Chapter 5; What the hell is going on?

In the high-floor executive office of Lucas’s company, the air felt thick enough to suffocate a man.

The central air conditioner hummed softly, but cold sweat dripped down Lucas’s temples. He sat frozen behind his polished mahogany desk, staring blankly at the official property registry printout spread before him.

His fingers trembled so violently that the paper rattled in his grip. The official black-and-white government seal at the bottom of the page was unmistakable:

[Property: Grand Horizon Estate, Villa No. 1]

[Registered Owner: Evelyn]

[Purchase Status: Paid in Full — $15,000,000.00 USD]

"Sir..." Lucas’s legal advisor stood on the other side of the desk, nervously wiping his damp forehead with a white handkerchief. "I checked directly with the land registration bureau and the private banking division. The transaction is one hundred percent legitimate. She paid fifteen million dollars in full cash with a single swipe. Furthermore... her verified private account balance is an astronomical sum from an offshore family trust. She didn't touch a single dime of your company’s assets."

Lucas felt as if someone had slammed a rusted sledgehammer directly into his chest.

His breath caught in his throat. His blood ran cold.

She didn't steal it? She didn't take my company funds? She was already a billionaire?!

His entire worldview crumbled into dust. For four whole years, he had looked down on Evelyn. He had treated her like a pathetic, helpless charity case—a barren orphan who had nowhere else to go. He had proudly believed that without his roof over her head and his mercy, she would be reduced to begging on the streets.

Every single month, she had quietly handed over her entire nine-thousand-dollar paycheck to his mother, cooked three meals a day, cleaned their house like an unpaid servant, and swallowed their endless insults in silence.

And all along, she had been sitting on unimaginable wealth!

She wasn't a beggar. She was an absolute heiress who had been watching his family’s petty arrogance like a clown show!

"What do you mean she paid fifteen million dollars?!"

The heavy office door was slammed open, crashing against the wall.

Nora rushed into the room, clutching a duplicate copy of the real estate notification in her claw-like hands. Her face was contorted in a terrifying mix of wild shock, confusion, and burning envy.

"Lucas! Is this real?!" Nora shrieked, her high-pitched voice piercing through the office. "Grand Horizon Villa No. 1?! Do you have any idea who built that place?! My college classmate, Margaret!"

Nora’s chest heaved violently under her silk blouse as her eyes spat fire.

"Ever since Margaret moved into that hill estate three years ago, she has looked down on me at every single alumni reunion! She treated me like dirt because I live in a regular suburban house! She bragged about her private security guard, her heated swimming pool, and her private hilltop view!"

Nora grabbed Lucas’s arm, her long nails digging painfully through his suit jacket as she shook him with hysterical force.

"How can that barren orphan afford Margaret’s villa?!" Nora’s voice cracked with pure hatred. "She was our servant! She cleaned my toilets! How dare she buy a house ten times better than mine?! Go find out, Lucas! Go demand an explanation right now! She must have tricked you during the marriage! She hid marital assets from you! Half of that money legally belongs to you!"

The sting of humiliation burned through Lucas’s veins like scalding acid.

His male ego, stripped bare and thoroughly trampled, transformed into explosive, desperate fury. He couldn't accept this. He refused to accept that the woman he had just kicked out was infinitely superior to him in every conceivable way.

"Get out of my way," Lucas growled through gritted teeth.

He snatched his luxury car keys off the desk, shoved past his mother, and stormed out of the building with bloodshot eyes.

Meanwhile, inside Villa No. 1 at Grand Horizon, the world was completely serene.

The heavy, soundproof blast doors shut out every murmur of the outside world. Sunlight poured through the double-paned bulletproof glass windows, illuminating the vast, marble-floored living room.

Evelyn sat gracefully on the imported leather sofa, her eyes fixed on the semi-transparent blue interface hovering quietly in the air before her.

[Infinite Space System unlocked. Realm Dimensions: Unlimited.]

[Current Environmental Status: Absolute Stasis. Time Passage: Zero.]

Evelyn reached out her slender hand, her fingertips tracing the glowing blue characters.

She had long suspected that the universe had bestowed this system upon her as a divine guide—a second chance granted by fate to survive the coming doom. In her past life, she had died in horror, torn apart by flesh-eating monsters while her ungrateful in-laws locked the door on her.

This time, the universe had given her the ultimate tool to turn her destiny around.

Evelyn closed her eyes, focusing her mind to interact directly with the system interface.

The moment she aligned her consciousness with the space, a vast, breathtaking dimension unfolded in her mind’s eye. It was not merely a storage pocket inside a piece of jewelry or a closet; The system informed her that it was a boundless, pristine realm—an endless, crystal-clear cosmic void that stretched infinitely into the dark, completely divorced from the physical laws of the real world.

