Chapter 1

Clara Summers woke with a start, struggling wildly. She grabbed the nearest object and swung it out in a desperate flail.

Her mind was flooded with memories of being hung up, bled dry, and left to die.

However, what she saw in front of her made her freeze.

She could hardly believe it. This was her bathroom before the apocalypse had even begun!

The apocalypse had been raging for ten years, and Clara had long since left Hollowridge City. How could she possibly be back here, standing in her own home?

Just then, music drifted through the air.

The sound came from the phone sitting by the sink. Its pink case held a photo of her and Derek Lewis smiling, a picture of them together as a couple.

Hadn't this phone stopped working years ago? Just moments ago, wasn't she being bled dry and eaten?

The terror of the knife cutting into her skin, the hopelessness as each drop of blood slipped through her fingers, and the feeling of her life slipping away were still all too vivid in her mind.

Derek! That scumbag!

Just seeing his face now made her stomach twist!

She was still in disbelief as she picked up her phone, her hands shaking.

The date on the screen read January 26, 5023. It was three months before the apocalypse would even begin.

She had... been reborn?

It took a while, but she finally remembered how to use the phone. Clara shut off the music and stood in front of the mirror, staring at herself.

Her glossy hair fell over her shoulders, complementing her delicate features, upturned eyes, and straight nose. Except for the scar on her thigh from a childhood bike accident, her skin was flawless.

After the world fell apart, she had shaved her head herself to avoid attracting the wrong kind of attention. In a lawless world, men with ill intentions were like rabid dogs that were impossible to control.

In the end, she had ruined her own face with three jagged scars running from her chin to her brow. Every cut had burned deep to the bone.

Suddenly, she remembered something. She dressed quickly and began searching.

Soon, she found the ring she had placed on her vanity long ago.

It was an antique ring, and the aged silver was set with a fine emerald that was about the size of a small egg.

Derek had given it to her.

But before that, it had belonged to Clara's grandfather, Edward Summers, who had gifted it to the Lewis family as a token of friendship. This ring had belonged to the Summers family from the start!

Clara quickly sliced her finger with a nearby knife and let her blood drip onto the ring.

The stone instantly absorbed the drops, transforming from vivid green to a deep, brilliant red.

Suddenly, a pocket dimension appeared in her mind. It was enormous, about the size of three football fields, its edges shrouded in thick white mist.

She focused and willed the cup on the table to enter the space. Just like that, the cup vanished from the table and reappeared in a corner of the space.

A small smile tugged at her lips. She had discovered this pocket dimension inside the ring in her previous life.

But after taking the ring, Derek had never given her even the tiniest benefit. The one who ultimately sent her to be bled dry... was him!

Just then, the phone rang again. Clara frowned at the name on the screen.

It was Derek.

Her stomach turned. Even after rebirth, seeing his name made her skin crawl.

Then she remembered that the Lewis family owed her tens of millions in stocks and funds.

Although she now had a pocket dimension, she didn't yet have enough money to stockpile supplies. She had to get her stocks and funds back.

Clara smirked. She broke up with Derek via text and blocked him in one smooth, decisive move.

She knew his personality well. They were engaged at this time, and this would throw him into a frenzy.

Once Derek was distracted, she could seize the stocks and funds that the Lewis family owed her without any resistance.

When she thought about the challenges ahead, Clara immediately pulled out her phone and contacted a food wholesaler she knew.

She placed orders for grains, flour, oats, and oil.

She had met this wholesaler before, back when she had helped someone make a business connection, and his contact info had been saved in her phone ever since.

The wholesaler didn't have a huge variety or quantity of goods, but his prices were about thirty percent below the market rate, and Clara was more than satisfied.

As she had introduced a major deal to him before, he even threw in two extra boxes of spices for her. These included black pepper, allspice, pink peppercorns, among others.

Her bank account wasn't exactly overflowing. She had only a few hundred thousand, and some of her savings still required processing to access. After stocking up on grains and oils from the wholesaler, Clara turned to the internet and ordered a large batch of everyday necessities.

She ordered everything she could think of, which included tampons, toilet paper, ointments, toothbrushes, shampoo, and body wash.

She bought them all at wholesale prices, carefully calculating quantities, and haggling with sellers behind the scenes. By luck, an online promotion was running. Spend 200 dollars and get 30 dollars off, making everything even cheaper.

