“The Place Where the Mind is Deposited.”
This is an alternate history story, please be mindful of the differences from the real world.
“Hiss, so painful.” Clara Ashford, while in a state of grogginess, was greatly agitated by the recurring pain in her forehead: “dammit, am I dead or alive? Even death won't let me live peacefully.”
Summoning her strength to open her eyes, she was startled into a cold sweat by the sight before her. She was in a small, dimly lit place, surrounded by miscellaneous items. There was even a faint musty smell in the air, and she was lying on a makeshift bed made of wooden planks, covered in a ragged quilt that couldn't possibly get any worse.
Slowly she sat up. Suddenly, memories flooded into her mind like a tidal wave. Clara's vision went black. It took her a long time to regain her composure, clutching her head. It turns out, that this place is Camden Country in the 70s, and the body she was in, also went by the name Clara.
But the experiences of this body from early on could only be described with the word “tragic”. The original Clara's father, Greyson Ashford, was a typical upstart, who, by his handsome face and sweet words, successfully deceived the original Clara's mother, Olivia Gotham, and her grandfather, and was accepted into the Gotham family.
Not long after their marriage, Clara was born. Greyson, with the help of the original Gotham's grandfather's connections, became the director of the procurement department of Harrods Steel Plant. Once he secured his foothold, Greyson's jerk attributes gradually surfaced and Olivia was unable to reconcile with her husband's hypocrisy and ended her life in despair after a few years.
Her grandfather, who had lost his only daughter, couldn't bear the enormous grief and followed her soon after. This greatly benefited Greyson, who moved his mistress and their children officially into the Gotham family.
Since then, the original Clara had lived in terrible conditions. Her room was seized by Wendy, Greyson’s daughter, and she was banished to the storage room, where she lived for six long years.
The original Clara was burdened with heavy and exhausting work at home. Any slight disobedience led to beatings. Anyone in the house could hit her, and after doing so, threatened her to keep quiet. The original Clara was timid and, thus, suffered silently for six years.
That was until after she finished high school. The government had been advocating for the youth to move to the countryside to support the construction. In the previous two years, it was a voluntary initiative, but this year a new notice came down. All age-appropriate youth without fixed work had to go to the countryside to support construction, and this got the Ashford family into complete disarray.
Greyson, of course, couldn't bear to send his beloved son to the countryside. After pulling a lot of strings, he finally found a temporary position for Dan Ashford at the steel plant. But what about Wendy? Wendy didn't want to go to the countryside, and she was kicking up a fuss at home.
This was when Olivia's work quota at the textile factory for Clara caught the attention of Greyson’s wife Sandra. It was a position in the accounting department, an office job, with a fixed salary of 35 dollars every month.
Mother and daughter had a discussion and decided to seize the opportunity. Clara was sent to the countryside, and in response to this, Greyson was indifferent, as long as his precious son Dan didn't have to go, he didn't care who had to.
Originally, they wanted to keep it a secret from the original soul till the time drew closer, but Clara accidentally overheard this. After enduring for six long years, she couldn't take it anymore and confronted Sandra and Wendy out of desperation.
During the scuffle, she was pushed by Wendy and her forehead hit the sharp corner of a table. The original soul struggled for a few days in agony, ultimately leaving this world filled with resentment. Her soul from a different world then took over the body.
As for herself, Clara, an orphan living in the modern world, inherited billions in assets after her family died in a plane crash. By chance, she got a pendant that came with a space where she could store food, and it would remain fresh.
The growth cycle of plants was the same as outside, but not affected by weather, allowing for cultivation year-round. Inside the space was a modern villa, fully equipped, though she had no idea where the electricity came from.
There was also a spiritual spring. At first, she didn't dare drink the water from it, so she bought a mouse to test it. Only after seeing that the mouse was perfectly fine after drinking the water did she dare to drink it. The spring, although not a magical panacea, could rapidly heal injuries, strengthen the body, rejuvenate the skin, and provide tremendous physical strength.
As an enthusiast of novels, Clara had read quite a few about this space. Combining her wealth with her bold speculation, she braced herself for either time travel or an impending apocalypse and nearly depleted all of her fortunes to prepare supplies in space.
As expected, the apocalypse came, and she survived excellently for ten years, relying on her supplies, enormous strength, and the martial arts she studied in her childhood. Yes, her parents were indeed unique. Over time, Clara annihilated wave after wave of people coveting her supplies, which, coupled with her newly awakened water and thunder abilities, pushed her onto the path of a nemesis to the undead.
It was only until the end, when she joined a tactical team to fight the undead, that she made the ultimate sacrifice. All sacrificed their lives, leaving only her and the undead king. She realized that this was her only chance to end the apocalypse. Strapping herself with explosives, she rushed into the undead, and in a self-destructive blast, annihilated the undead king. She paid a high price, pulverized to dust along with the undead king. Sigh, she couldn’t even leave a complete body behind.
Looking back, Clara felt that perhaps her excessive killing had frightened even the underworld off, which caused her to come to this place. But it’s a pity to lose her abilities as well as the supplies in the space.
Suddenly, something warm was in her hand, she looked down and then gaped. A meat bun! It's even larger than her fist! Could it be that her space had followed her as well?
She quickly closed her eyes to concentrate. A few seconds later, she opened her eyes in astonishment, eager to burst into joyful laughter. Heaven had been kind to her! Her space had also come along with her. Now, with these supplies, she could traverse this era with sheer confidence and dominance!
The priority was to fill her stomach. With a thought, several large meat buns appeared in her hand, paired with a bottle of milk. She wolfed down five meat buns before she felt satisfied.
Full of energy, it was time to ponder about things. Since her space managed to follow her here, did her powers come along as well? She concentrated, stared firmly at her palm, and after two minutes, she finally felt warmth on her palm. Then, a small jet of water shot out from the tip of her fingers.
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Where are her supernatural powers? Her killing, invisible ice blade? Damn it! Was her hard-earned supernatural power, grown over nine years, erased after crossing over? Does she have to start from scratch? Clara is driven to frustration. Her water-based superpower has morphed into this wretched state, let alone her lightning-based power. She feels drained.
Fortunately, in her space, she still has hundreds of thousands of low-level, intermediate, and advanced crystalline cores, even the Zombie King's cores. Although she doesn't need it now, the remaining cores will last her for several years. Worst case scenario, even without the superpower, given the weapons in her space, she could easily annihilate a small country living a good life.