Evelyn opened her eyes, eager to test how this realm could materialize into the natural world and interact with physical objects.

She looked down at the coffee table in front of her. Resting on the polished marble surface was a heavy crystal glass filled to the brim with mineral water.

Evelyn stretched out her arm, pointing her fingers at the glass. She didn't even need to physically touch it. She simply focused her intent, willing the dimensional boundary between the Infinite Space and the physical world to open.

Dissolve.

The moment the thought flashed through her mind, a subtle, shimmering ripple of light enveloped the crystal glass. Without a single sound, without a whisper of wind or a drop in air pressure, the glass vanished into thin air.

Evelyn blinked. The coffee table was completely empty. All that remained was the smooth marble reflecting the ceiling lights.

She closed her eyes and looked into her mental perception of the Infinite Space.

There, floating in the center of the dark, starlit void, sat the crystal glass. The water inside remained frozen in mid-swirl, suspended in absolute stillness. There was no gravity pulling it down, no air to evaporate it, and no time to change its state.

"Incredible..." Evelyn whispered, her voice echoing softly in the grand room.

Now, she wanted to test materializing objects from the void back into the natural world.

Evelyn held out her right hand, palm facing up. She focused her thoughts on the exact coordinates of her open palm and willed the object to cross the dimensional threshold.

Materialize.

A flash of blue light sparkled over her hand for a microsecond.

In less than a millisecond, the heavy crystal glass settled solidly into her palm. The water inside was still swirling gently at the exact speed and temperature as before, without a single drop spilling over the rim.

Evelyn’s eyes brightened with sharp excitement. "Instant materialization. Zero delay."

She decided to push the limits of the space further. She wanted to test weight capacity, physical displacement, and multiple objects simultaneously

Evelyn stood up and walked toward the side of the living room, where three large, decorative ceramic vases and a heavy fifty-pound solid marble sculpture rested on a display table.

She swept her gaze across all four objects at once.

Store.

With a wave of her hand, the space dimension expanded across the room like an invisible wave. All four heavy items vanished instantly, leaving the display table bare.

Evelyn turned around and pointed toward an empty space on the opposite side of the living room floor.

Materialize.

A heavy, solid sound resonated through the house. The fifty-pound marble sculpture and the three ceramic vases materialized instantly out of thin air, setting down precisely onto the marble floor in perfect alignment, exactly as she had visualized them in her mind.

Store.

With another simple flick of her thought, the four items dissolved once again, vanishing back into the endless void of her spatial realm.

Next, Evelyn tested the environmental stasis feature. She walked into the kitchen, turned on the electric kettle, and brought water to a boiling point at 100 degrees Celsius. She poured the scalding water into a ceramic mug, while placing several ice cubes into a glass bowl next to it.

She stretched out her hands and stored both the steaming mug and the bowl of ice directly into the Infinite Space.

Evelyn sat back down on the sofa and waited ten minutes.

Ten minutes later, she focused her mind and materialized both items back onto the coffee table.

The moment they reappeared, thick white steam billowed rapidly from the ceramic mug. Evelyn touched the side—it was still burning hot at 100 degrees Celsius. She looked into the glass bowl—the ice cubes were sharp, crystal-clear, and hadn't melted by a single millimeter.

A cold, satisfied smile slowly spread across Evelyn’s face. Absolute time stasis. Infinite capacity. Instant physical materialization.

With thirty days left before the world turned into an icy, zombie-infested purgatory, this spatial realm was her ultimate weapon.

She could hoard mountains of fresh, cooked food, medical supplies, millions of gallons of clean fuel, pure water, and heavy survival equipment without worrying about spoilage, decay, weight limits, or transport logistics. She could move an entire warehouse of supplies into her space with a single sweep of her hand!

A violent, aggressive pounding suddenly shattered the quiet atmosphere of the villa. The heavy steel entrance door rattled loudly, the sound echoing harshly through the foyer.

Evelyn didn't panic. She calmly picked up her phone from the table, tapped the security app, and pulled up the live feed from the high-definition camera mounted on the front porch.

On the screen, Lucas stood outside the door. His face was flushed deep crimson with rage, his expensive suit jacket was disheveled, his tie was pulled loose, and heavy veins bulged wildly along his neck. He was kicking the heavy steel frame with his polished leather shoe, screaming like a lunatic.

Evelyn stared at the monitor, her dark eyes completely devoid of warmth or emotion. Looking at his frantic, ugly desperation, she felt nothing but cold contempt.

She smoothed down her sweater, walked smoothly to the entrance foyer, and unlatched the heavy electronic blast lock.

The heavy steel door swung inward.

The moment the doorway opened, Lucas glared at her with wild, bloodshot eyes, stepped aggressively onto her threshold, and barked at the top of his lungs:

"What the hell is going on?!"