After all of this, most of her available money was gone, leaving her only a little over a hundred thousand. Still, she felt a sense of satisfaction.

After a few moments of pondering, she decided to focus on getting more money and continuing to stockpile supplies in the coming days.

But for now, the most important thing was the spatial ring on her hand.

Clara slipped on her clothes and headed straight for a jewelry workshop near the artisan market. In her previous life, she had come here to have a jade pendant made from a carved stone.

"I need Mr. Carter to make a piece of jewelry for me. It's urgent, and I don't care about the cost," she said immediately as she walked into the shop.

The ring couldn't be kept as it was. This pocket dimension it contained was essential to Clara's survival in the apocalypse. Sean Carter was the best craftsman around, and he was known for creating jewelry that was sturdy, durable, and beautiful.

Sean examined the ring for a long moment, his expression a mix of disbelief and curiosity. "This is a genuine antique, and this red jadeite is top-grade. It’s worth a lot of money. You really want to take it apart and turn it into a necklace?"

Clara nodded. She planned to transform the ring into a truly special piece of jewelry. It had to be something that would stay secure no matter how intense the apocalypse got, never slip off during action, and never draw unwanted attention.

When Sean saw how determined Clara was, he removed the red jadeite from the ring on the spot. Using the toughest platinum he had, he crafted a small hinged casing for it. Then, he followed Clara's instructions and attached several fine chains to the design.

The chains would keep the pendant pressed firmly against her skin, making sure it wouldn't fly off during sudden movements or fights. It wouldn't be easy to yank away or even break.

Clara paid extra, and Sean told her it would take about five hours to finish.

He had a solid reputation, and Clara already knew him from before. She even recorded a short video of him working on the piece, just in case. She wasn't worried about him trying to pocket the ring, so she left for the time being.

Her next stop was the bank. She withdrew a fixed deposit she had put away years ago, so now she had more cash on hand again.

After that, she wandered through the nearby antique market. When she spotted a shop labeled "Antique Calligraphy and Paintings", she went straight inside.

Behind the counter sat a young man, Adam Smith. He had bright orange hair, and he looked completely out of place amid the shop's traditional decor.

"Looking for something in particular, miss?" he asked.

Clara didn't answer. She walked up to a landscape painting that covered half the wall and tapped on the wall beside it. It gave a hollow echo, revealing it was empty behind it.

"I want what's inside," she said.

Adam froze, then pursed his lips. "Miss, I have no idea what you're talking about."

Clara didn't bother arguing. She opened her phone, scanned the shop's payment code, and transferred twenty thousand dollars.

"A friend told me you've got some good stuff here. Don't worry, I can show you my ID. If anything goes wrong and I'm the one who talks, you can tell your boss to deal with me personally."

As she spoke, Clara handed her ID to Adam.

Her calm, confident movements left him completely baffled, but he took it anyway.

"Twenty-two? I thought you were underage," he said, genuinely surprised.

Clara rolled her eyes. At just over 5'3", she wasn't exactly short, but her baby face often led people to think otherwise.

Adam scrutinized her for a long moment, then finally grit his teeth and said, "Fine."

He locked the shop door, drew the curtains, and pressed something she couldn't see. Almost immediately, the entire wall began to rotate, revealing a small room filled with weapons.

"Wow. It's even more impressive than my friend said," Clara murmured, impressed.

The friend she mentioned was someone she had met after the apocalypse. She had heard that while searching for supplies, they had stumbled upon this hidden stash of weapons. Bringing it back to their base had caused quite a stir at the time.

"How much for all of it? I'll take everything," Clara said with a bright smile, looking Adam straight in the eye.

An hour later, Clara watched with satisfaction as Adam loaded four large crates of weapons into her car's trunk and backseat.

After he left, she pulled a dagger from one of the crates. The hilt was inlaid with rubies, and the blade gleamed with a deadly chill. Upon closer inspection, faint green veins ran along the steel, giving it a unique, almost mystical look.

This was the very dagger Clara had relied on in her previous life, the same one she had bought at a high price from her friend.

The main reason she had come here today was to find this dagger.

She remembered a young man once telling her it was a good weapon, and she had asked Adam about it just now. He said the dagger had been left by his father, and its origins were unclear.

With this dagger in her hand, plus all the weapons now stored in her space, her odds of surviving the apocalypse just got a little bit better.