with the little cat in her arms, gently stroking it as she asked in a soft voice.
The moment Yuan Tao finished speaking, a pale blue transparent panel appeared before her eyes, floating in midair just like the online games she used to play.
The panel’s display was very simple, with only three functions. The lottery interface, the exchange interface, and the system inventory.
The screen was fixed on the lottery interface.
System 009’s voice sounded along with it.
[System: Hello, Master. I am Lottery System 009. As the name suggests, the host can obtain prizes through the lottery. And obtaining draw counts is very simple too. This world is about to enter the apocalypse, Master. From now on, every time you kill a zombie or a zombified plant or animal, you’ll earn draw counts. Level one earns one draw, level two earns two, level three earns three, and so on.]
Yuan Tao nodded and studied the lottery interface carefully.
The lottery interface had three buttons. Single draw, ten-draw, and hundred-draw. The top right corner displayed the number of draws available, though it currently showed zero.
[System: Now let’s go over what prizes are available. Our prize pool is very rich. It contains everything, from basic necessities like clothing, food, housing, and transportation to weapons and equipment. On the higher end, there are high-tech products, interstellar mecha, spaceships, and other items from interstellar planes, as well as cultivation techniques, divine artifacts, pills, talismans, and formation disks from cultivation planes. Potions and magic staffs from magic planes can all be drawn too.]
[System: They’re roughly divided into four grades. White, green, blue, and red. White is the lowest grade and makes up the largest portion of the prize pool. Red is the highest grade, has the smallest quantity in the pool, and is the hardest to draw. The draw probability is random. Some people might go their whole lives without ever drawing a red-grade prize.]
[System: But you’ll definitely draw one, Master! Good luck!]
[System: Now let’s look at the exchange interface. Here, you can use crystal cores to exchange for energy clusters. Energy clusters can be used to upgrade abilities. Because the energy in zombie crystal cores is impure, long-term use will cause ability users to suffer mental breakdowns. That’s why the exchange interface exists.]
[System: One level-one crystal core can be exchanged for one energy cluster. Ten level-one crystal cores can be exchanged for ten energy clusters, and so on.]
Then there was the [System: Inventory]. Prizes drawn would first be stored in the system inventory. Nothing else could be stored there. But Yuan Tao had the jade bracelet space, so she didn’t need to worry about not having a place to put other things.
Yuan Tao happily scooped up the little kitten and gave it two big kisses. She had one more safeguard for the apocalypse. The system let out a shy little mew.
What do you do when your master is too enthusiastic…
“Wow! System, you’re amazing! With you and this space, I’ll definitely survive this apocalypse!” Yuan Tao was overjoyed. She had originally been very uneasy about coming to this world, but the appearance of the space and the system gave her more courage to face the coming apocalypse.
“System, do you have a name?”
“No. Do you want to give me one, Master?” The little kitten happily rubbed against Yuan Tao’s hand.
“Mm… From now on, you’ll be called Xiao Jiu!” Yuan Tao was a little embarrassed. She really wasn’t good at naming things. But Xiao Jiu sounded nice, didn’t it? Simple, and it suited System 009 perfectly~ Not bad at all.
“Also, stop calling me Master. Call me Taozi~ From now on, we’re partners~”
“Okay, Taozi~”
Yuan Tao followed Xiao Jiu on a tour of the space and roughly mapped out her plans for it.
The black soil in the space couldn’t go to waste. Tomorrow she would buy seeds and have Xiao Jiu plant all kinds of grains and vegetables. The grassland areas could be used to raise chickens, ducks, cows, sheep, and other animals. And the large lakes and ocean could be stocked with fish, shrimp, crabs, and other aquatic animals. She would develop the space and make it self-sufficient.
That way, after the apocalypse, she wouldn’t have to worry about going hungry.
Yuan Tao, who knew the original book’s plot, knew how important supplies were in the apocalypse.
When the apocalypse first began, humans could still survive on pre-apocalypse supplies, but half a year later, people discovered that usable, edible supplies were growing scarcer and scarcer.
Water sources and soil were contaminated, making it impossible to grow crops. To survive, people began fighting over the few remaining supplies. Every day, countless people lost their lives over a bit of food.
It wasn’t until water-attribute ability users and wood-attribute ability users gradually increased that the food and water crisis was alleviated. But even then, it was only enough to keep people from starving to death.
Now that she had the space, she didn’t need to worry about food or water.