“!!!”
Clara Bennett's eyes snapped open as she shot straight up in bed.
Pitch black. So quiet you could hear a pin drop.
She glanced around, the faint moonlight outlining the familiar—but weirdly distant—room. Her heart skipped a beat.
Wait… this is her house?
She grabbed her phone, stared at the screen.
July 4, 2123. 11:14 p.m.
No freaking way. She had actually come back? A whole month before the world went to hell? She was just fighting off some looters when the earthquake hit—and now she's here?
Clara turned to look out the window.
Just down the road, a couple of older guys were chilling under a street lamp in shorts and tees, playing cards like it was any other summer night. This was their usual routine—out by nine, cards till midnight. She’d seen it a hundred times. But tonight? It felt like she was watching a horror movie in real time.
A blurry memory flashed in her mind and she scrambled to open her phone’s camera, zooming in on those men.
She wasn’t seeing ghosts—she’d definitely seen them before.
Right before everything went to hell, during one all-nighter binge-watching shows, she had seen these exact guys suddenly turn on each other. She thought it was a fight over cards at first, called emergency services when they stopped moving.
But no. That night wasn’t random—it was the beginning of the apocalypse.
She watched through the zoomed-in lens. Out of nowhere, one of the old men lunged at another, snarling like an animal. Screams. Total chaos. Within seconds they were all on the ground, a tangled mess of biting and punching.
The footage went on for over two minutes, and by the end of it, all of them were lying still.
Just as Clara was about to hit stop, her breath caught.
What the hell?
One of the corpses—it moved.
The guy who should’ve been dead, or at least not moving for days, suddenly started getting up. His limbs were stiff and jerky, like a robot with a dying battery. He staggered toward her building—only to collapse a few feet away.
“Ding! Apocalypse Awakening System activated!”
Clara had barely lowered her phone when an unfamiliar voice rang in her ear.
Before she could make sense of it, a glowing prompt popped up right in front of her.
[Do you accept the beginner awakening mission?]
What... was this? She didn’t remember seeing anything like this last time.
She was stunned only for a second before hitting confirm. In the blink of an eye, she was no longer in her room.
Now she stood in front of a thatched hut, a water well, and a tiny veggie patch about the size of a yoga mat.
Was this… some kind of legendary space dimension?
To be honest, at the end of the world, strange stuff like this wasn’t that crazy anymore.
Last time, Clara had awakened too—though not a space ability, it was invisibility. So even if this was different, she was already kind of mentally prepared for weird.Clara Bennett's eyes lit up as she eagerly checked the newbie quest tab.
[Prepare supplies for the apocalypse
0/5000 yuan
]
So this was basically telling her to start hoarding?
She chuckled to herself and quickly exited the space, scanning her room for something suitable.
Her eyes landed on the computer sitting on the desk. If she remembered correctly, her brother had just bought it for her last week. Cost about five grand.
With just a thought, Clara and the computer were back in the space. The quest text instantly turned green.
[Prepare supplies for the apocalypse
28500/5000 yuan
- Completed. Reward: +5 square meters to survival space.]
Clara stared at the number, stunned—28500? But Victor told her he bought it casually on the way home for five thousand. How could this be?
She suddenly got it. Her eyes turned a little red.
After taking a deep breath, she pushed on with the next task, dragging more stuff into the space.
Ergonomic chair, 8600 yuan.
Sofa, 37000 yuan.
Television, 23000 yuan.
Trash can, 66 yuan.
Socks, 1 yuan.
...1 yuan?
Clara frowned at the socks she just brought in. When she realized they were Victor's, she chuckled and tossed them right back out.
Bit by bit, she started to get the hang of it. At this stage, it seemed like every thousand yuan worth of items gave her one square meter of space. Who knew if the price curve would change later, but as long as she kept dumping stuff in, the space kept expanding.
She also discovered something else—so long as the items weren’t alive, they’d stay fresh here forever.
The ice cream she brought in an hour ago still sat there, rock hard and icy cold.
This place was literally the perfect hideout for surviving an apocalypse! If only...
The spark in Clara's eyes dimmed. Her thoughts drifted to her parents and brother living next door, and her hands clenched into fists.
If only they could come in too…
Sure, she had a second chance now and the power to protect them, but she couldn’t predict what twists might come later.
Still, no matter what, she wasn’t letting them out of her sight this time.
Several hours flew by. Clara had pretty much emptied out her home.
Her little hut inside had also upgraded from a straw shack to a brick house.
She was about to take a nap, feeling completely wiped out, when suddenly a system notification dinged in her ear.
[Congrats! All newbie tasks completed. You've earned one family slot. Please bind the family member within 24 hours!]
Clara froze.
Wait—someone else could come in too?!
Without a second thought, she bolted out of the space and headed next door.She lived in a duplex penthouse — all 300 square meters of it, plus a 100-square-meter rooftop garden out front. One apartment per floor, super private.
Next door, in the neighboring unit on the top floor, were her parents and her brother.
Between their rooftops, there used to be a short wall, about 1.5 meters high. It wasn’t load-bearing, so they knocked it down and put in a small iron gate instead — barely noticeable.
This way, Clara could go over for meals anytime, but still had her own space to live in.
"Clara, you up yet? I made your favorite — beef buns and millet porridge! It's still warm. Want to eat first, then go back to sleep? ...Ah!!!"
Anna Reid had just come upstairs to call Clara for breakfast. But when she saw the empty living room, her face went pale from shock.
Was there a break-in?!
She rushed downstairs in a panic — then nearly burst into tears when she saw her daughter coming out the front door.
"You okay? Let Mommy see!"
Anna circled her twice, checking her head to toe. Once she made sure Clara was fine, she finally let out a deep breath.
Her scream had also startled Edward Bennett and Victor Bennett in the next unit; they rushed over and were equally stunned at the cleaned-out living room.
“Dad, Mom, Victor…”
Clara’s voice trembled. She honestly couldn’t remember the last time she saw them.
In her previous life, they’d all died protecting her — every single one of them. She’d survived ten years on her own in that post-apocalyptic hell.
Until that catastrophic earthquake sent her back here.
She threw herself into Anna's arms, clinging onto her like a lost kid. Tears streamed down her face, overwhelmed.
Anna thought the shock came from almost getting robbed and rushed to comfort her softly.
Off to the side, the two men stood awkwardly — one half-raising his arms like he wanted to hug his daughter, the other reaching out to pat his sister’s head, but both froze mid-motion, too caught up in their feelings to act.
——I’m a divider——
To make reading easier, here’s a quick heads-up. Feel free to drop it if it’s not your thing:
1. There’s romance. The male lead is super into the love story. Not for folks who prefer no-romance plots.
2. There are team dynamics and a base; this isn’t a lone-wolf tale.
3. The male lead knows about the space ability early on — not a random guess, there's foreshadowing. If you don’t like that, don’t bother.
4. Both leads are crazy strong. Clara starts off nerfed and grows back into her full power. If you can’t stand the guy being stronger at first, walk away.
5. There’s “zero-dollar shopping” before the apocalypse hits — yep, from an international supermarket. If that bugs you, maybe skip.
6. Clara unknowingly took supplies stored at an unmanned mall base early on. When it was discovered, she didn’t come clean to protect her secret. If you think that makes her morally wrong — just don’t read.