4: A case of bad timing

It was Day Five before the apocalypse.

At 10:00 AM, Vivi was fully prepared for her flight to Veridia, which was scheduled to depart at noon.

The flight from Rostia to Veridia would take four hours. She would arrive at 4:00 PM, check into a hotel, and get some rest before the midnight phenomenon began.

The crystals were humanity’s first true taste of the supernatural, and the key to rising above the coming collapse.

They came in three known tiers, each embedding a unique skill directly into the finder.

White crystals were the most common, bestowing ordinary, non-combat utilities and granting finders an initial rank between F and D.

Blue crystals were far more potent, unlocking powerful abilities and categorizing finders between C and B rank.

But Golden Crystals were the ultimate prize.

They represented the highest tier of power, granting abilities capable of placing their finders among the A-rank and S-rank.

While most people could only safely integrate a single crystal, a rare handful of fortunate souls in her past life had managed to fuse with two, skyrocketing their combat potential.

Veridia had hit the global jackpot during the initial drop, receiving a torrential downpour of over fifty golden crystals alongside a vast sea of blue and white ones.

That unprecedented windfall turned Veridia into a superpower overflowing with elite Hunters. Its rapid rise to dominance had also made its citizens notoriously arrogant, especially toward nations that lacked comparable strength.

Rostia, on the other hand, had suffered a far less fortunate fate.

Golden Crystals were painfully scarce within its borders. Only twelve had ever appeared across the entire country during her past timeline, birthing a meager twelve S-rank hunters to shoulder the burden of defending the nation.

Vivi had no intention of taking those precious crystals away from her homeland. Rostia desperately needed every single one of those twelve S-rank heroes just to survive the dungeon outbreaks over the next two years.

That was why she was flying straight into the lion’s den. She was going to Veridia to siphon away their overwhelming surplus of golden crystals before anyone else understood their true value.

With the right abilities, she could gain an enormous advantage in the new world. She would never again have to depend on someone else for survival, much less suffer the humiliation of being treated as worthless.

This time, she would seize her own destiny.

Dressed in comfortable travel clothes, Vivi picked up her light suitcase, which contained only the bare essentials, and gave her apartment one final look.

She had considered packing some of her wardrobe, but the exhausting days she had spent preparing her underground shelter had left her with little energy to spare.

Besides, there was no point in bringing everything.

She decided she would just buy brand-new clothes and grab a few remaining valuables when she returned home the next day.

At 10:30 AM, Vivi reached for the doorknob.

The moment she opened the door, however, her breath caught in her throat.

Ward and Susan were standing right outside.

The two people who had betrayed her and ultimately orchestrated her death in her past life.

Even with every ounce of self-control she possessed, Vivi couldn’t prevent her heart from pounding furiously against her ribs.

For one brief moment, the sight of their familiar faces brought back the memory of her final moments.

Then she forced herself to calm down.

She wasn’t the helpless woman they remembered anymore.

“Vivi,” Ward said, looking exhausted and visibly distressed. “I’m in trouble.”

Reacting on instinct, Vivi subtly nudged her packed traveling suitcase further behind the door frame out of sight.

Then she crossed her arms, keeping her body planted firmly in the doorway, making no move to let them inside.

“Trouble?” she asked, deliberately adopting a tone of naive confusion. “Is it about your money? Weren’t you able to sort that out?”

Ward dragged a hand through his dark hair and released a sharp, frustrated breath.

“Just let me in. This isn’t the time for an interrogation. Even if I told you what happened, what could you possibly do about it? You wouldn’t even understand.”

Vivi’s expression crumbled, her hands dropping.

Within seconds, tears welled up in her eyes, making her look like the same naive and helpless girlfriend he had always known.

“But, Ward, have you forgotten that my savings are tied up in those accounts, too?” she asked, her voice trembling. “Everything I’ve ever worked for is with you. Aren’t we supposed to be in this together?”

Ward scoffed, a harsh, dismissive sound. “Together? Right now, I’m the one drowning in debt! What can someone like you possibly do about it? How much do you even earn in a month compared to me?”

Nami looked away, letting a single tear slip down her cheek while she swallowed the bitter taste of disgust.

‘Aside from the menial job I’ve deliberately let you believe I have, I’ve got assets you couldn’t even begin to imagine.’

She looked back up at him, forcing a fragile smile onto her face. “You’re right. So what are you even doing here?”

“I have a case of bad timing,” Ward gritted out, his jaw tight. “My lease… it ended yesterday,”

Only then did Vivi glance past his shoulder and finally notice the heavy suitcases lined up against the corridor wall.

So that was it.

His financial troubles had left him unable to secure another place, and now he had come looking for somewhere to stay.

More precisely, he had come looking for her apartment.

“Let us in, Vivi,” Ward demanded, stepping forward. “I’m exhausted, and I need somewhere to decompress.”

‘You really do have some nerve, Ward Hoover.’